Colors

Genre: Romance
Rating: Teen
Coupling: Slight Rae/Cy
Song: Colors by Crossfade
Disclaimer: I don't own the song, nor the character in the story.

There's no running away from these things that hold you down.
Do they complicate you, because they make you feel like this?
Of all the colors that you've shine this is surely not your best,
But you should know these colors that you're shining are

Surely not the best colors that you shine.

"Raven..." Cyborg said with a sigh. She had stormed off- Rarely had he seen her so angry at him. It was just supposed to be a team meeting... Robin, you bastard, you just had to say that to her, he swore to himself, looking over at the leader, who looked slightly shocked that Raven had run out of the room trying not to cry.

"What'd you have to go and bring up her father for! Let alone her demon heritage!" Beast Boy seemed angry at Robin, perhaps as much as Cyborg himself, throwing his arms around and glaring as he berated Robin in a loud voice, as if he wanted the whole world to know that it was Robin's fault. "Raven doesn't need to be reminded of that kind of stuff!"

"I'm sorry, Beast Boy, but I had to ask if she thought there was a potential threat of him coming back. She's linked to him by that demon blood of hers, and the safety of the world is worth a few shed tears."

"Friend Robin, please do not upset friend Raven anymore," Starfire said from his side, holding onto his hand calmly, looking at him with sad emerald eyes, and Robin simply shook his head and said nothing more.

When the taunt silence spread over the friends, Cyborg decided to pop the question everyone was dreading. "Who's going to go up and talk to her?" The result was as expected- A harsh, sharply-drawn breath followed by more, even more painful, silence.

"I can't," Robin pointed out. "She's never listen to me, the way she feels now. If you could just get her to talk to me, I could apoligize..." He gave a quick, sideways glance at Starfire, who caught it and shook her head slowly, long amber hair moving around her face in all directions as she did so.

"I am lacking the understanding to talk about what is going on," Starfire said slowly. "I cannot understand Raven's deep feeling of... hatred."

Beast Boy simply shook his head. "She'll throw me out."

All eyes fixtated themselves on Cyborg. "You understand her better than anyone else does, at this point," Robin said bitterly, his feelings of regreat deepening that he had said anything to her when he had known better than to open his mouth. Always too quick to forget to think, he sighed to himeself.

"I guess I can give it a try," Cyborg said slowly. "But if she throws me down the stairs, you guys had better scrape me off of them, do you hear me?" I hope she doesn't...

"You'll be fine," Beast Boy said, clapping him on the back. "Why don't you just get moving all ready? The quicker Raven feels better, the quicker we can get back to our game," he added with a smile, pointing to their long-forgotten video game on the wide-screen TV in front of them, which Robin had called to a hasty hault due to the 'need' for a meeting.

Slowly, without another word to anyone, Cyborg made his lone way up the steps toward Raven. "Ready or not," he muttered to himself, and made his way up.

All the while, Raven was not, as expected, in her room, but instead resting with legs crossed in a meditative style upon the roof of the T-shaped Titan's Tower she had called home for so long. One hand rested in her lap, but the other was held straight out in front of her, the sleeve rolled so that she could see the blue viens in the back of her hand. "Demon blood..."

"Fithy demon blood!" She let the sleeve fall back into place, pinning it where it belonged, and rested the other one against her face, which radiated heat even though she was far from flushed.

"I should have known I'd never get away from the questions, from all the lies and everything people were saying..." Robin and Cyborg flashed into her mind at that moment, for some reason. "But I could have tried... And here I thought people might respect me..."

She sighed. It's so complex... Through her head ran scenes of her childhood, hearing stories of who her terrible father really was and what she could do. Then she was here, with the Titans, and Slade had come back... Like some horrible picture show rather than a part of her past, it flashed through her mind. "No..."

Why do I let it make me feel like this? It makes me so upset and so... ANGRY! She struck out and her hand hit the nearby rooftop, a small object, perhaps a pebble, moving away from her and lying motionless, still engulfed in the black cloud of released energy, about ninety feet away.

