Just a sweetie pie of a robrae story… because I love them… best enjoyed either with strong black coffee… or a maybe a nice cup of herbal tea…
Please do not repost or copy/paste.
It was a quiet day at Titan's Tower… Beast Boy was visiting Rita from the Doom Patrol, Cyborg was visiting Grandma Stone and after announcing she'd been having "a bit of the sick-home feeling lately", Starfire was spending the weekend in Tamaran… so it was just Robin and Raven in the tower.
Robin had finished his morning workout, and was using the quiet time to catch-up on some paperwork. His hair was still damp from the shower as it dried in it's natural tousled state. Raven was curled up on the sofa next to him reading. It was a comfortable and relaxed silence.
Robin found his mind wandering from his paperwork as he wondered why Raven wasn't spending the day with Arella on Azarath… maybe he should ask her… not that he minded having her company… without the loudness and sometimes outright stankiness of Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy, Raven didn't need to meditate as much, and he found he enjoyed spending more quality time with her.
They were both so absorbed, Raven in her book and Robin in his thoughts that they both jumped when the Titans alert sounded.
Raven put down her book as Robin brought up the alert… "People are acting strange at the Hearty Momeee's Pie Festival…"
"You mean stranger than stuffing their faces with nauseating amounts of pie?" Raven deadpanned.
Robin chuckled, "Some people do it for fun…"
"I know… Cyborg normally takes me…" Raven murmured.
"Like on a date?" Robin blurted out before he could stop himself.
He blushed as he turned, fist clenched with an anger he couldn't quite place.
"Hardly," Raven scoffed, "I'm mainly his portal home when he's eaten so much pie he can't move… I… wait… why would you think it's a date?"
"Er… we should go check it out… best be sure…" Robin stuttered, deflecting the question.
Raven only raised an eyebrow at Robin's strange behaviour, which notched up again when Robin announced they'd take his bike.
He'd already run out, with a "Titans, Go!", partially in his usual rush to respond to an alert and partially to avoid any awkward follow-up questions from Raven, leaving a slightly bemused Raven to follow. When she got to the garage, she saw him pop his helmet on over spiked hair… any curiosity on how he'd managed to gel up his hair in the split second between the alert ringing and him getting to his bike was momentarily forgotten as Raven hesitated. "Come on Rae, it's perfectly safe," he said handing her her helmet.
While the others were happy to share the spare helmet, Raven's general discomfort of the bike had prompted Robin to have a custom helmet made for her, lighter alloy, higher tensile strength, and in her favourite dark bluish purple with a black raven etched on the side.
"Maybe I should portal us there…" Raven suggested, reluctantly taking the helmet.
"It's just us Rae, we might need you at full power." Robin said as he started his bike with a flare that only Robin seem to be able to muster.
Knowing that reasoning with him was a pointless waste of effort when Robin had already made up his mind, Raven put on her helmet and got on the back of his bike, "Hold on now" was the only warning she got as Robin tested the maximum acceleration capability of the bike, causing her to clamp herself to him and mutter her mantra under her breathe.
Robin smirked, he was pretty sure this was going to be a easy call, the police may already have it handed by the time they got there, he'd just wanted to get Raven out of the tower… and the fact that she was holding onto him for dear life was… well that was just a bonus.
They made good time, Robin parked his bike, then smirked, as he cleared his throat… "We're here, Rae…"
Raven was still holding onto him for dear life, helmet pressed against his back and eyes tightly closed, still muttering her mantra now with additional threats of sending Robin to multiple dimensions. She slowly prised one eye open. On verification that they were indeed stationary, she untangled herself from her leader, took off her helmet and pulled up her hood to hide her blush.
Robin was about to tease her about it, but he noticed something strange, all the people were walking around in a daze, with pink hazy eyes, and every single stall was handing out free samples of the same blueberry pie…
Something twigged, as Robin thought out loud, "Hearty Momeee… it's.."
"Mother Mae-Eye" Raven finished his sentence in her soft gravelly voice.
