…..
It was dangerous to try and enter the cave under 7th street. Rumors in town said that under eight hundred feet below the surface, a battle was fought… and someone died.
Practical people read the newspapers to get their information. Stupid people attempted to unearth the cave's entrance.
Luckily, to keep the stupid people out, the entryway was mysteriously concealed by a huge boulder. So heavy that no one could hope to move it out of the way.
When Raven located the small tunnel on the edge of Jump City's sister town, dropping hundreds of feet without a scratch, she discovered that indeed the boulder had been moved the tiniest bit. Someone who was strong enough to mess with her deed. Her fingers could squeeze through the opening... enough for say... a green mouse.
Beast Boy had walked alone miles to this exact spot, crawling over and under stones that were sharp enough to bleed tough skin. He hadn't bothered to tell anyone where he went, as he usually did when he visited this place, and Raven tracked him down. Why was she spying on him? He was acting rash lately and it sort of... worried her.
It was a new experience to actually worry about Beast Boy, but if anyone could understand strange behavior, it was her. The peeks of midday sunlight filtered in through the ceiling. He stood in front of a statue perched on a craggy cliff. And hidden in the shadows, she watched him, trying to find the right moment to make herself known.
The green changeling knelt down, brushing a hand lovingly over a bouquet of rotting black roses lying before the statue's feet.
"Terra."
Beast Boy covered his crumpling face with his free hand, his body shaking with grief. His soft heartbroken sobs bounced off surrounding foundation, intensifying and echoing around them. He remained bent under the statue's forever terror-filled gaze, even as the empath hovered gloomily behind him.
His voice came out wobbly, "After all this time, you couldn't find anything to bring her back."
Somewhere in there was blame... built up over time... directed towards her, she thought. Raven glanced at Terra's stone face, languidly.
"I tried. There was nothing in my books. Truth be told, the only way it could have been reversed was if she wanted it."
Her words sank in.
Beast Boy tensed his shoulders and shot a furious stare on her. "What do you mean if she wanted it? Terra never wanted any of this, and she never wanted to be frozen either."
"I'm only telling you what I know and what you need to listen to now, even though your judgment is being marred by your emotions. Terra didn't come back because she's gone. You can feel it, you know it. You haven't been the only one visiting this cave all this time. I could feel her spirit lingering inside the stone those many years ago. There's nothing here now."
Beast Boy screamed angrily, half-blinded by tears, "THAT'S A LIE! YOU'RE A LIAR!"
His aura gave her hell in its own form; but deep inside, he knew she was right and he feared that thought. Beast Boy had really loved that geomancer. But that didn't give him the right to call Raven a liar. Her anger got the best of her, her fingertips sparked, and she said, darkly, "You irrational child. Use your head. Don't you think if she could she would have came back? Terra knew what she was getting into. There was never a way to get her out of her grave."
"YOU ALWAYS HATED TERRA! YOU DON'T CARE! YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT HER! YOU WERE GLAD TO SEE HER LIKE THIS!"
Raven wasn't unnerved by the murder in his glare.
"Terra made a big mistake joining Slade."
"SO SHE DESERVED THIS? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME!" Beast Boy advanced, ignoring the tears falling generously down his cheeks. His teeth slightly bore at her, fang revealed.
She murmured, "I wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even her."
His anger shrank back and sorrow rematerialized. He turned away from her, mopping his face, "...She really isn't coming back, is she?"
Raven thought for a second that she was seeing a younger Beast Boy, the fourteen-year-old who hid in his room and changed into a whining dog periodically to mourn the betrayal of the person who stole his heart. He hated Terra for what she had done, yet he loved her everything. Now he had to let go, and sometimes that was the hardest part. He sniffed, the gloominess around him matching his emotions perfectly, "I heard her. I thought she was talking to me, you know? I'd tell her what was bugging me and what went right that day. I believed she understood me. She can't just leave me."
When Raven stayed silent, Beast Boy went back to the statue and touched the cold, unmoving hand. His fingers gripping the curled gray. With a small snap, three stone fingers cracked off into his palm. He stared down at them, lost to reality, while the Terra statue collapsed to pieces at his feet. Raven didn't care about the statue; the fact that the cliff was shaking perilously where he stood did. Her cloak flew madly behind her as she rushed to grab him around the chest in time, saving him from a long drop into nothingness.
