7Snogs: Theme 4/7: Sunset.

A/N: Here it is, the long awaited ((waits for snickers of sarcastic laughter)) fourth installment of the 7Snogs writing challenge! This one is going to have some deleted scenes posted in my emsscraps journal, so go check 'em out, if that kind of thing floats your boat. Included is going to be a different beginning, a bit of additional stuff in the middle and some stuff I took out when it was going in a direction I didn't like. I'm sure you guys'll notice why I took them out, but I was kinda iffy about the beginning bit for awhile, so I'd appreciate feedback as to whether or not it seemed appropriate to change the beginning. I kinda liked it, but it seemed a little too OOC for me. Anyway, you guys be the judge.

Lets see...anything else? Oh yeah, this, obviously, would be after the end of the series and is assuming that Speedy and Raven never really met before that time. So, again, I will remind you guys, that these Snogs don't have anything to do with one another. (Just in case you guys read this and say, "Hey! This isn't chronologically correct!" I'll just reply, "NO, it's not, because they don't intermingle at all..." although I guess if you wanted to, you could rearrange them chronologically and say they all happen together, but I dunno, I'm not planning it that way, so do that at your own risk. So far, no one of these has referred to any of the others, nor have they directly contradicted any of the others, but I make no promises. So, okay, on with the show.

And oh yeah, not beta'd. I've had several offers of people to be betas and I appreciate them, but now I'm shy about sending this kind of stuff over to you. So, thanks, everyone and although I'm going to look into getting a few betas for my Moments vignettes, I think I'm going to stick going beta-less for these other kind of one-shots, if you all think you can handle the grammatical mess that is my self-beta-ing style. ((GRIN))

Disclaimers: Standard, same as the other three...

A Pause
by Em

"Twilight has always seemed like God's indrawn breath, a pause in the progression of time."
- Emily Richards

x-x-x-x-

Raven had never been as immune to his appearance as she led everyone, especially him, to believe.

Granted, it was relatively easy to pretend to not notice one way or another if he was even in the room in those early days. There was very few official introductions among the Titans after all, and with the exception of Aqualad who had barged into their abode and required an introduction, none of the others were ever introduced to the team as a whole.

So, it wasn't surprising that she went months, almost a year, without really having to interact with him on any real level. Which was, ultimately, fine with her. She wasn't a friendly person on the whole and she didn't approach anyone for a heart to heart unless she felt she needed to, for their benefit or hers. She wasn't heartless, after all, no matter what her detractors might say.

And yes, she had noticed him. How couldn't she? He had fought alongside them and she had fought him hand to hand during his stint as a Brother Blood puppet. She had always thought he was handsome, and she certainly wasn't as immune to that wicked twist of his lips as she pretended. Still, she could think he was as sexy as all get out and not care to get to know him quite easily, especially when he was so overwhelmingly obnoxious about everything, especially his own self worth..

So, really, if it hadn't been because she had accidentally walked in on him as he watched the brilliant colors of the dying sun that one day on the Titans' roof, she could've happily continued to live without once wondering about him. There had been something about the expression on his face that had stopped her from leaving the roof just as quietly as she arrived and it had taken her all of five seconds to notice it.

There had been something else in his expression that day, something she had never seen on his face before. She thought at first it was just the look of utter seriousness in his usually flippant features, but dismissed that thought as quickly as it had occurred to her: he had been serious many times during battle and training. More than seriousness, she amended, something like depth to the tilt of his usually arrogant stance. And yet more even than that; she had seen depth on his features when they planned strategies. She had never really bought into his stupid/shallow act – she didn't have to talk personally to him to sensed there was more to him intelligence wise than he led others to believe. And yet something in his unguarded expression called to something inside her and twisted her insides the way she had never really experienced before.

She didn't know how long she stood staring at his candid commune with the sunset before he finally must have realized her presence but when he finally turned to look at her, to his credit, he didn't appear surprised to see her there. A moment of charged silence followed the locking of their gazes into which she knew, despite her limited knowledge of proper social interraction, that it was up to her to say or do something to explain her presence.

She could have just left the roof, turned around and walked away, and he probably would've wondered at her strange behavior but chalked another one up to Weird Raven-Like behavior as they all tended to do. Yet, for some strange reason, rather than walking away, she found herself walking toward him instead.

"We haven't officially met," she said as she stepped next to him, surprised at how true that statement actually was. She must have been thinking something along those lines for the phrase to come up so naturally to her lips when he turned to look at her.

