Disclaimer: Don't own it. Would like to. Stop asking.

Title: And if it was?

Chapter: It Started With A Glance

o0o

The two birds stood on that bridge. Just watching the ripples form in the water, side-by-side. He wanted her to talk. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to know why he felt like the worst was yet to come. He wanted her, most of all.

"Raven-"

"Robin," Raven turned to him, a look of restraint on her face, "I'm going with him..."

Robin, unable to hold it in any longer, erupted with anger, "Why? Why him after all of our history, you choose him? Raven-"

"He was there!" She was suddenly enraged too, a new spirit kindling in her heart, "There when you weren't! There when you couldn't accept it!" Raven could feel the tears forming, and she became even more frustrated with herself. She turned away. Turned away as he had so many times before that day. Turned away as she had never wanted to do to him.

"Don't you do that," He clutched her shoulders, and pulled her into him, "Don't make it seem like I haven't-"

She pulled away, shouting out her frustration and cries of sorrow. She spun on her heel, their faces only inches apart, "Don't dare say it! I waited for you! I waited for so many years, for you to tell me what you really wanted to tell me..." He reached for her shoulders as her head fell, but thought better of it, "He was braver than you. He knew what he wanted, and he did whatever he could to get me!" She was shouting again, but neither of them faltered as she shouted in his face.

The melancholy look in her eyes pained him more than anything... It pained him more than the thought that she didn't... The thought of him being the cause of her pain was worse than anything else, "Raven... Don't cry."

She paused, and the tears stilled in her amethyst eyes. Then her face contorted, and she wasn't able to hold it in anymore, "I hate you! Why do you always make it so damn hard?" She was pounding on his chest, like a defenseless, childish girl, "Why do you do this? I hate you! Why-"

"Because!" He stopped her hands, and he pulled her to him. Their lips pressed against each other roughly, but carefully. It felt like something long awaited, something they both longed for, but were too cowardly to do... They broke apart, "Rae... I love you."

She clenched her jaw, shaking her head as she backed away from him, "Always," She choked out, looking away, and then glancing at him again, "Always... But never," She said it with remorse and reverence and the event finally registering inside them made their entire bodies fill with emptiness. After a last long glance, Raven changed to her soul form, and left the man who was once her leader to let his mistakes eat away at him...

o0Beginning0o

The titans returned home, tattered and more irritated than ever before. The Tamarian had actually stormed off to her room with disgust. Beastboy solemnly headed to his room seconds after, and their cybernetic friend placed a comforting hand on their leaders shoulder, before stalking off to the hangar, playing with his tools always did soothe him.

And so the birds stood still. Two of a kind, silent as ever.

And she was first to speak, "We will get him."

"Tch," He clucked his tongue against his teeth, "Like hell."

Raven looked away from him and remembered where she had been for the past three months. It was hard to face the man who had instilled fear inside her heart. True fear at what he had done, and how he never cared. How he had roughly taken her into isolation and...

She pulled her arms tightly around herself. Her leotard was cut across the top, and she felt more exposed than she really was, "Robin..."

He looked at her in a way one would view a prized possession in bad condition. Her collarbone and shoulders exposed, as the teared collar lay limply like a tube top against her upper chest. She looked a mess. Her fear matched his anger, and his evaded.

"Come on," He placed a hand on her spine and for some reason she jumped. And now his concern grew, "Raven."

He propped himself onto the counter after setting the teapot onto the stove, "What?" She asked nonchalantly as she leaned against the opposite counter, wrapping the blanket he had retrieved tighter around herself.

"What did he do to you?"

"Ah." She said it like a small gasp. As if she had tried to dodge something, but missed.

His hands tightened around the edge of the counter, and he swears, it would have cracked under his grip, "He kept you... For three months. What happened?"

She looked away, "Nothing," she bit it out coldly. A crisp effort to end the conversation. But he was stubborn.

Too stubborn

o0Authors Note0o

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to think it all over. I love romance and all, but drama annoys me a little. And this is a very intense story. I'm talking Degrassi intense. So Later Days