Whirlwind

Disclaimer; I don't own Teen Titans or anything to do with them.

Christmas Eve at Jump Plaza, the enormous multi storied mall at the base of Jump Tower the monolithic skyscraper that dominated the skyline and the centre of the city. The balcony overlooking the central ice rink was crowded with couples holding hands and staring into each others eyes and doing all the things associated with romance and the festive season.

But one girl was standing all by herself watching the procession of skaters go round and round the rink blank faced and disinterested. She was dressed in a long dark coat with a deep hood and black jeans with a dark roll necked top and pair of heavy black boots. It contrasted with her pale face and lavender hair that poked out from under a dark hat. To the ordinary passer by she would look like some lonely teenage girl or maybe a worn out late night shopper because no one would have thought that Raven the Teen Titan would have been standing there dressed like an evil version of Blossom.

The truth was that she just didn't have anywhere else to go and no one to go there with. So, some kind of gravitational force had brought her here. So now surrounded by overwhelming love for her fellow man Raven existed in a bubble of seasonal depression that nothing could burst and just stared at the people down on the ice until they left in happy dribs and drabs and there was just one loan figure skating in circles on the ice.

She followed it with her eyes as it made huge lazy circles and figure eights, occasionally skating backwards or just on one skate until she realised the figure was looking right back at her the whole time. Quickly she looked away and felt a rush of embarrassment as she realised she'd been caught and hurriedly turned to leave but crashed into a tallish skinny boy with dark spiky hair in a black top with a bright red body warmer and jeans. Raven bumped off him and fell onto her back in a tangled mess of her huge coat and hurt pride.

"Are you okay Miss?" the voice was confident and had an edge of good natured concern while it appreciated the humour of the situation.

"I'm fine," snapped Raven "I just didn't see you there, that's all". She got herself to her feet and began to walk away when she heard footsteps rushing to follow her "Wait up there, you dropped something" the boy shouted as Raven stopped and turned to glower at him "No I didn't" and continued to walk on.

"Okay," said the boy "you didn't but can I talk to you at least before you run off?"

"Why?" asked Raven as she began to descend the stairs at the far end of the balcony.

"You do know it's rude to answer a question with a question?"

Raven stopped on the second step down "Well you just asked another one so that must make you ruder than me!" The boy stopped and laughed a little,

"You got me, Miss. But I got one more for you". Raven spun round quickly, the boy was annoying her now, "What? You knock me over, follow me and persist in annoying me! What could I possibly know that you need to?"

"I just wanted to know why you were watching me skate?" The Boy held up a pair of well used and still slightly wet skates. Raven glanced at the skates and blushed slightly but looked down so that the boy couldn't see it. She had no idea why she had been watching him skate, no idea she had been watching him skate, and no real idea why she was even here at this place at this time. Raven looked at him again this time taking in the fact that he wasn't unattractive with an athletic build and a nice smile. "I'm not really sure to be honest" she said "I just didn't have anywhere else to go"

"On Christmas Eve? Come on, everyone has somewhere to go, even rather pale and darkly attired girls?" the boy raised an eyebrow curiously.

"What is it with you and questions and why don't you have anywhere to go either?" Raven snapped back "Why are you spending your Christmas Eve ice skating alone rather than with your family?" The boy crossed his arms and grinned "Another question, Miss. Tell you what, you let me buy you a cup of coffee and we answer these questions of ours?" Raven's eyes narrowed suspiciously,

"And why would I go for coffee with a guy I just met and has so far annoyed me more than anyone I know with his incessant questions?"

"Because we've both admitted that we have nothing else to do," The boy walked down the stairs past Raven and as he did so said "and that was another question, Miss"

Still slightly annoyed Raven settled down into her extremely large and squashy chair at the nearest branch of "Java the Hut" a national coffee bar franchise that Raven hated. She had selected a kind of raspberry tea they sold that wasn't too vile and the boy had gone for an egg nogg latte that came in the largest mug Raven had ever seen. "So is this the time we exchange names and life stories and the reason we're both wandering about on Christmas Eve alone?" asked Raven. The boy took a slurp of his coffee,

"Why not, Richard Grayson, pleased to meet you" he extended a hand across the table which Raven took and shook. "Rae Roth, similar".

TBC…

Author note.

Okay, I haven't put anything new up for a long time, I've been a little busy with a new college course I'm on and I just hit a major block with TIODM so I just wanted to write a little story that was removed from my continuity. Yes Raven has stumbled into Robin on xmas eve, she has no idea who he is but he knows who she is. It all stems back to my obsession with duplicity and double lives, Robin can have two lives a lot more easily than the other titans can and I just wanted to play with. So in one life he's Robin and in the other he's Richard Grayson the strange young man Raven has bumped into on xmas eve, will she find out? Why can't she just read his mind? All will be explained later. Enjoy.