Hello, again. Hopefully this wasn't too long of a wait for everyone.

I don't know why, but this chapter went down kicking and screaming before I managed to piece it together. Writer's block hit me in more than a few spots considering the fact that I'm still playing this fic by ear, but it's getting better though. I already know the major scenes in the next chappie and I'm looking forward to that one already.

As for this chapter though, depending on whether or not you find some events plausible there could be OOC-ness. I tried to handle it in such a way to minimize it, but whether or not it exists is up to you really. This chapter's a bit iffy to me still, but overall I like it. I was worried that the story might be getting too dramatic, so there's a little bit of humor in this chapter to lighten it up. And we get to see the rest of the Titans too! I really didn't want to leave them out, so hopefully everyone's not acting terribly.

Also, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! Sixteen reviews? That just makes me so happy. :) I didn't think I'd get that many for only two chapters, so I hope that everyone likes this chapter just as much as the last two. It's not betaed, just to warn you, even though I feel that I'm in dire need of it. Do tell me what you think though. Inquiring minds want to know!.

Disclaimer: They're not mine I tell you! How many times must this poor fan willingly admit to it! Oh, and whomever came up the concept of "knock, knock" jokes should be forced to sit down and listen to every single one...

Evanescence

Chapter 3: Giving

She whipped around and began to rapidly walk away. She had already dared to linger far longer than she was allowed. A presence rose up in the back of her mind, and she instantly knew that she had been too slow.

…too late.

Her feet halted their movements and she could already feel Robin's steady gaze settle on her back. How long had she been up? Raven knew that he was always one to wake up early, but how much time had passed? He continued to stare at her and it surprised her how at ease she could feel knowing that it was he doing the watching. She momentarily felt that burning sensation from before run through her chest. If her face hadn't have been red before now, it was surely getting there.

She made a note to have a serious discussion with Happy and any other brightly colored joyful expression after this, because this sudden influx of …"appreciation" for Robin was giving her a severe headache.

This was hardly the time or the place to get into an argument with oneself.

"Raven?"

Somewhere an emotion still begged her to flee, to run off into the shadows. Firmly deciding to stay put, she wondered if she would regret her choice later. She didn't bother to turn around and face him though, because the expression currently occupying her face was less than pleasant.

"What're you doing over on this side of the tower?"

"I live here remember?" she replied, not missing a beat. "My room is right down the hall."

He was silent for a moment, as if considering something and Raven detected a minute amount of nervousness in the air. Whether it was from him or her was anyone's guess. She heard him shift behind her and something crinkled like paper.

Raven glanced over her shoulder and saw shades of yellow, bright and vivid. She turned further to get a better look and felt her eyes widen. A bouquet of large golden flowers wrapped in shining pink paper filled his arms. Her once still hands had begun to twitch uncomfortably as she stepped closer. She couldn't help but feel drawn to them. They couldn't be real, not with such size, such color. She had only seen flowers of this nature in the books she had stumbled upon, but the pictures did little to lessen the impact of seeing the real thing up close.

He watched the entire scene unfold before him, more than a little fascinated by Raven's interest in his bulky cargo, and couldn't help but grin. Raven seemed as if she were caught between being intrigued and being spooked by the large flowers.

She continued to lightly examine the plant and he was nearly thrown by the presence of wonder in her eyes. It was as if she were handling something made of glass, almost too fragile to touch.

"They're sunflowers." Robin said as she slowly ran her fingers over the petals.

"Do I live in a bubble? Of course I know what they-"

Her eyes snapped up to his and she promptly stepped away from him and his gaudy bouquet. He had seen it. Seen everything. He had seen cold, distant Raven warm up to a bunch of worthless posies. Her face burned with humiliation and she looked at Robin, almost expecting him to mock her. What she didn't expect was the practically soft look upon his face.

She began to feel very uncomfortable.

Looking away, she pretended to be studying a rather fascinating shadow situated further down the hallway. Doing so gave her enough time to reinforce her mask of nonchalance, one that she assured herself that she'd need more than ever if she planned on getting out of this conversation with her pride intact. Her gaze swept back to Robin, now sporting a thoughtful look upon his features.

"What?" she asked forcefully, fed up with his staring.

"Do you like them?"

It was an honest question. At the least she would give him that.

Raven's eyes went wide and her expression did a complete 180 in that one moment. Narrowed eyes darted from his face to the flowers and back again, before settling on the sunflowers. He may have just as well slapped her with them due to the intense distaste she was now eyeing them with.

"…They're giant yellow flowers."

"And?"

"You asked me if I liked them."

He raised an eyebrow. "So…?"

"Please tell me you see something wrong with that question."

