Just to head off any questions or suspicions people might have, I am not a Raven/Robin 'shipper as such. I think they are a very practical couple, the sort of couple that could happen and succeed frequently in real life... but not a very interesting couple to write about in the long term. So no, this won't be the turn of a whole lengthy Raven/Robin relationship thing. The possibility is fun to explore briefly just to shake things up, but ultimately I feel that Robin and Starfire work better together because they contrast each other well to make writing their scenes fun, while at the same time having a reasonable amount of common ground so they're not fighting constantly like Raven and Beast Boy are. If I were to write only about the sort of things that happen in real life, this would be both a very depressing and a very boring story.

Chapter 3: Trust

Tamaranian sweat smelled the same as human sweat, but for some reason Robin actually enjoyed Starfire sweating, which was something he couldn't say about anyone else on the team. The workout was made all the better, knowing that he could, in his own way, push her to her limits. Of course, he couldn't hope to match her for raw power... that was why they were having doing modified target practice instead of, say, wrestling. With the targets being each other, and the ammo being a sack of rubber birdarangs on Robin's side, and firefly-weak sparks of starbolts on Starfire's side. It was more fun when the target was moving, Batman had always opined, and Robin agreed with his old mentor in that area, at least.

Although, now that he thought of it, some form of holds-very-much-barred wrestling would be... fun...

"Ow!" he winced, clutching at his suddenly-stinging nose and scowling. That lapse in concentration could not be repeated if he wanted to get the upper hand in this match.

"Oh, Robin, I am most sorry to have struck you in the face, I was aiming for your glenpraq, I hope you are unharmed?"

Robin grinned, recovering from the pins-and-needles sensation, and covertly palming a birdarang in each hand to counterattack. "You're still hesitating a little. Throw them faster."

Starfire's adorably abbreviated eyebrows rose in surprise, and then she grinned to match his own. She might have had a gentle heart, but she had a warrior's spirit to back it up.

"HAAA!"

The starbolt was, as expected, large, bold, and easily-dodged, the trajectory having been loudly announced by the alien's posture. On the other hand, the barrage of smaller starbolts she'd somehow managed to conceal behind the first one were not expected, particularly not the way they spiralled around unpredictably, and Robin had to abandon any plans of attacking back for the moment to go into a defensive roll and dodge them all. He felt a brief burst of pride for her. She knew accuracy wasn't a strong point, so she'd made up for it with rapidity of attacks. It was a simple but effective tactic: throw enough stuff in the air and some of it is bound to hit. Of course, there was also collateral damage to... consider...

Crap.

Some of the starbolts had found their way to his sack of birdarangs and scattered them far and wide over the gymn floor. Now he wouldn't have to retreat back to the same spot to replenish ammo, but he wouldn't be able to pick up large amounts of them at one time, either. He'd have to grab new ones almost constantly now.

He mentally designated his left hand as birdarang-picker-upper and his right as birdarang-thrower, and in the first few moments took advantage of the scattered ammo to score a few hits on Star's thighs and stomach. Her squeals of indignation, along with the aches in his muscles, softened his resolve to continue on, though. So instead of making a more serious move, he leaped towards her theatrically, a birdarang held high and aimed at her forehead, while he made one of various kung fu fighting sounds (that he would never, ever let anyone else know he had learned mostly from watching wuxia movies...). The birdarang paused an inch from her forehead, and then gently tapped her.

"Hmph! You are one to talk of hesitation!" Starfire said mock-angrily through a giggle, then pushed him playfully.

Playfully for Star, anyway, which meant that he flew about fifteen feet back and slammed into the (fortunately padded) wall.

"Yeah, I owe you waaaay more hits than that," Robin muttered dizzily, waiting for his vision to settle down again.

"Oh?" Star... well, cooed, at him, stepping closer. Robin was suddenly nervous. "Perhaps we should find a way for you to repay your debt of physical contact, yes?"

Was she batting her lashes at him?! She was! Where had she learned to do that?! No one in this tower was feminine enough to teach her to do that! It wasn't fair!

He was still stumbling for words, and sweating profusely for reasons other than physical exhaustion, when she leaned her body lightly against his, face tilted slightly in a feather-delicate nuzzle.

"Of course... if you wish to rest first, I can allow 'the interest' to build up instead of insisting on repayment that is immediate..."