They floated several feet above the ground. She let gravity lower them into a wash of light; breathing hard, the sorceress clutched the changeling, closely.
He shook her off him, opening his palm he had been squeezing tight. Dust of the stone fingers sank through the slips between his fingers. Beast Boy wiped his hand quietly, glancing at the empty space over the cliff side. The ground beneath them shook again. Raven spoke up, "This place has less than forty seconds; we should get out of here."
Beast Boy didn't answer back.
She gently set a hand on his shoulder.
"….Garfield."
His eyes blinked at the mention of his real name, returning from their stupor. Bits of ceiling powder alight in his green hair. Raven tossed her cloak over his head and shrouded them both in her soul-self without a moment's thought. They emerged into the bright, sunshine world. Beast Boy pursed his lips, turning away as the resting place of Terra Markov left a crater in its ruin.
Citizens from down the street befuddled. Raven murmured so that only he could hear her, "We'll send someone to fill up the space." Beast Boy refused to look at anything for too long. He nodded, balling up his fists. She offered, "If you need some time off, I'll explain to Dick-"
"It's okay, Rae," The green changeling met her eyes, lifelessly. "I'll be okay." He spoke lies and she knew it.
It was the last thing she heard Beast Boy say all day. The Titans spent the warm spring day outdoors swimming. She didn't join in but decided not to seclude herself from their presence. Robin asked what Beast Boy was up to and she expertly found a way to steer the subject elsewhere. Later that evening, Raven went up to his room to see if he wanted dinner. It wasn't like him to miss dinner ever. Beast Boy loved to eat. Even when he locked himself in his room, he still found a way to sneak out tofu dogs and soy milk from the fridge. The tray was untouched since morning.
She knocked on the door engraved Beast Boy. It didn't slide open automatically for her. Raven passed through the solid metal to find the always chaotic bedroom scraped bare clean, with the exception of the bunk bed and its mattresses. On the bottom sat a folded note. Without reading, it was obvious.
'He's gone.'
…..
Her spiritual reflection was disrupted by somebody's pain, physical pain, pulling her back into her milieu. Raven brushed the broken glass from her light bulb off her shoulder (another accident) and got off her bed, mentally opening her steel doorway. The hallway was vacant.
"Fuck." A low undertone cursed several more times and she narrowed her eyes, poking her hooded head out. Violet eyes trailed over to Robin rubbing his shin, coming from around the corner and heading for the fifth level staircase. And he wasn't reaching for the doorknob… Raven put two and two together.
"Dick-"
Unfortunately, Robin didn't hear in time to process the warning and smacked face first into the door, before she could further warn him. He clutched his face, swearing again.
Raven winced sympathetically. "Are you okay?" She knew it was a stupid question to ask given that he had just made an idiot of himself in front of her.
"I just hit the goddamn wall, Raven... I feel like doing the fox-trot."
"It was a door-" He touched his nose tentatively and let out another string of curses. "-And no need to get testy."
Raven said, as he sat down in the hallway, moving his leg with some difficulty, "What happened?"
"I hit my leg somewhere in the process of getting out of my room. Do you know what time it is?" Robin hissed through gritted teeth when she rolled up his pant leg, "God… what the hell was I thinking hitting into the door like a blind, old man?" She inspected the ugly bruise, noting the crust of blood and answered his previous question, stretching her fingers.
"6:00 pm and hold still." Raven placed her hand over his injury, concentrating on the healing process in her mind.
When she opened her eyes, her hands weren't glowing and the bruise was still there. She frowned. "Hmmm."
"I don't like this hmmm. What's hmmm?"
"My healing powers aren't working."
Her thoughts raced around her head as Robin sighed. aggravated.
"Great, just great. Any ideas?"
"It could be only one of two reasons," she said in a decorous sort of voice. "First, it may possibly be my energy is getting stored, waiting to be transferred into another magical being being created inside of me, which isn't logical because you and I haven't had sex-"
Robin broke her off, a blush forming on his neck, "I got it, Raven."
