A/N: Lemons. All the lemons. There is an M rated and T rated version of this fic. This is the M rated version.

Thanks so much to everyone who's been leaving reviews, checking in on me when I go quiet for too long, and to everyone for reading! This is a transition chapter so bear with me as we move to the next arc.

Chapter 12

Tensions were high at the tower, Robin having saved telling the rest of the team as a task for Raven to do. There was a lot of confusion – and plenty of ill timed, biting and barbed jokes from Beast Boy and brotherly outrage from Cyborg – but eventually it took Starfire to put things right. After hours of discussion, accusation, interrogation, and interspersed long moments of awkward silences Raven sat on the edge of the couch, feeling everyone's shock and sensing Robin's stare burning a hole in her back. Her elbows rested on her knees, her arms hanging limp in front of her, and she was slumped over with her forehead resting on her wrists. Starfire stepped up and knelt in front of her friend, waiting until Raven lifted her face to look at her.

"Whomever you choose to love is no one's decision but your own, friend Raven," she said, gently but with enough force to ensure that the others heard her words. "Perhaps it is that you do not owe us the explanation of your heart for we would be terrible friends to act otherwise. Our behavior has been worse than that of a Clorbag Varblemelk." She gave a pointed look to the others in the room and none of them could keep eye contact with her for more than a moment at the truth of her words. "We should be here to show you the support but we have let our own feelings prevent us from doing so, and for that I am truly sorry."

Raven looked like she might cry, her face showing all the emotion for her friend before her as her mug shattered on the coffee table. She didn't even acknowledge it. To hear her friend say such things in support of her after hours of being berated was the breath of air that she so desperately needed.

"If what you wish is to pursue the relationship of romance with the Red X and you truly believe him to be someone worth our trust then I shall stand with you. As should we all."

Raven could feel the astonishment from everyone else in the room – almost in a physical, palpable shock wave – as she surged forward and threw her arms around the Tamaranian's neck. Starfire's arms crushed her friend to her, lest this be the only hug she ever received actually initiated by the empath, and Raven could feel the next wave of emotion creep in from her friends.

Shame. They felt shame for what they had just put her through. When it all came down to it they came to realize that they trusted her and if they trusted her and she trusted Red X then they should be able to give her the benefit of the doubt. But they had been so focused on their own feelings that they didn't take that fact into account, and it had taken Starfire to make them see their error.

Robin was the only one who did not feel that shame, though he kept a tight reign on his bond to prevent Raven from feeling that. He still felt that he was justified in not trusting Red X despite his best friend's endorsement of the thief. He had photos on his phone that gave him just reason to still hate the man, though it wasn't something that he could tell to the others. He couldn't explain, to them or even to himself, why he still had those pictures. He just hadn't been able to bring himself to delete them. He had hoped, in the deepest part of him, that the team would convince her that she was wrong. But now those hopes were dashed.

That he did feel guilt over. He couldn't just trust Red X for Raven's sake, but he did feel guilty that he had hoped for the rest of their friends to interfere with her happiness. He wanted, more than most things, for her to be happy.

Just not with Red X.

Raven looked up from her place in the middle of an unintended group hug with her repentant friends, her eyes seeking out Robin. He stood straight, nodded at her, and left the room. It was all the response he could give her.

She closed her eyes and sighed, knowing that this was one of those repercussions that she had agreed to take on in result of her choice. She was just going to have to find a way.

O • O • O • O

The following weeks went by in a haze of heightened emotions. She was balancing emotional highs around Jason with tension and turmoil around her team. While they may have agreed to trust her on this she knew that they still had a hard time coming to terms with a change of status for a thief that had plagued them for so long.

The first thing that had come after Starfire had swayed the team back to the side of loyalty to Raven was the question she had been dreading: Who was Red X?

But she couldn't tell them that. Jason had been keeping his existence hidden for this long, though she still wasn't completely sure of his reasoning, and he wanted to keep it that way for his sake. She knew it was going to add to the chord of dissonance that she had already strummed within the Titans, but she refused to betray his confidence. Her simple act of defiance in refusing to answer that question had been the thing to prevent the total acceptance of the situation from her friends.

She had received a bit of relief from the tension when Red X's thieving began to take a turn, the thief procuring stolen goods and returning them to their rightful place instead of the other way around – but it didn't hurt that he was making a tidy living from claiming rewards in the process. The change in his tactics gave some credence to the claims that Raven had made about him, but there was too much unknown about him for the others to just completely accept him yet.

Her one constant in all of the chaos that she had caused was Starfire. The two had grown closer with everything that had happened and she was the one person who seemed to care about how things were going in the other half of her life. She was her light at the tower and she was truly grateful to count her as a friend.

