AN: It's occurred to me that, throughout the series, every member of the team has had some sort of bonding experience with Raven. Starfire when the Puppet King switched their bodies learned a good deal of Raven's past and personality. Beastboy and Cyborg took a headlong trip through Raven's psyche and got in touch with her emotions in Nevermore. However, Robin has been left out of this loop. To the end of CN's run of Teen Titans episodes, there is not a single instance that could be even remotely labeled as a "bonding experience" between our two feathered friends. Pardon the pun. I intend to remedy this.

P.S. There's a reason for my rating. Double entendres and sexual innuendoes will abound, no doubt, but I don't intend to pretend teenagers say "gosh" and "darn" simply for the sheltered minds I'm sure are out there. Feel free to engage in a smear campaign in your reviews. After all, there's a reason why such people are called "flamers". Think about it.

Disclaimer: I am but a lowly fangirl.

------------------------------------------------------

"A lackaday, and fuck my luck."

--- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter House Five

------------------------------------------------------

Bzzt. "—but Jessica, I love you! Please, don't leave m—"

Bzzt. "—Kids Next Door! Stand dow—"

Bzzt. "—AAAAHHHH!! No, noooo—"

Bzzt. "—And in sports news, the Braves slip another notch after losing to the—"

Bzzt.

Raven's fingers clenched tightly on the pages of her newest horror novel, a blood vessel pulsing dangerously in her forehead as the TV's static grated on her last twitching nerve. If he didn't just pick a goddamn channel soon, she was going to—

"—So just move your brush exactly like this, and we can create a happy little bush—"

Bzzt.

"Robin, if you cannot decide on something to watch, then just turn the TV OFF," Raven snapped impatiently, rising from her chair to turn and glare at the back of the Boy Wonder's spiky dark head, fist clenching in her cape as she tried to calm enough so that the glowing black end table could resettle on the floor.

Robin swung an arm over the back of the couch and sighed wearily, turning a half-apologetic look on his irascible teammate. "Sorry, Rae. I'm just getting kind of twitchy, I guess. There's not exactly a lot going on around here, ya know."

Taking a deep breath and releasing her pent up tension as she exhaled, Raven pulled an inconspicuous check to affirm that all items of furniture were once again residing in their usual positions before responding. "You wouldn't be sitting around here, bored and annoying me to death if you'd just gone with the others."

Robin shrugged and shifted a bit uncomfortably as he looked away, giving her his profile as he searched for a response. "Yeah, well, you volunteered to stay behind, and with Star and the guys going on that retreat, I couldn't just, you know, leave you here by yourself, I mean—"

Raven sighed and sunk back into her chair, picking her book back up and staring unseeingly at the same paragraph she'd been "reading" for the past half-hour. "Robin, save yourself the stuttering embarrassment and me a headache, will you? You stayed behind in case some lead happened to pop up. Let's not delude ourselves with false reasoning, hmm?"

Her blunt statement charged the air with a nervous tension she could feel radiating solely from the team's Fearless Leader, but she refused to take it back. There was no sense in apologizing for the bald truth. Even so, Robin's weighty stare on the back of her head was beginning to grow more than a little uncomfortable.

For a moment, she thought he was going to say something—but really, what was there to say? Sorry? Hardly. There was no love lost between the two Titans. Their relationship, if it could be called such, was a business one. He was the leader, and she was a team member, and they afforded each other the respect those positions deserved; what more was there to it? They owed each other nothing.

At last, she could feel the heat of his stare turn away, and the channel surfing resumed. She released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in a quiet sigh, earmarking her place and closing her book; reading was a useless pursuit at the moment. She was simply too restless.

"I'm going to go meditate. I'll be on the roof if you need me." She didn't know why she told him; what would he possibly need her for? Even though Robin may not be invincible, he certainly thought of himself as more than capable of handling any situation that might arise—alone.

"Alright. I'll probably check in with you sometime before the end of the night." As if it were an obligation.

Sighing once more, Raven quit the common room, relaxing minutely as she was enveloped in the dimness of the corridors, taking strange comfort in the deep shadows of the roof stairwell. She seriously needed to calm down. Her thoughts were unsettled, and she was feeling discomfortingly more emotional than was safe.

The roof door opened on silent, well-oiled hinges, releasing her into the relative peace of the night, where only the winds stirred and the sole sound was the mollifying churn of the ocean.

Carefully shuttered amethyst eyes lifted to the darkened heavens, catching the stray glints of starlight peering distantly through gaps in the heavy curtain of storm clouds drawn tight across the sky. A quiet, relieved breath escaped pale lips as the halfling girl assumed an all too familiar position, gaze lingering reluctantly on the firmament before heavy-lashed lids slid down over them, ushering the troubled teen into the forbidding dimensions of her own psyche.

It was time to face her demons.

------------------------------------------------------

Bzzt. "—A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for all counties in and around Jump City until four a.m. For updates, stay tuned for On the Eigh—"

Bzzt.

Robin was sprawled over the couch cushions, limbs thrown about carelessly and great, clunking boots propped up on the coffee table. The remote was in his hand, forefinger flipping the channels autonomously. His eyes were fixed dully on the screen, watching without seeing the passing colors and images, dismissing them without consideration, the tinny voices and canned laughter ringing with the white noise in his head. A yawn parted his lips, his jaw popping a little and drawing a wince.

