There is supposed to be a difference between love and lust. You are not supposed to confuse one with the other; although similar, each are completely separate. Even the common human is gifted with enough intelligence to know one from the other and not mistake them. However, when the two collide, its hard to tell them apart. Love can come personified in one form, lust in another, and automatically the human mind thinks that the two are one in the same.
The sad truth is, though, that they aren't.
"I told you I'd come back to get my revenge, Robbie-poo! Now you know that my real boyfriend would do anything for his Kitten." The blonde girl had practically vanished from all of the Titans' thoughts; who needed to dwell on a harmless sixteen-year-old anyway? Apparently her threat was more real than they'd taken it for, and now both Killer Moth's rotten daughter and her spider-headed boyfriend were coming back to fulfill old vows.
The girl wasn't much of a threat, they all instantly realized; Beast Boy, transformed into a snake, easily coiled her up within his green scales and subdued her. The only weapon she'd had on her was an old ray gun that Fang, the boyfriend with an arachnid cranium, had used when the Titans had first encountered him.
When the sirens in Titans Tower had first started going off that Kitten and Fang had escaped from the city's jail, all five Titans scoffed. Now, hard pressed to keep the girl's wild boyfriend from lobbing off all of their heads, they were all rethinking their high-strung attitudes.
Robin, lunging in with his metal-shoed feet flying, got Fang on one side of his head – which caused a great grey glob of web to come flying out of his mouth. Raven had her hands up at the wrong time – preparing a spell that would have made the going easier – and had them conveniently bound, wrapped up in what looked like goo.
"Raven's got Fang loogie on her hands!" Beast Boy shouted from his position wrapped around Kitten. He had taken her to a line of trees on the edge of the city by the quarry where Terra had once ambushed Starfire and Robin.
"Thanks for reminding me," she shot back, glaring daggers at him as she attempted to pull the wad of goo off of her hands. Her powers, controlled through her hands, had no way of helping her now; Beast Boy was too engaged with keeping Kitten still to be of any use, and the remaining Titans were fighting Fang, who appeared to have learned some new tricks in jail.
Aiming out her own hands, Starfire shot off round after round of starbolts, trying to aid her companions in any way she could. Cyborg seemed intent on grabbing the spider-head's legs to keep him still so that Robin could beat the life out of him, but eight flailing legs were hard to keep still all at one time, and Cyborg kept getting thrown to the side.
Finally the half-human was thrown against one of the solid walls of the quarry from the wildly fighting legs and knocked his head against the stone, keeping him out of the game. Robin gritted his teeth; three Titans down and only two left to take down this weird spider-human hybrid.
"Okay, Fang; you're about to get braces," he muttered, whipping out his retractable pipe and whacking the teen in the face. Dazed, Fang took a step back before he resumed his leg-swinging. Starfire, hovering nearby, noticed that Raven, despite her lack of powers, was still trying to help.
Levitating, Raven held her glued-closed hands up in an attempt to catch one of Fang's legs in the mass of goo. A few times one of them stuck for a minute before ripping away, but she didn't seem daunted. Starfire smiled encouragingly at her before shooting off another mass of green globes, her eyes glowing with her fury.
Robin, still attempting to quell Fang's raging legs, was completely unaware that when he kicked one away, he actually kicked it at Raven, who'd been totally unsuspecting. She didn't have time to dodge the leg as it smacked her across the face, the force snapping her control over her levitation and pushing her far enough away that she fell over the side of the cliff.
"Robin --!" Starfire started, gesturing at where Raven had fallen. She, too, wasn't paying attention when the arachnid-headed teen swung at her, causing the alien to lose her focus and go plummeting over the edge of the cliff as well.
Robin threw himself away from Fang and ran to the head of the cliff, looking over the side for his two fallen comrades. The way to the sea crashing wildly below was long, but Raven was already a violet speck against the surf and Starfire wasn't far behind.
