A/N

So a lot of the stories I write are generally inspired when I listen to music. The music for this chapter was "Hohoemi No Kage" from the "Durarara!" OST.

Also, if you like anime/want something to watch, I recommend Durarara! It's got the seal of approval from everyone's favourite scumbag writer.

~Hollow~

Two months had passed, and things seemed to have returned to normal. Raven was coming out of her room again, and Starfire had long since forgiven her for the fight now that she was getting along with Robin. Raven seemed to be back to her old self. She told Beastboy that his jokes still weren't funny, played chess with Cyborg and helped him work on the T-Car from time to time, went with the Titans to the park… the only thing they found weird was the fact that Raven adamantly refused to sit down in a chair anymore. But if that was the price they had to pay to have their friend back, the other Titans would gladly eat at the tables while she floated a few feet away.

Today was a day like most others. Breakfast had been consumed, everyone relaxed until afternoon training, and when that had been completed, everyone had gone back up to the common and began relaxing. Beastboy, Cyborg, and Robin played games while Starfire played with Silkie and Raven read in the back of the room. She listened to the boys as they taunted and yelled, cheering and laughing at the shenanigans in their video game. Occasionally, she looked up at the TV, trying to figure out what so exciting. Raven had never understood the appeal of games; the few times the others had convinced her to play she walked away not wanting for more.

The boys of course would tell her that it was the satisfaction of prevailing against the odds on the highest difficulty that they liked so much about playing the games. It was fun to practice hard moves and pull them off successfully in the game, just like practicing in the training room and winning in a fight in the real world would. They'd never once told her that games could have stories just as entertaining as her books (mostly because they ignored the story in favour of the gameplay), which if they had they might've been able to convince her of their worth.

And of course, on any given "normal" day the alarm would go off and the Titans would head into the city to find and stop the super villain or villains causing mayhem (one would think that at some point, they would just give up after being defeated so many times, but alas this would never be the case). They all stopped what they were doing and headed in different directions: Robin and Cyborg to the garage to get their vehicles, Beastboy along the ground in the form of a cheetah, and Raven and Starfire flew in the air.

"Titans, Control Freak is wreaking havoc in the entertainment district!" Robin informed them, and everyone adjusted course to head slightly northeast. "When we find him, we need to get him to a different area of the city. He'll bring all the comic book and movie characters to life to make our lives as difficult as possible."

"The financial district would be a good idea." Raven said. "Adult life doesn't work well with couch potatoes." Raven told him.

"Good idea." Robin replied. "He won't be able to bring any fictional creatures to life if he's surrounded by accounting info." He began laying out a plan, telling the others what part to play in order to bring Control Freak down. They sped through the city, and they could see smoke rising from a few buildings. Robin jumped off his R-Cycle, flipping in the air and landing on his feet.

"Greetings, Titans! It is I, your old nemesis!" Control Freak bowed at the waist, looking up with a grin. "I'd love to stay and chat, but it was just announced that Danger Team 5 was going to be cancelled without any resolution to the season 5 ending, so now I'm getting my revenge!" He lifted his remote and clicked a button.

"They cancelled Danger Team 5?!" Beastboy cried out in despair.

"You broke out of prison to get a TV show back on the air?" Raven asked rhetorically.

Two kinds of Titans. Lightning arced from Control Freaks remote, bringing monsters to life around him. "The only thing getting cancelled are your plans today. Titans, go!" Robin ran forward. He and Raven would deal with Control Freak, while Cyborg, Beastboy, and Starfire would work together to keep the animated monsters from causing too much destruction.

Robin and Raven kept their foe from summoning any more monsters with precise use of magic and birdarang throws. As expected, Control Freak retreated down the street, completely unaware of the other three Titans. "Starfire, go!" Cyborg yelled. He'd just shredded the monster he was fighting and shot Starfire's monster with his sonic cannon, allowing her to circle around the buildings and shoot Starbolts at Control Freak. He jumped in surprise and started heading south, towards the financial district.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven shouted, lifting streetlights out of the ground and throwing them like javelins at Control Freak. He shouted and jumped into a nearby convertible, using his remote to turn it on and sped away. Cyborg and Beastboy rejoined the others, their monsters defeated. Robin used his communicator to bring his R-Cycle to him on auto-pilot.

"Titans, after him!" He shouted, and everyone gave chase. Beastboy turned into a horse and let Cyborg hop on his back, and the two girls took to the air once more.

Control Freak wasn't out of tricks yet, it seemed. He pointed his remote at the car and turned the volume up, which with his reality bending tech, meant that the car suddenly acted as if it had taken steroids. It grew in size and sped up, but that wasn't the only thing that happened. The trunk opened and revealed an array of missiles. With a click of the button, they flew at the Titans.

