The elevator chimed with a low pitched ding as it reached the parking garage, and Raven stepped out to observe her surroundings. It didn't take long for her to spot her spiky haired leader, adjusting the bags on his bike for the journey they were about to undertake. "Ready to go?" She asked as she approached Robin, who was strapping his bags to the back of his motorcycle.

He tightened the belt fastening his bags with a sigh and his shoulders sagged. "Ready as I'll ever be." He glanced at her. "Where's your stuff?"

Raven was tempted to give him a quick, dry explanation, but then realizing this was an opportunity to get his attention as more than a friend, a thought popped into her head. She couldn't help it; she smiled, just barely showing a flash of teeth before she answered. "If you look into my magic hat, you'll see there is nothing inside-" She held her hands like she was a classical stage magician, and her shadows materialized the shape of a hat between them, "-But behold!" She said as Robin raised a brow, and stacks of neatly folded clothes fell out of her shadowy hat when she turned it upside down. "Magic."

Robin shook his head, but slow clapped nevertheless. "I don't suppose you could do that for my stuff?" He asked.

"Mmm... Nope." She snapped her fingers, and her things were surrounded by black energy before disappearing as well. "Wouldn't want to mix the darks with the lights, after all." She gestured with a finger between their two outfits.

Robin scoffed, but smiled for a split second, and it made Raven's chest swell as she acknowledged it was because of her. "C'mon, chuckles. We're burning daylight, unless you plan on teleporting us all the way to Gotham."

"As much as I'd love to avoid ending up as roadkill, my ability to teleport isn't so cut and dry." She said as she took her seat behind him on the bike.

For a hellacious moment that seemed to last minutes, she suddenly wasn't sure if she should sit with him. She'd never actually ridden the R-Cycle with him, and there would be no way to avoid the physical intimacy that riding with him would bring. As much as she'd longed for that feeling again, Raven thought, to hold him in her arms like she'd done after she'd changed fate and saved the world, "Will I be able to let go just as easily, now that I've named my feelings? And how long until I'm able to embrace him again?"

"Oh? Then how does it work, exactly?" Robin asked, snapping her out of her doldrums.

She swallowed, then sat on the back of the bike. Robin handed her a spare helmet, to which she took in both hands with a quick, "Thank you." Opting to answer his question first, Raven tucked the helmet underneath one arm at her side and told him, "I have to be familiar with the location first, so I know exactly where I'm going when I open a portal between two places, or I can teleport directly to someone I have a strong connection with."

"So, any of us?" He asked.

Raven nodded. "Exactly." Slowly, she placed her hands on his shoulders, letting her palms flatten out and fingers curl slightly into him while she thought, "Just relax..." Over and over. "If I focus hard enough, I can be at anyone's side in a split second." She chose to continue with her answer to distract from the feeling of Robin moving beneath her grip. "It wouldn't work with Titan's East, or across dimensions, but once we're done in Gotham we won't have to travel across the country to get back."

"Thanks for saving me gas money." He joked.

"If you really want to save on gas, buy an electric." She rolled her eyes. "Or just ask Cyborg to build you a quantum cooled fusion reactor powered bike."

Robin turned to glance at her, but she hunched her shoulders and kept shifting so she was behind his head. "You don't know what you're talking about, do you?" He teased.

"Shut up and drive, blunder wonder."

For a moment, Robin laughed, and Raven relaxed as she smiled behind him.

Which turned out to be a mistake, because as Robin revved up the bike and took off across the bridge into Jump City, Raven let out a high pitched scream that was decidedly not like her at all, then on instinct wrapped her arms Robin, her hands coming to rest on his chest as her forearms crossed in an 'x' shape. "You okay back there?" Robin asked, and Raven could just hear the grin on his face.

"I'm fine. Just tell me when it's over." She said through gritted teeth as she screwed her eyes shut.

