Honeythief
Chapter Nine

)O(

Robin had been sitting outside Raven's door for the whole day. Alfred had gone in two, maybe three times, but Robin had been barred from the room. He sat, tapping his fingers on the hardwood floor, waiting for her to speak with him. Alfred came up the hallway at his usual, unrushed pace, and Robin looked up at him.

"Will she see me?"

Alfred was holding a wound kit in one hand, and a bowl of cherries in the other. Cherries. Since when did Raven like cherries? Robin rubbed his forehead and looked up at his old friend, waiting for an answer. Alfred game a small shrug and motioned toward the door. "Ask her yourself, Master Grayson. You've been sitting out here since midnight waiting for divine intervention. Knock."

Robin got to his feet and stared at the heavy, dark door as if it were something sinister. He took a long, deep breath, then raised his hand and gave a soft tap to the wood. There was the slight sound of movement, and Robin ventured further. "Raven, can I talk with you?"

"No."

Alfred shook his head and entered the room without asking for permission, but closed the door before Robin could get a good look inside. He did manage to catch a small glimpse of the room, which was starting to resemble mass chaos. Raven's books, and a few new ones from Bruce's library, were scattered around her, open to pages marked with notes on post-its in her neat, even handwriting.

Robin pressed his ear to the closed door, hoping to catch snippets of their conversation.

"Here you go, Miss Raven." There was a soft "clank" as the ceramic bowl was set down.

"Please just call me Raven, Alfred."

Alfred continued, barely acknowledging her request. "We have to change your bandage."

Raven sighed deeply. "Again?"

"Again. If it were to get infected Master Grayson would throw a temper tantrum."

Raven chuckled. "Alright." There was a long period of silence, and then Raven spoke again. "Thank you, Alfred."

"You're welcome." Robin could hear him gathering up his supplies, putting everything back into the often used wound kit. "You know, whatever happened between you and Richard yesterday…" There was a long pause, and Robin imagined he was looking at Raven with that expression only he could give. The one that said everything and nothing at the same time. He was used to being on the receiving end of that look. "He's been outside your door for almost eighteen hours straight, Miss Raven. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I have good feeling he wants to make amends."

Raven sighed again, and there was the sound of her adjusting the pillow behind her back. "Fine, Robin. You can come in. Seeing as I know your ear is pressed against the door."

He tried to look sheepish as he opened the door, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. There was a long, awkward pause as Alfred gathered his things and left without another word. Robin moved a few books off the large leather chair in the corner and sat down, knowing she watched his every move with careful eyes. "Hi, Raven."

"Hello, Robin…" She sighed and pushed a large, ancient looking book off her lap. Her dark eyes caught his attention, and Robin felt like everything was going to be okay. That he hadn't done inerasable damage and maybe she would forgive what he did. Raven brushed a lock of her soft, plum colored hair out of her face and breathed in a long, shaky breath. "I'm sorry… about last night. What happened was inevitable, and my reaction was-"

"Wait." Robin held out his hand, and silenced her. She blinked a few times in shock, but kept her lips sealed. He could feel the anger and frustration twisting against his stomach. What did she think she was doing? "What in the world are you apologizing to me for? I'm the one that… attacked. I'm the one that frightened you. I'm the one that made you have to wear that." He motioned to the bandage, and Raven's hand moved to cover it. "If it hadn't been for me, this whole thing would have never happened. You should have told me no. Damnit, Raven, you should be mad at me, but you're apologizing? What sense does that make?"

Raven sighed and looked away, irritated. "Are you finished?"

"Almost." Robin stood up and walked to her side; he pushed a few books out of the way and took a seat next to her on the bed. Raven pulled back a little, surprised at their closeness, and Robin cringed. He'd scared her, and that wasn't his intention. He just couldn't handle the separation between them; Raven was his best friend. In an effort to calm her, Robin threaded his fingers through hers, and bent forward a little. "Please don't apologize to me, Raven. I won't listen. What I almost did was disgusting, and I can't forgive myself. I hurt you… I almost…" Robin couldn't finish, and he dropped her hand.

"I egged you on," Raven said, her tone wearied. She rubbed her head to ward off a headache and stared at him through her dark lashes. "I teased you, Robin… you didn't need that and if you had… gone further… I don't know if I could have stopped you. And that would have been my fault." Her face flushed an intriguing color of red and she looked away, pretending to be more interested in a book.