Robin blinked a few times and ultimately shrugged. "So they're a little brighter than your usual ensemble. No big deal. Would you rather me shower you with roses instead?"

He flashed her a grin and from what he could tell, she was not amused. On the other hand, his seemingly innocent smile had brought back any and all pretenses of her nervousness and flushed state. Since the onset of the day nothing had seemed right, and seeing that it was still only in the beginning stages of it, it was only going to get worse before it got better.

Her hypersensitive reactions to his relatively casual behavior (at least on Robin's end) were beginning to concern her. Staring at him and his bundle intently, her fingers twitched.

And it wasn't due to those damned flowers.

"Charming." Raven aimed a glare at him from under her hood thanking all forms of a higher power that it was up.

His grin turned into a wicked smirk. "I try."

Folding her arms in front of her, she dug her nails into her palms before exhaling her breath in a snort. Not exactly the most ladylike thing to do, Vanity chided before being roughly told to shut up.

"Now to get back to issues that are actually…relevant." She shot, not in the mood for the games that her emotions were intent on playing with her. "What's the occasion? Take up gardening?"

The smirk vanished in the blink of an eye. He tensed and something obviously made him ill at ease.

Why was he…?

…Oh. Well.

Usually she prided herself at not asking stupid questions.

She looked at the over-sized flowers once more and tilted her head slightly to the side as if considering them.

"She'll be happy." The words slipped out almost effortlessly.

He shifted on his feet and adjusted the flowers in his arms once more, every motion telling her that he was readying a protest. "It's not-"

"They're perfect." She met Robin's masked eyes, a wistful smile settled on her features.

He met her gaze, looking incredibly bemused, fighting confusion and any related emotions. The steadiness of her voice coupled with her expression pretty much told him to drop whatever it was he was about to argue and he fell silent. A smile crept across his face, but it was too brief to really take note of it.

"…Thanks." He said, words trailing off into silence. There was something about the look on her face that rendered him incapable of saying anything more. He could do little else but settle for staring blankly at the girl standing before him.

A moment passed and Raven's sincere attempt at a smile faded. Familiar emotions settled into place…indifference and apathy. Declaring their conversation over, she turned on her heel and proceeded to walk down the corridor. When had their conversations gotten so volatile? Emotions flared and sputtered all within the confines of one interaction, and Raven could feel his discontent as if it were her own. That wasn't how either of them had planned to have it go, and to cut it off at such a crucial point.

She frowned and came to a stop. Trying to comprehend her actions, words slipped out and she noted reproachfully that she came dangerously close to stammering.

"Of course you'll have to convince her that it's a gift not meant to be smothered in mustard and consumed soon after."

It wouldn't be until later that she would chastise herself for trying single-handedly to salvage the conversation. She would glare at the wall, tea in hand, and mutter to herself about how much of a fool she had been, how pathetic she must've sounded.

A chuckle broke through the heavy silence. "I'll keep that in mind."

But at that point she realized that she couldn't have cared less.

Flipping idly through the pages of a book seemed to become a favorite pastime of hers lately. There was little else for Raven to do amidst the chaos that resided within the main room of Titans Tower. After all…one could only stand so many knock knock jokes.

"Hey Rae, tell me if you've heard this one."

She flipped a page in her book. No response.
Beast Boy glowered at her from his perch on the arm of the couch. "Oh, come on Rae! This is a good one! It'll knock your socks off!"

"Just like you said the other ones would?" Another flip of a page.

"Ehh, those were nothing. I was just warming up!"

"Oh joy…" Sweet Azar, was I that cruel in a previous life?

He cleared his throat. "Knock knock?"

Silence.

"Knock knock?"

She flipped another page.

He faced her. "Knock knock?"

Couldn't she hear him? When she didn't respond, he got as close as he dared to without getting slaughtered. He decided that extra emphasis on his words might be effective. "KNOCK KNOCK, Raven?"

Nails dug into the thick cover of the book inhabiting her hands. Beast Boy inhaled and began his question once more. "…KNOCK-"

Raven whirled on him, black fire everywhere, eyes blazing, and no animal he changed into seemed small enough to escape her wrath. Her voice came out in a venomous whisper. "…Who's there…?" She glared at him as if he were something she had just scraped off of her shoe.

"Eh, ah uh…" He settled himself and once again sat upright on the armrest. "Leena."

She forced her anger down and raised an eyebrow. Why was she doing this again? "…(Sigh) Leena who?"

"Leena little closer and I'll tell you!"

She stared at him as if he had spontaneously sprouted a second set of nostrils on his backside.

Beast Boy looked down at her, victorious pose all set up. His cheery expression fell to the ground and he sank back into the armrest. "…Okay. …Maybe that one was a little weak, I'll give you that, but wait'll you hear this one!"

