Just a short stack of robrae sweetness… so if that's not your cup of tea, then probably best to skip this one.
Please do not repost or copy/paste.
Robin had been on his way to the gym for his Sunday morning workout when the explosion rocked the tower. He ran towards the sound, wishing he had more than just his training staff. The door to the kitchen swished open and he leapt through, staff raised in attack formation… only to find the kitchen covered in batter, and a ball of black energy with batter dripping off in the centre… he hesitated, Plasmas had either decided to attack the Titans Tower kitchen or… "Raven?"
The ball slowly dissolved leaving a slightly dazed Raven, confused Robin and fully battered kitchen.
"Raven… What happened? Are you hurt?"
"I… wanted to… make pancakes… for breakfast…"
Robin's face went pale "Trigon…"
"No! I mean… I was… I thought…" Raven trailed off.
Robin paused his heart rate slowly returning to normal as he lowered his staff, "So no-one attacked the tower? Trigon is still trapped in another dimension and not trying to end the world?"
Raven's eyes slowly came back into focus as she regained control over her emotions, then her eyes went black as she said "Azarath Metrion Zinthos"
The batter disappeared and the kitchen sparkled… ironically cleaner than before.
"Didn't Cy say you were only allowed to brew tea in his kitchen?"
"Well he's… asleep and…"
Robin sighed, Cyborg thought they didn't know that he was out with Jinx last night and had sneaked in at 2am… waking both him and Raven and coming up with a story so complicated and convoluted that everyone, including Cyborg, had lost the thread halfway though.
"I just wanted to make pancakes for… everyone…" Raven murmured downcast.
Robin hesitated, he didn't want to miss his workout, but it was sweet of Raven to try to make them breakfast and it was the first time she'd tried, or even voluntarily talked about, pancakes since the "incinerated gorkha roaches" incident… "Why don't I teach you how to make pancakes?"
Raven hung her head, the hood coming up in a wave of magic, "You don't have to do that. You'll miss your workout."
"It's not the end of the world…" Robin said, with a cheeky smirk, "and pancakes are my favourite breakfast! So maybe I can surprise the others with a group training session later…"
Taking her small hesitant smile as acceptance, Robin rested the staff against the wall and walked into the kitchen. "Right lets start with the basics… eggs, milk and flour…"
He took fresh eggs and milk out of the fridge. Then eying the singed remains of the bag of flour on the worktop said, "Rae, why don't you grab a fresh bag of flour and the baking powder."
Raven narrowed her eyes, "Don't call me Rae".
He glanced over and saw that despite her annoyed words, she was reaching up to get the flour… his amusement increased as she went up on full tip-toe, hood falling back, pushing against the worktop, but was still unable to quite reach the flour. She made a small sound of frustration, before levitating, snatching out the offending flour and baking power and placing it careful on the worktop. She glanced up and her eyes narrowed at his smirk.
"OK," Robin started quickly, before she could send him to the wedgie dimension she'd sent Beast Boy to last week, "lets whisk those eggs… whoa… wait, first we have to crack them!"
Robin ran over and attempted to catch the eggs, currently orbiting the bowl in bubbles of dark energy… they drifted down to the worktop. Breathing a sigh of relief, he motioned her over. Once she was stood next to him, he taught her how to break the eggs into the bowl… her eyes widened with understanding… the shells didn't go into the mixture… once the eggs were in the bowl, he taught her how to fish out the stray shell fragments that had gone in… under his watchful eyes, she diligently chased shell pieces around the bowl lifting them out with a spoon. She waited patiently until Robin glanced away to get the milk… then the eyes went black and every fragment was captured and lifted in a bubble of dark energy. Robin raised his eyebrow and a faint blush spread across her cheeks even as her violet eyes sharpened and her chin lifted in defiance, almost daring him to say something.
"OK, now the milk… Gently!" He exclaimed as he stood behind her and grabbed her hand as she tipped the bottle… "add the milk gently and keep whisking."
Now with his attention fully on the mixture, he didn't notice the blush reappear as he gently guided her hands, his face looking over her shoulder, not touching her, but every time he talked, his breathe caused strands of hair to brushed her cheek.
