Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot, Neo, Nemo, and to some degree Rush! And the clones and Methuss belong to a friend of mine! So there!

That's how she found him the next morning, curled up on the blanket, facing the door.

"You should've woken one of us up to take over for you." She said softly.

Startled, he looked over at her, and she frowned. Dark circles from lack of sleep showed even under his mask, rimmed slightly with red. One side of his face, the side he had been lying on, was covered with deep red impressions as if he hadn't moved in a few hours, if not the entire night.

"Nah, you guys needed your sleep." He shrugged, standing and stretching to get all the kinks out of his shoulders and back. "Besides, I wouldn't have been able to get any sleep anyhow."

"Still…"

"I'm fine, promise." He grinned lopsidedly at her. "No need to worry about me, darling."

She rolled her eyes.

"It is cute that you're worrying, though." He added, grin widening into a flirtatious smirk.

She felt her cheeks darken into a deep shade of red. "Stop doing that." She all but hissed, turning away from him and going to the kitchen, where she proceeded to begin making a cup of tea to calm her all-too-quickly fraying nerves.

"Stop doing what?" He asked, sounding genuinely confused as he followed her, pulling himself up onto the kitchen counter.

"Flirting." She said, putting a hand on her hip. "Calling me cute and darling and gorgeous and other things like that…just stop it."

He tilted his head to one side. "Why?" He asked curiously, swinging his legs back and forth but being careful not to hit the counter beneath him.

"Because I told you to." She replied.

"But I like calling you those things. I'm not much for lying, you know." He said.

She snorted. "See, there you go again. It's annoying, so stop it."

"But darling…" He whined teasingly.

"I said stop!" She snapped. "God, I just…I don't understand you lately! I mean, I didn't really understand you before, but this is getting ridiculous! Ever since this mission started, especially, you've just been…I don't know, weird! It's really starting to grate on my nerves!"

He looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I didn't think I was acting particularly strangely." He said almost offhandedly, legs stopping mid-swing.

"Well you are. I mean, that day before we met Nemo and all you kissed me, but even after that we just sort of settled back into…I don't know, normalcy I guess, and now all of a sudden you're starting to come onto me again! And it really feels like you're…using me or something!"

He froze, but his reason for tensing was unclear to her. Slowly, eyebrows furrowing together almost angrily, he turned to face her. "I'm not using you." He insisted.

"Look, no matter what you said that night, I know you like Starfire. Everyone does, and it isn't going to hurt my feelings if you do, too." She said, pouring the steaming water into a cup and stirring the tea to life in order to give herself an excuse not to look at him. "It…hurts my feelings a lot more that you're insisting on…flirting with me, or whatever it is you're doing, when you don't really feel that way about me, okay? It's annoying, and I'm asking you to stop."

She turned and nearly dropped her cup when she found him standing right behind her, his face only inches away from her own.

"I would never do that." His voice was low and serious. She wrinkled her nose a little at the smell of his morning breath, though the feel of it across her face caused her to shiver at the same time. "I don't know why you think I would, but I wouldn't, I haven't, and I won't. Especially not to you. I know you think I like Starfire, and when I was Red X, sure I flirted with her, but that was just to tick Robin off and I knew she'd never take me seriously, if not because she likes Robin too then because I was a criminal at the time. But you'll notice that since I became a Titan I don't flirt with her at all, and I already explained to you why that is."

"You—" He cut her off before she could finish.

"I'm a thief, Raven. The best thief. So I can see to some degree why you don't trust me. But at the same time, for now at least, I'm a Titan and I'm your friend." He reached a hand up towards her face, but stopped it just short of touching her. "I became a Titan to see you smile and laugh, but as you can see I stuck around even after I saw that. I don't understand what's going on any more than you do…but I want to understand. And I'm not going to leave, and I'm not going to stop until I do understand, and depending on what happens between now and then, I may or may not stop after that." Even through his mask his eyes pierced her.

"You—" But he cut her off again.

"You want to understand too, Raven, but you're trying to push me away by hiding behind that stupid mask of yours, and I won't let you so you feel insecure and scared." He leaned even closer, his hand finally touching her cheek. "Ignoring me isn't going to make me disappear, and neither is yelling at me or pushing me away. I'm not going anywhere."

She shook her head and pulled away from his hand. "Rush, I…"

"I'll wait, but I won't give up." He said, a stubborn edge attaching itself to his voice.

Hesitantly, she nodded. "Okay. I'll…I'll try to understand, too."

And he leaned forward and kissed her.

(THE RUSH)