Hi! Apologies for whatever happened before when I tried to upload this, thank you to the people who pointed it out to me. Its fixed now. For those of you waiting on an update for 'Haunting my Nightmares' please be patient. Its on the way! Sadly, I can only update when the muse is with me.
Raven walked through the tower breathing heavily. One more surge of anger like that and the whole tower could come crumbling down. She pushed the thoughts of her now wrecked room to the side as she stomped into the common room. The rest of the Titans were probably still in there. The swoosh of the doors greeted her and four heads simultaneously turned towards her. "Alright…who's responsible?" Raven ground out, venom practically dripping from her voice.
Beast Boy, as always, was the first to speak up. "Um? What are you talking about?"
"Someone was in my room." She ground out between her teeth.
All of the Titans looked stunned. Their auras were confusing and Raven couldn't detect any trace of guilt. There was worry permeating through the room until Cyborg stepped up. "What happened Raven?"
Raven took in an audible breath before speaking again. "Someone was in my room. Things have been moved and worse yet, my books have been tampered with."
"Is there anything missing?" Robin asked.
"No" Raven shook her head. "But my books can be dangerous." She swept her eye over the room with a pointed look at Beast Boy. From Larry using the Book of Azar as a surfboard and that incident with Malchior, the Titans were well aware that some of the objects that Raven possessed were not something to be treated with anything but the upmost caution.
Starfire spoke up. "Friend Raven you are unharmed correct?"
"I'm fine Star. I just want to know what's going on."
Right at that moment, the alarm began blaring. Raven cursed whatever villain decided to make trouble. This needed settled! She'd felt so violated and began to bite her tongue worriedly. Not the in the least because of Cyborg and Beast Boy's little adventure in her head. Cyborg was furiously typing away at the keyboard. Raven half considered telling Robin to go on without her, but guilt immediately assailed her. These were her friends and they needed her help; having someone in your room was…problematic to say the least, especially since it was Raven's room. Any chance of getting out of the mission though was gone as Cinderblock's picture emerged on the city's CCTV cams. Raven pulled up her hood and teleported away determined to end this as soon as possible.
Later that night, coming home broken, bruised and bloody, Raven staggered into the common room holding onto a very banged up Robin. Cinderblock had managed to get the drop on him and deliver a solid punch to the chest. Cyborg was dented since Cinderblock had managed to whang a street light into him. Star and Beast Boy had taken immediately to their rooms complaining of being tired.
Raven was dead on her feet, but she blinked her eyes open. She had to stay awake to sweep through the security tape and try to find out what happened in her room. There was a funny feeling deep in her gut. Why had nobody reacted when she told them someone was in her room? That's an invasion of privacy at best and a lapse in the tower's defenses at worst. Raven had been slightly distracted during the battle. In the back of her mind she was busily running through a list of the Titans' enemies trying to think of who could've done this. She stumbled on Slade, Red-X and Brother Blood. Nothing was taken so Slade was out, same for Brother Blood. Raven figured that if either one of those guys were the culprits then there would've been theft of one of the various cursed, enchanted or otherwise paranormal knick-knacks in her possession. Those guys were bad news and never did anything without a motivation. That left her with one suspect…Red-X.
But where was the motivation?
Why start with Raven? Why go through her things? His grievances didn't lie with her, but with Robin. Raven was certain that if Red-X was going to go through the trouble of breaking into the tower to do anything, he'd do it to Robin. Besides he wasn't just your average villain, X had a rather selfish agenda. Just serving his own needs, not to mention he had a surprising way of playing both sides of the law.
Raven was brought out of her head by a groan a zombie would've applauded. Being as gently as she could with her tender shoulder, she lowered Robin into a chair. He immediately began rubbing his injured leg. "Stay still." She instructed as her hands took on an icy blue glow. As the pain began flowing into her she turned her head to watch Cyborg fiddling with some electronics. He met her eyes; Cyborg watched carefully the interaction between her and Robin. Raven narrowed her eyes and raised a brow in question, but he continued to occupy himself, tinkering with the mechanics in his shoulder. Letting out a small huff at everybody's odd behavior, Raven focused her attention on healing her injured leader.