Robin flashed her a smile, this was the reason he enjoyed spending time with her, not only were they normally on the same wavelength, but she had a mind that was more than a match for his own. People may underestimate her because she's normally quiet and reserved, but if you took the time to earn her trust, she was witty and her mind was sharp and on point. As much as he cared for Starfire and Beast boy, he did sometimes wonder if they were, as Alfred would say, two bats short of a belfry.
Just then they saw a couple of Jump's finest walk by eating slices of blueberry pie, eyes pink and dazed.
The speaker came to life with static, the sudden noise caused them to come naturally together as they stood back to back, Raven's eyes and hands glowing black and Robin's bo-staff extended in attack formation.
Mother Mae-Eye's sugary sweet tones came out through the speaker, "Hello my sweeties. Help yourselves to as much pie as you want… every pie is baked with love. Remember, Mother loves you…"
The people around them chorused back, "We love you too, Mother!"
Raven and Robin exchanged glances… this was bad, it had been hard enough to fight back against Mother Mae-Eye, when it had just been the five of them… Mother Mae-Eye was now on track to infect the whole of Jump City.
They started walking through the festival, as they approached closer to the centre the pink mist got thicker and they started to notice less causal bystanders and more gingerbread security teams patrolling. They were giving Robin odd looks.
Robin was so tense that when Raven's hand slipped into his, he almost tossed her over his head at the nearest security detail. He almost did it again when he saw Raven's eyes had gone from violet to pink… and he was officially freaked out when she giggled.
His mind whirled, until something clicked, "…Happy?"
"You're even more handsome from this viewpoint!" Happy giggled.
Robin's mouth dropped open, then he tried and failed to bite back a smirk. Bringing Happy to the fore was a smart move by Raven… and he always liked seeing Raven happy… it's just while Happy might blend in better with her pretty pink irises, she was also a little too… trusting and innocent. He tightened his grip on her hand as she started skipping at his side, the edges of her cloak also going a dark pink as they brush against his uniform. She smiled and giggled at the increasing security presence, surprisingly her antics got them closer with only the occasional odd look at Robin's masked face.
They rounded another tent handing out free pie and there it stood, a huge gingerbread house!… "Oooh I love gingerbread frosting!" Happy exclaimed, eyes wide with wonder.
Robin barely managed to stop Happy from licking the frosting on the windows. At her pout, he chuckled, "Happy, will you please ask Raven to come back…"
"But I want to stay! Raven never has any fun, and I like gingerbread frosting…" Happy pouted.
"What if I promise to make Gingerbread Titans with you, err Raven, when this is over?" Robin bartered.
Happy considered the offer, "Just the two of us? … and we can decorate the Gingerbread Titans in frosting?… and I can lick the frosting bowl?"
"Sure," Robin grinned.
Happy smiled, "Deal!"
Happy reached out to shake Robin's hand that he'd half jokingly extended in her direction. He was sightly surprised when Happy darted forward and brushed a kiss on his lips. Before he could respond in any way, Raven's irises shifted from pink back to violet. She found Robin staring at her, mouth agape and face pink. Prompting her to say in her more familiar drawl, "What?"
Her eyes narrowed, when Robin continued to gape at her, "Did Happy do or say anything wrong, I told her to behave…"
"No, no… she was… perfect. It was a good idea, she got us through the gingerbread security, with no problems." Robin murmured.
They looked up at the gingerbread house… it was amazing, the walls were made of fragrant spicy gingerbread, there was frosting, caramel, spun sugar, honeycomb, gum drops, sprinkles, and chocolate. Like a dessert dream… or perhaps a sugar induced heart attack waiting to happen.
"We need to get inside…" Robin muttered.
"I could try to open a portal inside, but the gingerbread house is heaving with Mother Mae-Eye's magic, my magical signature might trigger an intruder alert…"
"So we go in the old fashioned way…" Robin smirked.
"Wait, what do you.." Raven's words were interrupted when Robin, grabbed her round the waist and shot his grappling hook at a open window.
