Fan Fiction ❯ Tried and Tested ❯ Part II: Bruised and Battered ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: A seriously darker Part 2 to Tried and Tested. Not for the young or the weak at heart. Again, sorry to the fans of Inuyasha that got notified that I updated something only to find it's another Teen Titan fic. But Puck, my muse, has run off with the Titan cast and refuses to go back to Inuyasha. Maybe it's the influence of my own darkening feelings for my approaching exams and paper, but I think my muse is seriously infatuated with the Robin/Raven pairing angst. And this is full of angst and pain and insinuations of a sexual nature. So, don't read it if you're sensitive to that stuff. Nothing graphic, but yeah…not as happy-go-lucky as the last one, I think. No matter how much I tried to make it so.

Oh, yeah, and as is my habit, people who reviewed for the Tried and Tested, please go to the end of this for my responses!

Disclaimer: Still not mine, but Puck's run away with Robin and Raven, I think…so, yeah…if DC is looking for them, they're probably with him. Mwahahaha…

Rating: VERY IMPORTANT! This fic, I would say because of violence and thoughts and insinuations and whatever, is probably R. So, if you're young, don't read it, please?

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Bruised and Battered
By Em

”Savor the addiction, savor the affliction…Savor me”
- Want, Disturbed

“I can't stop when it comes to you”
- Vow, Garbage

After the music he had heard her playing the night before, the last thing he expected to hear was music that could easily have come from a strip joint in the seedier side of town.

The undulating rhythm was punctuated by drums.

“The party will end…but until it does, love's for lunch. Half the world blows and half the world sucks…do ya feel like taking `em down?”(1)

His eyes opened wide and once again found himself wary of opening the door. He knew who was inside the room this time, but he was early, so maybe it wasn't her? After all, the rock music of yesterday he could imagine, but this?

He shook his head. Best to be sure, he thought and went to the observation room instead of walking in straight away.

“Fight it all you want, it's the looove machine,” the male voice sang sultrily, the undulating rhythm bringing to mind images of other undulating things.

He wasn't at all sure what he should make of the music or what he would find, but he panned the camera, looking for the occupant of the training room, only to find her lying on her back on the mats in the mat section of the room.

`Well,' he thought as he watched her apparently stretching and going through warm up exercises as she lifted and lowered her legs from the mat in time to the music for a few reps. It was Raven and she was just warming up. There were all sorts of thoughts going on in his mind, and not all of them were related to surprise at finding that Raven would listen to this kind of music, although that was there too. He had always thought Raven was more the dark alternative rock type, like The Cure and stuff like that, maybe the fast rock of Incubus or Nine Inch Nails. The night before, he had realized that she also went for just plain rock and now? Now she was stretching in surprisingly thought provoking movements to…he didn't even know what to call this other than strip music.

Before any of the other thoughts about what else she could do with this kind of music took over any conscious thought, he moved his hand to the switch that would turn off the camera. He knew he should stop watching her like a pervert and let her know he was there, maybe do some warm ups of his own. And he stood up, too. He really did. But when she pushed herself into standing and pulled her arms over her head, seemingly reaching for the sky and her eyes closed, he found himself unable to flip the switch tat would turn off the camera or to peel his eyes off the screen. It was like watching a really good show and you were afraid if you moved your eyes, if you even blinked, you would miss something that you hadn't expected but would love to see and would kick yourself endlessly for having missed it.

`It's the weirdest thing,' some part of him realized. It wasn't like she was dressed in a bikini or anything obviously provocative and it certainly wasn't as if she really were stripping or dancing anywhere near erotically, but it seemed that just watching her move in the white tank top and smoky gray yoga pants tugged at something inside him so he couldn't take his eyes off her. `What is it?' he wondered, watching her with interest as her stretching brought her to bend at the waist and touch her toes.

As the music faded and changed, she straightened and lifted one leg so that her heel touched her back. The music no longer sounding like something from a strip joint, Robin relaxed, but found himself listening to the song just the same.

“This is a woman's world…this is my world…”(2)

`Hm,' he thought. Raven really had the strangest taste in music. Not that the song was unpleasant, it was just different. Every song he had heard her play so far was different than the last one.

In the room, Raven was on her left leg and she moved it gracefully from stretching her hamstrings while holding the heel to her back to taking hold of it and easily guiding it around and up until it was stretched straight up like a dancer would stretch it, so that her cheek was resting against her leg and her foot was pointed straight at the ceiling.

Robin's gaped. He so did not know Raven could do that.

The song wasn't very long and after a few more stretches, (where Robin realized that she was just as flexible with her right leg and could maintain the same kind of balance while on her left leg) the song ended, replaced by another one and only mere curiosity kept him listening.

Suddenly, the rhythm was a latin kind of jazzy drawl full of piano, violin and soft drums in a steady movable beat, the singer's voice coming in low and rich.

“Lines on your face,” the singer drawled. “Don't bother me…”(3)

As the drum and piano started in together, Raven collected her body so she was standing perfectly still, both feet together and her arms limp at her sides. Her eyes closed, he watched intensely as her head lowered and hung, as if limp.

“Down in my chair, when you dance over me…”

Slowly, as if with the music, she started rolling her neck, her head rolling from her chest to her right shoulder around her back to the left, pausing at random moments in its rotation only to roll again and again over the spot it had stopped, back and forth as if she were smoothing out kinks in her neck by the movement. At one moment, when it so happened her head was thrown back, and she seemed to be working out a kink in the left side of her neck, he watched as she winced as in pain. But Robin was ashamed to say that he was so caught up in watching her move that it wasn't until her hands moved up to massage her own neck that he realized what she was doing.

“I can't help myself,” the singer declared. “I've got to see you again…”

He watched her as she tested her body for weaknesses, soreness, as if re-acquainting herself with her body and he found himself wondering if she was using her powers to heal them. But he could see no aura gathering and it really just looked like she was trying to smooth the kinks out of her body.

“Laaate in the night,” the singer drawled. “When I'm all alone…” she continued feelingly. “And I look at the clock… And I knooow…you're not home.”

She was still and he could see the rise and fall of her chest as if she were trying to steady her breathing, preparing for something else.

“I can almost go there, just to watch you be seen,” the singer intoned. “I could almost go there…” she paused and the feeling in the song was heavy in the room. “Just to live in a dream…”

Suddenly Raven was moving, so slowly it looked as if she were moving through water.

“But NO, I won't go!” the singer declared. And at the most determined part where her voice strengthened and the violin in the back whined, Raven's body moved fluidly into the first position of what looked to him was going to be the `catching the fish' tao. “For any of those things.”

Of course, he thought. She knows T'ai Chi. He watched her as her arms moved fluidly, with calm and reflection, just as the tao is supposed to be performed, her hands and legs moving in concert while the music continued without the singing.

“To not touch your skin…” Raven's hands moved gracefully in front of her as if she were caressing the air. “Isn't that why I sing?” Raven did a succession of quick turns, her hands in perfect alignment, moving in sync with the rest of her body of positions that he was surprisingly unable to name. He certainly didn't call himself a master of T'ai Chi, but Bruce had taught him a few moves before he had grown impatient with it.

