I don't want to begin to talk about what I had to do to get this chapter and the ones to follow posted. I swear it's every five-year-olds dream to break my laptop. I got this old home computer up and running and now cross my fingers every time I press the on button. So far it has not failed me. I kind of cheated on this fic since my absence. I wrote eight chapters of another fic that I won't post until AFTER this. If I start on a new one, this one won't ever get finished. I'm considering linking the two... Eh, whatever I do, it will involve lots of fanfictioning. Yaaaaaaay.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

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Once again, morning greeted the heroes of a primarily quiet city, with a crisp, golden sunrise. Though, as per usual, the teens lacked the oh so rare moment to enjoy it.

In the kitchen, the usual fighting of what breakfast would bring was squandered by none other than Starfire, surprisingly. Though the offer of making a Tameranian breakfast to quell the boys' feud was not supposed to have the effect it did- at the thought of the cuisine they would have to look forward to, the teens froze. Quickly thanking Star for her, as always, thoughtful suggestion, they agreed upon a breakfast of neither meat nor tofu. As they always did in the end. Every. Meal.

Sitting at the kitchen table, doing their best to ignore the rambunctious teens, Raven and Robin were talking amongst themselves.

Had anyone peered in, all would have appeared normal in the Titans kitchen. It wasn't in the slightest, but it would appear so.

"I really don't know how much more of this I can take," Robin whispered, as the other boys set to making breakfast, Starfire hovering in tow, "I mean, I have no problems with you, I don't think I need to tell you that. It's just, this whole not being able to fight thing is driving me nuts! I can't even train, or I'll end up roundhousing you in the face. ARGH it's driving me CRAZY!" the Boy Wonder whispered, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Well, meditating isn't exactly a party when I'm stuck to you either," Raven answered back. Her tone, at first sounding to be the same monotone as all, held the faintest hint of teasing in it, and she relented, "BUT, if you had said something earlier, I would have gladly sparred with you. If you want, when Tweedledee and Tweedledum over there are done, we can go to the training room. AFTER I meditate."

Losing the pouty face immediately, he went into a starry-eyed reverence, "Really? Sweet! Thanks so much! I don't want to get rusty," He joked, executing a few punches flawlessly into the air.

'Fat chance of that,' Raven scoffed mentally.

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As daylight began to fade, so, it would seem, did Robin's patience with Raven. After the promise of being able to finally stretch his muscles, he had made sure to be as considerate as possible to Raven. After breakfast had been finished, they began towards the training room, more pumped than he had been in a few days. Maybe he was a little too pumped…

"Yes! I'm so excited! Aren't you excited Raven? This is going to be so much fun! Let's go, go, go!" Robin started gleefully, doing a back flip.

"Are you feeling okay, Robin? It's just training.

Laughing and skipping, Robin was less than attentive to the dark bird. That is, until he grabbed her hands and began dancing and swinging her around playfully, "Thank you so much! Weee!"

"Oh COME ON, Are you KIDDING me?" Raven sighed, in between swings, "Happiness, CALM DOWN!"

Lurching suddenly, Robin came to an abrupt halt, throwing Raven against him, "UFF, What the Hell was that? …Wow, uh, I'm sorry, Rae. I guess I got excited?"

"If that's not the understatement of a century, then I'm a leprechaun," Raven sighed.

"I said sorry. It's not like I did it on purpose just to mess with you or anything," Robin released her and took a step back.

Sighing, Raven relented, " You're right. It's not your fault; it's nobody's. Except Jinx. Stupid bitch."

"Yes, yes she's a flaming moron. Now, let's get training. Oh, and don't let me forget to call Titans East. We really need a few extra hands around here."

"Okay you impatient bastard. Let's go to the gym," Raven slightly smiled, as they reached the doors to the Training Room.

Robin, floored, jumped up and opened the door, allowing Raven to walk through, "Right, this way M'dear. Let's get to it."

"You are far too giddy about this. Training really means a lot to you, huh?" Raven asked as they entered the room.

"Yeah, it really is. I mean, it's who I am. If BB didn't exercise for a year, which is highly likely, he'd still change into a lion, albeit a fat one. And Cyborg will always be a Cyborg, even when he's stuffing his face with meat. I need to work my ass off to keep up with all of you guys. I guess it's just become second nature," he explained, smiling with his hand behind his head, as he was prone to do when he was nervous.

