The mask slips

"Are you comfortable?" Raven asks as you lay awkwardly on her bed, "I could just lay on the floor", you say. "You're not lying on the floor. We're just talking."

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" you ask, uncomfortable feeling, Raven's body heat on your arm as she looks at you.

"I want to know more about you. And about why did you join the Titans?"

You sigh. You suppose she's earned the right to know some things about you. Besides, it couldn't hurt to talk, Right?

"Robin, we had met quite a few times before, sometimes even fighting each other, okay it was a lot of fighting, but one day I met the Batman." Raven's eyes went wide with surprise, "He wasn't what I expected. He was kind. He said he knew my past, and he gave me a choice. He asked me to join him. If only my mother could see me then."

You had a broad smile of pride on your face.

"I spent a few years working with the both of them, helping them keep the bad guys locked up and the streets safe. But eventually, I went my own way, wanting to find out more about my mother."

"What was your mother like?" Raven asked.

You paused for a moment to remember. "My mother was distant. The time she did spend with me was to train. 'Hone your skills,' she would say. And I did, every single day, I would qualify, pushing myself further and further, just to hear her say that she was proud of me. She taught me many things, from how to hunt and cook to even repairing my own clothes. She was always smiling.

"We lived in a remote part of the world, a small village surrounded by a vast forest and towering mountains completely isolated from the rest of civilisation." You look over at Raven, who seems to be listening to your every word. "It was a breath-taking place at night the stars would light the up sky, I would spend hours staring up at them from the top of my house wondering if somewhere someone was looking down at me."

"That's why I always train because although she's gone whenever I train, it feels like she there watching me." You give a slight smile.

"Rider, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, she died years ago, and I made sure that she was avenged."

"What do you mean avenged?"

"Our village was attacked. We weren't a well-known tribe. We were self-sufficient, growing our own food and protecting our borders. But, there something that the village was built on, and all our houses happened to be in the way."

You think back to that night, the night you couldn't see the stars.

The flames from the houses were burning too bright for you to see them. You were only six years old, so when a man came towards you with a grin and raised his sword, you froze. It was only when his head fell from his shoulders and the blood splattered on your face could you move and see your mother standing there with a blade in her hands. She said nothing. Her eyes were watering as she fell forwards onto the dirt.

You rushed over to see her and pushed her body over to look her in the eyes. There, on her chest, was a large pool of blood that was slowly growing. Weakly your mother raised her hand to rub your cheek like she had done so many times before, "My son", and then it fell limply to the ground.

That was the first time you felt the cold creep into you. Its claws gripped your mind, and all you felt was a deep cold hatred. You turned your head to see a group of men walking towards you and your mother, their eyes fixated on you as each of them held a blade that was covered in blood.

"Rider", Raven said, snapping you out of your thoughts,

"If only I'd been stronger." You say, gripping the bedsheets, shaking the thoughts from your head.

"You were just a child," Raven said, placing a hand on your shoulder to comfort you.

"That's no excuse." You turn your head away, feeling your cheeks burn. You remember what Raven had written in her diary. Did you feel the same way about her? You had blocked people out for so long, and so had she. Maybe this would be a good thing for both of you to connect with each other.

You turn your head back to look at her, her skin face and emotionless face, the way she brushes her hair out of her beautiful violet-blue eyes.

"Rider?" she asks. Maybe it's time you stopped worrying about the past. If she's willing to try, maybe you should as well. "You have stunning eyes, Raven."

the moment the words leave your lips, your blasted out of bed and into the wall by a strong ****, "Was it something I said," you say with your face on the floor. "Rider, I'm so sorry. You caught me off guard and my emotions."

You start to laugh. You found it almost cute the way the stoic Raven was practically embarrassed. "It's alright. You're the first girl that didn't mean to slam me into a wall." A small smile comes over her lips, "So what happens if you wanted to date someone?" Raven's eyes go wide," There are some rituals I could perform to contain the emotions, but it requires that person to do it with."

Well, why not, you've never had a girlfriend before, and Raven was a fantastic person. "wanna give it a try?"

"I-

"Hello, Friend Raven!" Star fire yells, opening the door. Quickly the bed sheet is thrown over you. "Star? What are you doing back?" Raven asks, almost in a panic while you remain still under the covers.

"Robin said he had to return, so we missed the festival."

"Is he here with you?"

"No, he returned to Gotham. He does not understand; I am upset with him. Why are you in bed? Are you unwell?