DISCLAIMER: Don't own, don't use.

A/N: I was going through my mail the other day and I received an e-mail from of my readers suggesting a Ranma/Raven story. So I gave it some thought. And now I'm giving it a shot. Until further notice this story is a one-shot...though the summary states otherwise.

The Shadows Are Dancing

Raven sat on her bed with the only boy she'd ever allow within her bedroom. He was curled up, asleep, with his head on her lap.

The candles that lit the room sent shadows dancing across the walls. And slowly, those shadows turned into shapes as Raven remembered the event that had happened not 20 minutes ago.

---

There was a loud knocking on at the front door of the tower. Beast boy and Cyborg were playing video games and were therefore ignoring everything and everyone else. