Chalant Candlelight

Chapter 32

Just as expected, my dreams were filled with memories of Klarion's house of horrors. This made me toss and turn all night. My withdrawal and nightmares caused me to shoot up in a cold sweat. I panted after my dreams of being drawn and quartered, which felt just as real as when Klarion had his magic on me,

"Rob?" Wally sat up next as I was visibly shaken, He crawled in front of me, grabbing my face, putting the back of his hand to my forehead after moving back my sweaty hair,

"What's going on with you?" He questioned,

"Nothing, I'm sorry I woke you," I attempted to slow my breathing, but my esophagus felt constrained,

"Robin, this is not normal," He stared me in my eyes,

"I need air," I feel myself begin to hyperventilate. He quickly helps me onto the balcony as I gasp for air, hunched over, holding tight to the railing, "I can't breathe," I lightheadedly lower into a squat,

"What can I do?" He stood over me rubbing my back,

"Wally, can you just get away from me?" I say, suddenly becoming defensive,

"Robin, tell me what's wrong,"

"I'm screwed," I utter. Without Ivy's poison, I was subject to everything I had been numbing,

"Tell me why!" He yelled at me, "Stop all the secrets and tell me,"

"Wally, if it wasn't so terrible I wouldn't keep it a secret," I say before the nausea hit sending me rushing into the bathroom, Wally following at my heels holding back my longer hair with his hands,

"You know this kind of reminds me of that time in the club-" Wally started speaking as I lifted my head up,

"-never speak of it," I warned him, that story was purely between Wally and me, and we'd vowed to never ever talk about that night,

"Oh shoot, Rob," He said when he looked over my shoulder to see the green slime I had thrown up, his grip on my hair tightening as his anger stirred. He had seen me throw up the same thing when Ivy kissed me on that mission,

"So Ivy breaking out of Arkham..." He jerked my head back, so I had to look up at him,

"Wally-" I uttered as he threw my head forward. I gripped the ground, stabilizing myself,

"What, Robin?" He raised his voice as I turned to him, "Are you going to try to explain yourself?"

"Please-"

"The bruises, she hits you?" He says as I nod once, "And the shaking, the sweating, you going through withdrawals?" He asks as I nod once more, "How are you getting this? What is she, Poison Ivy, benefiting from you? What could she possibly need from you?" He asks the dreaded question as my face turns to one of utter shame. Wally quickly catches on, "Oh, Robin," He melts backward into the wall a little,

"Please," I plead, "Please, don't tell anyone,"

"Robin, you're-"

"I know what I'm doing," I didn't need him to spell it out for me,

"You're-" He covered his face with his hands,

"Please, Wally, don't tell anyone," I beg him, tears brimming my eyes but refusing to fall,

"I can't even look at you right now," Wally gets back up, walking out of the bathroom.

(Zatanna's POV)

I entered Wally and Robin's room because neither of them got up when the team had planned. The team had started to panic thinking something had happened to them.

"Robin? Wally?" I quietly say into the room, lit by the morning sun. I immediately have to hold in my laughter seeing Robin sleeping at the edge of the bed making himself as little as possible and Wally sprawled out over the whole bed, his head at the end of the bed and his foot over the top of Robin. Artemis comes in next stopping at the sight,

"Boys," She shouts getting both of their attention, the two sleepy guys woke up with groans, not refreshed at all, "Did you two even sleep last night?" She questioned with no answer from Robin or Wally, Wally glared at Robin, getting up from the bed and passing us to the bathroom,

"Okay, we'll wait outside for you two to get ready," I take their silence as a sign and leave with Artemis,

"Maybe they made up?" Artemis questions as we get out to the hall,

"Yeah, okay," I say sarcastically. Not likely,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Remember the plan guys," Kalder says over our comms as he steps into the hotel casino, filled to the brim with obnoxious drunk fat cats, Magan on his arm, 

"Kalder and I will pretend to be stupid American tourists," Megan retold,

"Robin will be the house," I say as Robin shuffles and distributes cards at the table, looking pale and fevered but no one on the team says anything,

"Zatanna and I will be waitresses," Artemis and I step out in our revealing cocktail dresses to mingle with the middle-aged rich. At every moment of my waitressing, I could feel Robin's eyes on me, not in a perverted way but rather he was watching to make sure no one got too comfortable with me and tried to touch me. Wally was doing the same for Artemis as he and Conner entered the Casino, dressed as rich eligible bachelors. 

We all played our roles perfectly. Kalder and Magan playing annoying honeymooners who knew nothing about gambling. Wally and Conner used their time to flirt and make a show of their money. Artemis and I flirted and made rounds about the casino floor. Robin however was hyper-immersed in playing the house, his games had drawn quite a crowd of onlookers as he made a glamorous setup,

"It's been thirty minutes, isn't Cheshire supposed to be meeting the weapons dealer at the bar?" I ask, desperately wanting a rematch just her and I,

"She is, but she hasn't shown yet," Artemis was helping a table upstairs but the first-floor ceiling was open and the second floor wrapped around the walls so she could look around downstairs and have the benefit of long-distance in case she needed to pull her collapsible bow,

"I've got eyes," Robin turned to say,

"Me too," Conner said,

"She just came through the front door," Wally informed,

"Zatanna, get back towards the bar and listen in," Kalder told me,

"Okay,"  I quickly make my way back to pretend to work but secretly I lean into her conversation with the arms dealer,

"She's talking about sending a shipment of weapons to local port cities in northeast America. She's saying that she'll have them moved into super prisons for an uprising." I gave the brief overview in real-time while I had a voice recorder under the bar between her and the dealer,

"Okay, let's put an end to this and go home," Robin wanted to pick up the pace,

"Slow and steady wins the race," Magan noted,

"Yeah, what's so important you want to leave so quickly?" Wally asked coldly, seemly aware of something by the way he said it, "A sneaky link or something?"

"Whatever, do what you want," Robin scoffed,

"Thanks, baby boy," Wally teased,

"Guys, shut up," Artemis said shocking everyone, "Do you hear that?" She said as a whirring sound filled our ears an obnoxious noise,

"The vault, their sawing into the vault," Artemis redirected the mission with the new revelation. Kalder and Conner quickly took off from the casino, we had received maps of the hotel from Batman they were accessible by Robin on his gloves,

"Robin? we need the maps, tell us where we're going," Conner spoke,

"Robin?" Kalder called out, running with Conner in the halls unaware of where they were going.

A gasp filled the room as Robin collapsed on the floor seizing. The crowds all stood over the boy behind the booth.