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robin_ravenTitle: Love is...
Rating: PG
Series: Animated Series
Prompt: Theme:Love is... from this week
Summary: Raven swore she would never attempt romantic love again after Malchior. Robin spent years fighting a crush turned obsession turned failure with Starfire.
”love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice”
“7 days to the wolves” by nightwish
Raven had never really considered what love was. She never really knew parental love. Her mother had long since abandoned attachments in favor of the quiet solitude of the Azarathian priesthood. Raven did not complain, she knew nothing else. Her father was no example, his love for her was an obsession of what she symbolized. Neither truly loved their daughter, and she did not truly love them.
Raven did learn platonic love, but the lessons were hard won and a long time coming. When first she joined the Titans, she would never have guessed they would be anything but associates, acquaintances. She never would have thought that she would define her love for her teammates by remembering to buy a container of mustard at the grocery store, or by scaring a line of kids at midnight movie premier so there wasn't a line. She learned to love the team, and they loved her. It was strange, but eventually she would admit to herself if no one else that she enjoyed this love.
Raven swore she would never attempt romantic love again after Malchior. It hurt, it hurt so damned bad and she hated herself for being weak enough to let it happen. She remembered long nights crying her heart out, only to wake early the next morning and pretend like nothing was wrong with her so her friends would not worry. It had taken a long time for her to “get over” Malchior, if she ever really did.
Raven would never have guessed that her greatest love would come out of her greatest irritation. Her relationship with Robin started the moment she accepted his offer to join the team. They had always had a strange rapport: despite how much they managed to get on one another's nerves they worked as a team without any training on the subject. They both were very analytical by nature, and also natural born worriers. They seemed to gravitate towards one another even when they weren't getting along.
Eventually Raven was forced to let down her defenses. No, she may not so much let them down as had them stripped away from her. She'd seen the fear in his eyes when he'd tried to convince her not to go through with her harebrained scheme .But she wasn't stupid, and he knew before she'd raised that barrier that she was going to go through with it. It wasn't fair, it was the coward's way out, and she expected to die.
He found her. Somehow, he found her and brought her back, and gave her the strength to face her one true fear. His kindness, his gentle insistence, warmed her. It was not undying love, not then, but Raven marks this as when her feelings for Robin truly became more than friendship. That was when she decided she knew what love was.
”you could give me anything but love”
“s.o.s. (anything but love)” by apocalyptica
Robin had never really considered what love was. He remembered, faintly, what love must have been. His parents, before they died. He knew they loved him. He remembered it in the way his mother would smile at him, in the way his father taught him things. But he wasn't very old when they died, and after that his perceptions of parental love had to change. If he experienced love after that, it was from his guardian: Bruce Wayne. No one would ever be stupid enough to suggest Bruce had a soft spot for anyone, let alone a tendency to dote upon or spoil his charges. No, Robin faced a brutal upbringing, but some part of him knew that this was parental love.
When he struck out on his own to form the Titans, he didn't expect to find love or friendship. He expected partners, soldiers, means to an end. He was angry, resentful of Bruce's ways. He wanted to be on his own. So he found his recruits, and despite his better judgment or his inclinations, he found people he could depend on: eventually he realized they were his friends. Fraternal love was new to him, but he experienced it with caution, and eventually relaxed. As long as the parties kept a certain distance, he could enjoy camaraderie.
Robin was a fool when it came to romantic love. He spent years fighting a crush turned obsession turned failure with Starfire. She was an ideal, not his ideal but for a long time he thought they were one in the same. She was pretty, powerful, kind, endearing: all of these things he'd come to think would make a perfect mate. He was the Boy Wonder, he needed to complete his image of perfection. Despite how slow they took things, though, they crashed and burned, and he felt that burn hard.
But he fell hard the second time, too. It was strange, but after the disaster that was Starfire he started remembering moments, things, split seconds when he could have sworn things were different with Raven than he remembered them. She'd been there for him every step of the way. If she wasn't the one catching him when he fell, she was the one at the bottom to heal his wounds and to point out what he did wrong. She spared no punches. She was solitary. She wasn't a beauty queen. She wasn't nice. She was his ideal. He couldn't remember the moment when their relationship became something more than what it had been, but he knew that must have been when he found out what love really was.
