Painful Talks

Time passes slower here in Gotham. What felt like years was really a couple of weeks. I looked at the gray sky in a gloomy mood. After me and Robin's fight, everything just seemed wrong. I know that we resolved it for now but it still felt wrong. At least this was the weekend Jinx didn't call me. I was walking around the city, the car left at home, thinking it would help. It didn't. I sighed and turned around jogging to Uncle Mike's gym, where the car was parked in its garage.

When I got there I saw Vic. He was alone, standing outside. I didn't know why but I walked up to him.

"Hey." I said. He nodded to me.

"Raven." He said. His eyes were blank with emotion. I stood there for a second, not really knowing what to say. I looked at where my car was parked.

"Do you need a ride?" I asked, pointing to my Aero. She looked too. Vic shrugged.

"I don't want to mess up your paint job." He said with a ghost of a smile on his face. I rolled my eyes.

"I could use the company. Besides," I smirked, "you mess up the paint, I break your wrist." Vic scoffed at me. We walked to my car and got in. The top was up along with the windows, making it dark.

"Kind of morbid for an heiress, don't you think?" Vic asked.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I raised my eyebrow. I saw him turn forward in his seat.

"You don't seem like the type to be like the way you are. Or not from everything I've seen about you." I sighed. Of course he thinks I would be like all the other spoiled heiresses in L.A.

"I'm very different from what I look like or where I'm from." I told him. Silence enveloped us in the car. Vic told me the directions to his house. Soon we were out of town, somewhere in Northern Gotham , near the private estates. I turned to her. He saw me.

"What?" he asked. I turned back to the road.

"I didn't think you would live in an area like this." I said. Vic was quiet.

"I don't." he said softly, "My best friend does."

I stiffened in my seat. I'm going to Robin's house. I stayed quiet. With everything going on, now was not the best time to even see where he lived. We just needed a little distance. I heard Vic sigh.

"What happened between you two anyway?" he asked. "He's not as happy as he has been when he's with you. You guys had a fight?"

"Something like that." I answered. Vic took a breath.

"Well fix it." he said sharply. "He doesn't need to be anymore stressed than he already is. Not right now." I knew something was wrong with Robin. I wonder…

I shook my head. I don't need to know. Robin would tell me when he was ready. I slumped a little in my seat. I might have to wait forever for that one.

Finally we pulled up to a mansion, if it could even be called that. It was a palace in its own right. The place was beautiful. Vic started to get out.

"Thanks." he said. I just nodded. Once he was far away enough, I speed off.

Robin looked out his window at just the right time. He saw it. A jet black SSC Ultimate Aero IS with tinted windows. That was Raven's car. He saw Victor coming up the gate. He hurried down the stairs. When he got there, Victor was just coming in the house.

"What the hell were you doing?" he asked harshly. Vic ignored him and went to the kitchen. He followed. "Vic!"

"Hello to you too." he said in a dull tone. Robin was fuming as he walked up to him.

"What were you doing with her?!" he demanded. Victor rolled her eyes.

"She gave me a ride!"

"I thought you hated her!" Vic noticed the vein in Robin's neck about to burst.

"What's the big deal?" he asked.

"It's a big deal because…" he trailed off. Robin knew he was mad for nothing but he wouldn't admit it. He didn't have to. Victor saw it on his face.

"Robin," he turned to her, "I know you're still upset about your parents' but-" before she could finish Robin was already leaving. He ran to his room upstairs, ignoring Vic's calls. He slammed the door shut.

Vic heard it and sighed. So much for helping, he thought. He didn't bother Robin for the rest of the day.

At night, like usual, Robin snuck out the house. Robin wondered how he was going to make it through seeing Raven. Maybe he shouldn't go…

Robin shook the thought from his head. He wouldn't blow Raven of like that; not her. So he swallowed his pride, and went.

I watched as Robin came to the clearing. I took a deep breath before standing up. Before Leo could say anything, I pulled him out the clearing. He didn't fight me as I did. I pulled him until we were in alley. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Get in." I said simply. I got in and watched as he did. We sat there for a moment quickly.

"You gonna tell me where we're going?" he said softly. I didn't answer. I just pulled out the alley silently.

I drove out the city. Robin was quiet beside me. The silence was deafening in the car. I hoped he would have said something. I peered at him from the corner of my eye. I held back a sigh at what I saw.

He wasn't the same guy I've been seeing for the last month. He was someone who was haunted by the shadows of there past. Someone who's been hurt past repair in more ways than one. Someone like me. I hated that fact. I pulled up near the most remote part of the pier. I stopped the car and got out. Robin followed me.

I leaned on the rail. The moon reflected off the water beautifully. It was ironic since obviously the moment wasn't. I turned to Robin. He was looking down at the water. His eyes held a deep and ancient sadness. He spoke before I could say anything.

"Why did you bring me out here?" He said. He lifted his face, looking me in the eye. I shrugged.

"We obviously need to talk. I wanted us to be really alone, away from everyone." I told him. He sighed. Silence fell over us again. I looked at him before opening my mouth to say something.

"I didn't mean to bring up your parents that day." I said softly, trying not to disturb the quiet between us. Robin looked away. I was about to say something else when he started to speak.

"It's funny how you brought it up on that day, though. Ironic, really." He said with a hint of a laugh. I raised an eyebrow at him. "That was the same day Bruce asked if I wanted to go see my parents at the cemetery." I bit my lip. I knew it hurt him to say it out loud. I moved closer to him. He looked at me before returning his gaze the water.

"What happened to them?" I whispered. I was a little afraid to ask. I didn't want to hurt him. He sighed.

