AN: this story requires you to read between the lines, catch the subtext and I will be so happy someone understood it besides myself. The first chapter of this story got 134 hits and 4 reviews do keep that in mind.

Life is tough there isn't anyway around it. You can't expect it to be easy. Nothing worth while ever is. Life can be easier if you don't go at it alone

Robin pushed himself to his skate clad feet, wobbling on the thinness of the blade and the slickness of the ice. His trained eyes followed Raven as she glided backwards away from him. A small smile ever present on her face, Raven and smile weren't often used in the same sentence or thought for that matter. Making sure to freeze the moment in his mind he darted forwards only to wage war with gravity. He lifted his feet trying to walk forward on the ice.

This should not be happening, he always won. Deciding he wasn't going to break his winning record now he skidded forward. Realizing at last it was far more efficient to slide forward on the ice than gouge his way into it.

He picked up speed gaining on her as she watched him intently.

"Learning how to stop is a good place to start." She said it so softly he would have missed it had he not been a foot in front of her and still skating at break-neck speed. His eyes widened beneath his mask and his heart thumped loudly inside his chest. Raven simply stroked in a fluid movement, gaining speed she pushed off back and forth from the inside edge of one skate to the inside edge of the other. Now a yard a head of the out-of-control bird she turned to face him. He was foolish enough to keep his pace letting the chase continue.

Sticking her tongue out at him and his pride, she preformed an easy forward crossover. A method she had perfected. Crossing one foot over the other it's used to pick up speed while turning corners, something she knew Robin couldn't do.

Water dripped from the cleaned brush, soon to be soiled with color again. Its brown bristles lost beneath blue paint. She then plunged it into the water again letting the blue become lighter. Sliding it across her canvas she traced shadows. She placed the brush down and stepped away, that was him but where was she?

He growled in frustration as she turned corners losing no speed while he had to slow or be tossed by his own momentum across the ice.

"Where did you learn to skate?" he muttered under his frozen breath. She slowed turning in a circle so she faced him again.

"What?"

"I said," he drew out 'said' extremely annoyed at losing to her, "Where did you learn to skate?"

Her eyes narrowed, trying to concentrate on his question and finding his smile clogging up her brain. "I took lessons," not exactly the whole truth but what was it to her.

She answered him, he hadn't expected that. "Can I take lessons?"

"I didn't take them here…" her voice trailed off.

She skated away from him, perhaps if she distanced herself he wouldn't ask anymore, not that she would answer.

"Teach me?"

Now that caught her off guard. She looked him up and down for something to say he was joking. She found nothing. Glancing at the snow falling around them she immediately recognized this scene from one of the few romance novels she owned. She now looked anywhere but him. Opening up could mean pain. She didn't know how much more pain her mind could take. If he didn't know her, didn't see her, she wouldn't have to worry. Everything would be okay. He was looking at her now, waiting for an answer. His tight green pants looked ridiculous with ice-skates but if you backed away far enough he really did look like a professional skater. Not that it mattered. He didn't matter, he doesn't matter. He's just her leader, he's just there. She trusted him on some primal level, one that let her trust go only as far as battle schematics and training. Beyond leader he was nothing, IS nothing, nothing to her. Why was she doing this to herself? Skating around with him, alone.

"O..kay" She didn't say that, she couldn't have. Her mind must be frozen like the bay, that was it, frozen mind. It even explained why his smile was there in her head; her mind must have frozen while it just happened to be in there. Nothing was wrong, just too cold.

The brush fell into purple, sliding it along the blue, pressing hard then letting up creating different shades. She had once told herself she would always be okay; from now on she would refrain from telling lies to herself. Okay was an okay word, it didn't really mean anything significant. She wasn't okay she was significant, okay was just a bad word. But what makes her significant? Her brush played with the paint moving it around on her once white canvas. Sometimes new beginnings couldn't always come and you had to overwrite the past.

Robin could stop now. He made good progress, he was after all the Boy Wonder or Boy Blunder either one, thought the second was more preferred to Raven.

"Maybe all the Titan's should learn to skate; this could come in handy in cold situations."

She just glanced at him, her body language clearly stating this was a one time thing.

"Can you do a trick for me?"

Her stony stare turned to one of annoyance. "Do I get a biscuit?"

"Why yes you do."

She skated once around in a large circle picking up speed, she glided past him lifting her non-skating leg into the air behind her, showing off her flexibility and strength. Placing her leg back on the ice she pushed off it hard, skating a meter or so doing some quick backwards crossovers. She then did a 3-turn so that she was skating on a LBI edge. At this point, Raven executed a strong "check" for stability, with her right arm extended behind and her left arm extended forward. Her right leg was held in the air, behind and to the right of her body. She swung her free leg and arm forward, initiating a spinning action, and leaped into the air. Landing the jump she skated towards him arms crossed.

"Where is my biscuit?"

He looked at her as though not really seeing her at all and dumbly replied "In the tower." She gave a quick smirk seeing his stupefied look than one of horror realizing she just had let him in. If only for a second.

Catching both her facial expressions he skated towards her.

Standing in front of her he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"It wasn't that bad was it?" His breath rose from his lips into the freezing air reminding her of dragon smoke.

"What?" Her voice trembled, rising and falling in pitch.

"Letting me in."

She lifted the picture from her paint splattered else, setting it to dry in a corner of the room while she contemplated him. Should she be doing this, what if something went wrong what if he didn't like what he saw? She might have to go back to 'Okay.'

She skated to the edge of the island stumbling all the way. She had numbly plopped down to remove her skates, the cold air stung her eyes and she could feel her lips were starting to peel. Everything was okay, she would always be okay. Always be okay. Okay.

He had skated behind her watching her stumble over her own thoughts and soon the ice. He'd catch her if she fell, didn't she know that?

Placing himself beside her he untied his skates to, finished he watched her red fingers stumble over her ties. He slid his gloved hand to them, she was messed up, and he knew it. He shouldn't have touched her, shouldn't have said what he did. One skate off he looked at her sock, blue with a small silver batman insignia she had thought no one would see. Batman was her favorite, because he didn't have powers, like Robin.

"Still want your biscuit?"

She gave him a reproachful look.

"You did do a trick."

She nodded, slowly slipping back into her quiet self.

They walked back to the tower together, shivering their way through the snow.

Robin opened his door and was about to step out when he saw something at his feet wrapped up in paper bags. He knew it could only be from a fellow Titan. He slid a letter from under the white string holding the bags together.

It wasn't that bad

He read it again… "It wasn't that bad" hmm.

His memory shifted to two days ago. His confusion left replaced by a small smile. Not one of his overly gloating ones, one just like he had given two days ago. The one for Rae. He brought the package inside and laid it on his bed. Slowly he pulled the bags away from her gift, unwrapping a mystery, unwrapping her.

He lost control of his eyes to the painting.

His mask lie on blue ice, painted so magnificently that it was very possible he could reach out and lift the mask away from the picture. Snow piled atop it, hiding a corner of the mask and reflecting in the ice, which also held the reflection of a cloudy gray sky. His eyes traveled to the snow next, falling gently upon everything, seemingly so soft, his hands caressed the painting. His eyes next took in the purple rose, frost collecting along the edges of its petals. She had made it clear that this rose had just bloomed, its outer petals open and inner petals still slightly closed, positioned in such a way that only the mask could see what was really inside.

It was at that moment that he Saw Her.