A/N: Well, we're on the home stretch--only eight more to go, which you can expect sometime before midnight tomorrow night. Once again, thank you all so much for the reviews! They make me so very happy! I hope you all enjoy the new batch, though I have to say I don't think I like these as much as some of the others...but then again, I think that every time I post. But anyway, read and enjoy, and please feed the author!

Oh! And one more thing: "Sky" is inspired by Agha Shahid Ali's poem "Snow on the Desert." The opening 2 lines of dialogue are taken directly from the text, so don't think I'm some sort of genius here...I'm just manipulating someone else's characters to another someone else's dialogue. Just so you know. Disclaiming them here and now! Anyway it's a beautiful poem and you should all read it. Now. Go.

Sky

"Each ray of sunshine is seven minutes old," he'd told her once when he was wrapped around her in the sand, and their eyes stretched out over the bay, watching evening fires smolder and turn the day to ash.

She turned slightly, into the crook of his neck, and could smell summer on his skin. "So, when I look to the sky, I see the past?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Then the past is happening all around us," she murmured.

"It is."

"And the future?"

His touch whispered along the contours of her face as he met her lips and smiled. "Is this."

Fight

She could feel the fire in his skin wrapped so tightly around her wrists, on his lips ardent and fierce upon hers, in his unfettered gaze as he pulled away from her, pleading, and so very intense that she could not face him as he held her, there, against him.

"Please…don't—" unable to finish as his fingers moved to brush the hot tears slipping from beneath her lashes.

"Not this time, Raven," he whispered insistently. "I won't let go. I'm going to fight for you."

Then he was gone, and the bruise on her heart was all that remained.

Sleep

Speedy froze when he found her, stretched out in the dark along the couch with a book at rest on her stomach, and sleep settled on her skin like frost.

But it wasn't the moon creeping through the glass in slips and tangles of warm blue light that flittered across the delicate lines of her face, which made him itch to touch her. And innocent vulnerability had nothing to do with why he watched over her until the night bled into hues of rose and gold and she stirred.

He slipped away, wondering if she always smiled in her sleep.

Emotion

The moment they were alone he fell into her, lips and hands needy upon her skin, desperate to find the pulse and flush of life there, and Raven felt the emotion crush her like a tidal wave as he sank to his knees before her, trembling.

Relief.

And fear.

"Jesus, Raven," he breathed, "I thought I lost you."

She crumbled; taking his face in her palms, though she wasn't certain which of them was supporting the other anymore. "Ssh, Roy," she soothed. "It's okay. I'm fine. It could've been worse."

He held her tighter, knowing that, indeed, it could have.

Beach

Arsenal often wondered just what she saw when she stared out across the sea, sometimes for hours, until the tide carried the beach away on its back, and the moon hung heavy in the sky.

Some nights, she didn't come in at all, and he would find her in the sand, curled in on herself and lips blue from the cold. He would pull her to his chest then, and carry her inside while she rattled on about days long passed or ones that never were.

When he was lucky, she remembered his name as he kissed her good night.

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Yeah, so okay, I know "Beach" was a little strange, but it just popped out so I went with it. Hope you enjoyed, nonetheless! Peace, all.