Hello all, and welcome to Moments! As the summary says, this is going to be a collection of oneshots focused on various... well, moments in the Titans' lives, most of which will take place during the course of the series. I plan on writing these little short stories out in between and during breaks in my larger-scale projects, so I'm not sure how frequently you can expect updates. It might be a bit sporadic. That said, each oneshot should stand on its own (and if that changes, I'll be sure to make note of it in the individual fic's summary), so feel free to check out whichever ones catch your interest at any time!

This first fic is set just after the episode Haunted. I noticed when watching through the series a few months back that, while Robin and Raven talk a lot about being close and understanding each other during the latter's arc in season four, they don't really act all that close or even seem to bond much before that point. One of the things Robin mentions during Birthmark, though, gives a hint as to what may have been the turning point in strengthening their friendship without us seeing it. This oneshot explores that possible turning point, as well as the nature of Raven's empathic senses in general.

"We have a bond, remember? You've been inside my mind. Let me inside yours." – Robin, Birthmark

Bonds

Soul-crushing guilt clawed at her brain.

Raven groaned and rolled over in her bed, trying to get back to sleep. Sudden outbursts of intense, painful emotion were really not her ideal method of waking up, and she wasn't sure whether it made it better or worse to know that this one came from an outside source.

…Okay, so she should probably be a good friend or something and see what had gotten her teammate so upset. She was still groggy, so she couldn't quite pinpoint who had awoken her. Whoever it was must have been right next to her room, for her to sense the emotion unconsciously.

Raven sat up and stretched for a moment before reaching over to grab her cloak. It was probably Beast Boy, heedless of her space as usual and running around worked up over… something. Or maybe Starfire. She had certainly been through the wringer last night, and though she had nothing to be ashamed of, it wasn't unheard of for her to fret so much that she forgot herself and projected those extra-strength Tamaranean emotions where Raven could pick them up.

But as Raven cleared her mind and made for her door, she realized that neither guess was correct. She was sensing Robin.

…Well, that explained the guilt.

Raven slid open her bedroom door, expecting Robin to be just outside. The hallway was empty, though, and when she knocked on the door of the bathroom next to her bedroom, she found it unoccupied.

Strange. That was the only room adjoining hers, and she shouldn't have been able to sense emotions from any further away. For that matter, she shouldn't have nearly this strong a bead on them unless the source was right next to her. Had her empathy somehow grown more acute over the night?

Raven wandered the hallway, searching for her team's leader. He wasn't in his bedroom, or his office. But as she made her way down the other end of the hall, she finally picked up on a pair of low voices coming from Starfire's room.

"No, it's not all right. Starfire, I hurt you."

"Robin, please, do not worry so much. You did no real damage by grabbing me, and it was only under the influence of the dust. In truth, I was more surprised and concerned than anything else."

"I wasn't just talking about physical pain."

Raven's stomach twisted. She really wasn't comfortable eavesdropping like this, but she wasn't sure whether it would be worse to interrupt them or whether she should leave and go looking for Robin again once he was finished talking.

And there was something else. She hadn't sensed Starfire's emotions (concern, care, a lingering sadness) until she was right in front of her door.

"Did you hear that?" Robin asked suddenly.

"Hear what?"

"I… I don't… know, but… I think someone's outside."

Raven's blood froze. She was certain she hadn't made a sound since coming to hover outside the room, and there was something unsettlingly familiar about Robin's confusion.

It took all her willpower not to phase through the floor and disappear when Robin approached and opened the door. He looked exhausted, and still a little rough from the previous night, and behind him she could see Starfire sitting on the edge of her bed, her arms folded in her lap as she looked to the doorway.

"Raven?" Robin asked in mild surprise. Some of Raven's worry must have been showing on her face, because he straightened up a little while Starfire stood and made her way to the door.

"Raven, what is wrong?" she asked.

Raven didn't reply for a moment, her eyes fixed on Robin. She now had a firm idea of what was going on, and she really didn't want to have it proven right.

Not much else she could do about it, though.

Robin frowned and shared a concerned look with Starfire. "Raven?" he asked again. "We can't help you if you won't tell us what's going on."

