Tollete Dolorum
'Take Up Your Sorrow'
Author Note mutters to herself She kissed him! Well, she won't let herself live that down for days.
Disclaimer I no own, you no sue.
- - -
Chapter Four - Silent Words
The silence was heavy, and dark.
Raven walked, feeling she shouldn't draw more attention to herself than was necessary. The night was still heavy around her. She reveled in the dark cloak of night; the silence and protection.
She reveled in the companionship, of sorts, and wondered at her friends. It wasn't even morning yet. No one knew she was gone, yet.
He didn't know she was gone yet.
The lingering feelings from that kiss should have fled hours ago. That kiss should never of happened. She berated herself for it.
A weakness.
She couldn't afford weaknesses now. Not until she could defeat her father, once and for all. That was what she had finally decided she needed to do.
That was her fate, really.
And she found that Fear had risen in her again.
- - -
Robin was the first awake the next morning. He stumbled into the living room. Something was wrong, he know. Something. He couldn't shake that feeling.
He almost tripped over Beast Boy, in the form of a lazy house cat, in his rush into the room.
Terra, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all lay in various form on the floor, with Starfire curled up on the couch.
He paused.
Where was Raven?
Then he kicked himself. Surely the dark girl wouldn't have slept out here. She must be in her room. He all but ran to it, and found her door open.
And her bed empty.
- - -
Terra squirmed as Robin paced.
"Where would she have gone?" he muttered, obsessively. The blonde opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't. "Dammit, it's my fault! Why couldn't I just have talked to her? What was wrong!?"
Terra coughed politely and Robin glared in her direction.
"Raven said she'll be back."
That got Robin's, let alone the rest of the Titan's, attention. She found herself the focus of a lot of nervous and unhappy energy.
"She told me yesterday that she had to leave." The looks she received for that comment could have frozen fire in it's most ethereal form. She winced. "She didn't tell me why. . . something about her blood, but she promised she'd be back."
Robin growled under his breath and started pacing again.
Terra thought for a moment, but decided that it would be best if she didn't mention what the darker girl had made her promise.
- - -
The morning light was bright. Very bright, in fact, and Raven was glad to get out of the rapidly warming daylight. She set her bag next to her bed. This motel wasn't great, but it would have to do.
It was cheap, and that was all that really mattered. Until she had a plan, she needed a place to stay.
But where could she go?
She sighed and uncharacteristically plopped down on the bed. Her body was weary, if her mind wasn't.
She hadn't slept at all the past night, and had been walking all day. At least, she mused, she wasn't in Jump City anymore. They couldn't find her here.
And she couldn't find them here, either.
She closed her eyes, fighting away the smiling faces in her memory.
She'd abandoned them. She'd left without telling them, although her heart ached and she'd swore she wouldn't.
She had.
She only hoped that Terra could explain, and knew that the girl didn't know enough to tell them enough. She should have stayed.
With a sigh the threatened to free Depression in her mind, she turned on her side and curled up on top of the covers.
She didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to be that vulnerable.
Before that thought was fully formed, she fell asleep.
- - -
Robin sat in his room, silent. He stared out the window, at the bright mid-afternoon sky.
Where had she gone? And why?
He shook his head.
"Why, Raven? Why leave us. . ." he trailed off, sighing finally as he stood. The articles that fluttered in the afternoon breeze didn't catch his attention. Slade was gone, finally, for good. There was nothing more to research. He just didn't have the heart to pack them away.
It was like packing away that part of his life.
One of the few parts, now, that had Raven in it.
He sighed, thinking of the previous night. Of his dreams, in fact.
He blushed a little when he realized just how. . .intimate. . . some of those dreams got. It was embarrassing, but only managed to cement his feelings for her, in some strange, perverted way.
He finally closed his eyes.
"I won't look for you, Raven. I trust you to come back." he spoke, but knew he was lying to himself, and Raven whether or not she could hear him.
- - -
-Fin
Raven the Morrigu
"Deep inside, alone
This worlds coming down on me again
No where to run to
As these twisted thoughts flow
Through my head."
-Scars of Life, "Silent Words"