"Uh, uh, y-yeah, sure, l-let's do that," Robin stammered, feeling like an idiot. God, she was beautiful. Too beautiful for him. He didn't know what to do with her when she got like this. And it had been happening more and more ever since the Tokyo Incident. Not that he could really say he hated it. But... change was hard.

Hard, but worth a try.

"Careful about letting it build up too long, though," Robin replied, giving it his best to flirt back. "You know what they say about pressure..."

Star looked devilishly happy at his willingness to engage in the playfulness for a change. It occurred to Robin, a little unnervingly, that he'd seen a similar look on her face when she'd gone back to her home planet, when she'd been staring at a table of Tamaranian food soon to be eaten.

"I am afraid that I am still a stranger to many of the sayings of your world. What do they say about... pressure?" she murmured a little huskily, leaning into him just a tiny bit more. A very tiny bit, but the very fact that it was so little, yet so deliberate, was somehow in and of itself a turn on.

Robin's inner dialogue writer unfortunately chose that moment to shut down, and there was a brief silence broken only by their slightly heavy breaths for air as he frantically tried to think of some way to carry through to a punchline or climax. Climax. Yeah. That was... that was probably the wrong word to be thinking of right now.

Star suddenly eeped and leaned back a step, giggling as she directed her gaze downwards.

"Oh, is that what you wished to speak of involving the pressure, Robin? It seems that Tamaranians and humans are not so different in some respects after all, I am glad to see..." And then she dissolved into more giggles, face almost half as red as Robin's own.

He frantically tried to straighten his pants out and change his posture, but the problem with wearing tight clothes was that they didn't conceal much of anything. So he did the best thing he could do, and wrapped his cape around himself and stared at the wall while muttering a flustered apology, hoping she wouldn't think him too much of a pervert.

"There is... there is no need to be sorry, Robin," she finally said after her laughter died down to a more subdued teehee. She paused a moment, and then her voice suddenly came more hesistantly, bashfully. "I am... I am glad that... I am attractive to you... in that way..."

"Starfire, I've never met anyone more beautiful than you," he blurted out sincerely. "You're, you're like something out of a magazine or a dream or something, but real."

She looked up at him, embarrassment forgotten. "Truly?"

"Truly."

She remembered not to cut off his breathing when she hugged him.

"Well... I think we've had enough practice for today," Robin declared. It wasn't like they were going to be able to concentrate anymore anyway. At least, not on what they should be concentrating on.

They didn't really want to relinquish each other's company just yet, so they sat down relaxedly on the floor, backs propped against the wall. Not touching, but... close. Comfortably close.

She felt so warm. Robin wondered if all people were that warm, and he'd just never been lingeringly close enough to them to really notice. Batman and Alfred hadn't been the hugging types. Or maybe it was just Tamaranians?

Star toyed with one of the birdarang's idly. "Robin?"

"Yeah, Star?"

"Why does this floppy rubber throwing projectile have the words 'Made in China' on it?"

Aww, crud. Well, he was just gonna have to come out and admit it now.

"Well, they're kind of... toys... I bought for training, back when there was a sale and they were dirt cheap," he confessed.

"Robin! I am elated to find that you still have a grip that is firm on your subcutaneous offspring! Are your other wonderous items and tools also the playing things of children from the China?"

"No! Just these, because I couldn't get my supplier to make me so many training tools. He thought it was frivolous." Robin couldn't help himself. He knew he shouldn't have said that much, it would only make her wonder more, but she was so easy to talk to it was insane. Sometimes it was all he could do not to rip his mask off and scream his birth name at her when she smiled at him in the morning.

"Oh. Who is your supplier?" she asked innocently. Like he knew she would. He tried to think of a way to answer the question without really answering it, so she'd be satisfied without any real secrets being given away.

"A friend of mine in Gotham. He takes his business very seriously."

"More seriously than you, Robin?"

"Well... let me put it this way. You know how we play video games, and volleyball, and chess, and sometimes go out to the park when the weather's nice, and stuff like that?"

"Yes! And I love all those things so dearly! Except for when Beast Boy tries to do the flirting with girls at the park. That is just hurtful to watch."

Hah, it was, too. Robin repressed a smirk.

"Well, Ba- um, my supplier, he doesn't really do things like that very much. Mostly, he does a bare minimum of things to make himself look normal to outside observers. He doesn't usually devote much time or energy to just having fun."

Star seemed simultaneously awed and depressed by the concept. "That is a horrible way to live. Your supplier sounds like a very hard person."

