Chapter 8: Interlude

A bit of a slower chapter, said my original note here. On with chapter 8! I hope people enjoy the change to Starfire that I'm trying to accomplish here.

Robin added more water to the pot in front of him, stirring it every so often. He looked up from the stove upon hearing a soft cough.

"How you holding up, Raven?" Robin asked, glancing at the couch.

"Great…" Raven sniffed out. "Remind me again why the others are gone?"

"It's called a day off, remember? Starfire is at the mall, Beast Boy and Cyborg are at the arcade, and you're sick."

"Of all people to call for a day off when Slade is out and about," he heard her grumble.

"Hey, now, I'm trying my best. We know his patterns well enough by now to know he is regrouping," Robin said. Raven shook her head quickly, almost smiling.

"No, I know, Robin, it's not about that. I was kidding." He laughed.

"Of all people to joke about something like this," he mimicked. She offered a half-smile.

"Sorry you can't enjoy your day off, too."

"Are you kidding? Me? A day off when Slade is on the loose?" Robin gave the pot in front of him another stir. "I need to stick around the tower, and stick around you." He could have sworn Raven blushed, but she turned around too quickly for him to really see.

"Soup's up!" Robin said cheerfully. He took out two bowls and ladled the chicken noodle out. Robin set the bowls on a tray and carried it over to the coffee table. Raven sat up as Robin handed her a bowl. "Eat up Rae. You need your strength."

"You sound like someone's mother." Raven replied darkly.

"'Someone's mother'? People usually say 'my mother'" Robin said gently, the previously playful atmosphere evaporating.

"People who had someone who cared," Raven said softly. She stirred her soup around. Robin sat down next to her, worry etched across his face. Where was this all suddenly coming from?

"Raven, you can tell me anything and everything. I will guard those secrets that you tell me the same way you guard my secrets that you learned when Slade was after me," Robin told Raven in a serious tone.

"It's nothing, really. I'm sorry I brought it up." Raven took a small bite of chicken from her soup. "This cold or whatever is making my head fuzzy and it's doing weird things to my emotions."

"Nothing's blowing up, though," Robin responded. She shrugged.

"Not enough energy, I suppose."

"Raven, seriously, you can tell me. It might be a big weight off your shoulders." He watched as she quietly chewed a noodle.

"And they would only be heard in the presence of me and you?" Raven asked, looking up at Robin's face.

"Yes." Robin set his soup bowl back on the tray and turned towards Raven, who in turn put her bowl back on the tray. She took a deep breath. The others were gone, and maybe Robin was right. Maybe it would help quell the constant flurry in her mind every time the subject came up, or when they saw children playing with their parents out in public. A small nuisance at times, but it would be one less. One less thing to worry about, one more thing for Robin to understand about her. It couldn't hurt, she thought. Nothing would explode in her current state.

"Well, you already know some of it. Trigon and such. And my mother's name, Arella. She gave birth to me unwillingly, and I was a constant reminder of her pain, her own burdens. She had to ignore me so I could learn to control my emotions, something I now know was necessary, but when I was small… it hurt. Nobody cared about me; they just cared about controlling me." Raven's head was down, focusing on the bowls of soup as if she might find answers in the swirls of noodles and carrots.

"I came here, and found you all, but after all of that time growing up as a weapon, a tool… someone who wasn't a person, basically. After that, I still didn't feel like anyone truly cared about me." She held up her hand as Robin began to protest. "I was wrong, I know." She smiled at him. "But that's how it was. Me, locked away in my room, creepy and dark and dumb. That's why Malchior was so dangerous. New feelings, things I was so unfamiliar with that I jumped at the chance to feel protected, and even loved. But he was just another bastard trying to use me for my powers and my past." Raven's fists tightened, the memory still painful. Robin put a hand over hers.

"I really am sorry, Rae. We, I, should have been there." She shook her head.

"You didn't know. Nobody knew. I've always been alone. Controlled, manipulated, whatever." She looked up at him, and Robin was shocked to see tears forming in the corners of her lilac eyes. "But something changed. I don't know when, or why, but with you… all of you, I began to learn to open up, to not let the past ruin my future more than it already has."

"We're your friends, Raven. We're family." Robin wiped a stray tear off her cheek, hand lingering a bit. Raven's own came up to cover it.

"Because of you."

"Me?" he asked, searching her eyes for an answer.

"It's always been you. This team is yours; it began as your family. You let me in and accepted me in a way nobody else ever could at first. You weren't scared of me, you didn't question why I wanted to be alone… well, not as much as the others, at least." Robin chuckled and shrugged at that. "We're a team, saving each other in battle, but beyond that, you always check on me. When I lost control of my powers, you came to check on me and try to talk to me. You showed me hope."

"Raven…" Robin pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her. He felt her tears warm on his shirt, though she made no noise. "Thank you for telling me." On impulse, he kissed the top of her head. He felt her tense up a bit and he loosened his hold on her, breath caught in his chest as he waited for her to run away or something. But instead he felt her muscles gradually loosen again and she relaxed back into his hold. He smiled.

"I'll always be here for you," he whispered into her hair.

Raven took a deep breath; for once glad she was so sick. Any other time, who knows what her powers would be doing to the defenseless objects around them. Robin was a comforting presence, and she did feel better, to her surprise. It was as if there was a little more room to draw breath in her lungs, a little more room for her heart to beat freely. She felt his lips press against her hair and froze, but she was so tired, and it felt so nice. Raven reminded herself she had pledged to accept these feelings for Robin as they came, and she relaxed, eyes beginning to feel like lead.

"Robin?" she said, voice floating up to him through his t-shirt.

"Yes?" he replied, almost dreamily as he traced small circles on her shoulder.

"I'm going to nap, now."

"Oh. Right, sorry." He fumbled a bit, not knowing what he was actually expecting her to say. Some grand confession of love? That would have been very unlike Raven, more so than what had just transpired between the two. Still, he didn't move, and he felt her pull her legs up onto the couch and turn a bit so her head was resting against the back cushions by his shoulder. She did not, he noted, push him away or otherwise dissuade his attentions.

Robin sat awhile longer, enjoying the calmness that permeated the room. Some furniture was broken and there was still evidence of Beast Boy's antics the other day, but overall, the living room was in pretty good shape, considering its early morning visitor. He felt Raven's breathing even out as they blew across his neck and he shifted out from under her, guiding her head down onto a pillow. A smile curled across his face as he watched her almost snuggle deeper into the couch, arms tucked tightly against her body and legs pulled up in front of her. He felt the back of her forehead: her fever was going down. Robin grabbed a blanket off the ground and shook it out before gently floating it down across the empath's sleeping form. Picking up the discarded soup bowls, he headed to the kitchen.

So this is only half of the original chapter, but I changed ALMOST EVERYTHING and have decided to put the effort into a total Starfire fix, which means a lot of fiddling with the rest of this chapter and the next. To those reading on/ahead, you will be confused if I haven't finished updating it. I'll try to get to that tomorrow! Cheers