Requested by Emaniahilel in an lj meme regarding time stamps for posted fics – A moment after the last line of Chapter 5.

Is Forever Enough?

Robin's Response

by Kysra

"I'm already in love with you."

He sighs heavily as if a great weight has been lifted and he can finally breathe, stills her scrubbing hands beneath soapy water, trapping slim fingers, entwining them with his. "When?"

Her hair smells of sleep and moonfall, and he can fairly picture her pursing mouth as his face finds a resting place at the juncture of neck and shoulder. Her torso rises and falls with breath suddenly quickened, and he knows that the smile that kisses her just there is the cause. "Not so early as you."

She knew . . . Surprise is muted by the comfortable realization that he had always known that she knew. It was simply the way with them. "When?" He reiterates, thinking for just a moment that it is distinctly unfair that she has knowledge that he intrinsically lacks.

Small, feminine, water-wrinkled hands urge his own up and into dry air even as she leans just a little into him, shifts just a bit to the side, granting better access to the line of her jaw, her cheek, her ear. "I'm not certain." She is barely whispering, her voice shuddering with a tinge of fear. "But it was a conscious decision."

"You decided to love me?" He releases one hand to free his own so that it may be put to better use, urging her to turn slightly, caged as she is between himself and the counter, tempting her face toward him.

She merely nods wordlessly, and he can see the gravity in her eyes. It pulls him as it has always pulled him, and he wants to yell from the rooftops and celebrate that he no longer has to hold back, that he can finally, finally have her. "After the Brotherhood, I decided to stop repressing it. I let myself feel what I would feel for you."

Thank God. Again that sigh of immense relief. "Why?"

Turning fully, she faces him directly, hands now free and braced upon the sink rim, bare feet in line and between his own, a familiar expression on her face. "'Why are you trying to annoy me with these inane questions'?"

He grins and leans in, damp hands roaming up and down her sides before settling at her hips. "Why are you telling me now?"

Violet eyes skip over his face as her tongue wets her dry lips and her nervous fingers come to rest upon his own. He knows this look on her, knows the kinetic drive of her thinking. She is weighing the validity and tact of several responses, musing over his projected reactions, deliberating on the circumstances and what type of answer is called for; and he waits her out as he has always waited, because Raven is the sort who demands patience in all situations.

"You needed to know that I wanted what you wanted." She eventually strangles out before staring up at him through her lashes. "And I wanted to taste what every woman in Jump City, Gotham, and Bludhaven has already tasted."

"Oh?" His nose bumps hers and his palms slide around to press her body flush against his; but she isn't fazed in the least, and he would have been disappointed if she had been. So he grins blithely into her eyes even as they darken as if to say he should be ashamed for making her vocalize what he had already guessed.

Her arms snake around his waist. "Indeed. I think I'm the only girl you've ever come across and haven't kissed." She says it the way she says everything, and somehow it still sounds like an accusation.

"You give me too much credit."

"Maybe, but it's still true, isn't it?"

He tucks a stray hair behind her ear, and wonders why he's still playing with her when he's been given such a golden opportunity. Then, as if in answer to his silent bemusement, she smiles that secret smile - the one he fancies was made for him - and he chuckles. "I promise I've never kissed Jinx or Terra or any of the female Brotherhood."

They are locked together in an embrace in the kitchen talking about kissing while doing none themselves. The irony does not escape him.

"I am only interested in why you never once tried to kiss me after you knew you loved me."

Her body shudders against his, and he immediately knows she is being honest. Pulling her more firmly into him, he shields her as if her insecurity were an outside force threatening her. "It's never been simple between us, has it?" He murmurs into her hair as her palms rest and span upon his shoulder blades. She shakes her head silently, urging him to continue; and he does. He owes her this.

"If I had tried, would you have let me?" Again a head shake, and though stopping now would be permissible, he trudges on. "And if you had let me, I wouldn't have been able to let go. I wouldn't have been able to walk away. I wasn't ready for that yet. You weren't ready for that yet."

He can feel her hands clutch at his shirt as her head comes up, her eyes meeting his; and they are so close that all it would take to close the gap is the barest downward shift of his chin. Once he understands that the balance has shifted, that she is now waiting for him, he wastes no more time - framing her face with gentle hands then taking her mouth in ways he's never wanted to take another's.

And when they are breathless and his forehead rests against hers, eyes closed and heart pounding with something sweet and warm and strange but comfortable, she speaks in a voice that is low and quiet and somehow sultry, "I think I want to own your kisses."

He chuckles and briefly presses his lips to her crown before resuming their previous position, enjoying this fantasy come to life. "Certainly, but for how long? Is forever enough?"

Commitment is something he has spent his adult life running from, but he knows one word from her will stop him in his tracks. She doesn't disappoint. He dares to hope that she never will.

"I don't know, but I'd like to find out." Then her lips are on his again and his hands are supporting and lifting her to sit on the counter as he breaks away just long enough to finally tell her that he loves her too.