Chapter 3: Bacon and Tea - Raven and Cyborg

"You're up early," Raven commented. She moved into the common room's kitchen and filled her kettle with water, then placed it on the stovetop.

"Yeah," Cyborg replied, flipping the sizzling bacon in the pan. "Couldn't sleep, so I decided to make lots of meat before B came in and started his whole tofu beats meat thing."

Raven couldn't help but to smirk at this. Cyborg smiled as well. "You always get up this early, right?"

"Yes," Raven said. The kettle whistled, announcing that the water had boiled. She took it off the heat and poured it over the tea she had prepared as she waited. The steam rose from the cup, taking with the bitter-sweet aroma of tea.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Raven replied, putting the kettle away. She picked up her cup and sat the counter.

"Why do you always get up so early?" Cyborg asked. He had finished cooking his bacon and had arranged them on a plate beside his fried eggs, then joined Raven at the counter.

Raven appeared thoughtful. "Well," she said, placing her cup on the table but keeping it between her hands, "I suppose it gives me a bit of quiet time. You know, I can enjoy a nice cup of tea in the common room without being bothered."

Cyborg slowly nodded. He understood the need to be away sometimes. When he needed alone time he went to the garage. There were only so many places in the Tower one could go to be alone, not including individual rooms. He dug into his breakfast, throwing a glance to the digital clock on the stove. It was 5:32. Robin would be up by now.

Raven felt a tingling sensation in her gut. She looked cautiously at Cyborg, who was eating with gusto. "So," she said a little uncertainly, "any particular reason you couldn't sleep?" She took a nonchalant sip of her tea.

Cyborg cast her a look. "Not really," he replied airily. "Just one of those days."

Raven nodded, not wanting to press the conversation further. But she didn't couldn't help but feel that something was indeed up with her older friend. As an empath, those nagging feelings were common, though she rarely acted on them. The feelings were least common in Cyborg, however, and that concerned her a little. Not that she would admit it.

"Read any good books lately?" Cyborg asked knowingly.

Raven smiled. "Yes, thank you. I really appreciated them." Cyborg, for her seventeenth birthday, had gifted her with a set of novels. They weren't her usual reading style, but she kept an open mind and rather liked them. They were better than Starfire's gift of jewelry that she would never wear, anyway.

Cyborg nodded, looking pleased. "Good."

They lapsed into another silence, but they were comfortable with it. They often sat in silence like this, unspoken words traveling between them. It was usually when Raven retreated to the one place no one would ever find her: the garage. Cyborg had always kept her secret and allowed her to stay with him, and she would meditate or read with he worked on one of the vehicles.

"Can..." Raven trailed off, unsure of how to phrase her question.

Cyborg raised his eyebrow at her, prompting her to continue.

"Can we...talk...about something?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course," he replied immediately. "Anything. You know that, Rae."

"Raven," she absently correctly.

"Raven," he agreed.

"Sometimes," she said, twiddling with her cup, "I wake up at night. Because of nightmares."

"What kind of-"

"Not my nightmares," she interrupted.

Cyborg merely looked at her, a little confused.

"I can feel what others feel," she explained. "But when I'm asleep, I suppose I'm more open, more vulnerable to that sort of thing. Sometimes I can feel the fear of someone's nightmares, though it's hard to tell who it belongs to sometimes. Most of the time I think it's Robin, but I could be wrong."

"You think Robin's having nightmares?" Cyborg asked.

"I think everyone has nightmares once in a while," she replied. "Even you."

Cyborg didn't answer, but took another bite of bacon. Raven took a sip of her tea.

"I was thinking," Raven continued softly, keeping her gaze lowered, "that that was the reason you were up so early."

After what seemed a really long moment, Cyborg cleared his throat. "Yeah, I guess. But like you said, everyone has nightmares once in a while." He stood and took his empty plate to the sink to wash it.

Raven watched him out of the corner of her eye. "Do...you want to talk about it?"

He hesitated in his work, but it was such a short pause that Raven might have imagined it. "It was just a run-of-the-mill nightmare, Raven," he said in a cheery tone. "Mission gone wrong, friends getting hurt, that sort of thing. Comes with the job, right?"

She nodded her head slightly though he couldn't see her. "I suppose," she said. "But it wasn't that sort of dream, Cyborg. Sometimes, I don't just feel the fear. I can see the dreams, if they're strong enough."

This time there was no doubt that Cyborg stopped. With a heavy sigh, he set the plate down and turned to face her, looking tired. "What do you want me to say, Rae?" he asked, and she didn't bother correcting her name. "If you saw it, sorry. And now you already know what it was about. Nothing really to say about it, is there?"

Raven blinked slowly and looked down. "Sometimes it helps to talk about it?" she offered.

At this Cyborg genuinely smiled. "Thanks, Raven, but I'm good."

She gave him a small, conceding smile in return. "Okay."

" 'Morning," Robin said, stretching as he entered. "What's for breakfast, Cyborg?"

A/N: Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!

Next chapter will be between my favorite dynamic duo, Beast Boy and Cyborg! :D