ā¦ so their both tall but Dick is just always a little tallerā¦ and he cheekily started the rumour that Raven is āpetitā back in their late teens š¤
Ohhh some Nightwing and Raven interactionsā¦ or in Terras words: āMagic demon girl and bat junior, with his tiny fists and oversized chopsticksā š¤£
Nightwing and Raven really should have more airtime together šš
A screen reflected his dull, expressionless mask back at him as he typed into the dreary, darkness of midnight. Dick slumped over and slid a hand down his bleary face. In a matter of months, he had gone from egomaniac to pod person to a shell. By contrast, the Robin that led the team in his youth seemed like a level-headed tactician. These days he was hardly a dog with a bone, desperate to make disjointed pieces fit a theoryāhe'd been neutered months ago. He felt helpless, like a toddler. Because this 'work' was little more than a pacifier. It was hardly dire, it was basic. Data entry. Did he urgently need to finish digitizing their old backlog of cases?
Obviously not.
Hell, they all knew Victor could have done it in minutes, but he didn't. Because it was a project. And a project meant something to do. Something to keep busy. And these days, it was best he kept busy, better in fact if he stayed far away from the others. His moods seemed to put everyone off, but he didn't care. He worked better alone anyway. He sighed for the thousandth time. This was frightening dull work, but it at least was numbing. Anything, so he didn't have to think aboutā
Intruder! Tower Main Entrance... Intruder!
Dick bolted upright like a Pavlovian response. Without warning, the room blazed with light, shining red, white, and yellow straight into his face. It was blindingly bright as his computer began to flash incessantly with the same alert.
Intruder! Tower Main Entrance... Intruder!
Something had tripped the Tower's silent alarm. Or maybe even someone. Dick felt an odd excitement stirring in his bones. Surely, he could take care of this one on his own. There was no need to even wake the team. If he were to be completely honest, he longed for danger and the thrill that accompanied it. It was the only thing that could make him feel alive anymore. A leader shouldnāt open himself up to constant risk. But this was different. It wasn't as if he had gone out to seek it this time. So Vic couldn't tell him he was being reckless when it had come to him directly.
Who could fault him for defending the Tower?
He molded with the shadows as he propelled forward, cutting around corners and bending behind archways. He tried not to think about what or whom he was channeling as he crept along. Sleepless nights and overwork meant that Dick had lost a little muscle mass, but he hadn't lost a step. He was silent and stealthy as ever.Ā
At last, he saw it: A silhouette of an intruder gliding through the west entryway to the Operations Room of the Tower. Were they trying to get in using the cover of darkness? Well, they were in for it now. Trespassing was enough of a pretense. His lip curled into a sneer as he approached deadly and dangerous.Ā
"Don't. Move."
The figure froze.
"You have exactly ten seconds to explain who the hell you are, and what the hell you're doing here." He paused. There was still no answer, just more dead air. "Staying silent? Bad move. Whoever you are, you better start talkingānow."Ā
His escrima sticks cast crackling spotlights in the dark. They oscillated with blue electricity as he approachedāfar less cautiously than he should. The shroud leapt backward. And the umbras seemed to move with it, like a squid hovering above the ocean floor, using ink clouds of its own making for cover. Something was eerily familiar about it all. He tried to shake the feeling that he recognized the way this shadowy figure was moving.
But it couldn't be.Ā
He'd dreamt about it enough times. Butā¦ There was just no way.
"Fine." He widened his stance, the escrima sticks moving like electric nun-chucks. Though his body's rhythm was languid, it was seamless. Second nature. But mercy wasnāt anymore. "Don't say I didn't warn youā"
"Wait!" The hoarse voice was insistent. "It's me." The cyan pulses outlined an outstretched hand and a pale visage, widened eyes. That face... Her face. "Please, don't."
The weapons clattered to the floor with a resounding clang.
An ebony brow creased in confusion. He gazed blankly, struck dumb, as a petite girl walked into the moonbeams and electronic sea of dotted blues and greens. It was her standing in the entrance. It was her in a tiny black sweater and baggy low rise jeans. Really her, like no time had passed at all. She took a single step, letting the duffel bag slip off her shoulder to land in a noisy heap on the ground.
He fell out of his fighting stanceāhe was powerless against her. She had overtaken him completely without drawing her magic or a fist.
"Raven."
"Dick, Iā" Her voice was barely audible. "I thought... No one would be awakeāat this hour..." But he was. Dick's eyes were growing wider and wider. "Hi..."
"Raven," he repeated, dumbly. He knew nothing else but her name. Because it was her. All he could think of was the fact that it was her.
