Author's note: Rewatched Haunted and suddenly this idea burst into my head. Have to get it out now otherwise I'm gonna forget about it.

Chapter 2: Misinterpretation

The door to Raven's sanctuary slid opened, and the dark girl stepped into her sanctuary, no, not stepping, trudging. She had to grip on her bookshelf for support as her legs nearly gave out and knocked her down on the floor. In her current state, even if such a thing was to happen, she was sure that she wouldn't be able to get back to her feet and properly walk toward her beloved bed.

Mustering all her remaining strength, Raven forced her legs to continue, despite the exhaustion in her mind and her body protested against her decision. She had no problem with sleeping on the floor actually. But unfortunately, last night she was in the middle of performing a magical ritual when the alarm went off. Leaving in a rush, she didn't have time to clean up everything, and as a consequence her floor was now a mess with parchment and potion and candle wax all over the place. No way in Hell would she spend the night on that!

Eventually, she made it to her bed. And with a long sigh, the violet-haired girl literally collapsed onto the mattress. She gave out a long, exhausted sigh as she sprawled her lithe body on her bed, clutching a big pillow to her chest as her eyes drifted to the ceiling above.

She was beat!

Damned Robin and his stupid obsessive natured leading to him keeping a stupid mask of Slade and ended up inhaling the stupid dust then go paranoia and almost killing himself in the process.

Damned him for being so, so, so stupid and left her no choice but to enter his mind to save him and then freaking punched her in the jaw! Yup, she did see Slade, but obviously Robin was going crazy and beat himself up, and she was in his body so she ended up taking the hit full on.

It hurt like Hell, in case you wonder!

She knew that it wasn't entirely his fault, and she was happy that he was safe and sound at the end of the day. But this didn't change the fact that he was the one punching her, and the thought of that pissed her off.

Ahh, whatever, at least it was over. Besides, she had seen some… stuff in his mind that perhaps nobody was allowed to see. So she guessed that meant they're even.

Raven buried herself in her favorite pillow, let the familiar softness ease her mind and washed the fatigue in her limb and system away. Finally this exhausting and painful night had come to an end, she could relax and have a good night's sleep.

Right when Raven's eyelids shut and she was ready to let her mind be immersed into a land of bliss, someone knocked on her door.

… Or not.

Brows furrowed, the empath got off the bed and put on her cloak, trying to keep her body not to topple over. Who could it be at the moment? She had already made a point of telling everyone that she had no strength left, and that she would go straight to bed and that nobody should come and bother her unless they wished to be sent to another dimension.

Did an emergency take place?

With tons of questions swimming in her head, Raven trudged to the door and opened it. Whatever it was, let just get it over with. She just wanted to get back to her pillows and bed…

As her door slid opened, she was faced with the familiar red-and-green uniform of Robin. He stood outside her room, holding a steaming cup of tea which Raven realized to be her favorite chamomile tea thanked to the pleasant aroma it gave. A small, gentle smile brightened the lower half of his face as he looked at her.

"Robin? Is there a problem?"

The dark girl eyed her leader in a questioned manner. This's strange. Just a few hours back when she last met him, he looked like he was about to pass out any time soon. She had expected him to sleep like a baby and not come out of his room for at least 2 days in a row. Why was he here now?

"No, not really, I… well… I…"

He bit his lips, appeared to be lost for words. Obviously, he was nervous, and Raven didn't even need to be the number 1 empath to see that. He kept clenching and released his free hand, the hand with the cup of tea in it was slightly trembling and she began to fear that if she didn't reach up and catch it, it would fall to the ground. And she was sure that underneath his masks, his eyes were looking at anywhere but her.

He was… fidgeting.

Raven's eyebrows stretched up. Now this was odd. Fearless, calm-and-collected, stoic Robin was nervous and fidgeting right in front of her eyes like a kid getting caught red-handed when stealing candies or something. It wasn't like she hadn't seen someone got their panties in a twist upon meeting her. She had grown used of others behaving like this whenever seeing her around, especially a certain green shapeshifter who tended to get on her nerves, but never Robin. What was with him today?

Whatever. She wanted nothing to do with it. At the moment, she just wanted to lie down and sleep.

"Well, it's late already. And I'm very tired right now. Whatever you want to say, can it wait until tomorrow?"

She wasn't waiting for any reply. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. She had no energy left anymore. But before she could shut the door and enjoy her peaceful sleep, Robin had already shot out his hand and put it on her shoulder. Raven almost jumped up in surprise, she didn't even expect this at all.

"This… this cannot wait… It's just… It… I…"

"Robin, what's wrong?" Now she was nervous too. The way he was stuttering, fumbling with every word as though did not know how to convey what he was thinking about wasn't normal at all. Robin had always been straightforward and never had any problems with voicing out his opinions no matter how unpleasant they were.

A thought ran through her mind, and a wave of panic rushed through Raven, almost kicking all the drowsiness off her system. Could it be that the dust was somehow in his mind and was affecting him once more?

"Is it Slade? Are you seeing him again?"

