In the Beginning There Was Darkness

Chapter Eight

October 4, 2004

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Raven sat on the curved couch, book in hand and the welcome silence enveloping her like a warm, heavy blanket. It had been a long time since the woman was allowed the pleasure of quiet, and indulged in the sweet luxury.

The time was nearing two o'clock in the morning, and all seemed perfectly well in Titan Tower… all except Raven's new room. Her bedroom was still in disarray, and would continue to be so for the next few days. Thank you, Starfire, for your diplomatic approach to the dislike of another being.

"I thought I saw the light on."

Raven's eyes shot up from the page in front of her to gaze upon a stunningly handsome face. Her face flushed red for a moment as she realized a sudden problem: His face was completely naked. Robin wasn't wearing his mask, and this could prove to have some very interesting effects on the dark girl.

"Um… yeah…" Raven stuttered for a moment, quickly avoiding any eye contact. Gods, did she hate the emotion of love. There was no way for her to argue or banter with him any more, all because her cheeks flushed, she got tongue-tied, and things could blow-up. It really sucked having unstable powers sometimes. She moved her feet, from their resting position on the sofa, to allow Robin a seating place. He smiled politely and sat down next to her in acceptance of the greeting.

"So… um, I see you're still reading that book." Robin commented after a moment of slightly awkward silence. He noticed Raven's delicate and slender fingers were clasped around the pages of the book he had bought for her a while ago. It made him feel really special that she liked the book and was still reading it, he was a little afraid she wouldn't like it and forever mock him about it. Just the same, it was nice to know that he had done something for her.

"Oh, I'm just reading it again. I haven't really had the time to go to the library… you know it's really inconvenient living in the middle of a giant lake," The dark girl stated the last fragment conversationally.

"This is true," Robin said laughing. "Grocery shopping is no picnic."

Raven watched his eyes sparkle like newly polished emeralds, and it made her whole body weak with a strange emotion. What was it about Robin that made her so… crazy? Around any other person she would have felt completely normal and relaxed, but because of her… er, predisposed 'feelings' for Robin, she felt as though she were under constant scrutiny. And man did scrutiny really bite!

"So, what brings you here?" She asked, closing her book and setting it aside. She continued to try and avoid direct eye contact, lest she be turned into a beautifully crafted Jell-O mold. Her companion shrugged nonchalantly at her question.

"I saw the light on and thought I'd come and have a chat."

"A chat?" Raven arched an eyebrow and stared at him incredulously. "Over what?"

Robin laughed lightly, smiling his trademark smile at the dark woman. "Anything you want to talk about."

"Okay," she replied flatly. "I want to talk about why you're here at three in the morning, don't you sleep?"

"Don't you?"

Raven opened her mouth to retort, but realized Robin had gotten the best of her. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes in defeat. "Touché."

"Actually…" The green-eyed man looked away for a moment, as if reaching for something out of sight. "I was out yesterday, and came across a book sale. You know, I just found a couple things I thought you might like." Robin pulled out, from seemingly no where, a plain paper bag and handed it to her.

Raven looked at him, then at the bag and felt the strange sort of helplessness she always felt when a gift was offered to her. She wasn't used to being adored or showered with gifts, and always had trouble accepting such things. Fighting the strange sensation, she took the paper sack and noticed it was fairly heavy. "What is it?" She asked, looking at her unmasked companion strangely.

"Open it." Robin smiled slyly at her.

"If it's a shrunken head, I will hurt you," Raven replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, in that case…" Robin grinned as his dark friend shook her head at him.

"You're impossible," Raven sighed.

"Oh I know… you told me more than twelve hours ago."

"I'm just keeping you up to date." Raven smirked playfully.

"And I thank you, fair maiden. Now open your bag." Although Robin enjoyed their witty banter back and forth, he really wanted her to see what he had gotten for her. He was proud of the selections he made, and wanted her to be happy.

Raven pulled open the edges of the bag and pulled out four books. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the smile that peeled across her lips. Robin had bought her four new books to add to her collection; he was a smart one.