Robin was busy babbling. Something about more training sessions and designing more coordinated attacks. She finished her healing and stood up, giving Robin a hand to help him up. "Thanks Raven."
"No problem."
"I'm heading to bed! Night ya'll!" Cyborg called as he strolled out of the common room and towards the hall.
Robin followed shortly behind. "Goodnight Raven!"
"Night."
Since it was evident that nobody seemed to be taking her concerns seriously, Raven set to work on making herself a pot of tea to help her stay awake. She didn't understand how the rest of the Titans could just go off to bed and sleep peacefully when the tower's security was possibly compromised. Was there something going on that Raven didn't know about? She usually avoided reading the minds of her teammates. Not just because it was a major invasion of privacy, but also because Raven generally had better things to do than go poking around in her friends' heads. But as of late, Raven was considering at least a brief survey. She didn't want to pick up on too many personal or intimate details, but their nonchalance over what she saw as a major issue was making her reconsider. The hot tea she sipped warmed her and brought a measure of wakefulness to her exhausted body. Quickly logging in to the Titans mainframe, Raven pulled up the security footage for the hall near her room. The tower was eerily quiet and everything was still. She tried to shake off her elevated levels of awareness, but as it happened, was none too successful. Her heart was racing, intently listening for the slightest creak or noise. Raven stood in the darkened common room scanning the footage, scrubbing though it at high speed. Her teeth ground together as she watched the Titans whizzing by like they'd somehow acquired Kid Flash's powers. So preoccupied was she that the other presence in the room went unnoticed.
Two arms wrapped around Raven's waist stunning her into silence and nearly making her jump. "It was me." Robin's voice whispered into her ear, hot breath tickling her neck.
Several moments went by before she could find her voice enough to answer. "Robin…wha- why?" Her voice barely above a whisper.
"Raven I was looking for a diary or a journal or…something. I wanted to know what you thought of me." Raven stood silent and frozen afraid if she made the slightest movement whatever it was that possessed Robin would somehow spew out of his mouth and attack her. What could've possibly come over him?
"Thought of you? Robin you know me better than anyone. You're- you…you're my best friend." She managed to get out. Raven stepped forward and taking that as a cue, Robin released her. He waited patiently for her to turn around and face him.
"Raven, after Tokyo it felt like the bond between you and me, it felt like it was broken. And I- I was not okay with that. I realized that what I felt for Starfire was puppy love…I guess would be the best way to describe it. It was infatuation, not love, intense, but shallow It just seemed like- I don't know…" He trailed off pulling at his gloves. "It was like we always had to be proving to each other and other people how much we loved each other. We couldn't just- be."
Raven contemplated this for a moment. Despite not being in any romantic relationships herself, or never having gone on a date for that matter, Raven wasn't a fool. With the outsider perspective that she had, she had the opportunity to observe and learn. And she'd learned quite a lot in her time; it seemed to her that the more trouble people were having behind closed doors, the more this kind of extravagant overdone behavior went on.
She didn't get a chance to speak as Robin continued. "I often feel like I can't fully be myself around her or show her the darker parts of my mind or my past." Here he looked down at his feet. "You've seen them through our bond and you just respected me for who I was. And that's invaluable to me as a leader and for a relationship to work long term." Raven raised a brow at this. It was starting to sound like he ran some sort of scientific analysis and concluded that Raven was the best partner; it didn't seem as though he held any genuine affection, but that hug just a few moments ago…
"Robin," she began. "As I've told you before, you know me better than anyone. And…" She quieted watching for a reaction. "Admittedly, I feel closer with you than I do with anyone else on the team."
"Really?" He sounded ecstatic. "Even Cyborg?"