She took one step forward, nearly came face to face with him. And Robin seemed to… startle. His masked eyes avoided her gaze, and he sank his teeth into his lower lips. And was it her, or could it be that he was… slightly blushing? No, it couldn't be. The darkness must have played trick with her eyes.

"No, it's not him, don't worry." He dismissed her worries. His voice was much softer than usual, but Raven didn't think much of this. He had been through a night of kicking and screaming nonstop, she was surprised that he was still able to form decent words.

"I… can I come in?"

It was an odd request, but Raven still stepped aside and let him enter her sanctuary. She still had no idea what was going on, but her empathic abilities confirm her that this was the real Robin, not some impostor or robot in disguise, so she had nothing to worry about. Besides, she had no issue with him going in her room. He often came here in fact, asking her questions about magic-using villains or request her helps with certain artifacts.

At first, they just talked at the threshold, but eventually, she let him in. It's much convenient this way. Besides, he never messed her stuff up.

Raven sat down at the end of her bed, and Robin followed her. The mattress dipped with the weights of both Titans. He often sat here when asking her about certain things, so she didn't find it strange or anything. But the way he seemed to have ants in his pants the whole time rose questions in her. She tried to read his emotions, but they were overly chaotic and she couldn't actually get hold of anything.

"I… made you some tea." After a minute of nothing but silence, Robin finally spoke. He handed her the steamy cup, and looked down sheepishly: "A makeup gift. I hit you back there. Sorry about that."

"Oh? Thanks, I guess." Raven gently reached out and took the cup within her slender palms. Only now did she realize that he had used her favorite cup – porcelain and blue as the ocean itself – to brew her tea. Was he so apologetic about hurting her that he couldn't sleep even when he was physically wasted? Raven thought to herself, a part of her began feeling guilty for mentally taking her anger on him earlier.

But this didn't seem to be just that. Whatever bothering him seemed to be deeper, much, much deeper.

"It's good." She commented in her usual monotone voice after taking a sip. The warm tea ran down her throat and seeped into her veins, almost waking her up instantly. This perfect scent of herbs always brought peace to her mind.

"That's great to hear." Robin smiled. And everything again fell into utter silence. Raven went on enjoying her tea, waiting for Robin to say something and break the awkward silence. But he seemed to be captivated by her decorations and kept on glancing around and bored his gaze into her masks and leather-back spell books, completely forgot about her.

He was tapping his fingers against his knees. Once more, he was nervous.

But why? Why must he be so nervous around her? Did anything happen…

Oh. Right. Something did happen between them. Just hours ago.

She got it. She knew why he was a bundle of nerves.

"Is it because me entering your mind?"

He froze, and the tapping stopped.

Jackpot!

"Did… you see anything in there?"

After a minute or two of complete silence, he spoke again. His head bowed, and his voice was just barely above a whisper. She was afraid if she had misheard any word as his voice was too soft, too low. Raven's brows furrowed. Was he… afraid? But of what? True, she did see quite a few things in there, still, they weren't any horrible or unspeakable. Why must he be afraid?

The dark girl pondered to herself for a while. And then it suddenly dawned on her. Someone as secretive and always kept things in the dark like him obviously wouldn't want people to pry into his life, to open his chest of personal feelings and stole a look of what inside. He wanted people to think of him as Robin, nothing more, nothing, just Robin, the hero, the Titan leader, the crime fighter that feared nothing and could take on anything.

Yet, today, she peeled opened a part of him and entered it without his permission. She saw things that nobody could see before, knew things that nobody knew before. Of course he would be afraid when his secrets were no longer secrets, even to just one single person. Was she him, she would have been panic too.

Raven peered at her leader. He had his face bowed, obscured to her completely. And even if he did look at her, in the darkness of her room, she didn't think that she could read his expression.

His emotions were so chaotic that it started to give her a headache.

The dark girl bit her lips. She couldn't lie that she had seen nothing, he would see right through it. He wasn't the world's top detective's prodigy for nothing.

But she couldn't be too honest either, who knew what kind of old scars that it would open. Maybe she would even end up damaging him somehow. No, she had to choose her words carefully, make sure that nothing about what she saw in his head was brought up.

"Yeah, I did." Raven cleared her throat, and from the corner of her eyes, she saw Robin's fingers clenched into her bed sheet tightly. He had turned his face away, so all she could see was the back of his spiky hair. But she could sense his nervousness, and it was coming out of him in waves, hitting her full on and almost drowned her.

"But so what? I have no problem with that. You don't have to be afraid. It's fine to have one or two secrets. I understand."

His posture relaxed a bit. And she sighed in sheer relief as whatever he was feeling wasn't a mess as before. His emotions were still constantly shifting from one to another though, and she couldn't tell what was racing through his mind and heart as they changed so fast. Well, at least he seemed to be stable now, not a freaking bomb that could explode at any minute anymore.

"You… do? You understand what I feel?"