Starfire and Cyborg started shooting back, destroying them before they could reach the Titans or destroy any nearby buildings. There was a huge cloud of smoke, and the Titans sped through it… only to see a second barrage flying at them. They were too close to get out of the way. Raven's quick thinking saved them from being blown away. She raised her hands and generated a sphere that surrounded the missiles, and they exploded harmlessly inside.

The concentration required to keep the collateral damage at zero was immense, and Raven felt like her head started to split in two from the focus. She groaned in pain as the headache caused lines to appear in her vision, and she let go of her magic, falling to the ground.

"Raven!"

She registered a dull impact against her body, and suddenly she was being carried sideways. Someone had caught her out of the air before she could hit the pavement. The pain faded quickly, it always did if she overexerted her magic. There would be a dull ache for a few hours, but it was nothing she couldn't deal with. Raven looked up, and saw Robin staring back down at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She nodded, standing. He helped her up and got back on his bike. "Alright, the others are still on Control Freak's tail. Let's go!" He took off, and she followed him in the air. They caught up a few moments later, where Control Freak was trying his hardest to keep up the fight. At some point, his stolen car had been destroyed on the edge of the entertainment district.

Try as he might, all he could conjure were animated newspaper stands. Control Freak was hit by a shadow, pinning him against the ground, and his remote flew into the air. A birdarang lodged itself into it a moment later and exploded. Control Freak looked stunned, then gave a sheepish smile as the Titans surrounded him.

~Hollow~

Raven lay in bed after the Titans had returned home, trying to quell the throbbing pain in her head from her overexertion of magic. She'd sat in the passenger seat with Cyborg on the ride home, leaning the chair back and resting quietly as the T-Car rumbled along, and when she got home she headed to her room and got in bed.

She could her hear heart pounding in her eardrums, and her face felt insanely hot. Her ears were ringing. Usually, a healing spell would fix most wounds, but this ailment could not be healed by magic since it was caused by magic. She'd tried in the past, but her efforts were for naught. Luckily, Raven had found the headache would only last for a few hours, so as long she rested she'd be back to normal in no time.

There was a knock at her door. Groaning, Raven sat up and got out of bed. She held a hand to her head as her footsteps reverberated through her body. The door opened, and she saw Robin standing in the hall. "Hey." He said quietly. "I brought you some tea." He had a cup and saucer in his hands.

"Why?" She asked. Raven didn't recall asking for any on the way home.

"Because you got hurt." He told her. "It hasn't happened in a while, but I could tell Control Freak's missiles really strained you. I remember you used to ask me to bring you tea back then, because it helped with your headaches." He told her.

She reached out and took the cup from him. "It really has been a while… I can't believe Robin remembered something like that." Raven thought, gently blowing on her tea before taking a sip. She offered a small smile and a word of thanks before going back into her room, setting the cup on her nightstand.

~Hollow~

A few hours later, Raven emerged from her room with the empty cup of tea. She was feeling much better, enough to go out and get some dinner. It was getting late; in a few hours, the sun would set. She emerged into the common room, where all the others were. The TV was on, playing the last episode of Danger Team 5 while Beastboy sat sniffling in front of the coffee table.

When they heard the doors open, Robin and Cyborg looked back. "Hey Raven. You feeling better?" Robin asked, resting an arm on the back of the couch.

"Much." She nodded. Her stomach growled, and she asked, "Are we going to be ordering in dinner soon?"

Robin shrugged. "Star and I are going to go out, so ask these two."

Raven used her magic to turn off the TV, causing Beastboy to turn around. "Are either of you two hungry?" She asked, motioning between him and Cyborg. She ignored the fact the fact that Robin would be going out with Starfire. It was bad enough to have one headache today.

Cyborg and Beastboy looked at each other, then back to Raven. They nodded, and Raven picked up the phone to order in chinese food. Once she'd finished, she walked over to the couch and rested her arms on the back. Cyborg turned the TV back on. "Where are you two going to go?" Cyborg asked, looking at Robin and Starfire.

The night Robin had come to meet her in the monitor room, Raven's emotions had partially come back. When she went to Nevermore, the emotions could be heard whispering on the wind, but they couldn't manifest in front of her. She hadn't freed them fully yet, out of fear that she'd go back down the spiral of depression she'd first fell through when Robin and Starfire began dating.

"There's this new Italian place that invited us to their grand opening on 8th Avenue." Robin explained. "So we accepted the invitation."

"Truthfully, I like Italian food." Starfire said. "With enough sauce, it resembles some of the food of my home world."