"Shut up, Raven." His harsh tone pulled her attention back to him, and Robin pushed a few more books off the bed as he slid closer to her. He could hear her heart pick up pace, starting to slam against her ribs with surprising force. He was scaring her. "You're always so damned concerned with keeping the peace. You don't want to stir up trouble because you've caused enough on your own and blah blah blah. For God's sake, I almost raped you last night. In fact, I know would have if you hadn't stopped me."

Raven flushed and tried to scoot away from him, but she had backed up against the headboard and there was no where to go. She cleared her throat, and started to move things out of her way, trying to keep normalcy around her. "Stop being so dramatic, Robin… it wouldn't have been rape."

Robin felt unbridled anger rise up into his throat, and it took every ounce of his self control to rein it in. What in the world was she thinking? He attacked her, and she was taking it as if this were a normal occurrence? As if every day was another day at the fingertips of violence. He watched her shift things on the bed, making an escape route. "What in hell do you mean by that, Raven? Of course it would have been rape."

"Your ministrations wouldn't have gone unrequited." Raven managed to scoot away from him and started toward her balcony, seeking fresh air. Robin felt his own heart start to pick up. He wanted her words to be true, but he knew they weren't. He knew that the only things that made them react to each other were hormones. It was a basic chemical reaction, and Robin knew that. Raven didn't love him, sometimes he wasn't sure if Raven even liked him. Raven sighed again and fidgeted with a small planter. "I… I would have been a willing participant."

Robin sighed and rubbed his forehead, trying to ease his own headache. "Just because our chemistry works well together doesn't mean you should do whatever your hormones tell you." Raven turned to look at him, and was it just his imagination, or was there hurt in her eyes? Did she…? No, there was no way Raven held any other feelings than camaraderie toward him. "I know that what I do to you… it gets you excited. I feel the same way when you're around. I know that when we're together all we think of is… well, sex. Blatant, unadulterated sex. But, Raven…" Robin sighed and joined her on the balcony. "You don't love me. I know that. What almost happened last night… regardless of if you had been willing, would have been nothing short of rape. For all that is good and decent in this world, please, be mad at me."

Raven watched him, her eyes never leaving his face. She reached out and tangled her fingers in his for a moment before whispering: "I can't. I just can't." Raven dropped his hand and turned to face the garden. "You're my friend, Robin, and I care for you. If this is just a chemical reaction, so be it. But I teased you, and you took the bait. In my eyes, I messed up and it was my fault. So, go ahead and spout off your speech, but I can't be mad. Not at you."

Robin shook his head and moved to stand next to her. "You need a good spanking."

"You'd enjoy that too much." Raven smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Silence enfolded them, and they stood in it for awhile, waiting for the right time to speak. Raven looked up at him, her expression curious. "What if this is permanent and you have to pick a mate?"

"I won't think about that now." And he wouldn't. He wanted to keep his options open in case they did find a cure for this. If they didn't… then he'd have to find another solution. But until that moment arose, he would push any other options into the dusty depths of this mind, where they belonged. Robin gave his friend a small push. "You're such a downer, Rae. Always thinking the worst. We'll figure this out, don't worry."

"I'm not worried." Raven puffed out and indignant breath. "I just think you're taking this too lightly. I didn't want to tell you any of this… but it doesn't look like there's a cure for what happened. At least, not in any of my books. Some of Bruce's books have recipes for weird concoctions made with yolks of dragon's eggs, and witch's breath mixed with holswragth. I'm not even sure what in hell that is." She paused and nibbled on her lower lip, an action that drew Robin's attention to her full mouth. How come he'd never noticed how delicious-looking her lips were? Raven turned away from him and leaned against the balcony rail.

"I'm not ready to give up." Robin stood next to her and watched Alfred pruning one of his rose bushes. He appeared uninterested in the soft spoken conversation above him. "If I give up, then I have to accept that this is who I am and I will never change… and I'm not ready to do that. I know there's an answer out there, we just haven't found it yet."

Raven made a slight gagging noise, and Robin glared at her. She gave him a sweet smile and batted her eyelashes as if nothing had happened. He glared again, and her face fell into its normal nonchalant appearance. "Look, I'm all for fighting the good fight, but being optimistic about this is going to break your heart all the more if we can't find what you need."

"We'll figure it out, Raven. I promise." He grabbed her hand again. "It'll be okay."

"Don't tell me I didn't warn you." Raven untangled her fingers from him and started back to her room. She started putting the books into nice, neat piles. The most informational and helpful books went next to her bed, while the other's were placed by the door to be put back into the library. Robin leaned against the door frame and watched her silently.

