It didn't take long for Robin and Raven to find their first target.
After they'd left Gordon, they'd ascended to the higher rooftops and Robin tuned his communicator into the police scanner's frequency. In less than five minutes, there was a report about "suspicious activity" not far from where they were. "Let's go." Robin took off in the direction the call had come from, and they ended up perched on a roof overlooking one of the stops of the monorail. Peering down, the duo saw a group of several young men, some large and burly, others less muscular with hoods over their heads. The sound of the monorail approaching caused them to turn their heads. It came into the station with a high pitched screech, and the superheroes watched as three different people exited; one an adult male in a suit with a briefcase, the next a young woman chatting on her phone, and the last passenger was a teen with a beanie so low it nearly covered his eyes.
"Why does the monorail run so late? It can't be cost effective, and it's just asking for situations like this to come up." Raven said in exasperation.
"The monorail is run by Wayne Enterprises, and they get deals with the city for letting it run through the night." Robin explained, his voice quiet as he watched the businessman descend the stairs and walk past the group of thugs. One of them tapped his friend and nodded at the businessman, and the group laughed while staring at him. "It saves the city money on its public transport system, and it's better for the night life scene downtown. People don't get on here, but they get off since those-" He pointed behind the monorail, and Raven looked up. "Are apartments and behind them, smaller suburban houses mixed in. Lots of people get off from work or school and head downtown in order to relax before the next day."
The group of thugs stood up and started following the businessman.
"Let's go." Robin said.
The businessman, a middle aged man named Ray, had known better than to acknowledge the group when he'd descended the stairs and wisely walked past them at a brisk pace without so much as a word or a glance from the corner of his eye. Ray felt eyes on the back of his head, and he squared his shoulders and gripped the handle of his suitcase so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He slowed to a stop and turned around, only to see the group of thugs had followed him and were about forty feet away from him. Gritting his teeth, he realized it was too late as he overheard jeers and saw a few cracking their knuckles. "Hey, man!" One of the larger thugs approached him, "That was kind of rude to walk through us and not say anything, ya know!?"
Ray swallowed hard, debating what to say and when would be the best time to turn and run. If he was fast enough, maybe... "I didn't walk through any of you." He cleared his throat. "I walked past you."
"Yeah, well, my buddy here needs an operation. How's about some payback so he isn't in so much pain?"
One of the thugs let out a fake groan while the others laughed.
"He won't be the only in pain!"
The first thug looked up just in time to see a boot dive into his face. Robin landed and threw a birdarang, which sliced into the legs of two different men before it turned back to his hand. They shifted their weigh onto their good legs, and Robin stood as he drew his staff.
"No way! He's not been here in years!"
"That's not the real deal man, that's a cosplayer!"
"Whoever he is, he's gonna regret-"
The three thugs who were talking let out simultaneous cries of surprise as a dumpster wreathed in black shadow crashed into them.
The three who were left turned to see a pair of glowing white eyes in the shadows. "That feel fake to you?"
"Run man!"
"Let's go!"
Robin threw a bolas and it wrapped around one of the thugs legs, causing him to fall flat on his face. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven yelled, and a black shadowy claw rose out of the ground and grasped the second thug.
The remaining man fell down in fear, raising his hands over his head. "D-d-don't hurt me!" He cried, then let out a scream as Robin grabbed his wrists and cuffed him.
Ray watched the entire ordeal with wide eyes, and it wasn't until Robin and Raven walked up to him that he finally remembered to breath. He let out a loud exhale then shook his head. "Thanks. I thought I was gonna get mugged for sure."
"You're welcome. Call the cops and let them know what happened." Robin said.
"S-sure thing!" Ray said, pulling out his phone and dialing 911.
Robin turned to Raven. "Let's get out of here."
She nodded, and the two ascended once more to the rooftops.
Less than forty five minutes later, as they slowly moved from building to building, there came a report of an armed robbery by two criminals at a nearby 24/7 diner.
"C'mon, c'mon! Get the money out of the safe and put it into the bag!" The first criminal shouted at the waitress. She was distraught, eyes brimming with tears as the man pointed a pistol at her. The few unlucky patrons who were inside at the late hour were cowering beneath the tables in the hopes the man wouldn't turn the gun on them. Criminal number two stood just outside the entrance, his baseball cap and simple bandana mask concealing his identity.