Looking hard at him for a few moments, Raven responded slowly, choosing her words with the utmost care, "Come on now. You can't really believe that. You're the strongest one here. Well," Raven continued, her soft voice turning playful, "Except for me of course."

At this, Robin raised an eyebrow, smiling as he remembered the defeated Bravery in Raven's mind.

"And just what is so funny?' Raven asked, feigning anger over his reaction.

" Nothing. Nothing at all," Robin answered back, not even trying to suppress the widening grin on his face, "Now then, let's get ready for some action."

As they finished stretching (they had started warming up as they talked) Raven could feel her heart rate increase over the thought of being able to beat Robin into a bloody pulp and then gloat about it for the next year.

After a bit more warming up, they began to spar, lightly at first, Raven just defending against Robin's onslaught. Then, in what seemed like an instant, the tide changed. Raven began pushing back. Soon they were locked in a fierce battle for dominance.

"What…huff…happened to…huff huff…light sparring?" Robin asked after ten minutes of fighting, flipping from a roundhouse to block a couple of punches, and then jumping to escape a sweeping kick.

"Afraid?" Raven called back, not stopping in her attack.

"Why should I be?" Robin shot back as he landed the first blow in a few minutes.

"Because," Raven smiled, grabbing the arm he had just hit her with and flipping him over. She followed suit and pinned to the ground, "Now I win. Payback's a bitch," she smirked, "That's for getting me before."

"Before?" Robin echoed, not recalling Raven and himself ever sparring before, except, of course-

"Bravery?"

"Ooo, big man always get his memory back once he's trapped, or am I just special? I've only been here for, what? Twenty minutes? I thought you hadn't noticed," she scoffed, tightening her grip and pinning him tighter. Leaning in close, she laughed in h is ear, "I told you I could take you."

Realizing how close they were, something stirred inside Robin as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

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Fighting Warp for the third time, Cyborg was beginning to worry. Why was it that he was so hell bent on picking a fight with the Titans after breaking out of jail every day? It didn't make sense, and as the new de facto leader, he was pretty sure it was his job to find out.

After squandering Warp's efforts once again, and once again listening to the many promises of the police officers that he'd be kept in a "secured" cell, the three titans sighed. The furry blue fridge wasn't very comforting and no one had eaten since breakfast. On the other hand, the press coverage that had followed the now four-day absence of everyone's favorite enigmatic leader and mystic goth was nothing short of insane.

Sure enough, as soon as the police car drove away, out from the cracks crawled an avalanche of paparazzi.

Not wanting to have to once again skirt around the issue, Cyborg took a tentative step back away from the cameras, preparing to turn and run.

Seemingly sensing what he was planning to do, the crowd of reporters seemed to move as one giant blob, surrounding the teens in nanoseconds, drowning them in questions and flashed from a thousand cameras.

'Dammit all. Rae, Rob, you guys better be finding a way back to normal. And HOW!'

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Back at the tower, Cyborg would be extremely disappointed; because what the birds were doing there definitely didn't constitute researching a cure.

Bravery was gloating as she pinned Robin to the floor. Robin was confused about the fact that he was very much enjoying the feeling of Raven pressed on top of him.

At that moment, Robin flipped Bravery over so that he was the one pinning her to the ground.

At first, Bravery looked shocked, then pouty, and, after a second, Raven was back to normal.

Raven, now being in control of herself, was very uncomfortable as Robin pressed against her, trapping her against the ground.

True the feeling of their bodies pressed together was making her blush profusely, but what was really making her nervous was the way Robin was staring at her. It reminded her eerily of a time not so long ago. When one of his rampant emotions had found her in his brain…

"Lust," she moaned, exasperated, not wanting to believe it.

"Back by popular demand," he purred, eyeing her once again.

At once, Raven flipped him off her, steeping back. She really was NOT comfortable with the look in his eyes or with the way he was coming towards her.

And she DEFINENTLY wasn't comfortable with the fact that her emotions kept taking over control while all she could do was sit back and watch. Kind of like now.

Shrinking back against the wall, Timid looked down, muttering quietly her feelings about Lust being out, "Now I-I really don't think Robin would appreciate it if you stayed out much longer, so I think it would be a good idea if you were to please just go away now."

"Oh, now don't be like THAT. I'm sure Robin doesn't REALLY mind at all. I'll show you." Lust grinned back, approaching the quiet Raven.

