Oh my god! It has been so, so, so long since I've updated this. I'm really sorry, but I had major writer's block. I'm having trouble with this chapter, so if it sucks, I'm really sorry. I'd like to say thank you to all of my reviewers. Honestly, you have no idea how much it means to me when I see that people actually enjoy the stories I put out here with what little talent I've got. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! And here's the next chapter of Follow the Leader. Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to LaughingRanna because she has been my most faithful reviewer for this story.

moocow

Chapter Six

Hello, welcome to IHOP

Raven sat up in bed groggily the next morning. As she looked at the clock, the events of the night before eluded her briefly; she was allowed a moment of peace before, bit by bit, the evening came rushing back to her. It wasn't until she saw that it was seven in the morning and she'd only been in bed two hours that she froze with the memory of the photograph fresh in her mind. Then she relaxed as she realized that it was sitting in a harmless pile of shreds at the bottom of her trash can.

Her mind then presented the issue of what had happened just before the game of Truth or Dare had ended. She had almost kissed him. Him. Why? Why had she been willing to do that? With someone who was blackmailing her at the moment, no less. Was it possible that the enmity she'd been feeling for him had changed? Was that possible? It wasn't likely, but… Maybe she was suffering from traumatic stress. It would explain her wide range in feelings, since he was the cause of her trauma…

Whatever, she wasn't going to waste any more time in bed. It was late anyway, so the day needed to be started. She slid out of bed and took a quick shower in her adjoined bathroom. As she towel dried her hair, she became aware of a knocking on her door. She hurried to pull on a fresh leotard and called out a muffled 'just a second' to her waiting caller. She rushed over to the door and was greeted by the sight of none other than Robin. She should have expected as much, really. She couldn't have logically thought it was anyone else; it would have had to be him. But something about her undecided feelings towards him and the unexpectedness of the visit caused a very faint blush to rise up to her cheeks. It didn't really help that she was still a little damp and she wasn't wearing a cloak.

"Um, hey, Rae. You just get up?" Robin asked her uncomfortably.

"Yes," she said shortly. It was too early in the morning for anything more than the most base civility. Not that he deserved it, of course (at least, in her mind).

"Well, the others haven't gotten up, and we don't really have anything for breakfast, so I figured maybe I'd ask if you wanted to go eat with me. You don't have to, but I just thought I'd ask," rambled the boy in her doorway.

"I don't have anything better to do and I can't think of an excuse to use off the top of my head, so sure, I'll go," Raven responded.

"Great, I'll just wait for you in the entryway," he told her with a grin. And with that he trotted off down the hall.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out why it was that he was so happy around her. Maybe it was the way he always seemed to be able to catch her off guard. She acted like she could never guess what he would do. It was strange to see the differences between her behavior towards him and the others. Then again, he treated her differently, too. She was the only one of the team that he felt like he could trust completely. He respected her just as much as he had respected Batman, only without the fear of punishment for mistakes on patrol. Suddenly he realized that without noticing he had given her the silent role of second in command, the only one to be able to suggest a veto on his commands. None of the others would dare (nor would he allow it), but she… she could disagree with almost anything he did, and he would listen to her opinion and incorporate it into a new idea. How had she gained this much control? He felt a panic slowly begin rising up in his chest before he quelled it. It wasn't that she had gained control; it was just that he didn't dismiss her opinions as easily as the others'. She had an aura of authority about her, much like he himself did, and most of the time she had a fairly logical basis for anything she thought. She hadn't taken control, she had earned it. This caused him to relieve the deep breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Apparently that wasn't the only thing he hadn't realized; he had been lost in thought so long that he now heard Raven swish through the door to join him. Like him, she was wearing civilian clothes now, which consisted of a tight, black shirt which said 'I'll try being nicer when you try being smarter' and a pair of dark blue jeans.

"I didn't know you had a purse," Robin commented as he observed the black bag dangling from her shoulder.

"I didn't know you ever took off your mask," replied Raven, all the while taking in the sight of him in baggy jeans and a loose blue t-shirt.

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to attract attention," he mumbled, averting his gaze to the rest of the room.

"Don't worry, Wonder Boy, I think you'll attract plenty of attention anyways," the girl responded.

"Why do you say that?" questioned Robin. All he got in return was a raised eyebrow and the swish of the front door opening as she stepped out of the Tower. He heaved a sigh and walked out after her.

