Trust

Thoughts

"Speech"

Chapter 9:

Raven and Robin walked into the living room and settled down on the couch. Raven rested her head on Robins shoulder while he ran his fingers through her hair. It was quiet as the sun started to sink below the horizon. It was nice and peace-"Dudes how long have we been up?" Beastboy complained flopping on the couch besides the birds. Ok so it didn't stay quiet or peaceful. "About 48 hours" Cyborg replied walking in with Starfire floating and yawning ahead of him. "We've been through worse" Robin reminder all of them, still absentmindedly playing with Ravens hair. "Oh yeah, like when Ravens dad took over causing the end of the world." Beastboy gasped as the game station suddenly turned black and flew into the air hovering over his head. "No put it down!" Cyborg and Beastboy chorused. Raven shrugged letting it come crashing down on their heads, shattering into pieces. Robin watched in amusement as Cyborg and Beastboy both practically broke down. "You can fix it right Cy? You got to fix it!" Beastboy said in a panicked frenzy. "Yeah I can fix it, I can fix it." Cyborg frantically muttered to the green teen as the both picked up the scattered pieces. Starfire sat on the other end of the couch watching them curiously as Robin smirked when the pieces flew out of the boys' hands and out one of the large windows. "HOLD ON BABY, DADDY'S COMING!" Beastboy screamed as he dived out the window head first. Cyborg followed him out the window like an idiot as Starfire rushed to catch them before the ground did.

Raven had a small smirk on her face as she watched her three teammates dive out the window. It wasn't more than a moment or two later that Starfire appeared with the other two in her arms. Beastboy was sobbing and Cyborg was furious. "Friends I think I shall make the make the Pudding of Sorrow for Friend Beastboy to consume." Starfire said as she put her two teammates down. Beastboy, hearing this immediately wrapped his arms around her lags begging her not to. "What the hell was that for?" Cyborg asked fuming. "I didn't feel like listening to him" Raven droned not understanding what he was so worked up about. It's not like I told him to be an idiot and dive out the window. This pushed Cyborgs pent up anger over the edge. "Why was Red X in your room?" he asked glaring at Raven. "What were you two doing together, and how the hell did he even get in the tower?" Raven looked away, unable to meet her friends glare with one of her own. "Cyborg don't" Robin warned as he watched Raven curl up on the couch out of the corner of his eye. Raven was shaking as she struggled to keep her powers in check.

"Enough!" Robin yelled. Everyone froze, Robin had succeeded in gaining their attention. "We're all overtired and stressed out at the moment. I say we all just calm down and go get some sleep" Robin said hoping to regain some sense of peace and order to return to the tower. Beastboy immediately jumped at the opportunity to get out of eating Starfires disgusting pudding. "Sweet. Thanks Robin" he said turning into a cheetah and running out of the room. "I too wish to get some of the sleep" Starfire announced floating out of the room. Robin looked over expecting to see Raven still curled up on the couch. She must have teleported to her room. "Cyborg I asked you not to bring this up in front of Raven." Robin stated looking back to his friend. "Well it's not like I've had the chance to talk to you in private lately. She never leaves your side these days, heck I wouldn't be surprised if you two were slee…ping…please tell me you're not sleeping together" Cyborgs protective side was coming out. He shook his head. "No I go to her room to check on her then I leave. She sleeps in her own bed and I sleep in my bed." Robin lied smoothly. Honestly, they had been sleeping in the same bed since they had made up that day when she tried to kill herself with sleeping pills. She hadn't wanted to be away from Robin at all really, since she had the dream about Red X and Robin had no problem with having her close by. He like it that way, he knew she was safe. Cyborg crossed his arms. "There's something that you aren't telling us, and I know for sure it has to do with Raven because she's been acting different lately. I mean really differently." Robin raised an eyebrow asking "Is there a problem with that? I figured it was a good thing that she was out of her room more." Cyborg sighed standing up. "It's not like her to be so open around us, heck it's not normal for her to be around us! Not to mention open." Robin got up and started for the door. "She's not an emotionless rock, I would have thought that you of all people would know that Cyborg" He heard Cyborg grumbling in the background as the living room doors shut behind him. "Good old protective Cyborg" Robin muttered making his way up to Ravens room.

Raven silently watched Beastboy run from the living room. Making sure no one was paying any attention to her, Raven phased through the couch, and through the floor below it ending up in her room, sitting on her bed. She took a nice long look around her room before getting up and going over to her dresser, where her powers were placing a small duffel bag that had been in her closet. Opening the various drawers Raven began taking out her few civilian clothes and putting it in the duffel. When she had packed everything Raven zipped the bag and stowed it under her bed making sure the blankets hid it from view. I need to get changed; Robin should be up here soon. Sighing sadly she went over to her closet, grabbed pajamas and went into her bathroom to change. When she came out Robin was sitting on her bed in his pajamas, waiting for her. "Are you alright Raven?" he asked gently. She dropped her gaze to the floor and draped her cloak over the back of a chair as she replied "Yeah, can we just go to bed though." She wanted to enjoy tonight. It was her last night in the tower and she didn't want to spend it with him worrying about her. Robin watched her move around her room for a while putting things in their place before getting up and pulling her into his arms. Raven sighed softly against his chest.

"Raven," she wrapped her arms tighter around his waist. "you would tell me if something was wrong, right?" Robin asked. "Yeah, I would." It came out as barely a whisper, one that confirmed Robins sneaking suspicion that something was wrong. Giving Raven a quick squeeze, he picked her up bridal style.

