(I'm back to writing a lot of stuff, but I'm all over the place with it, so more will come, just not all for the same story. Please review, and enjoy this chapter! ~RavensMind~)

Chapter 8: Hatred Rising

"Some of her targets say she broke out, others say she was never locked up, the rest say she was created from nothing, but we know that she was released by her captor. Hatred's laughter resonated through the halls of Raven's memory tower as she struck down another swath of Trigon's demon horde. Many of the occupying hordes had begun to flee from the tower, dissuaded by Hatred's wrath and Despair's new leash. A new power courses through the walls and floors of the tower as Hatred retrieves the abilities she once knew. Hatred infuses these abilities with Raven's power, granting a stronger arsenal, and further honing Raven's spells. The criminals of Jump City would feel a tremor in their world, as Raven found Hatred again."

Meditating had never been more peaceful. Raven hovered over the floor in the living room, her legs crossed, arms bent out from her side, eyes closed, and chanting her usual mantra. Robin sat on the couch, watching her, waiting for her to let him know when he had to help. She said she would try and let some of her emotions out. She hoped it would go better than the last time.

Raven felt a few emotions hovering near the surface, Passion, Cleverness, and the most active – Hatred. She didn't know which of them would show themselves first, only that she should be able to harness her power with better control. She opened one eye and looked at Robin.

"Are you ready?" Robin asked.

"Yes. Sit where you are, watch me, talk to me if you think you need to, keep me in the moment, and I'll do my best to focus on you," Raven said.

"Okay, start when you feel like it. You can do this," he said.

She took a deep breath and lowered the guard on her emotions. She felt Cleverness move to the front. Good, an easy one. A dark pair of glasses formed from Raven's power and floated in front of her eyes.

"Raven?" Robin asked.

"I'm here. That's a curious glint in your eye, I know you're planning something. It could only either concern me, or those criminals. No, not them, your mind is too at ease. I felt your gaze over me, I can feel your desire. Does it bother you that I'm so different from you?" Raven asked, as Cleverness focused her mind.

"Woah…um, no, we're all pretty different here, and yeah – I am thinking about you, but I'm not sure what emotion you have here. Is this your intelligence?" he asked.

"Correct. This is easy to focus, as it's not something that likes to be set loose on anything it puts in its view," she said.

"Okay, you're doing well, keep it up," he said.

She nodded and the glasses disappeared as Raven's next emotion filled her senses. Her eyes turned bright purple as a small grin appeared on her face. Her gaze was so enticing to his eyes. He felt as though he could stare at her forever.

"Robin. I loved our morning, you were so sweet – too sweet to resist. I thought you'd like me more if we were closer. Kissing you was just… amazing, and I want to keep you close so I can do it whenever I need to. I want to keep writing with you too, and to you," she said in a seductive tone.

"I love our morning too and I want to be closer to you too. Um…am I dreaming?" he asked, smiling at her.

"No, you're just talking to my little passionate self," she said.

"I like it a lot, you make me want to kiss you," he said, with a grin.

"You'll have to keep it to yourself for now, I don't think this next one is going to be so nice," she said, her eyes returning to normal.

Raven felt Hatred rush into her senses. Hatred pleaded with Raven to try her powers, her newly enhanced demonic form.

"Robin, I'm going to let this one out completely, but don't worry – I'll be in control. Do you trust me?" she asked.

"Yeah, I trust you, just be careful," he said.

Closing her eyes, Raven felt Hatred boost her power, feeling energy surge through her, electrifying her senses. When she opened her eyes, they were deep red, and she had the cruelest scowl on her face.

"No…" Robin said as he recognized the emotion.

She closed her eyes again. She grew to a height of over twice her size, towering over Robin, then she tensed as two small horns grew out of her head. Dark tendrils appeared out from under her cloak as they writhed on the floor, each encased in flames. A tiny puff of smoke blew out from under her eyelids with every blink. A small dark shadow in her eyes made Robin reach for his bo staff. He couldn't tell what it was, he only felt it's insidious gaze.