They tumbled through the window, Robin might have managed to land upright on the jelly sofa, but Raven's weight in his arm, threw off his balance, causing Raven to land on top of him, resulting in them both bouncing on the jelly sofa. They both went shades of pink as Raven scrambled off him, putting up her hood as he cleared his throat.
The awkward moment was somewhat alleviated as they were spotted by the in-house gingerbread security team. They both shouted at the same time, "Run!"
Robin grabbed Raven's hand and took off, they ran past scrambling gingerbread security, passing furniture made of hard toffee, cushions of marshmallow and up stairs with candy cane bannisters. They ran into the kitchen, when Robin ran straight into the boiled sweet stain glass window of the huge oven, Raven tried to help him up but slipped on the mirror glaze floor polish and instead, knocked him back down, landing once again on an already winded Robin.
A shadow fell over them, they looked up from their position on the floor to see the pink and red illusion of Mother May-Eye holding her wooden spoon in one hand and a steaming hot pie in the other… "Well… well… well… if it isn't Mother's little Rae-Rae and Robby-Wobby. Now both of you simmer down or you'll get a good sound spanking!"
Robin looked at Raven and went a deeper shade of red, just as she was hauled off him by the gingerbread security team.
"Mother's little Rae-Rae and Robby-Wobby always get so hangry… don't worry sweetie pies, I've made you special pies, made with lots of Mother's love…"
Raven and Robin were both frantically trying to free themselves, but were being held firm by the gingerbread security.
"Come on Robby-Wobby… open your little mouth for the batmobile! Vroom-wroom…" Robin clamped his mouth shut and redoubled his efforts to free himself.
Mother Mae-Eye had flattened his hair and was in the process of gripping his nose to make him open his mouth when Raven's uncharacteristically sweet voice came over, "I'm sorry I made you angry, Mother. I don't know what came over me. But then I ate some of your delicious pie. And now, I feel all better. I love you, Mother!"
Both Mother Mae-Eye and Robin and looked over to Raven to see her face smeared with pie, eyes pink and hazy smile on her lips. As Mother Mae-Eye smiled at Raven's submission, the gingerbread security loosened their grip, it was the chance they needed… with the innate ability to understand each other without spoken words, Robin kicked the pie being held to his face just has Raven grabbed the wooden spoon from Mother Mae-Eye, Raven cried her words of "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" as she threw the spoon with all her strength into the pie… they heard Mother Mae-Eye's scream of "Noooooooooo!"as the vortex caused Mother Mae-Eye and all her creations to be sucked into the pie.
Raven grabbed Robin and transported them out of the gingerbread house moments before it all disappeared into a steaming pie at their feet.
There was much confusion as people started coming too all around them. The pie containing Mother Mae-Eye was handed to the sheepish police officers with strict instructions not to eat the pie.
"Well, Robby-Wobby," Raven drawled, "perhaps we should go back to the tower, I think we've had enough pie for one day"
"OK Rae-Rae," Robin smirked, "but first I want to show you something…"
It got her attention, although Robin refused to give her any clues, and instead simply led her back to the edge of the tents of half-eaten pies with his hand gently pressed on the small of her back. Only reassuring her with, "It'll be worth it."
"That's what you said about the pie festival," she muttered, clearly not sold, and yet she allowed him to lead her, unable to deny him something he so clearly wanted.
Robin smirked again. Her gasp of pleasure was worth it, the moment she saw the field of bluebells, as far as the eye could see, and there off the coast they could see the sun start to set. "Robin…"
Robin gave her a grin, and patted the patch of grass next to him, "I was going to suggest we grab your favourite blueberry pie at the festival… but maybe we could stop for pizza on the way back instead?"
He saw the faint blush, and her soft smile that she seemed to save just for him. She sat down next to him shoulder to shoulder, watching the sunset turn the bluebells golden, and as she leaned into him, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder… surely watching the sunset in a field of bluebells before going out for pizza qualified as a date…
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.
- Mother Mae Eye was created for the Teen Titans Animated Series.
- This story takes characters from the awesome Teen Titans Animated Series and places them in an original work by me.