A/N: Okay...so I feel this is a little OC and maybe even a little on the mushy side, but I don't know. It's what came. What the heck, right?

It's been over a year since I updated this one...whoa. Has it really been that long?? I hope you guys are still around...

Theme: 12: Dragonflies and Fireflies

Word Count: 354

Thanks: I'll be using the ff.n's review response feature if I've got something to say to your review in particular, but just generally, thanks everyone for supporting my endeavors and especially thanks for letting me know what you like (or what you don't like, as the case may be) and that you're out there reading.

Sweetest Thing, Chapter 12
Sweet Realization

"Hit me like a ray of sun / burning through my darkest night..."
- "Halo", Beyonce

On the whole, Raven understood feelings (even if she didn't indulge in them). She did have them (no one had ever really believed otherwise). For her, feelings were compartmentalized, easily identifiable bits of emotion. The first time she looked at Robin and felt lust, she wasn't as surprised as some might think. When she learned he felt the same, she was pleased.

The first time she felt his body slide against hers, she felt contented -- fulfilled. The way he touched her made her feel cherished.

His penchant for romance amused her. His sweetness moved her.

And then the Titans had been called out to Penrose, North Carolina, they spent the night in the valley at the base of Jeter Mountain and she and Robin had slipped out of the guest house and into the forest behind them, Robin's ungloved hand warm in her own.

She hadn't asked where he was taking her or why -- she felt longing for his touch and thought she understood -- but when he stopped just inside a copse of trees, she looked at him.

In the slivers of moonlight filtering in through the tops of the trees, she saw him smile at her and felt warm despite the chill in the spring air.

She could sense the expectation in him, the waiting, but before she could think of something to say or wonder what he was waiting for, she saw the first pinprick of light floating just above the ground near the line of trees across from them.

For a moment, she wondered whether she was seeing the legendary will-o-the-wisps she'd read about, but then there was another light nearer to her and she recognized the insect from books. Before she had processed even that much, however, they were suddenly surrounded -- dozens of lights flickering in the clearing like Christmas lights flickering in the night.

She turned to him -- to her lover -- a halo of flickering firefly light surrounding him, illuminating his smile, lighting the emotion - like fire - in his blue eyes, and smiled.

There, in the field of fireflies, for the first time, she felt love.