Raven blinked and finally found her voice. Her hands twitched toward the hood of her cloak, but she kept them down. "I need to talk to Robin," she said. "Just… find me in my room when you're done."

She started turning away, but Starfire reached out a hand. She cast Robin an uncertain glance and offered, "If this is truly important, perhaps you two should speak now. We can finish our talk –"

But Raven was already shaking her head. "No, go ahead. I need some time to… gather my thoughts anyway."

With that she left for her room, walking a little more briskly than was necessary. She gave in to temptation and pulled her hood up over her head, both mentally and physically burying her emotions behind its concealing barrier.

Robin stood a little stiffly by the door out of Raven's room. It was rare for her to allow anyone entry, and even though she had been the one to insist they talk in her private quarters, he still felt like he was intruding.

Raven herself was pacing the floor, silent except for her soft footsteps and the low swish of her cloak. She had been doing so since he had first knocked on her door and been beckoned in, several minutes ago now. He almost swore he could feel the agitation rolling off her.

From someone who normally kept her emotions tightly in check, it was more than a little unnerving.

Finally, Raven paused in her circuit and glanced over at him. She ran her fingers through her hair and hissed, "Damn it."

Robin straightened up a fraction – he didn't think he'd ever heard her swear before.

"Raven," he ventured carefully, taking a small step forward, "I know you said you needed time to think, but it might help if we talk through whatever's going on."

Raven let out a heavy sigh and nodded. "I know. I just…" She looked directly at him, for the first time since she'd brought him in, as she said, "I don't think I can fix this."

Robin frowned. "Fix what?"

Raven ran a hand through her hair again. "I… Last night, when you were hallucinating Slade and I sent my soul self to you, I think I left something behind. Have you noticed anything… off since then? Like you're sensing something you shouldn't?"

Robin blinked at her odd explanation, and then frowned thoughtfully in response to the equally-odd question. He thought back to when he had been talking with Starfire, how he had suddenly known that someone was just outside the door. He'd had a feeling that person was upset, too, but it had been such a vague and unusual sense that he assumed he must have just heard something.

Now that he really considered it, the bead he had on Raven's current emotional state was somehow more tangible than he'd thought. It wasn't just what he could see in her behavior and hear in her voice. It was as if he really could feel her anxiety, but in a detached and impersonal way that didn't affect his own emotional state beyond making him worry for his friend.

He looked back to her in wonder. "I see what you mean. Are you saying you gave me an empathic sense?" He tried to remember if he'd noticed anything like this when he'd been with Starfire earlier, or around the rest of the team late last night.

But Raven shook her head and folded her arms. "Not entirely. It's more of an empathic bond between the two of us. You can sense my emotions to some degree now, and my sense of yours has gotten stronger than normal."

Robin marveled for a moment at that, but Raven's current feelings still concerned him. "And you're really bothered by that," he noted. "Why? I mean, sure it's… pretty weird to think about, but you've always had your senses. Is this really that different?"

Raven looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "You're telling me you're not freaked out by this? It was bad enough that I went rooting around in your head –"

"To save my life," Robin interjected.

"– but now it's going to be harder than ever for me to leave you to your privacy. Not to mention we both have to worry about how distracting these senses can be." Raven let out a low sigh and rubbed her temples. "I've had my normal abilities my entire life, so those are at least something I've learned how to ignore when I need to. And I still have to get away for time to myself sometimes."

"…Oh." That explained a lot about the sanctity Raven had placed on her room, now that Robin thought about it. The realization made him uncomfortable to be here all over again, and with that explanation, some of Raven's nervousness regarding this empathic bond was starting to rub off on him.

He shook his head and clamped down on those thoughts. He could freak out later, but for now, one of them had to keep a level head about this and Raven was anxious enough as it was.

"Okay," he said simply, "so you said you can't get rid of this bond. That leaves learning how to work with it. What do you recommend?"

Raven stopped for a moment, just looking at him. Her expression relaxed a fraction as she said, "You know, you're probably the best person this could have happened to."

Robin started at the sudden change in tone. "I am?"