"Yeah, I know that it's not easy to go on with everything weighing you down like that." Raven bit her lips, urging each and every brain cell of her to come up with anything reasonable and acceptable to say: "Your… those feelings…" She was referred to what he was going through in his childhood, what he felt as each incident took place in the past: "I felt them all, they coursed through me… Like electricity… It must be hard for you to go on with all of those secrets. But it's completely okay. I might have seen it, but this doesn't change anything. Those things make you who you are, and I have no problem with that." She stopped for a while, hoping that it could get to him somehow. Don't blame her for saying things in such a vague way. She wasn't the expert of consoling and easing someone, let alone Robin of all people!

"Yeah, it's not easy at all." Robin's soft voice coming to her direction. He seemed… more peaceful now. "Sometimes, I don't think that I can bottle them up anymore. But… I have to. I don't want to run away, to hide from them and act like nothing happens, like they aren't there. But… we have our duty as protectors of the city. For the team's sake, for… for our sake… I…" He couldn't finish his sentence, as though the wave of emotion had flooded his mind and rendered him unable to speak.

Raven quirked an eyebrow, wondered what the difference between "the team" and "our" could be. Somehow, she had a feeling that something was… off. But she didn't know what. Was Robin being too… emotional? Over her finding out his secrets in order to save his life? No, he might be shocked for a while, but not like this.

Did she miss out on something? She knew that she probably did. But she couldn't get her finger on it.

"You say that you understand what I felt. Do you feel the same?"

What? What kind of question was that?

Did she feel the same? What could he possibly mean?

Raven was flooded with confusion for a long while. His unexplainable behavior has implanted a big question in her head, one that she could find an answer for no matter how hard she tried. And now he was talking in riddle. Did she look like she was I the mood for riddle?

Okay, maybe he just wanted to find out her opinion on secrets and all. Yeah, that's probably it.

"I guess… yeah… I feel the same… about se…"

She didn't get to finish her sentence.

She wanted to, she tried to. The next words had already awaited at the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't get them out. Besides, whatever she had to say, she was sure that at the moment, it had already dropped out of the corner of her mouth and vanished into thin air.

Her mind turned blank, and her violet eyes stretched up as large as two tennis balls.

Because out of sudden, Robin's fingers were on her cheeks, and he lifted her face…

And his lips were on hers!

Raven was so shocked, so shocked that she didn't know what to do. Never had she seen this coming. Never had she expected this to come. Of everything that could happen, never had she thought that he would kiss her. Robin, fearless Robin, logical Robin, the Boy Wonder, prodigy of Batman, leader of the Teen Titans and probably the dream boyfriend of every female being in the city… was kissing her.

How? How could it be?

As she was frozen in shock, Robin began taking things to a more… interesting level. Slow at first, hesitant, as though trying to see whether she would going to protest and blast him into the other end of the room or not.

By the time the dark girl regained her sense, he had already pushed her down on the bed. Eyes widened, face birch white, Raven could feel him moving on top of her, feel her cloak and his cape rustling against each other, feel his fingers in her violet hair and his other fingers stroking her cheek… lovingly?

"Robin… wait… wait…"

She opened her mouth to say something, to halt him in the act, but he didn't seem to listen. Like the urge to kiss her and get all the bottled feelings out of his mind had already taken over his brain, and he couldn't think of anything else but to lose himself in the kiss, in her.

Raven placed one palm against his chest, trying to push him, but he gathered her thin wrist in his grip and kept it in place. His hand was strong, but at the same time gentle, like he was afraid that he would hurt her. His kisses… were so fiery, so passionate, like he was wishing to melt into once with her, like he was waiting his entire life just to get this kiss.

Perhaps he did.

He held onto her tighter, and tighter, the gap between them vanished bit by bit with each and every time their lips touched. His lips were soft, so soft, how could such a demanding and passionate thing be so soft, it fit hers like puzzle pieces. Raven didn't know, she couldn't even think straight. Her heart was slamming in her ribcage like thunder. Was his heart beating the same way hers was? She didn't know.

But did she want him to stop?

She didn't know either.

The world seemed to have faded away. And for a moment, it seemed that only them existed in the universe, along with a kiss that blurred all her senses…

Eventually, Robin pulled away. And Raven stared up at him, blinking as though she was still in a dream. Her pale cheeks had turned into a deep shade of red, and her violet hair was all over the place – the pillow, the mattress, the sheet, her own face. Her violet eyes appeared unfocused, as though she was in a daze.

"One more thing." Robin smirked down at her, the cocky, smug smirk that always plastered across his face whenever he had something scheming up his sleeves. He quickly brushed his lips on her cheek, before whispering into her ears in a low, mischievous tone: "From tomorrow on, I'll be officially hitting on you."

And with that, he left. Cartwheeling across the room as though he had never been beaten into a bloody pulp by his own hallucination just hours earlier. She believed she had even heard him snicker in an excited way on his way out. The door shut, and again, she was left alone in her room, with the entire night to sleep her exhaustion away.

But she found herself unable to close her eyes.

With trembling fingers, the dark girl touched her lips which were still wet and swollen, solid proof that the unexpected series of kisses from her leader was real, and not a hallucination. Her widened violet eyes fell on her door, and there was only one single thing in her mind at the moment.

What. The. Heck. Was. That?