“I can almost go there,” the singer repeated, her voice rife with longing.

It really did look as if she were dancing, and Robin found himself wondering what it would be like to dance…really dance with her. Something like the waltz he had seen on television or the tango. The fluidity of her movement made him ache to hold her in his arms, to lead her through the complicated steps and feel as she responded under his touch…

“just to watch you be seen…”

Of course, Robin didn't know how to dance to save his life.

“I could almost go there…”

Raven was in constant movement, like the breeze. He looked at her feet. One of the things that he was surprised to learn about T'ai Chi was that what gave it its fluidity was the very fact that it had set strictures as to when and how you could move. Her weight shifted easily onto her left leg, her arms and upper body compensating for the balance and, as should be done, it wasn't until her right foot was `empty' of weight that she moved it. It was this relatively simple, but oh-so-hard to master concept that gave T'ai Chi its gracefulness: the mover never pushed off the ground to make one single movement. If she had to push her weight off her foot to move it, she shouldn't be moving it. It was one of the aspects of the discipline that had frustrated him, but it was also part of what made it special. After all, it was all about mediation, reflection, and relaxation. It was what flowed through the cycle: the realization that you have to think about the weight on your legs make you realize that before you can move you must release it and in so doing, you make it a habit until you do not have to think of it anymore, but can simply enjoy the flow of it.

She looked so graceful…so beautiful…the lose strands of her hair from the ribbon holding it back softly caressing her flesh as she moved, focused and calm…he blinked at the revelation. He really did think she was beautiful.

`No, he didn't know how to dance…but for the chance to dance with her…' he found himself thinking, trailing off as she gracefully finished the tao and her arms floated back to her center.

Raven paused and took a few breaths almost as if she were listening to the lyrics of the song and had gotten sidetracked. “…just to live in a dream…” Raven's mouth moved to echo the words. This small action, this moment let him know that she had been aware of the song and hadn't played it to have something in the background. Even as she meditated and focused on the taos she was listening to the song. That realization made him listen to the lyrics even more. What about them touched Raven, he wondered?

“But NO, I WON'T go, to share you with them!”

The music reached its crescendo and Raven was back in motion, moving easily into another new tao.

“But, oh, even thought I know where you've been…”

Raven's eyes were open now, watching nothing blankly, her hands moving in perfect form, her body moving. “I can't help myself…” Raven's eyes closed tight as if she were trying to concentrate extra hard.

He smiled as he got an unimpeded view of her face as she turned in her movements and was now facing the camera. `Oh, yeah,' he thought. For the chance to dance with her, to feel her graceful movements next to him, he'd learn to dance.

“I've got to see you again,” Raven mouthed with the singer, her eyes still closed, her body fluidly shifting.

He didn't wait until the end of the song.  When he opened the door to the room, she was in the midst of a focused turn which consisted of concentrating on her leg in the empty position. Although the song had changed, it seemed to remain the same singer.

“That's different.”

Raven nearly fell on her ass in her surprise. When she managed to regain her balance without actually falling onto the ground, she turned to find Robin standing casually against the wall at the far end of the gym. At the smug look on his face, she glared. “You're early,” she pointed out shaking out her legs from the stretching she had been doing.

He shrugged. “You said not to be late.”

She walked to where the remote control for the sound system was laying on her towel and next to a water bottle. “That does not translate to be early,” she countered. She picked up the remote. “That means, be on time,” she said, pointing the remote to stop the music.

“Don't stop it,” he told her. “We can work on some warm ups together and this music's great.”

Raven narrowed her eyes at him. “You were watching me again, were you?”

Robin ducked his head to hide his blush and busied himself with putting his shoes somewhere out of the way. “It's not my fault if you don't notice me standing there.” Getting his blush back under control, he met her eyes. It didn't escape his notice that she, unlike most people, seemed to almost see through his mask, finding and holding his stare even though she couldn't see his eyes. `How does she do that?' he wondered. “You're amazing, though,” he told her, hoping to make her feel a little uncomfortable too. He watched the reaction immediately, even though she suppressed it. “I was taught some T'ai Chi, but I never had the patience for it, you were doing some taos I hadn't even been introduced to.”

Raven stopped mid drink. “How long exactly were you watching me, Boy Wonder?” she asked.

He shrugged and focused on limbering his arms a little, working the tension out of them by shaking them at his sides. “Would you teach me?”

Raven put the remote back down, and looked at him. “You just said you didn't have the patience for it,” she said warningly.

“I can try, can't I?” he asked, flashing her that smile that was innocence and sin all at once.

“It's a blend of T'ai Chi and Chi Gun, two different forms of the same kind of principles,” she told him. “That's why you probably didn't recognize the taos.”

He nodded. “It looked good,” he complimented her. “I'd be interested in learning if you're interested in teaching.”

“We'll trade,” she told him. “You teach me Tai Kwon Do and I'll teach you T'ai Chi Chi Gun.”

He grinned at her. “Deal!” he agreed, stepping toward the center of the sparring area.

Raven grabbed a towel and drank some more water, but she was watching him as he pulled the t-shirt over his head and tossed it out of the way, it falling a few inches away from her. Raven found herself taking in more water for her suddenly dry throat as she tried not to make her inspection obvious. There was something, she realized, about the way a guy took off his shirt that was just plain…well…

`Sexy,' a voice in her head provided.

She didn't try to figure out which emotion it had been, but she had to agree. She tried to figure it out for herself as she watched him limbering his legs and arms to get to the point where she already was. Women took off shirts, too, so what was the difference?

Well, she corrected herself…beside the obvious fact that she wasn't attracted to women…

Her mind provided the recent memory of Robin casually taking off his t-shirt again and she had to fight not to blush at its vivid detail. It was something about the impatience of the act, she decided. They grabbed at the material and pulled it up over their heads as if they couldn't wait to be rid of it. As if they were impatient to be free, bare, cool, naked…

“Are you going to stand there watching me all night or do you plan to join me?”

Robin's cocky voice jarred her right out of her dangerous reverie and she fought back the urge to blush, managing quite nicely to glare at him. She had suspected that agreeing to work out with him again would be tempting the fates a little too much and at the surge of the mixture of emotion that ran through her, she wished she had listened to her instincts the night before.

“I've already stretched, thank you,” she told him coolly.

He grinned lopsidedly. “Yeah,” he turned his back to her so he execute a few lunges to stretch his legs. “So I noticed,” he said, his tone low and slightly strained as he spoke while he was mid lunge.

She stopped herself from replying, finding interest, instead in the way the muscles of his back bunched and moved. She frowned. He hadn't had to take off his shirt. He hadn't done it the night before. The idea was suddenly forming in her mind that maybe Robin was doing more than sparring with her…maybe he was flirting with her…

He wore only the same kind of stretchy and non-clingy yoga pants she wore, only his were in dark green and sported some kind of sport team logo on the upper left hipbone. He had no way of knowing that the sight of a guy's muscled back sparked emotions better left undisturbed, did he?

An evil thought occurred to her and she bit her lip to keep from uttering it, but for some reason, it slipped out anyway: “Enjoy watching, do you Robin?”

