When Raven had awoken the following morning after her encounter with Natalia, she had planned to meditate for most of the day and then join Richard for an evening gathering with close friends and donors to the Richard Grayson Scholarship. That plan did not last than an hour when Ayla came bursting into her room along with Psycho. Raven thanked Azar that Annabeth knew her secret and had tripped and distracted Ayla coming through the opening long enough for the sorceress to drop back to the ground and on her feet.
"Godiva!" Ayla gasped excitedly. "You've got to come with us! It's going to be awesome!"
"Where Ayla?" Raven asked with a chuckle. "You just burst into my room. I'm lucky to be dressed."
Ayla paused for a minute, the words struggling to sink in. One thing was for sure when it came to the woman and her twin brother, they sometimes struggled with familiar concepts. Light-hearted, sweet, and the most amazing friends but they were absolutely clueless.
"What ding dong is trying to say," Pyscho stepped in. "Is that Dick's posse is getting together to do a mall crawl for the day."
"There is this great place in Upper Gotham that is cram packed full of great clothes and shoes!" Ayla continued as if remembering where she was in the conversation.
Raven groaned inwardly just wanting the peace and quiet of her room and a chance to calm her emotions enough to keep the demon blood at bay. With so many interruptions and lack of opportunities to meditate, she had felt the creature forcing its way up on a few occasions.
"Come on! You gotta come, Godiva!" Ayla begged. "You're one of us now, and Natalia already said she ain't coming."
'I wonder why,' Raven thought to herself and shared a knowing look with Pyscho. The young woman's green hair was gone for a natural blond with a blue streak in it. A blue that was slightly reminiscent of her own outfit.
"Dick's gotta us access to the new diner that isn't supposed to open for a few more days. The chefs gonna prepare us something nice!" Ayla said with a squeal, clapping her hands together.
'Well, that' clinches it.' meditation was going to have to wait.
The trip to the mall was not too long, and though Raven talked with Robin about life as a rich boy and his friends, she strangely felt him at calm and not as distant as he was a few days earlier. She could even feel a bit of interest in her seeping through their connection. Raven wanted to curse at the man for throwing her all sorts of signals, going from wanting to ravish her right there on the deck of the yacht to the cold shoulder.
Raven scolded herself for resting on the thought of being naked on the deck of the ship, in the warm weather with Richard doing all sorts of things to her. Her demon emoticlone had quite a few interesting suggestions.
To call it a mall would have been calling the Taj Mahal a little palace. They pulled up to a giant supercenter that spanned quite a number of blocks and went at least three stories in places. It was the epitome of the opulence of the rich.
The rest of the gang was waiting when massive Ivan burst through the rank of friends and grabbed Psycho by the shoulders.
"Psycho, you crazy bitch. Did you really punch Natalia in the face?"
Richard started, and Raven grimaced realizing he had not heard about the altercation. She had conveniently not gotten around to telling him about it.
"She earned that one, Bear," she responded with his own nickname. "Plus, she took a swing first. I was defending myself."
"I saw the camera footage," Aiden said coming up with two ice cream cones, which he offered one to his sister. "Psycho, you dropped her like it was nothing. How strong are you?"
"I...I took some martial art classes," Psycho demurred. "I don't want to be completely defenseless."
"Pffft," Aiden responded. "You dropped her like an, and I've been the target of some of Natalia's sparring sessions. You're great!"
"Can't let the bitch get the better of me," Psycho grinned.
They moved into the fresh air conditioning, and the sounds of the populace inside quickly became a massive roar. The white fluorescent light gleamed off the marble walkways while hundreds of shoppers moved from store to store in an organized mess.
"Though if you didn't respond, it looked like Rachel overhear was gonna tear her a new one." Aiden continued, and Richard immediately shot Raven a look shock and concern.
"Let's go to Glamoura for shoes!" Ayla squealed and took off dragging Aiden and Ivan with her.
"Raven! You got in a fight with, Nat?" Richard hissed under his breath.
"Psycho actually took her down, I was an innocent bystander," Raven feigned innocent, but the man did not buy it for one minute. The curse of having known each other for too long.