"He's strong," Robin said quietly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"So is stone." She sighed and dropped the birdarang, a hand flipping strands of her hair instead. He found the silky shine of it almost hypnotic. "Is it because of this supplier that you do not remove your mask?" she asked so quietly he could barely hear her.

This was as nervewracking as the early situation had been, just in a completely different way. There was nothing fun or exciting about this.

"Y-... n-... I don't know," Robin finally said, wavering between answers before settling on the only one that really fit. "He's been... a big influence on me. I... owe him a lot."

"I have read of this Gotham in the black, white, and gray paper stacks organized according to days," Star changed the subject ever so slightly, and he blessed her for it. "The paper stacks say many bad things of Gotham, even if it is a large and glorious place. They say it is in the recession, that there are many frightful lunatics that escape to harm innocent people very often, that the smoke and other things the pipes of the factories put out have made the sky red. It sounds like a place that is hard, too."

"Yeah, I guess it is. Hard... cold... dark... and grimy. You never really feel clean there. While I was there, I felt like a predator. Something grim. And the people I captured were often like a kind of prey... scared and confused and cornered. I didn't like it. That's why I came here. I love Jump. It's a good city. It's a clean city."

"It is a bright and affirming of the life city," Star agreed. "I am glad to know you are happy where you are, Robin. But... perhaps someday... you could share some of the darker things with me? My name has fire in it, but I am not afraid of the dark."

He never loved her more than the moment in which she said that, and he couldn't even figure out why. He just did.

"I don't think I even need to, Star." He hastened to explain before her feelings were hurt. "It's not that I don't trust you to tell you things like that, it's just that I'd rather not think about them anymore. Gotham helped shape me as I grew... but I'm not there anymore, and I don't want to go there ever again. If I told you a lot about Gotham I'd just be telling you depressing things that don't matter anymore, and why waste time with that when we can just be happy?"

"Oh." She sounded a little disappointed, but only a little. He hoped she wouldn't be very hurt by it and keep it to herself, like she had with a few other things. She sounded fine... but he could never totally read her. To Robin, Starfire always had a little bit of mystery in her. "Very well, dearest Robin! I shall respect your wishes and ask of the unimportant unpleasant past things no longer." Her voice perked up, and she floated in midair an inch in emphasis, which particularly relieved Robin. She couldn't fly if she was just pretending to be happy, after all. He hoped. "I believe I will go and have the shower now, I am feeling most unclean."

"Okay, Star. Have a good one." He smiled, and waved, and did his best not to imagine her showering.

His best was not very good.

"Keep those thoughts g-rated, Robin," Raven said from nowhere, and he freaked out. Managing to figure out that she had somehow appeared right next to him did barely anything to alleviate his nervousness.

"Uh, h-hey Raven, where did you come from?" he stammered in his very best casual, nothing-strange-going-on voice.

"I felt like working out, so I phased down through the ceiling. The only reason I don't do it more often is because I don't like catching people off guard when they're doing something they shouldn't be."

"Oh, well that's certainly not the case here! Heheh. I was just getting through some training with Starfire..."

"I'm sure." Her tone was even dryer than usual for Raven.

Well, at least she hadn't come around a few minutes before, when things would have been even more embarrassing to explain.

"Well, I'll get out of your way then, have a good time..."

"So you'll practice solo with Starfire, but not with me?" The words were totally blank, but they still enveloped him in guilt.

"No, no, it's just that I didn't think you'd want anyone, and I'm a little worn out, and..."

"I can't do everything alone. If our noble leader will spare just a little of his time, I'll promise to be gentle."

The sarcasm and smirk helped to counterbalance the unRaven-like request and help Robin find his mental balance, and he nodded in acquiescence. "You're right, I really should spend more time with each member of the team in paired training. I need to try harder to be impartial. So what are you in the mood for?"

"How about some light no-weapons sparring?"

Again, a little unusual, but not completely unheard of... Raven did keep herself fit with periodic exercise and some basic hand to hand maneuvers, even if she focused the vast majority of her energies on mental training. Robin decided to enjoy the quirky day for what it was, and threw himself into the duel with enthusiasm. At first he held himself back, uncertain how seriously his opponent wanted to take things, but that was quickly changed after she landed a number of hard kicks and punches on him. She was faster and stronger than he'd thought, by a lot, even if her form seemed much more sloppy today for some reason. She was a surging fire, swift, sudden violent strikes, against his flowing water, smooth defensive stances, dodges, blocks and counterstrikes, and they were holding about even with each other for the moment. He knew he shouldn't let himself be distracted, but somehow he couldn't resist locking eyes with her, maybe because her expression seemed so much more intense than usual. Blank, but with strain behind it. She didn't even seem to be blinking, but that had to be his imagination.

