Chapter Five :: Left Alone
Raven rose late the next morning. Staying up till all hours of the morning talking with your emotions can take quite a bit out of you. She got dressed and went to the kitchen to find Starfire filling the tea kettle with water.
"Good morning Raven! I hope you had a wondrous sleep! I heard you had risen and thought it would be helpful for you if I began to prepare your morning tea!" Star said at the sight of Raven in the kitchen.
"Thanks Star" she said between a yawn.
"Hey Rae! I made you some real food, none of BB tofu-shit ("Hey!" BB says in the background before going back to the videogame). I left it in the microwave for when you got up." Cyborg informed her over his shoulder as he played against BB in another of their racing video games.
"Thanks Cyborg" Raven called off to him as she took the whistling kettle off the stove and began to mix the teabag with the water in her cup.
She looked over across the room. Robin was sitting near the stereo, looking out the window at... well.. nothing. Robin was trying his best not to look anywhere near Raven. He didn't want her to see the pain in his eyes. He could feel her looking at him, but he didn't want to see her, he didn't want to have to feel the pain of what he had said last night. He didn't want to see how she would react to him.
"I'm going out for a run" he said out to no one in particular before rushing out into the elevator to get to the outside.
Raven sat down to eat the breakfast Cyborg had prepared, while Starfire began the dishes. Raven really didn't feel much like eating, but she was too hungry not to.
Outside Robin was running laps around the tower. He felt so stupid. He couldn't believe he had told Raven that the kiss was a mistake.
'Great job Robin! Now you will have driven her away for sure. There is no way she will want to be with you now. You tease her with a kiss and then practically tell her it didn't mean anything to you.' He stopped and looked up at the tower. He could see her shape at the window, looking out to the water. She didn't see him. She was gazing to the sky, to the horizon, trying to gather her thoughts.
"She's too good for me" he said aloud to a nearby bird that had landed at a rock to look at him. 'Too good for me' the thought depressed him. He was certain he had lost any chance he may have with her, and he wanted to cry because of it. He tried to stay strong, but a single tear ran down his left cheek. He wiped it away and began to run again.
Half an hour later, tired and out of breath he walked back into the tower. Once off the elevator he went straight off to shower, ignoring everyone who might've tried to interrupt him. No one bothered him. They were all sitting on the couch watching a commercial that happened to be on.
The commercial was advertising a new cinema that was having a grand opening special. For the cost of one movie you could stay and watch the 10 features they would be showing that day. They would begin showing the features at 2pm and they would be open through the night. They even offered free refills on popcorn and soda as long as you bought the more expensive sizes.
Cyborg and Beast Boy got large smiles on their faces.
"We are so there baby!" Cy called out, high-fiving his teammate.
"So what about you two? Wanna come with?" BB asked his female teammates, his eyes shining with delight.
"I would love to go with you for the marathon of moving pictures friends!" Star said excitedly.
They huddled around Raven, hopeful she would join them.
"Eh... sorry. Maybe next time. I think I should meditate tonight, I haven't done it much lately..." She said somewhat nervously, afraid of their reactions. When they only gave off a slight look of disappointment, she stood up to fix herself another cup of tea as the other three talked excitedly amongst themselves. Robin came in to the room to grab the newspaper only to be practically attacked by Star, BB, and Cy.
"Hey Robin! Wanna come to the new movie theater with us to see the movie marathon!?" BB asked him excitedly.
"Sorry guys. I think I'll skip this one. I want to see if I can dig up any new Slade leads" he lied. He didn't want to do anything except stay home and think things through. He wanted to either find a way to get Raven out of his heart, or a way to express his feelings to her.
"Alright dude, your loss. Your stuck home with the Goth Queen then" BB said before rushing off to the couch with Star and Cy so the could talk more about the marathon.
'She's staying home?' Robin thought to himself, allowing his eyes to look over to Raven's figure. Her back was turned as she fixed her tea. 'What a perfect situation! Maybe I can get her to talk to me, maybe I can... tell her how I feel.'
Raven couldn't be happier that he wasn't going to the movie marathon with the rest of the team. This could be the perfect opportunity for them to talk, and straighten things out.
The next few hours went by fairly normal. Starfire wedged herself between Cy and BB as they played the gamestation to help referee if they began to fight. Raven went off to her bedroom saying she wanted to meditate and that she needed left alone. Robin had run off to the market. He decided that there wasn't enough food in the kitchen. No one complained when they thought of the blue fuzzy things in the fridge that seemed to have a life of their own.
Robin couldn't have cared less what they had to eat, he wanted to do something special for Raven. He felt terrible about what he had said and wanted to make it up to her, so he had gone to the market to buy the ingredients to make her favorite meal. Robin was a wonderful cook. He didn't cook often because he felt that he would be teased. When he lived in Gotham City, when he lived with Bruce Wayne, Bruce's butler Alfred had taught him a thing or two about how to cook. Alfred said it wouldn't be right for him to move to Jump City and not know how to cook anything for himself.
