Raven's breath escaped in a sigh and her back arched up, tilting her head back for more air to enter her. Escaped at first as a sigh, small moans started ticking the back of her throat, released quietly in the air as she rolled her hips, again and again, against Starfire's.

Soft Tamaranian words left her red, swollen lips, and her hands were everywhere. Wherever she could touch, she laid her hands, letting them roam all over Raven's body as the two sought out their pleasure.

"Raven," Starfire gasped as she felt her fingers slip between her once more. "Oh, Raven. Ryuionat." Raven's free hand came to the back of her head, and she pulled her down onto her, locking their lips together in a heated kiss.

Raven could feel the thickness of their emotions in the air, rubbing up against their naked skin, driving them further to ecstasy. She didn't care how much pressure it was putting on her to feel such intense emotions; right now, that was what she wanted.

Starfire's hand came to her breasts, stroking and toying and playing with them.

Their hips rolled again as Starfire shifted them both, wrapping her arms around Raven's waist and spinning them both over, so that now Raven was on top.

She looked down at Starfire, taking in the sight of her red hair spilled across her pillow and her eyes aglow, small beads of sweat near her hairline and a delicate blush all over her body. Raven stroked her fingers across Starfire's cheek, and Starfire kissed at them. Using her alien strength once more, she pulled Raven's body down onto hers, crushing them together.

Raven moaned out at the force.

"Star—"

The word escaped her lips before she knew she spoke.

Within the tangle of the sheets, and the tangle of their legs, they moved, kicking out against each other until Starfire was straddling a single leg of Raven's. She ground her hips up against Raven's heat, desperately as the two kept searching for their release.

Hearts pounding, voices calling, and fingers reaching, the entire night passed like that. Starfire's hair had mixed into the most beautiful mess, and Raven entwined her fingers into the red strands. When she flipped her over once more, she leaned back, enjoying Starfire's body over hers. She ran her hands up and down her strong arms, kissing her with such passion that she swore she could feel their blood tingle together.

Sometime during the night, in the heat and confusion of their love making, Raven's eyes wandered to the small container that sat upon her nightstand, still untouched from the last time she had thrown the glass inside of it. Vaguely, the thought passed into her mind of reaching out, reforming the glass as best as she could and presenting it to Starfire again.

At that thought, a knot formed in her chest.

No, she thought, not going to happen.

Forcing her mind away from the heart that lay just beyond them, Raven encircled her legs around Starfire's waist, and wrestled her body onto it's side. Away from the sight of the decorative box, and the small yet important trinket inside of it. Onto instead the gauzy black curtains that blocked out the bright light of the moon and stars and distant city.

Her eyes slid closed, and all she could feel was Starfire once more.

Her happiness was radiating off of her, mixing with something dark and sinister just beneath the surface. It felt so erotic that Raven couldn't help but moan again.

Their breasts pressed together as they tightened their arms, pulling them closer in. Their heartbeats were frantic, and they loved every second of it.

Starfire whispered more loving words into her ear, and Raven could only kiss her back in response. Hopeful, she tried her own attempt at seductive little nothings, and Starfire ate it up like mustard.

Warmth and touch and love.

Betwixt the fantasies and the flesh.

All of it came rushing back to them that night, and between them something new was kindled. Not in the sound of the screams or the wetness of their shared desires, but something communicated through the supernatural emotions filling the room then coursing through their blood.

"I love you."

The morning came far too early, on harsh bright light that burned and pained. They never wanted to get out of bed, ever, but only stay wrapped in each other's arms, cuddling. Sand still crusted their eyes as they dragged themselves to the main room, their bodies still limp from the intensity of the night.

Everyone seemed particularly drained that morning. Cyborg and Beast Boy dazed into their plates, not really seeing anything and sluggishly raising their forks to their mouths. No one even bothered to make a face when Starfire stuck a straw into her bottle of mustard. Spicy mustard even.

Even a fuming, panicked Nightwing couldn't drag them out of the stupor.

Storming into the main room, he slammed his fist down onto the table, making no one jump. Eyes peered up at him, partly in confusion and partly in annoyance. Curses left his lips, sworn in raspy tones under his breath. His mask was off, as was most of his uniform, replaced instead by loose-fitting casual clothes.

Streaks of capillaries showed on the whites of his eyes, and his hair was messy, his muscles jittery. Raven could feel the headache that was dominating his brain right then and there, and underneath that pounding headache (that was starting to affect her) she sensed an array of emotions that she was far too tired to read.

"Nightwing, what's wrong?" she asked in a mute tone.

Running his fingers through his hair, he looked at each one of them in turn, his wild, fatigued eyes drinking them in.

"All—" He started, then took a breath. Closing his eyes, he pressed his fingers to his temples, rolling his head and stealing some of Cyborg's juice. Swigging it down, he slammed the glass down and said, "All…almost all…of Slade's files…are gone!"

Each of the Titans stared at him in awe, and then exchanged their glances over the table. Like that could somehow answer the question of which of them had deleted the files, if indeed one of them had. Nightwing's eyes were darting around their faces along with the rest of them.

His hands were shaking, and an overbearing sense of worry crept into his being.