A mate. He tried to keep his thoughts from going into the darker places he locked up, but occasionally he wandered there. You trust her with more than just your keeping. Ester had said those exact words to him just a few days ago, and at the time they made him blush. Raven was his friend, his teammate, even his nurse. But… his mate. The thought was not unwelcome. In spite of her cold exterior, she loved deeply, you just had to look very hard to find it. But Raven was very pragmatic about the world around her, if you mentioned a flower was pretty she would point out that the only reason it was pretty was to attract insects so it could make more flowers. It was how nature worked. Love, he assumed, would be no different for her.

Robin sighed and fell into the leather armchair again. Silence enfolded them again, and he watched her slender body move through the room, tidying up the mess. A mate. Even with her darkness, would Raven be… Robin stopped the thought before it had a chance to finish forming. He would not venture there. Ever. He valued his friendship too much.

Raven stood up and put her hands on her hips and stared at him. "Are we going to speak with Bruce or not?"

"He's in town right now, but he'll be back later tonight."

She sighed. "So, what should we do until he returns?"

Robin shrugged. "Let's take a walk."

"A walk?" Raven rolled her eyes, but she started for her jacket anyway. "And do what?"

"Discuss the problems of the universe." Robin shrugged, but he couldn't help the sly smile that peeled across his lips at her expression. She rolled her eyes and tugged on her jacket.

"You're such a dork."

"But you're stuck with me."

"Unfortunately."

)O(

Raven lay stretched out of a plush, red sofa in the library, enjoying the fire roaring in the fireplace. She was bookless, a first for her since she got here, and was just letting her mind wander through the events of the past few days. She still refused to think about last night. Robin sat across from her, eyes buried in a book about vampires. Something old and tattered and still in Latin. He looked up at her and sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I can't figure this word out for the life of me. It's been five years since I conjugated words in Latin." He held the book out to her and Raven sighed, her eyes were tired of Latin. She'd been reading it so much she started to hear it in her dreams.

"Demons." She pushed the book back to him, not wanting to see any more. "That passage is about the similar ancestry between demons, werewolves, and vampires."

Robin's face fell. "You read this already?"

"Not that one, but I've seen the passage before in another book." Raven watched the flames of the fire for a little bit more. She could feel Robin's eyes on her, waiting to elaborate. She sighed again, growing tired. "It talks about how this great God of the underworld, of some forgotten religion, grew tired of being only able to rule the underworld. So, he split himself in three. Demons to rule the dead, werewolves to rule the night, and vampires to rule the day. But the other gods got angry at this new power and punished him. Vampires became cursed by the sun, werewolves could only change with the moon, and the demons were confined to the underworld." She picked up a copy of GQ that was sitting on the coffee table and thumbed through it. "Hogwash, if you ask me."

"You're one to talk." Robin put the book down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raven glared at him. She knew where he was going with that, and she didn't like it one bit.

"You're the daughter of Trigon. I didn't think you'd be one to thumb your nose at someone's idea of religion." Robin crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. Raven thought he should consider himself lucky he still had a head. "I'm not trying to provoke you or anything… I'm just saying that you should consider your own situation before making judgments."

Raven sighed and rolled up the copy of GQ, then proceeded to smack Robin upside the head. She glared at him as he held his face gingerly, frowning at her. "Think before you speak next time, Bird Brain."

"Don't get so defensive, Raven. I was just stating an observation." Robin leaned back into the sofa and looked away, giving Raven a few more minutes of precious silence. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting her mind wander again. She couldn't help thinking about Robin's "Be Mad at Me for Nearly Taking Your Innocence" speech. It had been a lot of very cut and dry explanations about how they were compatible, and that was the only reason they reacted with such passion.

Truth be told? Raven would have gladly given away whatever he wanted last night. Had he managed to calm her down, she wouldn't have woken alone this morning. She wouldn't have locked herself in her bedroom sobbing quietly into her pillow. But she couldn't have told him yes. There were great consequences to an action as rash as sex. For Robin, it meant he would have chosen a mate. He would have to be Raven's the rest of his life, and she couldn't condemn him to that.

Even if there was a little piece of her that secretly desired it.

"Evening."

Raven started and pushed herself into a sitting position. Bruce smiled at her and took a seat in a huge leather armchair, a glass of scotch in his hand. Robin nodded a greeting, but didn't say anything. Bruce waited another moment before he continued to speak. His sharp eyes turned to Raven, watching her like a bird of prey. "Are you feeling better, Raven?"

