Sleepless – Chapter I
Raven was getting more annoyed by the second. Did he never sleep?
The simple answer to that would be "No."
Robin's steel-toed boots clicked on everything as he paced around the hallways of the tower. Raven gritted her teeth, slid out of bed and made for the door.
She pushed a button and her brushed steel door opened with a hiss.
Robin was halfway down the corridor, scuffing his boots on various objects.
"Robin!" she barked at him. Robin froze mid-step and swivelled on his left foot to face her. He gave her that small-boy-caught-in-wrongdoinglook that she secretly found incredibly attractive.
She blushed for about a twentieth of a second before regaining her composure and bringing the angry look back onto her face.
Oh no, thought Robin, already getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't really want a confrontation with this girl at the moment, having recently discovered his deep feelings for her (after Deathstroke dropped her off a rather high building and her father then literally sent her to hell, to be exact).
"Yes, Rae?" he said, attempting to smile innocently at her. She didn't change her thunderous expression.
"Stop. Pacing. Around. You. Idiot. Clear?" Raven said, her voice a barely audible snarl. "And don't call me Rae." As much as I like being called Rae, she thought.
Robin laughed somewhat nervously. "Heh, sorry...it's a habit." He swallowed. It sounded absurdly loud to him.
"Um...Night, Rae?" he offered and paced quickly off down the corridor towards the living room. Did that sound nervous? I think it sounded nervous, he thought worriedly.
Raven sighed to herself. She really did like the nickname.
However, with him pacing around kicking things she'd never get to sleep.
"This is your chance!" Affection, Love, Passion and Lust shouted at her mentally. "Go and talk to him! Tell him how you feel! Stuff!"
"Or you could just shout at him and go back to sleep, that'd be much easier than that relationship crap." Laziness and Rage countered.
Raven sighed again and decided on the smart option: neither. She calmed herself and floated after Robin, her cloak billowing behind her.
She opened the door and came into the room.
"Oh no. Think! Say something! Anything! Just make sure you don't say THAT thing." Robin's mind screamed at him. "Cloak – uniform – sleep – tea, ANYTHING!"
"You sleep in your uniform, Rae?" he asked her - the only thing he could think of.
At least it wasn't "Hey, Rae, I really like you. Do you drink tea while sleeping in your uniform?" or something similar, Robin thought.
"Stop calling me that." Don't stop. Affection and Love swooned inwardly. "And I haven't really been sleeping much because of your night-time strolls." I've been worrying about your mental health and a billion other different things.
Robin sighed and said "Sorry. Let me rephrase that. Would you usually sleep in your uniform?"
"Come on Raven, answer the question! It's not like he's asking you to sleep with him!" her Courage said to her.
"Though that would be pretty goo-" Lust started, before Raven mentally shot her a glare.
Robin was just sitting on the kitchen counter smiling at her. Stop doing that, he told himself. "Uhh...Rae? Earth to Raven? Hello in there?"
Raven jumped. Wake up, Rae!
Oh great, now he's got you saying it.
"Nonotusuallythisisn'tmyuniformit'sgotafurliningso Icansleepbetter."
Robin laughed. "His laugh's so dreamy" Pink-clad Happy giggled; light blue-clad Affection practically passed out. Love (in purple) made a small noise that Raven would have died before making.
"One more time. So I can understand it." Robin said to her, stopping her from brutally murdering Happy, Love and Affection.
Raven sighed. You do that a lot lately, she thought. "Fine. No, not usually. This isn't my uniform; it's got a fur lining so I can sleep better." Robin smirked. "At least I sleep, Boy Blunder."
His smirk broke into a genuine smile. "Hey, if you get to call me Boy Blunder, I should at least get to call you Rae." He motioned to the ridiculously large couch that occupied the room. She floated over and sat down. He, being the irrepressible showoff that he was, vaulted the counter, leapt over the back of the couch and landed next to her.