She could not force herself to make another sound, and so she sat there, looking out over the landscape, unsure of what to think or feel. So confused... I can't think...

Why do I let him get to me? She got no answer but a slight ruffle in her lilac hair by the wind, and so she did not move, cloak moving slightly around her shoulders, eyes fixed on nothing.

I know you feel alone, yeah, and no one else can figure you out,
But don't you ever turn away from the ones that help you down.
Well they'd love to save you,
Don't you know they love to see you smile?
But these colors that you've shined are surely not your style.
You should know these colors that you're shining are

Surely not the best colors that you shine.

Cyborg felt his knuckles rap against the door again and again, but got no response from within the small, dark room. "Raven, come on, please..."

No answer. Instead, Cyborg was left to turn away from the door. "You know her better than anyone... If Raven were upset, where would she go...?" He stood there for several seconds, mechanical hand to the wall, and stared off into space. "If I were Raven..."

The roof. Without hesisation, he turned and prepared to leave to clamber up onto the roof. For whatever reason, it didn't surprise him to find her, left knuckles bloodied, right arm still clentched in her lap, hunched over in her own shadow in the late-afternoon dying sunset. "Raven..."

"Cyborg, you don't need to see me like this. Just go inside." She kept her head turned away from him, and suddenly the hood changed color with a burst of black, and flew up to hide her hair, which was blowing in the chilly night winds that were settling in.

Cyborg took a step closer to her. "Raven, I just want you to feel like you can talk to me. Come on, whatever's going on in your head, let me try to understand you." His hand fell against her shoulder as, as gracefully as a cyborg could, he settled himself down on the ground next to her.

Raven did not pull away from him but instead locked eyes with him. "How can you possibly understand what it feels like to be called a demon to your face like that?" As soon as the words were out, she knew it was a mistake- The clear blue human eye narrowed slightly, but she did not pull away with either her body or her gaze, and the silence rested between them for a few moments.

"Don't turn away from the people who want to help you, Raven," he said slowly, deciding not to go the lecture route, not to point out that he was stuck inside the tin can body while she at least lived with a body of flesh, even if not the flesh of her choosing... "You can't keep bearing this by yourself."

"I just don't think you'll be able to... Well, figure me out... If I say this. It's just, my father, my hatred for him... It hasn't died, and I can't shake the feeling that... Well, that Robin and the others haven't accepted it, that they want to ignore the fact that he exists, and I want to believe that..."

Cyborg cocked his head slightly to the side but motioned for her to go on.

"I already don't make sense," she said softly, and ceased to talk.

"Come on, Raven." Instead of just a hand, this time Cyborg, manuvering himself so that he was directly in front of her, put both hands on her shoulders, and they resumed the intense stares they had borne at first. "Tell me everything. You can't forget if you don't."

"It's not like it will save me from anything," she replied coldly.

"No, but it might make you smile." He paused for a second. "You have a beautiful smile, Raven, when you don't keep it hidden under all the pain. Just tell me what's going on."

"I just hate my father so much, and when we talk about him, I can't help but feel like he't not gone, like I'm not really free of that terrible existence, and Robin made it sound like it's my fault, and I lost it and..." Her head fell forward and caught against hischest, and neither of them moved for a minute. Raven's chest started to move as though she might sob at any moment, and still Cyborg sat in front of her.

"I understand feeling outcast, but it's all right, Raven... Everything is all right." Slowly but carefully, he hugged her, bringing her thin, frail form closer to his body. "Don't cry, please don't cry."

I know you're feeling like you're lost,
You've drifted way too far.
But you should know these colors you're shining are surely not the best.

"Thank you," she whispered suddenly. "Thank you for everything, Cyborg."

Her face lit up in a smile Cyborg didn't think he'd ever be able to forget. Now that, he thought to himself, is the shade I'd like to see more of.

The color of true happiness.

Raventhedarkgoddess: Sorry, I just had the urge to write a short, fluffy Rae/Cy kind of thing. Read and Review, couple flames will be left to smolter and die.