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"Hello, welcome to IHOP, how many are in your party today?"

"Hello, welcome to IHOP, I'm Jenny, and I'll be your waitress. What can I get you to drink?"

"Hello, welcome to IHOP, I'm Devon, and I'll be your server this morning. Here are your drinks, and Jenny'll be right back to take your order."

A few moments later, Raven let out a low growl. This was the last time she ate here at all and the last time she ate ANYWHERE with Robin, especially if every girl they saw kept looking at them like he was the last pair of shoes on the half-price rack and she was the one about to grab it.

"Hello, welcome to IHOP, I'm Raven, and I'll be your guide. On your left is the pit of fire, and if you take a look to your right, you'll see Satan talking to the antichrist about when they'll end the world. And by the way, Kaylee(1) says hi," she imitated in a high-pitched voice. This caused a pause and an "I'm-deep-in-thought" look from her companion.

"Who's Kaylee?" questioned Robin finally.

"The antichrist," Raven responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Another long pause, then- "Do I even want to know how you know that?"

"Probably not," she replied with a smirk. Robin just sighed and shook his head, a smirk playing across his own face as well. At this point, Jenny had made her way back to the table and was alternating between looking adoringly at Robin and jealously at Raven.

"Um, hi, um, are you, like, ready to order?" she questioned haltingly. He smiled at the girl pityingly, though she didn't realize his motive. This seemed to cheer her up considerably, not to mention cause her to throw Raven a haughty, I'm-gonna-take-your-man-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it look.

"Sure, I'll have the chocolate chip pancakes and an omelet with cheese, onions, ham, green peppers, bacon, and hot sauce," Robin informed her. She recorded his order on the small notepad in her hands and made to leave the table. Raven's mouth fell open in shock at the obvious insult, and for a moment she couldn't even say anything.

Robin seemed to notice Raven's goldfishing mouth and called the rude waitress back to their table, where Raven still hadn't recovered from the blatant affront.

"Excuse me, Miss, but you forgot to take my friend's order," he informed her brightly. At his comment she seemed to deflate a little bit.

"So I did," came her mumbled reply, as she eyed Raven distastefully.

"No, you didn't!" Raven finally found her voice. "You knew perfectly well that you hadn't taken my order, but you just wanted to be rude! I'm calling the manager. He should know that his employees treat his customers so badly. Now, if you'll be so kind as to fetch him for me?" It wasn't a request as much as it was a direct order.

"Oh no! I'm sorry really; I swear I thought I'd already gotten your order! Please don't call him. Here, I'll take your order now," she said in a rush. It was too bad the girl was a horrible actress.

"I want the manager." Raven wasn't going to be moved by any fake concern. She was out for a head, and it was going to be delivered to her on a silver platter, in the shape of getting the girl fired for her shameless insolence.

"Oh please, don't call Matt. I'll give you the meal free!"

"Fine. I want the International pancakes, the Belgian ones, and an extra side of bacon. I'm expecting that out very soon." Yeah, so she had changed gears quickly, but who wants to turn down free food? Besides, the girl probably "needed" the job because her parents were tired of buying her a new wardrobe every month.

"Right away, ma'am," Jenny sputtered as she trotted off. Raven turned to look at her breakfast companion and was greeted with the sight of one cocked eyebrow.

"What?" she snapped waspishly. He shook his head at her, infuriating her even more than she already was.

"Did you have to be so rude?" Robin questioned her, causing her to glare at him.

"If your girlfriend hadn't so blatantly insulted me- and without good reason, I might add- I wouldn't have had a reason to be so rude to her, now would I?" she hissed.

"She is not my girlfriend!" he replied with some indignation.

"But she so obviously wants to be," she said while examining her nails, so she didn't see when his faced clouded over.

"Maybe I don't want to date her," he retorted. "Maybe I have my sights set on a much higher goal." This seemed to attract her interest.

"Oh? And who might this lucky little tart be?" Raven asked with a smirk. Robin snorted at her choice of words.

"Don't call her that. What if I was talking about you?" he retorted.

"But you weren't," she answered with some level of certainty.

"How do you know?" he countered. She paused for a moment; she was clearly losing her confidence.

"I'm not your type," she said after a moment. He leaned over the table with a grin.

"Don't be so sure, Raven. I might just surprise you." She leaned back against the seat in the hopes of putting more distance between them. After a moment, she averted her eyes. This conversation wasn't exactly her cup of tea.