His hand on his stretched leg slipped and his balanced wavered for a few moments before he managed to stand. He didn't turn to face her right away, however, taking a moment while she watched his breath move through his body before turning slightly to face her.  His expression, much to her chagrin, was unreadable.

He cocked his head to the side as if to better read her where she stood. “Yes,” he answered simply, articulating the word clearly as if to be certain that she couldn't misinterpret it for any other.

`Oh,' Raven thought, the feeling fluttering around inside her like a caged bird. `This was dangerous…' she thought. `Very, very dangerous…'

She felt the immediate need to work out physically or she was afraid that she hadn't built up enough adrenaline to keep anything embarrassing from happening with her warm up. She put down the water bottle and walked to the center of the mats, ignoring the feel of his look on her and the slight grin that had come over his lips at her reaction to his admission. Before she could suggest they begin, however, he was suddenly next to her.

“Do you?” he asked.

Every instinct in her body was yelling at her to deny it. To change the subject, to joke it off…well…not every instinct in her body…there were a few that wanted to take up the invitation in his voice. They wanted it very, very badly.  She opened her mouth to respond but the changing of the cd into the work out music rather than warm up music startled her and she closed her lips with an audible clip.

His grin widened at the thumping pop-rock music. He was starting to realize that Raven liked pretty much anything with a beat.

“Ohhh, I have waited here for you…”(4) the singer exclaimed as the music reached a peak. “I have waited…” Robin raised a brow under the mask as he recognized this song.

The challenge in his eye sparked her pride however and she wanted to knock the smug look off his face. “I like a lot of things, Robin,” she answered, a half smile on her lips as the song burst into vibrant life around the,.

“You make me wanna LA LA!” the music exploded its crescendo around them.

Without further warning, she attacked him.

Amused at her answer and that she had obviously attacked to change the topic, he smiled and he realized that he didn't want to spar with her so much as he wanted to push her to her limits…see how far he could take her.

She tried to strike from below, he dodged it, she tried to strike from above, he blocked it, she tried to get in around the side and he anticipated her.

“Eager to get it on, are you?” he asked, grasping her hands that had meant to attack him and using her own momentum to push her behind him and off balance while he backed up to give them some space.

She quickly found her center again and turned in one almost effortless move. “You going to talk or fight?” she asked.

The music changed again, this time, starting as a steady rhythm with hardly any bass to it and the male singer's voice was low and almost whispering.

“I hear a voice say don't be so blind…”(5) it started as Raven approached but didn't attack, simply started to bounce on the balls of her feet, surrounding him, looking for an attack, trying to gauge his motives, what his plan was…what he was thinking.

And, to his surprise, that Raven was trying to read him only brought on a new surge, a new kind of thrill.

“It's telling me all these things that you would probably hide…”

Tonight, he felt like teasing her a bit. “What?” he countered, trying to read her, “No sarcasm tonight?” He stepped a little to the side and she mirrored him. “No witty remarks? No chit chat?” He was trying to anticipate where she was going to come from. It was a dangerous game, he knew that as soon as the look in her eye took up his challenge. But Robin didn't mind.

“Am I your one and only desire?” the singer asked.

“You wanted to see the other side to me, didn't you?” she countered in his same tone, not bothering to explain how she knew that he had. “You wanted to be here.”

Which, pretty much set the tone for the rest of the round.

In seeming response, Robin took a few steady steps toward her and it had the desired effect, making her rush her advance for fear of loosing the pressing advantage. Once again, he dodged her attack and pushed her away from him, making her slightly off kilter in the process.

“Am I the reason you breathe or am I the reason you cry?”

He cocked his head to the side, as if waiting for her to answer the question in the song, and it was just enough to send her charging at him as the singer's voice gained strength…

“Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always…I just can't live without you!”

Robin didn't wait for her to attack, but engaged her first, running to meet her, anticipating that she would try to either dodge or duck, any of which he could use to his advantage.

“I love you, I hate you! I can't get around you!”

She ducked and he sailed over her but before he could turn in his fall to come down on her back, she had twirled out of the way and bounced back up to kick him mid-air, her bare foot smacked into his upper back with an audible slap, tossing him out of his programmed fall like a sack of potatoes.  He curled to a stand, barely allowing his body to touch the mats, only enough to push himself off again to face her before she could take advantage of his fall, but he didn't attack.  Just watched her and waited. 

She might or might not have noticed that all he was doing was testing her strategies, giving her opportunities to see what she did with them, cornering her and seeing how she got out of it.

In essence, playing with her.

As the song ended around them, Raven twirled out of his grip, tossed him away from her and stood back, glaring at him. “What do you think you're doing?” she demanded.

Robin felt a wicked thrill pull through him that he had managed to get under her cool reserve so deliciously well. A sinful desire to prod her further, to see how much more he could get under her skin tempted him and he accepted. He laughed and shrugged. “Foreplay,” he answered her insolently.

By the time he decided to begin attacking, using the weaknesses he had already sensed both at the moment and the night before the music had already changed, the hard rock beat of it coming upon them as quickly as his attacks were coming.

“I am a little bit of loneliness a little bit of disregard / Handful of complaints but I can't help the fact that everyone can see these scars” (6)

The singer sang with all the anger and hate that had carved out a niche in his own soul and he felt an immediate affinity to the song. ”I am what I want you to want,” He felt the prick of the lyric's truth to his own life. “what I want you to feel, but it's like no matter what I do,” he felt the frustration inside him, the feeling that no matter what he did, it didn't seem to get through, nothing seemed to work, “I can't convince you, to just believe this is real” He couldn't get through to her.

”So I let go, watching you, turn your back like you always do”

And suddenly, he felt the intensity rise in Raven's fighting, she was focused, he felt the channeling of her rage, her own anger, her own frustrations and he realized that he had just learned something else about Raven.

”Face away and pretend that I'm not,” Breathless after a few punches and kicks, some hits some misses, he caught one of her punches and felt the desire to hold her still, to hold onto her until she could realize…he pulled her roughly so that he caught her in a hold, pressing her tight against his back, immobilizing her by his sheer strength. If only it could be that easy to make her see? To not let her walk away. He was breathing hard and it was from more than just the exertion, it was the realization of how deep some of his phantoms actually ran. "But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got”

Raven hadn't tried to struggle out of his grip, but had been testing his own hold and as the music shifted from angry half rapping to pure rock, she ground her back into his front and the shock of feeling her so intimate against him shocked him into pulling back and giving her the room she needed.

“I can't feel the way I did before”

Although he hadn't released the arms he held crossed over her, she used that moment of surprised release to let her legs drop from under her, surprising him by the sudden drop into letting her slip from his grasp using the pull of the weight from below to help her. He grasped for her, but she slipped under and away before he could grab her, rolling onto a crouch. 

”Don't turn your back on me”

The look in her eyes was feral.  The pure teasing of his face was gone, replaced by an anger drawn from frustration.  It seemed she always tried to run away from him, always pulled tricks to avoid him.  Why?

“Tricks, Raven?” he questioned.

