Epilogue: Verge
Again, this is unedited and I apologize for that.
Raven was downstairs again, sipping herbal tea and relaxing after the long trip. Starfire hadn't screwed up her room permanently, and she thought it for the best that she'd never seen how it had looked.
Robin walked in the doors, returning from his nightly sweep of the city.
"Nothing?" she asked.
"Nothing," Robin replied.
He collapsed onto the sofa with a huge sigh.
"It's so good to be home," he said.
"I've heard," Raven said from behind her book. "Only about fifty-six times, in fact."
Robin shrugged. "Well, it is good. Imagine being stuck in the musical universe for years."
Raven shuddered. "You know, I'm pretty glad I'm back myself, now that you mention it."
"Come to think of it," Robin said, "it wasn't actually that bad."
"Really," Raven said. It wasn't a question.
"Yeah. We met interesting people. It was fun," Robin said. "And Raven?"
Raven looked up at him. His hand moved to his facemask, and her breath caught in her throat.
"Yes, Robin?" she said.
"I'm glad you were along; it would've been so much worse without you."
Raven barely heard what he was saying. She saw him touch his eyes, touch his mask, grab it. His fingers slid under the mask casually, slowly, and she couldn't pull her eyes away as he… he…
Robin was confused. Raven was staring at him like he was a square egg, all because he'd complimented her.
Also, his eye itched a lot. He reached his hand up slowly, still wondering why Raven was staring at him. He scratched his eye, knowing it would only exacerbate the problem.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
She coughed and a disappointed look crossed her face. He wondered whether he was in another alternate dimension, but dismissed the idea as paranoid.
Oh. So much for Boy Wonder's secret identity.
"No, nothing's wrong," she said, cursing herself and her impetuousness and her curiosity and him and his… um…
"If you're sure… I've got some jet lag to work off, now," he said, getting up. "Oh wait, one more thing."
"What?"
"Why did you scream 'raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens' in the first universe we went through? I didn't know you even knew Sound of Music."
"Oh," she said. Robin thought she blushed, if that was possible. "Did I yell that? I didn't mean to. It must've been what I was thinking about."
"But that's something… happy-ish."
"Not everything is doom and gloom," she said. "Even with me."
"I guess so," Robin said with a skeptical look.
Raven glowered.
"All right, you got me," she said. "I was thinking about Starfire. I have a secret crush on her, you know. I don't actually read books or meditate, I just think about her in all my spare time."
Robin's jaw dropped.
"Really?"
"No! By Azar's flaming ti…er… fits…Robin, even Beast Boy would've recognized that!"
"Oh. Well…"
Starfire swooped in.
"Robin! Would you join me for the consumption of junk foods and the watching of a maple tree-chicken hybrid moving around rapidly?"
"The watching of a…" Robin trailed off.
"A sappy chick flick is not a 'flit,' Starfire," said Raven. "Flitting is moving around, yes, but a chick flick is a movie."
Robin looked terribly confused.
"Maple tree, syrup, sap, sappy; chicken, chick; hybrid is 'sappy chick,' and then there's moving around rapidly, or flitting around, which is not 'flick' but sounds like it," Raven said.
"Precisely!" said Starfire, and grabbed Robin.
"Uh, night, Ra… ow!" he said, disappearing around the corner.
"Good night," Raven said to the empty room. She seemed to say things to empty rooms a lot, and resolved to stop it from then on.
Then, she remembered.
"Cyborg?" she called.
Three hours later, there was a knock at Robin's door. He sighed, but it was just as well. He couldn't sleep, and every time he'd drifted into fitful slumber, his dreams had been full of pain and suffering and screaming so loud he'd thought he was awake. He blamed it on the 'sappy chick flick,' which had turned out to be Warp Trek V. Sappy, yes, but not chick…
The now annoyed-sounding rap on his door brought him back to his senses.
"Yeah, come in," he said.
It was Raven.
"Hi, Robin. You were right, something is wrong," she said. He stood.
"Go ahead," he said.
"I haven't beaten you to a pulp for landing on me yet."