"We were coming home from a day at the park. I had a rubber ball and it slipped out my hand. It rolled down an alley. My dad tried to convince me to just leave it but it was one of my favorites. I didn't want to lose it…

"My mom just sighed and smiled at me. She grabbed my hand and we went into the alley. My dad followed. It went farther down than I thought. Next thing I know, some guy was walking down the alley towards us. I thought maybe he would help, until he pulled out a gun. He tried to rob us but my dad said we didn't have anything he'd want. They moved it front of me, trying to protect me…

"The robber yelled at them, threatening her that he would shoot me. And they-" he broke off. His breaths were shaky. He didn't need to tell me the rest. I could see it in my mind. His parents shielding him; the robber pulling the trigger; Robin seeing the whole thing unfold before him. I could see a tear going down his face. His grip on the rail looked painful. It probably was.

I couldn't think about anything except his pain. I hugged him. He held me tighter. It felt like he was making sure I stayed there with him. I felt a slight smile on my face, despite the situation, glad he wanted me to hold on. I didn't say I'm sorry. Instead I said something else.

"At least you know they loved you when they died." I said softly. "At least you're lucky enough to have that." He pulled back a little. I looked at his face.

"It's not hard to find." I shook my head.

"You're wrong." I told him. He looked at me before understanding.

"Your dad…" I took a deep breath.

"He loves what I could bring him." I turned to Robin. "My dad was the greatest guy I ever knew…until I was eight. That was when the company went from good and pretty big to a giant multi-billion dollar company. He thought that I should 'travel the world. Explore new things.' And I did. Then I realized he was just trying to get me out the way." I chuckled humorously.

"That was when everything went down with us. I got tired of never being home. I wanted to come home. With my dad, any defiance against him is a crime. So I started to rebel against the riches I was surrounded by. That's when I got into building cars. My dad, of course, hated it. I stilled rebelled. It's a constant circle of punishment and rebellion with us…" I trailed off. Robin nodded. I was kind of nervous bring up the next part of the whole story. But I knew he needed to know.

"Once he thought that I was old enough, he started trying to marry me off." Robin's eyes widened. I held up my hands. "Hey, I wouldn't be here in I was engaged." He blew out a sigh of relief. I laughed at him. It fell off my face slowly as he motioned for me to continue.

"He was close with the first one. The guy was Daitaro. It means 'Great first born son' in Japanese. Part of my dad's side of the family is from there. My dad always loved to customs of Japan, which included marrying your daughter young. My dad thought I should date him before we got married, so it wouldn't look arranged. I was all for it. I thought he was amazing." I smiled bitterly. "So we met and were dating for 6 months…Then he came to my house one day when nobody was there. He was mad about something and tried to boss me around. I started to argue with him. And then…" I trailed off trying to stop the anger that filled me. But I only spoke over it.

"He hit me." I said simply. I didn't look at Robin as I finished the story. "I was too shocked to do anything. He hit me some more before my dad bust in the room and dragged him off of me. My dad injured him before calling the cops. He's still in jail, as far as I know.

"My dad sent me to Japan to see my grandfather for a year. When I came back, I was sure I had my real dad back…until he set up another engagement 3 months later. After the seventh try he sent me here until I finished high school and until I wasn't his problem anymore." I finished. Robin was speechless. He collected himself a moment later.

"Wow." He said. I laughed at his answer breaking the tension in the air. I sighed.

"We kinda messed up, aren't we?" Robin didn't say anything. He just wrapped his arms around me. I held onto him. Without realizing it, tears fell down my cheeks.

"Why does he hate me?" I said quietly. Leo tightened his gripped as I cried.

He pulled back, suddenly, pressed his lips to mine. He kissed me so intensely. I tried to find the answers to my question as I kissed him Instead I found out that I didn't need them. All I needed was Robin. I kissed him back so fiercely I was surprised myself.

Something filled my body. It was a weird feeling. It was warm and sweet but I didn't know what it was. Whatever it was, I didn't want it to stop. I pulled away from Robin. He was just as breathless as I was. I smiled at him before pulling away and walking towards the car. I heard Robin follow me.

I drove us back to the clearing. I jumped out happy that everything was finally off my chest. Robin grabbed my hand, leading me back to the clearing. He started climbing up the tree in the center. It reminded of something. I smirked, thinking of what I was going to do. I walked under it and looked up.

"Can't say hi?" I asked playfully. Robin smiled. He pretended to think about his response.

"Was I supposed to say something?" he asked equally playful.

"Yeah."I told him. "You're supposed to come down and greet me. Then I'm supposed to kiss you." He jumped down from the tree and stood slowly stood up. He smirked at me.

"Well if you insisted." He trailed off. He leaned in slowly. I crashed my lips against his quickly, too impatient to wait. Robin pulled away.

"Hey!" he said sounding offended. I took a step away, wondering why he pulled away. "You weren't supposed to kiss me yet." I rolled my eyes. He was back to normal.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I was building up the moment! You can't just rush into it you have to do it slowly…" I stopped listening as I rolled my eyes. I just shook my head and made him shut up again.

*****

Robin slipped back up to his room the next morning. His smiled was still in place from last night. He entered his room and stopped. He was surrounded by pictures and newspaper clipping. They all had to do with the same thing. His mother's murder.

It wasn't creepy to him anytime before. But now it seemed kind of disturbing. He started taking down some of the pictures. He finally reached the last one few but stopped himself.

What if he forgot the murder, Slade? Could he allow himself to do that? He shook his head. No, he couldn't. Leo threw out everything in his hands but looked at the few remained. He wasn't that healed.

Robin dragged himself to bed, suddenly too tired to stay up. He knew that there would be a nightmare of the night when his parents died. He expected it. Instead, as soon as he fell asleep, he dreamed of someone else, as he had ever since he met her. As Raven filled his thoughts, a small smile found its way to his face.