"Or… releasing my pending emotions all at once must have triggered a temporary malfunction in my healing abilities. My concern is that it should have passed by now..."
Suddenly, Raven lifted an iridescent, sparkling hand, not a glowing blue. "Huh. That's new." She quickly healed him and as they stood up, her hand pressing his nose. "Better?"
He wiped the drying blood under his nostrils.
"Yeah. Thanks, Rav."
She smirked. He used the nickname sparingly, almost like it was precious.
Her left hand reflexively came up to graze her new raven symbol on her cloak. Robin said mildly, "It's quiet without him."
"I'm sorry?"
"Beast Boy. It's been a week since he deserted the team."
Raven cleared her throat, now displeased, "If you had read the letter he left behind thoroughly, you would have understood that he said he would come back. Just because he didn't leave an exact date number doesn't mean he deserted the team, Dick. He thought he needed to get away because he was hurt," she tried not to sound more upset than she already was. "I mean, he's seventeen, hardly adult. He wanted to go home for a while. We have no right to tell him how or how not to feel."
Robin didn't like quitters.
"Okay, so he's sad. We've been through similar situations like this and we've never left. What makes this so special?"
"Will you stop being insensitive for a moment? It doesn't matter if he's not as adaptable as some of us. Garfield needed this. I understand that," Raven said, crossing her arms.
'When did you start caring?' One of her emotions questioned.
'When I lost my grip and found the one thing I wanted,' she countered without missing a beat.
"Garfield?" He looked confused. Raven couldn't believe at first then realized… he really didn't know.
"That's Beast Boy's real name. Dick, you own all our reports. How could you not know his name?"
He said, defensively, "I thought it was Logan."
"That's his last name."
"I'm not a mind-reader like you, Raven. So I don't know in an instant! Beast Boy legally changed his name in several states. There's hardly a record on him because he was in a new foster home every week. I'm surprised I got anything on him at all."
"Nice to know you are such stalker."
He complained, knitting his eyebrows, "I am not a stalker." She shook her hair, hanging her head so that her hood fell back to reveal strands of purple. "You don't know where he is, do you?"
"No," Raven said, rubbing her temples lightly.
"Do you really think Beast Boy will come back?"
"With any luck," Raven said. "Starfire misses him. She stared at his neon green GameStation controller for three hours yesterday." Robin raised an eyebrow at this.
"Do you think they…..?"
"Probably not. I don't know for certain though."
He chuckled. "I just can't see these two together."
"Actually, it's not unrealistic. But I think a certain cyborg of ours might be pining over her heart." Robin smiled at the thought of Starfire having another boyfriend.
"I think another person be good for her. Star could use someone to lean on besides me."
"And me," Raven said, staring up at him with bright violet eyes hidden under dark long lashes, giving her an uncharacteristically shy look. She wasn't known to be the shy type. She leaned on the wall, her hip and elbow jutting out to keep balance. She had to move away when Robin drew an arm about her neck, repeating to her, "And you."
He positioned his chin on top of her head. Another loved fact regarding Raven, she molded to fit against him. "This is what I look forward to in the day."
She said monotonously, "Gossiping about Starfire's love life?"
Robin sighed, kneading the flesh of her shoulder with one hand. "Why do you always have to spoil it?"
She smiled broadly. "It's what I'm best at." He adjusted his head so that he was looking down at her face however seeing nothing, and she whispered, "Walk me to the roof?"
"Gladly."
He took her hand and they matched each other's steps to the beat as the night air surrounded them. The sun would be going down soon. Robin got some images. Stars. Raven's features compared to the colors of the sky after rain. The purple-blue mixed. Her eyes seemed to have shone brighter than ever, her heart-shaped face content; her indigo cloak blew furiously around her shapely body. He devoured those images.
The black spandex barely holding back the delicious weight and curve of her large breasts, her arms, her small waist, and hips. The only part of her uncovered were her unblemished, sallow legs, the thighs he longed to feel against his own, the tiny ankles swallowed by boots.
Raven knew the feelings emitting from him. Desire. Love. Sexual frustration.
