A/N: Okay, I know; I'm a big, fat liar and "midnight tomorrow night" turned into something like a week and a half later. And I'm still not finished. No excuses, I just suck. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the new batch. Just four more to go, and hopefully it won't take another week and a half to finish. Thanks so much to all of you who've taken the time to read and review, your support is greatly appreciated! Peace, all and enjoy!

Ring

"Don't you want to know what happened?" Speedy growled, spitting the blood from his mouth and ignoring the sting of split lips.

She was quiet for a while, tracing her fingers in feather strokes over the broken edges of his cheek, her energy mending the fragments below his skin. The ones that went far deeper than pieces of bone and the ugly purple ring around his eye.

And when she finally met his gaze, he realized that he didn't need to say a word. It was a battle she'd been fighting all along, with bruises much heavier than his own.

Hate

"It's okay if you hate me," his voice was serious yet soft, devoid of the tension and spite that poisoned the air between them for so many months now, and Robin stiffened upon hearing it, unable to set aside his empty mug or look away from the countertop littered with dishes.

"I'll regret it, but I can live with it. But Raven…"

Robin looked up then, turning slowly, as though really listening. Maybe for the first time.

"…She cares about you."

He wondered just what it had cost Speedy to admit the fact.

He wondered the same thing about himself.

Holiday

It was in the things she didn't say. Raven was quiet in her remorse. Doubly so in her affections. Yet it was there, in the soft curve of her mouth, in the way her eyes lit up like a holiday whenever he called.

And Robin saw. Through the silence and store-bought discretions she wore for him, he saw, and he knew.

He'd been wrong.

And his heart was a cherry bomb that burned and swelled in his chest, right before it blew itself apart. Because that light was never meant for him…

And who was he to put it out.

Angel

She blinked rapidly, trying to rid the grit of sleep from her eyes to focus on him before she lost to the dark again, and a tiny smile crept onto her lips. He was there, sitting on the windowsill with the sun streaming in, burning the air around him into rivers of gold and turning him into an angel of fire.

"You came," she rasped, and Speedy turned to face her, gaze soft and touch as warm as she'd dreamed when he reached out to brush the tips of his fingers lightly through her hair.

"For you," he whispered, "always."

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Now clickety-click on that little blue button below, please. You'll make me a happy little hippie, indeed!