Robin laughed, and the engine revved again. For a few minutes they drove along in relative silence, the sound of cars whooshing by and the bike's engine the only things to be heard, before Robin rolled his shoulders to get Raven's attention. "Look up." He urged. "Whenever I get the chance, I like to take this road out to the highway. It's got a great view."

Slowly, Raven relaxed her arms, loosening her grip on his chest, and warily raised her head up. Beyond the trees planted to provide shade for the benches beneath, past the cars they were driving around, there was a breathtaking view of the Pacific. Her eyes widened to take in the beauty; while it certainly wasn't a new sight in the past few years, the late afternoon sun reflected off the crystal blue water, which rolled in to the beaches gently, where adults worked on tans or sat beneath umbrella shades while their kids built sandcastles and played in the shallow waters under the watchful eyes of their parents. There were bright white clouds scattered about, and when they slowed down for traffic lights, Raven could feel a soft, cool breeze coming in from the sea. The Tower was near enough that she could make out the large window panes, but not close enough that it would be possible to see anyone standing in front of them.

She sighed in content, turning to Robin and wishing she could smile at him, because she knew this wasn't a sight he'd shared with anyone else, nor had Cyborg ever taken them down this way when they were all packed into the T-Car, because she'd remember the angle of the city, how the skyline curved away into the horizon, giving the impression that Jump City went on forever. She lowered her head down to his shoulder, and let her hands drop to circle around his waist as they made their way onto the highway, where on either side they could see the farmland that produced most of the fruits and vegetables found in Jump City.

Raven's eyes drifted shut, and thought back to her last conversation with Cyborg, and how the other two guys on the team had found out her feelings for Robin. It had been at the park, just a few months ago...

They'd decided it would be a good idea to get out of the Tower for a little while. "Dude, don't forget the Tofu!" Beast Boy called out while carrying a comical amount of folding chairs and an ice cooler, filled to the brim with soda's of varying type.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Cyborg called back. When Beast Boy left, Cyborg turned back to the fridge. "It should be a crime to make me cook this stuff..." He muttered as he grabbed the shapeshifters food and stuffed it with the rest of their items planned for the cookout in another cooler that had hot dogs, sausage links, hamburger patties, and an assortment of condiments and toppings.

"We'll meet you downstairs." Robin said with a wave, and he and Starfire got into the elevator.

"Wait y'all, I'm coming!" Cyborg called out, despite the fact that he was clearly struggling with closing the cooler's lid now that so much food had been stuffed into it.

"Ooooh, noooo!" Robin called out in false alarm. "Hurry Cyborg, the door is closing!"

"Oh no no no no no no!" Cyborg ran to the elevator, but he was too late; the door closed, and on the other side he could hear Robin and Starfire break into a fit of laughter.

For his part, Cyborg blew steam out of his nostrils and both eyes burned with fire. "That spiky haired shrimp! Just wait till he gets his meal swapped out with Beast Boy's nasty fake meat, we'll see who's laughing then."

Raven rolled her eyes at her team antics, but stood up from the table and tapped Cyborg's shoulder. "Brace yourself." She told him.

Cyborg held his breath as shadows enveloped them, and a moment later they were standing in front of the T-Car. "Thanks, Witch Girl."

"No problem, Tin Man." She opened the back door and got in behind the drivers side, ignoring the questions between Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg about how the latter had arrived before the former.

It did get a little harder when Robin opened the front passenger door and got in, clicking his seatbelt and turning around to blow a raspberry at Raven. "Cheater."

She looked up from her book with a bored look, but the twinkle in her eyes betrayed the amusement she really felt. "You could've pressed the 'open door' button, and we all could've come down at once." Raven replied innocently.

"... Starfire was on that side of the elevator."

Before they could continue with their playful bickering, the doors opened and the rest of the team got in. "Alright, Jump City Downtown Park, here we come!" Cyborg exclaimed enthusiastically. They crossed the bridge and before too long, Cyborg had rolled down the windows. "Man, it is a bea-u-t-iful day!" He exclaimed.