As Robin held his extended bo staff out in front of him, Raven glided forward, seeming to phase in and out of view as she moved. Lights over their heads flickered. He backed up off of the couch when she got closer. A few of the tendrils that surrounded her reached towards him, one latched onto his bo staff, the other two wrapped around his arms. They slowly lifted him off of the ground.

"Raven!" he shouted.

"Do you still trust me?" she asked in her deep voice.

"No, put me down! You're not Raven!" he shouted.

"Robin. Please…"

"Put. Me. Down," he said.

The tendrils lowered him back to the couch and retreated. Raven shrank back to her normal size and her eyes were back to the original color. She fell to the floor on her hands and knees.

Robin cautiously went over to her and reached out to help her up. A wall of her power sprung up, shoving him back as she swiftly stood and crossed to the window. The wall disappeared and he looked at her.

"Raven, what's wrong?" he asked.

She didn't say anything, she just stared out the window. He walked over and stood next to her. He looked at her.

"Raven?" he asked.

"You were afraid of me. You thought I was a threat," she said.

"I…didn't think you were still in control. I thought that was your father's kind of thing," he said.

"I'm half demon Robin, that side of me exists and its part of who I am, it's part of where my power comes from," she said.

"I'm sorry, you surprised me," he said.

"You know I would never hurt you. Have I ever hurt you?" she asked.

"No, you haven't. Uh, what emotion was that, anyway?" he asked.

"That was Hatred. Up until now, I had her locked away in my mind, but I needed to work out a few things with all of my emotions – so I let her out. Hatred is part of why I'm feeling better and how I'll keep getting better. If I don't use her, I'll never be able to be myself around you without being worried, and my powers will suffer for it," she explained.

"Hatred, huh? I think I've only seen that one a couple times. I promise I'll try harder next time," he said.

"We'll try this again some other time," she said, with a heavy sigh.

"Okay," he said, cautiously putting his arm around her.

To his surprise, she rested her head on his shoulder as they looked out the window. He dared not say anything, worried about upsetting her again. He knew why she was so upset, she only wanted him to accept her, trust her, and know her as they became closer.

Raven didn't want to ruin the moment, she hoped he wouldn't either. Looking out over water towards the city, she felt her mind breathe a sigh of relief as Hatred cleared the last of Trigon's demons out of her memory tower, and it gave her a new vision of the future. She flinched, it had taken her by surprise, and she smiled.

"Want to start the first movie?" Raven asked, breaking the silence.

"You got it," Robin said.

They went over to the couch and put their feet up, sitting side by side, and as Robin picked up the remote, his communicator went off. He frowned and put his mask on before answering it. Cyborg's face came into view on the small circular screen.

"Cyborg, what's the situation?" Robin asked.

"We're working on that. Man, this turned out to be way more than some gang looking to sell plans for a reactor, but we're spinning our wheels here. The closer we get to finding the one behind this shady stuff, the worse this all sounds. Batman has us combing the city to find more criminals involved with this stuff, and we're about out of city, so we should find them soon, unless we missed something. How are things back home?" Cyborg asked.

"It was quiet for Raven and I until we found out that Slade and Penguin might be causing trouble, and Penguin is involved with whoever you're looking for. He'll be flying in soon and we're going to take him down before he can cause any harm. How are Beast Boy and Starfire?" Robin asked.

"They're fine, getting annoyed at Barman like me, but fine," Cyborg said.

"I know that annoyance really well. Hey, you three watch yourselves, Gotham's crime is a lot more dangerous than the kind we're used to," Robin said.

"Yeah, we've seen some of that. I don't really want to talk about it. How's Rae? Any better?" Cyborg asked.

"I'm right here. Yes, I'm starting to feel better, glad to see you haven't killed Beast Boy yet, did you remember that that's my job?" Raven asked.

"Nah, we worked it out," Cyborg said with a laugh.

"Glad to hear it," Robin said.

