Author's Note:

This is an Angel/Kyd Wykkyd one-shot. Why? Because. Yes, I am a Raven fan. Yes, virtually all my Teen Titans fics are about her. But it's time to give some loving to other characters, also.

No, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing about my favorite character. But it does mean that I also want to explore some lesser used ones. This is my first try, and it's planned as a one-shot, but if you like it and you'd want me to write more, you know what you need to do.

Dawn Flight

The Common room was empty. It was late at night and the rules were strict, but it didn't concern him too much. After all, since when were villains supposed to care about rules?

He liked to be here at this hour. He could get all the privacy and loneliness he wanted in his room, but this was the place where things happened, and the imprints of everything that occurred during the day clung onto its walls like perfume, just waiting for someone like him to come and scent them.

He avoided it during the day. He preferred to be left alone, and thankfully, his… well, friends… did not usually seek his company. He was too weird, even for such a bunch. But he was still human, regardless of how he looked. He still felt the need for companionship, and the room full of ghosts of things that took place during the day made for a good spot to seek lonely conviviality.

The shadows shifted slowly around the room as he imagined what went on during the day, reconstructing it from caught snatches of conversations and daily gossip. Mammoth playing a game against Gizmo, then crushing the controller in his hands, frustrated because he lost, making Gizmo shout at him until Mammoth snapped his huge fingers under his nose, the gust of wind blowing the baby-faced tinkerer several feet back and shutting him up. Billy playing cards with three of his clones, then getting into a fight with himself – himselves? – because one of them was cheating, each of his copies calling in more clones to help, until there were at least twenty Billies fighting each other, none of them knowing at that stage who was cheating and who cloned whom. When the bout was finally over, they started bickering over who won the fight and fell into brawling again until See-More had to use the fire hose to drench them all and cool them down.

He felt a hand touching his shoulder lightly, startling him from his musings. He turned his head and gazed into a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

"Hey, Kyd" she greeted him in a quiet voice. He smiled at her, aware of the warm feeling that always somehow sneaked its way into him whenever she was near.

She sat beside him, her eyes holding his gaze hesitantly. "I was looking for you."

His eyebrows went up. Looking for him? True, she was the only one that actively sought him out and looked for his companionship, but never at such an hour. A pleasant unease trickled down from his chest all the way to his toes and bubbled up to his ears, thankfully hidden by his mask. He was certain they were glowing red now.

She opened her mouth and then looked down, suddenly shy.

"I… wanted to ask you if you could… do it for me again."

He cocked his head and allowed a small frown to furrow his brow.

"Blood's out on an assignment. Nobody'll notice we're not in" she said, lifting her eyes to look at him again, while a charming smile lit her face. His frown deepened a bit to show her that her efforts at influencing him were being neither subtle nor effective.

The glow in her eyes dimmed and he forced himself not to swallow, a sudden pain tightening his throat.

Her smile faded and her eyes became pleading. "Kyd, please… You know I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't need it."

He looked down. The risk was great, even with Blood out, but he knew that what she said was true. She was a creature of the air, of open skies, of endless expanses. Being cooped up in a room, no matter how large, two miles below the surface of the ocean, was an almost intolerable sensation for her. He had to help her. And also, it was an opportunity to maybe…

He squeezed his eyes shut, running away from that thought. He sighed, looked up at her and touched his wrist, lifting a querying eyebrow.

Her smile reappeared and her fingers grazed his hand gratefully. "Half an hour, not more. I just need to get out for a while. I need to stretch out, I need to breathe."

He nodded, trying to keep his face calm and expressionless. He rose and spread his arms, opening his cloak welcomingly. She stepped closer and embraced him – was it a bit tighter than necessary? – and the cloak closed around them, leaving the Common room again silent and empty.

He teleported them a few hundred feet above the ocean. He released her somewhat reluctantly and floated back to give her space. Wings unfurled from her shoulders, growing in size, beating strongly and capturing great gusts of air, keeping her hovering in place, the rustle of wind in their feathers coming clearly to his ears.

Her wings expanded even more, now a full fifteen feet across, as their beat strengthened and quickened. She flew circling up, his eyes following her, unable to wrench themselves away from the sight, the half-moon illuminating her silhouette against the velvet backdrop of sprinkled stardust.

Closing her wings, she plummeted towards the calm surface of the ocean, ripping out a concerned sigh from his throat. But then her pinions flashed out again, spreading wide as she described a sharp but elegant parabola, the lowest part of it almost touching the waves, then used the speed she gained to soar back up, only starting to beat her wings again when her impulse bled out and she hung almost motionless in the air for a moment.

His eyes followed her aerial dance mesmerized, glued to her lithe form, aching to share in the feeling of unrestrained independence and exultation she was pouring out. But his poor excuse for levitation could not compare to her skill, to the intricate figures she described in the cool air as she crossed the pre-dawn sky, her wings sometimes furling around her, hiding her completely, just to expand to their full, majestic span and claw at the air powerfully, lifting her up effortlessly in fluid corkscrewing movements, free of chains and leashes and smothering vigilance, lord and master of her own element, no walls or domes or borders or rules shackling her and limiting her liberty. She drew loops and circles and figure-eights and spirals against the paling sky, the laughter of rediscovered freedom mingling with the rush of air through wing feathers, her joy in simply being able to be herself so strong he could almost touch it.

Finally tiring, she flew to hover in front of him, careful not to blow him away with the gusts that her wings were producing. She wrapped her arms around him and smiled at him, her eyes glowing intensely, her breathing hard and fast after the exertion.

"Let's go back" she said. "Someone may miss us."

Her wings folded around them both. He sensed their warmth around him, the caressing feathers feeling unbearably light on his back and shoulders, the scent of dawn air and storm winds making him dizzy. He gasped at the sensation and she blushed, looking away, her wings furling back and diminishing in size to mere appendages. She clung to him now, unable to fly any more, pulling them both down until his confused mind realized that he needed to strengthen his levitation to maintain the now increased weight.

"We… really should go" she whispered uncertainly.

He coughed a little, his right arm encircling her waist almost fearfully to hold her close while his left hand wrapped his cloak around them.

They reappeared in the Common room, looking around to make sure they weren't running into any welcoming committee. Realizing at the same time they were still embraced, they both sprang away from each other guiltily, blushing.

"I… Thanks, Kyd" she stammered. She looked into his eyes, then quickly looked down. His arm lifted, almost of its own will, and touched her face. She raised her eyes, a hint of surprise glowing in them. For a moment he did not know what to do, then his hand dropped back down and he nodded gravely at her.

She turned and quickly strode to the door, opening it, then stopped and faced him again.

"It… means much to me to have a friend like you. Thanks again" she said hoarsely and swiftly turned, leaving the room. The door hissed closed softly after her. He sat down on the couch, his eyes looking ahead, unfocused.

He lifted his hand to his eyes, studying the fingers that touched her cheek. They still burned. A small smile appeared on his face, a feeling of exhilaration suffusing him with an almost painful joy as the thought took hold in his mind.

I have seen an angel flying across the dawn sky.