"I said hurry!" The man picked up a plate and threw it at the wall behind the counter, where it exploded with a loud crash and caused the woman to scream. "I'm not going to say it again!" He cocked the hammer on his pistol, and the woman's tears began to fall as she stuff the bag full of money with shaky hands.
"Ah- Aaaaaa! Leo, somethings got me!"
Leo turned to his partner and saw him struggling with... something in the shadows beyond the diners entrance. "What's gotten into you?" He asked. "This isn't the time for stupid games!"
He felt a tap on his shoulder, and spun around to see Robin throwing his arm back. Before he could react, Robin swung and punched him in the face with enough force to send Leo flying into his partner. Robin jumped forward and landed with a heavy thud on the second criminal. It didn't take long for him to cuff their hands and tie them back to back. "You just won a stupid prize."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Robin turned and raised a brow as he saw the waitress hugging the life out of Raven. "I have two kids at home and I was so scared I wouldn't get to see them again!" She started sobbing, and Raven grimaced.
"Uh, there there..." She muttered as she awkwardly patted the waitress on the back.
"You'll be alright. Those two aren't going anywhere, except jail." Robin said as he stepped back inside. He was met with cheers by the patrons, and the waitress finally let go of Raven.
"How about something on the house?" She asked.
"No thanks. Someone else out there is going to need our help tonight." With a two finger salute he left the building, pulling out his grappling hook and ignoring the people wondering if that was the real Robin or not.
"You'd think that some people would be wise enough not to sell weapons in a brightly lit alley like this."
Robin nodded. "Unfortunately, most criminals aren't smart. That doesn't make them any less dangerous."
Beneath them, a white windowless van had its back doors open; a man in a white tank top was pulling out various firearms and handing them to another man.
"I dunno man, I need something automatic..." The buyer said.
"Don't worry about nothing, I got you all set." He put away the pump action shotgun and climbed into the van. "I got an Uzi, I got a rifle modified so it isn't just single fire, I got a-"
"AAAAAAH!"
The seller turned around when he heard a scream. His eyes were wide as he looked at the spot where the buyer had just been. It was totally silent except the wind, and his customer was nowhere in sight. "Hey man, get out of the car!" He shouted to his cohort in the passenger seat. The cohort loaded a pistol and got out of the car. Grabbing a full magazine and loading the Uzi, the seller cautiously stepped out side. He whipped his head back and forth, looking for anyone be it his customer or someone else, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Where'd he disappear to? Hey, toss me my phone so I can use the flashlight."
"Sure thing."
The seller waited a second, then two, then turned around. "What's taking so long man, it's on the-" He froze as he looked inside and saw nothing. Moving to the passenger side, he saw the door was still open and slowly approached. His footsteps seemed a thousand times louder in the silence, and he had to force himself to keep his breathing light. "Mark? Mark!" He whispered urgently, turning and looking for his cohort.
"Is this the guy you're looking for?"
The seller spun on his heel and raised his gun, ready to shoot the person talking to him, but his eyes went wide as he saw both Mark and the buyer tied together and suspended in the air by black shadows. "Oh, God!" The man cried out, shooting wildly into the darkness before turning and jumping into the van. He turned the keys and the engine came to life, and the seller immediately put the pedal to the medal. The van took off with a screech, but it had gone less than fifty feet before it began lifting into the air. The seller watched as the ground fell away while the dashboard turned as black as shadow and he let out a scream. "What's happening!?"
He felt impacts to the van, and turned his head wildly trying to figure out what had happened. Then, the van hit the ground again and the seller tried once more tried to floor it and get away, but the van rumbled oddly and the car refused to travel as fast as he was trying to make it go. Reloading and opening the door, he stepped outside and scanned the area with his gun. When he saw nothing, he turned around and saw that embedded into the tires were birdarangs. He knelt down and pulled one out, and air hissed out of the tire. The van shook with a sudden impact, and the seller looked up to see that Robin had landed on top of it. "Ever hear the saying, 'you get what you pay for'?" He asked.
The seller raised the Uzi a second too late; Robin back flipped behind the van, but the seller opened fire anyways with a yell in the hopes the bullets would go through and hit the hero.