Almost physically shaking the otherness from his expression, he smiled and tried to summon up a suggestive leer the likes she had noticed him offer every female he had cause to speak to on a personal basis. She, however, wasn't just any female, and she caught the way the expression didn't completely erase the shadows of whatever it was he had been contemplating from his eyes. She knew he couldn't really mean it.

Rather than let him pretend, however, she surprised herself by raising a hand and stopping his words before they came. "If you can't offer me the works you might as well drop the ladies-man persona entirely," she said matter-of-factly, turning away from him to look out at the city. She offered him a sideways glance, "It's insulting to me, otherwise."

He was so thrown by her first true words to him that it took him a few moments to catch up and verify that he had in fact just been teased by Raven the Cold as some people called her.

He laughed despite himself. "Right, sorry," he said, clearly unrepentant, "Would a grope make up for the insult?"

"A grope would earn you a one-way trip to a dimension filled with worm people," she answered stoically. But she looked at him and the humor in her eyes softened the words.

"You can do that?" he had asked, sufficiently impressed.

"Of course," she answered nonchalantly. "Haven't you read my file?"

He grinned at her lopsidedly, "'Fraid not."

She turned to look at him and was surprisingly pleased to note the shadows of whatever he had been thinking of were gone and he truly meant this grin. In response, she raised her eyebrow to show exactly how unimpressed she was by his grin. "You do know how to read, don't you?" she asked monotonously.

He stood up straight and squared his shoulders, "Are you trying to insult me?" he asked.

She offered him a small smile, so small he could easily mistake it for a trick of the dying light, "If you had read my file you would've known that's just my way of introducing myself," she said seriously.

"Ah," he nodded as if in understanding, "So you introduce yourself to Beast Boy daily, is that it?"

She shook her head, "No, actually, with Beast Boy I really am just trying to insult him."

Speedy's laughter echoed in the otherwise silent rooftop, loud and raucous and it drew her attention like a moth to a flame. She'd never really known anyone to laugh so full-heartedly, especially at something so silly and not necessarily witty or humorous.

When his laughter finally subsided, he turned to her with a grin, "I much prefer to get to know people the old fashion way," he admitted, "So..." He turned full to her and extended his hand. When she quirked a brow in silent question, her own hands still under her cloak, he waved his hand, smiling, "I'm Speedy," he offered.

Lifting the other brow, she extended her own hand and lightly placed it against his. His warm fingers wrapped around her bare hand and a shock of emotion traveled up her arm and brought her eyes in surprise up to where his would be behind the mask. He was just as surprised which told her he had felt the same as she and that confused her just as much as the feeling itself.

"Raven," she spoke. "How do you do?" she almost mocked.

He smiled brilliantly at her and brought her hand up to his lips where he pressed them chastely against her skin before gently letting her hand slip out of his grasp, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said with all due propriety.

At a sudden loss of what to say, Raven turned back to the skyline where the first few stars were starting to appear in a remarkably smog-free and cloudless sky. She was never one for small talk, and suddenly wondered what she had gotten herself into by purposefully engaging Speedy (of all people) in conversation. That wasn't like her at all. Normally, she would've seen him on the roof and probably either made it known she would join him in silence or wouldn't have joined him at all. So why did she initialize it?

She didn't do smalltalk, so even though she wanted (for reasons she wouldn't figure out for another few weeks at least) to continue listening to his voice, she didn't know how to get there.

She wouldn't know until later that she had wanted to speak to him. She didn't realize until later that she had fallen in love with him in that moment when she had seen him standing in the orange-golden light of the sunset, so how could she have known what her unconscious reasons for prodding him into conversation might be?

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

She startled just slightly when his voice broke her silence. Some part of her wanted to laugh, ''So this is small talk 101,' she thought. "Yes," she answered, then mentally kicked herself for not having anything else.

"I like this time of day the best," he continued. "It's my favorite, when the sun's just dipped below the horizon, right after sunset, but there's still some light..."

"Twilight," she offered.

He turned to her and nodded, "Yes, twilight, exactly," he grinned at her, "Even the name's nice, isn't it?" he chuckled, "Like something that should be in a poem somewhere."

She nodded, "It probably is," she offered stoically, "Somewhere."

He looked surprised, "Really?" Again, she nodded. "Do you know any?" She took a few moments to think and finally, pensively, she nodded again. He smiled at her and leaned his hip against the raised edges of the roof, "Tell me?"

She was tempted for a brief few moments to spew the lines of one of her favorite poems, but couldn't quite make herself feel comfortable enough to do so. "Maybe some other time," she said, her voice much softer than it normally was.

She thought he might question her further, maybe try to prod her into speaking it regardless, but he did neither, simply nodded and looked back as even the last remnants of light gave way to the blue-black of the night sky.