"Even Cyborg." She confirmed with a nod. "But," his face fell. "If there's no genuine affection for me, then I think you're wasting your time. If you just think that I'm a better match for long term success it sounds like you're just ticking boxes on a bucket list. Get into a stable relationship. Check. Do stupid pointless couples things together. Check. Prove that you're capable of having a semi-normal life. Check." She took in a breath. "Its not that simple Robin. It never is, not with anything. And quite frankly, I refuse to be treated like that. Goodnight."
She'd intended to phase through the floor and bail immediately, but a soft grip on her wrist stopped her. "Raven. Wait."
He held onto her for a few moments until she faced him fully again. Confident that she wouldn't run off on him, he released his grip. Robin dragged his hands over his face. "Raven, I didn't want to come right out and say this, but you've forced my hand." He let a small smile onto his face at that. "I really like you Raven." He sucked in air. "From the moment I met you, I knew you were someone I could easily be friends with. We're so similar in so many ways and I trust you more than anyone else on the team." Raven's eye widened at that. She thought it surely would've been Cyborg or Starfire, but not her. Never her. "I want to try to be more than friends and being around someone like myself makes me actually excited for it. We can do this however you want. We can take things slowly. I know you're worried about your powers, but you've gained so much control over them these past few years and I'm so proud of you for that." Robin looked right into those large amethyst eyes. "So what do you say? Do you want to be with me?" He smiled. "Do you want to just be?"
This couldn't possibly be happening! She'd wake up any minute now with the Titans hovering over her asking her is she's okay. There was no way this was happening! Light would begin penetrating her eyes and she'd wake up staring into the sun quenched golden rays temporarily illuminating her dark room. This couldn't happen!
But it was happening, and Robin's grip on her hand was slowly causing the reality of it all to sink in. "Raven," he breathed out.
Raven's heart was pounding and she struggled to maintain control. Little pin pricks of electricity were dancing across her forehead. She slammed her eyes shut to draw her dark magic back into her chakra. Robin maintained his grip on her hand as she fought to hold her emotions back. "Raven- " He tried again.
"I'm fine." She hissed out. "This can't work Robin. It can't" She tried not to make her voice trail off in sadness at the prospect, but wasn't so sure how well she did with that.
"It can Raven…can't you see? We can make it work, both of us, together."
Against her will, the warmth of his thoughts and feelings overwhelmed her. Reaching out like a bright light into the darkest depths of her mind. A warm body met hers and Raven was tucked into a warm chest. "Robin…what are- "
"You feel it?" He asked her pulling her closer yet. "Nothing is broken, nothing has been wrecked, nothing exploded…there's nothing Raven. Its just you and me."
"You don't know that, somewhere in the tower. It could be- "
"Its not." Robin spoke up. "I know you Raven. I know you can do this." Raven gulped audibly as her windpipe suddenly became like a dry rotted rubber band. Slowly, she moved her arms to rest around his neck. One by one her muscles relaxed and she allowed herself to rest comfortably against him. "See" he whispered. "Its okay."
It was several long moments before she responded. "I suppose it is."
Robin moved slightly to rest his head on top of hers. Them being almost the same height made it easy. "Remember after you saved the world? You hugged me like this. I never forgot that and I never will."
"Me neither." The words came out before she registered it.
He released her shortly after and gazed intently into her violet eyes. "I know that meditation teaches you to live in the present moment, gain a perspective outside of the norm and acknowledge your feelings without falling victim to them. You can just…be." Robin finished.
Raven opened her mouth to respond as the alarm began blaring again. Red light illuminated the darkness around them. Robin dropped her hand as Cyborg came barreling in, followed swiftly by Starfire swooping towards them. Beast Boy dragged his feet in holding onto a pillow and drooling slightly. Without hesitating, Raven gave him a smack to the chin to wake him up. Robin kept his gaze fixed on Raven even as Cyborg and Starfire began exclaiming that there was a jailbreak in progress. Beast Boy groaned and threw off his polka dot nightcap as they made their way to the garage.