When the gun clicked empty, his head snapped to the ground as he heard something clatter against the pavement, and saw three small balls roll to a stop next to his feet. They opened with a hiss, and in just a second the man was enveloped into a cloud of purple colored smoke. Coughing, he reached into his pocket looking for more ammunition, but couldn't find any and decided to pull out a switch blade instead. "Come on out, kid!" He pulled his tank top up to cover his face with one hand, trying but failing to escape the smoke that seemed to be everywhere he went.
He finally stumbled out of the cloud of smoke, his eyes and lungs burning as he took in fresh air, but it didn't last for long. Robin charged at him with a yell, and the seller turned and swung wildly. He easily countered each blow with his staff, and in a quick flurry of blows broke the mans wrist and slammed his head into the ground. "You just but twenty years in prison." Robin said as Raven descended beside him. She lowered the two other criminals she'd taken out earlier and Robin quickly went about tying them up and dropping a line to the police about the trio.
"I have to say, it's been awhile since I've heard gunfire." Raven admitted. "I'd forgotten how irritating it was to have this ringing in my ears." She raised her hands and cupped them over her ears and Robin watched as they were surrounded with a blue aura. A second later she lowered them and shrugged at him. "Much better."
He nodded. "Then let's get going. What we've stopped tonight is typical for a night in Gotham, but it's not over yet. The sun won't rise for a few more hours."
When they got back to the cave, it was near dawn. The sky was showing the first signs of shifting from black to blue, the clouds weren't as dark gray as they were earlier, and there was the beginnings of people getting ready to commute to work.
But the work of the hero hadn't stopped all night; they had started off a couple of hours after dark, and if Robin's communicator hadn't beeped and alerted him to the time, they likely would've kept going to daybreak proper. One alert after the other came across the Titan's communicators, and while they arrived at some after the police had already arrived, they were still exhausted from the several straight hours of crime fighting. "Alfred usually goes to bed when we go out patrolling." Robin explained as they got off his motorcycle and took their helmets off. "Which doesn't sound like such a bad idea." He said with a yawn and a stretch. "It's been a while since I've had to deal with so much crime in one night." He muttered to no in particular.
Raven was a few feet behind him, and raised a brow as she saw something off. "Hey, hold still." She put a hand on his shoulder and Robin turned his head to see that she was healing his arm.
"Oh. When did that happen?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Probably from that guy with the metal baseball bat at around two." She replied. Slowly, she lifted her hand, and the purple blotch was once again a healthy white. "Do you hurt anywhere else?" She asked quietly.
Robin didn't notice, but patted himself down from head to toe, then shook his head. "No cuts, no bruises, no bullet wounds; I'm alright. Thanks, by the way."
"You're welcome." She said with a dismissive handwave. Luckily, she'd been flying or attacked from the shadows all night, and very little had gotten within range of hitting her, all of which missed. "Let's go to bed."
The clouds blocked out the sun most of the day, and even if they hadn't, the blackout curtains in Robin's room would have provided adequate protection to let him sleep after through the day.
Sitting up with a light groan, he sat on the edge of his bed for a few minutes as he let the fog of sleep clear from his head, then stood and moved around the room, gathering various items needed for a shower.
After taking care of hygiene he made his way downstairs and stopped at the bottom as he heard the TV playing in the living room. Turning the corner, his brow raised in surprise as he saw Alfred and Raven standing together, watching the news. "Anything good on?" He asked.
The others turned as they became aware of his presence, and Raven gave him a smile. "Evening."
"Evening, Master Grayson. To answer your question, I'm afraid not. Actually, it's bad news."
"Why's it bad?" Robin asked as he stepped around the couch and stood next to Raven.
It didn't take him long to figure it out.
"Good evening Gotham, I'm Vicki Vale, and if you're just tuning in, a recap on last nights events: Our very own Boy Wonder has returned from Jump City. This security cam footage shows him apprehending three criminals that had been stealing tires from inside a parking garage." Robin groaned as he watched the footage play out. "And that's not all. It would appear his teammate known as Raven, a young woman with magical powers, has come with him." The news broadcast played another roll of footage, this time from a handheld phone. Raven was flying in an alleyway, throwing trash cans as Robin distracted two muggers on the ground. "We don't know why he's back, or if all of the- Teen Titans, am I getting that right?- From Jump City are here, but one things for sure: It seems this confirms our suspicions about the lack of Batman sightings in recent days." The broadcast placed a card on the screen that had the Bat Symbol covered with a question mark. "If Robin's here, then that begs the question: Why has he returned, and where is Batman?"
