Hee hee...someone actually requested another chapter to this...giggle

This is dedicated to the fabulous femme fatale fabricator of famous fanfiction :

Artemisgirl! ''''''''

(Who was so kind as to suggest this story, and provides me with never-ending inspiration and encouragement.)

Presenting...

'Letter, pt 2'; or 'Perhaps I should have spent the evening with my tennis racket, instead of writing that letter...'

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Raven was upset. She was still hurting from the cruel emotional wounds inflicted on her by Malchior. Even though Beastboy was sweet to demonstrate concern for the dark girl, it was entirely beyond reason to consider the changeling as someone with whom she could truly express her grief.

Cyborg was a good friend, and would probably understand, but he busy fussing over his stupid car.

As for Starfire-well, suffice it to say that Raven was not up for that much conversation...

The sorceress headed up to Robin's room, hoping that he had some time to spend with her today. He, at least, would be sensitive, but would not patronize her, either.

She knocked on Robin's door, and was surprised when it opened at her touch. Calling her friend's name softly, she ventured into the Boy Wonder's sanctuary. It did not appear that he was there, and Raven turned to leave, when a carelessly discarded paper on the floor by his dresser caught her attention. At second glance, perhaps the paper had not been meant for the floor: it was expensive-looking pastel stationary, and the writing on it was careful, elegant script.

The temptation was too great. Raven was careful to hide emotions, but that did not preclude her from being curious, especially about her friend's love life. The paper looked to Raven like it might be a love letter, such as she yearned for herself.

With a simple gesture, the letter deposited itself in her hand. Sighing softly, her eyes focused on the top of the page...and quickly grew to the size of saucers. It was a love letter; a well reasoned, and yet passionate confession of devotion. Was it possible that this elegant plea was penned by Starfire? She quickly skipped to the bottom, looking for the author's name, but the writing covered the full side of the stationary. She flipped the paper to view the obverse, and gasped. The letter was signed by-her!

Of course, Raven knew that she had not written any such document, but someone else had, using her name. The goth-looking girl felt an impossible mixture of emotions welling up within her: indignation; fear; humiliation...longing. Who would do such a thing? Who, but her teammates, knew her well enough to portray her accurately enough to make the letter seem genuine?

Raven took a few deep breaths, and concentrated on fighting down the emotional turmoil within her. When she felt a bit calmer, she went back and read the section of the letter that she had previously skipped over. This section was even more disturbing, as it described her fears that she would never be able to find love in this life. Thinking about one of her friends doing this to her brought tears to the eyes of Raven, who prided herself on her ability to hide her feelings from others. Why did someone want to hurt her again; humiliate her to Robin, and create hard feelings in Starfire? Who would be so cruel?

Then it occurred to the dark temptress that such a letter could have come from one of the Titan's enemies. There were some who knew a great deal about Raven and her comrades; it could be an attempt to generate dissent among the Teen Titans, she reasoned.

Raven replaced the letter where she found it, and went to the rooftop to meditate.

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Dinnertime rolled around shortly, and all the Titans gathered for delivery pizza. After Cyborg and Beastboy finished fighting over the last slice, Robin began clearing away the dishes, and washing up. The boys drifted off the the television, and Starfire flew off to take a shower. Raven took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. She knew she had to talk to Robin.

Robin spotted her and turned to face her. "It's cool, Raven, you don't need to help; I'm almost done already." He smiled at her. "Thanks, though."

"I didn't really come to help." Raven said awkwardly toying with her cape. "I need to talk to you."

"Sure, I'm always here for you-what's up?" Robin tried not to show his nervousness. He was comfortable around Starfire: she was a good friend, but not really girlfriend material in his mind. When Raven was near, however, he tended to get butterflies.

Raven looked to be deep in thought, but she was trying to hide her guilt at invading Robin's privacy. "Umm-I was looking for you earlier today, and I went in your room..." her eyes darted around, not fixing on Robin's face. "It was open-I didn't mean to intrude, but I really needed to talk." She looked at her leader's face, trying to decide how to continue. "Sorry."

"Hey, don't worry about it Rae; it's not like you were snooping, or anything." The Boy Wonder replied, seemingly unconcerned.

