Because this is how I feel...except for the happy ending. Because this is how I think Raven felt. Because this is how one feels when one suddenly knows...there are good people out there. People that care. People that are worth loving.

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Unexpected

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She could not lie to herself.

She would not lie to herself.

Robin.

When she had first appeared before him, she believed he would be the one for her. What he had shown to here was far more than she had ever known. There was understanding in his smile. There was acceptance in that hand placed upon her shoulder. He was warmth in her frigid world.

He was a leader. He was a gentleman. He was always considerate and unwilling to intrude upon her privacy. He was compassionate. He did not pry into matters when she refused to answer them the first time. She had thought he would be the one for her. He was everything she imagined she would need.

But soon, she was confused. Though she felt most strongly for him, the others began to hold a place in her heart as well. He wasn't the only one that made her blood rush warm and feel she belonged. Alone with herself, she would often try to answer her confusion. It never really worked.

And then she realized. That the barren state she had been in was only reacting naturally to the sudden overflow of affection. She was only feeling what the rest of the world had always felt. Friendship.

And she slowly found that that very characteristic of courteousness he had, the very same darkness they shared, made them unfit for each other. When she was alone, when she deliberately separated herself from the others, when she distanced herself physically and emotionally from even her friends, in the deepest part of her heart she wanted someone to call out. He could never do that for her. He would respect her distance and leave her alone when what she really wanted was someone to call her name, hold her hand and tell her it will be all right. Tell her that she really did belong here, that she wasn't and will never be alone.

Beastboy.

Maybe that was why she had hugged him. When he appeared in front of her door and started apologizing even when she wouldn't open the door for him. He stood, the cold steel a barrier she felt she needed between them, because she would not show anyone her brokenness. And he said what she had longed to hear. What she had needed to hear.

"You think you're alone, Raven…but you're not."

And the walls dissolved. She launched herself into his arms.

He was the one who always tried to make her smile. The one who pushed her barriers to the limit so much sometimes she thought she hated him. He was the one to always come back for her and try to pull her out of her depressions. He endured her capricious tempers and her fits of rage with a smile and a joke. She could be as free as she was only because she knew he would always be back. Because she knew she could count on him to appear at her door with a laugh and tug at her hand.

Because she knew he loved her. And maybe, just maybe…

She loved him too.

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Love is not just an emotion. It's the very fiber of life. Love isn't just the love between a man and a woman. Love equates with life. Without love there is no life. Even though you are breathing, your heart is beating and your blood flowing, you are not alive. Not truly alive. Living death.

Love is the only thing that makes the earth an endurable place to be. Love is the sole reason the earth has not yet been consumed in fire and ice. Love gave breath to the Earth, to you and I.