The Boy Wonder shook his head and turned the TV off. "Great." Robin sat on the couch with a thump. "Now criminals are going to go wild. The media just couldn't resist, could they?"
"Unfortunately, it is their job to report on major events. As much I wish we could have kept this matter discrete, the most important matter at hand is to find Master Wayne. Once he returns, Gotham's criminal underbelly will once again shrink in size." The butler stated.
"Alfred's right." Raven said. "We're not here to save the city, just Batman." Robin frowned, but nodded none the less. Raven could tell he still wasn't happy, and sat beside him on the couch. "We can get started tonight. Until then, let's go out into town. You can show me what Gotham's like through the eyes of a normal person, instead of as a crime fighter."
Robin shook his head. "Sorry, Raven. Things are only going to get more dangerous, which means we need to be ready. We need to train."
"Master Grayson!"
Robin turned his head at Alfred's sudden cry. "I thought you had been raised better by us than to turn down the invitation of a young woman!"
"Uh..." His brow furrowed as tried to figure out a way to respond.
Fortunately, Alfred wasn't going to give him a chance. "Sunset won't be for a few more hours. You can show Miss Raven around some of the better areas of Gotham and get dinner, then return here to prepare for the long night ahead of you. Go upstairs and change. While you were on your way here from Jump City, I purchased a few sets of civilian clothes for you. I had to guess your size since it's been so long, but there is something in there that fits, I guarantee."
Robin stared at him wide eyed, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Alright, fine..."
He disappeared out of sight, and Raven let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks for that." She said as she turned towards Alfred. "Sometimes he becomes so obsessive that it's impossible to get him to listen to others."
Alfred chuckle. "A trait he and Master Wayne share, I'm afraid. Even after all these years, he still gets in way over his head even when I urge him to take caution."
"You should have seen him in Jump City. One of the villains we fought against was called the Master of Games; he tricked Robin and the other two guys on our team into a 'friendly' tournament that nearly cost them their lives. It was only after he nearly lost and lost his friends that he finally realized winning isn't everything."
"Master Wayne would say it's the only thing that matters." Alfred said, and smiled as Raven snorted.
"Robin used to say the exact same thing."
"Then perhaps Batman should face against the Master of Games as well."
There was a mischievous twinkle in Alfred's eye that made Raven smile, but her expression fell as Robin returned to the living room. He was dressed casually, wearing dark blue jeans and sneakers, with a forest green t-shirt underneath a red hoodie. His hair, rather than being slicked back with gel like normal, had been rinsed clean with water and was now laying flat on his head, parted to the right.
But what shocked Raven most of all was the fact that he wasn't wearing his mask. He turned to her and raised a brow at her gaping expression, but Raven was too lost in her own thoughts to really notice his expression, or hear his question as he spoke. "Like a frozen river in winter, or an iceberg in the cold ocean..." All she could do was compare his frosty blue eyes to the places and things associated with Raven, but as he walked closer those thoughts faded from mind at the nearness of his gaze. A very intelligent, "Uh..." Came from her as Robin put a hand on her shoulder.
"Let me guess, you only packed your spare uniforms like I did, didn't you?" He asked, causing Raven's eyes to focus on what he was wearing, the swirls of pattern on his shirt that she hadn't noticed earlier.
"No, no." She cleared her throat as she figured out what he was asking. "I can do this- Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" She snapped her fingers, and was engulfed in a black sphere. A moment later it fell away, and Raven was dressed in entirely new attire. Rather than her cloak and leotard, she was now wearing a black half jacket over a navy blue blouse. Her usual blue boots had been replaced with black leather ones that complimented the new fingerless black gloves she was wearing. The jeweled belt that was normally around her waist was nowhere to be seen. A black skirt that stopped at mid thigh caused Robin's eyes to raise for a moment, but he realized she showed more leg in her leotard and probably wasn't bothered by it, and took a step back to take it all in.
"But does it have to look so good on her?" He coughed into his hand and tried to focus his thoughts on other things in case Raven was reading his feelings. "You look nice." He said.
"Thank you." She smiled and nodded. "So, where are we going?"