"Impressive." she said dryly.
"I try." He smiled (stupidly, he thought) again, despite his efforts not to. Dammit!
Why is his smile so hot? All Raven's emotions but Courage and Anger melted. She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts she definitely did NOT want him to see.
She asked him a pointless question to break the silence. "Why don't you sleep?"
He grimaced. "Batman and I never went out during the day, so I got a massive rush of adrenaline at night, when we fought crime. Guess I still do."
They sat together for a while, Robin staring into space, Raven surreptitiously looking at Robin every now and then.
Robin slid his arm around her waist without thinking.
He mentally let off a string of colourful Romanian swearwords. "Now I'm dead for sure...along with any chance I ever had with her."
He started to retract his arm.
Raven jumped a bit when she felt his arm around her. A crowd of emotions sighed (almost audibly - oh wow, she thought.).
The feeling wasn't that bad, she decided. She settled back down beside him. And pulled his arm back around her.
Robin looked at her like she'd grown two extra heads.
"What, that's it? You're not going to scream or attack me with a sword conveniently hidden under the cloak of yours?"
Raven gave him a look that said "Funny. Not."
"I actually...actually quite like it..."
Robin swallowed. Now or never, he thought. Well, not technically true, you could have done this ages ago. You could also do it again tomorrow night.
What the hell, brain?
He decided to just go for it. What could go wrong?
"You like...me?" he said, heart in his mouth.
Raven went bright red.
"I take it that means yes?" Robin said.
She nodded mutely.
Robin visibly brightened and grinned like a madman.
He leaned towards her.
Raven's pulse quickened. She looked up at him. "Ohgodohgodohgod" Affection flipped out and fainted. Happy laughed.
Intelligence made a rare outburst. "Kiss him, you idiot!"
"If you don't I will!" Courage threatened.
Robin panicked at her lack of movement. "Nice going, Grayson! You terrified her."
Raven gasped as Courage took brief control of her and jolted her head forward.
Their lips met.
Raven's eyes closed and she relaxed, falling into his arms.
They broke apart, and Raven looked up into Robin's mask. "If only I could see your eyes..." she said to herself.
Or at least she thought so.
Robin reached up to his mask. Millions of miniature clones of Batman screamed "NOOOOOOOO!" in his head. He pushed the image away.
"Don't tell anyone." he said to her. He took off the mask.
Her eyes widened.
Robin's eyes were blue. Clearest, lightest blue. Shocks of a lighter blue crackled around in his irises like lightning. Small rings of green around his pupils fascinated her. She stared into his eyes, lost for words.
He put the mask back on. They pulled away from each other.
"Wait, aren't there cameras in here? Someone could see your eyes if they looked at the recordi-"
Robin silenced her with a gentle kiss.
"Camera only sees my back from this angle. Besides, why do you care?"
Raven blushed again. "I sort of wanted to be the only person to see your eyes."
Robin laughed.
He put his arm back around her waist. They looked out at the sun rise slowly over the sea.
Raven yawned.
"Tired?" Robin asked her.
"It is five in the morning." Her eyes slowly slid shut and her breathing slowed and deepened. Her head slid down the back of the couch and came to rest on Robin's shoulder.
He looked down at her sleeping form and smiled to himself. Her warm body next to his calmed him infinitely and his adrenaline rush slowly subsided. She mumbled in her sleep and wrapped her arms around him unconsciously.
He felt strangely euphoric. And a little light-headed.
He couldn't stop smiling and almost broke out in a fit of laughter when she giggled in her sleep.
He shut his eyes, comforted by her next to him, and he too started to drift off. The last thing he stopped to do was wrap her warm cloak around them both before falling into a deep sleep.
Author's Note: I'm sorry if Raven (or Robin, for that matter) is too OOC, but that's just how I write.
Reviews please, I can't be trusted to look at my own writing objectively. Pairing flames will encourage me. That is all. Love Tom :D