Twin patches of pink burnt on her cheeks. She looked away to stare out at the ocean, mentally chanting her mantra.
'Azarath Metr-'
A strong arm enclosed her waist, pulling her to a warm body. She let out a low gasp.
He murmured huskily in her ear, "You want to talk about something?"
'And he complains about me being a damn mind-reader- who cares, you want him, he clearly wants you, so stop talking, phase him into your room, light some candles, and show him how much pleasure you can give his sexy- SHUT UP, Lust. How did you get in my head anyway?'
Robin said in her hearing, "I picked it up."
"I do have something to tell you."
Raven began retelling her mystifying dream, not missing a detail of what she knew. He responded after it was over, the young woman completely drained, "No wonder you've been acting so strange… Rav, honey, don't get upset." Robin tried to comfort her when she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I don't mean to, it scares me. I'm just glad you know now."
"I can't stress enough how much you mean to me." He smiled while running fingers through her hair. "Remember you can always come to me. I hate secrets." Raven nodded decisively. "I'm going to let you meditate before dinner, if you need me, call," Robin said, going for the dinner.
Without warning, it hit her.
"…I just thought of something."
Robin whirled around right away. "What?"
She frowned. "Call me insane... but isn't it convenient for Johnny Rancid to have a concentrated chemical on him that blinds people? Especially people who have a rare eye astigmatism? Johnny's not that smart. He's a physical fighter with no interest in chemical warfare."
It was Robin's turn to frown. "How did you know about my condition?" he said.
"I read your hospital records. Only 1 out 800 people have it, right? How do we know it wasn't all set up? How do we know it has nothing to do with my dream? Or the warning on my mirror?"
"We don't," Robin said. "I don't want to argue with you. What would you have me do?"
Raven grabbed his arm. "Interrogate him," she said. "See if he knows something. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. But we have to try." He smiled after a moment.
"You aren't going to give in."
"You rub off on me. Don't change the subject, Boy Wonder," she countered, seriously.
"Johnny Rancid is secure in Jump City's local prison. I'll contact the authorities to get a query time set up. But if we don't get anything-"
Raven inserted deadpan, "Then I'll hand wash your uniforms and clean up the mess Silkie left in your room."
"All in Starfire's French maid costume she bought for Halloween." Robin smiled suddenly. Oh Gotham, he'd be sleeping well with that image in his head. On the other hand, Raven was shuddering at the thought of that itchy, high-thigh, black and white ruffle dress, white fishhooks, tacky black gloves, and ridiculous beret. Where the hell did Starfire find these clothes?
"If I'm wrong," Raven murmured.
…..
The director of the prison led them to what the officials called the 'questioning room'. Simple clean white room with a long table in the middle, one bolted chair on each end.
When Raven pushed the bronze sign door, a dirty and scraggly Johnny Rancid watched them come in. Hatred blazing deep within murderous eyes. As soon as the director left fretfully, the criminal exposed his newly filed-to-the-point teeth. "Well, if it isn't Birdy and his little girlfriend. How's being blind? I hear it hurts first getting into your eyes, that true?"
Robin's mask narrowed but he didn't say anything.
"Not talking? You always have a baby pun to throw at me." The punk leered at him and Raven came forward, hood covering her face.
"I'll be asking the questions, Johnny. I know you didn't bring that blinding chemical on accident. You know something and you are going to tell us."
Johnny Rancid sneered slightly. "Who do you think you are?"
"The one who will be haunting you while you sleep."
He laughed. "I'm not telling you anything and you can't make me, witch-bitch." Johnny kicked up his healed legs and laced his hands behind his neck, looking very at ease.
Silence passed between them. Raven said to Robin, slowly, "Please step out of the room."
"...what?"
Before he knew it, he had been shoved out of the 'questioning room' by an unseen force, unable to open the door. It was sealed shut. Robin furiously struggled with the handle and then heard a bloodcurdling shriek coming from the other side of the door. When the door permitted him entrance, Raven stood above a cowering Johnny Rancid, her hood down and eyes glowing menacingly.
