Waiting for the Sun
She waits for him like she waits for the sun to rise. He always comes, the only source of light in her otherwise dark and shrouded world. Where the shadows chase her until she runs, gasping, into the even deeper corners of her mind, to jagged places she hardly recognizes anymore. Quiet, quiet, quiet, and they won't hear her, won't hunt her and find her and remind her of how frivolous the world she had once tried to save is, how pointless is her own existence. She curls in on herself, hanging her head between her knees and squeezing her eyes shut until the hunters pass and the darkness becomes only slightly more bearable. She can live through that until the sun rises once more.
She always finds it odd how - even though she had lived in the darkness all her life - she feels inexplicably drawn to this man's radiance. She yearns for his warmth, counting the silent moments until he will turn the invisible handle and walk through the door again. The demons flee away in his presence, and she would smile at him could she remember how.
"Hello, Raven."
"Thank you for chasing them away. They can't stand it when you come here."
Years ago, he would have tensed up, frowning in confusion as the words came tumbling from her numb lips. Now he hardly blinks, casually taking part in a conversation that a part of her knows isn't quite right. He's brought something with him, and she peers at his face curiously. She leans forward, dropping her eyes and now only half-listening for whispers hiding behind the soft rustles of her cloak brushing the floor.
"I brought you something."
She probably should be looking at the thing in the box and she knows that you aren't supposed to stare into the sun, but she can't help it. She can never help it. She always fails to turn away, just as she'd failed so many times before. Failed at finding Starfire, at saving their planet, at keeping their friendships in tact. One by one they'd left her alone, each taking with him a tiny piece of the light that she would never admit she craved. Left her here with the shadows for company and the monsters who came out to play in a room that was bloodstained black, even though the people told her that it was as white as her cloak. And she mourned her pitiful existence that was that much sadder and darker than before.
The demons whisper that she is a failure, and she knows the truth in their words. But is was not. He is smart and determined and heroic and brave and stupid and everything that she isn't.
"Raven?"
He won't fail to save her. In the long years since Starfire had disappeared and everything had gone so completely wrong, he was the only one who came back for her, who comforted her even when she couldn't hear his words, who shone as a beacon for her to follow. She drifts towards the glow of his eyes and suddenly finds herself on the rocks, arms around his broad shoulders, lean thighs pressed against his. The untouched box clatters to the floor and she ignores it, leaving it as an offering to the shadows. Instead she leans her head against his chest, and a tentative hand comes to rest on her tangled purple hair. She breathes in dreams of the cold night air, of debacled breakfasts and stolen moments, and wills them all to come back.
She knows that they never will, but she takes solace in the only one who has ever tried to love her. Instead, she closes her eyes in contentment and tries not to count the moments until the time when he will leave and the sun will set, and when she will wait in the darkness once more.
A/N: For those who don't know, this takes place after that episode whose name I can't remember... where Starfile travels 20 years into the future only to discover a very somber world, including crazy!Raven and Nightwing. Yay, happy!