"No, no, I-I'm sure he would. He has every reason to, I mean, I'm always so terribly mean to him… Why don't you wait until Starfire gets back?" The Raven piped, trying to be helpful. As she raised her head to look at him, she realized ho w close he had gotten.

"Come now, don't start all that again." Lust breathed, leaning closer. Before Timid had time to respond, he had already pounced. Hungrily grabbing her, he seemed to completely engulf her. Raven's Timidity seemed about to explode, judging from the deep red covering her face that only seemed to redden as he kept up his rampant exploration of her body.

In an instant, he went from ravishing her to completely still.

Looking wide-eyed at Raven, his lips still pressed on hers, he was three shades of red. He quickly raised his head. Picking himself up, he realized where his hands were and quickly lifted them, falling back into Raven's face. Wide-eyed once again he leapt away from her. Feeling the heat in his cheeks, he was thoroughly amazed at his behavior.

Kicking himself repeatedly, he then realized that Raven had been, and in fact still was, in Timid mode.

For some reason, he was particularly nervous around this emotion. The thought of Raven, who he had always pictured as strong and independent, being so alone and scared, broke his heart. The fact that a facet of her personality remembered every single argument or insult they had ever thrown at each other gave him a very odd feeling, one that just screamed, "God, she needs a hug."

Slowly and cautiously approaching the girl still against the wall, Robin's voice got less panicked and more concerned, "Hey, um, Raven, er, Timid? Are-are you all right? I'm really sorry about this. I didn't mean to do that…"

As Robin looked up, he noticed tears starting to well in the corners of her eyes as she spoke, "S-S-So h-he lied? You did mind? Was it that terrible? I'm so sorry! I should have tried harder to make you-him stop. He c-confused me," the emotion moaned before starting to sob.

Robin stared dumbfounded at the crying teen, not sure what to say. He was once again mentally kicking himself around for his thoughtless words.

The sudden cease in crying made Robin register that the real Raven had come back. Thanking his lucky stars that his sane and stable friend had returned, he sat down next to her, leaning against the wall.

Each waiting for the other to talk first, the stared at the ground until the resonating silence took its toll on the Goth, "So, I think we can safely agree to forget today ever happened, right?"

"Right," Robin answered back, relieved that she hadn't verbalized the situation, "So do you want to get something to eat? I'm famished."

Raven thought about it quickly. She, too, was hungry, and Robin was trying to mend the situation. He seemed to be completely back to normal, and she could feel her emotions settling, "Sure, that would be nice."

Surprised at her soft reaction, Robin stood up. Holding out a hand to help her up, he hoped there would be food in the house. He really WAS hungry.

As Raven took his hand, she could feel how hungry she really was. Breakfast had been hours ago.

Once they reached the kitchen, they were only mildly surprised to find nothing that was even pretending to still be edible.

"Well, where do you want to go eat?" Robin asked, sighing as he shut the refrigerator, "I don't have a preference if you don't."

Raven wasn't exactly enthralled by the prospect of going out in public eating while the other three were out kicking some bad guy's ass. She had been informed of the press surrounding their absence. On the other hand, she didn't know when the others would be back and she needed food. ASAP.

"I don't know. I mean, I'm not really that hungry," she lied.

"Oh. Okay. If you're not hungry, then we can just go later when the others get back," Robin conceded.

At that moment, what could only be described as sadistically twisted fate decided to pay the birds yet another visit. Raven's stomach erupted in a loud growl, and with it, her face turned ten shades of red.

Staring intently at her for a few moments, Robin cocked am eyebrow, "Not hungry huh?" he sighed.

"Well, you know…um… Let's get going!" Raven covered, feeling guilty over the look that came upon Robin's face.

'Great,' Raven thought, starting to feel bad, 'Now he thinks I didn't want to go because of him'

"Well, if you really want to go, then okay," Robin agreed, smiling as he headed out the door.

Following Robin out of the kitchen, Raven contemplated where the other Titans were. They hadn't been gone VERY long, but still…

"Do you think we should ask the others if they want to join us? We could call them if you want," Raven volunteered, nervous for some reason by their closeness as they walked out of the tower and down the street.

"I don't want to interrupt them for something like lunch if they're in the middle of a battle," the butterflies in Robin's stomach went crazy as Raven and he walked next to each other, people parting like the Red Sea as the MIA birds strolled along.