"So, I'm judging by your smile that you like them?" Robin teased playfully, feeling the fear ebb away.

Raven blushed a little, but nodded happily. "Of course I like them… but, you shouldn't buy me things, Robin." She set the novels in her lap and looked firmly at him. "It's not fair to you."

"I'll try and remember that," He replied calmly, ignoring her pleading completely. She truly didn't understand how wonderful it made him feel when she said she liked the books. He never wanted to shower anyone with gifts before, but he wanted to shower Raven. He had never wanted for anyone's happiness so much before.

Raven rolled her eyes at him again, then her attention turned to the volumes in her lap. She read all the titles silently to herself, and looked questioningly back up at Robin. "What are they all about?"

"Well…" Robin smiled, knowing he could use this explanation as an excuse to get closer to her; he had all of this planned. Choreographed, if you will, like a dance. He scooted across the couch to the fair maiden, and picked up the first novel from her lap. "Jane Eyre is about this young woman who ends up working as a governess in this man's household, Mr. Rochester. She falls in love with him, but finds out that he has a wife and keeps her locked up in the house because she's insane. She runs away and ends up living with a relative of hers… well, the rest of it enfolds from there."

Raven looked at him strangely, feeling very odd at being so close to him. She had forgotten how nice he smelled and desperately wanted her wrap herself up in his cloak… or arms. Preferably arms.

Her face flushed immediately and she thought she heard a glass break, but tried to give it no heed. Although she knew it was dangerous to be this close to Robin, she couldn't care. Through her whole life she'd been running away from her problems; fighting them off instead of facing them head on. And Robin was a problem she definitely wanted to face.

"Let's see…" He set Jane Eyre aside and picked up the next novel, this time making sure his chest was in contact with her upper-arm. The touch was electric to him, and if he hadn't been trying to flirt with the dark girl, Robin would have stayed in that position far longer than a few seconds. He glanced at Raven's face, hoping to see some sort of indication there. Suddenly, the superhero smiled slightly; was it just him or were her cheeks a fair shade of pink?

"Dracula, I remember reading this book a few years ago. I loved it." There was a pause as he thumbed through the pages, then looked back at Raven. "It's about this vampire who comes to England and begins to feed on the humans there. And it's got a bit of a love story in it."

"Wow…" Raven took the book from him, her eyes alight with sudden excitement. "Is it frightening?" She questioned innocently, looking up at Robin. He was taken aback by her beauty, and nodded slightly. He had almost forgotten what she looked like when she was excited; it had been a while ago when her eyes lit up like that. The last time Robin had presented her with a book.

"It's a little creepy," Robin said, after a moment to regain his composure, "but, it's worth it." He grabbed the second-to-last book and smiled suddenly. "Oh, I loved this book. I remember reading it last year. Don Quixote is a hilarious book about a man who reads so many knight stories, that he imagines himself a knight and goes on all these 'epic' adventures in the name of his love, who happens to be a bar whore. I thought it was great."

Raven looked at the book with a strange expression. "Um… okay."

"Don Quixote is kind of a satire of the people in Spain at that time," Robin explained, immediately recognizing the look on her face as 'why should I read this?'. "It's funny, but it's got a deeper meaning with history."

Raven looked at him with a blank expression for a long moment, before speaking simply. "You're well-read, aren't you?"

A light blush covered his cheeks and Robin shook his head. "Not really. Before I became a Titan, there wasn't much for me to do during the day, so I tended to read a lot. I got a lot of encouragement from the friend I was living with anyway."

Raven looked at him strangely for a moment, then spoke. "I've heard you speak several times of this 'friend', who is he?" She questioned bluntly.

Robin usually blushed or got angry when someone questioned his origins of a superhero, but this time he just smiled. "Someday, I will tell you all the things you want to know, Raven. But that day is not today." The dark girl was taken aback by his comment, but felt comforted by it. Someday she would know everything about him, and she liked that prospect.