He bought all the ingredients he would need. He would go home and make Raven her favorite Chinese food. Chicken and broccoli, steamed rice, Lo mein noodles, lemon chicken, and even a cheesecake for desert.
He arrived back at the tower about a quarter after two. He went inside to find Raven alone in the kitchen.
"Raven?!" He said with surprise in his voice, nearly dropping his parcels.
"Hi Robin" She said, trying her hardest not to show any emotion. She had spent the past few hours trying to think of a good way to get them in a situation where she could find out if he felt for her, as she did for him.
"Everyone left already?"
"Yep, a little while ago" she replied.
"Oh..." he said coming over to set the groceries on the counter, careful not to allow her to see the contents of the bags.
They stood in silence for a little over 3 minutes before he got the courage to shoo her out of the room.
"Well... Off to your room then, didn't you say you were going to meditate? Ill cook dinner, want to be left alone while I do if you don't mind. Ill call you when it's ready" he was talking at a rapid pace as he gently guided her out of the kitchen into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. The kitchen door hissed shut and she stood there dumbfounded. 'Must not want me in the kitchen' she thought and with a sigh, retreated to her bedroom. She decided she would talk with him over dinner, and see if she could get anything out of him. She sat on her bed and began to meditate.
Robin was back in the kitchen preparing a meal even Alfred would be proud of. He set the table with some of their nicer plates and flatware, he lit two candles that he had bought and allowed them to begin to burn down a little. Ten minutes before dinner would be ready, he went upstairs to give Raven a heads up. The lemon sauce needed to simmer for a few minutes so it gave him time to change.
"Raven" he called out after knocking on her door a few times. "Dinner in ten!" and then he walked off to his own room.
Raven came out of her trance and decided she should look a bit nicer for this. Perhaps if she looked too pretty for him to accept she could get him dumbfounded enough to tell her how he felt. She went to her closet and ditched her normal leotard and cloak in exchange for a pair of black pants that hugged her hips, but were wide in the legs, and a lavender shirt that Starfire had bought for her. The shirt was not nearly one that Raven would wear often. It hung off the shoulders and was quite tight in the chest area, not to mention a tad low-cut. She put back on her boots and went over to her dressing table and spritzed herself with the lavender body spray she had borrowed from Star's side of the bathroom cabinet. She swiped on a little chap stick and stood back to look at herself. 'Well.. It's not how I normally would look, but I think it will get his attention' she thought to her reflection.
Meanwhile in Robin's room, Robin was wandering around in his boxers looking for his khaki pants. He found them and put them of with a black polo shirt and some semi-formal dress shoes he happened to own. He swiped on some cologne and combed his hair. He didn't take off his mask, he seldom did. He did a quick spot check in the mirror before heading down to the kitchen.
He was fixing her plate when Raven came into the kitchen. She took one look at the table and what he had done and was left breathless. He set her plate in front of her seat and walked over to her smiling.
"Like it?" He asked her.
She couldn't speak, she was shocked. She did manage to give him an inquiring look with a light smile.
"I felt bad about yesterday. What I said to you last night, I... I shouldn't have. But I just didn't know what else to say..." his voice trailed off as he looked down towards the floor. She noticed he had pain in his eyes. Before she could say anything though he had snapped out of his trance was leading her over to her chair by her shoulders. He walked out ahead and held her chair for her before sitting down beside her.
"Hope you like it. I think I remembered your favorites" he said with a smile.
They talked lightly through dinner, not mentioning what had happened between them. Just talking about little things, the weather, what they thought the team should do over the Christmas holidays, what they should get Cyborg for his birthday the following month. Anything they could think of.
Before they got to desert they had begun to fall for each other far more than either of them thought possible. They were both realizing how wonderful of a couple they would be if they were together. Their personalities just blended so well together. Robin could tell that under the cold shell she walked around with, Raven was capable of being a warm and caring woman. Raven could tell that Robin would be exactly what she could ever need. He would never reject her, or make he feel bad about anything. He would be the type to be loving and protective over her. That was what she wanted. She wanted him. And he wanted her.
They finished their desert and as they were working together to clean up the dishes it was all Robin could do to contain himself. He loved her. He had just spent a good portion of the evening with her and he didn't want that to end. She was walking over to the sink and put his arm out in front of her to stop her. He took the plate she was carrying and put it on the counter behind him. He took two steps towards her and she couldn't help but hold her breath. She knew what he was about to do, she knew what was coming. As much as she wanted it, she wasn't completely ready for it.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her gently into his body in a tight embrace, rubbing his hand up and down her back and he held her. She laid her head on his shoulder and breathed deeply. He smelled so nice. He lifted her chip up so that she was looking into his eyes, leaned in, and he kissed her. The kiss was warm, inviting, and far more passionate than before.
'Would he kiss me if he didn't care for me?' Raven thought to herself as she allowed the kiss to fill her with a joy she hadn't felt before.