Her entire body went rigid at his declaration to start another joke.

Is it too much to ask for a little intervention? Nothing big, really. A lightning bolt? Maybe one of the more minor plagues…

Her eye began twitching heavily and Cyborg took that opportunity to ask her what she wanted for breakfast.
"Hey, dark girl! What'll be today? The bacon's sizzlin' and the waffles are mm-hmm, good!"

Her prompt response (between cries of "meat forever" and "tofu conquers all") was one herbal tea and a side order of green eggs and ham. Beast Boy quickly turned the shade of his preferred food of choice. He shut up soon after and vacated his position on the armrest.

Now that her personal space was no longer "occupied" by anyone other than herself, she tried once again to go over a passage in the book of poetry before her. Her eyes traveled over the same line over and over again and yet she did nothing about it. The book may have just as well been full of blank pages, because few of the words actually registered in her buzzing head. How long had it been since she last meditated? Had it only been this morning?

While Raven pondered the stability of her current condition, a cheerful and invigorated Starfire approached her from behind, a smile on her face and a shout waiting in her throat to welcome the glorious morn (when in all actuality it was pushing 12:00).

She inhaled.

Beast Boy was on her in an instant, hand clamping down on her mouth and legs wrapping firmly around her waist. She froze, her hands raised to emphasize her joy and glanced in confusion at her captor. He was obviously panicked, to say the least, and he furiously shook his head no. She blinked a few times and Beast Boy jerked his head in the direction of Raven. Starfire looked there once more, and then back at Beast Boy. Same panicked expression, same furious shaking of the head.

Talking to Raven was obviously a bad idea.

It was at this point that Starfire decided that it would be best to skip the morning greeting for now, and let Beast Boy drag her towards the kitchen.

Raven continued to thumb through her book, completely unaware of the chaos that she had just narrowly missed. Under any other situation she would've at least sensed some semblance of Star's aura, but every thought was becoming increasingly jumbled. Words and thoughts were reduced to meaningless jargon, and she could just picture Intelligence looking straight at her in disappointment.

The first step to resolving a problem is to admit that you have one.

Well… she responded mentally,

I'm not about to admit to something that I obviously do not have!

She couldn't help but taste the bitterness of the words in her mind. Rejecting common sense? Oh, she was batting a thousand today.

Raven closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to relax.

"Are they not lovely? Robin gave them to me."

Her eyes snapped open as she picked out Starfire's voice.

"I have never seen earth flowers this bright! However, I cannot see why they call this a flower of the sun. The sun is made up of nothing but flames and potent gases."

"Well…" Raven heard Cyborg sigh, "I can tell you that there's a lotta difference between that plant and the sun, I won't argue about that. But that doesn't mean that the name always has to make sense. Names are given for all sorts of reasons. Lookin' at this one though…maybe, it's more about the feeling. Flower's so damn bright, it's like staring the sun straight in the eye. At the same time though, you could almost imagine that you're holding a small piece of the sun in your hands, just for you."

"Dude, you have no idea how gay that just sounded."

Cyborg gave Beast Boy a deadly glance. "Cram it, or we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving real early this year, and guess who'll be moonlighting as the main course."

"That's so not cool." he replied, crossing his arms with a look of defiance.

Starfire watched the exchange settle and giggled before gazing back at the flowers longingly. The smile then slipped away, leaving her with a pensive expression.

"…On Tameran, gifts like this were far from what was normally exchanged. Various foodstuffs, along with armor and other tools of battle were considered much more practical. Numerous festivals and holidays were celebrated in that way and many willingly participated. However, such items were also given as tokens of affection. The customs here on Earth differ greatly from that of my home, but are these flowers such an item?"

Flowers.

Affection.

"So, does he love you yet?"

Knuckles turned white as they gripped the book. Raven didn't even know that she was doing it until the force sent tremors down her arms. An unfamiliar feeling lurked at the corner of her mind, and she shoved it down in disgust. Exhaling sharply, she shut the book and readied herself for another impromptu meditation session. Eyes slid shut, caring not where she was or whom she was with. All she knew was that she needed to meditate now.

"Uhh… Maybe it'd be better if you asked Raven. She probably has a better idea of what you're talking about."

A squeal rang through the room and Raven's eyes snapped open.

What?

"Dear friend Raven! How could I have not shown you my present?" Starfire yelled, enveloping a stupefied Raven in a hug. She was still trying to comprehend Cyborg's sudden lapse in sanity. "Gaze upon them, and tell me what you think. Are they not simply glorious?"

Bright yellow flowers were pushed into her face and she eyed them half-heartedly. A moment passed, and her eyes rose up to meet Starfire's. Brimming with joy and contentedness, she looked at Raven expectantly.

"They're…perfect."