Ironically, it was the rude waitress from earlier that saved her from having to respond to that comment. And she seemed a lot more subdued than earlier. Maybe threatening to have her fired had hit her closer to home than Raven had thought. "Um, here's you food. Is everything to your satisfaction?" And she seemed to be using the standard waitress vocabulary more now.

"It looks fine," Robin told her. The two spent the rest of meal making small talk, though Robin couldn't help but flirt with her a little now and then. They were finally distracted from their pointless conversations when one of them evolved into an actual debate.

"It's unhealthy to eat that much!" Raven exclaimed. "Two huge chocolate chip pancakes and an omelet the size of my head is too much for one person to eat in one meal!"

"So I should be like you and order a huge meal and only take three bites of it?"

"I took more than three bites! I ate more than half of it, I'll have you know!"

"But we have to pay for all of it! I'm just saying that at least I'm getting my money's worth!"

"You ate enough food to feed an entire third-world country!"

"Then let's box yours up and send it to them. And besides, you're getting a little ridiculous in your analogies."

"Like you aren't?"

Robin sighed deeply. Raven was too stubborn for even him to beat her in verbal combat. He was finally going to have to admit defeat after a battle of wits. Or what resembled wits, anyway. "Fine, you win. I eat too much. I'm really fat, and I should follow your example. Happy?" Well, maybe it wasn't admitting defeat after all.

"No! I didn't say you were fat! I just said you shouldn't eat so much!"

"Whatever, Raven, I'm just going to let this one go."

"Fine, I win."

Robin groaned and let his head fall back. This girl just couldn't let things go. "Whatever. I'll pay."

With that, the Titanic birds got up from the table and made their way to the cashier. After he paid, they went out into the parking lot where Raven once again began to glare at their mode of transportation. AKA Robin's motorcycle. Not the R-cycle, oh no. That would be too conspicuous. This beauty was something that none of the other Titans were even aware of. She only knew about it because she'd had to ride the damned thing from the island to the diner.

"Do I have to ride it?" she whined.

"Yes," he insisted. This caused her to glare at the driver of beastly vehicle. Truth be told, she thought it looked rather good, but she had to keep appearances. It wouldn't do to have everybody know that the gothic member of the team actually liked motorcycles. It would go against all of their stereotypical ideals of her. She sighed and looked back at the dark blue motorcycle as her companion mounted it. Finally, after a few moments of deliberating, she slid on just behind her leader. This time she wrapped her arms around him tightly as he started it up. On the way there, she had made the mistake of trying to sit as far away from him as possible, but after about thirteen seconds, she decided she wanted to live to see tomorrow and had therefore grabbed a hold of the man in front of her.

Now she had a firm hold around his middle, and, little did she know, he was quite enjoying it. Feeling her hands pressed up against his six-pack, he decided that this was one of the best rides he'd ever had on his bike. As he took a particularly sharp turn and felt her body press even harder against his, that conviction grew. Oh yeah, this is definitely the best, he thought.

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They dismounted in the Titans' garage and watched as Robin's bike slid into the floor on an elevator Raven had never even known was there.

"That, Boy Blunder, was the worst ride I have ever been on," she informed him smartly as they passed through the door to the kitchen.

"And you've been on a lot of motorcycle rides, have you?" he questioned. She didn't answer.

When they finally got to the living room they became aware that no one else was in the room. There was, however, a note taped to the television, which, upon inspection, revealed that their friends were at the Titans East Tower and may or may not make it home that night. The two shrugged it off and went their separate ways for the time being. As it was Raven went up to the roof to meditate, while Robin headed off to the training room. Little did they know, it would only be a couple of hours before they started to crave each others' company.

moocow

(1) Kaylee is my name. I'm not exactly the nicest person in my school, and it's become a sort of inside joke between me and my friends that I'm the antichrist. I know I'm not, but it's a joke I couldn't help putting in here. What can I say, I take from life...

Yeah, I know. It was a horrible ending, but I couldn't think of anything. It took me three days to write this chapter, so I think you should be happy that I updated at all. And I think I might have broken one of my fingers. I'm also sick, and I'm not even going to school tomorrow, so this is a gift for you all because it's been so long since I updated. Anyway, review please, and see ya'll later.

Ciao

Raven-Angel-of-Darkness