A/N: this is solely a R/R fic, and I'm sorry, but the others will not even feature in this. You have been warned. I do not own a single thing in this story except the plot. The villain, who will appear later, is the property of the author Kate Tiernan.. I highly recommend her series 'Wicca', to anyone who is interested in Wicca and all Wiccans. Oh yes, an apology in advance, my dialogue is shit, so I do apologise for that fact. Thanks.
As a final note, the rating is on the safe side as there will be a implied lemon later. Thanks again.
Chapter One: Meditations.
The sun rose slowly on a soft pink and yellow horizon, leaving streaks of soft dark blue across the sky, the night lingering, the morning of a late winter's day. Raven had decided for once to move her morning meditation session down to the beach.
She floated a few feet above a rock, facing the rising sun , watching as it rose in a blaze of myriad colours as it heralded the end of winter and the rise of a new spring., her voice in its steady chanting of her mantra mingling and somehow enhancing the sound of the rhythmically lapping waves of the bay.
Just at the corner of her mind, Raven could sense the dim registers of another presence. It was trying to be inconspicuous but it was just this side of detectable, almost not.
Her first reaction would be to stop and kick whoever's ass it was to the moon, but she just was not up to it today, she just wanted to sit here and enjoy the ocean and just the feeling of being outside again after a long winter.
But as she continued to meditate, something was different; she was falling into her centre better, her hold on her meditative state better. It was the strange presence, she was sure of it. It was somehow familiar, and in a strange way comforting and nurturing, bringing a sense of peace and a strange feeling of acceptance and just something she had no name for but never wanted to stop, to wrap herself in forever.
Basking in this unexpected comfort Raven continued her meditation soothed and comforted, for however long the presence would last; unaware that a pair of masked eyes were watching her from the shadows.
Robin watched her from his vantage point hidden in the deep shadows thrown over the beach by the large overhanging rocks that sheltered the cove.
The shadows, a place he was accustomed to after a childhood and early teenhood spent in the association and tutelage of the great Dark Knight himself.
He had been doing this for a while now, he reflected, following her as stealthily as he could, just watching her and looking out for her occasionally, he really didn't know why he did this, it seemed out of a peculiar compulsion that he had.
He would be doing his own thing alone and when she even passed by him en route to do something alone, his feet seemed to take on a life of their own, following her stealthily, to follow her and make sure she was ok.
It was almost addictive in a way, just to watch her when she thought no one was watching, to know more about her, to observe whatever she did, with those graceful long fingered hands, that solemn perfect face to those huge shimmering amethyst eyes, slightly furrowed in concentration, fully focused on whatever she was doing. In that calm conscientious graceful way that only she seemed to possesses. that special touch that was hers alone, and her strength and dependability in battle. Saving them many a time with her level headedness.
He felt stupid, just following her around and observing her, just like a perverted stalker. He found himself thinking her a little more during battles, sometimes wondering where she was at the most peculiar of times, wondering if she had been in to eat and rest properly.
It was a little extra concern for her alone, but one that grew daily. Was he falling in love with her? He just could not decide, the doubt was killing him,
'Just do it! Say something, anything!' his mind whispered,
'I can't, she'll bite my head off, and what if she does not see it? What will I do if there is that embarrassment hanging between us? It will affect the whole team…'
'Since when is the famous son of the Dark Knight, scourge of the Underworld afraid of anything?' the voice whispered spitefully. 'You've fought the most terrifying of villains and underworld bosses and never blinked; now you are afraid of this little girl? your own teammate, your second?'
'This is different! There are these feelings inside, between us...well, in me, but anyway, I can't come across about this, she sees me as just a leader, nothing more…'
He suddenly sensed a slight movement in the corner of his eye, breaking him unceremoniously from his inner argument, Raven was finished for the morning and was moving, returning to the Tower.
'Shit' he thought with feeling as he berated himself mentally for his break in concentration as he frantically flattened himself to the cliff face, within a convenient outcrop of stone still shrouded in the last lingering shadows in the morning sun, praying that she would not see him.
As she passed by his hiding place, she hesitated for just a second, but , shrugging she carried on her path toward the Tower.
As Raven passed by that outcrop she suddenly felt a flare of the presence she had felt during her meditation and just the barest hint of an aura.
In an instant she had compared it with what she remembered of the auras of the others. It was different. However a peculiar sense, almost a compulsion compelled her to ignore it, as if it was telling her that whoever it was held no ill will and wanted nothing more than to see her well.
She had learned over her childhood to trust these feelings, they had never been wrong, so with a shrug, she pushed her curiosity to the back of her mind, she would scry for the identity later.
Before her, the imposing shadow of the Tower loomed before her, her first real home, where people accepted her, where she was free of evil stares, her home, shining almost heavenly in the light of the rising sun. This and the city she protected with her friends, were her life, her mission, her plea to put things right, the accident of her birth that she had to correct and he r plea for forgiveness to the Witness