"You egged her on, didn't you?"
"She was out of line."
"What was she doing?"
Raven hesitated. How did you tell the man that you had feelings for that you were jealous? Raven froze at that moment as she realized she had feelings for him.
'Oh, Azar!"
They were mercifully saved by Psycho returning with Ivan.
"This isn't over," Robin hissed at her.
"Yes, it is," Raven answered with the same tone and sent a warning pulse of emotion at him.
"Dear god there are way too many shoes in that store," Ivan huffed. "That was ridiculous. Did you see those frickin' pink shoes she was looking at? Ayla adores Pink Phantom, and she's gonna dress like her no matter what we do."
"Pink Phantom?" Raven said surprised having not heard the name before.
"Yeah," Psycho responded with a shrug. "Some new superhero that showed up in Gotham the last few months. Crazy female with power gloves, a weaponized parasol and a frilly pink dress and mask to go with it."
"She's been helping people and stopping crooks in the upper east side of the city. Aiden thinks she's working with, but I think she's some poor, bored princess with too much money."
"God, she's so annoying," Psycho groaned. "All the girly pink, the white lace, even her little motorcycle is pink. It's gonna make me throw up."
The friends broke out in laughter.
"Well, we better catch up before Aiden finds the electronic store. The last time he built one of his devices, his dad had to convince ARGUS he wasn't trying to summon Brainiac."
The rest of the day was fantastic as they hung around, went shopping, and Ayla even dragged Raven into Victoria's Secrets shop where both she and Psycho were gonna get her cute things for night time activities with Richard Grayson.
The entire time in the shop, her cheeks were red at not only the pictures of the scantily clad models but the designs of the clothing themselves. She would never be caught dead wearing any of this, especially for a man. But, she picked out a blue see-through bra and a midnight blue g-string with a star pattern on the little bit of fabric there was to keep the ruse going.
The satisfaction that made it all worth it was the unexpected burst of curiosity from Robin when he saw her come out with the little bag followed by the massive wave of embarrassment and red in his cheeks when he realized she sensed his emotions.
The evening had come, and Raven had meandered around Wayne manor until she found herself in the bat cave. The giant banks of computers displayed different information, but she found Robin sitting at the computer watching surveillance footage while Jinx was sleeping like a cat on the nearby table, her snores quiet but comical.
"How long has she been sleeping like that?" Raven giggled as she joined her compatriot by the computer. Robin looked away for a moment to see what the mystic Titan was looking at and then back to his screen.
"30 minutes. She said she was interested in the surveillance footage on Pink Phantom but promptly passed out."
"Pink Phantom? You really looked into her?"
"Yeah, she's real. Batman's got a ton of footage on her little escapades. Some dime stuff like burglars, rescuing cats, muggers. She's really well trained and really well equipped."
Raven leaned in and rested her chin on his shoulder. She felt a shudder of emotion and a stray thought of excitement?
She watched the grainy footage of a young woman in a rather adorable pink dress with a skirt cut to her thighs like a french maid's outfit but white stockings running up her legs and underneath the fabric. Her arms were bare except for white evening gloves that definitely were some sort of device as she could make out the pulse of energy she used to subdue her opponents.
"Her clothes are electrically charged like Batman's cape," Robin said excitedly. "Watch."
They watched the girl run up and jump on the bike but as she was moving, the fabric morphed and wrapped around her legs turning her outfit into a single piece jumpsuit.
"Whoever designed this stuff is brilliant."
"That'll have to wait,"
The voice was low and gruff. They turned to find the dark knight standing there in full costume. Body armor, gadgets, and cowl.
"What's up?"
"Massive fire in the wards. FDGC can't control the blaze and are asking for help to anyone who can get civilians out."
From under his black cape, he produced a folded red green and yellow outfit and her leotard and cloak.
"I need you to help,"
The tone told him that this was serious. Robin quickly dressed in his outfit and found a lot of his equipment around the Batcave. She saw a darker part of the cave and quickly stripped and threw on her leotard and cape. For the first time in months, she felt like herself. There was a little baggie with her chakra that she affixed back to her forehead. Looking at her reflection in a computer screen, she looked like herself, Raven of the Teen Titans.
