Raventhedarkgoddess: This story was yelling 'update or else' so I decided I'd better update... Missed all the random little reviews, you guys are great and I shouldn't have been so busy this month. --; Anyway, here's your last new chapter, enjoy! Hopefully a little more than my last one, but that one was very emo, so yeah...

Chapter Eleven: Fly Away

By the time Raven awoke three days later, Robin was pale. Tired. Famished. Obviously lost. Out of it. Afraid. But he couldn't and wouldn't give up, not now or ever, and so he sat there clutching one of her hands in his own in silence. As her eyes opened, he stared, unable to believe, to let himself believe, that he had really seen their deep color.

"...Rae?" He asked, his hand holding tighter to hers. "Raven, say something. Please!" He tried to hold back his emotions, but somehow they would leak back into his voice, leaving him swallowing hard against the huge knot forming in his throat, crushing the words. "Please don't just leave again! There's so much I have to say to you..."

Raven let out a faint-hearted moan in reply. "Robin..." She paused. "Robin, they didn't hurt you, did they? I didn't let you get hurt..."

"I... I wasn't anything to you, Raven. You shouldn't have done it."

Was he something to me? Her face became hard with thought, but Robin mistook it for the beginning of fading and he held fast to her hand, practically forcing all the bones against one another in his agony. "Raven, come on! Look at me! Raven!"

"Robin... I'm not anything to you, so why do you cling to a worthless... demon... wench...?" The words came out softer than before, her hands slacker than before, and Robin gripped her hand, desperatly afraid.

"I didn't know what I was talking about then..."

"I... I dreamed about it, you know. About us, back then. I dreamed about how things could have been, and I kept seeing what had happened in my mind, but... I couldn't make it right. I just couldn't make it right, Robin, and for the longest time I thought I didn't want to but now..."

"But what?"

"I changed my mind. I want to be a Titan, Robin. I want to stay here with you. I want to cut my hair and put my cloak back on and remember how to fly and... I want to change myself. I want to change everything that's been going on. That is..." She paused. "If you even want me back."

"Shhh. Don't even talk like that. If this is anyone's fault, it's mine, because I made you leave and hurt your feelings and affected everything any of us ever had and..."

Her hand was gentle on top of his as she forced a smile to her face. "Robin, it wasn't anyone's fault. I left because I thought I had to. You said what you thought you had to. The only thing on my mind right now is taking revenge on Slade. We'll get him. We'll get through this. This is honestly how it was meant to be, all right?"

"How can you be so forgiving?"

"Isn't that what someone does when they truely care about someone else?"

"You mean you... Raven, why didn't you ever tell me you felt that way?"

"I did, Robin. Or at least my editor did. He told the whole world... Didn't you see it?" The reality of her words hit him, and Robin reached into his back pocket to pull out the tiny newspaper clipping he'd taken earlier, only to find that it was covered in a bright red that made Robin want to cry out.

"Raven... Raven..." He looked at her with disbelief written into every inch of his fate. "This was... This was for me? Why would you have..."

"I wrote that right after I left. I... I wanted you to get it. I wanted you to see it. But now..." She looked away. "You probably think I'm an idiot, spouting off like this about... Affections you probably don't have."

"That's not true. Raven, Starfire and I... we broke off a long time ago, if that's what you're thinking. I've been alone. And I want to, more than anything, be with you. If you can just find it in your heart to trust me, and the team."

"You know the wounds won't heal overnight, correct?"

"I'm not asking them to. I'm just asking for you, Raven, as you are right now. I'm asking for you to get stronger, and to find out everything really will work out fine. I'm just asking you to be you. Is that... Will you... Raven, will you..."

She held in her emotions as best her control would allow her. "Robin... Robin, I'm going to stay here."

"You really mean that?"

She looked him in the eyes, catching him totally off-guard, because she looked close to tears. "Hey, Raven, don't cry! I didn't mean to upset you or anything, it's just..."

She used one arm to prop herself up and then flung both arms around him, so that she was practically laying, slumped forward, against his chest. "Did anyone ever tell you you're really a good guy?"

He stroked her hair, grinning, all the tears he had shead, all the pain, forgotten in her presence. "I... I love you, Raven."

"I love you too."

They were silent for many a minute after that, just staring off into space.

"Hey Robin, will you help me do something...?"

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There goes my reservations.
Flying off to join the seven nations.

There goes all the many things I ever had, my fears.
All the things that came up these past two years.
I'm living with all my old dreams
But no longer is anything quite what it seems.
For I never dreamed that you'd be mine:

In fact, I never dreamed.

But you've given me wings to fly away
In a difference sense than ever today.
You love me and I love you just the same.
I'll lean on you thought I have grown lame.
Our hearts are here together poised to fly,
And at once I know I must say goodbye.
There goes the shattered edges of our broken promise:
Let's start over again.

Raven's hand released the paper and the pair of them watched it start to flutter down, down, down, toward the shimmering lights of the city so far below them in the night. "Thank you for bringing me up here..." She leaned against him again, heavily relying on him for support.

"It's no problem, Raven. Just... this is where we start over, huh? This is where we rebuild trust and... faith."

"Yes. Faith."

"Hey Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not worthless. You're... everything. To me, to the team. Everything."

Raven didn't respond to that except to snuggle closer to him. Her hand did, however, point out to him the sky. Silver. Searchlights luminating each cloud.

"A promise?"

"I'll always be with you." Although Raven was talking about the sky, that was Robin's promise. I'm going to atone for what I"ve done. No matter what. No matter when. You'll see, Raven. You'll see.

You understand love, after all.

Completed: 5/2/06
Thank you to everyone who read this and supported me so much!
There is a sequal: Reflections of Raindrops
Check it out?

With all due Respect,
Raventhedarkgoddess