"Star!" he shouted, voice cracking; however, once the name left his throat, he saw Raven disappear beneath the waves. "Raven!"
Without any heed to his own safety, Robin pulled out a hookshot birdarang and shot up while jumping down. He felt the line catch on something on the cliff face and wasn't exactly sure who he was jumping after – at his vantage point, he could either save Starfire before she fell into the water or Raven, already submerged.
Time seemed to slow as the two girls raced around in his mind. Both of them – lust and love, the two are one in the same, but how did he know he felt anything for Raven at all? As of late he'd been protecting her more and more without realizing it, catching her as she stumbled or fell; also, she'd been chancing more times to help him up after a fall or lay a comforting hand on his shoulder throughout the trying series of events with Terra.
But Starfire...wasn't she always there for him? When he had found out that she was betrothed, he nearly lost it, but was that because he felt she was too beautiful to wind up with such a pile of slime? Or had it really been love taking over? Somehow he couldn't pitch Starfire's beauty against love; however, he couldn't associate Raven with lust in the slightest.
Before he knew it he was underwater, his hair slicking back against his skull from the force of the impact. Raven's cloak was more of a hindrance now than ever before; it entrapped her petite body like a cocoon. From out of nowhere one of his blades appeared; he grabbed one of her hands, yanked her towards him, and used the sharp edge to quickly sever the rest of the cloak from the thick collar. Then, with one hand still firmly on the handle of his hookshot, he grabbed her around the waist and hit the release.
The water had washed away Fang's slime from Raven's hands, which suddenly found his upper arm and clamped down tightly against the red sleeve. Robin chanced a look down at her, soaking wet and with the ragged remains of her cloak hanging miserably around her shoulders. She seemed thoroughly shaken, her eyes uncharacteristically wide, and Robin had to thank her somehow for admitting that she had been afraid; all sorts of strange things might have happened if she hadn't.
The hookshot had locked around a jutting rock just below the edge of the cliff. They hung there for a few seconds before Raven regained herself and levitated, using Robin's arm to carry him the foot or so back to the quarry.
The Titans immediately looked to Fang – secured by Cyborg and, to Robin's utmost and guilty surprise, Starfire. Raven going over the cliff and him rescuing her couldn't have been more than a total of two minutes, but apparently Starfire had rescued herself and had fought back with an astounding fury that resulted in Fang being captured."Booya! Once again, Cy delivers where the rest of you fail," the half-human boasted loudly, grinning maniacally. Robin was hardly paying attention to him, though; Starfire wouldn't make eye contact with him, and her wet hair and dripping clothes gave the impression that she'd either fallen into the water or had gotten hit by Fang's web that somehow magically turned into water. It seemed more plausibly the first.
Robin should have gone over to her and apologized. He should have taken her hands and said that Raven had little control over her powers with her hands bound and she was closer to the water. He should have told her over and over again that he would have gone after her had Raven not been immobile.
But for some reason, he just couldn't.
Raven's hands were still closed over his arm, and he didn't want to break the contact. Maybe all of those instances when she'd touched him in a small way or aided him in standing back up again were happenstance, but he found himself wishing they weren't; he also backtracked to the Hive, to when they messed with Terra's mind and had to fight the Plasmus-Cinderblock-Overload hybrid as a result. He had caught her, had needed to catch her so she wouldn't get hurt, so Raven would not get hurt.
Starfire didn't cross his mind.
"Wake up, Robin! We need to get these guys back home to their cells!" Beast Boy called, now reverted back to his green-skinned human self with Cyborg holding Kitten tidily under his arm. Robin nodded distractedly; Raven still hadn't let go of his arm.
He turned to her, gave her face and upper body a once-over. "Are you okay?""Yes. Thank you," she added. Then, as if realizing for the first time what she was doing, she let him go and started walking away. Robin easily caught up to her and grabbed her elbow. She turned to him, clearly startled but not showing it.
"You're welcome."
Fin