Yay! Another story! R&R everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans (insert disappointed look here)
When You Can't Sleep
It was two-thirty in the morning and the T Tower was silent. Starfire was smiling as she dreamt of her and Robin saving the world together; Beast Boy was curled up as a little kitten and dreaming of him and Starfire saving the World together; Cyborg never had dreams while he was hooked up to the machine, but was having a pleasant rest nonetheless; and Robin had finally fallen asleep at his computer after many all-nighters of trying to discover the mystery that was Red X.
And Raven? You see, unlike the other titans, Raven often had trouble when it came to sleeping. Her bed was either too soft of too lumpy, her pillows were too few or too many, the temperature was too cold or too sticky, etc, etc. After many nights of lying wide-awake in her bed, she had developed these many excuses on which to blame her abnormalities. And after another many sleepless nights after that, she had even begun to believe that they were the source of all her misery and crankiness.
Needless to say that over the years, Raven had started to really dislike anything that so much as related to sleeping. Her dressers were devoid of any pyjamas, her bed had been sent off into another dimension, and the pillows had been torn to shreds.
So, you may ask, what did she use to sleep on? The answer is she never slept. Oh, she still kept up a charade with the other Titans; rubbing her eyes and yawning before excusing herself and leaving for her room, at which point she would wait until all others were sleeping before creeping back downstairs. Being that Beast Boy and Cyborg's rooms were two floors below and Starfire's was on the floor below that, she didn't have any trouble with sneaking past them.
It was the Boy Wonder's room that gave her so much trouble. You see, in the Tower there was one central elevator that connected all of the bedrooms and such. When the tower was being built, it was originally two floors shorter than it was at present. When the extra floors were added, the elevator was not expanded on. That meant Raven had to tiptoe down the stairs connecting her floor to Robin's and creep down the hallway right past his room before making it to the elevator...it was all very stressful.
It was at this time (two-thirtyish) that Raven usually attempted to head down the corridor into the living area. She grabbed her book in one hand and opened her door, careful to lock it behind her. The last time she had forgotten to do this, she had returned the next morning to find her room in shambles. And in the midst of the mess had been Starfire's stupid little pet, Silkie. Raven did NOT like Silkie
She reached the stairs and carefully trod down them, being sure not to step on any of the staircase's creaky spots. She had long ago mapped out the stairs and recorded those spaces in an attempt to not awaken Robin...
Of course, Logic always reminded her, This is as much for you as it is for him. I mean, if he were awake it would be a lot worse for us.
At which point Love would always reply, But definitely not worse for the eyes! This would then cause Raven to blush and almost drop whatever book she happened to have with her at the time.
She hurried silently past his room, reaching the elevator with a sigh of relief. She was never afraid of Robin catching her...she was afraid of what she would do if she saw him in whatever he slept in (which, as she had noticed, was usually nothing but shorts or boxers).
Flashback:
Raven was making her way towards the kitchen. For some reason, she hadn't felt the need to be careful this evening and was walking down the hallway while reading her book. Smashing into a wall, she paused to make sure Robin was still asleep. Hearing nothing, she continued towards the elevator. She was about to push the down button when she heard a click sound.
The elevator doors opened up to reveal the Boy Wonder, dressed in red and green boxer shorts. He looked at her with surprise before blushing...this was when Raven took into account the exact situation. Robin, whom she had had the largest crush on since forever was standing in front of her half-naked while she was wearing...
Oh god, what was she wearing? Raven snapped out of her trance and looked down before groaning. It had been a mild summer's night, forcing Raven (who had a very strong dislike of the heat) to change into something with a bit less material: a white tank top and grey short shorts. She looked up at him in horror to see that he was wearing that exact same expression (from what she could see, with his infernal mask hiding his eyes and all). To be honest, he looked like an idiotic little deer caught in headlights, which meant that surely she did too.
She rearranged her features into a more blank and withdrawn look before daring to look him in the eye...I mean, mask. Realizing that they'd been standing there for several minutes and hadn't said anything, she thought now would be the good opportunity to speak.
