A/N: No, your eyes are NOT deceiving you! I have, indeed, updated It Only Takes a Moment! You are free to make merry. ::grin:: Seriously, though...two things about this chapter of note:

1. Probably the most important note ever (well, not ever, but maybe recently): This has not been beta'd. At all. Kysra read bits of it, but she hasn't read the entire thing all put up together, and she's more plot beta than grammar/spelling beta, so yeah. Any mistakes are entirely my own. In that vein...does anyone want to apply for the post of beta? I'm ashamed to go back to the betas that I used to have working on this series, so I'm open to new people. If the old betas would like to continue doing their work, feel free to let me know! There aren't that many chapters left to this baby. And I promise not to make any other chapter as long as Wishes, I or Wishes, II.Cross my heart!

2. A warning: This fic goes back to the style of Moments before Wishes...so, part of it is rather inane, pointless conversation. Be ready for it.

Still...I'm sure you guys were dying to find out how Robin and Raven will act with each other after the events of Wishes, no?

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never have been, never will be.

Disclaimer 2: This chapter brought to you by BoS. Kysra will know what I mean. ::BIG GRIN::

Thanks: To everyone who still reviews and says, "hey! I like this! Write more!" or something like that. And to everyone who reviews with details as to which chapters they like best and what they think is going to happen, etc. Even to all of you who don't review, but still let me know you're liking what you're reading by favoriting my story or my account. Merci!

xxxxx

It Only Takes a Moment
Part XVI: Night Shift
by Em

The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.
- Marcelene Cox

"You are one strange bird."

Raven stopped mid-stride and turned bewildered eyes to him, "Of all of my habits, this," she motions around them, "is the one you single out as weird?"

He shook his head, "I didn't say weird," he clarified. "I said strange."

She gave him that look that said he was being silly or grasping at straws and, grabbing a bottle of Caesar salad dressing from the shelf at their left, continued walking, "They're synonymous," she said as she stopped before the selection of vinegar.

"No they're not," Robin argued. "They're quite distinct, actually," he assured.

She turned to him, brow raised, "Name one difference."

"Weird has a negative implication, connoting something that is out of the ordinary in a bad way, while 'strange' has more of an awe attached to it."

She narrowed her eyes as if she might say something, but walked on instead, leaving the vinegar bottles untouched. "Nice save," she said casually as he caught up to her. "But it doesn't change the fact that of all the strange things I do, this is what strikes you?"

He looked at her under the fluorescent lights as she inspected the selection of canned vegetables on the shelf to their right. "Well, frankly," he started, "I didn't even know we had a 24 hour supermarket, let alone that you would chose to frequent it at 2 in the morning."

She pulled a can of sweet corn and one of peas off the shelf and let them drop into the cart. "It's really the best time to do grocery shopping," she explained as she walked the squeaky grocery cart on down the lane. "There are no annoying children, no slow old people, no cranky and harried yuppies that stop in to pick up some stuff on their way home..." she trailed off to look at the boxes of instant mashed potatoes.

Robin looked around at the nearly deserted aisles and had to admit to the logic of her thinking, "It's like we're the only ones here."

She nodded briskly, "Exactly."

Robin looked at her and smiled. "How often do you come here?" Robin asked as he found the sauce mix packets he liked to prepare for his meat along the aisle near the bottom. He bent to retrieve the packs he favored but stopped to look back at her when she didn't immediately answer.

Raven was staring at him as if he had said something incredibly stupid, "As often as I need supplies," she finally answered.

Robin smiled and shook his head, grabbing up his sauce mix packs and dunking them unceremoniously into the metal cart. "I mean at this late time."

Raven shrugged, "I don't keep score," and continued walking.

"Now you're just being facetious."

Raven glanced at him. "Be honest," she said, "How long have you been waiting for an opening to use that word?"

"Har-de-har-har," Robin deadpanned.

"I see," she replied, and returned to pushing the cart down the aisle. The sound of the wheels on the linoleum floor echoed a little under the easy listening station piping over the loudspeakers and it took him a moment to realize that the song was somewhat familiar.

"Huh," he mused as they stopped in the next aisle over.

"Faithfully."

Robin looked at Raven as she placed the can of tomato sauce she had gone back for in the cart. "What is?" he asked, pushing the cart further down the lane as he hastened to catch up to her.

"What is what?" she asked, taking her inspection away from the pastas display to look at him over her shoulder.

"You said it was faithfully," he clarified.

She nodded and went back to decided between the ravioli and the angel hair. "It is."

"What is?" he prompted.

She scooped the box of ravioli off the shelf and turned back to frown at him. "The song is." At his continued look of confusion, she motioned in a vaguely upward direction and waited for him to catch on.

Into their silence, he heard the music, and it suddenly fell into place. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, of course," he nodded, humming along with the song, and joining in with, "I'm forever yours...faithfully," in an off-key baritone.

Raven winced. "Are you tone-deaf?" she asked.

Robin frowned and looked offended. "I don't appreciate the insinuation."

Raven almost smirked, but then she shrugged and turned to put the ravioli in the cart. "I thought I was being rather clear in my opinion on your ability to carry a tune," she said, walking on down the lane.

"I'm sure you could do better," he replied, pushing the squeaky cart after her.

"I'd be hard pressed not to," she assured, stopping before the selection of pasta sauces.

"So, prove it, then," he challenged.

She looked at him sideways. "I don't think so," she said in the tone she usually reserved for people who suggested she might have herself a good laughing fit one of these days.

Robin grinned. "Ah, that's 'cause you can't."

"No," she corrected, raising a brow. "That's because I am not interested in making a spectacle of myself in public."