No one in the car could argue with him; the cloudless sky, the warm breeze, the birds chirping, all of it and more combined to create a great excuse to go outside and to take a moment to just enjoy life and the company that came with it.

Before long, they'd arrived at the park, greeting several people who rushed up to thank them for their work before the team of heroes made their way into the park proper and set up an area to picnic at.

Raven sighed as she took in the landscape. Beautiful it was, but for the life of her she didn't know what she wanted to do. She'd agreed to go with them, herself interested in getting out of the cramped, stuffy tower for a little while, but after having arrived, she found herself rooted to the spot beside Cyborg, who was too busy setting up the portable grill to notice her.

"Hey."

She gasped at the soft touch at her arm, turning to face Robin who had walked up beside her.

"Wanna walk around?" He asked casually, gesturing to the landscape.

Perhaps it had escaped his notice, the trees swaying gently in the breeze and the birds coasting lazily overhead, just how perfect that afternoon was, but in that moment Raven realized that there was nothing else in this world she'd rather do than to just walk around with him for a little while.

She turned and started along the winding path of the sidewalk, and the two walked at a slow, comfortable pace, ignoring the tree leaves crunching underneath their feet. "I heard they're going to have some kind of festival at here next week." Raven spoke after a few moments silence passed.

"Oh yeah? What for?"

"I believe to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the park's opening." She stopped for a moment to observe their surroundings. "Apparently, it's a somewhat unknown story in the city how the park actually came to be here. There was this young entrepreneur who came to the city when it was still just a small town, and planned to build a factory here. He was apparently an unpleasant man, not the 'to your face' type, but the 'is definitely planning on stabbing you in the back some day soon' type. He used his money and influence with people in power here to push out everyone on the land and began development."

"Guy sounds like a dirtbag." Robin said with displeasure in his voice. "How'd we go from a big ugly factory to a park?"

"Hmm. One day, an elderly man came up to the man and said he should build a park." Raven answered.

"... That's it?" Robin asked, and Raven chuckled under her breath at his displeasure at the stories apparent end.

"No. The man said it was for his sister, who in turn wanted it for her grandchildren." She continued, but stopped, a frown forming on her face as she studied the ground in front of them. "However, her grandchildren had died the prior winter, and as their caretaker, her grief overwhelmed her and she passed away as well."

With a sigh, she turned back to Robin. "That's terrible." He said with a frown. "And what, the entrepreneur changed his mind based on this old man's story?"

"Apparently, he stopped what he was doing, considered it for a moment, then said, 'The old gal wanted a park? Then she can have a park!' And thus-" She gestured to their surroundings, letting the end of the story speak for itself. "The man never did anything like that again, and apparently he never explained why, either. Just one of those stories people came up with. But, that's why they're having a festival here. To celebrate the random acts of kindness that bring joy to everyone, even those between strangers who've never met." She turned around, facing the way they had come from. "It's normally a smaller event, taking up a small part of the park, but since it's the 75th anniversary, the city is going out of it's way to make it a bigger event this year."

Robin whistled. "I guess it's not so nice a story, but it has a happy ending. And those are always the best kind."

He turned to her and smiled, and Raven's heart lifted all on its own.

"Would you-" The words came forth without her permission, and she stopped so suddenly that he frowned and tilted his head. Raven's chest tightened at the sudden panic that gripped, at the thought of really asking him out on a date.

She'd known for a while now that her feelings for him ran deeper than mere friendship or admiration, and while she'd accepted it internally, they'd never come close to the surface until now.

"Would it really be so bad?" Raven asked herself. "To try?"

But then her throat went dry and constricted as the worst case scenario crept into her mind.

"If he says no... how will it change things between us?"

More than a few seconds had passed and her sudden stillness and silence spurred him to move. "Raven, what-"

But before he could ask her what she was about to say, Starfire descended from the sky.

"Robin, come! You would not bee-lieve how much fun throwing the frisbee can bee!" She spun the plastic disc in her hands with a wide, carefree smile.

