A/N: For those that remember, this chapter consists of elements from the original Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.

Chapter 4: Awaken, but Unscathed

Despite the troubles of the previous night, Robin was up relatively early the next morning. He knew his body still needed time to heal, but with nothing to entertain him, boredom set in very easily.

At least nothing could entertain him until about 8:30. 8:29 and Robin was just in the hallway into the living room area staring down at the watch on his arm waiting for the moment.

"Almost there," he said to himself.

Five seconds to go.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One!

The sound of crunching was swiftly followed by retching and spitting.

"BEAST BOY!! I SAID NO TOFU!"

Robin chuckled quietly to himself. The daily Tofu-meat battle had begun on the dot.

"Aww come on Cyborg! Tofu's great! It's just like meat, but not!"

"Maybe great for you! But I prefer real meat if you don't mind!"

"Hey, when I cook, the meat stays away from me! I'm not a cannibal!"

"Oh yeah? Guess why yesterday's "Tofu" tasted so good?"

A girlish squeal and the sound of cutlery hitting the floor followed that statement, along with a large thud.

"Huh," Came Cyborg's voice. "I didn't expect him to take it that seriously."

"Cy, that was SO not funny!"

"Good friends, must you always argue like this in the morning?"

"Star", began Beast Boy, "there's no way I'll stop until Cyborg accepts tofu and stops making those stupid jokes! Come on Raven, you've got to agree!"

"Please keeping joking like that Cyborg, it keeps him quiet. And Robin, you're standing in Starfire's zorgaberries."

Robin wasn't sure what to react surprised to first; the zorgaberries or the fact Raven knew he was there. He instinctively looked down to inspect his location, but found nothing. Instead, his balance took a shock and he fell forward from the shadowy corrdor into the main room area, in a not-so-dignified manner onto his face. Groaning, he slowly lifted his head up and looked round to the surprised faces of the other titans.

Cyborg and Beast Boy had stopped the usual battle of the food and were staring down at the clumsy Robin. Both had forgotten the fact that they were holding each other's throats. Starfire was floating above the kitchen counter with a squeezy bottle of appeared to be mustard, her gaze on Robin one of delight. Raven on the other hand was leaning against the kitchen counter reading a book, with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Gotcha," she smirked.

The other titans neither moved nor said anything until Robin finally got to his feet.

"Umm, Morning guys," he said finally.

"ROBIN!" Starfire exclaimed. She rushed down dropping the mustard onto the head of Cyborg ("Starfire! Watch where you're dropping things!"), and hugged Robin in a vice-like grip, causing him to wince and go purple with the lack of oxygen.

"It is so good to have you back with us!" She told him. "The days have been most of the boring without you!"

"Yeah, thanks Star," Robin replied straining. "Umm, is it too much to ask if you could, y'know, loosen your grip?"

"Huh? Oh! I am so sorry!"

Starfire let Robin go, and simply beamed at him. Cyborg and Beast Boy laughed and walked over to him.

"Haha... Guess you're looking alright." Cyborg said to Robin, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Just remember, those four days you were out gave me enough time to practice kicking your ass on every game in the tower!"

"Oh yeah?" Robin joked heartily. "Bring it on Cy!"

"Hey, guys," Beast Boy smugly said. "You both know I'm still the champion?"

"Yeah right BB," Cyborg laughed. "Hey Robin! Want some cooked breakfast. With MEAT!"

Cyborg shot a fierce, yet joking look at Beast Boy. Beast Boy replied with a similar look.

"No way! He KNOWS Tofu's good!"

Robin laughed to himself before replying.

"No thanks guys. I think I'll stick to some muesli..."

Both Cyborg and Beast Boy frowned at Robin with real disappointment.

"Typical... You have to go with the boring healthy breakfast!" They said in unison.

Robin laughed out loud as he walked towards the kitchen, and noticed Raven, still reading her book, was laughing too. Everyone looked towards her in surprise.

"Dude!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "She... She laughed at something I said!"

"No BB," said Raven, "I'm laughing at you."

Everyone laughed at that joke, including Beast Boy, who took a few seconds to suddenly realise what she had said.

"Hey! That's not funny!"

As Robin began to pour the milk into his "tasty" bowl of muesli, he moved his head up to look at Raven, and to his surprise noticed that she was staring at him. Upon realising the eye contact, she snapped her head back to the position it was when she was reading her book. Robin made no comment, simply continuing to stare at the purple-haired girl, and began to think back to the previous night. Why did Raven kiss him? Was it just a friendly goodnight? Would she have done so if he weren't snoring? To Robin, Raven's kiss didn't just feeling like a friendly kiss, but it actually felt like something was between them - it was a sort of bond.

