I started writing romance stories in lovecraftian games, now I'm in DC comic territory. Still writing romance stories! Shouts out to DC and CN for making my childhood, and a hardy screw you to the dev team of Teen Titans Go, for bending the original backwards and re-enacting the rape of nanking. Now with the story.

Dick Grayson was no stranger to failure. From an early age with his mentor, he had learned every conceivable type of failure. His relationship with his girlfr...Ex-Girlfriend Kori, the hundreds of broken bones, bruises, lacerations, during his training. more on the field, his failure to apprehend Slade Wilson. Dick Grayson was a failure.

Failures are strong. Nightwing, because of his failures. Learned. He was strong, fast, and talented. He had done things, he learned things that no other mortal (or otherwise) had ever experienced. A monument to his failures formed under his belt in a team of (formerly) adolescent teen superhumans, millions of lives saved, and hundreds of dangerous criminals locked away. He had taken a dark and rigorous road, but he had come out on top where he was finally able to create a tangible thread of positive change in the world. He had done more than simply exist, he actively improved the lives of his fellow man. Dick Grayson to Robin to Nightwing, all in under two decades. This however was not at the forefront of his mind.

Years had passed, and after the incident in Tokyo, his girlfriend at the time was becoming more and more territorial. There was an instance where after a common thug pulled a pistol on "Robin", nothing out of the ordinary. However when the first shot was fired, Starfire took it personally, and fired a starbolt into the handgun, melting the gun, igniting the bullets, and effectively mutilating the assailant. The hand was later removed.

"Star, what have you done?" he had asked later in the day, from the sound-insulated rooms of the tower. "He would have killed you! My Robin! My Boyfriend!" she had become overly possessive. There was no depth, no real reason that the Tamaranian should have been so, attached, to every little step Robin took. She absolutely loomed over him, making sure that if he stepped on a pin, the pin would be horrifically mutilated and brought to justice (this actually happened, the floor beneath the pin had been annihilated as well, cyborg spent the next two hours fixing the laundry room floor). Eventually, it had to end. Richard felt suffocated. In a total of three months, she had mutilated a thug, broken more walls and floors than the tower managed to have over petty injuries, and "saving" him in ways that ended up injuring him worse than what he was being saved from. The breaking point came when the HIVE managed to break into a bank vault, and rather than taking a hit from Jynx, Kori decided to blast a hole in the vault wall, and throw Robin through it, molten metal and shrapnel digging into his back.

Third degree burns, and lacerations aside, this had to stop. Robin called Star to his room one week afterwards. "Kori, I need you to give me some space when we are working, I like that you're so concerned but I ju-" he never got to finish. "Richard, we are the couple no? It is my job to care for you, if you get hurt I just.." She began to choke up behind her fluorescent green eyes, a sign she was both angry and emotionally unstable. Richard did not know what to do, this was simply too much, too overbearing. "Star, this is too much! You're blowing up walls because I stub my toe, I need space!".

"You mean to work?" Kori asked with a cocked head. "No". It's all he could say before she had grunted, tears flying and a single fist sending Dick through the nearest wall, in full view of the other titans. Robin trying to stand up in the debris of the living room, the other titans trying to figure out if they were being attacked, and the wails of Starfire flying to her room disturbed the thoughts of Raven, who didn't even flinch, she had felt it in Robin's mind, and moved accordingly to her room to preserve her inner peace. The wails of Koriand'r didn't cease until dawn the following day, and Richard had fractured his arm and cracked three ribs, much to Raven's chagrin. She had to heal all of the serious injuries. Raven, as far as Dick was concerned, was the only real woman in his life now that Star refused to acknowledge his existence. She was closer than his best friend, they shared minds for god's sake. When the break-up had occurred, Raven heard it before it happened. "Oh shit Oh shit Oh shit Oh shit". Her queue to leave. She heard the thought, felt his panic, and sent to him the single thought. "Someone has a case of the Mondays". Cyborg and Beastboy didn't understand how breaking bones was funny.

Three nights later, Raven had seen Robin leave his room, and walk across the threshold of the living room to pour himself some juice. A single file of Slade Wilson under his arm. It was at this time he left town for a few months, leaving a note outside Raven's door.

Raven,

Now's a good of time as any to restart. I trust you the most with the team in my absence. I'll be back in two months time, tell Vic he's in charge. Don't worry, I just need to figure some things out. If Kori leaves her room, don't mention me, it seriously triggers her mood swings. I'll see you soon.

-Dick

She sighed. What a moron he was. Not to say Raven didn't love her friend Richard. He was intelligent, strong willed, always in control, and the only other person she could really be herself with him. Though she didn't love him for this. She loved him for his flaws. He was loyal to a fault, overly analytical, a smart ass, and on top of it all, petty. Love being such a strong word, but it was what she felt. A world without him was one without laughter for her. Who else would taunt her in German over tea? They shared a mind, and so he never really could leave her, but a physical presence was much more tangible, mental messages and feelings were essentially texts.

Two months came and went, and Raven mostly kept to her library. A euphemism to her room that Dick (the only man allowed in her room) created. What could she say, she found it funny when he entered her room, and without a word took a novel from the self, walked over to her and said "I'd like to rent this book mrs librarian!". The phrase was very apropos, ninety percent of her room was literature. She liked to read. Other than the psychic and demonic powers, she was another human (mostly) being who liked books. Often Dick would leave her room with a novel, pour over it's contents, and talk about it with her later, when he wasn't pouring himself into research.

