Distracting

Disclaimer: Teen Titans? Definitely not mine.

I need better titles. -_-

So hey, guys. I know I should be updating Domino Effect (insert shameless plugging here :D) but I was watching Stranded and Trouble in Tokyo the other day, and I just – gah, all the feels, dudes. Seriously, how can anyone not ship these two?

He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something very . . . distracting about her. Just the other day, she'd walked into the ops room during breakfast and he'd found himself staring at her so avidly that he'd dropped his toast. Beast Boy and Cyborg had exchanged another one of those glances that he'd grown to detest; Raven didn't seem to notice (apparently, Book of Azar was a positively enthralling read).

It was ridiculous, he knew, but it wasn't his fault. It was something that stirred in him only when he was with her.

There had always been an ache inside of him, that nauseating feeling of loneliness that no one could seem to fill, but with her, it was as if the hole never existed. He didn't know what it was about this girl that made him forget the darkness, but he liked it. There was just something infinitely open about her that pulled him – everyone in.

They would get wrapped up in conversations about silly things – ordinary things like socks and glasses and things so perfectly normal and everyday that no human would ever think twice about them, but would bring that awe and childlike wonder in her eyes that he couldn't help but find endearing. There were evenings when he hung around after practice, hoping to talk to her, and she was always there, perhaps rambling about some strange Tamaranean tradition or asking about some Earth thing or another that he was more than happy to explain.

It seemed like they were always talking, and he felt a strange comfort when they talked about things that they didn't with anyone else.

When she would leave, he'd stare after her without realizing he was doing it, and Cyborg and Beast Boy would chuckle under their breath until he silenced them with a sharp glare.

Perhaps somebody who wasn't as thick as he was clearly saw that something was going on, but not him. All he knew was that he enjoyed her company in a way he didn't enjoy his other teammates'. There was . . . something else when he was with her, something that made being with her different and special. He couldn't explain it. All he knew was that it made him feel wonderful and free, and at the same time tense and nervous and apprehensive, and even if he carried on with this cheesiness he still wouldn't understand it.

And then . . . there was that smile.

That smile.

Damn, he had to shake himself for a moment there.

There was that smile. And that laugh. The way she would catch his eyes and look away, smiling, because they found something amusing. The way she threw her head back and laughed freely, emerald eyes shining, even when she didn't understand the joke. The way she glanced down at him when she was hovering overhead, her long mane of red hair flying around her (he thinks she looks beautiful when she flies and he just can't look away no matter how hard he tries – not that he's ever going to admit it to anyone).

He didn't know what it was, why his heart would give a funny stutter when she was there. Why he found himself looking forward to seeing her and why he sought her out for no reason at all. Why he was always keeping an extra eye on her during missions even when he knew that she was more than capable of looking after herself.

When he found other boys staring at her with a look he knew all too well, he'd feel a strong desire to kick something, and he would have to stop himself from wrapping an arm around her waist or holding her hand or, worse, ki -

No. Not going there.

"She likes you too, you know," Raven said in her usual monotone, nursing her mug of tea.

He felt his heart jump to his throat, like it was always did when the idea of him and her being - being something more came up. The tips of his ears burned as he struggled to make intelligible words come out of his mouth.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he bit out, looking away.

Raven just stared at him with a look that told him just how stupid he was being.

He wasn't sure if he wanted this, whatever it was he was feeling for her. He knew that he couldn't – shouldn't – and that it was wrong to feel this way. But when he was with her, he didn't quite remember the consequences, and instead was able to focus quite nicely on what a lovely shade her hair was.

Sometimes, he'd drift off into reveries that starred her, but also distracted him from what she was saying.

"Robin?" she'd ask him then. "Please, friend, what are you thinking?"

He knew that he was just supposed to reply, "Oh, nothing important", even if he hadn't been thinking of just nothing, but he had a new habit of saying unintentionally stupid things around her, so he'd respond, "I was just thinking about your hair."

And his brain would quickly catch up with what he said and they would both blush and look away. His cheeks would be stained red and he couldn't help but think about how pretty she looked as he tried to get his vocal chords to function properly.

She was just so damn distracting, but slowly he came to need her and he felt strangely incomplete when they were apart.

He didn't expect it because she and he meshed. He was a pessimist and she was an optimist. He was guarded and she was trusting. He was jaded and she saw things through eyes so clear that he would have said it bordered on naiveté if he didn't know what she had gone through.

He needed her, and while perhaps she could do damn well without him, she showed the team that she wanted to care for him – them and he cherished the belongingness she so willingly gave.

He knew it was stupid and ridiculous and he really shouldn't be feeling this way, that he shouldn't be thinking about her like this. It was stupid, stupid, stupid.

He was a hero – only a hero and nothing more. He couldn't be distracted, wasn't supposed to be distracted with things like this.

But then she would look at him with those eyes and that smile he had always loved and, really, how could he ever say no to her? He wondered – hoped – if maybe that smile was especially for him and him alone, and maybe she cared for him just as much as he cared for her.

It was stupid, he knew, and even though she was so very, very distracting, he wouldn't have it any other way.