"I gotta go, supposed to check some place out before I head back to Batman for the night, night you two," Cyborg said.

"Night, be careful," Raven said.

Robin turned off the communicator and put it back on his utility belt. He sighed and turned on the TV, getting their first horror movie ready. Raven looked to him, waiting for him to say something.

"We should be there with them," Robin said, pressing more buttons the remote.

"I know. But they can handle themselves," she said.

"I guess that's true," he said.

"You know it's true," she said.

"Yeah…so wanna watch the movie?" he asked.

"Um, hang on," she said.

Reaching up, Raven carefully peeled Robin's mask off and dropped it on the couch next to them. He smiled and put his arm around her as he started the first movie.

RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrRRRRRRR

Robin and Raven had made it through two of the four movies before dinner. He ordered them their own pizza to share, for once not having to worry about the mad rush to get pieces before it was all gone. Once they were done, Robin went over to the couch, waiting for Raven to join him. She went to the kitchen and pushed a panel on the countertop. Something beeped, which made Robin turn around and look at Raven. She moved the panel aside and pulled out a wine bottle. Bending down, she pulled two wine glasses out from under the sink. Robin raised his eyebrow.

"How did you get that?" he asked.

"I saved the owner of this wine shop in the city during one of our cases, and to repay me, he promised me a free bottle of wine every few weeks, if I wanted it. I don't go that often, mostly because I don't get a chance to have some without being seen, but yeah. Do you want some?" she asked, pouring a glass for herself first.

"Sure. It's been a while since I had any, is it red or white?" he asked.

"Red," she said, pouring a second glass and leaving the bottle out.

She carried both glasses over to the couch and handed one to Robin, taking a seat next to him and taking a long sip from her glass. He took a sip of his, then another, and turned to Raven.

"I like it, thanks for sharing," he said.

"Anytime," she said, taking another sip.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Did you ever think this could happen before now? You and I, becoming something more than friends?"

"I've thought about it before and yes, I guess I thought you or I would try to make a move, but I didn't think it would have been this easy for me to do. I thought my emotions wouldn't let me try."

"When did you think about making the first move?"

"Um, I think it was after we stopped my father from destroying the world. I remember waiting for you to say something, anything along the lines of pushing our boundaries as friends, and dreading it, but also wanting it. I don't know, I'm weird. Obviously, you never did, and I never asked why. What about you, did you ever think this could happen?"

"Yeah, I thought about it quite a bit when our bond had started, and during the trouble we had with your father. I could have talked to you then, but you always seemed closed off and annoyed when I wanted to tell you something like that. I might've made the first move, but I guess Starfire kinda got in the way of that too. Maybe I'm just dumb like that."

"No, you weren't dumb. At least I didn't think so," she said, taking another sip of her wine.

"Did you think Starfire and I had a chance?"

"Of course you had a chance, but I wouldn't say it was a very good one. Others might disagree. Why are you asking me all of this?"

"I'm curious, really, because this is sudden for us, it just doesn't feel like it, you know?"

"Yeah. I think I know what you mean, but we've been close for a long time, it's not that surprising."

"I guess so. I wonder what the rest of the team will think."

"Oh, they'll lose their minds trying to come to terms with it, no question."

Robin laughed and took another long sip of his wine. He picked up the remote and started up the next movie. Raven finished her glass and went to refill it. She came back with a full glass and the bottle. They laid back on the couch, drinking, and laughing at the over the top horror movie.

Raven was the first to feel tipsy, wrapping her arms around Robin and curling up next to him to feel more grounded. She was having fun, she didn't regret the next few glasses. Robin felt tipsy when Raven was approaching the point of being near drunk. They kept making fun of the movie and laughing with each other as the night went on. He had been the one to finish the bottle, now about as inebriated as Raven. When the movie finished, he started kissing her, running his hands over her, while she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him closer to her.