When enough time had passed and she couldn't think of any other reason to stay where she was, she shifted just a minimal inch in preparation of exiting. As if sensing her intention, he turned to her. His movement stilled her as if she had been caught trying to sneak away.

"Did you know I was raised by Navajo Indians?" he asked quite suddenly.

She blinked a few times, startled by his seemingly random comment. She fought with her surprise to remember what she had read from his file, but couldn't remember the Navajo reference in it. "No," she answered simply.

He chuckled, "I guess that wasn't in my file, huh?" he asked, a hint of teasing in his voice.

She shook her head slowly, "Nothing about our past is in our files," she answered seriously.

He turned to her and smiled, "Well, I was." He must have seen something like confusion in her eyes as to why he would be offering such information, because he smiled sheepishly, "You're probably wondering why I bring that up..."

She nodded, "Just a bit," she confessed.

He chuckled, and once again, his easy laughter surprised her. "Well, it's just because you reminded me of an old Navajo legend the elders used to tell us when I was a child on the reservation."

"I did?" she questioned, just slightly showing her surprise.

He shrugged, "Okay, so I was trying to dredge up some long forgotten memory of some poem dealing with Twilight," he started, glancing shyly at her, "And I'll admit it was in the hopes of impressing you," he confessed. Raven's eyes went wide for all of two seconds but he continued speaking before she could even hope to think of something to say, "And I remembered one of the old Navajo myths instead."

"I see," she spoke, although she didn't really understand anything at all, especially not how badly she wished she was the type of person who could just flippantly ask him to share the story with her. The problem was, she didn't know how.

"It's one of the side stories of Estsanatlehi, the Changing Woman," he continued conversationally. He looked at her and saw the question in her eyes, "This is she who was said to have taken pieces of her own skin to create the first man and woman," he explained.

She found herself nodding her understanding, "What of her?" she asked, hoping it didn't sound as cold as she felt it did.

Thankfully, he smiled and looked back out at the skyline, "Well, since her home is in the West," he motioned with his chin in the proper direction, where the rays of the sun were fighting valiently for their last show of the day, "her husband, the Sun God," he continued, "and she meet only but once every day," he looked at her, "for a few blissful moments, when he sets near to her." Raven turned to look at him and found the weight of his eyes on her, even through the mask. "And as they kiss, the joy that they feel at their brief but loving reunion bursts into and across the sky in the brilliant colors of twilight and then fades slowly like the warmth that lingers even after your love has left your arms."

"That's..." she wanted to say, lovely, she wanted to say how she got the same warmth spreading inside her that signified pleasure at hearing a good story, she wanted to ask him to tell her more stories he heard as a child, but she didn't know how and wasn't sure she was allowed to. So, she hesitated and ended instead with, "...interesting."

He chuckled and looked back out at the twinkling lights of the city just beyond the dark of the sea. "Well, at least it wasn't boring," he mused aloud.

Raven internally kicked herself. Outwardly, she remained impassive. "I like stories," she forced herself to say. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him glance at her as if in surprise at her concession. She thought about walking away.

"What's your favorite?" he asked into the semi-darkness.

Raven blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden question. "I don't think I have a favorite story."

He stared at her so hard she turned under the weight of it only to find him smiling in something akin to surprise with a hint of admiration.

She didn't like being stared at as if she were a child that had just done something cute and surprising, "What?" she asked, frowning, "Was that too deep an answer for you?"

He grinned, "No, actually, I'm just surprised you were willing to share that much about yourself without my prodding you into sharing it," he admitted in a disarmingly honest way. And before she could figure out what kind of response that comment required, he spoke again,"But I actually was referring to your favorite time of day."

She frowned, "You might want to be more specific next time," she said and although her voice was as stoic and unemotional as it had been since they began speaking, there was that twinge of something in it that he recognized as offense.

He couldn't help but smile at that, too. "I will strive to be clearer in the future," he promised seriously.

She glanced at him as if trying to figure out whether or not he was teasing her. By the time she looked away, Speedy thought she wouldn't say anything more, so he was quite surprised when she spoke right into his musings as to what else he could say to get her to talk to him.

"Dawn," she answered succinctly. When several moments passed and he remained silent, she turned to look at him in the muted light, "Are you surprised?" her tone was almost challenging.

"I am," he admitted simply, "With the way you always look for the quiet corners of any room and try to keep out of the limelight, I had rather thought you'd say midnight or something."

There were many ways she could have felt at his admission: insulted that he would make such assumptions about her was one, and shocked that he'd care so very little about her threatening reputation to tell her the truth was another. However, the one she actually felt straight down to her purple combat boots was surprise. Shock. Amazement.