He set Don Quixote de la Mancha a side and smiled as he picked up the last book. Swallowing hard, he looked at the cover, then at Raven and felt his breath catch in his chest. He had intended on using this book as a bridge.

A bridge for a kiss.

"This is Pride and Prejudice," He said, his voice a little softer than before. He felt his heart pound in his chest and his muscles seize up, as he leaned in a little closer to Raven, showing her the cover of the novel. "It's about this rich, haughty man who moves to this tiny English country hamlet, and slights the society there. But later he ends up falling in love with one of the women… and well, it all goes down-hill from there."

Raven looked at the book, then took it from his hands. "Haughty, like you?" She teased suddenly, looking up at her unmasked companion. She smiled playfully at him, before noticing the serious look at his face. Her face melted into concern, as she noticed his aura seemed very tense and nervous. "What is it, Robin? Is something wrong?"

"Elizabeth, in the book, reminds me a lot of you. She's smart, witty, and even snide sometimes. But, she still ends up being a wonderful person… and a beautiful character." His voice or expression never wavered or faded. He spoke the truth to the dark woman, looking into her eyes and never away.

Raven now noticed how close they actually were and felt compelled to pull away quickly. But she didn't. No, she sat there, as if frozen, and watched as Robin inched closer to her, his eyes fluttering close. Was she really going to let him do this?

His lips touched hers.

Oh yeah, there was no way she was stopping it now.

She leaned forward gently, and reached one hand up to stroke the smooth skin on his face, as she tenderly kissed him in response. Raven had never been kissed before, and wished she had met this boy years ago. He was… amazing. He was gentle and caring, but at the same time allowed for all of his feelings to pour through. Gods, had she been missing out.

Robin, on the flip side, thought he was going to just scream with pure enjoyment. He never thought Raven would let him kiss her, let alone actually kiss him back. His feelings right then were indescribable, and all he could do was smile.

After a moment, the two pulled away, blushing brightly. They looked away from one another and tried to say something neutral, but neutrality turned out to be silence.

"Um…" Robin said after a moment more, feeling his face turn redder. "I'm sorry… I probably shouldn't have done that."

Raven turned sharply to stare at him in shock. "W-why not?" She asked, her voice wavering slightly. Did he not care for her? Was the kiss some sort of sick dare by one of the other boys? Gods did she hate men! They never thought of anyone else!

"I shouldn't have violated your space. I didn't mean to push you to do something you didn't want," Robin whispered in response. "No matter how much I wanted it," he muttered that last part under his breath, but it was just loud enough for Raven to hear it, and she blushed instantly. So, he wanted to kiss her, that was good to know.

"Don't worry…" Raven whispered, leaning her head against upon his shoulder, "I wanted it too."

Robin looked down at her in surprise before smiling and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. His whole mind and body felt elated at what the dark girl had just said. She wanted him to kiss her, and so he had! Maybe there was going to be something between them, and he couldn't wait to find out what.

"So, what are you trying to say?" He questioned, pulling her closer to him and looking down at her.

"I'll let you figure that out," Raven whispered softly, as her eyes suddenly started to flutter close. She had never felt so warm and languid before, and found it hard to resist the urge to sleep.

Robin smiled, his own muscles beginning to relax at the warm feeling. "Well, I guess I'll just have to ask you tomorrow…" He whispered before his eyes closed.

Raven had the last laugh, by saying: "Or kiss it out of me…"

"I'll hold you to that…" Robin replied, before the both retired to a state of slumber.

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HI THERE! Sorry this got so long to get out, but I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I've got work, practice, parish mission, school, and all this other CRAP that I don't want to do… so I'm really trying to get it all done! There's only one chapter left, I think… so…

ANYWAY! I don't own Teen Titans (DUR!) and I hope you will all read my new Teen Titans story, which will hopefully be out SOON (and yes, it IS a Raven/Robin pairing!).

Review if you hated it, review if you loved it, try and swing my vote for either presidential candidate… just write me something! I love you hear from you!

Love: Xaph!