30Kisses Theme Ficlets
Robin/Raven
By Kysra
Theme #27 (overflow): Veil
It hangs between them, a limp veil of sheer white traced in pristine ribbon; and she hates it for the pain it causes the woman who holds it.
"This isn't a chance you throw away." Grave, solemn, and soft-spoken as always, she stares into the peridot green eyes of this dear friend whose eternal smile is lost to the sacrifice between them.
"This is not an offer you should refuse." Red hair falls into the other woman's starkly beautiful face, the lush, painted lips unfamiliar in their pursed line.
Raven shakes her head to dispel the words swirling about her head, to disrupt the course of this unexpected event. "Robin wouldn't want this. He's yours, Starfire. We've known that since –"
The Tameranian Princess cum Earth bride smiles sadly, her eyes drifting to glance at the wall, gaze distant and glazed, "Robin does not exist as we knew him." Indeed, her heart thumps with the vocalized acknowledgement. Robin was Starfire's boy, but Nightwing is Raven's man. It is in the clothes he wears to scream his soul – where once he wore Star's colors, bright and bold, he now dons a sheath of overflowing night and shadow to match Raven's staid darkness.
Frowning, fighting tears, the Dark Witch of Titan's Tower falters before her long-time friend. "I can't do this to you."
But Star has made her decision for Nightwing is not the only one who understands that when Raven looks upon her reflection, she sees the shell of insanity Starfire experienced in Warp's future. "I wish this for you, Friend Raven, because you cannot."
Stepping close, the veil is raised and set upon Raven's coif and pulled over her pinched face, red streaks lining her eyes and cheeks where the tears flow down freely. She croaks and hands tremble as fresh flowers are pressed between palms. Her heart is pained with guilty pleasure as Star comes forward to embrace and kiss and whisper a reassurance though it is Raven who should be reassuring. Instead, she breaks the heartsick silence, "He won't like this. They won't like this."
"He will be happy." It is the prediction Starfire has based today's actions upon, this split second decision to swallow her own dream to give her friends this gift. "They will learn to understand."
Raven swallows audibly, the sound seeming to echo in the still silence of the dressing room. "Starfire?" She is wide-eyed and visibly afraid, her eyes open and unguarded.
"He loves you, Raven."
"But he loves you as well."
"And that is why I will not watch." It hurts, the flinch that conquers Raven's usually immovable expression; but Starfire needs to be honest. Time is running out, and Raven must make her decision.
Suddenly, Raven raises up and engulfs the taller woman in arms that seem unbearably small and young. "I love you."
In return, Starfire smiles sadly against a cool, ashen neck, "Be happy, Friend," before stepping away and disappearing from the room, from the church.
Moments later, Raven walks the path Starfire was expected to tread towards the man who became so much to both but represented the future to only one; and as his surprised expression melts into an easy, familiar grin, his hands lift the veil and Raven finds herself smiling freely for the first time, savoring the words she repeats for their friends and family and him, "I, Raven Roth, do take this man to be my lawfully wedded husband . . . "