The Boy Wonder groaned and let his head roll. "I will never forgive Cyborg for teaching you about puns." He stated with a sour tone, but he grinned eventually all the same.

Starfire giggled. "They are most entertaining! It is shameful they do not work in Tamaranean, however." Starfire shook her head, and grabbed Robin by the arm and lead him into the grass. "Here!" She handed him the frisbee. "I think Beast Boy tired of flying after it, so we can stay on the ground."

And just like that, Raven had been left behind.

Her eyes closed as she held her breath, letting her head drop as her shoulders slumped.

She might have stayed like that for the rest of the day, but she'd only had a few moments to her remorse before Cyborg and Beast Boy approached her, the latter clearly tired from trying to keep up with Starfire.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Cyborg asked, having seen Raven's despondent stance from a distance.

Raven exhaled, shaking her head, letting her eyes open slowly as she turned to her other two friends. Her first instinct was to brush it off and offer one of the usual tried and true excuses like, "I'm going to go read," in order to get away and avoid the prying questions that would come with the truth. 'But,' She lifted her gaze to meet her friends, and when she saw the concern in their faces, 'I know they won't leave well enough alone, especially if I'm never able to tell Robin and this keeps happening... And I know I can trust them not to tell anyone.' Putting her hood up and wrapping her arms around herself, she turned her back to them and let her guard down just enough to tell them, "I love Robin. And I can't tell him because I don't want to ruin our friendship." She grit her teeth as the same icy panic from before took root in her chest, and screwed her eyes shut as she waited for a response.

She didn't have to be an empath to feel just how shocked and confused they were, nor feel the gears turning in their minds as they tried to figure out how to respond. Silently, Raven stood there and waited while not so far off, Starfire and Robin laughed and joked.

"Rae, if you feel for him, you should tell him." Cyborg responded.

"Yeah! I mean, you never know, Robin might feel the same way about you." Beast Boy added.

Raven laughed mirthlessly. "You've seen the way he responds to Starfire whenever she shows affection- How well do you think he'd respond if I asked him out on a date?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy glanced at each other. "Raven, you never know if you don't ask. Yeah, Rob is a little awkward when it comes to showing affection, but I don't think he'd be cruel to you if he wasn't interested." The former said, taking a step forward and putting a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "You know how the old saying goes: 'Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all'."

"But that's not the only issue holding me back," Raven lifted her head with a frown, raising an arm and gesturing to the other two Titan's enjoying their sunny afternoon, "I could never be that open and carefree with him." She scoffed and turned away, brushing away Cyborg's arm as she did so. "Even if Robin wanted to date a normal human girl, they would have so much more to offer him than I could. Starfire literally has another planet's worth of experiences to show him; everything I own could fit into three suitcases, and most of it isn't of any use to anyone without some type of magical inclination. My old home can't even be reached now because Trigon destroyed it. What could I give him to make him happy? He needs someone more than me." The truth of the words stung as she spoke them aloud, and her eyes became misty when she lowered her head.

"That's a load of crap."

Cyborg's eyes widened as he turned towards Beast Boy, who had begun moving forward and with a few strides, stood in front of Raven. She lifted her head, just as shocked as Cyborg was, eyes wide and brow furrowed.

"You're not the type of person who would get this upset over a mere crush. You love him. Even if you don't have anything, you would do everything you could to make him happy, right?" Beast Boy's serious expression elicited a single nod from her. "Then there's no excuse. I'd have gone crazy by now if I hadn't tried to get Terra back. You tell him you love him, and you never stop trying to make him happy. I know you're a downer, but even if he didn't have any romantic feelings for you, do you really think he'd stop being your friend? That he wouldn't want anything to do with you?" Beast Boy crossed his arms over his chest, and shook his head. "Raven, did you forget that in order to get you back from Trigon, he went after you alone with no one else but Slade to back him up?"

