*Disclaimer- I own nothing of Avatar: The Last Airbender*

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The Dream

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I ran, my legs never ceasing to stop their constant cycle of motion, my mind never straying from one single thought: Run.

My lungs were on fire and it felt as if my heart was about to beat out of my chest. It was a strange sensation, it seemed, being so excruciatingly pained but unable to stop moving. There was some unknown energy forcing them to continue to work with my strained muscles and have me continue through the shadows. My eyes only placed on the figure, the ominous mysteries of the woods leering at me from behind.

I winced as I could feel the knot tightening in my leg as I fought through the mountainous oaks that towered around me. Darting past outstretched branches that welcomed the spill of blood, I kept my focus steady.

It was coming closer, I could feel it. My eyes pierced through the sun-splattered forest floor, seeing the clearing in the distance. It was coming soon. Finally at a standstill, I could hear the screams fading into nothing.

I walked calmly; the pounding in my chest slowly retreating. The sun was blinding now; the trees no longer providing their protection. I gingerly peaked past the cliff and smiled. I made it.

Then it happened. The deafening silence of the forest was pierced suddenly by the deathly sound of a gun going off. The echo of the ear-splitting "BANG" carried on for a good minute. Then out of nowhere, I felt something plunge into the lower part of my neck. My head jerked back and my body went forward.

Pain: It was like a thousand burning needles were jabbed in at the same time, shooting up and down my back. A wave of nausea hit me, and I collapsed, falling hard onto the ground with a cry.

In the distance, I could hear and see the dogs barking madly, happy that they had found their prey. I closed my eyes, lying there, unable to do anything except suffer. Warm tears formed at the corners of my eyes as I gasped out in pain.

Make it stop, make it stop, I thought

I heard footsteps coming closer. I opened my eyes. It was a man with dark glasses. His arms swayed, simultaneously, back and forth, as his stilt-like legs seemed to be carrying him from point A to point B; mechanically in motion one leg thrust forward as the other tried, rhythmically, to catch up.
He walked over to me, bending down to where I was, and sneered. "You think you can defeat me in your dream? You will never defeat me...Raven."
Suddenly, I felt myself being jerked back roughly. The next thing I knew, I was blindfolded and gagged. He put something over my face, and as I breathed in, everything started to go black.

...

I woke up gasping for air, checking every inch of my body to see if I was hurt. My heart was pounding in my throat; cold sweat drenched my neck, my clothes, my bed. I breathed a sigh of relief once I realized that I wasn't dead.

I've been having that dream for the past couple weeks now. It has always been me getting chased after someone, then getting shot and kidnapped.

I looked at my clock; it was midnight on a Saturday, and still very dark outside. I nervously looked around my room. Everything was still in place: my old mahogany queen sized bed rested heavily on the aging, battered bare hardwood floors, which seemed to spontaneously generate dust. The dark blue painted walls reflected the moonlight, and gave the room a sort of glow quality. My chest of drawers sat in front of the only segment of my wall that lacked the blue paint. My artwork and books were stacked neatly next to my laptop on my computer desk.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. Millions of questions flooded through my mind. What were these dreams about? Why did I keep having them?
Sighing, I got up out of the bed, wrapped my robe around myself and walked out of my room. A warm cup of tea should calm my nerves.

I squared my shoulders and began to walk towards the kitchen. Taking a step inside the kitchen, I tensed when the lights suddenly turned on. I spun around, shocked, then breathed a shaky sigh of relief when I realized who it was.

Casually dropping my stance and walking towards the cabinet, I picked out a tea mug. "Robin, did you have to flick on the lights like that," I managed to keep my composure and set the mug on the counter.

"Did I startle you?" I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"No," I said confidently, frantically searching for tea bags. "Is there no more tea? I could've sworn I bought some."

Shaking his head, Robin sat down in the chair and bit a piece of his chocolate cookie. "Beast Boy said he was doing some prank with it. Apparently he needed tea bags." Clenching my teeth, I loudly slammed the cabinet door shut. "Raven?"

"What?" I said, rubbing at my temples.

"Are…Are you okay?"

"Perfect."

"Ok," he said simply, continuing to loudly munch on his cookie. "What you doing down here anyway?"

I shrugged, and turned away from him. Instead of telling him to get lost and mind his own business, I said, "I wanted some tea." It was a half lie.

"That's a nice robe," he nodded his head at me, raising one of his eyebrows. "I didn't know you did pink."

"I don't."

"I'm pretty sure Star would be so excited that you're wearing the thing she got you for your birthday," he said as a sly smirk curled onto his lips. "I think someone actually cares about someone besides themselves."

