A new night, the same situation. The dark shadows on my ceiling meld together as I watch without blinking under my covers. Thoughts swirl in my head of the kiss with Robin on the roof. I had liked him for a while now, but had been so afraid that the bond had been magnifying my crush.

A sudden clench in my chest roused me from my thoughts. It felt as though a hand had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart, refusing to let go. The covers around my feet felt like manacles as I attempted to free myself from their clutches and get out of bed. Finally wrenching the covers free my only thought was of leaving the room and getting to the one person who I knew I needed to see.

Standing in front of the brass nameplate the tight feeling in my chest had grown even stronger and instead of waiting for the occupant of the room to open the door I phased through to see Robin in bed. Even in the moonlight I could see the gleam of sweat on his furrowed brow as he tossed and turned.

Sleep is supposed to be a time when an individual looks the most at peace but Robin looked utterly distressed. The quilt from his bed had long been kicked off onto the floor with the sheet bunched around his legs, one bare foot free from the covers. He had also abandoned the shirt I had seen him in earlier and the moonlight illuminated the sheen of sweat on his back. The little of his face that I could see peeking out from his pillow looked unhappy. His brow was furrowed and his lips pursed. Every joint in his body must be tense because from my position at the entrance of the room I could see the white of his knuckles clenched into the sheets.

Tiptoeing closer, I could see that his mouth was moving. It was hard to make out the words until I was near enough to touch him. "Please. Stop….No." He kept mumbling those same words over and over again.

I gently lowered myself onto the edge of the bed near his pillow and reached a hand out to stroke the hair back from his face. I felt him shudder under my hand and the muttering grew more insistent. "No! You can't have her…" The sadness in his voice was so heart wrenching, I could feel tears begin to form in my own eyes. "You can't take her away from me...just like you did everyone else."

Tears openly streaming down my face I lightly pushed Robin onto his back and threw my arms around his neck, Now I had a pretty good idea what he had been dreaming about and if the "her" was in fact...me...I hated knowing that I could cause Robin this much pain.

I squeezed my arms around him tighter and lay myself as close to him as I could possibly get. Curling my head into the crook of his neck, I delivered the softest kisses and hoped that Robin could feel me with him. After a few moments, arms came around my back and grabbed me tight.

"Rae?" a hoarse voice broke the silence.

"Yes, Richard," I kissed his neck again lightly "I am here."

He kissed the top of my head and pulled me tighter into his embrace.

As I lay with him in the darkness of his bedroom, my head rested on his chest I began to feel his heartbeat slow and his hand slowly traced a line up and down my back.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Breaking the silence seems blasphemous, but the quiet in the room was deafening.

As my words his grip about my waist grew tighter and he slid onto his side, drawing me into the warmth of his embrace.

Clearing his throat Richard pulled me into his chest, hiding his face from my view.

"It started as the usual crap. My parents' deaths, flashes of my time with Bruce but it got worse. I honestly didn't think that was possible."

His voice had quieted as he recounted his dream.

"Suddenly I found myself looking down on my unconscious body amongst the rubble of Jump City as well as that of Kori, Gar, and Vic. You, in a child form was running me and urging me to get up but to no avail. Trigon approached you as you crouched near my body and even though I was passed out I could feel your fear."

I felt him shudder as he thought about the emotions running through me during this stand-off with my father.

"Rather than gain your strength and fighting back against him, he continued to beat you down over and over again."

His hands clenched into fists behind my back as he continued.

"While the rational side of my brain knew this was a false dream and there was no way you would be defeated…" Robin got quieter as he continued.

"There was no way I would be able to survive if something happened to you. It is hard to imagine you losing any fight. But, my life has been nothing but happiness taken away from me. The universe can't have you too."

He buried his head into the crook of my neck and we lay in the darkness, just enjoying each other's company.

-X-

Stay golden, my Readers.

- Chlover