She shrugged. “All's fair in love and foreplay,” she shot back, breathless herself as she pushed off the ground and engaged him in battle once again. What was he playing at, she wondered. All day she had watched him virtually ignore her, pay more attention to the red-headed alien, explain things to the girl, talk to her, sit with her and all the while, Raven had watched. Although her hold on her emotions had been tight enough then that she hadn't even realized it, his open flirtation with her now brought it all back. And as the adrenaline rose into her blood and her emotional barriers dropped, her jealousy and anger rose.

”I won't be ignored”

`Fine,' he thought. If that's how she wanted to play.

”Time won't heal this damage anymore”

He waited for the moment she knocked against him, surprising her by not moving. He didn't want to hurt her. He wanted to unbalance her now, to catch her. To see if he could get the better of her.

”Don't turn your back on me”

To be the cat to her mouse.

”I won't be ignored”

The hunter to her pray.

“I am a little bit insecure a little unconfident...”

One moment he had the upper hand, the next she had turned them over, but before she could even decide what to do, he had pushed against her and he was dominant again.

”Cause you don't understand I do what I can but sometimes I don't make sense”

He lost conscious control of what he was doing, or why he was doing it. It became a battle over dominance played in the flailing of limbs and jumble of turns and flips and in the tearing away and crashing back together.

”I am what you never wanna say but I've never had a doubt”

And it seemed ages since either one of them had thrown a punch.

”It's like no matter what I do I can't convince you for once just to hear me out”

She charged him and when he was ready to grab her again, she ducked and slid under his legs and out behind him. She stood in a smooth motion just as he had turned but managed to raise only halfway, arm outstretched to strike.

“So I let go watching you turn your back like you always do”

He countered it easily with a smooth circling motion of his arm, twirling his arm out of her grasp until suddenly her arm was in his grasp and their mutual momentum caused them to fling back onto the mats.

”Face away and pretend that I'm not”

He leaned forward and held her pinned, her small wrists suddenly between his hands pressed tight against the mat.

”But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got”

They stared at each other as the mad, agitated song raced to its conclusion with the singer's last scream. They took time to just remember to breathe, their chests heaving, her back almost using the opportunity to rest on the mat below her and the fight momentarily at least, gone.

He knew better than to release her, however. Not until she conceded defeat. “Check,” he panted, leaning in close. “mate.”

His insolence sparked the fire in her once again and her mind was whirring with possible ways of getting out from under him, but she was tired, he felt too solid above her, his grip on her wrists secure. He kept the brunt of his weight from coming down on her, holding himself up by his arms which were holding her arms onto the mat at the sides of her head and on his knees, between hers. He wasn't sprawled on top of her, no, but he was still pressed tight enough that she couldn't get leverage with her legs and he was close enough that everytime she breathed hard, her chest came into direct contact with his bare one over her. She couldn't think of a way other than conceding to get out of it. And she was not about to simply concede. Not again. Not tonight. Another hard rock song, heavy in beat and anger piped through the sound system around them. She was still trying to catch her breath and he, damn him, looked like he was waiting for her to say something and getting mighty comfortable above her.

If she wasn't stronger than him, or better at the martial arts than him, she could at least be dirtier and she came to a decision. She pulled up suddenly, not moving her hands, just her head until she was within striking distance. His expression was controlled, almost amused that she seemed to attempt to use brute force to get out from under him…that is, until she licked him. Her tongue darted out to taste the flesh of his chin to his lips before his hands relaxed in surprise.

It broke his concentration enough that she managed to get a leg up between them and push him off. She twirled until she was standing away from him and at enough distance to turn back, prepared for an attack.

He was sitting back on his haunches just where she'd left him and turned to look at her, with surprise on his face. “You licked me!” he told her.

She searched his face for anger or disgust, but found only humor and surprise. “Never said we had to play fair,” she replied, watching him for movement.

He leaned down as if he were going to lie down face first on the mat and exhaled. He looked up at her. “Okay…so we both have some things to learn,” he conceded.

She looked at him and nodded slowly, relaxing a bit. She brought an arm out to wipe at her forehead, and realized suddenly that she hadn't seen him wipe at his lips. If someone had just licked her, she would've been wiping at it as soon as she could do it and maintain her cool exterior. 

Something about that…touched her.  That was when she realized the taste that still lingered on her tongue.  She had tasted Robin.

He exhaled, as if he were trying to regain control. “You ready for your lessons now, then?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. “What? Now?” she questioned. There were no clocks in the training room except the ones the computers had to track time, but she was sure it was late.

“Tired?” he challenged.

She scoffed. “I can take it if you can.” She noticed he was still on the mat and figured the least she could do after cheating so blatantly was to offer the guy a hand up. She walked to where he still sat and extended her left hand.

He took her hand firmly in his right and grinned at her. “Yeah, just imagine,” he settled his weight, preparing, presumably, to stand. “If you learned this much just from watching me on the tapes,” Robin spoke teasingly. “Then having me here in the flesh should make you a master,” he finished, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

She tried to take her hand back at his comment, but he used her backward pull to lift himself up in a bounce and wrapped her arm around her front again, pulling her close to him, grabbing her other hand when she raised it for a strike, and finally holding them still between her chest and his arms.

“Now that's low,” she deadpanned, suddenly finding herself in the very familiar position of feeling his bare sweaty chest against her, his heat making all sorts of emotions rustle.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “Did I say we were through?” he asked way too innocently to be sincere. He felt her slight shift and felt the humor rise. “Go ahead, try that trick you tried last time, little Raven,” he goaded her. “Now that you won't surprise me, I just might enjoy it.”

Raven felt her breath catch in her throat. Using her body to distract him had nothing to do with him as a man or her attraction to him. It was just a self-defense mechanism. It was about surprise, doing the unexpected in battle and frankly, it was about working with what you had in order to win.  And if you were a woman, you knew that men were easily distracted. It was that black and white. She would have used the same tactics against Mad Mod, for cryin' out loud, but now that he had said that, she felt the realization of just what she had done and who she had done it to. She flushed, ashamed at how she had blatantly ground into her team leader, her friend, ashamed at all the little ways their bodies had come into contact…ashamed and flushed with an altogether different kind of excitement. `What did he think of her after acting like that?' she wondered, but then a thought occurred to her. She knew exactly what he was thinking. He told her as much. He was thinking that if she did it again, he would enjoy it. She frowned. Robin didn't say things like this. Or at least, he wasn't supposed to say things like that. As if not being as good a boy as he had let everyone believe had been a dirtier trick than either of the ones she had pulled, her voice, when she spoke, was accussing: “You're supposed to be the good boy.” She turned her face to look at him out of the corner of her eye only to find their faces incredibly close.

“Is that so?” he asked, the wicked gleam in his eye. He started to close the distance between them. She refused to turn away. But she didn't exactly know what to do. “Are you sure about that?” his arms tightened just that minimal inch to bring her that much closer to him.  A little more, Raven thought, and he'd be lifting her off the ground. 