Robin continued to grin. "Since when have you cared what the public thinks of you?" he asked. "You do things that have people staring at you all the time on a day to day basis," he reminded her.

"But I am a superheroine when I do," she explained. "And am in the process of saving something or someone at the time," she added. "I can't afford to care what kind of public disturbance I make when I'm doing my job."

"Public disturbance?" he echoed.

She chose a red pasta sauce and an Alfredo pasta sauce and put them in the cart. "Public displays."

Robin watched her for a moment, "Public displays?" he echoed again. She nodded, but didn't look at him. He caught hold of her hand when she would have moved on, however, and she turned back to look at him, surprise plain for him to read in the slight widening of her eyes and lifting of her brows. "By public displays, do you mean something like this?" he asked when their eyes met, giving her hand a slight tug and catching her enough by surprise that she actually moved forward toward him until she had to put a hand on his chest to stop herself from falling against him. Before she could protest or gain her bearings enough to move away, he had wrapped his arms around her, trapping her against him.

He saw the look on her face go from surprise to self-consciousness and finally settle on the expression she used to denote how very put upon she was, but he wasn't fooled. He could feel her pulse racing in her wrist, and he knew there was no way she was misinterpreting this action of his now...not the way she might have several weeks ago - before Disney World.

"This wasn't precisely what I was thinking about, no," she admitted, her tone flat, but not flat enough that he couldn't read it.

"Oh?" he asked. "Because I've been thinking about something precisely like this for awhile now," he admitted.

She could obviously sense the playfulness in his tone, but he knew his bluntness still caught her off-guard. "Like this?" she asked.

He smiled. "Well, any of several variations, but yes, generally speaking..."

"Here?" she asked.

"Well, it isn't like I've had many other opportunities," he admitted. His hand trailed down from her cheek and his arm just naturally seemed to find its way around her waist once again. "It's been pretty busy these few weeks since we've been back from Disney."

"It has," she allowed, her voice slightly lower than usual. "So you've been looking for an opportunity to do this since we've been back from Disney?" she asked.

He smiled softly at her. "I have," he admitted. He could see her working something out in her mind, so he waited.

"I suppose this is the sort of thing..." she trailed off before she could finish the thought.

Robin could count on one hand the amount of time he'd seen Raven at a loss for words and still have enough fingers left over to open a jar of pickles. That night, standing in the middle of an aisle in the local 24 hour supermarket, he added one more time to his list. He had a feeling he knew what she was trying to say, but wasn't sure he wanted to save her from having to say it.

"What?" he prodded.

"The sort of thing that's done," she said, obviously carefully choosing her words.

"Not everyone does this sort of thing, no," he said, deliberately obtuse.

She glared at him, even though the slight blush tinging her ears and crawling over her cheeks lessened its otherwise notable effect. "People like us," she said. When it was obvious he wasn't going to help her, she sighed, as much as she could still in his arms. "Like we are," she tried to clarify.

The look of amusement left Robin's eyes and he leaned in a little closer to her. "And what are we?" he asked.

Before she could speak, they heard the tread of a sneaker on the waxed linoleum and Raven stiffened and started to pull back. Robin held firm, and he saw the spark of fight in her eye as she glared at him when she realized he wouldn't just let go.

She started to tense for a real attempt when he smiled at her and spoke. "Now, I know you could easily break free if you wanted to," he said, "But this isn't really so bad, is it?" When she was shocked into relaxing, he raised one of his arms and pushed back the ever-present strand of hair resting over her forehead back behind her ear, letting his hand linger for a moment along her cheek. Her eyes searched his face, and before either one could speak again, the person with the tennis shoes had turned the corner onto their aisle and stopped dead at the sight of the two teens in a seemingly amorous embrace.

"Oh, oops!" the female voice called out, somewhat quietly, before she giggled. "I'll leave you two be, shall I?" she said, and started to back away.

Raven broke Robin's stare, although she didn't try to pull away from him anymore, and turned to look at the girl. "Don't let us keep you from your shopping," she said seriously to the girl. She looked back at Robin and raised a brow. "We won't make you uncomfortable, anymore, will we?" she asked.

Richard smiled and let her go so she could straighten up and step away, but he slipped his hand into hers. She didn't fight him, and the realization only made him grin all the harder. He turned that bright grin on the girl in the supermarket's uniform. "Sorry."

The girl's grin practically split her face. "Hey, s'alright, I completely understand," she waved and started to walk back into their aisle. "If my boyfriend were here, in this silence and stillness, I'd be finding it hard to keep my hands off him too," she chuckled and didn't catch the look Robin threw at Raven. "If you two want some privacy there's a corner back by deli meats where the cameras don't catch a thing," she stopped in the middle of the aisle and turned to wink at them before replacing the box of linguine she had in her hand.

Robin shot a devilish grin at Raven who raised a brow, but couldn't quite keep the smile from the corners of her lips. Robin, for his part, was just glad Raven didn't feel the need to correct the girl about their status. He wasn't quite sure what they were - or, more to the point, what Raven thought they were - but he knew it didn't really matter.

xxx

A/N: Yep. That's it. Short and quick. How'd you like it? Disappointed? I've got a few other Moments planned out and some I've even started written, so you can look forward to those. For more information on them, go visit my emsscraps livejournal page. I always put updates onto there. Moments even has its own tag and memory tag, so you can find stuff related to it relatively quickly.

Also...I don't like the quote I used for this, but I'm tired and sleepy and if I don't post this now, I might well forget. So...I'm stuck with it.

Any ideas? I might change it if I got a suggestion of a quote that I liked better.