"Yeah. Well, I only stopped in the doorway to see if you were in, and there was this paper on the floor-fancy paper." She stole a quick glance at Robin again, but she couldn't see his pupils dilating. "I um, kind of checked it out..."

Robin's mouth went dry. He slumped to the floor, clasping his hands together, to try to stop their shaking.

Raven was expecting something like this. If Robin didn't like her, he probably would have already mentioned it to her. "Robin?" She whispered, kneeling next to her friend. "I-I didn't write that letter." She knew her words must be hurting Robin, but there was no easy way to do this.

Robin opened his mouth, trying to speak, but nothing came out. Raven watched sorrowfully, as he buried his face in his hands.

"Robin..." She laid a hand lightly on his shoulder, causing the boy to shudder.

"I know," Robin croaked.

Raven didn't understand. "What? What did you say?"

"I...know you didn't write that," Robin managed, a little more clearly. "You weren't supposed to see that," he finished, sounding miserable.

"What? How did you know?" Raven seemed genuinely surprised. "Have you found out who wrote that? I was worried it might be part of a plan to break up the Titans..."

"No..." Robin spoke to Raven, but he could not bring himself to face her any longer. "I didn't mean for anyone to ever see that."

"Why?" Raven asked. "I think I deserve to know who would do something like that; It could have caused a real problem!" Her eyes took on a slight sheen. "Who did this? How do you know?" She demanded.

"I did," Robin breathed.

"What-what did you do?" Raven pressed for answers.

"I wrote it." Robin stated flatly. "I can't believe I did that-so stupid..." he muttered.

Raven flinched, as most of the loose objects in the kitchen rattled, the sounds of breaking glass joining the mix. The dark girl, flashing a brief look of fear, fled the kitchen. She didn't know where she was going, and didn't care; she just needed to get away for a while and think.

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Robin found her a few hours later, sitting on the shoreline behind the Tower. He was scared to death of what Raven might do, and humiliated, to boot; but he felt a responsibility to the dark girl, regardless his fantasy becoming an object of ridicule. He stopped five paces short of the quietly contemplative Raven.

"Why are you here?" the sorceress asked dully. "Are you going to make fun of me now?"

"What do you mean?" Robin was taken aback. "I'm the one that made a fool of himself."

Raven turned to look the Boy Wonder in the eye. "Do you really think I am so cold and unfeeling as you made me seem in that letter?"

Robin was shocked to see what looked like sadness in the eyes of the demon-girl. "I-I don't know. I mean-I wish I did know." Robin's face flushed: his words were not coming out right.

Raven turned to leave. She wasn't going to let someone hurt her again.

"Raven-wait!" He ran after her, and grabbed her hand. He immediately realized that had been a bad idea, as Raven wheeled to face him, snarling. Of the few things Robin feared, Raven was two of them: he feared her anger, and he feared telling her how he felt about her-although it seemed a bit late to worry about that. He released her arm. "Sorry., heh heh." Boy Wonder wiped a drop of sweat off his brow. "I wrote that letter because I was afraid. I was afraid to find out what you really thought of me." He stopped, waiting for a reaction from the dark girl.

Raven continued staring at him, arms crossed, expressionless. Unless you consider the way she looked at Beastboy when he was being particularly annoying an 'expression.'

Robin swallowed hard. "I was kind of trying to convince myself to forget about you; and me..."

"Umm," Raven raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think you should have asked me, before deciding how I felt about you? Or do you really prefer acting like an immature idiot, and humiliating yourself; besides making me feel like I have been played for a fool?" Raven got right up in Robin's face, causing him to blush even more.

The fearless leader of the Teen Titans, nearly quaking in fear, wished for nothing more than to be able to become invisible.

Raven got even closer. She leaned in to one side, and gave her teammate a quick peck on the cheek. "You know, you're cute when you blush like that." With a flip of her cape, she turned and headed for the roof door, laughing gently to herself. "If you want to know what I really think, you should ask me sometime," she called over her shoulder.

( End of story...)

Whee...wasn't that fun? Review, review, review!

(Pretty please...?)