Not because he had had the nerve to tell her straight out something that could have insulted her and not at his surprising lack of tact in telling her what he really thought rather than trying to sugar coat it, but at the realization that even though they had never really talked before that moment, even though their only exchanges had been recognitions of each other's presence in various and sundry gatherings and telecomferences, and all the other things Robin did to get them prepared for the Brotherhood of Evil, even though they had never spoken more than a 'hey' to each other and had never consciously acknowledged more than the other's presence, he had noticed quite a bit about her and made a rather astute deduction based on his observances.

She was floored by the fact that he didn't assume she'd like the dark because she was painted as a Goth Witch, or because she wore dark colors and was emotionless. No, he thought she liked the dark because of the peacefulness and quiet it brought with it.

"It's a misconception," she finally answered after she was sure he must've thought she wouldn't say another word: ever.

"That you like quiet?" he asked casually.

"No, I like quiet," she assured him, "It's a misconception that the dark is the quietest moment." Some part of her was reminding her that she rarely offered this much information to anyone, especially someone that was a relative stranger. "Dawn is so much more still...it's the moment after the night creatures have gone to bed and before the birds have woken up...if you get it at the exact moment, there's this utter stillness..." she paused and thought about stopping, but as if without her permission, the words came, "...like the world itself is holding its breath."

She could feel Speedy's eyes on her, and she kept hers trained on the lights blinking and moving in the city.

"I can see that," he decided as if he had come to some deep decision. The silence had fallen over them for another few moments, when he thought of something else to say, "And of course," he said conversationally, "there's a type of twilight in the dawn as well, isn't there?" he asked. "A kind of reverse twilight."

She nodded slowly, pensively. "The Sun-God and Estsanatlehi have another moment to embrace at dawn, too, don't they?"

He smiled, "Yes, I suppose they do."

"I guess two brief moments of bliss are better than nothing at all."

He nodded, "Some love, no matter how brief is better than none."

She seemed about to say something when she stopped and looked at the door to the roof seconds before it swung open with a clash and Beast Boy came onto the roof.

"There you guys are!" Beast Boy exclaimed, coming up to them with a s mile on his face. "We've been looking everywhere for you," he told Raven. "Heya, Speedster," he greeted casually.

Speedy raised a hand in silent greeting.

"I will not referee another game of stankball," Raven deadpanned.

"But there's all these new levels we came up with and new players added too since Mas and Menos said they wanted to play!" Beast Boy insisted.

Raven glared at him, "No," she said succinctly before walking away from both of them.

"Aw, c'mon, Rae! We won't have to explain the rules to you!" Beast Boy whined as he followed her.

Speedy sighed and began to follow as well and the action brought Beast Boy's attention to him.

"Hey, what were you guys doing out here in the dark, anyway?" Beast Boy asked, then stopped himself and catching Speedy's stare, wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Did I interrupt something?"

"We were watching the sunset," Speedy explained.

"But the sunset ended hours ago?" Beast Boy questioned.

"Did it?" Speedy asked honestly unaware of the amount of time that had passed.

Beast Boy shrugged, "Maybe just like ten minutes ago, but yeah, it's over and gone, dude."

Speedy shrugged and walked on, offering Beast Boy one of his 'oh-golly' smiles. "Is that so?" was all he commented.

Beast Boy realized that Raven was getting away hurried to catch up to her, "Ra-VEN!" he called after her, then, as if remembering something, he stopped halfway down the stairwell to look back at where Speedy had just started down them, "Hey, Speedster, wanna join in on the game?"

Speedy smiled and opened his mouth to say something when Raven's voice floated up the stairwell, interrupting him.

"Say no, Speedy," Raven warned, "or you won't get the stink out of your clothes for a week."

Speedy's laughter echoed down the stairwell to where Raven was just entering the hallway and she couldn't help but smile in return.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: The Navajo story Speedy tells her is based on an actual myth. That she was married to the Sun-God is a true myth, that they met when the sun rose or fell only, is true myth, and that she is the one that created man with peices of her skin, is also true myth. I only expanded the legend to include the bit about the kiss when the Sun-God sets. I found it online somewhere, but stupid me, I didn't keep the link. Sorry, guys.

Preview: Next theme is "Rumor" and it's Speedy's turn again. Only Puck and the Goddess know what I'm going to come up with for that one, cause I surely don't...

Thanks: In emsscraps journal, under the title of this one. If you guys have missed any of my previous "thanks" journal postings, you can look in my memories section for it. (I just recently organized those and I'm very proud...)

So? Whaddya guys think?