Years ago, in a battle which should've been easy, it shouldn't have meant much, Starfire disappeared. She disappeared and never came back; he had to move on at some point.
It wasn't a secret that he had loved Starfire, and the feeling was mutual. He worried about her more than he did the other Titans and when she disappeared; he was devastated. He spent days, weeks, months, searching for ways to find her.
There was nothing.
The rest of the team fell apart. No one could stop their pointless arguments anymore; and with the added stress of Starfire being gone, the number of arguments increased and increased until someone cracked.
The first to crack was Raven.
He hadn't expected her to break down first. He expected her to keep calm, cool, and collected unlike the boys. But lately she'd been acting more anxious, nervous even, and she wouldn't explain why. She didn't argue as loudly as the guys; she'd only levitate out of the room when things got heated.
Every time she did that, they'd calm down. Robin considered going after her and asking what was wrong, but he never did. Beast Boy never did. Cyborg did once, but didn't tell them what she said to him. Cyborg started arguing less, too, after that.
He'd constantly ask if it was his fault; if he'd done something wrong. Beast Boy had always bothered her, but the shape-shifter never did anything to create such permanent distress in her.
Now Raven wasn't talking, Cyborg wasn't talking, and Beast Boy was slowly realizing that the team was no longer a team. The leader did his best to keep them all together, but he couldn't handle it.
He especially couldn't handle it when Raven exploded.
It started as a small fight; he was actually happy it was happening, since that meant they were acknowledging each other at the very least. He hadn't expected it to get so strong, and Cyborg even brought Starfire back up. It hit a nerve he thought he'd lost, and a regrettable punch to the half-robot's face finished the job.
Raven was standing at the doorway, staring at his fist, as he stared back at her. Cyborg had a hand to his cheek; he knew what he'd said was wrong, but the physical violence was unexpected.
Raven's eyes started to glow. Her body started to shake. The black aura of her telekinesis was everywhere, and the room was being torn apart. She almost lost complete control. He realized at some point that if she'd truly lost control, they would've been torn apart limb from limb.
She fell to the floor at the moment, tears pouring from her white, glowing eyes and her cloak changing from blue to red to white to blue again. Her strongest emotion tried to take over, then she stepped back into her powerful self, then back to normal.
But the normal Raven didn't last. She didn't feel safe anymore, not for her or for anyone else. He knew what she was planning, everyone could tell, and no one wanted her to do it. But who could stop her?
Starfire could've. But she was long gone. So he would have to do it instead.
But he couldn't. He didn't share any sort of bond with Raven at that time. Starfire and Raven had switched bodies a while back and had learned all about one another. He'd even heard a story from Cyborg about him and Beast Boy entering her head and learning all about her mind.
But that never happened between them. He was the leader, and she was the calmest team member. They were meant to get along. But he didn't understand her well enough at that point. He just couldn't.
And as he reached for her door, it fell down with ease, giving him a full-view of her bedroom.
It was empty.
She was gone.
….
Uhh yeah this is just a little not-drabble of what happened in "how long is forever?" between Starfire entering the wormhole and the future she went to.