Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans
Chapter 11
It didn't disappear; no matter which way she turned, it was always visible through her classical black leotard. There was no way of hiding in beneath her usual attire, no angle at which it could be mistaken. At five months the half demon Titan was obviously pregnant. The bump was not huge – at least, not yet – but rather small and firm and unmistakable. It could be hidden quite easily beneath her cloak, but to hide it effectively out in public she'd have to find a way to completely fasten it. Her skin tight leotard was no longer going to be enough.
It had been inevitable from the beginning but she was unhappy all the same; how long now before she couldn't even fight alongside her friends? Mask had been giving them more and more trouble as the weeks went on – this past week, three attacks that had left them defeated and with a leader that grew ever more irritable with each failure – and soon they would be down a team member. In any other situation, Raven would have had no problem insisting that she was going to fight but not now, not with the possible price to pay being the life of her unborn baby. It - the sex was still undetermined - was the only thing she was willing to sacrifice the security of the city for.
With a resigned sigh, Raven pulled her blue cloak over her shoulders and wrapped it loosely around her body, knowing that with this covering the swelling of her stomach would be unnoticeable. At five months it was a small enough bulge that it could be hidden beneath such loose clothing, if not her black leotard. A lot of human women may not have been showing so much as she was, but she and the baby were part demon; it would show more obviously earlier. She headed down the corridors into the main room at Titans Tower, and there she found the typical setting of Starfire cooking – who knew what she was attempting to make – and Beastboy and Cyborg battling viciously via video games. As was always the case whenever a villain gave them particularly bad trouble, Robin was not in the room.
Nevertheless, she headed towards the fridge and pulled out a red apple – red, not green; green apples of any variety made her vomit – to ease off her hunger until dinner was served. Cyborg had promised to make a curry and it sounded more than slightly appetising, especially considering that the last curry he'd made had been delicious and that had been long enough ago to make her crave it.
There was a swish of air around her and then Starfire came into view.
"Raven, have you seen Robin? I wish for him to sample this Tameranian dish!" Here she held up some wiggly orange substance and smiled eagerly at her friend. "Do you wish to try?"
Raven watched the 'food' squirm. "No."
Starfire's face fell. "Oh. So you have not seen him?" she persisted.
"He's probably doing more research. It's best to just leave him alone."
"But…"
"Starfire, you know what he's like. Every time someone like Mask comes along, he hides in there until we catch him. He's irritable, and shoving some … whatever that is … in his face isn't going to help."
Raven left her friend behind, knowing that she'd been harsh but fair; Starfire would only get upset if Robin got annoyed with her for bothering him when she was only being friendly, and at the moment the team leader got annoyed with anyone and everyone that dared to interrupt him, his girlfriend included. It would probably have seemed selfish to an observer, but the Titans knew that it was just how Robin was; he worked hard and caught the bad guys and kept the city safe, it was just what he did. Some might say he was neglecting his pregnant girlfriend, but the Titans knew that getting rid of Mask, the most potent threat right now, was his way of keeping both her and the baby safe.
Nevertheless, it was painful to watch – he grew more and more agitated every day, and every day he angered more was one day closer to the baby's arrival. It could not go on and they all knew it; Robin himself knew it, which was why he worked so hard to get rid of Man In The Mask: as soon as the baby came along, chasing down the bad guys wasn't his only priority.
/
The stressed out leader himself was currently not in his 'study', as his friends all suspected, but rather sitting on the roof of the tower, looking out over the watch with masked eyes. Contrary to popular beliefs, Robin genuinely did understand the need to take a break once in a while; he was getting better at it lately, making sure that every other day he took a couple of hours to train or relax. Now was one of those times to simply relax, even though his mind was still buzzing with thoughts on Man In The Mask and his eyes could see the newspaper clippings that had been left behind or already discarded.
Besides, today was a special day for Robin, not that any of his friends knew this. Why should they know? He had never told them, had never wanted to; it was too private an issue for him to share with them. Not even Raven knew everything, simply because it was in the past and the past was where he wanted it to stay. This day, a few years ago, he had made a big decision for himself and had come to live in Jump City. It was the first time in years that he had made such a big decision for himself; usually anything major was determined by his guardian.
It was an anniversary of sorts, he supposed. A commemoration of his arrival in a new city, a place where he had set up a new life with amazing friends and a beautiful girlfriend, the same city where he would soon become a father for the first time in his life. He was young but he hadn't had a normal childhood; Robin had matured years ago, much earlier than society expected of him. He was young but ready.
Robin let out a sigh, looking out over the ocean as his mind wandered away from chasing villains to rest on his former life. When he had left Gotham City, he had never expected that his life could turn out this way. If someone had told him that he would be having a child with the woman he truly loved at such a young age, he would have laughed in their face; he would never be able to get away with something so seemingly irresponsible, it wouldn't be allowed – and it wasn't the authorities that he would have to worry about, either.
The young hero smiled – it was a small, tired smile but it was genuine – as he reflected on the knowledge that he was, no matter how bad things got here, happy.
Even if he was filled with more than one type of guilt.
/
Dinner was not as animated as it usually was for the young heroes, but it wasn't a solemn affair. Robin was quiet and Cyborg had steam coming out of his ears – Beastboy beat him three times in a row at his favourite game; he would not rest until the situation was reversed! – but it was nonetheless a pleasant meal with friends, everyone but the alien princess, who'd cooked her own Tameranian meal, gorging themselves on pizza. Starfire talked about her home world; Beastboy bragged about his video game victory; Robin ate his meal with one hand and held Raven's in the other beneath the table. All in all, ordering pizza in had been a good idea.
It was just a harmonious setting. But like always, such settings do not last long for those who lead double lives and fight crime – halfway through the meal, Robin's eyes grew wide and he fled from the room, hastily shouting his apologises to his friends and his wishes for them to continue their meal.
Raven frowned – what the hell had just happened? – and ate alongside her friends for the next ten minutes, after which she decided the Boy Wonder had been gone long enough and departed to go and find him, murmuring to the others to not follow them.
The half demon female found her lover in his own private room; she entered without knocking, something that would have normally irked him but now he just sat motionless on the bed, something clutched between his gloved hands, obscured from view. She crossed the room to sit down beside him, placing one hand on his knee and the other upon his hands, which she noticed were very tense and shaking slightly.
"What happened back there?"
Robin looked at her, masked eyes meeting amethyst orbs, and stood up, pulling free of her hands and crossing the room to stand before the cupboards, his back to her. It was over a minute before he began to speak. "I got a call."
Raven tilted her head to the side. "From who?"
"An old friend." It was a rather vague answer, but it was enough for Raven to understand, and Robin knew that, so he continued without hesitation. "He wanted me to come and see him about something…"
"About what?" Raven interrupted, unwilling to let him get away with not telling her; if this was dangerous, she wanted to know for various reasons. "What did he want?"
"Just to talk." His voice was strained, like he was gritting his teeth. It was unfortunately obvious that he wasn't going to say more on the point, although he did give a sort of explanation: "I moved here over three years ago and I haven't been back to see them yet, after I promised that I would. Now it's too late for me to arrange this my way."
He turned around to face her. Raven's face conveyed to him her confusion, but also her understanding that he wasn't going to elaborate on what he had told her. She didn't question this or demand to know more, she just listened to what followed after.
Robin looked her right in the eye, and she could tell – even through the mask – that his eyes were blazing with mortification and fury and excitement and most of all anticipation. He didn't try to smile.
"We're going to have a visitor."
Please R&R