Crack.
Beast Boy lay in great pain in the ninth-floor hallway.
"Stupid Raven," he said. "I didn't mean for stupid Cyborg to eat that stupid sandwich."
He noticed someone else breathing nearby and spun as best as he could.
"Oh, hey, Cyborg. Eheheh. I didn't say anything. Funny seeing you here."
"Oh, man, I'm never gonna be able to fix dents here."
The two Titans heard a crack, and then faint screams far away.
"Poor Robin," Cyborg said.
"Whatcha talkin' about, 'poor Robin?' Poor us!"
They heard a thud from very far away… as if someone had been pushed out a window.
"…poor Robin," Beast Boy said.
Robin groaned. "Well, I hope you're satisfied," he said. "Now I have to get a new window, too."
Still, looking down at the tied-up, subdued body of Warp, Raven was widely smiling, and he couldn't help but join in. That was a rare occurrence, after all.
"Poor Warp," he said, and kicked the time traveler out of the cracked window, then faced Raven.
"Now how am I supposed to sleep with the wind blowing in?"
"Well," she muttered, "you could always share…"
Grin.
"… with Starfire."
Robin nearly did a spittake. "What? Her room? It's pink and purple all over, except where it's neon orange."
"I know. I'd think you'd like it, considering your taste," Raven said, pointedly looking at Robin's costume.
"Will you shut up already?"
"Fine, fine, don't share with her..."
He opened his mouth again.
"Share with Beast Boy," Raven said.
"Oh. I see. All right. One more thing."
"Yeah?"
"Azar's flaming fits…"
"Don't judge me," said Raven… almost playfully. It was very strange. "Sleep tight."
She walked away. Far off, Robin could've sworn he heard a violin playing.
"What're you two doing lying in the hallway?" asked Terra.
"Dude, isn't it obvious? We… we… come to think of it, Cy, what are we doing?" asked Beast Boy.
"I don't know about you, but Raven ripped out my internal motor."
Beast Boy facepalmed. "So I've been lying here for three hours wanting to have some tofu pie for no reason?"
Terra helped him up.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get some pie. Uh, non-tofu pie."
"Awesome!" said Beast Boy, and they walked off.
Cyborg glared after them.
"Thanks a ton, guys," he said.
Hours later…
Robin was about to give up on sleep. Sharing with Beast Boy had not panned out. He had learned that Beast Boy transformed in his sleep, the hard way. After a time recuperating and wondering whether Beast Boy was really 'accidentally' dreaming about 5,000-foot gastropods, he went to Starfire.
She offered to share her room readily, but Robin explained that he'd need some kind of blindfold first. Starfire offered to create one. When he put it on, it tried to choke him. She explained sheepishly that it had been made out of brqyzodqdfd. He left.
Cyborg was out of the question. No furnishings softer than iron. Besides, he wasn't in his room. In what appeared to be a completely unrelated incident, Beast Boy reported that the ninth-floor hallway was haunted and no one should go there, as he'd personally heard the ghost of an angry machine shouting at him.
Terra was still organizing her new room, and had regretfully declined. Besides, she'd said, it would be… awkward. He'd blushed and left.
Raven had threatened to commit mass murder.
So, here he was, shivering and trying to think of something to do to take his mind off of how stubborn Raven was being. And unhelpful. And mean in every way. Another gust of cold wind came in through the broken window.
He decided to sort his utility belt. This took the better part of half an hour. He remembered midway that he had a glass generator in the belt. To his dismay, he found it totaled. Then, he came across an item that he'd forgotten he'd used.
He looked to his left. Then, he looked to his right. Praising Batman's stealth training, he crept to the door and closed it, then sealed it shut with his Bat-sealer.
He went to the viewscreen, and plugged his utility belt camcorder in.
On the viewscreen, Starfire, with her hair in elaborate curls, was hugging Raven. Raven looked acrimonious. He pressed 'play'.
Starfire kissed Raven.
The coming years of blackmail would be so worth it. She hadn't noticed. Had she?
The End