And so she found herself one afternoon – some weeks after her announcement to the Titans – in her favorite tea shop, the animated alien beside her, and her former criminal lover taking a seat at the table across from them. Starfire was taken back by how handsome he was, but she wondered how much of what she was seeing was the real persona behind Red X.

She looked at the simple silver ring that he wore, etched with runes and symbols. Raven had explained the ring and what it would do; mask his features enough that he would not be recognizable in his true form. She looked at his sandy blond hair, his hazel eyes, his bronzed skin and wondered if any of the features that she noticed were truly his.

"Starfire," Raven said, "meet Red X. More or less."

Starfire reached out a hand, "In the world outside of the tower I am known as Kori."

Jason held out his hand and shook hers. "Peter."

Raven's brow furrowed for a moment in confusion before she shook it off. Jason smirked at her and winked which was rewarded by an eyeroll from Raven.

They spent a pleasant afternoon together and it calmed some of the discord in her to have at least part of the two halves of her life be able to come together in some kind of harmony. She was happier than Starfire could remember seeing her in weeks and she knew that it was because of the man that sat across from them who couldn't help but steal glances at her friend and smiling. They were loosely holding hands on the table, the gesture looking comfortable and natural to them as his thumb absentmindedly rubbed over her knuckles.

Starfire was happy. She was happy because Raven was truly happy. As they left the tea shop, the man who called himself Peter nuzzling Raven's face with his before giving her a sweet kiss and making sure he'd see her later before he left the girls on their own. Raven watched him go for a moment before turning back to her friend who was attempting a sly smile and failing. She was beaming and Raven couldn't help but laugh.

"Thank you," Starfire said, taking her friend by the hand. "It was an honor to be trusted with meeting him."

"I should be the one thanking you," Raven responded. "You were the one to support me this whole time. You've been an amazing friend, Kori."

"The others wish to be good friends too, Raven. They simply need the convincing. Perhaps if the one who calls himself Peter wears the ring he might join us at the tower! We could do the hanging out and they will find him just as acceptable as I have! Perhaps your life will be less damaged if we can repair the rift."

Raven laughed a small laugh, before reigning in the reaction.

"Sorry, but I don't think that will work, Star. You're the only one at the tower that I can trust not to rip the ring off of him the moment we arrive. I can't trust them to resist unmasking Red X. But I appreciate the thought. Just having the two of you meet was remarkably helpful. Like two halves of my life have finally come together and healed something in me. So thank you. Again."

Starfire could resist the urge to hug her friend no longer and threw her arms around the dark Titan's neck and she smiled when her friend returned her embrace. It had been a strange few weeks but if it meant that her stronger friendship with Raven had been the result, then it seemed worth the confusion and the strife.

"You should go to him," Starfire said as she pulled away. "He could not stop turning back to observe you as he departed from us and it is my belief that he would prefer your company. He had the eyes of the puppy dog. I shall see you at the tower tomorrow, friend Raven."

Raven smiled a lopsided smile at her friend's suggestion and nodded, calling her powers to herself and vanishing in a mist of shadows.

O • O • O • O

Jason had turned a corner and had no more opportunity to glance behind him at Raven anymore, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way back to his condo. The meeting had gone well. He had been surprised to find that he quite liked Starfire when she wasn't actively trying to hunt him down, subdue him, and turn him over to the authorities. She was real and genuine and that was rare for him to see. She was refreshing and he could see why Raven found herself drawn to her.

He sighed, remembering that it was going to be hours before Raven was due at his place and he wondered what he was going to do to pass the time.

But before he could come up with and idea he felt arms wrap around his waist from behind as a figure rushed into him. He stumbled forward a few steps and heard familiar laughter behind him. He sighed from the still unexplained comfort that they felt in each others' presence and turned to face his favorite person in the world.

Raven smiled up at him as he drew her to him.

"Not that this surprise isn't pleasant, Little Bird, but what are you doing here?"

"Kori insisted," she said. "She seemed convinced that you needed my company more. She said you were giving me 'the eyes of the puppy.' Apparently she couldn't let you suffer."

"I don't know if I'm offended or if I'm actually that pathetically obvious," he pouted.

"Maybe it's not you," she said, smirking. She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Maybe it's just Peter."

He arched an eyebrow at her and didn't deign to respond.

"Seriously," Raven continued. "Where did you pull that name from?"

"You want the truth or the fun, flamboyant version?"

It was Raven's turn to arch her brow at him in silence, which only served to make him laugh as he leaned in over her shoulder.

"You now can't say that you don't know my middle name."

She pulled back from him and stared at him in surprise.

"You used your real middle name?"

"Are you going to call me an idiot? Because you say that so often that I'm starting to thing it's just a fun pet name that you have for me."

He laid a finger on her lips as she opened them to speak.

