Between Moments – It Only Takes a Moment Tribute

Summary: Inspired, of course, by Emania's It Only Takes a Moment series. A series of short Moments from yours truly inspired by this most awesome vignette chain.

AN: A Moment in two parts, because the second bit hearkens back to the first by way of reasoning and explanation, and also for contrast.

Disclaimer: I'm in debt, and it's getting worse. Stop trying to make me cry.

Dedication: For Em, for all she's given, and because I want to give a little back.

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Snapshot 3 Lullabies (Remembered)

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"And just before she hangs her head to cry/ I sing to her a lullaby." Shawn Mullins – Rockabye

It wasn't seeing Robin, sans cape and gloves, standing at the sink, up to his elbows in sudsy water that made Raven stop in her path past the kitchen. That was not an unusual sight at all, even though it was Beastboy's week to do dishes.

No, what arrested Raven's attention and glued her feet to the carpet was not the sight of him at all, but the sound of his voice.

It was faint, quiet, almost lost in the noise of clinking flatware and running water. But it was a voice Raven knew well, that her body was tuned to notice on a subatomic frequency, in use in a way she had never heard it before.

She didn't recognize the tune he hummed so softly, and she strained toward the sound, trying to discern the snatch of melody that thrummed in his throat.

She must have made some unconscious noise, some sound that alerted her leader to her presence behind him, for his shoulders jerked as he startled, and the humming cut off like a broken transmission as he looked wide-eyed over his shoulder at her.

"Raven, I didn't notice you there." He smiled in greeting, his expression inviting her as if she hadn't just interrupted a private moment.

Raven frowned and stepped into the kitchen hesitantly, stopping beside him and taking the dishtowel he offered her, and set to drying the clean, damp dishes in the rack on the counter.

They worked in silence for a time, and before Raven could decide to let the unexpected moment go, she murmured, "I didn't know you could sing." She pursed her lips, wondering how they'd spoken of their own accord, and glanced at Robin from the corner of her eye for his reaction.

He pointedly stared away from her into the sink, a faint warmth creeping up his neck and coloring his cheeks. For a moment, as he intently scrubbed the inside of a pot, she thought he would pretend not to have heard her and ignore the question altogether.

"Well, I don't, usually. I'm not too good at it." It came out quietly and in a bit of a rush, as if his mouth, like hers, had decided to speak on its own.

Raven quirked a brow inquisitively, and moved her head a little to look more fully at him. He glanced at her, expressionless, and then away at the pot again. "You didn't sound so bad to me."

He shrugged, half his mouth curving slightly upwards, almost ruefully. "Well, I can sing a little. I'm not so bad at a couple of songs." His voice turned wry and a little joking, and she curved her lips faintly back at him. "But mostly, I kinda suck, so I don't do it too often."

She finished drying the muffin pan in her hands and set it aside. "So what song were you humming just now?" She blushed a little herself, this time. She was being unusually forward with her questions, but hearing his voice as he hummed had stirred something odd in her, and she found she couldn't let it go.

His smile spread and became a sad, wistful thing, and the way his face both softened and gained lines he was too young for made her wish she had been struck mute, or bitten off her tongue, so long as she hadn't asked him this question.

"It's a song my mother used to sing to me, when I was very small." His voice was hushed, reverent, and aching with restrained longing and loss. His smile became wider, and he looked over at her, something new that she couldn't put a name to radiating from that gaze. "I don't really remember the words, but whenever I had nightmares when I was little, her hands and that melody always made everything safe and okay with the world."

Raven's hands stilled on the plate she'd been drying, and she felt her own features soften, caught in that look of his. "It must have been a very special lullaby."

Robin smiled wider still, and she felt his eyes trace her face, as if he saw something there only recognizable to him. "She was a very, very special woman."

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Snapshot 3 pt.2: Lullabies (In the Dark)

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"…Everything's gonna be all right," Robin sang softly, earnestly into Raven's ear as she cried against his chest. "Rockabye, rockabye."

He had been sleeping, but not peacefully; haunted by dreams of memories and fears and guilts that weren't his. Memories of losing a mother that had never really been known; losing a woman whom had been like a mother when she could risk it. Fears of a father that couldn't be denied.

An echoed, ripping, feeling of grief, regret, and overwhelming sadness had burned in his chest when he threw himself violently out of bed. He had rushed, blind and headlong, from his darkened bedroom and through night-hushed corridors to where he was needed, opening Raven's door without pausing to knock or announce himself.

He didn't know just what—though he suspected—had told him he would find her there, curled in on herself in the middle of her bed, fist stuffed into her mouth to stifle the sobs. He didn't stop to wonder if this was okay, if he should be intruding or if he was welcome here. For once, he did not pause to consider Raven's privacy. The sight of her was too heartbreaking to even consider turning his back.

There was no force on this or any other world that could make him leave this room, leave this girl to herself right now.

He had climbed cautiously onto the bed with her, and surprisingly, Raven did not resist when he pulled her into his arms and leaned back with her against the headboard. He held her as she grieved and cried, as she embraced for the first time the full weight of her tragic, lonely, painfully careful life.

He didn't ask her difficult questions or try to distract her from the pain of the abandonment and desperation she'd never really allowed herself to feel before.

And when the tears began to lessen, and the wracking sobs to subside into little earthquakes, he sat and held her close, stroking her hair from her face, and sang to her a lullaby.

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AN: Wow… that was… blinking, surprised Not quite what I had been expecting. But I like it. Surprisingly a lot. looks around suspiciously Did Em send Puck over to kick Raef in the bum after all? That's the best he's done in weeks.

But yeah… a Moment in two parts, as I said. I'm not sure where the hell this'd fit with Em's Moments, if at all, but I'm really glad I did it. It's rather different from her sort of Moment, at least that second bit. I usually do more angsty, dark stuff than she does, at any rate. But the first was surprisingly actual-Moment-like. I must've been channeling her. Lol.

Well, it was longer than the others (nearly the size of them both combined, actually), and longer than I'd meant to make it. But when your writing takes on life of its own, you just kind of have to ride the inspiration wave and type with the wordflow.

smiles Thanks to everyone who reviewed my first two Snapshots, and for the favorites and alerts. You guys brighten my life when it's becoming dismally overcast, and I thank you from the bottom of my beady black heart.

And biggest thanks of all, of course, to Em, who not only read and approved of this little load of crap, but honored me by gushing like a schoolgirl in reviews. I've never been so flattered. )

And I strongly suggest reading this Snapshot whilst listening to the main two songs to which it was written: Shawn Mullins's "Rockabye", of course, from which comes the quote and the snatch of lyrics Robin sings, and the entire "lullaby" theme; and A Perfect Circle's "What's Going On", which didn't have much to do with the content, but definitely helped create the mood and atmosphere.

And no worries, the ride isn't over yet folks, nor likely to stall for too long. These things are surprisingly easy to do, and I can see how Em's gotten addicted to them. In fact, I'm planning a little something slightly similar… but can't quite say when that might happen…

Well, let me know what you think, folks. Am I the only one who likes it so much? Do tell…