He was teasing her again. She felt the blush and, yes, the desire rise inside her…the incredible desire to close the distance between them and show him just what she thought of his bad boy persona, but the image of his laughing face as he joked with Starfire invaded any pleasurable thoughts she might have had and she nearly growled. Why did he do this to her? He always seemed to pick on her, as if she were the one that could take it all the time, as if she were stronger than anyone else just because she could control her emotions. Was she a safe bet?  The challenge had spured her to always be right alongside his comments or wit, and even with the mild teasing and flirtation, but lately...lately it had been going to new decibles and she was getting tired of being suspected of being able to take it by him.  Starfire was the prissy one and so she got special treatment. While with her...her he fought with and ignored, and now, teased when he was feeling like some foreplay, but Starfire was weepy and soft and out of bounds. And something inside her snapped. “You've always wanted to get a piece of me, haven't you?” she questioned, her tone caustic and showing all of the emotion she hadn't been able to show before.

He froze, his eyebrows rising over the top of his mask and although he was obviously taken aback, he didn't loosen his grip and she cursed mentally. “What?” he asked, his tone curt.

“When you were Red-X(8), when you were Slade's Apprentice(9)…” each mention of each moment made Robin barely flinch and his grip tighten. “Each time, you always came after me, didn't you?” She was ruthless, she had hoped he would let her go or stop it somehow, but his stare stayed focused on her and if anything, he seemed more intent on hearing her out. “You always attacked me…always left your precious Starfire be and came after me…” having let her emotions free, she couldn't stop the bitterness creeping into her voice and wondered why she didn't care.

At first, Robin's anger flared. How could she even think such a thing? That he would really have come after any of them was ridiculous, but that he would really aim to hurt her was…

She had stopped struggling and as if someone had turned it off and only now just turned it on, he heard the music still blasting around them.

“I tried to kill the pain, but only brought more…”(10)

He remembered seeing only her, seeing disgust in her face as she faced him in Slade's armor. And he remembered hating himself and hating her. The others, they might not have understood having to make sacrifices, but he always felt that she would…that she somehow understood him. Even Starfire's surprise or pain, it had been expected, but her disgust…her hatred of him…he hadn't been able to take…he had hated her back…wanted to hurt her even as he wanted to call out an explanation.

“I am dying and I am pouring crimson regret and betrayal…”

For the first time, Robin came face to face with the truth…he had come after her. He had hated her for hating him…for turning that look to him, for doubting him and ultimately, he had hated the feeling that he had nothing left to lose…that he had really been gone.

“I'm dying! Praying! Bleeding! And screaming!”

The moments ticked on and he could only stare at her, too many words making their way through his mind, face to face with her bitterness that she carried even now…that bitterness he had given her a taste of that he carried within himself.

“My God, my Tourniquet, return to me salvation.”

They had never spoken of it, never verbalized it, but he had always felt, somewhere inside him, that if anyone understood him, she did. That if anyone made his existence bearable, it was she. The possibility that she might feel the same way was gone, in a blink of her pain filled eyes.

“Am I too lost to be saved? Am I too lost?”

Could he live without it? Could he live without her?

“Let me go,” her words, as soft as they were, finally broke into his conscious and he did.

“I didn't want to lose you,” he finally replied. `But maybe it's too late.'

She turned to him as the song faded above them. She seemed to be inundated with questions, but the only one that made it passed her lips was: “What?”

“You hated me then…” he confessed. “I saw it in your eyes, and I hated it…I hated myself…and I felt so far from you in that moment that I felt more alone and despondent than I had even when I realized what Slade had done…”he turned and found her eyes on him. “and I hated you for making me feel that way…” he answered steadily. “That is why I came after you,” he told her. “That is why you…” unable to meet her eyes and even try to determine what he saw there, he lowered his head. “I kind of expected the others to not want to fight me but I was prepared that eventually, they'd hate me, because I expected that they couldn't understand, but it never occurred to me that you would hate me, too,” he explained, taking the realizations out of the dark part of his soul and looking at them in the light of day for the first time as he spoke them. “Eve Star…I expected her look of pain and although her offer of sacrifice surprised me, nothing hurt me more than your hate…” He couldn't look at her, couldn't even chance to see what was in her eyes now. “That is why you and not Starfire,” he finished on a whisper.

She was still breathing a little hard, even through her shock. There were too many things to say, too many questions to ask. Why would he think she could understand him more than the others? She had often thought that if anyone could understand the darkness in her soul it would be him, but she had never mentioned it, never shown any particular preference to him as he had never shown any particular preference to her. So many questions, and she was too tired and too in shock to speak of them. She wanted to go back to what it had been before…she regretted bringing it up in the first place. “Fine,” she answered, trying to go for unemotional, but having way too much adrenaline in her system to make it believable. She walked to her water bottle, more for a desire to do something than to actually drink.

“I think we should call it quits for tonight, then,” she said as casually as she could. “We'll work on actual training next time…” she looked at him hopeful that he would take her cue and drop the subject. She turned off the music and with a snap, there was suddenly a deafening silence. “I think we should start with the training of the T'ai Chi Chi Gun so we can use it as a kind of warm-up and then you can teach me the Tai Kwon Do…”

Had she forgiven him, he wondered, or had she simply decided to change the subject?

“Next time?” he asked, his tone an attempt at normal.

She exhaled. He had taken her cue. “Yeah…I'm still up for it if you are.” She didn't know what it all meant, but she knew now was not the time to talk about it and she was just as ashamed at her own anger and feeling of betrayal that had come out as she had been angry at him. She hadn't hated him, she knew it in her heart that she hadn't. But something had been in her eyes on that roof staring at Raven in Slade's armor…something…pain, maybe? She didn't know. And she was too tired to find out.

He couldn't help but smile a little, the dread that had occurred to him at realizing that he might have broken their tenuous relationship ebbing away when he realized that if she just wanted to change the subject, she would have just walked away. She was asking him to take it back the way it was, sticking around, talking to him. And he wanted that very much. (Had she said `your precious Starfire'? he wondered vaguely.) He sat down on the bench, wincing a little as his sweaty and no doubt heated bare back touched the cool wall. He let his head rest there as well. “Daylight next time, k?” he spoke into the silence.

“Huh?” she asked, confused. She had been expecting him to be thinking of ways to get out of it, having moved on from the conversation but not wanting to tempt the fates again.

“Daylight…for the next…” he motioned around him. “Sparring session, training…whatever…” He shrugged and looked at her. She sat down next to him, careful still not to touch. “I don't think I can take any more nose dives into my breakfast cereal due to lack of sleep,” he admitted. She stared hard at him for a few moments, the confusion ebbing away as she pictured the scene at the breakfast table that morning after both of them had had only a couple of hours of sleep.

Suddenly, as if someone had released a valve, her laughter bubbled forth like a spring, wracking her body with its force, finding not only the memory of the situation funny, but also the fact that he would choose to remind her of something amusing to relieve the tension. These emotions were a strange thing, she thought.  How could she go from being embarassed one moment, to attracted and turned on the next only to switch into anger enough to want to hurt him just like that?  And then, as if that wasn't enough, laughter, joy...enjoyment, like a damn had broken, all through her body.  Oh,  she still knew that their words had been serious, and they probably would have to speak about it at some time, but at least not now...at least she'd have some time to think. 