"It's Kori, Raven. You trusted her to meet me, I highly doubt that she'll break that trust by blabbing about anything we discussed. Regardless, Boy Blunder doesn't know my middle name, only Br . . . only Batman knows."

She didn't make a comment on his stumble in speech. Some things weren't her business and she fully understood that. But she did breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the name wasn't something that could get Jason caught. She and the rest of the Titans were on decent terms now but Robin was still distant with her and she feared that he still wouldn't hesitate at the chance to take Red X down.

He stroked her lip with his finger as he removed it from her face. He leaned in and kissed her in a way that reminded her how well he knew her body and she pulled him in deeper. He broke from her all too soon.

"Still concerned about keeping my identity a secret, Little Bird. Any chance that now you actually do care about a humble thief?"

She smiled at the reference to that same question asked weeks ago and nudged his nose playfully with hers.

"I still fucking hate you sometimes, and you're still not humble. But yes, I suppose I do." She looked up at him and winked. "Maybe I've just grown accustomed to your face."

He laughed out loud and she found herself succumbing to the same reaction. It took them a while before they could compose themselves.

"So," she said, taking a deep breath in recovery from her fit of laughter, a sound that Jason could never get enough of, "what do we do with the rest of the day that we suddenly have available to us?"

His grin was positively wicked. He leaned in over her shoulder and whispered a single word in her ear in a throaty whisper. She bit down on her lower lip like she did when she was thinking . . . or feeling mischievous and smiled back at him.

"Dessert it is."

O • O • O • O

Raven dipped the tip of the spoon into the thick bronze sauce and sighed as she put it into her mouth, savoring the taste. It was her favorite caramel sauce, lightly salted, with a hint of hazelnut.

"Eating it straight out of the bowl isn't how it's done, Little Bird."

She looked over at him and scoffed. "Suddenly all about rules, Jason?"

"When it comes to this, yes," he said sternly, though his eyed belied his serious tone.

She dipped the spoon into the sauce again and this time trailed the spoon over her collarbone and across to her shoulder, leaving a fine trail of caramel on her skin before setting the spoon back in the bowl. Jason hummed and pulled her down to lay in the bed beside him and he licked and suckled her flesh – causing her eyes to flutter shut as he did, enjoying every sensation – until every bit of the caramel path was gone.

He reached across her toward the nightstand for the spoon and let the excess caramel pour back into the bowl before drizzling another sticky line from her stomach up to the hollow of her throat.

"Are you taking two turns?" she chastised, though her tone lost its severity as he began to follow the trail with his tongue.

"Mmm hmm," he hummed.

"I thought you were all about the rules when it comes to this," she panted.

"Not a fucking good guy, remember?" he murmured against her skin, holding her shoulders down against the bed in case she tried to rise before he was done. "Everyone seems to be forgetting that lately. Rules only apply when they benefit me."

Raven opened her mouth to argue his take on rules but a moan escaped before she could as he shifted a hand down from her shoulder and rolled a nipple between his thumb and finger as he continued up the sweet trail through the valley of her breasts.

She could feel more of the sauce being trailed onto her left breast and before she could say that adding more while taking his stolen turn was extra cheating, his mouth migrated from between her breasts to take her candy coated nipple into his mouth. At the same moment his hand slid down from her chest and stroked her already wet slit, slipping a finger within to rub against her clit in firm and knowledgeable circles.

Meanwhile his mouth continued to suck and lick her gloriously firm breast clean before moving back to his original trail between the mounds of flesh.

She simultaneously cursed and commended him.

He continued his journey past the course laid by the sweet treat and forged a new path of kisses and caresses with his tongue up the side of her neck, his hand never ceasing its work down below.

"What happened to dessert?" she asked as he kissed across her jaw.

"I have a craving for something else," he said in a low tone. He kissed her lips with a hunger, a deep need, and momentarily robbed her of her senses as well as her sensibilities as the actions of his hand between her legs caused a crest of release to roll over her as she came.

But it didn't take long for her to regain her senses and to take advantage of his distraction as his hand slid up from its accomplished mission to busy itself with her chest. She hooked her leg over his hip and flipped him so that she sat atop him.

"Well I," she stated, grabbing the spoon, "still want dessert. So I guess your craving is just going to have to wait."

She brushed the back of the spoon along the side of his neck and took her sweet time in devouring her delicacy. Shudders ripped through his body at her tortuously slow ministration. He shifted his hips to rub against hers, hoping to communicate the depth of his particular craving. The wetness that he felt from her sex as it rubbed against his did not help his desire as a groan escaped his throat.

"Patience," she whispered in his ear.

"Not my strong suit, Little Bird."