"We can go to Robinson Park. It's in the center of the city, so we can go anywhere from there." Robin pulled the keys to his motorcycle out of his pocket, but Alfred quickly snatched them out of his hands. "Hey!"
"Sorry, Master Grayson, but you're going out as a civilian, not a superhero, and you don't have license for a motorcycle. Unless I'm mistaken you don't have any type of license, do you?" When Robin rolled his eyes, Alfred nodded. "I shall drive you and Miss Raven there. I shall await your call to return when it gets late."
"Guess I'll be calling you Richard, then." Raven said as they made their way outside.
Robin shivered. "It's not that I mind, but it's been a long time since I've been called that."
"Then I guess I you can call me Rachel." She shrugged and looked at the sky. "Technically it's my birth name, but no one's called me that since I was small. I figured I could use it if we had to go undercover somewhere and I needed a less identifiable name than Raven."
"Rachel, huh? I didn't know that." Robin smiled at her, and Raven really wished she had her hood so that she could disguise her emotions.
She pushed back the thought that she didn't want to hide anything from him, and got in the car when Robin opened the door for her. "Thank you." She said as he got in beside her.
"Of course."
"Stay safe, you two." Alfred rolled up the window and drove away, leaving Robin and Raven at the entrance to Robinson Park.
"You know, sometimes I think Alfred secretly misses being a regular butler." He admitted.
"What, and miss out on all the fun and excitement of looking after a man dressed as a bat and a man dressed as you who go out and fight criminals in the middle of the night?" Raven asked innocently.
"Whaddya mean, 'dressed as me'? My outfit is iconic." Robin protested.
"You look like a traffic light." She retorted bluntly, and the two began walking along the sidewalk. Through the gated fence, they could see inside the park. It was sparsely populated, mostly with middle aged couples and a few groups of young adults. It was cold out, and while the wind wasn't blowing hard, it didn't help. Both Titans figured that once the sun was behind the skyscrapers and it actually got really cold, everyone would head home in a hurry.
As it was, they found a food cart that was selling hot chocolate and each bought themselves a cup. "Any interesting story about this park?" Raven asked as they sat next to each other on a bench.
Robin chuckled and shook his head. "Unfortunately, this was a park that got planned and constructed without the kindness of strangers added to it." He ran a finger around the lid of his cup. "It has been the site of several of Poison Ivy's attacks, however. Let's cross our fingers and hope she's not planning anything tonight."
They both looked around, afraid he had just jinxed them, but after several seconds free of explosions or earthquakes, they relaxed and Raven took a sip out of her mug. "Where'd you go to school?" She asked, trying to fill the silence and take his mind off the coming night.
"Gotham Academy. Only the best for Richard Grayson." He sighed as he dropped his head.
"That bad, huh?" Raven asked, trying to joke lightly so he would feel better.
He lifted his head with a tired frown. "Well, the classes weren't so bad, or the teachers. I always enjoyed learning so it wasn't hard for me to do well. But after Bruce took me in... Life on the road in a circus is a lot different that being the ward of a billionaire, know what I mean?" He looked at her and she nodded. "I never would have fit in there, but forcing myself to fit in- Dick Grayson become as much of a mask as the one I wear now." He admitted. "And then I would come home and change into my gear and go out to fight. It all felt so surreal. I didn't realize how exhausting it was to play the role of a normal person. I didn't think I'd ever have to go back to it."
Raven turned away from him. "Sorry." She mumbled.
She blinked as she felt Robin's hand on her shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong. Besides, I'm not really playing a role here, am I?" He asked.
"No, I suppose not." Her lips quirked for a second before she hid it by taking a drink.
"What about you, Raven? Er, Rachel? What was school like in Azarath?" Robin asked.
Raven looked up at the sky and hummed to herself. "I haven't been to a school here on Earth, but from what I've learned about them, the experience was completely different." One foot began tapping mindlessly. "My day would usually start off with meditation, followed by breakfast. Most of my lessons weren't about math or English, but about magic, its history, and its applications. Usually every other day I would end my studies by going out and exercising so I was in good shape, then I would eat dinner and after that my time was my own, for the few hours I had before bed." She closed her eyes, letting the wind tug at her hair as she thought back on her days as a child.
"You don't talk about it much." He noted softly.
