But damm, if I didn't half-grin at the screen as I activated defence protocol 6, for the night.
couple years ago
I heard sirens as red and blue lights, blink in and out.
I shrugged on my leggings and cape, unable to shake my sense of unease. Sidling over to the dark window, I covered my face with my hood and peered outside through the black out curtains.
Some guy stood in the alley framed in a pool of light cast by a streetlamp. Hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, his pants a dark green. He seemed every bit a relaxed bystander, but I wasn’t deceived.
I could feel his sense of purpose. And it was strong.
The question was, was he here hunting the thief the ran down the alley? Or me?
I widened the blinds a bit.
Startlingly black eyes bored straight into my soul, rooting me to the spot. His hair, several shades darker than his light brown skin, was kind of shaggy, curling thick and sexy around his temples.
He had to be a demon.
My senses didn’t tingle or anything in recognition, but ordinary mortals were never this ludicrously beautiful. I’d know. I’d been alive long enough to know only true evil could be this alluring.
“Huh? Aah! I don't want trouble, okay?” The grown man squeaked. Raven could sense his fear as if it were her own. A constant struggle, to separate empathy from her reality.
“You should have thought of that before you committed the crime.”
Ah, Raven realised pretty boy was chasing the thief the police siren were for. Stalking more like. And when did he quick change into a mask and costume?
In shadow, Raven, intrigued followed the beautiful boy and his prey. She watched as the man, dressed in all black sweating in the balmy coastal night. Or was it this guy, around my age that elicited this response.
A fight ensued, the man was big, built like a tank swung his fists at the boy with the cape but he expertly evaded or parried the attacks.
It looked as if to the boy, the man moved in slow motion, but to Raven, who grimaced in sympathy as the man hit the ground, everything was happening too fast.
“Hey, this isn't your town,” the thief, double the size of his opponent winced from his prone position. “Aren't you supposed to be with —— .”
“Just moved here.” The boy cut him off with so much menace Raven sight unseen shivered. In this boy, had she found a kindred sprit? Did he have a dark side too.
“And from now on, I work alone.”
Ah yes, alone. Raven could literally empathise with lonely.
Wait! What was that. At the edge of her senses, fear from multiple sources nudged her.
One source was getting close. And fast.
Wow, this, fierce girl, impersonating a meteorite shower, was feeling so much she was all over the place.
Then the shooting star hit Jump city with an explosive crash.
Fear.
Elation at her hard won freedom.
And such helplessness, fighting with resolve, that Raven left the primary coloured boy to it, and went to the girl.
If the falling star could survive that landing, it would be a shame if something else did her in, Raven thought.
So much for oscillating between the inevitability of the prophecy and her determination to fight it.
Taking one step through the shadow world, Raven headed towards the alien. She watched and felt everything, as she reached the edge of a crater in the middle of the lively city.
a Few days later.
What do I have to do for Raven give me the time of day?
Dick shook his head, corrected himself. For Raven to join the Teen Titans.
Last week, and Dick still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that it had only been that long, the Earth, more specifically there corner of it, Jump City, was is being threatened by aliens.
And StarFire, unable to communicate with locals, destroyed half the city in desperation to remove arm restraints.
His breath froze in his throat when he thought of how close they were him, Beast Boy, and Cyborg, to writing of StarFire. How close they all were to her being recaptured as a slave.
If Raven hadn't been there, Robin shuddered.
One moment Cyborg was defending his neighbourhood, Robin defending his new city and Beast boy looking for a new team to join. The next, the shadows quivered into a beautiful girl. The obsidian barrier, she created, stop them all short. Hesitantly, but also firmly the girl unblocked their path and said “Maybe fighting isn't the answer.”.
An empath! A real life experience of all feelings. Unlike his repression slick. Robin still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
Asking her to team us wasn’t creepy! Not with other teammates as well. Really a person of her power, joining them was the most logical step.
Right?
He may be repressed, but even he saw how he went from, I work alone to team up just this once, was 0 to 240. Did his change on mind give his whiplash? What off it?
Was he embarrassed at how her flew through the air to attack the alien once its fist demolished Raven’s shield? As a teammate that was par for course. He couldn’t count the number of times Batman saved him for getting stabbed, chained to the wall, run over by construction equipment, chocked and well the list went on.
Maybe Raven had the right idea to stay out of the hero game….
Or, could her reluctance stemmed from the fact that StarFire had kissed him. That could be it! Robin walked along the newly healing city, reconstruction, complete ahead of schedule, thanks to the Titans. When he wasn't looking, Raven would be there helping on the far side, stoic while her shadows lifted beams, have enough to give StarFire trouble.
Thinking over the fight, the alien threats, their team up "just this once” Robin shook his head. The sun reflected most beautifully over the outer shell of a large T standing resolute on a small island.
Day bleed into evening, the ocean before him, reflected the sunset in the most beautiful way, but his eyes saw the night, not 10 days ago, when Raven said “You're gonna track down the alien?”
Was there concern in her voice. What did that concern mean? If anything at all.
“Trust me, if you knew what I really am, you wouldn't want me around.” Robin couldn't help be intrigued. In by her power to sense people, their true emotions. Intrigued in the most personal way, in the most obsessive way, Robin admitted to himself, to know everything about her.
Robin tried to take comfort in Raven’s, “I shouldn’t" to the green Shapeshifter.
The shadows had expanded, like they were taking a deep breath, before wrapping themselves around each member of team, and in a blink of an eye, Robin, Cyborg, StarFire, and Beast Boy were in an enemy ship. Courtesy of Raven, they infiltrated an alien vessel, with advanced technology, without a scratch or alerting the enemy.
The Team up was spatular. Better than any playdate Bruce or Batman tried to set him up on. Cyborg was older and a natural leader, but so laid back. Beast Boy annoying in his earnestness, like him, he too, was giddy on the freedom of being with peers and not seniors. StarFire was brilliant in her compassion and righteous fury. We all found a home in each other and Raven could too.
Robin sighed. It seemed reasonable. Did it not, for a person to go solo? He’d himself felt that way not so long ago. When it came to Raven, Robin realised his mind opted outa any reason and logic. He was all instinct and feelings and heart.
Jolted back to the present, Richard glanced around to find what alerted him. To find a message on his communicator … from ….
Shadows, obsidian black coalesced into a girl, tall lean, immutable and enigmatic. Her hood was up, but Robin had every feature burnt into his mind.
So, what did he have to do to get Raven to give him the time of day?
The answer was achingly simple. Anything. He’d do anything.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Raven
Characters: Raven (Teen Titans), Dick Grayson
Summary:
RobRae Week 2023 Prompt "The Bond."
When Robin and Raven find that their moods can be felt and shared through the bond, they find a way to suppress it. But sometimes strong feelings can't be kept to themselves. And what happens when you discover one has feelings you didn't expect?