At her obvious release, he found himself first smiling, then laughing as he too fully remembered the morning's incident. “Sure, laugh it up, chuckles,” he teased, laughing still. “I'm glad to know that almost drowning in my cornflakes this morning could bring you so much joy.”  He tried to look stern, but he was feeling the release of pressure too and couldn't help but feel the same sort of joy.  "Death by Cornflakes...what a way to go." 

She lifted her arms and tried to stop herself from laughing. “I swear that if I would've known Beast Boy was about to knock your arm out from under your sleeping head, I would have stopped him,” she insisted.

His eyes opened wide and she realized immediately that he hadn't realized why his sleeping head had falling off his supporting arm after all. “Beast Boy!?” he asked.

Raven, laughing even harder now, tried to stifle her chuckles by putting a hand to her mouth. “You…” she stopped to hold her stomach again. “…didn't…” more laughter. “…know?”

“I'm gonna kill him!” Robin assured. The sound of her insistent laughter, which might have annoyed him considering it was at his expense, somehow soothed his flash of anger at the green changeling for the morning's embarrassing fiasco.

`Yeah, they'd have to talk about it soon,' he thought as he watched her. But he'd have plenty of time to speak the words, to make her realize how much she actually meant to him. He'd have time to make her realize it wasn't hate for her and preference for Starfire that had prompted him to attack her, but a hatred of the fear she made him feel at the thought of loosing her. It wasn't perfect, it had still been wrong and they needed to talk about that too. But there would be time…

When she realized that her leader was staring at her in nothing like what she had seen in his eyes until then, she sobered and looked innocent eyes at him. “What?”

He smiled. “You have a beautiful laugh,” he told her sincerely.

He really wasn't the good boy that everyone thought, she realized. A good boy wouldn't have said what he just said. She looked down, unable to hold his eyes. And yet, he continued to look at her as if he were expecting something from her. A mere `thank you' seemed trite. So she went for a half-truth. “You're just not used to hearing it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him nod.

“That's true,” he admitted. “But doesn't make it any less beautiful…” he trailed off momentarily. He didn't know what had made him say that…she seemed uncomfortable, but she had taken his teasing earlier alright. `Oh, well,' he thought. He could take it slow. He chuckled as a thought occurred to him. “Have you ever noticed Cyborg's laugh?” he asked.

Raven's eyes lit up in instant mirth as she realized what he meant. “He snorts!” she said.

He nodded. “Only when you really get him going, but aw, man…it's like a small warthog.”

Raven chuckled again. They were silent for a while and just when he thought that enough time had passed so that she would feel the adrenaline leaving and would be getting up to go, she fingered the remote control that was somehow still in her hands. “I never hated you,” she announced without preamble.

Robin blinked, momentarily frozen. She wanted to talk about it again? “I…” he paused and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up even more. “I think some part of me knew that…”

She nodded briskly, as if saying, `good', then exhaled and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes and resting her head.

Feeling the moment ease and stretch into companionable silence, Robin started to feel the strain on his body. There was a pain on his shoulder that he knew he'd be feeling tomorrow, but he didn't exactly remember when she had hit him there as opposed to anywhere else. If the heavy feeling of his body was anything to go by, then she was already pretty good in hand to hand battle. In an attempt to work out the kink, he stretched his arms up over his head and pulled, trying to figure out exactly where he'd have to direct the hot water to during his shower. The tug on his forearms and back seemed to be the worse of it, and he stretched to try to work it out.

He opened his eyes and paused as he felt her eyes on him. Was he able to feel anyone's stare as acutely? He had noticed it before, how her looking at him always called his eyes to her, even without realizing it sometimes, but he had written it off as a side effect of her powers. But now? She wasn't using her powers. And yet, he still felt it. As clear as day. He managed to avoid giving in to the temptation of looking at her. Still sitting, he pulled his body forward and reached for the ground, smiling. He knew that she was looking at him. As surely as he had known it when he stretched before the fight. A slow kind of male pride swelled within him at the thought. `So she does enjoy watching,' he thought, grinning, knowing she couldn't see his face. `One of these days,' he vowed mentally. `I'm going to make you admit that.'

He let the tension go in his body as he felt the blood rush to his head, his arms hanging down and pulling on his shoulders, by their weight. “Raven?” he spoke, head still lowered.

“Hmm?” she asked, and he realized she sounded as if she were asleep…or very relaxed. It wouldn't be long now before the adrenaline left her and she'd be back to having to fight her emotions.

“Will any kind of physical activity do?” he asked.

He felt her shift next to him, the minimalist of motions. “Pardon?”

He exhaled and raised himself up to face her. “To keep you in control,” he explained. “Of your powers, I mean.”

“Oh…” she blinked, as if she had been thinking something or caught off guard. “So long as I don't have to use my powers during it, it should…” she trailed off as a thought occurred to her and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?” she asked, slightly suspicious.

He grinned. He knew the mischievous gleam was back in his eye. “I was just thinking that there are a lot of other physical things we could do together that doesn't involve having to beat each other to a pulp to get your adrenaline up.”

Her cheeks flushed almost immediately and she glared at him to hide it. “What are you getting at?” she pressed, her tone warning.

He laughed and raised a brow. “Swimming, sports, skiing, roller blading…” he enumerated them on his fingers. “Horseback riding, dancing…” he shrugged, his look pure innocence. “You know, if your theory's correct, you probably just have to get your adrenaline up, so even riding a motorcycle really really fast might do the trick.” He saw the look on her face and the left side of his lips raised into a challenging smile. “Why?” He looked positively angelic. “What did you think I meant?”

He knew very well what she thought he was getting at.

And she knew that he was playing innocent just to goad her even further. Sighing, she stood up and turned to look at him. She shook her head as if she were slightly disappointed but not surprised. He did not fail to notice the hint of a smile on her face. “You're so predictable, Robin.”

Her tone could have meant anything. Predictable how, he wondered? Predictable in issuing an insinuation that he didn't follow through with? Or predictable at not having meant any insinuation at all?

His head cocked the way it did when he sensed a challenge and Raven immediately remembered that `Eh…Robin is not exactly a good little boy…' Not the way she had always thought he was. At least, not with her…not anymore. “Am I?” he asked.

In fact, he was dangerous. `Very…very…very dangerous,' she thought.

“It's just that it's pretty easy to tell what you're thinking most times,” she answered.

His expression didn't change. “Is it?” he questioned.

`I'm just digging this hole deeper and deeper, aren't I?' she thought. She had two choices: she could laugh it off, say that maybe she was wrong or two, she could not. The problem was, obviously, that she really could read him…even without having to use her empathic sensibilities. And she knew…she knew it was safer to just say she had been wrong and walk away from it. She did.

But that didn't mean she was going to do it.

Ultimately, she blamed it on lack of sleep.

“Most of the times,” she answered.

His lips curled into a smile and something about the soft, languid way he did it made her feel both like the mouse that had just fallen into the trap and like the cat that had discovered the cream all at the same time.

“Then what am I thinking about now?” he challenged, his voice no longer purely humorous.

“I don't think you really want me to answer that, Robin,” she spoke, her voice smooth in its sureness.