Running a weary, gloved hand over his face and through his mussed black hair, he finally tapped the Off button after countless, stretched-thin moments of mindless surfing. Rising from the couch with another wide yawn and stretching out his stiff bones and muscles, Robin glanced around the common room, slowly darkening as the automatic timers dimmed the lights appropriately. His brow furrowed and he wondered just how long he'd been planted on the couch, concealed eyes searching for the green-lit clock.

"12:47?! Geez, I didn't realize it was so late…" another yawn broke through his murmured monologue and he decided to call it quits for the evening, shutting off the main lights manually as he passed the wall switch on his way across the room. He swore half-heartedly as his foot caught on a video game controller cord, grumbling an insult directed at Beastboy and Cyborg's RPG and racing game obsessions.

He made his way through the dark hall blindly, instincts and habit leading him safely to his room. Once there, he glanced tiredly around, frowning at the poster-plastered walls proclaiming pictures, headlines and bylines about various villains and criminals they'd fought and put away—but the dominating name was Slade.

A grim expression stole onto Robin's face as he studied his little "souvenirs" and "novelties" decorating his walls and tables like a shrine; Slade was his obsession. And though the severe expression was all too familiar, it lacked the determination and burning drive that usually made the set of his jaw tighter, the pinch of his brow darker and the flat line of his mouth harder.

Though Slade still haunted Robin's waking thoughts and tortured him through nightmares when he slept, the fire that drove him relentlessly after the elusive, mocking man's trail was beginning to dwindle, the heat fading to a half-forgotten burn that simply itched when once it scalded. Slade had been an all-consuming obsession for Robin for too long, and it was finally wearing on him. His body was able, his mind just as agile and calculating as ever, but his spirit simply wasn't as willing as once it'd been.

And maybe it was a good thing. Maybe he could return to reality now. Stop forcing his friends away so that he could get closer to his enemies. Start living a semi-normal life again, instead of acting like some brooding, single-minded monster. He didn't like what this fixation was turning him into.

After all, he'd missed so many things. Not clues, not points in his investigation; no his mind had seized onto those minutest of details like a steel trap; it was instances with his friends, important facts and crucial instances that escaped him all too easily. And that bothered him more than he would have thought.

As he pondered this, he changed into a set of dark blue satin pajamas, a pair he'd gotten from Alfred one Christmas at Wayne Manor. Sighing heavily, Robin shuffled over to the small mirror hung over a cluttered vanity in the corner, peering at his reflection speculatively. He ran a hand over his face again, then stopped and peered through two thin, long fingers.

Sometimes he almost felt like this damned mask was part of his face. Yet he never took it off outside the shower. He wasn't particularly sure why. It wasn't that he didn't trust his teammates to know his secret identity; was it? He trusted them. They were his friends. He always had fun hanging out with Cyborg and BB, and Starfire was always a trip. And Raven was… well, Raven was…

Robin sighed and turned away from his reflection, slumping face first on his bed. Raven was right, was what she was. He hadn't stayed behind out of concern or friendliness towards the dark girl, but because his damnable obsession still gripped him.

But maybe all that would change. He and Raven had never been close, in any sort of way. They shared a few friend-like moments, no doubt, but that was sort of inevitable when you lived with someone. Come to think of it, he really didn't know Raven at all.

Well, he knew the basic sketch of her past, and of course he knew why she'd joined the Titans; he was their leader; that was his job. But when it came to Raven, the girl, the person, what did he really know? She was dark, with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. She liked tea. She was into horror movies and read a lot more than most people their age. She was a deep thinker, and kept very much to herself. And therein lay the problem.

Robin sighed and rolled over, grabbing the pillow and holding it over his face. When it came down to it, all he knew about Raven were the surface things. Things you couldn't help but know after living with her for so long. But what did he really know about her? Her opinions? Her likes and dislikes? Did he even know one single secret? No, he didn't know anything. And he'd never bothered to try and find out, either. He had Beastboy, and Cyborg, and Starfire; he'd been satisfied knowing them. Satisfied that they knew about Raven. Satisfied to leave the final member of the Titans an eternal mystery n his own case.

Perhaps that hadn't been such a good idea.

Now that the gripping preoccupation with Slade was dying down, his damnable mind was already searching for the next shiny object to catch his relentless fancy, for the next cold case to painstakingly unravel. And by the looks of things…

Tag, Raven.

You're It.

------------------------------------------------------

AN: Well, yeah, that's all folks. For now. Consider this the proverbial piece of meat I dangle just out of your reach. I hope to get at least two reviews before I post anything else. grins which is really just delightfully sadistic of me, because while you get to sit and wonder what the hell I'm doing to our poor characters while I know what's going to happen a l l t h e w a y t o t h e e n d…

P.S. Just to let you all know, this ficlet is intended to be a bit of a short-lived endeavor. Sort of a fun break from my more consuming and lengthy writings, so to speak. Storm Warning is not likely to exceed further than, at the very most, five chapters. To quite honest, I don't expect it to produce more than four. If that bothers you shrugs Sorry to lose you, thanks for stopping by, feel free to take one of the complimentary gift bags on your way out. Otherwise, lean forward, sit tight, and enjoy the ride.