I discreetly covered my mouth with my hand, trying to hold in my chuckle, but I'm sure he had heard it. "It was the first thing I grabbed. And I do care about others."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I just don't exhibit it like you guys do." I shrugged. "Besides, Boy Wonder, you shouldn't talk. If I remember correctly, those Power Ranger pajama pants were given to you by Beast Boy. I think someone cares about their teammates feelings."

He grunted. Setting his cookie down and walking to the refrigerator, he got out the milk. Turning to look at me, he said, "Hey, I only wear what I know I look good in." I raised my eyebrow at him. What was he trying to get at?

"Right."

"You don't think so?" He questioned, sparing me a sideways glance, then turning back to his cookie and finishing it. Standing up, he went to the cabinet and pulled out the full bag of chocolate cookies. He opened it and automatically offered me one. He smiled once I took one from him. "Not as good as tea, but close enough."

"I guess," I took a bite of the cookie and sat down next to him. "So what's you're excuse to come down here? I know you didn't just come down here to eat cookies the rest of the night." I could see a smile start to ease onto his face.

"I couldn't sleep," he said seriously. "I just couldn't take my mind off of the mission yesterday. It feels so surreal, you know?" He didn't look at me; instead he kept his eyes placed firmly on the cookie he was eating.

The battle against my father.I nodded and nibbled on the cookie, letting the silence grow between us. There was always something comfortable about the silences between Robin and me. It was never awkward. And so, for a while, we just ate our cookies quietly, trying to forget the thoughts and dreams that had taken us away from our sleep.

"So... are you going to tell me the real reason why you're down here?" he said, interrupting the peaceful silence we had going on.

"I already told you, I wanted—"

"...some tea, oh yeah, that's right," he had swiftly cut me off. Picking up another cookie, he placed it in his mouth and chewed slowly as if it was sticking to the roof of his mouth. "It's okay if you don't wanna tell me, Rae."

There was another moment of silence before I spoke. "It's just a dream I've been having lately. Nothing I can't handle."

He nodded. "I'm sure."

I glared at him, not sure if he was being sarcastic or trying to be caring. Rolling my eyes, I continued, "It's just like you said. The mission against my father had been very nerve wracking. I can't believe that we defeated him. It just doesn't feel like he's really gone." He let out a 'hmm'. "And these dreams, they feel so...real, the running, fatigue... my death..."

He stopped eating and raised an eyebrow at me. "Death?"

"Unfortunately," I mumbled.

His expression: O_o "You seem to be pretty calm about it."

"I know it's just a dream, but it still gives me chills," I said quietly, wrapping my arms around myself. "You wouldn't understand the horrendous things my father put me through, all the things he did to me and my mother. I was weak...and I still am weak." Robin looked at me; eyes open in pure concern, though I couldn't tell too much through the mask he wore.

"You're not weak," he said quietly.

"What?" my head snapped up and my eyes met his.

"You're not weak. Trust me, I've seen the way you fight and I've seen the way you stand up for people and in what you believe in," he said. I could tell he was feeling a little awkward to be saying that to me.

I scoffed. "Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I put too much faith in other people. I trusted my father, and look what happened."

"You trusted me, too, and look where it has taken us," he retaliated. "Your father was strong, but you were stronger. Standing up to him took strength and courage, which you had. We both know that you aren't weak, Raven, so why do you doubt yourself?"

I looked up at him as he spoke, too in shock by what he said to respond. Normally his words wouldn't have affected me as strongly as they did. In fact, if it had been, Starfire, Cyborg, or even Beast Boy for that matter I probably would have just shrugged them off. But Robin... he had shared a bond with me, had seen my bad side more than anyone else. Surely if he thought those things, they had to be at least somewhat true, right...?

"I don't know..." I answered setting my cookie down on the table, suddenly not interested in it anymore. A moment of silence passed before I spoke again. "Thank you, Robin." He gave me a look that said 'for what?' "for listening. I'm sure if I would've told the others something like this, they wouldn't have understood."

"We do have a bond, you know," he shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"I know." Without another word, I started to walk away, but he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Same time tomorrow?"

I shrugged. "We'll see."

...

*Please Read and Review—Ok, so there's chapter 1 for ya. For starters, well, these aren't going to be chapters. They're going to be more like little snippets or short stories with RobinxRaven. It's something different, like I said I would do. And yes, there might be a couple of lemons/lime whatever you wanna call it in here in the chapter's coming up soon. And the POV won't always be in just Raven's; it'll be sometimes in Robin's or just in 3rd person. So watch out for that. Thanks!*