Thankfully, once the milk had been whisked in he moved away to get the flour and baking powder. Raven found herself taking a few steadying breathes, trying to calm herself before her emotions caused the second batch of pancake batter to blow up in her face.
"Right, now let's slowly whisk in the flour… with a huff she opened the bag and flour bellowed out dusting them both a powdery white… "uh"
Robin's chuckle faded as he realised how adorable she looked dusted with flour… swallowing, he motioned towards the bowl, even as he watched, the first cup went into the mixture like cannonball dive resulting in them both being covered in another dusting.. "Rae…" he murmured, in painful amusement, once again standing behind her to cover her hands and guide them into adding the flour slowly while whisking the mixture… gently.
"OK now we let it stand for a bit.."
Raven eyed the mixture with borderline suspicion, "Stand?"
Robin smirked, "Leave it to rest."
As Robin slid onto the kitchen island stool, Raven mindlessly filled her kettle and prepped the coffee machine. She was deep in thought when… "Ready to flip?" Robin whispered in her ear causing her to jump as he chuckled, hand held in the age old action of surrender, "come on Rae, we're almost there… to you really want to risk blowing up this batch too if you send me to another dimension?"
Robin waited patiently, until her eyes returned to violet before guiding her gently to the stove.
With the first pancake stuck to the ceiling, the second pancake on the floor… Raven's eyes started glowing an unholy red as she sent the third pancake, burned to a crisp, to the deepest, darkest part of hell… and contemplated sending the rest of the mixture with it, until a warmth embraced her. Caught slightly off guard at both the contact and the opposing emotions, she stiffened, until Robin's familiar aura had her relaxing enough for the red in the eyes to start fading again.
Robin didn't say anything, he just gently guided her hands, cooking up the remaining mixture to fluffy perfection as her eyes went from blistering red to simmering black to warm violet.
With the last pancake done, Robin moved back and Raven poured the now boiling water onto her tea bag and poured Robin's coffee in his favourite mug.
They sat down again with their tea and coffee, Raven used her powers to slice strawberries and bananas and take out the maple syrup.
"Best pancakes ever… as promised" Robin smirked around his mouthful.
The corner of her mouth lilted upwards, as a soft blush reappeared.
They had almost finished when Beast Boy and Cyborg arrived… their faces paled as they saw the pancakes… "It's not the end of the world" Raven huffed rolling her eyes…
Cyborg recovered first, "Rae, I thought I told you to stay out of my kitchen…"
Before Raven could respond, Beast Boy called out, "Are these vegan?"
"Seriously?" Raven rolled her eyes, "Just roll out your tofu out into a disc and flip it on the pan…"
Beast Boy scowled, as Cyborg laughed, and went to the stove to make some tofu eggs.
Cyborg having established these pancakes were edible, was on his second pancake stack when Starfire arrive, her skin paled as she whispered, "Friend Raven…?"
"It's not the end of the world" Raven frowned.
"Then it is the most wonderful of gifts, Friend Raven, I have the sickness of the missing of the home and incinerated glor…"
"These are more traditional, Star" Robin interrupted, as Raven's eyes started to glow.
Starfire enthusiastically threw three on her plate before dousing them in mustard and maple syrup… "Delicious!"
"Say Rae…" Cyborg said around his third pancake stack, topped high with strawberries and cream, "why are you so obsessed with pancakes? I thought we were team waffles… in fact didn't you say "I love waffles more than life itself". Pancakes are really more Ro…"
He was interrupted by an explosion of tofu eggs resulting in total chaos breaking out… the pancake was dislodged off the ceiling and fell onto Beast Boy, Starfire flew over to him to "the help" and Cyborg was crying at the state of his kitchen now covered in scrambled tofu eggs. Thorough the ensuing drama, Robin's eyes had stayed on Raven, he saw her face stain a pretty pink a split second before the hood came up and she disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke… he smirked as he thought to himself, 'Yeap, best pancakes ever'.
Small print:
- Teen Titans/Nightwing are owned by DC Comics.
- Raven and Nightwing were created by the dynamic duo of Marc Wolfman and George Perez.
- Dick Grayson was created and introduced as Robin by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.
- This story takes characters from the awesome Teen Titans Animated Series and places them in an original work by me.