"If you ever tell anybody what just happened," she deadpanned.
"You'll attempt to send me into another dimension?"he finished.
"...yeah.."
"Alright then."
"Good."
They stood still for some seconds, letting the awkwardness of the situation envelope them before Robin finally moved. He was about halfway down the hall before Raven finally realized something.
"Hold it. I'll 'attempt' to send you into another dimension?" she asked, wheeling around to face him. He stopped. Leaning against the wall, he smirked.
"Yeah, well, your powers are no match for my bo staff."
"Your bo staff? Yes, they are. Your hideous display of colour coordination? Now THAT may be a bit too strong for them..."
"Whereas your sarcasm would totally blow away my 'horrible colour coordination skills', as you call them."
" Ah, but you're forgetting about the strong sense of denial you have when it comes to your poorly created ensemble."
"And then there's your jealousy at not getting to wear my ensemble."
"I don't wish to see anybody in that mess."
Robin smirked. "Oh, so you'd rather see me without it on, then?"
"That's not what I meant!" Raven said quickly, her voice echoing off the walls as it bounced from one end to the other.
"I'm sure it's not."
"Then you must be really disappointed."
There was a lull in the witty banter, and they both just stood there looking at one another.
"Go to bed," Robin said, finally.
"You think you can order me around, Boy Blunder?"
"I AM the leader, after all."
"Well, oh Fearless Leader, I need some tea. So how about you go to bed and just pretend that someone on this team actually follows your orders."
Robin's face soured after this, and he was quiet. Raven, satisfied, turned to leave before she heard him mumble, "Star does."
Scowling, she said, "Oh, well if Star does!" Rolling her eyes, she started to leave again before stopping. This time, on her own.
Robin looked at her for a moment before asking, "Are you jealous?"
"I don't like you, Bird Boy!" And at this comment, he smiled widely.
"Oh, really? That's funny, because when I asked if you were jealous, I was referring to my good leadership qualities...but you automatically assumed that-"
"I ASSUMED NOTHING!" Raven blushed at her outburst and strode into the elevator. As soon as the doors were closed, she collapsed onto the floor. If you were anywhere outside of the soundproof walls of the Tower, you would've heard many yelps as trash bins and light bulbs exploded around the country, causing a great commotion and inspiring many Apocalypse rumours.
Raven tried hard to avoid any nightly meetings with Robin after that in an attempt to keep her emotions in check. It was hard enough seeing him on a day to day basis, but when he started acting so attractive her emotions went haywire.
By this time, the elevator had reached the correct floor, and Raven stepped out onto the landing. Looking out over the living area, her eyes fell upon the immense windows that acted as a wall for the opposite side of the room. The moon was high in the sky, casting a pale light onto the tower and illuminating the furniture inside. Many bright stars were twinkling and Raven could swear she saw Venus a bit further off in the distance.
She floated over to the window before setting herself back down again. She sat cross-legged on the floor, staring out over the sky and sea. It was only then that she noticed the strange feeling of being watched. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she felt a shiver creep slowly down her spine. Of course, she would never have admitted it to anybody, but she had always been terrified of horror movies...especially the parts when the victim will be sitting helplessly and you just know that something is about to jump out and devour them whole.
And the feeling of dread that was welling up inside of her made her seem like she was one of those helpless little girls sitting in the spooky old house...just waiting to be eaten alive-
"Hello Raven," said the deeply amused (and mechanical) voice of Red X. He watched as her already tense form jumped into the air.
Raven whipped around and looked for intruders. Finding nothing in the shadows, she assumed that her mind had been playing tricks on her. After all, she had just been thinking of horror movies. And the Titans had just had a battle with Red X earlier that day. And the view of outside certainly was helping to calm her nerves. Closing her eyes, she felt complete relaxation.
It was at this moment that she felt warm breath on her neck. She whipped around to see...no one. Standing, she once again tried to spot an intruder through the shadows and once again found nobody. She was just about to turn back towards the window when she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her waist.
"Looking for me, Beautiful?"
At this point, she had two explanations.