He would return in a blue suit this time, blue suit, new name. Hell, he had a new body. He was taller, broader, and more agile. Nightwing, as he was called now, was a new person. Not to Raven. He came into her room first to say hello. "Robin?" she asked. "Nightwing now my dear Raven" he replied. "You couldn't at least turn from birds?". He laughed, and she giggled at how he even grew in voice. She felt warmth radiate from his mind, and he scooped her up from her chair in a massive hug. She was unaccustomed to such affection, but the warmth he projected was overbearingly pleasant. He was like a human fireplace, radiating comfort and good intent. She intoned "Ich habe dich vermisst". "Ich habe gehört, dass, und ich habe dich auch vermisst." He walked out and greeted the rest of the team.

In such a short time he had become so much more, and still Starfire hated what he was with a passion. Tamaraneans apparently knew how to hold grudges. Perhaps it was the fact that he moved on, perhaps she just was resentful of the break-up herself. It was childish regardless. Nightwing was new, the grudge was old. Raven loved watching it unfurl. The jealousy that Kori radiated, Vic's determination, Gar's lighthearted earnesty, and Nightwing's obsessive power. They were the avatars of emotions she was not allowed to free. Years prior to today she had decided to let her emotions run wild. The problem was a place. Raven's emotions actually had destructive power, her anger alone could vaporize entire neighborhoods. That in mind, she researched areas void of life. She considered places expendable, places that could not be altered by her pure energy. She found Tunguska, and decided that she would leave there. Teleportation took mere minutes through void and ether, and she was in the Tunguska valley, Russia. It was hit by a Meteor in the early nineteen hundreds, and was abandoned. Perfect. Upon arrival, she let it all out. No control, no emotional grasp. Raven exploded. Literally. Her astral form grew, emotions burning the floor beneath her, and the pebbles at her feet quickly turning to dust, then glass. Her energy, rage, passion, sadness, all of it was flung from her form. She screamed and cried and threw her hands round as dark energy flew about her. Trees were torn apart, and everything in a ten meter radius was turned to dust.

It was beautiful. The shades of black and the powers that she had so long restrained had been identified and freed. They ran wild among the foliage, decaying and burning the woods, the ground was being burned, even the rocks were being destroyed. She had created a beach from the pebbled river in fifteen minutes. Raven refused to stop now. Rage flowed free as her energy pushed trees hundreds of feet into the air, happiness grew new grass, and hatred, pure and simple corroded it away in venom. Her emotions were free. They created and destroyed. There was something wrong as panic was becoming apparent. She was high on her own emotion, it was not adhering to her power, it was tearing her body apart. black energy literally forced its way from her mouth, and ran a trail of pure black power a mile northward, a trail of hot earth was left in its wake.

Raven struggled to get it under control. Was this what the others felt? The heat in her chest as she sobbed and screamed? The sinking as panic manifested? Was this what being human was like? Had she restrained her humanity to the point where the release destroyed so much? She fought to pull it all back in. She thought long and hard while sucking the power back in. A rift had opened into space, and terrible things began to reach through, she closed it with minimal effort, and kept pulling herself back. After three days of restraining fifteen minutes of emotion, Raven was light on her feet, and sobered from her release. She was thinking of Richard. How did he hide that feeling? She had a newfound respect for her peers. Of course their emotions could not emulate a meteor strike, but to restrain the internal war was admirable, to put it lightly. She remembered how some emotions stirred when she thought of Dick. Happiness grew entire trees from saplings, where an enigmatic feeling wrapped around the trees and snapped them like twigs. Her inner emotions all created or destroyed something when Dick came to mind, and it felt wonderful. She felt enlightened by the experience, but also terrified of her smallest release. Surely if she had kept her power going for hours, she may have totaled all of Russia. She warped home, and went to sleep. A warm glass of tea sat by a note.

-I detected a hint of angst from your room, you weren't here. Made tea just in case you returned. Feel better, you know where I am if you want to talk.

-R

She smiled as sleep took her. When she awoke, he was in the living room. Three-thirty AM. "We're all mad here Alice!" he calls out to her, eyes trained on Carroll. She drawls softly "you should ask before you take my books".

"Yes, but I come in so often to chat that I essentially live with you." He is so ignorant, and she adores that cocky-boy-scout charm. It's arrogant, and it seethes with earnesty. She smiles and sits by him.

"You're troubled Dick"

He grunts.

"You're reading about Slade, what's wrong"

"None of your business" he mumbles. She looks into his eyes

his thoughts only read "fuckfuckfuckfuck"

"Your mind has quite the mouth"

"You should hear Kori's"

She looks again, his other eye is swollen shut. She looks into his head, and sees him speaking to Starfire, she feels the honesty he is expressing, and the panic as she swings a fist. Ironically it misses, but the bits of wall impact his eye as he dodges left.

"What did you say?" She demands

"I told her I was sorry that we did not work out"

"I'm telling you, mondays are not the day to do these things!"

"It's Tuesday now". She giggles, and raises her hand to heal the eye.

"I'll be putting this back in your library now, if you don't mind." He says rather than asking. Raven makes another cup of tea, and walks back to her room. The door opens, and there he is. Four in the morning, across her bed, snoring softly with Carroll in his hand. The healing really exhausts the body, so she does not mind. She steps towards him to collect the book, and ends up resting right behind him. She wakes up with his arm draped over her shoulder, warmth and comfort radiating from a peaceful mind. He falls out of bed, scrambles off when he realises where he was, and who he was sleeping with. Raven chortles, then her cheeks feel light. Had she really slept next to her leader, friend...Richard? "Huh"

So I loathe everything I make in the long run, but you should all tell me how it is so I can loathe it more or less. I just like the catharsis of writing down stories. Maybe some of you will enjoy it. Maybe not. Either way, if you made it to the end, I'm so flattered that I could at least hold any attention. Tell me if I should continue the story!