"So… enough to drown a fully grown man?" Cyborg asked, and the others laughed.

"You'll know if I don't return home." Robin told them, and everyone laughed again. They continued watching TV until the food Raven had ordered had been delivered. Cyborg went down and got it, bringing it back up and handing it to everyone. They chowed down, and the final episode of Beastboy's show went off the air.

He fell over in despair, turning into a dog and whimpering. "Relax, BB." Cyborg said.

"I'm sure that it'll get brought back on the air." Robin said. "It's stupidly popular."

"Emphasis on stupid." Raven muttered.

"You wouldn't know because you don't watch it, Raven!" Beastboy sat up and pointed a finger at her. "All the adventures, the character development…" He trailed off, and his voice cracked. "Taken away for no reason…"

"Perhaps we should leave before things get serious." Starfire whispered to Robin.

"Good idea." Robin ninja'd his way out of the room, Starfire following his lead.

"I can't believe they're going to leave us here with him." Cyborg said, motioning down to Beastboy (who was currently starting the series over from season 1 and watching it again).

"I can't believe you're the one who has to deal with him." Raven said sarcastically. "Because I'm going back to my room." Raven picked up her chinese food and turned around before Cyborg could say anything.

When she got back to her room, she leaned against the headboard and ate silently, looking out the window. Her room's window was facing east, so she couldn't see the sun sinking below the horizon. However, the fading orange sky and all the buildings turning their lights on let her know that it was getting later. It was getting close to winter, and the daylight was fading earlier and earlier.

When she finished eating, Raven grabbed her fortune cookie and split it apart, looking at the piece of paper inside.

Take a well earned vacation from all your woes.

She turned it over and looked at the numbers printed on the back. Putting the paper on the nightstand, she turned to face her window, gazing silently at the skyline of Jump City as the sky turned from orange to black.

Raven found herself thinking about what Robin and Starfire were doing. Whether they were enjoying themselves, enjoying the dinner they'd gone to. She thought about what they might talk about, what they might reveal about themselves to each other. Then she shook her head. "This isn't helping." She sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the headboard. "I wish I could just forget about all this." Deep down inside, she knew that wasn't possible.

Living with the person she had unrequited feelings for wouldn't be easy. It might've been easier if Robin had simply ignored her. It might have hurt more, but he still sought out her company at night when he couldn't sleep, looked after during battles and took care of her afterwards. Even if he wasn't doing it on purpose, he was still making her feel cared for and appreciated, stoking the fire within her.

No, she'd always feel this way for Robin because Robin didn't hate her. And if he didn't, then he'd always show her compassion and care when she needed it most, would always forgive her for her mistakes and treat her kindly, and that was what had caused her to fall for him in the first place. At some point, Raven's feelings of appreciation for everything Robin did had turned to love for the way he treated her.

And for so long, she'd tried her damndest to return the favour. She'd tried to be more approachable when he was around, to reveal more about herself, took him up on his offers to talk if anything was bothering her, tried to treat him the same way he treated her. And he would always smile and listen, always accept what she had to say. And he still would. Raven knew she could trust him with anything.

She opened her eyes and reached down to grab her mug, only to remember that she'd left it in the kitchen. Her eyes fell on the fortune and she read it again. "I wish I could just leave. Things would be so much easier." At that, Raven almost laughed out loud. "Yeah right. Where would I go? I have barely any money saved up. I wouldn't get very far." She brought her knees up to her chest. "And besides… they'd come after me. Even if I told them the truth, they'd still try and keep me here. They wouldn't understand." She blinked as a lightbulb went over her head. "Well, maybe Beastboy would. He had feelings for Terra." Then the lightbulb went out. "Beastboy is the last person I want to talk to about my romantic life. Besides, Terra's gone. It isn't like she's dating Cyborg while he's watching from the sidelines."

"When you figure it out, will you tell me?" Raven could hear Robin's words echo in the silence.

"One day."

She'd figured it out. She only had to tell him. But Raven still wasn't sure how. "I don't want things to change. I just wish they'd stay the same." Raven stood up from her bed and walked over to the window, resting her forehead against the glass. "They won't. Even if I told him and he accepted that I loved him and he continued loving Starfire, he'd never understand that I couldn't stop loving him because of what he means to me. I can't live with that kind of toxic feeling." Raven sighed. "And eventually, I would either come to hate him or I would have to leave everything behind to forget my feelings for him."

Raven lost track of time as she stood there, brain and heart trying to figure out what she should do about the situation.

~Hollow~

A/N

So people are like: "How in the hell is Robin so clueless?"

That's what I was asking myself when he went after Starfire. Seriously, Robin?! Get it together.