: - Sweet Charade

She could read his emotions. It was strange, not being able to determine what you felt and having the ability to nearly read the mind of another. She didn't have telekinesis, not in the slightest, but she could tell if someone was blatantly angry or upset, and the stronger the emotion, the more clearly she could read it. Closeness helped, as well as contact, and if she could tolerate the one she wanted to read more than others, their emotions became words in her head, like a book of what they were thinking. It wasn't their thoughts exactly, but more like waves of energy, of emotion, that became their own selves. Her natural abilities to crawl into someone's mind also helped in whatever this power was called, but she had always used it sparingly before. Now it overwhelmed her, resembling a tidal wave.

Let down your mask let me see you I can't tell what you look like you won't open up please let me see what's happening I want to help I want to do something for you don't close up on me I'm only trying to help I'm only trying to make myself useful please tell me the truth for once for once let me see the true you...

His expression said nothing of all this, of course. His face was as cold and perfect as untouched snow; he was undisturbed and untroubled on the outside, and yet turmoil was beating him to a bloody pulp on the inside. It wasn't really turmoil, Raven decided; it was more of a pleading, imploring kind of attitude, like you really wanted to look at the answers in the back of your textbook but your morals held you back. He wanted to flip through her until he found what he was looking for, but she was never willing to turn her own pages.

"Raven?" Robin seemed confused. He played the part very well, tilting his head slightly and giving his unreadable eyes an almost caring gleam. She didn't want to think about what it meant if he wasn't pretending, if her hand on his arm was just her imagination, if he and Starfire were still 'meant to be' and he had not told her that destiny could laugh in your face just like every other person. "Is something wrong? You're shaking."

She realized detachedly that her hand, resting on top of his glove, was quivering slightly. It seemed strange to her that she was touching him at all. Where were they? Why were they alone? The air tasted salty, she noted, so they must have been out on the training grounds of Titan Island. But then where was everyone else?

"No," she began slowly, and found herself shocked that her voice was not emotionless at all. It felt scared in her own throat, and she knew he noticed too. He drew just an inch closer to her, and she felt her heart hammering her chest. She had felt something before – just two weeks before – and had felt it before then, months before, maybe even a year or two – the flicker that she couldn't name. She knew what it was, and was loathe to accept it. Did that prove that she completely could not control her own powers?

A black robin was perched on one of the stationary targets a few feet behind the teenager named Robin. It chirped at her innocently, and the pairs of red eyes on either side of its head blinked almost cutely. Her own eyes widened. She'd seen something like this before – she hadn't acknowledged her fear of that stupid movie. She didn't do fear, and she knew it, but did she also not do love?

"Are you alright? You seem really nervous about something," Robin pestered, turning the hand she held up and gripping her wrist. Her violet eyes shot down to where his fingers wrapped over her glove, and the movement of her head that accompanied it sent her hood flying backwards. She was visible to him, now; he could see her.

Only he couldn't.

It all seemed very strange to her then. Where were the other Titans, her friends, his friends? Were they back in the Tower, or getting food, or fighting another of Slade's minions? Why were they alone together? The questions seemed more irrelevant by the second to her as she realized her close proximity to him, how she could practically feel his breath on her face and the acute pressure that his fingers had on her wrist. If she didn't prove it true, that yes, she felt more than just friendship for someone she had always denied, something would happen similar to the events of when her fear had taken control of her. However, if she unleashed what she truly felt as well, would that cause an eruption as well?

Robin didn't seem to care about such frivolities as the effects any intimate contact would have on her powers. Apparently she wasn't delusional that his eyes held more than just friendly concern, or that the night in the hallway he had looked upset that she hadn't shared his supposedly weird dream. Then his premature break-up with Starfire hadn't been a whim, and she had been seeing more of him lately than she ever had before...

He seized the initiative, slowly bringing his free hand up to gently cup the back of her neck and moving even closer to her, something that would have had her backing away if it were even a day before. The hand that wasn't captured in his slowly came up to brush against his face, and he smiled hesitantly, the last formation of his lips before they came crashing down on her own. Her eyes popped all the same, even though she had expected it; she was sure that her heart had torn out of her skin, and the hand that had so confidently traced across his fair skin froze above his right shoulder, a bit of black energy already in the center of her palm.

I am in love.

She admitted it to herself mentally so that she wouldn't have to back away from Robin, who seemed as natural filling her vision as the landscape of her mirror. Her eyes fluttered closed as she realized the stupidity of the thought.

If I wasn't in love, I wouldn't be in this position right now.

Raven and Robin. It seemed odd saying it to herself; Robin and Starfire had always been the natural course of events. Why now was it two Rs instead of one? She felt stupid for thinking this way, because she knew that it was her hormones wreaking havoc on her newly-unleashed emotions. And yet they were controlled, because she admitted it.

When he pulled away from her after what seemed like a century, Raven felt as if someone had drained the happiness out of her. She let out a huge breath, her arms dropping limply to her sides, and her eyes opened and focused on the ground. Now she remembered: Beast Boy and Cyborg were in an online video game contest, and Starfire was providing them with enough junk food to keep them awake for the entire thirty-six hours that the contest was going on. The last time she had seen either the shifter or the half- robot, both of them had circles under their eyes (or eye) as dark as Robin's hair and had half-crazy smiles on their faces.

"What was that?" Robin whispered, slowly lifting his hand from the back of her neck to run his fingers through her smooth, untangled hair. It felt strange, and she felt her breath catch slightly. She forced herself in a mental rendition of her chant ("Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos") as she attempted to once again gain control of her emotions.

"A kiss," she deadpanned, and he laughed, a sound she cherished.

"I realized that," he said, still chuckling. "What I mean is, since when do you and I...?" He broke off uneasily, pulling his hand effortlessly (and somewhat regretfully, she noticed) out of her hair and moving a few inches away. She shifted uncomfortably, turning her eyes away.

"We've both been acting strangely lately," she began, never one to beat around the bush. "I've been...well, obsessing over you, for the past year or so, but I always thought it was a shot in the dark since there were " She left Starfire and her zany powers unsaid. "I just never thought it would work out – or that you...in the first place."

Robin sighed, and several long minutes of silence passed between them. The tension was so tangible that Raven thought that she could have cut it with a knife. Finally Robin deigned to say something.

"So what do we tell everyone? That we're in love and are gonna run away to the Bermuda Triangle to live happily ever after in a world of Caribbean, Slade-free bliss?" he asked, totally serious. She cracked the smallest of smiles, which made him smile in return.

"I don't think we would get off that easy," she replied, looking towards the Tower. Robin rubbed a finger along his chin. It was foreign – extremely so – to be standing with a guy you just kissed and discussing what the forecast for the next Slade-invasion would be. It was even stranger to kiss him right off the bat without even realizing your feelings were reciprocated in the first place.

"Well...wanna go for pizza instead?" he offered, shrugging. Raven's smile widened just a tad, and she crossed her arms, levitating slightly in the air.

"Why not?" she asked. "It's a start."

Hmm. That had to be the suckiest ending/chapter in the history of the world. Plus the fact that it's mega-super late and nobody'll end up seeing it. Ah well. Just want to thank everyone who took the time out to review this piece of crap and that you all made it worth my while I was gonna trash this halfway through when I ran out of ideas, but you guys kept me going. (If that's why you think from chapter three on is crap, then that's why.) Hope you enjoyed it, and just remember:

Raven/Robin forever!!

--Ellyrianna