"I'm sorry I didn't call first," Raven croaked. She swallowed, blinking quickly. "Maybe I shouldn't have come... I can goā"
"You're not going anywhere." Dick's voice rumbled low and threatening. Suddenly, he rushed forward again. Then, he grabbed her. Not to apprehend her, but to hold her, to bring her into a full and tight embrace. Lifting her off the ground, cradling her to his chest. Threading his fingers through her hair. Touching her. Breathing her in as deeply as he could. "Raven, you came back." There was a river of emotions rushing and Raven was quickly swept away as the flood poured through the cracks in the dam of their bond to break free. Her legs shook until they gave out. And she closed her eyes and let him hold her and hold her up.
"You're backāyou came back."
"Yes," Raven whispered. "I didāI am."
"You came back to me," Dick said, almost questioningly. He brushed the longer locks out of her eyes as he searched them. They were different. Her hair was different.Ā
It didn't matter. Not just this second. Not ever. Not when he'd soon be able to open her up and search her at his leisure. He registered this briefly before his mind went blank and he crushed his mouth hard into hers. She melted into him, so he could drink her up, after drinking her in.
Dick was unrestrained, claiming her lips furiously, holding her so tightly, his hands fumbling all over her body. He just needed to feel her. Make sure she was really real. Really there before him. Gods, she tasted so damn good. And she felt just like he remembered.
Perhaps a bit thinner, but he didn't care. It was her all the same.
"Dick. Dick, what are we doingā" She whispered on each erratic breath falling between their lips.Ā
But she knew what they were doing. And what she was doing to him. She let out a squeak of surprise as he pushed into her mouth. He hissed when her tongue pressed back against his. It was so hard and hot, their teeth clashed before they had to breathe.Ā
"I missed you." Her words tumbled out clumsily. Drunkenly. But she couldn't fight it. "I did."
"Gods, Raven." He grunted in approval, tucking her lip between his. Dick sighed. "I really was losing my mind. A moment ago, I thought you weren't real." Each day had been more painful than the last. "I just...missed you so much."
"Oh, Richard..." Her eyes were moist, but she couldn't stop. And neither could he. She gave in completely the soft sensation of his lips on her neck. "Mmā"
Something was wrong with Richard. Weeks had passed since he and Kori ended things, and that was precisely what made it so difficult for Raven to accept the version of him sitting beside her now, with one hand loose on the steering wheel, the other tapping idly against it in time with music she had long since tuned out. He was steady, but not in a way that felt practiced. It wasā¦natural. He was jocular and focused, more on point than usual. He carried himself with the same easy confidence as always. It made no sense. She had watched him for far too long to believe that someone like Richard John "Dick" Grayson, ward of Bruce Wayne, protegee of Batman, leader of Titans Inc. could simply move on from a relationship without consequence.
At first, Raven approached it the way she approached all thingsāwith quiet observation, small, almost unnoticeable questions threaded into otherwise ordinary conversation, each one designed to test the edges of his composure without drawing attention to what she was doing. He gave precise answers. When she pressed harder, when she asked directly, he answered effortlessly. One day, she flat out asked him if he knew that he and Starfire had broken up. He gave her the most peculiarly adorable look and asked if she was okay.
She tried to share her concerns with Cyborg and even Beast Boy. They were, of course, no help. It was driving her mad. They had no idea what she was talking about; at times, she felt as though she were the one trapped in some alternate dimension. She considered confronting Starfire herself, but then the alien had already left for Tamaran, slipping away in the middle of the night without warning.
It was, admittedly, comforting to see someone behaving normally after a breakup.
Stillā¦ why did she leave like that? And why hasn't she contacted me?
Shaking her head, Raven returned her attention to Robin, only to realize he was watching her just as closely as she had been watching himāand he wasn't even bothering to hide it. There were other things ever since the breakup that had confused Raven, too: the way his voice seemed to shift when he said her name, the way certain silences between them lingered just a moment too long to be accidental, the way he seemed to always stand and sit a tad bit closer to her than usual.
When he approached her about the Gotham mission, she had jumped at the chance for something resembling normalcy. Only, there had been no real Gotham mission. Some wannabe succubus had been entrapping rich bachelors, but Raven was certain Batman could have handled it himself. She had found the culprit in less than a day. What she had not expected was for her leader to suggest a long, unnecessary cross-country drive back to Jump City.
And now she was sitting in the passenger seat, blatantly staring at him as he navigated the increasingly slick roads, the unease from earlier settling into something sharper. By the time the storm rolled in, swallowing the highway in sheets of relentless rain and forcing him to pull off with a quiet curse under his breath, her patience with Robin's inexplicable calm had already worn thin. When he suggested they stay the night at a motel, she very nearly lost control of her powers.
The town they found themselves in was little more than a scattering of lights and empty buildings. Thankfully, they were able to find an inn at the edge of it.
