Ok, close your eyes… I want you to listen only to my voice, drown out everything else. Robin slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to do as he was told. It turned out to be much easier than he'd expected. Good, now I need you to find your center, and slowly repeat my mantra with me. Raven waited a while until she was sure Robin was ready. Ok… Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Robin felt himself slowly leave reality and floating weightlessly. I like this feeling… Raven smiled. I thought you might. Ok, do you think you can feel my presence? Not physically, but mentally? Robin stayed silent for a moment. Yea… It's warm… heart-warming actually… He began to remember how it felt to hug her while they were lying in bed... the feel of her soft skin and her scent slowly overpowering all of his senses. Suddenly, he was a hundred percent sure that he could feel her presence next to him... no… around him, in him, through him, and thoughts of them together began consuming his mind. Raven could see everything clearly and felt herself blushing through the entire length of her body. Robin couldn't help feeling like he was losing control of his senses and knew that if they were truly together, it would bring him perfect happiness and bliss. He couldn't control himself and as he kept thinking of how it would feel to even just caress her skin. Raven could physically feel it. He heard her gasp slightly in pleasure and gained a bit of control back. He needed to stop this! He thought of shutting her out, but knew he couldn't bear to hurt her again. He once again felt himself grasp her presence and heard Raven gasp again, then he carefully moved her away. As he could feel her warmth leaving him, every nerve in his body yelled at him to bring her back, but he was fighting to stay in control and knew he had to close his mind to her before she saw anything else. He felt her mentally moan as she also felt his presence moving away, and he did the same. He mentally slapped himself and pushed her out completely, then put up what felt like walls around his mind. He felt himself slowly return to reality and began to slowly hear what was going on around him. He could hear voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying. He slowly opened his eyes and attempted to refocus his mind into the real world. He looked straight ahead and saw Raven's eyes also opening slowly. He saw the blush in her cheeks, then noticed that it seemed to spread over her whole body. That's when he actually took the time to realize that she was wearing short shorts and a tank top again. The feel of her soft skin… at the thought, he saw Raven's eyes widened slightly to look at him. He had opened his mind again to be able to hear if Raven said anything to him. Now he could feel that she had a mess of raging emotions inside herself. Her eyes somehow seemed to change, they were a lighter purple that made Robin's heart skip a beat. Raven, I'm sorry… I just… just then, the voices began to become clearer. He could hear Beast Boy and Starfire closer than he remembered them being. He tried to face them but was having a tough time making himself get back into reality, and he couldn't will himself to look away from Raven. She was breathing deeply and he knew she was trying to get herself to calm down. Just then, he saw her eyes turn a dark purple and heard Starfire gasp. What's going on? Raven's eyes softened at him. We're in a kind of bubble, so if they try to touch us, they only feel like a shield. Since it's the first time we meditate like this, it's takes longer to get back out of the trance… so I made sure to enclose us so that we wouldn't be jump started out of it. What would happen if we were forced out of this fast? We'd fall and have one hell of a headache for a while and our senses would be dulled… like how they are now but we would be awake… hard to explain. Robin slowly nodded and took a deep breath. Robin… your thoughts just now… why were they… what they were? Robin felt himself blush at her question. Well… it's just that… He didn't know how to get it out… He didn't know how to say it! He couldn't bring himself to say it! Raven felt his frustration mount. She let her presence carefully comfort him and saw him close his eyes as he relaxed at the feeling. She smiled at him. I don't like Starfire… but it's not because she's not pretty or nice… Raven's eyes darkened at the mention of Starfire, she just couldn't help feeling jealousy towards the other girl, even though she really cared for her. The reason I've lately been trying to get Starfire to get over her crush on me is that… well… it's because I have feelings towards you… Raven's eyes widened as she saw Robin open his eyes and blush. She slowly smiled at him and in turn, Robin's eyes widened. Well, while Beast Boy has for a while now been 'hitting' on me as you say, I can't return his feelings