"You look good."
Raven turned to see Boy wonder, the familiar clothes, titanium weave cape, mask, and smile. He even had found a way to get his hair spiky again. The man she grew up within Titan's Tower stood before her.
"So do you,"
"You ain't gonna ask me to come along?" Jinx's voice snarked from her place.
"This is a Gotham matter, Jinx," Batman responded. "We're not paying the HIVE to help."
"Blah, I'm bored. I'll help if you don't give a shit."
"I don't," Batman answered as he climbed into the batmobile. Raven hopped in beside him while Robin got on his cycle.
Off they went. The streets were dark and the traffic light but in the west, Raven could see the low orange glow of a fire spreading across the horizon. She could feel the energy and intense emotion pouring from the silent figure driving the vehicle. It reached a fever pitch when they crossed the bridges into the wards. Police cars, Fire trucks, and a mixture of civilians and law enforcement ran about as fires raged through the streets. The batmobile screeched to a halt, and the hatch opened. How the man-bat exited so gracefully in the armor was beyond him.
Raven got out and stood beside him, her form shrouded in her cloak. Some of the officer's looked at her suspiciously as Robin joined them with Jinx.
"Robin, good to see you, man. Thought you were in California," one grizzled sergeant said.
"Missed the old place. This is Raven, she's with me."
"Ahh," the sergeant said with the nod. "The sorceress on your team. I've heard of her. Good to meet you, ma'am."
"What's the situation?"
"Fire's are out of control. We don't know how they started, but there are dozens of civilians trapped in sections. We're getting out a lot from the path, but there are some we couldn't get to before the blaze cut us off. There down Estow Street and towards the southwest in the 900 block."
"Understood. We'll go for the civilians and assist your firefighters where we can."
They jumped into action. Raven shot up in the air, free to fly for the first time in months and quickly surveyed the surroundings. She could sense the panic and worked with Batman to find and get civilians out of the buildings. He would kick the door in, Raven would charge in using her portals to scoop up people and teleport them out of range of the fire.
Robin and Jinx worked with a mixture of hexes and attacks to clear a path and create fire breakers. They had made it four blocks in when she sensed the danger.
"Batman!" Raven shouted as the third story wall gave out, and the tons of brick began to descend. She attempted to throw up a portal but the bash rocked her, and she lost her concentration. She heard the skitter and looked down to see a pink oval bounce between them and a snap-hiss of a brilliant white forcefield appear around them. The brick and mortar shattered harmlessly on top. 15 seconds later, the device burned out, and the field dropped.
Raven looked up across the street and saw the pink form they had been watching only an hour ago. She hopped off the building popping open her parasol and glided down.
"Fucking Mary Poppins," Jinx growled.
Up close, Raven saw the girl in her blond hair and a pink mask covering the upper half of her face. She had a breathing apparatus over her mouth that must have been filtering out the smoke. Her voice came through it in the strange robotic sound it always did.
"Sorry to surprise you. Can I help?"
Batman stared at her with his deep stare and everyone wanted to cower. Raven reached out to calm the girl with her senses but immediately recoiled from her.
"Work with Robin, Phantom," Batman finally said in his low growl. "and don't run away. We need to discuss your habits."
"yes, sir," the robotic tone responded, and she nodded visibly excited.
Raven strode over and leaned into the girl's head was engulfed in her cloak's hood. She hissed at the Pink Phantom low and clear.
"What the FUCK are you thinking?"
The girl's eyes got wide. "I don't…."
"I know it's you Annabeth and you better have a damn good reason why I don't beat you senseless."
Psycho, in her pink dress, blanched.
A/N: Hey all! Thanks for your continued support and love for this story. It has gone a lot farther than I ever thought it would and is one of my favorites to write. RobRae is extremely adorable and I just love writing them so much.
I just wanted to let you know that I started a Teen Titan's Discord Server called Ship's Haven where anyone can talk about any ship, about fics, art, or the shows! Interested? You can join here! discord DOT gg/ Y9AGBTh
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback and your thoughts about the story. It keeps me going!