And the strangest thing of all that was throughout it all she kept talking. Making casual conversation through the pants and grunts, not like she really wanted or even expected a real reply, but just because she seemed to enjoy voluntarily talking for a change. There was no pressure on him to keep up any banter in turn, and because of that it didn't keep him from performing his best, while at the same time letting him enjoy the uncharacteristic stream of words. He'd never heard her so sociable before, it was amazing, even if there was a little bit of a hard edge at the back of her voice from the physical exertion. She'd even reversed her previous opinion on the Wolf Brigade movie she'd made them all watch last week. Back then she'd said it was an for some reason now she seemed to agree with Beast Boy's opinion on the movie, which was that it had been boring and confusing, and needed some real wolves. It was the only time he could ever remember her agreeing with Beast Boy on the merits of a movie, and the fact that she'd totally reversed her opinion from one to the other was especially amusing.

"I can't really blame you for... not wanting to... train with the others as much," she said at one point. "There's no- ugh! No easy way to train someone with flexible powers, like me or Beast Boy."

"I'm glad you-argh! Feel comfortable expressing a positive opinion of him... you didn't always-gah! Feel like that."

"When you think... about it, he's really the most powerful of us, no question."

Robin was sufficiently caught off guard by that that he actually paused and raised both eyebrows incredulously, which resulted in him getting a teeth-ringing kick in the jaw.

"Think about it," Raven almost snapped while trying to sweep his feet out from under him, a move he dodged with a careful leap backwards. "He can turn into anything that's-grah, an animal, right?! Who decides what an... animal is, anyway?! Everyone's an animal to someone, so he could be anything... he really wanted to be." A flurry of blows aimed at his face left him no time or space to do anything other than block repeatedly, driven back step by step. Her gaze was so focused it was almost scary. "And he can multiply... infinitely, when he's germ-sized... and how many people are prepared... to combat a deadly disease?! The only reason he's not... the most powerful person in the world... is because he doesn't let himself think... about these things! He's content in his little... place in life!"

Well, that was certainly something worth thinking about, but he couldn't exactly devote much energy to the concept while he was being beaten black and blue.

"Wow, I'd never thought about-ugh! It that way before... Raven! Okay, I think we've had enough... sparring for now..."

She was just beginning a kick when he finished the statement, and he knew that momentum didn't stop instantaneously, but even so, he was surprised when the kick landed full force... in his crotch.

"AUGH!"

He collapsed into a brave new world that revolved wholly around the sensation of intense burning between his legs.

"Robin! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"I... know... it's... okay..." he muttered through gritted teeth, trying not to cry. "I'm... fine..." Oh, he'd never told a bigger lie. Not even the time he'd told Starfire her bowl of fresh-stewed plagutruq was delicious.

"Let me heal you, okay?"

If there was ever anything anyone anywhere could have said to actually cause Robin's brain to break like a pane of glass hit with a sledgehammer, that would have been it.

The concept was so bewildering to him that at first he couldn't even understand it, then he realized what she meant and the full implications involved, and found that he had plenty of room through the pain to panic. Oh, yes. Tons of room.

"N-no... that's... okay... really... I'm alright..."

"You're hunched over like your back's made of Jell-O. You are not fine. Stop the stupid macho man act and just let me make you better."

He tried to hobble away, with a vague idea of finding a medicine cabinet and something that would drug him out of his mind to dull the pain, but she was following him, and easily kept ahead. Finally she grabbed one of his shoulders and he just didn't have the presence of mind, between pain and exhaustion, to move any further after that.

When she cupped his crotch, he couldn't really do anything but close his eyes and pray for a swift, merciful death from a benevolent God.

The hand remained there for what seemed like forever.

And then he realized it wasn't just seeming like forever, it actually was staying there a really, really long time. The pain was starting to subside, but he wasn't sure if that was her healing at work or just the pain wearing off naturally.

"I'm sorry, I'm too tired to heal as quickly as usual," Raven said in a more usual monotone. He grasped onto that monotone, that semblance of normalcy, with all the desperation of a half-drowned man in wintery, shark-infested waters who has just seen shore.