Johnny looked as if he was ready to faint at the mere sight of her and said rigidly in his corner, "Alright! Alright! I'll tell you! I got it from a guy with a red x on him. He paid me good money! He's working for the guy too, but I didn't ask who it was! I didn't ask! Please, just get her away from me!" He threw an arm over his head, rocking back and forth several times with his knees squeezed to his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die…"
"I think we're done here."
Raven's eyes returned to purple and she walked out. Robin closed the door behind him. He asked as they stepped out into the sunset, "What did you do to make him talk?"
She said dismissively, "He talked, that's all that matters. So someone is behind this."
"Behind Johnny Rancid, yes. Everything else, it's a possibility. What I don't get is why Red X is in on this. He's just a thief." Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Like I claimed Johnny was just a lowly thug. Something bigger is happening here. I think its better we solve this now other than later."
He pulled out his Bo-Staff, "Finally. I've been dreaming for the chance to go out."
"Are you sure you should? Yesterday, you-"
Robin interrupted her, but didn't raise his voice, "Raven, I said I wouldn't let being blind hold me back from living my life as a hero to this town. I'm holding to that promise. I've been training, and I've waited long enough."
'You're just eager to fight,' she thought bitterly to herself.
Their Titans communicators went off and Robin flipped his open. "Report." Cyborg's grim face filled the round screen.
"We got a lock on a robbery downtown. It's X."
Robin said coolly, "Raven and I got it covered," and flipped it closed.
"...Bingo."
...
On top of Nancy's Gems, Red X had finished looting and was on his way out through the rooftop when two figures landed nimbly in his path. He chuckled.
"Hey, kids, isn't it past your bedtime?"
Robin readied his weapons. "I thought you stole to get by," he asked.
"Of course, but I need money, wise guy. On the black market, I can get as much as I want for these babies."
Raven snorted disgusted at his remark.
Red X looked her up and down.
"Hanging with creepy chicks, Hero? You've got nice taste, I'll give you that. By the way, how is Cutie last time I saw her? Single now?"
Raven sent a wave of dark blue in his direction and Red X jumped it expectantly, disappearing with a push of a button. He reappeared behind her, pinning her arms. As she violently tried to throw him off her, Red X enjoyed the feeling of her withering body against his. "I never got your name. Maybe you should ditch Chuckles. You and I could have a lot of fun."
Before Raven could blow him to smithereens, Robin came flying out of nowhere, knocking X flat with a cut of the skull.
He growled, "Don't. Touch. Her. Again."
The two rivals faced off and Raven's energy made a claw, lunging for the black-suited thief. Red X allowed himself to be captured and when she brought him closer, he popped a vial out of his utility belt, letting it drop on the ground. Smoke rose around them, almost solid in density. Raven lost concentration, screaming once.
Robin picked himself off the ground to find Red X sprinting for the fire escape and Raven knelt down, holding her face.
Choices.
Girlfriend or Fiend.
His happiness or his duty.
Raven or Red X.
Her safety or his escape.
Dick or Robin.
His Grappling Hook shot out and wrapped itself around X, stopping him in his tracks. Robin went to check on Raven at that same instant, knowing X had nowhere to go for at least fifty seconds tops. He cupped her face, the burning liquid touching his hands. The son of a bitch used it on her.
"I'm fine. It didn't get in my eyes," she reassured to him patiently, as Robin used the end of his cape to blot the last of the liquid on her cheeks. Red X reached with his pinky finger for the switch to get him untied, but Raven got in his face first, holding a glowing fist in front of his mask. "Don't even think about it."
"You don't scare me. I've seen more intimidating things than whatever you could do." She had a cryptic thought. He might be smiling behind that mask.
"I guess I'll have to be scarier then." Raven engulfed him in her energy and dangled him upside down twenty four feet above from a cold, hard street. "Do you like heights, X? Would you like to know what it feels like to smash your face against jagged gravel, splitting it open on impact from temple to lip?"
He fought as expected and she dropped him long enough to know to prove he was afraid. Red X blurted out, "If I rat, it'd be worse on me."
"They can't reach you when you're in a high security jail. Are you talking or am I scraping your remains off West Street?"
"Let me go and you have a deal."
"Fair," she said
He was lowered back onto the roof, Robin coming back into view from wherever he went.