Raven felt her feet leave the floor and wrapped her arms around Robins neck curling into his chest. Bringing her over to her bed, Robin leaned down to put Raven on the bed but she didn't want to let go. He slowly moved his hands to her wrists and removed them from their place around his neck and went around to his side of the bed. Once he was settled in bed with her in his arms, Raven spoke "Robin?" She really didn't want tonight to end. "Yeah Rae" she snuggled closer, clinging to him for dear life. "I love you." She was going to miss laying in his arms at night. Robin looked at her carefully and replied "I love you too Raven, but are you sure nothing is bothering you?" she could hear the obvious concern in his voice. It didn't really surprise her either, she was never this clingy. Not even recently. "I'm sure, I guess I just missed you today" she hated lying to him, she felt so guilty. Robin chuckled lightly. "Not that I'm saying that I'm not enjoying this, but how could you miss me? We were together all day." She felt his thumb caress her cheek. "We were fighting all day though; and yesterday too" she finished with a yawn. "Shh, go to sleep Rae. You're tired and need rest" she knew he was right and would need to be up in a few short hours again. She nodded slightly before letting sleep claim her.

Raven woke up a few hours later still exhausted. She slowly tried to sit up only to realize that she was still wrapped snugly and securely in Robins strong arms. She knew he was a light sleeper and that he would wake up if she tried to just get up again. So lying still with her brain on overdrive, she tried to come up with a way to escape without waking him. After a few minutes without coming up with a solution she just started slowly started inching out of his arms. She had eventually slipped away, but only after several close calls. Now she was changed into black sweatpants and hoodie with her cloak tucked safely away in her duffle, standing by the door. Raven looked back longingly at the bad containing her sleeping boyfriend. She almost wished he would wake up and stop her from walking out on the only real family she had ever had. "Goodbye" she whispered, blowing a kiss before letting the door slide shut. She silently walked through the halls of the dark tower, silently saying goodbye to each of her friends as she passed their doors. By the time she had reached the roof, Raven had lost all hope of being stopped by one of her friends.

Sometime later Robin woke up. Raven wasn't next to him and her side of the bed was cold. Turning on the bedside light he saw the digital clock said 2:59 AM. Where is she, she usually can't get out of bed without me waking up. Looking around the room he realized her cloak was gone too. And wherever she went, it is with her. Robin smirked as he opened his communicator and typed in the ID number of the tracker in the clasp on her cloak. Raven wasn't the only one who had a tracker on their uniforms, everyone did. They just didn't know it. Getting a lock on her signal, Robin went to his room, changed and roared out of the tower on his motorcycle following the signal. Weird, why is she even there to begin with?

Robin found Raven sitting on a bench in the park, practically invisible in her black hoodie and black sweatpants. "Why are you out here in the middle of the night when it's freezing when you could be snuggled up warm in bed?" Robin asked quietly sitting next to her. "They don't trust us…none of them do" she was shivering. "Of course they do. They're our friends." He spoke softly as he pulled her into his lap, trying to warm her up. "No Robin they don't…" she was freezing and grateful for his warmth. "You don't know that" she nodded. "I read their minds. They think you're Red X and that's the only reason why we haven't seen him" Raven looked into his eyes as she spoke and Robin knew she was dead serious. "They are our team, our friends, our family." Robin pulled her closer to his chest as another strong gust of wind went by.

"Aww how touching kid" Robins and Ravens heads snapped up at that voice. "Where are you X? Reveal yourself!" Robin demanded, while Raven looked around frantically. "Yeah- no. Don't really feel like it. But you should listen to her kid, she's smart and sexy" Red X jumped out of a nearby tree, saluted them then ran off laughing like a madman. Robin moved to chase after him but Raven grabbed his arm. "Don't, there's no point in going after him" Raven said looking at the ground as she sat back down. "Raven. The Titans aren't like that; they won't just turn their backs on us." Robin said trying to reassure her. Robin sat back down and wrapped his arms around her again. "Don't you see," she whispered holding back a sob. "all we do is fight these days. The end of the Titans is coming." Robin wiped a tear off her cheek. "What is going to happen to us. To all of us. I don't have any family, or anywhere to go…" Raven just barely bit back a sob. She couldn't go back to Azarath, she didn't have any money, she didn't know what she would do. "Hey, come on now. You have family, I'm your family" he was smiling warmly at her. I'm safe as long as I'm with him, but he has a somewhere to go, a family to go back to. He'll probably forget all about me. "Let's go, I'm taking you home" Robin said pulling Raven to her feet and kissing the top of her head.

When they got back to the tower the two Titans changed back into pajamas. Raven had pretty much clung to Robin since he found her. When Robin walked out of her bathroom Raven was curled up in bed with the blankets tightly around her. As Robin lay down next to her, he realized something. She's still worried about what would happen if the team broke up. "When the time comes for us all to go our separate ways I'll take you with me. I want to take care of you Rae" he said softly, rubbing her back. "Won't you want to go back to Gotham to see Batman?" Raven asked looking up as him. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark of her room. "Nah, and even if I did go back to Gotham I would still take you with me." He promised. "We'll be together, always?" she had just a barely detectable amount of hope in her voice. "Forever and always my love." She curled against him as his arms rapped tighter around her.

Not even a month after Ravens runaway attempt the Titans broke up. It started with Starfire saying that she was going back to Tameran. The constant fighting drove her away. Three days later Robin left for Bludhaven, taking Raven with him like he promised. That just left Beastboy and Cyborg who were going to stay in the tower as Jump City's protectors.