Awkward

It was awkward enough to have his hip pop out of joint. After all, he was supposed to be an acrobat. Okay, so acrobats had accidents sometimes. But, not him! He was trained in a different, much more efficient way than most acrobats by the time they were his age!

But, worse? What was really, really worse? He was in excruciating pain and nobody was around to help him. Except...Superboy. Which wasn't bad, he trusted Superboy with his life! He was a great guy, and despite his anger management problems he was actually really sensitive and sweet! The problem? Well...Superboy had never had to do this before...for anyone.

"A-are you sure you know what you're d-doing?" Robin asked, giving a slight sob once in a while. He'd never imagined popping your hip out of joint would hurt so damned much! How did Batman do this to his shoulders and still be so quiet? Maybe he was just being a baby about it? If Batman could take it, so could he! He tried to stop his tears and was mostly successful.

"Yeah. We took a class on this sort of thing, remember? I promise I'll be...gentle..." he figured Robin was worried that he would forget his strength and really make the problem worse. Ordinarily, Superboy would be angry at this. But, he couldn't be mad at the smaller boy right now. He was in such horrible pain, he could see it in his face, in his eyes, hear it in his tone of voice. Everything screamed torture to him. He had to help!

Robin tried to lie back on the infirmary table, but his dislocated hip cried out in pain. Okay...moving under his own power was a bad idea...

"Here...let me help..." Superboy let Robin relax against him - at least as much as he could while being in such agony - and gently laid the boy down on it, then went around to the front.

"Please...hurry up..." Robin knew this was going to hurt, probably worse than he was already hurting. Which was actually hard to fathom at the moment. But, he also knew it would bring relief and that was enough to make him beg a little. At least Batman wasn't here to witness that, right? And neither was Kid Flash. And, anyway...Superboy was a team member and that meant something, right?

"Okay, just...brace yourself...okay?" Superboy said, as he moved up onto the table between Robin's legs. He worked quickly, but gently and efficiently, not wanting to draw out the pain anymore than necessary. But, it was still a delicate thing for him to have to do. He wasn't just any other human trying to pop someone's hip back into place. He had super strength and he was new to treating things delicately. It was hard to always know how much pressure was too much pressure or too little. But, he figured in this case too little was better than too much. Too much would...well...he didn't want to think about it. It wasn't going to happen, he wouldn't allow it, so it didn't matter.

He winced when he heard Robin scream out and he steeled himself for listening to more of that agony. It hurt him...it hurt his ears, due to his super hearing, but it also hurt his heart. Robin was his friend, the only person he really trusted to always tell him the absolute truth, and he felt more attached to Robin than perhaps any of the other members of his team. He was glad that he could help him now, but he was sorry it was causing him so much extra pain and he was sorry that Robin

was in this pain to begin with.

"SUPERBOY, OH MY GOD, OH GOD, GOD, GOD, PLEASE, PLEASE, ITS TOO MUCH!" Robin screamed out, just as there was a loud grinding crack as the hip slipped back into the place where it belonged. This was accompanied by an even louder scream from Robin, which made Superboy's eyes widen a little.

After that, however, there was silence. Except for Robin's heavy, but broken, panting. It still hurt, Superboy could see that Robin was still in pain, but it was obviously a lot more bearable now.

"Are...you okay?" Superboy asked, quietly.

"Oh!" came a startled sound from behind them, where the doorway was located.

Superboy half-turned toward the door and Robin craned his head only slightly.

"S...Superman..." Superboy uttered, softly, surprised to see the Man of Steel standing there. Especially with that look on his face. Why was he blushing like that?

"What's going on in he-" Batman came in a moment later, but stopped mid-word when he saw the position that Superboy and Robin were both currently in.

"B-Batman, its...its not what you think..." Robin said, frantically, but still a bit breathless.

"I...I have to...go...do something...important." Superman said, turning to leave the room. It wasn't what it sounded like? Robin had been screaming Superboy's name, calling to God, and everything else...

"R-Robin hurt his hip...I was...I was just trying to help him..." Superboy said.

"I see..." and even Batman sounded somewhat skeptical!

"Really!" Robin said, and thought about sitting up but didn't want to chance it after all of that pain from before.

"I believe you." Batman said. "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah...Superboy knew what to do..." Robin blushed.

"I'm sure he did..." Batman replied.

"Really! It was just an injury!" Robin protested.

"I said I believe you." Batman said again, and turned to head out of the door as well. "Just make sure there aren't any mysterious stains on anything before you leave. This is an infirmary, after all." and with that, the Dark Knight was gone.

Superboy and Robin looked at each other, blushing furiously. Neither of them moved, so when Kid Flash entered the room wondering what had Superman and Batman weirded out, they were still in the same compromising position.

"This is -so- going up on my Facebook." Kid Flash smirked. He quickly snapped a couple photos of Robin and Superboy before speeding away, presumably to upload the newly acquired pictures to the nearest computer available.

"Wait! Thisisn'twhatitlookslike!" Robin screamed out, but Kid Flash was already long gone. Along with any hope of clearing up the misunderstanding of what Superboy and Robin were doing, Robin thought gloomily.