RrR

The first to wake up the next morning was Robin. His eyes struggled to open. He put his hand over his forehead as he felt a stabbing headache come on. It took him a moment to orient himself and realize that his hand and arm were bare. Looking down, he saw a long, thick blanket covering him up to his shoulders at one end, and covering Raven up to her neck at the other end on the couch. Worried, he lifted up his section of the blanket, relieved to find that his boxer briefs were still on, other than those, he didn't have anything else on.

A small groan came from Raven at the other end of the couch. Robin shut his eyes, pretending to be asleep; he didn't want to embarrass her. She squinted as she sat up, clutching the blanket to her chest, rubbing her eyes, and then holding her head. Then she looked down and noticed what Robin had, she was only wearing her underwear. She looked at Robin and whispered, "Robin, are you awake?"

He stayed silent, still acting like he was sleeping. She sighed and swung her legs out from under the blanket and onto the floor, standing up slowly and turning away from Robin – stretching. Curious, he opened his eyes a little, seeing Raven in full view, half-naked. He was surprised to see that Raven had a tattoo on her upper back of a black raven with its wings outstretched. She bent down to collect her leotard, cloak, and belt. Putting on her leotard over her black bra and panties, she zipped it up and concealed the zipper. As she started to turn around, he shut his eyes again. She tied her belt around her back and clasped her cloak around her neck, then slipped her boots on.

She walked over to him and ran her fingers along his shoulder, her cheeks slightly red as she noticed his uniform strewn across the floor, knowing that he was only wearing his underwear. "Robin, wake up," Raven said.

Groaning, he slowly opened his eyes.

"Morning…Uh, do you know what all we did last night?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, we um, we didn't get that far," Raven said.

"Good, I want to be sober if we ever decide to go further," he said.

"This was stupid," she said, looking down.

"Sure, but we had fun, didn't we?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Yeah, I guess we did," she said, returning a small smile.

"Oh, here's the bottle," he said, handing her the empty wine bottle.

"Right. Um, you get dressed, and I'll make us some coffee…over there," she said, blushing a little before she walked toward the kitchen with the empty wine bottle.

"So what did we do? My memory is a little fuzzy," he asked, as he stood up and started putting his uniform on.

"I remember. We made out for a while, then we got tired, you got us a blanket, we took off our uniforms, kissed, and fell asleep while the last movie played," she said, as she prepared their coffee.

"Sounds like a good time to me," he said.

Robin pulled his tights on, clipped his utility belt around his waist, and slipped his boots on. He looked for his shirt but didn't see it, his gloves and cape were also missing.

"Looking for these?" Raven asked, pointing to his missing effects on the kitchen counter.

"I know you moved those," he said, walking over.

"Can you prove it?" she asked as she grinned at him, watching him walk over.

"No, but I know you want me shirtless," he said," you said that last night."

"So you do remember part of that. Fine, I do, but you liked looking at me just as much, if not more," she said.

"I won't deny that," he said with a grin as he grabbed his shirt and put it on, followed by his gloves and cape.

She poured them both some coffee and joined him at the table off to the side of the room. They drank slowly, sitting across from one another, hoping their heads would stop aching. He took out his communicator and checked to see if there were any updates or messages they might have missed.

"You know, I like those two little black bows you have on your lingerie, and that tattoo is very 'you'," he said with a sly grin.

Raven froze as her face turned bright red.

"Tell anyone and you're dead. How much did you see?" she asked.

"Believe me, not enough," he said.

"Good."

"What about you?"

"No, I didn't see much either. Um, not that there's not much to see."

"Don't worry, I knew what you meant," he said.

"Right."

"I think you were laying on top of me for part of the night."

"Yeah… Can we change the subject, please?" she asked.

He nodded and took a sip of his coffee. He could tell that she was a little uncomfortable and probably kicking herself for last night. There was so much he wanted to say, to ask her, but knew the moment wasn't right. She put her coffee cup down and set her elbows on the table, putting her face in her hands.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Sort of, just the hangover, I guess. I've never handled headaches well," she said.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to try to test your emotions again, but neither of us are probably up for it."

"We can, just give me some time to try and get over this first."

"You got it."