Raven narrowed her eyes at the still-constrained villain. "Today would be great."
"The guy that hired me said it would be worth my while and gave me good money to pay Rancid to blind Hero over there. He got the chemical from me. I knew it would come in handy one day."
Raven said with a low monotone, "Who hired you?" Red X began laughing.
"He called himself Terminator… don't ask why. He sounded like a nutso from the start."
"You never saw what he looked like?"
"Nope. He usually found a way to contact me on a phone connection. He also hired me to plant the messages in your Tower. That was the challenge."
Robin said aloud, "You cut the cameras and got around with cloaking technology."
Quick nod.
"It wasn't easy to get that alien in the vents either." Red X held out his almost free hands. "Come on, kids, let's keep the deal going." Raven cut the cord with a swipe of her energy. He rubbed his stomach and jumped up alarmed when red and blue sirens flashed in his face.
She said, coldly, "We're keeping the deal. I let you go… to the police."
Uniformed men and women pointed their guns at the thief, blaring over to him, "You have the right to remain silent! Keep your hands in the air, SCUM!"
Red X sighed, "Goddamn it," and obeyed, angrily.
It was around evening when the couple got the police reports done and went home. Raven groaned on the third level. "This had to be one of the most irritating nights of my life."
He kept an arm around her shoulders. "Agreed. I got frustrated myself."
"It looks like I was right. I won't be wearing that costume after all."
Robin swore under his breath.
Her violet eyes glanced at him and she smiled, sweetly. "But if… you're a good boy, I might reconsider."
His tongue flashed over his lips as he gulped, "Really?"
She replied, no longer sweet but blunt, "Are you kidding? No way."
Robin let out a huffy breath, smirking and used his lightning-fast reflexes to pin her the same style Red X had, her chest thrust out, back slightly arched, and head tilted back.
It had pissed him off to see Red X trying to flirt with her; even knowing Raven could crack his skull, Robin was surprised that he hadn't gotten out his Bird-A-Rang and slit the copycat's throat. Now that she was safe with him, he wanted to make her his own.
With only one arm to pin her, Robin peeled the cloth hiding her neck down and buried his face in the crook of her neck, moving the stubborn part of her cloak aside. God, she smelled good. He nibbled on her silky skin, biting down firmly. The taste of metallic blood hit his lips. He kissed the bite mark and continued the process downward. The soft gasps escaped from her mouth, her hips pushing unconsciously back launched pleasured shocks down his spine.
Robin thought he was going to lose it when she moaned his name. Her hand went up through his spiky hair, her mouth opening to accept his kiss when a very trill shriek penetrated the barrier of Titans Tower. Initially, they didn't hear it immediately in their own little world their minds were stuck in.
The second shriek brought them to reality.
Robin shouted the Tamaranean's name as Cyborg barreled behind them, doggedly. Starfire stood outside her bedroom, extremely pale and crying into her hands. When her moist green eyes looked up to see Robin, she fell into his arms and cried harder. His hand cradled the back of her red head and gestured to the other Titans who cautiously peeked inside the bedroom.
Raven was the one to sense the problem. "No..."
"Dark Girl, what'd ya find?"
She opened Starfire's closet door, revealing a tall mirror with a large block letter message. Cyborg read out loud, "Don't worry, it will be over soon enough."
Raven gazed at Robin who attempted desperately to calm the frightened Starfire. The alien woman wept. "-I-I was merely going to count my collection of not-living stuffed creatures."
"It's another message. X must have worked on this one before the robbery."
"Is that why my systems are jammed?" asked Cyborg.
"Team meeting right now," Robin ordered, "Operations center." Cyborg carried a still crying Starfire bridal-style down the hallway. Robin stopped Raven. "I need you to investigate Star's room. Find anything that's out of place." She didn't bother to complain about invading personal space or why she was excluded from the meeting.
Raven shut the door behind her and glared at the white-colored scrawl. What did this man Terminator want with them? To drive them all to lunacy?