She blushed, and wondered how much of last night Robin had told his benefactor. Raven managed to squeak out a "yes." She unrolled the GQ and pretended to be interested in an article on some male pop star.

"Good… it's nice to know you're feeling better." Bruce swirled the contents of his glass, the ice knocking together in the glass. Raven felt color flood her face again, and she buried her nose in the magazine again. Awkward silence, and then: "I was hoping I could ask a favor of you, Raven."

"Er, sure. I'll help as much as I can." Raven thumbed the pages of the magazine again, now looking at a cologne article. It smelled like sewer water. She managed to look up at the imposing figure before letting her eyes dart down into the pages again. There was something about Bruce that set her on edge, maybe it was the fact he was the size of an angry grizzly. That could have been it. "What was it you had in mind?"

"Well…" Bruce took a drink of his scotch, giving him a moment to think. "I have to host this ridiculous gala every year." He sighed, and looked into the fire. "I'm not partial to it at all, but Alfred makes me do it. The nice thing about it is that I get to hear every side of every story… and there've been some strange ones lately. Electronics and robotic parts stores keep losing inventory… it started off as nothing more than a small prank, but I've got a feeling it's just the beginning. The commissioner just thinks it's a bunch of kids, but whatever is stealing these electronics has to be incredibly intelligent. There's been some high-grade pieces under strict lock-and-key that have gone missing."

"Gizmo." Raven put the magazine down and started to chew on her lower lip. She felt Robin watch her, but refused to look him in the eye. "He starts off as an annoyance, and grows into a pain in the ass."

Bruce nodded. "Robin said he usually keeps to Jump City. It really makes me concerned that he's spread out into Gotham."

"Mm." Raven mumbled agreement, trying to keep herself from wondering if the pink-haired dolt was far behind the grumpy midget. She shouldn't be concerned with Jinx right now, she should be concerned with Gizmo, Bruce was counting on her. "And you want me to flit through the crowd and read people? Try to see if any of them know about Gizmo, or what his plans are?"

Bruce nodded again. "Correct. I invite people from all walks of life with all kinds of backgrounds, and there's no telling who is involved with what. My best bet right now is that this Gizmo kid has been hired by someone else. But for what… well, I'm not sure about that."

"I have no problem helping you. I'll be more than happy to lend you my services… it's just…" Raven took a deep breath and let it out slowly, praying she wasn't going to upset the grizzly in the corner. "There's a small problem."

He kept calm and only raised an eyebrow. "That is?"

"I can't keep…" She swallowed hard and dried to ignore Robin's guilty expression. It wasn't his fault… too much. "My powers diminish with each time Robin drinks from me. In order to have enough of my powers to do what you're asking, Robin's going to have to avoid…" She searched for the right euphemism, but it never came. "Robin just can't feed from me until after that party."

"Pft." Robin's indignant growl from his chair reminded Raven that he was still there. She glanced over at him, as he pouted in the corner. "I don't need you every second of the day, you know. I can go three more days without you."

Raven raised a suspicious eyebrow. "So you say."

"You know what… you're gonna start ticking me off in a second." Robin stood up from his chair and approached her, but Raven pulled into a standing position first.

"I am? I'm going to tick you off?" She didn't know what set her off right then. Raven wasn't an angry person, cold and distant maybe, but never angry. She tried to convince herself that it had been a long day, that she had been tired of looking for an answer to Robin's problem, that she was a little homesick and missed her friends. It really didn't matter what the reason was, the truth was, at that moment, Robin looked like a good target. "Excuse me for breathing. Hell, you know what? Excuse me for trying to help you out. I'm sorry that I'm such a bother to you, that I've gotten you messed up in this big ordeal you never wanted. I'm sorry that I've put my life on hold to help you out. And I'm sorry that I've cursed you with this horrible transformation."

"Raven…" Robin reached out a hand for her but she backed away. Somewhere in the middle of the speech, she lost her anger and tears started to prick her eyes.

"Leave me the hell alone, Robin. I'm tried of being taken advantage of." And I'm tired of having my heart broken, she added silently. "I'm going to bed. Wake me up in three days before I have to go to this stupid gala." Raven grabbed the book he had been reading and stormed out of the library, knowing full and well that she had just made a spectacle of herself in front of Bruce.

And she didn't care.

)O(

So, there it is. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I had a ton of fun writing it. I think this thing is probably going to wrap up in the next three or four chapters. Also, if you're so inclined, check out the prologue to my latest creation Wide Awake. I hope you enjoyed this, and leave a review! I like to hear your thoughts.