'I'm hungrier than I thought. I'm even feeling lightheaded.'

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Inside Robin's head, there was one hell of am internal battle raging. Not in the metaphorical sense either.

Intelligence, Love, and Lust were gathered around, Intelligence's cape developing faint flicks of red as it seethed, "Lust! What the Hell was that? Do you have any idea what you just did? I can't believe you. You know Robin hates you more than just about every one of us. What made you come out?" Intelligence suddenly shifted from anger to curiosity.

"Hey, I was just lounging around the town, minding my own business, wondering if her leotard was a zipper or not, when BAM, I went from watchin' the babe to bein' with her! Talk about a dream come true. Seems that when little Robin comes out to play, so do I," he sniggered.

"Oh God, could you be any more vile if you tried?" Intelligence asked, growing tired of the pompous emotion, "Of course you couldn't. Now back to the problem at hand. We must make sure that we stay here, where we belong. I hope that we will be alleviated of this misplaced hex soon, but I know that we can not rely on hope alone."

"I still don't see what the problem is. YOU'RE one of his favorite emotions, but emotions like Lust and I are always shunned. I hope I get to come out, too. It'll be one of the only chances I'll ever get," Love spoke up, smiling wistfully, "Touching her face for REAL, just ONCE. It'd be worth being trapped in here for good…" he finished, a far-off look in his eyes as he sighed.

"Well then it's a good thing you probably won't be coming out. I think I've figured out how this works. Oh crap! What are they doing right now?" Intelligence rushed, opening what appeared to be a hole in the middle of the air. What seemed to be a peak into a movie, it was visible all that Robin saw. It was the view through his eyes.

"Oh g'damn it. Never mind, I think you WILL be making an entrance. Any second now." He sighed, closing the portal and turning around.

"The lucky bastard's been gone since you opened the view," Lust whined, before adding as an after thought, "Dumb fuck."

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As they walked down the street, Raven felt the wide-eyed stares of passers-by. The amazed gasps and hurried whispers also gave away the fact that a superhero should never be gone for four days without giving a reason, let alone two at once. That is, of course, unless they wanted twenty thousands rumors about their whereabouts to spread,

"I feel so weird knowing that the others are out doing what we should be doing. I feel like we're playing hooky," Raven whispered so none of the fans that were starting to follow them could hear.

Leaning in closer as they walked, Robin reassured her, "Everyone else can call in sick, why not us? Besides, it's not like we've been fooling around the whole time."

"I think we need to come up with an excuse. We can't say that we've become a momentary liability, it could provoke an attack on the tower," Raven whispered, thinking aloud before turning to Robin for a suggestion.

"Why don't we tell them we eloped? That'll get them to leave us alone," Robin whispered, smiling playfully.

"You wish you were that lucky," Raven shot back, enjoying the moment, "More like, you tried something funny and I put you out of commission for a few days. That sounds reasonable."

"Do we really need to go through this again? I believe I've already owned you at hand-to-hand. I'm rather liking the idea that we went partying in Aruba for the weekend and then took another day off to recuperate," Robin started up, humoring himself with crazy explanations for their absence.

"I dunno, Aruba's so over done. How about…Vegas?" Raven answered back, also getting into the spirit.

"And now we're back to getting eloped!" Robin chuckled, "I'm starting to really like the idea," he finished with a wink, which was hard to do with a mask on.

"And you've once again forgotten that you wouldn't have a chance with me," Raven teased, "I'm Out. Of. Your. League," she turned and poked him lightly in the chest, punctuating each word with a smile.

"Oh no, I MADE the leagues," Robin informed, grabbing her hand and swinging her arm around his shoulder, "Now, M'dear, where do we dine for lunch?"

Trying to conceal her blush as she answered, Raven thought for a minute, "How about the first place we find?"

"Good a place as any," he concurred, slowly bringing her arm back down reluctantly.

With a sudden pause in their step, both Titans were suddenly shoved in the background of their minds as two more emotions replaced them. Simultaneously, both Titans thought that it was happening too frequently, and at such a great time, too.

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So yeah, this chapter is reaaaally longer than the ones I did before (Ten pages!) so I decided to stop. I'll start on the next chapter right now, might post it tomorrow or the next day depending on how long I make it. (This took three days)

Peace,

Kay-chan