He leaned forward and stood up in one smooth motion. “Oh, but I do,” he insisted.

“Are we going to spar again?” she asked, her voice a mix between sarcastic and humorous, but, she was proud to note, not a bit scared. Even though fear was there, inside her, feeling trapped and cornered and knowing that if they took this very much further, all escape routes would be blocked off and there would be no place to go but forward, nothing left to do but jump. But she couldn't stop…why was that? No one else made her lose this much of her own conscious will…her mind knew she should walk away, but her body just wasn't listening. Watching as he approached her, steadily closing the distance between them, she had to force herself not to take a step back.

He must have seen something in her eyes because he smiled. “That's just it,” he told her. “We never stopped.” He stopped mere inches from her. “We never do.”

When it felt like she could hardly stand the desire to reach out and close the last bit of distance between them, she pulled back, giving in, giving ground, taking a step backward and breathing in the air that was free of the imposing strength of his aura as if she had been drowning.

Maybe she had been. And the thing was, he probably hadn't even realized that he had been reaching for her, even if not with his hands. It had been strong enough to almost make her reach out. She had almost touched him. She had almost answered him. Almost.

“Time we stop, then,” she said, unsure how clear her voice actually managed to sound through the buzzing in her ears. It was strangely like when she flew, that sensation that there was nothing between her and the ground but air and her own power, knowing that it was such a flippant thing, really and should it ever just cease to exist, so would she.

She felt Robin pull back away from her and even though she was free to move even more, to take a few more step back away from him until she could turn, she barely repressed a shiver. And from there, it was practically clear sailing to walk to the door. Thanks to the adrenaline still coursing through her system, although she felt the distinctive flare of lust burn through her blood, nothing blew up and the demon in her didn't awake.

“Why do you always run away from me?”

Robin's voice, almost devoid of emotion, stopped her in her tracks and she cursed under her breath. She had been so close. She could leave, walk away, ignore the question, but she already knew she wouldn't, that she really couldn't, even before she had finished considering the thought.

“Why do you wear a mask?” she countered. She put a hand on the threshold of the door because she suddenly wasn't certain that she was real and needed to touch something concrete to assure herself. She didn't expect him to answer, so she hadn't turned back to look at him. But she couldn't cross the door. She couldn't walk away…maybe if she stood here a little longer, then maybe, but…

Was it always going to be like this between them when they were alone? Was she always going to feel this draw to him? Was she always going to feel like she couldn't resist him, like an addict needing more?

Maybe these sessions with him weren't such a good idea.

“To protect myself,” he finally spoke.

She nodded, lifting her head and turning it just slightly so she could see just the edges of his shape out of her peripheral vision. “Same principle.”

She started to walk out again when she was stopped by his hand on her arm. She nearly jumped. She hadn't heard him approach and she was still so aware of his aura behind her she hadn't distinguished its having gotten any closer. But suddenly, as if his touch flared the recognition of all her other senses, she could smell the scent of him in her air. She thought he would say something, but when she didn't turn around, all he did was tug at her arm. She gave in, thinking he would turn her around and knowing that if he did, she wouldn't be able to resist him. She surrendered her arm like one waiting for judgment, but his hold on her, as opposed to when they sparred, was gentle and almost like a caress. He carefully lowered her arm, his hand sliding from forearm to wrist to hand, the tender touch drawing goosebumps from her traitorous flesh until involuntarily, her hand opened to welcome his fingers. She didn't know what to expect, but refused to look at him, and rather than close his hand over hers, or pull her back to face him, she felt the cool press of a soft material against her sensitized palm.

She looked down at her hand and just barely withheld a gasp at finding his crumpled mask staring up at her. She was in such shock she didn't even consider turning around to look at him. She was staring at the mask as if it were an alien thing she had never set eyes on before and couldn't distinguish its purpose. She felt his approach as he leaned in close to her ear.

“When you're ready to stay, I'm ready to show you,” he spoke quietly. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, her hand fisting around the mask. “I trust you.”

She was tempted…so tempted to just turn around. It wasn't every day he offered this, hell…he never offered this, not to anyone, and he was offering it to her. But she wasn't ready. She had too many questions, she was too confused. She could still feel the sensation of dropping in her heart she had experienced when he told her he had hated her. She could still feel part of that doubt and pain. And she wasn't ready to give up her protection yet. She crushed down the disappointment and the fear. `Godamnit, I'm not ready!' she cursed and she knew it wasn't her calm self that thought so. Crushing that thought down, too, she nodded curtly and stepped, hoping that his hands on her bare shoulders wouldn't tug her back or hold her any longer.

He didn't hold her back, but his hands simply opened and didn't pull away, allowing for his skin to graze hers as her walking slipped it out of contact.

At the door she stopped herself again and cursed. She wouldn't turn around. She wouldn't. “You don't have to be afraid of losing me.” She didn't turn, but her voice was tight with the effort.

She felt his surprise and realized that the adrenaline was wearing off. And still, she didn't turn around. `Bully for you, Raven,' she enthused sarcastically.

Robin watched her stop and wanted to lie. Wanted to tell her that he knew that and wanted to say the perfect thing to make her stay, make her turn around and look at him, to trust him. He didn't know what those words were, but he knew the truth. He wanted to lie, he couldn't. “But I am.”

She sighed. And before she moved again, her hand reached up and with a quick tug, she had pulled off the ribbon that had been holding her hair away from her face. The long strip of black satin fell away from her hair as the purple cascade fell over her shoulders. She held it in her hand for a moment, before lifting her palm. The scrap of ribbon was encased in an orb of dark energy and it floated back to him, stopping right in front of him. The black energy dissipated and the ribbon floated down onto his waiting palm. He looked at the back of her head in surprise.

He saw her hand tightened on the mask she still held. She had never turned around to face him. “A token for a token,” she spoke, her voice once again monotonous, before walking off down the hallway toward the elevators and presumably, her bedroom.

Robin smiled and brought the ribbon up to his nose. It smelled like her, he realized.

And in the midst of planning what tomorrow would bring, a thought occurred to him, `Maybe they had been the right words, after all?'

%%%%%%

Notes:

(1) “Do Ya Feel” by Right Said Fred. And yes, if I were a stripper (which I'm not…) I would probably use this song in a routine. The lyrics are really fun, though! I can't help and move my tooshie even if I'm not a stripper…just cooking in the kitchen with this song blaring. I thought it would be an adequate backdrop for his first view of her.

(2) “Woman” by Neneh Cherry. Very cool song. I first heard it on the soundtrack to…eh…”The Long Kiss Goodnight”, that's it.  I think.

(3) “I've Got To See You Again” by Norah Jones. This is one of my absolute favorite songs…currently, anyway. A very seductive sounding song. I first heard it on an episode of “Crossing Jordan” but it's on the same album as “Come Away With Me”. I forget what the title of that Album is and I'm too lazy to look it up.

(4) “La La” by Ashlee Simpson. I think it's such a fun, fast song. Certainly not what most people that I've read out there would consider to be a song Raven would pick, but I wanted to give her a bit of depth. To show that she liked pretty much any kind of music. Hence, Robin's thought comment about it.