The empath passed strange Tamaranean relics, the cutesy stuffed animal collection, Starfire's pink decorated bed and matching clothes indifferently. No broken glass. No signs of a break in of any sort. As Raven pulled things out from under Starfire's dusty-rose bed, she shuffled through some Teen Bubblegum magazines. In the process of dumping them aside, something far more appealing caught her eye. She pulled out a big leather book. Taped on the front was The Book of Scraps. Ah, scrapbook.
Raven remembered when Starfire always brought a camera with her the first year she joined the team.
The camera was cheap and broke during a battle with Cinderblock. On her second Christmas, Raven gave her a digital camera, paying for it with a job she took outside the superhero gig. After that, Starfire must have seen something resembling a heart underneath that heavy cloak and ever persistently attempted to bond with her new 'friend which is a girl'.
She was too curious not to look.
Raven seated herself several feet above the carpet and stared at the first pages.
They were all full of landscapes on Earth, buildings in Jump, and confused strangers. The next were her first photos of the Titans. Beast Boy making a weird rocker signs with his hands while goofily crossing his eyes. Cyborg posing, pretending to flex muscles. Raven's back meditating to a sunrise. Robin doing his hair first thing in the morning. Starfire kept these?
Raven was having major flashbacks. Oh, to be fifteen again.
Another page full of memories; their battles, a lot of them out of focus. Black ravens swooping down, green dinosaurs roaring, blue sonic cannons gleaming. Lots of Robin…smiling, laughing, frowning, or deep in thought. Raven found a certain section dedicated to Terra. The bouncy, blonde girl with the big smile- ending with the statue frozen in time.
She could feel the vibes of Starfire's sadness as the alien girl had pasted those pictures in her book.
Few more additional pages were scribbled: Forever as Friends. They were group moments, eating pizza, GameStation, Stankball, practice, and visiting Jump City. Starfire's first date with Robin. The thing that got to Raven was that she wasn't any of these pictures, Star had made her appearance but she hadn't.
A little disappointed, she flipped the page to see the backside labeled: Best Friend Raven.
They were all of a sullen-face Raven, gloomy, angry, uninterested, or blocking the camera with her hand. It was almost enough to make her start hating herself. Had she really been that bad back then?
'Yeah. But I loved them anyway. That I couldn't prevent no matter how hard I tried.'
Violet eyes trailed over a portion that slowly progressed to a more recent Raven, smiling or trying to smile. The book was running out of pages. Raven looked through miscellaneous photos of Robin and herself together, hugging, talking, touching hands, or annoying each other. Beneath them Starfire had written: May their hearts be filled with blaeukpt.
So, she was okay with them saying each other…?
'Robin isn't the stalker of the Teen Titans. Starfire is.'
She grinned widely, glimpsing at photos of Starfire and Beast Boy. Several of Beast Boy without a shirt, little red hearts drawn around him-
The steel door in Starfire's bedroom opened.
"Raven? What are you doing?"
The empath dropped to the ground with the scrapbook, eyes wide.
"Starfire," she said. "I was just… um, checking if you had that mirror I borrowed from you."
The orange-skinned woman burrowed her tiny brows. "You wish to use it again?"
"Yes. I didn't want to bother you so… um-" Starfire pointed to her desk.
"You may keep it if you desire, Raven. Did my book of scraps catch your attention?"
"No…I wouldn't go through your things…"
"It's perfectly acceptable. I have nothing displeasing in my book," Starfire said, yawning. "I am wondering if you will be finished soon for I am most tired."
Raven got up, flustered to have been found out.
"I'm sorry. I'll just… yeah."
She ran out, colliding into Robin. He kept her balance by gripping her upper arms. "Easy there," he said, frowning. "What did you find?"
"Red X made a clean job of it, I couldn't find anything." Raven stepped out of his grip, dusting off her spandex.
"Well, I've got some good and bad news for you." She groaned. He flashed a smile and elbowed her shoulder. "Hey! I haven't even told you what it was yet."
"You don't have to. I already know it's something I'm not going to like."
"Do you want the good or the bad first?"
Raven pinched the bridge of her nose. "Dick… please…"
"You and I are going on a short vacation."
"Is that the bad news?"
"No. We're going to Gotham, Bruce invited us." Robin waited for her reaction.
It took a whole two seconds before she said, horrified, "Excuse me? There's no way I'm going through with this."