The inn offered a single room with no alternatives and no real choice but to take it. The situation itself was familiarāthe kind of inconvenience they had both navigated countless times beforeābut something about it felt different now, not because of the storm or the isolation, but because of the tension that had been building long before they ever left the road. Raven didn't have any proof, but judging from the mischievous glint in his eye, she knew this was part of Richard's plan. She didn't know what that plan was, butā¦this inn was part of it.
Raven set her things down with controlled precision, removing her outer layer and folding it over the back of a chair, all of her movements deliberate in a way that suggested restraint rather than ease, while Dick lingered near the door for a moment before moving further inside, as though he were giving her the space she had not asked for but clearly needed. She was shivering, wet, and confused.
For a while, neither of them said anything, and the quiet might have held if not for the fact that it was already too full of everything they had not been saying for weeks. When Raven finally turned to him, there was nothing subtle left in her expression, no careful distance to soften the edge of what she had been holding back. "I can't take this anymore," she said, her voice steady but carrying something sharper beneath it, something that had been building long before this moment. "I'm losing my mind. You are literally driving me crazy."
Richard, rather than look surprised, looked amused, which only made the irritation tighten further in her chest. "You've been overly tense for the last several weeks, keeping everyone on edgeābut I'm driving you crazy?"
"Iāyes," Raven looked at him incredulously.
He raised a brow and quirked his lips. "Please, explain."
"You and Starfire broke up three months ago."
"Yes," he nodded, entirely too calm.
"You and Starfire broke up three months ago after nearly a five-year relationship."
"Wellā¦ we've known each other for five years. We were together for two and a half," he corrected blithely.
"See?" Raven snapped. "That's exactly what I mean."
His blue eyes flashed with humor. "I still don't know what you mean."
"You broke up with Starfire," she said, more pointed now, "and you're fine."
"Yes," he said again, as if that should settle it. Then, after a beat, he added lightly, "You know there's a bedroom, right? I can take the couch."
"Richard, why are you fine?"
"I feel like you and I have had this conversation at least once a day over the last several months."
"You're not acting normal."
"Define normal," he replied, his tone light.
"This," she continued, gesturing faintly between them, between the room, between everything that had led them here. "You and Starfire ended things weeks ago, and you're acting like it didn't matter at all."
Something in his expression shifted then, not dramatically, but enough that she caught it. Still, the emotion he portrayed was not one she would associate with someone who'd just ended a relationship.
"That's not what's happening," he said, more quietly now, though there was no defensiveness in it, only a kind of grounded certainty that did not match the dismissal she had expected.
"Then what is happening?" she pressed, the words coming faster now, sharper, the frustration no longer contained. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you justā¦ moved on. Like it was easy. Like she was easy to walk away from."
The accusation settled between them, heavier than anything she had said before. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the steady hum of the air conditioner and the distant, unrelenting rain against the windows.
Richard held her gaze without flinching, without retreating, and when he spoke again, there was nothing evasive left in his voice. "I cared about her," he said, each word deliberate, measured, grounded in something real. "I still do. What we had mattered. It wasn't nothing."
Raven's expression did not soften. "You don't seem affected at all. You don't seemā¦"
"I don't seemā¦?"
"Brokenhearted."
"Oh. Why would I be brokenhearted?" he asked genuinely.
"Because you broke up with someone you were in love with," Raven answered.
"Was I in love with her?" he asked.
"Iā¦" Raven stopped. The words landed harder than she expected, not because of what they meant on their own, but because of what they implied. She did not respond; she only held his stare as her mind raced to come up with anything.
"I'm going to change and dry off," Richard said, breaking the silence. "And when I get back, we can further discuss how brokenhearted I should be."
The hints he had been dropping, the way he had been looking at her, the deliberate nature of this tripāhow he had brought her here under a pretense she had seen through almost immediatelyāall of it began to align into something she could no longer dismiss as coincidence or misinterpretation.
She tracked his movement toward the door, her focus narrowing. "What is going on?" she asked.
Richard stopped. He turned back to her, studying her for a moment before giving her that same disarming, endearing smile. "Get some rest, Raven," he said. "We have an early day tomorrow."
(link leads to rest of the story)
Road Trip - Vashti93 - Teen Titans (Animated Series) [Archive of Our Own]
ššā„ļø Winner of the Best RobRae Weekend 2026 Fanfic ā„ļøšš
This is just perfect RobRae, loved every moment of friendship, every moment of chemistry, every moment of romance - if you only read one RobRae fanfic - this is the one to read! If Vashti93 wrote RobRae for DC, weād all be RobRae Shippers š„°
@darthvashtique93 / @Vashti93,
Firstly, thank you š
Secondly, you've set the bar pretty high for "the rest"... I'm literally holding my breathe... š
If you prefer, you can read on Archive of Our Own:
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