(5) “Always” by Saliva. Now, begins the darker music. Heh…maybe this was why I ended up taking it in such a dark direction :shrug:

(6) “Faint” by Linkin Park. I love these guys and this song is such a kickass song, I would love it to be my personal soundtrack if I ever had to kick anyone's ass.

(8) Episode, “Masks”. Robin makes up the persona of Red-X to get closer to Slade and try and gain his trust. In doing so, he has to fight the Titans.

(9) Episode, “Apprentice II”. Robin is now Slade's apprentice and he has to or Slade will kill them all. Slade orders him to fight them or they die and NOT to even speak one word to them or they die. When he attacks, Starfire gets in the way, but he dodges her and flies right at Raven, fighting her hand to hand.

(10) “Tourniquet” by Evanescence. A seldom mentioned song, but I think it's fabulous. It just so happened that I was staring at my screen because I didn't know what was going to happen. I thought Puck had led me into a corner and I wondered, “how the hell do I get them out of this?” and several options occurred to me and then this song played and I thought…”Eureka! That's it!” and there you go. So I had to add at least some lyrics.

About the songs: Well, as you can probably tell if you know the songs that I used, I didn't want to go through all the lyrics to every song I used, but basically what I did was set up a list of music that I thought would work for a sparring session and let it play on random. The songs that came out that came through my conscious as I was writing the particular scene are the ones that I used, the lyrics I used for the ones where I just used snippets are the pieces of lyrics that came through to me in that moment, so yeah…that's why not all the songs are completely quoted and so many of them are quoted even in pieces.

About the Quotes: Those who know me from the other fandom might've noticed that I'm a quotes freak. I love them. And both of these quotes that I used for this chapter seemed perfect for the chapter, so instead of one, I used two. :shrug: I couldn't decide, so I thought…well, why should I?

General Notes: So like I said at the top of this thing, I feel slightly uneasy by the direction this whole chapter, piece, whatever, went. I don't normally write such dark fics…I really don't. I mean, I call myself the self-proclaimed Queen of Angst, but this came out…well, more than just angsty, it came out like borderline masochistic, I think. I had wanted to give them another fluffy-silly-happy-go-lucky kinda moment, but this came out instead. Eh…go figure.

And yes…this is in response to the people who reviewed and asked for another chapter. I probably would've left it alone, but people reviewed and pretty much said that I had left it off in a place where it could continue, and Puck (my muse) flew with the idea and gave me this tidbit.

He (my muse) has become enamored of these characters and specifically this pairing, which is weird, because I usually like cannon pairings in most of the shows I watch (Inuyasha/Kagome, for example.) In other words, I'm usually not cool enough to go against the grain. (Even though I have experimented with writing Miroku/Kagome, but that's only for the challenge of it.) But yeah, I just think BB and Raven pairing is slightly wrong, at least it seems that my muse doesn't like it, and what can I do but write what my muse inspires? I haven't convinced myself to read it, either. I think there's such depth to Raven, she's certainly my favorite character, and I enjoy exploring how her character clashes and calls to Robin's character. Heh…there's my excuses. And I realize also that while I write this, they're not thinking and acting like 16 year olds…in my head, they're kinda older, I guess, certainly more mature. I'm just not 16, not by a long shot, so it's a little difficult for me to keep the innocence of a 16 year old and keep it real. I guess…enough excuses, though. Just enjoy. (And again, sorry to the Inuyasha fans…I haven't abandoned Inuyasha and certainly not FAWK, but right now, this is what Puck wants to write…:le sigh: )

Thanks: First of all, wow. I never thought I'd get 5 reviews for this thing, let alone anything passed 10, so 13!  Wow!  Just cause no one knows me in this fandom and I thought that the Inuyasha peeps who have me on author alert would ignore it cause it said “TT” fic. So, yeah…thanks. Especially to the people who said they'd like to see more of my stuff. This one's for you!

Oh, and if I end up feeling like writing more TT fics, I'll probably make up a new FF.net profile for it, so the Inuyasha people who have me on watch won't get spammed by notification of those fics. So, be on the lookout for that if you're a TT fan. I hate to self-promote, but maybe if you want to put me on watch and you want to watch me for any new TT fics I might do (or if I ever decide to write more for this one, which I don't promise) then maybe you can review and let me know that you would like me to put you on a kind of email mailing list so I can notify you if I end up setting up the new account. Or…you can just check back on this account periodically. If I do set up a new account, it'll have to be under a different name for obvious reasons…probably EmaniaHilel or Arianrhod or something like that, but I'll mention it on the profile page for this account.

Crazy Girl Person: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the story and the surprise!

Kumori Sakusha: So glad! Thanks for letting me know!

Extiction: It's partly due to reviews like yours that this next part got done at all, so I hope you enjoy it! And I'm always glad to hear from someone who likes my work in another fandom! So double thanks:grin:

Dragon Huntress: Well…I've made it longer. Also thanks to reviewers like you who said you wanted to see more! If it weren't for you guys filling my muse's head with the idea that more from me would be appreciated, I don't think he would've inspired me to write any more! Thanks!

Gothic Kid 13: I aim to please. Thanks for reviewing!

Annie Collins: Thanks so much! I sent you an email begging for clarification as to what other things you saw that needed tightening up in it cause I always appreciate another constructively critical eye looking over my work. I hope you like this bit, too, (especially since I think I suck writing action and this one had a whole bunch of it…) and again, if you find any errors (which I'm sure this is rife with) please let me know through email or through review, which ones specifically (if you're so inclined). :wink:

D: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! (and one more for good measure) THANK YOU:grin:

Morgan Adams: Thanks! I'm glad you stuck with it even though it was kinda long, and I hope you found me again and stuck with this one, too, even though it is also kinda long.

Dozer: :blush: Wow! Thanks for the wonderful praise! And especially since you pointed out some of the parts that I was most worried about. I hope you find yourself equally liking this installment.

Jurodan: So this is what I was doing instead of finishing up my swine paper…can I help it if my muse insists on peppering me with ideas for a continuation after getting so much praise on his first attempt at a TT fic? Anyway, hope this one doesn't have any too obvious flaws…although I'm sure it will…

Redmage2: LOL. Thanks! Like I said in my AN, I can't help but see them two together. I can't picture her with BB. I can picture her with RedX or maybe with Speedy, but not BB. And Robin with Starfire? I don't know, I think she's cute, and very nice, but I think if I were Robin I'd probably want to strangle her within the hour. So yeah…it looks like I'm a Rob/Rae Shipper. I'm glad you thought the scenario was believable. And I hope you think the same for this one! Thanks again for the review!

Dwntempo: :blush: I don't know if I'd `grace' you guys with any more interaction, but I'll try! It seems that my muse has taken a liking to the challenge presented with getting those two birds together. Thanks so much for the review!

Skorpion: Thanks! I'm glad you think it's a believable scenario! I was most worried that the theory wouldn't fly. :grin: Hope you still think they're not too OOC in this installment.

So…should I keep going? Will I keep going?  :shrug:  Hell if I know…I suppose that's up to y'all. Hit that button down there and let me know.