"Of course. Starfire and Beast Boy's emotions are too strong; they wouldn't have mixed with mine well. Cyborg wouldn't have been as bad, but he still tends to be pretty open about what he's thinking, even when he doesn't mean to." She smirked – probably the first smile she'd worn all day. "But you've already got a knack for what we need to keep from driving each other crazy."

Robin frowned. "I do?"

Raven tapped on the side of her head. "Mental shields. I could tell you were trying to block out your own worries just then. They're not perfect, since you're not trying to psychically block someone, but with some training and a little practice figuring out when to use them, we can keep some privacy." She took another deep breath and muttered, "Azar, I was so busy panicking like a hormonal kid that I didn't even think about that."

Robin winced – he was pretty sure the kind of 'mental shields' Raven had mentioned were part of what had gotten him into last night's mess in the first place. What would Cyborg or Starfire say about him making stronger ones?

Raven must have picked up on this, because she wryly added, "Proper psychic shields are much more elegant than just metaphorically shutting people out. Trust me, I'm aware that's a bad habit we both need to work on."

Robin took a deep breath and nodded. Raven seemed to be getting back to her usual self, and he took that as a good sign. "All right. Where do we start?"

Starfire frowned a little to herself as she made her way up the stairs from the common area to the Titans' living quarters. She walked rather than flew; she was still a little emotionally drained after the turmoil of the night before, and in any case the physical exercise gave her a chance to organize her thoughts.

At least Robin seemed to be doing better. He had been terribly upset that morning, apologizing profusely for his behavior while under the stress of the dust-induced hallucinations. That guilt alone had been, admittedly, an odd sort of relief. It was a sign that he truly was clear of mind now, and back to his normal self. Still, it had taken her the better part of the morning to assure him that she forgave him, and that she had known from the beginning that something must be terribly wrong for him to behave that way in the first place.

Starfire had not seen him since. She could only assume that he had gone to make peace with the others after responding to Raven's odd summons. But she had seen Raven, and was now in fact responding to a summons of her own.

Joint meditation was a standard but somewhat uncommon bonding activity for the two girls; Raven usually preferred to do so alone, while Starfire was too keyed toward embracing her strongest emotions for clearing her mind to be of much use. But when the right mood struck, taking those moments of quiet contemplation together could be exactly what they both needed. Perhaps this was one of those times, for Raven to suddenly appear and invite Starfire into her room for a brief session?

She would be finding out shortly, because she had just reached Raven's door. She knocked softly, calling out the sorceress' name.

In a moment, the door opened to Raven's usual neutral self, devoid of all signs of agitation. It also opened, to Starfire's surprise, to a view of Robin sitting a little awkwardly back by the foot of her bed. He shot her a wan smile.

Starfire returned the smile and glanced from him back to Raven. "Robin will be joining us today?"

Raven waved her hand in a so-so gesture. "Honestly, it's more like you'll be joining us. I need to teach him a few meditation techniques, but he keeps getting distracted and you're the best at calming him down." She shrugged. "Besides, I could use a meditation partner I'm used to, and I think you could use a session anyway. Call it a win-win."

Starfire frowned thoughtfully as she stepped through the threshold into her friend's room. "All right. Is this what you needed to speak about earlier?"

Robin offered up that awkward half-smile again. "Sort of. It's… kind of complicated, so I'll explain after we're done." He glanced at Raven. "If you're okay with that, I mean."

Raven just shrugged, and Starfire hesitated half a second before nodding her concession. She burned with curiosity over what exactly had happened between her teammates… But it was their business to share when they were ready, and if they all needed to avoid extra distraction now, then so be it.

It was strange, she thought as she and Raven chose their spots and dipped into a low, sitting hover. Raven and Robin had always gotten along well enough, but they'd never been especially close – the tendency for both to guard their privacy rather than reaching out to others, she supposed.

But just from the past couple minutes, she could tell that something had shifted. She could see it in the equal parts curious and trusting look Robin gave Raven as he shifted his posture to better match hers, in the little silent nod she gave him in turn, in the wry joke he offered both girls equally about how he couldn't really match their positions without being able to fly. Starfire did not yet know what had happened, but she hoped it would result in a strengthening of their friendship. It was like they had formed some sort of camaraderie, a common ground.

A bond.