"That's completely okay," he said just as blankly, carefully keeping his eyes fixed on somewhere, anywhere, but where her hands were.

Her hands really were small and gentle...

Okay, bad thoughts, bad thoughts, bad thoughts! He should be thinking about the cracks on the ceiling. Yes! They would need to be painted or something! Maybe they could use a different color when they repainted it, just for fun. Of course there'd be a hard time deciding on the right color...

...Was that little rubbing motion she was doing with the pads of her fingers part of the healing?!

"Heh, whoever would've thought we'd end up like this, huh?" Raven murmured softly, her eyes drifting to the floor.

"W-well there's been... weirder things that've happened... but not many," Robin babbled as he sweated.

This was so wrong, on so many levels.

And then it just got infinitely wronger, as Raven suddenly kissed him, hard, and raked her nails down the inside of his thighs. He made a muffled sound of confusion and backed away, but she followed all the quicker, eyes wide and hungry. And then he was up against the wall, and there was nowhere to retreat to.

"Raven... what are you-mmpphh..."

The kiss had tongue in it this time, and her body was pinning his just as Starfire's had earlier, and her nails were going to leave marks on his sides, if the pressure was any indication.

"You think you want the light, but inside you're begging for the dark," she broke the kiss to whisper huskily, almost hissing. "And I'm darker than you'll ever know..." The kiss was renewed with a fervency that left him trembling with what might have been fear, or something else entirely.

It wasn't that he hadn't recognized Raven as being attractive, in her own way. It was just that he'd never given much thought to the concept of her a woman beyond that. She didn't really encouraged that kind of thinking anyway, with her bookish tendencies and deadpan voice and generally gloomy, antisocial nature. But she was serious, and competent, and very practical, and given to sarcasm in her humor whenever she bothered to make a quip... in fact, she had more in common with him, personalitywise, than Starfire, and it made him wonder why he'd never thought of her this way before.

True, she'd never made his heart race this way before, not till just now, even if Starfire had, but Starfire...

Starfire!

He... he didn't know if he loved her, but he liked her a lot, and she was like sunshine into his dreary world. And they had kissed already! This was wrong, what he was doing with Raven... what she was doing to him... no, it wasn't just her hands that were roaming now, and his tongue was certainly doing some interesting things to hers... and it was wrong, so wrong.

Then she bit him on the neck roughly, and it was such an intense, unexpected, and erotic action that it actually broke him out of his daze of conflicted emotions and he pushed her away sharply. Well, okay, maybe he waited just a moment longer than he should have, but still! He put his foot down! Sort of.

"R-Raven..." he gasped, trying to gather his thoughts, trying to think of a way to tell her that yes, that had been fun, and yes, he was flattered, and okay, maybe even in another world that sort of thing could keep happening, but not when he already had something with Starfire, dammit!

And as if thoughts had the power to summon the objects of their attentions, Starfire's gasp echoed through the gymnasium like a pistol shot. As soon as he heard the sound, Robin knew that he'd screwed everything up, that nothing would be the same again. He'd been a bad leader and made a clusterfuck of things, it was all his fault, he knew it.

But he still had to look into her eyes.

Their eyes.

Starfire's, and Raven's.

Starfire looked horrified and shocked, a towel wrapped around her damp hair. Raven looked... blank. Very, very blank. Except for the tiny upward twitch at the corner of her lips, which was probably due to hysteria. It was a miracle nothing was telekinetically exploding at the moment.

He mentally cursed her when the half-demon was engulfed with black energy more suddenly and thoroughly than usual, and phased down through the floor, making a retreat and leaving him to explain what the hell had been going on. Which was difficult, considering that he hadn't much idea what the hell had been going on in the first place!

"Star... I'm sorry... I know this looks bad, but I didn't mean..."

"YOU HAVE HER TEETH MARKS ON YOUR NECK!" Starfire burst out, and then ran off weeping as dramatically as any soap opera character could have ever managed. He hadn't known that Tamaranians could actually cry fullblown miniature waterfalls of tears, but then, he still wasn't sure how Starfire fit nine stomachs into her petite torso, either.

For about a minute, Robin remained in the room alone, in silence.

"Shit," he finally said, knowing that there was no one to hear him say it, the single word expressing all his confusion and misery and frustration in the one syllable.