Amber Waves of Angst

Chapter 12

While Erik equated freedom with running through the forest at night, for Robin it would always be swimming in the pool at the Kean/Turner home. Sometimes, like now, he would take a deep breath and just hang suspended a few feet below the surface with his eyes closed and imagine he was in outer space, an endless void terrifying in its sheer vastness, the opposite of the tiny constricted closet he had been forced to live part of his life in.

Bubbles poured from his mouth as he growled deep in his chest at the thought...and he felt the other within him rouse itself...the one being besides Erik he could always rely on to protect him...not that he needed protection anymore. Stucky was gone, and Robin was not the same scared child he had been...and most importantly, he had a family now.

He kicked and broke the surface, taking in a clean breath of air. The concerned face of Ted Turner, one of his adoptive fathers smiled down at him.

"You make me nervous when you do that, Robin. I think that was almost three whole minutes." He said, trying to direct the pool vacuum around his adopted son.

Robin grinned. "Sorry. I can get out if I'm in your way."

"In about five minutes, I'm going to be jumping in myself. I want to get in a few laps before the entire Pack jumps in and empties the water out of the pool."

Robin laughed at the thought, happy as always that he would see Erik again, and get to feel that powerful electric current running between them whenever they touched. He was becoming quite addicted to it.

His time with his adopted fathers was a unique experience for him. At Carl's, his captor gifted him with clothes only when the ones he wore were absolutely ready to fall apart. He had only ever eaten at the diner; while the food was abundant, it wasn't exactly top quality. He ate mostly salad...that seemed safe enough. On the rare occasions Carl was pleased with him, he showed his affection by grabbing an exposed piece of skin and twisting it hard...ears were the favored target. Aside from Erik, who was a special case, Robin rarely allowed people to get within a few feet of him. Backing away or shifting to the side had become an almost subconscious dance routine.

All of that changed when the adoption was finalized (during which Robin decided to keep his newly recovered last name). Robin was taken shopping the first day, and they went to the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch and told to purchase whatever he wanted. He bought everything but t-shirts at these stores until he had quite a wardrobe. But for the last, it was always Spencer's and their endless line of super-hero or even super-villain shirts. Of course, the one that he stocked up the most on was 'Robin'.

Uncle Ted was at least as exquisite a cook as Stiles, and Robin was treated to so many new and wonderful dishes that he thought he would actually gain some weight... if not for his new metabolism.

The two fathers had to go to a 27 hour pre-adoptive training class over the course of a month to prepare them for the kind of issues Robin might have...and this proved very helpful to them, especially in the beginning.

Robin was allowed to call them by their names; he wasn't comfortable with any of the 'father' type words. They showed affection in non-physical ways until he gave them their first hugs a few weeks in, once he learned to trust them. The wolf's ability to hear lies and detect negative emotions by scent helped shorten this process from years to days, but it was by no means instantaneous. Robin now had no doubt that his two fathers loved him, and had no wish to hurt him in any way. Their relationship became more and more natural as time passed, and they promised a car for him if he managed to maintain his grades until graduation. Towards that end, they even began teaching him how to drive. The more time he spent there, the less time he spent thinking about the past. He hoped to one day forget it completely. The only time they ran into a problem was when they had told him they would need to lock him up for the full moon.