either… I like you Robin… I've liked you since our bond was formed and I could feel how you felt towards everyone. I could sense your care for all of us and could feel your motivation to make sure that nothing happened to any of us. I've always admired you, but only since then did I notice that I more than admired you… then, when you went looking for me during the prophecy, even though I didn't remember you while I became a child, I did remember everything afterwards. I remembered what you did to get to me, and I remember the look in your eyes when you could tell that I was worried about trusting you. I knew it hurt you when I didn't recognize you, but at the moment I didn't know what to do. When I finally became myself again, that's when my feelings for you became clear to me. And I could see that you were glad that I once again remembered you… I owe you so much for saving me… All along, Robin's eyes just kept widening at her words. In the end he smiled at her and reached out for her hand. She tentatively held out her own and he squeezed it reassuringly. I'm glad you feel that way. I really do care about you. Since the day after Slade's initial return, I couldn't help noticing that my feelings towards you were growing. When I caught you that day, I knew that I couldn't let myself fail you ever again. I made it my new goal to ensure that nothing would hurt you ever again. When I knew that I had to go into hell itself in order to save you, I had no second thoughts about it. And even when it hurt me that you didn't remember me, I knew I could never let anything happen to you and I would do whatever possible to make sure that you came back to me… Raven could only stare and smile as Robin talked. She could feel the sincerity radiating off of him and she had to admit it made her feel great. When I saw that you were back to yourself and defeated your father, that you ran over and hugged me… I'd never felt happier or luckier in my whole life. I knew I had you again and this time I would not let you go… I promised myself that no matter what, I would never let anything or anyone take you away from me and that one day I would let you know just how I feel… Raven's breath caught and she felt herself blush. I promised myself the same thing… Robin smiled at her and squeezed her hand once more. They were getting lost in each other's eyes, when they heard pounding around them. They looked up in shock to find Starfire and Beast Boy both punching at the shield. Raven felt herself weaken and Robin felt it too. He now realized they were actually floating and felt somewhat hesitant about the position. He felt the shield give way to the pounding as Raven started falling. He pulled her by the hand and they fell on the car floor, Raven on top of Robin. He held her as he felt her breathing come back to normal.
"Robin! Are you ok?" He heard Starfire's panicked voice. He then felt her trying to pull him up as Beast Boy grabbed Raven and tried to pull her up. He growled at them.
"Don't touch her!" The sudden venom in his voice made Beast Boy and Starfire land back sitting down on their seats. They felt the car pull over.
"What's going on with you people!??!?" Yelled Cyborg from the front.
"Just wait a minute! Raven needs to regain her energy." He held on to her tightly and protectively. He felt Raven start to stir and looked down at her. Her eyes were the same pale purple from before and he smiled. Thank you… Help me up please?" He nodded and sat up, positioning her on his lap. Raven suddenly felt her arm being pulled and was lifted away from Robin and unto Beast Boy's lap as she saw Starfire kneel in front of Robin. Agh! That's it! She phased out of Beast Boy's arms and in between Starfire and Robin. Starfire yelped and Beast Boy grunted. Robin was glaring at Beast Boy and Raven at Starfire. Cyborg stepped in before anything else could take place.
"OK! THAT'S IT!" He jumped back and pulled Starfire to the front seat. She again yelped and landed sitting on the front. Cyborg pulled Beast Boy to sit facing forward on his seat and took a seat opposite him.
"Now, I want you all to listen to me. I want to have a good time, with all of you. I don't want to have to be finding things to talk about to get you off each other's neck for the rest of this vacation! If you've got problems, then solve them like grown ups! I want you all to sit and let me drive without having to worry about you four killing each other! Got it?!?" They all nodded their heads in shame. Cyborg took a deep breath.
"Ok, then. It's mid-afternoon now and I stopped at a market so we can get out and stretch awhile again. So, go off and meet back here in half an hour. You better all have cooled down by the time you get back." They nodded and got off the car. Cyborg sighed and ran his hand along his face. 'This is going to be a long ride…' With that, he got off as well to try to clear his thoughts.