"There's... Not really much to talk about." She said. "Me talking about magic is like you telling Beast Boy about theoretical physics. You might pick up some things, but most of it's going to go right over your head."
"What about the people, then? What are the customs of the Azarathean's?"
"...They're very formal." Raven said with amusement. "It was easy to offend them if you didn't mind your manners and abide by all the traditions when speaking to them."
"Ah, just like many of Bruce's colleague's."
Raven snickered and moved closer to Robin, so that their knees were touching. "I mostly tried to avoid them." She said quietly. The lights turned on the park, oranges and greens mixing with the pink of the sky, the short lived reprieve of dusk before night came. "They were very fatalistic, so after they saw the prophecy of my birth, most of them wanted nothing to do with me. Most days, it was just me and my mother."
"I didn't know we had that in common. Lonely childhoods." He clarified when she looked at him. "I had my friends at school, but like I said- Dick Grayson was just a character I played until I could go out and fight criminals. If I didn't have to be the ward of a billionaire and keep up appearances, I probably would have had a lot fewer friends. I never really went anywhere with them, or tried to bring them over to the manor. Right now, they all think I'm in a boarding school somewhere in Europe. If they remember I exist at all."
"Well, I can certainly think of a few of your friends that know where you are, and I'm certain they miss you horribly." She gently elbowed him in the ribs.
Robin laughed. "I am not looking forward to Star tackling me the moment she lays eyes on me, that's for sure."
"It is nice to get far away from it all, sometimes." She admitted. "No tuning out arguments over whose turn it is with TV or trying to get everyone to do their chores."
"I wonder how they're managing things back home? I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to turn the tower into a huge mess in the two days we've been gone."
"Oh please. We both know all they'd need is an afternoon without supervision." Raven shook her head as an amused smile formed. "I'm sure that things started getting out of hand the moment we left."
He sighed in exasperation, but Raven could tell he was just as amused by the thought as she was. "I don't even want to think about."
"Then, let's go get dinner. It's only getting colder out." She stood up, then after a split second internal debate grabbed his hands and pulled him off the bench. She let go before he said anything, then turned and began walking.
He led her through the streets of Gotham in comfortable silence, before he stopped at the double doors of a restaurant. It looked small and cozy, something Raven appreciated, and the words Daniel's Place were spelled out in blue neon in Broadway font over the entrance.
Grabbing one of the golden door handles and pulling the door open, Robin gestured for Raven to enter first. "After you." He said politely.
"Such a gentleman." She walked inside, and the greeter looked up and gave them an overly cheery smile.
"Hi! How many?"
"Just two." Raven answered. "We'd like a booth, please."
"Absolutely! Right this way!"
They were led through the restaurant, which was packed with the dinner rush; very few tables were open, and most had families of three or four sitting at them. At the far end of the restaurant from the door, there was a stage where a live band was playing oldies.
"Here you are! Your server will be with you shortly, okay?"
Waving at young woman, the duo sat across from each other. "Did you know about this place before coming here?" Raven asked as she pulled the menu free from the condiment caddy and handed one to Robin.
"I used to come here on my own. It's a great place to relax." Robin put away his menu and rested his chin on his hands, looking out across the restaurant. "The classics aren't usually my go to, but in certain situations..." He trailed off, and Raven was content to just watch the smile on his face as she felt him unwinding for the first time since they had come here.
"There are some places in Jump that play jazz and 50's music nightly that I've been to. Maybe I could show you to some of them." She offered.
"I'd like that." He nodded at her.
It was a moment before their waiter came out and took their orders, and a little while longer before their food came out, but once they finished Raven was struck by just how... normal things felt. It was strange to think about, but anytime the Titans went out to town to eat, she'd always been tense at the chance of a villain suddenly attacking. Even though the same was technically true here, more so actually since the villains in Jump City were locked away while the villains of Gotham weren't, for the first time since she'd left Azarath, it was incredible just how at ease she felt in that moment.
"This is nice."
The band began a new song, and after the slow jazz instrumental intro the woman began singing Fly me to the Moon.
"Fly my to the moon and let me play among the stars... Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and mars..."
"What's nice?" Robin asked, turning towards her and leaning back in the booth.
"This." Raven gestured to the restaurant, then pointed a finger between herself and Robin. "We don't usually go out like this, just you and me."
"In other words hold my hand... In other words, darling kiss me..."
