Secrets

The sea of crowd applauded. Circus lights moved around in random directions, then finally focusing on two tall silhouettes. A man and a woman. The slim figures stood high on a trapeze.

Fear surfaced. He struggled. He didn't want to see. He knew what was going to happen. However, despite how hard he tried to advert his gaze and attempted to shut his eyes, his body ignored his orders. He could only watch the entire event replay again and again.

The acrobats leaped into the air. Their balance was incredible, not once did they trembled as they swung. The couple grinned confidently. The crowd cheered once more. A young boy stood at a corner of the stage, his lips pursed. He ought to tell his parents about what he had seen before they took the leap in the air.

A nagging guilt rose up to choke him. It was his fault. He squeezed his eyes close, but his eyes remained open. He felt his fists clenched, so tight that his nails dug into his palm, drawing blood. He tasted iron in his mouth.

The rope snapped. The couple stop smiling. The look on the faces were identical—pure horror. Their mouths were wide open, and their eyes squeezed shut. The acrobats clung onto one another. They didn't want to reach the ground.

The boy screamed, but not a sound came out. He willed himself to run up the stage. He wanted to rescue the Graysons, his parents, from the fatal fall. Yet, he stood rooted to the ground.

The crowd and the little boy watched in horror as the acrobats plummetted to the ground. They gasped. From the moment the rope snapped, the destiny of the acrobats was sealed. They dropped with a sickening thud. Blood was everywhere.

Raven was awakened. She sat on her bed, drawing deep breaths. She dabbed her forehead with a piece of tissue from the beadside table. Once she calmed down from the adrenaline rush, she climbed out of bed to find her team mate.

This wasn't her first time having that dream. And she knew that these dreams that continuously kept bugging her wasn't hers. It was someone else's.

Subconsciously, she reached the training room. Almost instantly when she opened the door, she shielded her eyes from the glaring light. Like she expected, Robin was there, punching several dummies furiously.

Raven watched him silently from the door. She could sense the emotions suring out of him easily. She noticed how different he was then, compared to other vigorous trainings in any ordinary day. His brows were knitted together, his muscles were so tensed. His knuckles were white and tendons appeared on his arms. He gritted his teeth so hard that parts of his lips turned red.

"You are going to hurt yourself," Raven spoke finally, gaining attention from her team mate.

He turned towards her, then went back punching a tattered dummy. Raven walked towards him and placed her cool hand on his bare shoulder, "Stop."

Robin ingnored her and shrugged her hand off, moving to another station,, "I have to train harder. Slade got away. Again." Raven followed him, "I know it's not about him." She paused before saying, "You are having nightmares."

Robin looked at him, beneath the mask was a pair of widened eyes. He stood up from his push-up positions and then took a seat on the blue sparring mat, beckoning the socceress to settle down beside him.

Raven slapped herself repeatedly in her mind. She was to rash, she should not have said that but coaxed him to admit instead. She knew what he would ask her. Therefore, she just stood there, creating a safe distance between Robin and herself.

"How do you know I was having nightmares," he hated to admit, but it was the only way to start the interesting conversation.

"I am an empath," she paused, considering her words, "I can tell."

Robin watched Raven. She was always under that blue cloak. They might have lived under the same roof for a long time, but there were still so much things they have yet to know about her.

"That is a lie, Raven," Robin said, determined to reveal what Raven was hiding. Being with Batman for a long time taught him several ways to make people talk. Raven wasn't the type to be intimidated, unlike Cyborg and Beast Boy. "You've been into my mind, but I haven't been to yours. It does not seem fair to me that you know my secrets, but I do not not know anything about you," he flashed his trademark smirk that would make every single female in the planet swoon.

Raven kept her guard up, "You know about my heritage, what I truly am."

"Everyone in the team knows that," he rose up and approached Raven. Raven refused to be cowed by him. She challenged, "You could check the files. Everyone is supposed to fill the forms up. It might contain other things which I have not told the team about."

He would have to use another tactic, "We care about you. What aren't you telling us? You know you can trust me."

Raven looked at his mask. She sighed, he was right. Other than Trigon, no one knows any thing about her. It was her team mates who always open up. She breathed, "Sometimes, your dreams become my dreams, even nightmares. Sometimes, I dream of Terra in the volcanoes, and sometimes I dream of Slade torturing you endlessly."

Robin sqeezed her hand, encouraging her to continue. "But sometimes your good dreams come to me. Like the dreams from Starfire, and when you dream of our successful battle."

Raven looked at her partner, he seemed more solemn. He said, "What are you still hiding from me?"

Raven trusted him. Furthermore, since she had revealed so much, it wouldn't hurt to say another thing. However, this time she was reluctant. "When I heal, I don't just take away the pain from your wounds," she trailed off.

"What do you mean?"

"I... I take your pains and make them my own," she look at Robin, asking for his approval.

"What?" he exclaimed. "You mean you absorb our pains instead of healing them?"

She added quickly, "But I am able to dispel those pains. You see, I am brought up to contain the Devil inside me, what could something as insignificant as pain do to me?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Robin was more concerned of the absorbing-the-pain part.

"If anyone on the team is injured, you wouldn't let me heal them," Raven cast her gaze to the ground.

Robin reached out his bare hand and stroked her long hair. He lifted her chin so that he could looked at those pretty eyes. He whispered, "Anymore secrets that I should know of?"

Raven countered, feeling that she had said enough. "I only know about your parents and your relationship to Batman, that seems a little unfair to me now, isn't it?"

"What about if I tell you my secrets?"

"Depends."

Robin peeled of his mask, revealing a pair of deep blue eyes. They were so dense, as if many secrets were held in it. Raven was lost in his eyes.

They had a staring contest. Raven thought she had won when he closed his eyes. Instead, he pressed his mouth against hers. His lips was soft,dry and warm. The kiss felt strange and lingering. They broke apart their kiss. Raven's cheek was so flushed. She turned around, claiming that sleep called.

"So I've opened up. You can tell me more if you want," Robin refered to her secrets.

She could feel him smiling at her. She began to feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "Maybe?"

"That means more kisses?" Raven ignore him and walked to her room while smiling dreamily. "I take that as a yes?" Robin hollered while clinging onto the door jamb, watching her until she disappeared into the darkness.

Hell yes.