"Umm, Robin, is the white cow-liquid supposed to be poured onto shoes when making the Muesli?"

Robin snapped back to reality and realised he was still pouring the milk. He gave a yelp of surprise and stopped pouring. Looking down, Robin found that the milk had overflowed from the bowl, spilled onto the kitchen counter and onto his shoes. Whilst Cyborg and Beast Boy stared at him suspiciously, cheeks filled with food, Robin attempted to rummage around the bottom cupboards and find a cloth to wipe up the mess.

"Don't worry, I got it."

Raven had already found a cloth and, using her powers, was wiping up the remainder of the milk whilst standing next to Robin. Robin looked up sheepishly at her, causing Raven to blush a barely noticeable light pink.

"There, done," she said quickly, and floated off to the couch to read her book. Robin picked up his bowl of muesli and began to slowly guzzle it down, still staring at Raven. Cyborg stared at the both of them with raised eyebrows. He leant over to Beast Boy.

"Hey, BB," Cyborg whispered, "What's up with those two? "

Beast Boy stopped guzzling down his tofu pancakes and looked up at Cyborg, tofu dripping out the ides of his mouth. He looked over at Robin, then to Raven, then back at Cyborg and shrugged. Cyborg just gave him a look of disgust.

"Man, that's disgusting! Get a tissue or something."

Beast Boy and Cyborg began to argue again, and left the living room continuing to do so. Starfire, who had suddenly discovered the joy of vegetarian sushi with Mustard and pickles followed suit to offer them a compromise breakfast. Robin and Raven were alone. With no one else to talk to, Robin thought he might as well try to make conversation with Raven, and finally decided to go sit next to her.

"You mind if I sit here?"

Robin had walked over to couch and was standing in front of Raven, who continued to read her book. Raven shrugged, which Robin took as a yes. He planted his backside next to Raven and began to devour his muesli, as Raven continued to read her book. Neither said anything at all for a couple of minutes, but both had thoughts flying around their head.

"Oh god..." Raven thought. "I hope he didn't know what I did last night. That would be really embarrassing. If he asks about it, just say it was a friendly goodnight. Yeah, that'll work. His cheek was really soft thou- Whoa! Stop right there, Raven."
"Come on..." Robin thought to himself. "It was just a small, friendly kiss... Right? Why am I thinking about it? Should I ask her about it? Wait, does that make me keen or something?"

Finally, the silence was broken.

"Don't you hate that?"

Raven had asked Robin something quite unexpected, though still reading her book. Robin looked over at Raven, confused, but still eating his muesli.

"Umm... What?" he asked.
"Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to talk about bullshit in order to be comfortable?"

Robin finished off the last of his muesli, placed the bowl on the table in front of him, and leant back on the couch, stretching his arms out behind it, and pondering Raven's question. Raven moved her eyes slowly and saw that his forearms were actually behind her back, but trusted him and returned to reading her book.

"I don't know." Robin finally replied. "That's a very good question."

"That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."

Robin turned and looked at Raven. He had never seen this side of her before, and was intrigued. She never seemed like the type of person who'd bring up a subject like this - she seemed more of someone who'd talk about more depressive things.

For the next hour they managed to talk about everything; everything but their past that is. They argued over what was the best music genre, they argued over what was the best film out so far, even whether Sushi was better than noodles. However, since they didn't talk about their pasts, it was as though they both had something terrible to hide from the other. By 9:40, both had managed to get onto the subject of waffles.

"You're telling me you ACTUALLY love waffles."

"Yes Robin, I love waffles."

"Would you do anything for waffles."

"Hypothetically yes. Don't even think about bribing me."

Robin laughed out loud and threw his head back in laughter at that statement. He liked Raven's sense of humour, but also found that it was more entertaining by the fact that she talked in a monotone voice. Raven on the other hand, was only giggling at Robin's boyish laughter. Their laughter did not last for long though, as the alarms went off in the tower. Both Robin and Raven instantly stopped laughing. Robin raced over to the monitor's control panel and started typing things in.

"Raven!" He ordered. "Go get the others. I'll find out who it is."

Raven nodded, and floated off to grab the other titans. It didn't take long to round them up, since they were already on their way up. However, when they returned they found that Robin had abandoned the console.

"Where'd he go?" Cyborg wondered out loud.

As the rest of titans stood in the doorway, Raven walked up to panel and began to type a few things in, finally coming up with the last camera feed. She gasped, realising the situation.

"Oh hell no!" Cyborg groaned.
"Friends, we must go to him quickly!" Starfire advised.

As the four remaining titans raced down to the T-car, they left the flickering image on the Monitor to play.

It was Slade.