Freedom

13

ROBIN
I feel myself becoming better and stronger day by day. Cyborg gives me special mechanisms to help ensure my recovery is quick and efficient. I train harder, preparing myself for a battle with Slade.
I told the rest of the team about what happened that night. Well, I told them most of what happened that night, making sure to leave out the whole thing with Raven and our kiss.
Those kisses. They were different. With Starfire, our kisses are almost forced, there's no passion. She kisses almost to feel like an earthling. Raven. Raven, she's different. The way she kisses, there's so much sensuality and passion, almost as if she puts all her emotions into one kiss.
The minute I found out about Raven's past, I realized how much I like her. She had a hard childhood, yet she pushed through. And, in all honesty, I'm thankful for her past, because her past brought her here. Brought her to meet me.

"Where are we going?" Raven asks as I hold my hands over her eyes.
"Somewhere special," I say. I walk a few more meters down an old path until I make it to a tree with lanterns hanging off of the branches. "Okay, now you can see." I remove my hands and she gasps.
"Whoa," she huffs. "What is this?"
"My old treehouse," I explain. "Back when my parents were alive, I would come here to practice acrobatics or just hang out. I wanted you to see it."
The treehouse was big. I built it with my dad, and to my surprise, the wood hadn't rotten away yet. I put up the lanterns around the treehouse, to make it seem as romantic as possible. As for the rest of the team, I distracted them by getting the latest intergalactic video game.
"Robin, this is..."
"Please, go up," I say, pointing towards the rope ladder. Raven, with her small mouth open, climbs up the ladder and onto the front deck. There are candles lit around the deck and on the windowsills.
I climb up after Raven, following her as she inspects the treehouse. I open the door to the inside of the treehouse. Small for my height, but perfect for Raven's. She walks in, the same shock on her face. I put mattresses and pillows on the floor for comfort and tried to hide some of my superhero posters, trying to make myself seem less like a geek.
I go over to the stereo on one of the windowsills and try to find some kind of music that she would like to maybe dance to.
"Robin, why did you do this?" Raven asks, turning to me.
"I thought you might want a little light in a world of darkness," I say, rubbing the back of my neck. I press play on a slow song. "Do you remember how to dance?"
"Depends," she says bashfully. "Would you be okay if I by accidently stepped on your feet?"
I laugh and grab her waist, pulling her close to me. My hands move under her cape, slipping around her waist. I look at the gem on her forehead, a beautiful gem on a diamond. I look back at her hopeful eyes.
"Tell me your biggest dream," she says with a smile. I think, what was my biggest dream?
"To have Slade's death on my hands," I admit honestly, no point on sugar coating it. She murmurs into my chest, something inaudible.
"He deserves it," she then says, distinctly. "As you deserve the bliss you'll receive, knowing he is no longer out there."
She's right. I never want to see Slade. And every minute he is out there, each minute I fear he might attack. I fear he might attack and kill my friends, just to torture me.
"What about you?" I speak into her soft hair. "What is your biggest dream?" She sways to the calming music.
"Freedom," she says dreamily. I raise my eyebrow. "To be free from my father, from my own personal hell. To be free to make my choices and my decisions, that's all I want."
"One day," I say. "One day, it may happen."
To be honest, our dancing, we aren't really stepping at all. She's just in my arms. And with her arms around me, I feel at home.
Hours seem to pass, or maybe days? Minutes? I don't know. With her, I feel no stress of time.
I move my head down and kiss her lips. Her soft lips. I trail kisses down her jawline. Before moving away.
"Why do you like me?" she asks, breathless. A question I had answered long ago.
"I knew from the moment my eyes met yours," I whisper into her ear. "I wouldn't call it love at first sight, but instead a feeling. A feeling of acquaintance. I may have said what I said when we first met, but what I meant to say: Oh, hello there, it's you. It's going to be you."
She kisses me, and I feel that she feels content with my answer.
"Robin," she whispers with a voice of honey.
"Hmm?"
"Make me forget," she says with less of a demanding, but a needing voice. "Make me forget everything bad in my life."
"I love you, and I will love you until the day I die and the time beyond then," I say, looking into her purple eyes. "I promise."
"You are insane," she says teasingly.
"Not insane, just in love," I clarify.
"Robin, you should know, the happiest I've ever been," she says passionately. "The happiest I've ever felt, it was knowing that you love me almost as much as I love you." I capture her lips the second her words leave, stealing her breath.
I lay her down on the pillows. My lips run down her body, ripping away her uniform. I pull off her cape first, then her tight synthetic shirt. Damn, she is absolutely stunning. And I am the luckiest guy in this universe.
I throw off my gloves and let her take my cape off, before removing my shirt. I know she's staring at the scar, thinking that it was her fault. I kiss her pain away immediately. I trail my kisses down her collarbone, gently trying to absorb her. Then down her stomach.
Clothes, gone. Common sense, gone. Sanity, gone.
Maybe I am insane. But love is insanity. An insanity that we accept.