Rating: PG
Series: Animated Series
Prompt: Theme:Love is... from this week
Summary: Raven swore she would never attempt romantic love again after Malchior. Robin spent years fighting a crush turned obsession turned failure with Starfire.
“7 days to the wolves” by nightwish
Raven had never really considered what love was. She never really knew parental love. Her mother had long since abandoned attachments in favor of the quiet solitude of the Azarathian priesthood. Raven did not complain, she knew nothing else. Her father was no example, his love for her was an obsession of what she symbolized. Neither truly loved their daughter, and she did not truly love them.
Raven did learn platonic love, but the lessons were hard won and a long time coming. When first she joined the Titans, she would never have guessed they would be anything but associates, acquaintances. She never would have thought that she would define her love for her teammates by remembering to buy a container of mustard at the grocery store, or by scaring a line of kids at midnight movie premier so there wasn't a line. She learned to love the team, and they loved her. It was strange, but eventually she would admit to herself if no one else that she enjoyed this love.
Raven swore she would never attempt romantic love again after Malchior. It hurt, it hurt so damned bad and she hated herself for being weak enough to let it happen. She remembered long nights crying her heart out, only to wake early the next morning and pretend like nothing was wrong with her so her friends would not worry. It had taken a long time for her to “get over” Malchior, if she ever really did.
Raven would never have guessed that her greatest love would come out of her greatest irritation. Her relationship with Robin started the moment she accepted his offer to join the team. They had always had a strange rapport: despite how much they managed to get on one another's nerves they worked as a team without any training on the subject. They both were very analytical by nature, and also natural born worriers. They seemed to gravitate towards one another even when they weren't getting along.
Eventually Raven was forced to let down her defenses. No, she may not so much let them down as had them stripped away from her. She'd seen the fear in his eyes when he'd tried to convince her not to go through with her harebrained scheme .But she wasn't stupid, and he knew before she'd raised that barrier that she was going to go through with it. It wasn't fair, it was the coward's way out, and she expected to die.
He found her. Somehow, he found her and brought her back, and gave her the strength to face her one true fear. His kindness, his gentle insistence, warmed her. It was not undying love, not then, but Raven marks this as when her feelings for Robin truly became more than friendship. That was when she decided she knew what love was.
“s.o.s. (anything but love)” by apocalyptica
Robin had never really considered what love was. He remembered, faintly, what love must have been. His parents, before they died. He knew they loved him. He remembered it in the way his mother would smile at him, in the way his father taught him things. But he wasn't very old when they died, and after that his perceptions of parental love had to change. If he experienced love after that, it was from his guardian: Bruce Wayne. No one would ever be stupid enough to suggest Bruce had a soft spot for anyone, let alone a tendency to dote upon or spoil his charges. No, Robin faced a brutal upbringing, but some part of him knew that this was parental love.
When he struck out on his own to form the Titans, he didn't expect to find love or friendship. He expected partners, soldiers, means to an end. He was angry, resentful of Bruce's ways. He wanted to be on his own. So he found his recruits, and despite his better judgment or his inclinations, he found people he could depend on: eventually he realized they were his friends. Fraternal love was new to him, but he experienced it with caution, and eventually relaxed. As long as the parties kept a certain distance, he could enjoy camaraderie.
Robin was a fool when it came to romantic love. He spent years fighting a crush turned obsession turned failure with Starfire. She was an ideal, not his ideal but for a long time he thought they were one in the same. She was pretty, powerful, kind, endearing: all of these things he'd come to think would make a perfect mate. He was the Boy Wonder, he needed to complete his image of perfection. Despite how slow they took things, though, they crashed and burned, and he felt that burn hard.
But he fell hard the second time, too. It was strange, but after the disaster that was Starfire he started remembering moments, things, split seconds when he could have sworn things were different with Raven than he remembered them. She'd been there for him every step of the way. If she wasn't the one catching him when he fell, she was the one at the bottom to heal his wounds and to point out what he did wrong. She spared no punches. She was solitary. She wasn't a beauty queen. She wasn't nice. She was his ideal. He couldn't remember the moment when their relationship became something more than what it had been, but he knew that must have been when he found out what love really was.