Raven stepped back, completely taken aback by Beast Boy's seriousness; it wasn't something she thought about, but technically Beast Boy of all people had actual experience with romance.

"Don't overthink it." Cyborg came to her side, looking over at Robin and Starfire over Raven's head. "It wouldn't be the end of the world if he said no. At least you'd have a better understanding of where the two of you stood with each other."

Swallowing back the lump in her throat, her voice was slightly hoarse as she asked, "And what about Starfire?"

There was another loaded silence as the trio looked over at the alien princess.

"It would be Robin's choice, who he chooses to be in a relationship with." Cyborg said. "Even if Starfire didn't like it, she couldn't make it for him or force him into anything he didn't want to be a part of."

"Honestly, I don't see them lasting long even if they get together." Beast Boy said as he kicked away a stray rock. When he felt two pairs of eyes on him, he turned back and shrugged. "What? She straight up kissed him the first time they met, and it's not like Starfire has been subtle with the way she feels ever since. Robin's a stick in the mud, but if he felt anything for her romantically by this point, if he hasn't taken a shot, he probably never will."

For a moment, they were silent, and then Cyborg spoke up again. "How'd it happen? I mean- when'd you know you were in love?"

Raven's breath caught. "I can't tell them everything." Was the first thought that came to her mind. "I- He..." She sighed, shaking her head. "It was a lot of little things over a long period of time." She opted for instead. "It wasn't like a light switch or anything. I started thinking of him differently after everything with my father, then I starting thinking about how much I cherished the moments we had when it was just me and him, and then... I don't know, I realized I was always looking for him first in a room and keeping a closer eye on him during fights, and at some point I figured out what I was feeling for him..." She trailed off, wrapping her arms around herself, her cloak encircling her as she did so.

Cyborg and Beast Boy shared a smile, but Raven was thinking of the moment she really knew she was in love with Robin; there had been a catalyst, but it wasn't something she could tell them.

Starfire and Robin had stopped throwing the frisbee around and were just talking, and Raven could sense that soon they would spot the three of them and make their way over.

"It should go without saying-" Raven grabbed both Beast Boy and Cyborg by the arm, startling them. "But if either of you two so much as think about telling anyone what I told you, I'm going to scatter your atoms across the multiverse. After I make you learn your lesson."

The deadly serious tone in Raven's stole the two men's voices, and all they could was nod numbly.

With that, she turned on her heel, wondering what she would do about her feelings for Robin in the coming days.

"Rae? Hey, Raven! Wake up."

The young woman stirred and lifted her head, and Robin turned so he could look at her. He'd taken off his helmet, and his hair was tugged along by the slight breeze. Raven rubbed her neck, then took her helmet off as well, taking a moment to enjoy the cool breeze herself. "We're here?" She asked.

"Yep." He replied grimly. "Welcome to Gotham." He raised an arm to gesture in front of them, and Raven peeked around his shoulder, gasping as she took in the sight.

Gotham's skyline was lit up in the late night, but the pollution and fog obscured much of it. Unlike Jump City's mostly modern and more square shaped skyscrapers, Gotham's older designed buildings had much more pointed and artful protrusions, visible even from a distance. The clouds reflected the light unnaturally, giving the sky a red hue that was more crimson than any sunset she'd seen over the Pacific.

"Cool." Was all she said after a moment.

Robin chuckled and shook his head. "It's different, definitely. Though you won't think it's cool once you get an up close view. But that'll have to wait for a little while."

Raven sat back on the bike. "Why's that?" She asked, but there was more confusion than disappointment in her voice.

"Because-" Robin pointed down the road, where there was a single dirt path leading off the main highway. "We have to go to the Bat Cave first. I sent Alfred a message before I woke you; he's expecting us soon."

His jaw set, and Raven reached up and squeezed his shoulders. "Well, let's not keep him waiting." She felt him relax a little under her touch and though he didn't see it, she gave him a small smile.

"Right."

Donning their helmets, Robin started the down the path to the Bat Cave.