1) She had somehow managed to incapacitate herself without even realizing it...Perhaps her tea had really been vodka in disguise.
Or 2) Red X was the incapacitated one...and he was invisible...and he could walk through walls...
"Okay X. I have two explanations for what's going on and neither one seems to be making a lot of sense. So either you tell me what the hell is going on, or I'll just blow up the whole entire tower and dispose of you that way," she drawled, feeling more confident than she sounded.
"Is it wrong for me to want to see you?" He asked innocently from the shadows. He felt more gratitude towards his cloaking device than ever before as he watched her death glare pass over him to search the rest of the room.
"No X," she said in a slow voice, as if she were talking to a six year old. "It's wrong to trespass."
"You'd think I'd have learned that by now."
"You'd think," Raven said, the corners of her mouth twitching.
"Well, maybe you'll just have to teach me a lesson."
"And if I don't want to?"
Red X snuck up behind Raven and twisted both her arms behind her back. Smirking, he said, "You don't really have a choice."
She twisted around and kicked into the open air, feeling her foot connect with his invisible body. Before satisfaction could reach her, she felt herself get flipped. Landing on her hands, she sprung back into a standing position and began punching the air in front of her. One of her fists made contact with his jaw, followed by his fist making contact with her own face. She felt a sickening crack in her nose, followed by a feeling of blinding pain.
"Well," she said, panting. "If you really came here just to stare at me, then you sure are making a mess of the view."
"Aw, Raven, you know I'll love you no matter how you look."
"Oh, so now you love me?"
"Did I ever say I didn't?"
"You never said you did!"
"I believe I just said that."
"But you didn't mean it!"
"Really?"
"Really," Raven replied, healing her nose as she spoke. "It was just said to catch me off guard so you could finish me off before making away with whatever you came here to steal in the first place!"
He removed his cloaking device and crouched down in front of her, looking her in the eye. She glared at his mask in return, before he grabbed her hand and placed it into his.
"If that's why I came, why haven't I made off yet?"
Raven rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously you feel that by-" She was cut off as he pulled her into him. A pair of lips met hers and she felt herself slipping off into a dreamlike state. Deepening the kiss, Red X snaked his arms around her and pulled her even closer to himself. When he pulled away, Raven was left sitting there dumbly, eyes glazed over with confusion and shock.
That was when his bo staff connected with her head, knocking her unconscious. Picking her up, he set her gently onto the couch before retrieving the floppy disk he had stolen from the evidence room.
"Of course, " he said quietly to an unconscious Raven. "Maybe I did have two motives for visiting you tonight." He placed a kiss on her forehead before breaking one of the Tower's large windows and disappearing into the night.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The next morning, Robin had awoken to find Raven sleeping on the couch. Upon seeing the broken window, he woke her up and began to question her about what had happened. Her answer came immediately: she had been making some tea when she heard someone in the other room. That was all she remembered. None of the Titans ever questioned her story, and the incident was soon forgotten.
It was two weeks since then. At 3:30am.
Starfire was busy dreaming of herself and Robin on some great escapade or another; Beast Boy was dreaming of himself as the strongest man in the World, with Terra and Star cheering him on as he kicked Cyborg's butt; Cyborg deep in his robotic sleep; and Robin was dreaming of himself and Raven in some romantic setting.
And where was Raven? She was in her room, on her recovered bed, hugging her new pillows. And better yet, she was sleeping. Sleeping, and dreaming...of the great Boy Wonder.
So you see, no matter what X's real motive had been for visiting the tower that fateful night, she really couldn't complain. Because ever since he had rendered her unconscious, she had been sleeping regularly again. And any chance to see Robin half-naked without making her powers go haywire was reason enough to be thankful...just so long as he never knew what she was dreaming.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
So, that was it. My second fic (yay). I feel so proud. Anyways, let me know what you thought of it, and for now I'll get back to my other story. Remember...click the review button...
You know you want to...
Robin: If you review, I'll do whatever you want me to!
Raven: sends death glares at Robin
Robin: eep!
...REVIEW!