"Nightwing," Raven said, pressing a hand to her head, "please stop that."

"What?" he asked her, completely oblivious to the stress his emotions were putting her through. Had he been more awake, and thinking more clearly, he would have realized sooner. "Oh. Right," he mumbled, and tried to calm himself.

"I don't know who, but someone erased almost all of Slade's files. All the hard copies are missing, and the digital files have been tampered with. The only ones left are from years ago, and those aren't going to help any of us now."

Curious gazes were cast around the table once more, and then Nightwing broke down.

"Oh, gods. What if it was me?"

Starfire reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him as guilt overwhelmed him. She rubbed his arm through the black fabric of his sweater, not knowing what else to do. Perhaps her words would make her feel better?

"It is alright," she told him. "Even if you did have, none of us blame you."

He didn't look up at her, didn't even move.

Beast Boy and Cyborg exchanged worried glances. They could read each others thoughts in their eyes, knowing by now what the other was thinking at this point in time. Silent questions, eyebrow movements, a shrug of the shoulders.

"Well, hey, look at the bright side," Beast Boy chimed in. "Now there's a delay in us splitting up."

That was the wrong thing to say. Accusatory eyes all landed on him. He shrunk back down within his seat, his face darkening as blood rushed up at his cheeks. "What? I'm just trying to cheer things up. None of us want to separate do we?"

"Was it you?!" Nightwing yelled. He jumped up from the chair, and it fell back and hit the floor with a loud thud. "Did you erase the files?"

"No!" Beast Boy shouted back at him.

"And how do I know you're telling the truth?" Nightwing looked like he was about ready to bite his head off, but Beast Boy stood his ground.

"Well…I guess you don't."

"Both of you, stop it!" Raven slammed her fists down on the table, unable to take anymore of the stress on her mind. Everyone went silent. "It doesn't matter who did it. They're gone now, so we have to deal with it like so."

She felt Starfire's hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. She mellowed a bit, sighing to clear her head. "Blame won't really help us now, so why does it matter?" Her words sounded reasonable enough, but reason wasn't something that played well upon sleep-wanting minds.

"Well what if the person who took 'em might still have 'em?" Cyborg asked.

Nightwing jumped on the suggestion.

"They could still have them?" The suggestion seemed to have a mixed effect on all of them. But Raven knew, not from her powers but from basic observation, that disappointment was in all of them.

Sitting back down, she spun to meet Starfire's gaze. They both looked disappointed. Raven leaned in close to Starfire, embracing her warmth and comfort once more. No one seemed to notice the two girls leaning upon each other; everyone's eyes were downcast.

A long moment of silence passed.

Finally, Nightwing broke the silence. "Raven's right. It doesn't matter." It doesn't matter about the missing files. No one wanted to find Slade, no one wanted to disband. Relief flooded through the room.

Nightwing went to fix himself breakfast, a large bowl of cereal that he ate at the counter.

Raven could remember years ago, when Starfire fell through the wormhole and travelled through time. When she had returned, the messages she carried about the future were grim; about what would happen if the Titans all disbanded. She felt her heart become clenched as she thought about it. She had always feared being locked up somewhere, her mind having become lost and all her friends missing from her.

It was one of her deepest and darkest fears, to be captured like that. To be so helpless, her mind stripped away from her and not even knowing who she was or what she was. All her days spent in the bright white of a cell, trying desperately to remember.

Never going back to what she was.

As these thoughts coursed through her, her eyes started to burn, and she hugged herself closer to Starfire.

Was that the reason she clung to tightly to her? Why she had become her lover? Parts of her mind said yes, that the reason she loved Starfire so much was that she was her grip on her sanity, the one thing that kept her level within this world. The one thing in this world that she needed more than anything. Starfire had promised that she would never leave her. Even if the Titans disbanded, and everyone went they're separate ways, she would go wherever she went so that she would never be alone. Starfire knew how hard companionship came to Raven, so she would always be her companion.

Raven remembered that she had wept when Starfire had said that, suppressed tears unable to stay trapped behind her eyes and rolling down her cheeks.

"So you're not going to search our rooms or anything?" Beast Boy asked, bringing them all back to the present. Nightwing shook his head, no.

Cyborg let out a sigh of relief.

"I don't see the point of it," Nightwing said after a delay. "Slade will show up again, in due time, and when he does his location will be back on the monitors and all that crap."

"Oh perhaps," Starfire said cheerily, "this Slade has turned over a new leaf, and he will never do crime again so we will never have to go after him again and never catch him. And then the Batman will not make up disband because we never captured him and we shall have him on a technicality."

Everyone looked at her.

"Yeah, and maybe I'll conceive your child," Raven quipped.

Turning her head, Starfire looked at her and said, "I am assuming you say this because it is an impossibility."

"Mm-hm," Raven voiced, drinking down the last of her tea and finished her breakfast. "Is that not the case on Tamaran?"

Starfire took a breath, like she was about to answer, but Nightwing cut them all off, calling them away from the table and onto whatever next assignment it was. Raven just hoped that he had stopped deciding that splitting them up for weeks at a time was a good way to spread out investigation.

"Team…" he began.

"Ryuionat," Starfire cursed, seeing all the damages the monitors were reporting.