Robin grinned. "It's hard when we're part of a team and the five of us do pretty much everything together." He agreed. "But you spend so much time in your room or in your books that when we have something planned, we have to come and get you and most of the time, you try to find some way out of it."
"That's because most of the time it's something plain and stupid that Beast Boy or Cyborg cooked up. But if it's something I'm genuinely interested in... Are you saying you wouldn't want to- ah, hang out because you think you're bothering me?" Raven asked neutrally, but her heartbeat betrayed her anxiousness.
"Fill my heart with song and let me sing forevermore... You are all I long for, all I worship and adore..."
"I wouldn't." Robin raised a brow. "But since when you have wanted to 'hang out'?"
"In other words please be true... In other words, I love you."
"I guess it's just hard to appreciate your company when we're surrounded by so many... large personalities."
Robin snorted and began laughing, which made Raven smile in return. "It is hard to hold a conversation with you when all the others are trying to talk over each other." Robin took a sip from his drink and his conversation with Alfred the night he arrived came to his mind unbidden. Slowly, he lowered his glass and looked at Raven, who was staring at him with that expression he'd had trouble reading for the past few days. "Ready to go?" He asked as he cleared his throat.
Raven's expression cleared and she nodded. "Sure."
After paying, they left the restaurant and Robin called Alfred to give him the address of where they needed to be picked up.
Idly, they wandered up and down the sidewalk as they waited. The sun had disappeared and the cold of the night had swept in fully, making Robin stuff his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
Raven stopped and watched him stare at the ground as he paced back and forth. "What can I do?" She asked herself as she clasped her hands behind her back. Robin stopped his pacing and stood beside Raven, looking down the street in an effort to see if Alfred was coming yet. "It doesn't have to be anything drastic. If I tried to take his hand now it'd just be weird." She turned so her profile was facing the street as well. An idea came to mind as she saw a couple on the side of the road, a woman with her arm looped through her husbands. "That would get his attention. And I could blame it on the cold."
She subtly closed the few inches between them and was about to lift her arm when the sound of a gun cocking made her blood run cold.
"Alright kids. Turn around, nice and slow."
"Damn it! I should have felt him coming." She cursed herself for being too focused on Robin and cautiously turned at the same time he did. He must have been hiding in the narrow alleyway between the two buildings, because the rest of the sidewalk was fairly open and nobody else was outside except for them.
"Shoulda been home in time for curfew. Alright, no screaming, no yelling, just pull everything out of your pockets. Cards, phones, jewelry, anything valuable, I want it all. And no funny business! You throw something at me and try to run for it I'm shooting on principle."
"Fine." Robin said in a steely calm voice. "We're reaching now." He elbowed Raven in the arm, and they began setting their stuff on the ground between them.
"I can't do anything when he's two feet away. My powers are fast, but they aren't that fast." She thought as she kicked her stuff over to the mugger.
He reached down and starting stuffing their belongings in his pockets. When he finished he stood up, looked between the both of them, then turned and made for the alley. Robin leapt at him and knocked him to the ground, while Raven used her powers to snatch the gun out of his hand, where it clattered against the pavement. She looked back to see Robin punching the man repeatedly in the back of the head. Her eyes widened as she ran forward and yelled, "Robin! That's enough!" She grabbed his arms by the biceps and pulled him back. "He's unconscious! Stop it!" She yelled as he tried to get free of her grasp.
She pulled him to his feet and pushed him back, standing between him and the unconscious criminal. He was breathing heavy, and she could feel the anger rolling off him.
There was a tense silence between them as they looked at one another, before Robin turned on his heel and walked back out to the road. Sparing one last glance at the criminal, she walked forward and stood beside Robin.
"He never should have gotten that close." He muttered as he angrily kicked away a piece of litter.
"It's my fault. I should've sensed him, but I wasn't paying attention." She tried to redirect his blame, but she could tell it didn't help.
"Doesn't matter. If we weren't trained to fight, he would've gotten away with robbing us, or worse-"
"We stopped him." Raven cut him off. "And we're both alright." She said gently.
"Maybe. But as soon as we get back, we're changing and going out. There are other criminals that need to be stopped before they hurt someone that can't protect themselves."
Alfred arrived before she could respond, and all she could do is hope that he would calm down on the way back to the manor.