"I'll make it worth your while," she said in a tone husky with her own need. The timbre of her voice calmed him some. It made it worth the wait knowing that her need for him seemed just as great as his for her and that this was likely torturous for her too.

She used the spoon to drip a single drop of caramel on his chest. As she lapped it up with her tongue she dropped another drip lower on his chest. She continued, laying another drop as she pulled the previous one into her mouth with her tongue, until she suckled one off of the lowest of his abs. As she pulled her lips from his skin she placed the next drop, slightly larger than the others had been, directly on the head of his cock.

Before he could react or fully comprehend what was happening her lips were already on him. She took him in her mouth, her tongue swirling on the dessert and wiping it from his flesh as his fist clenched in the hair at the back of her head. He moaned low and loud, gasping out her name as took more of him in.

He wasn't sure, exactly, what her experience in the realm of the carnal arts was. He knew he wasn't her first – she had indicated that the day that she had brought him into her room and stated how few had been allowed into her bed – but beyond that he had no clue as to the extent of her sensual knowledge. But if he were to base it on what she was doing to him now he was beginning to wonder if he had more people to be jealous of than he had originally thought.

Or maybe it was the weird connection that they had between them that seemed to make everything fit between them so well. Regardless of the reason she knew exactly what to do to send the tingling sensations through his entire body. She caressed all the right places, grazed just the right spots with the barest of touches from her teeth, used just the right amount of pressure with her lips. He was using every ounce of self control that he had not to lose it and let the stars explode before his eyes.

She pulled away with one last brush of her tongue on his overloaded head and looked into his eyes with a look that he could describe in no other way than impish. His hand, which had remained tangled and fisted in her hair, clenched more tightly and he pulled her up over his body, pulling on her hair to guide her face back to his as she moaned. He crashed his lips to her in a bruising kiss and rolled her over.

His patience had been tried and he found he could wait no longer to have her.

"I'm afraid I don't have much control left, Little Bird," he growled as he looked down at her, his vibrant green eyes darkened with lust.

"Good," she whispered back, her eyes reflecting his need.

He trust into her without any more delay and dug his fingers into her hips as he let go of his control of his desire. She was completely slick with her need for him and any resolve that he had left was broken. His hips pounded into hers as he took her fast and hard, spurred on by her cries and moans as she seized his hair in her fist as if she were using her grip as an anchor to hold her to him.

He reached a hand down to stroke her in the spot that he knew how to play so well, causing her to cry out again. She was so wet against his hand and he growled low in his throat as he continued to thrust into her with fervor as his fingers danced once more over the sensitive bud of flesh.

The tension in Raven's belly was so taught that she thought she was going to shatter from it. His fast pace, the force behind it, paired with what his hand was doing below was almost too much to bear. She couldn't believe – even after all this time with him – that nothing around them was hurling through the air or simply breaking into tiny shards. She wasn't sure if she was going to black out from sensory overload that she had never before hoped to be able to experience.

But just as the thought crossed her mind the tension in her unspooled as if a cord had been cut and everything in her exploded in a shower of sparks and fire. Her muscled clenched as the relief of release washed over her, drawing her body taught as a drawn bow, her back arching off the bed as her nails dug into the hard muscles of Jason's shoulders and raked down his back.

Her muscles clenching around him did him in as he released into her, grunting from the force of it and panting as the tension leeched from his body, flooding it instead with relief and elation.

She finally lost the last of the tension in her body from her orgasm and she collapsed on the bed, her head bouncing on the pillow as her muscles turned to jelly. She was panting, desperate to catch breath that she hadn't been aware she was losing. She lay there reveling in the utter ecstasy that flooded through her flesh, letting out one last moan as she surrendered to the euphoria, basking in the afterglow.

Jason released his hold of her hips and winced at the bruises that he already saw forming there. He slid down her legs and brought his face down to her hips, laying light and feathery kisses on each mark that he had left on her in his frenzy.

"Sorry, Little Bird," he whispered tenderly as he kissed the last of them on her other side. "I think I got carried away."

She waited for him to lift his face and make eye contact before she panted her answer. "Worth it."

He chuckled and pulled himself up before flopping on the bed beside her. They lay beside each other, heads resting together and staring at the ceiling, chests heaving with heavy breaths. They were perfectly content in the moment, both reeling in the intensity of what they had just experienced.

"Fuck," Raven said, finally. Jason laughed and wrapped his arm around her, drawing her to his chest.

"Hmm," he agreed, whispering into her hair. "That was . . . intense. Even for us."

She lifted her head and looked at him with a fire in her eyes. She descended on him once again and he let out a low chuckle as he flipped the sheet over them both, enveloping them in their own private cocoon. The action knocked over the bowl of caramel on the nightstand and the spoon flipped out, lying completely forgotten in a growing pool of caramel.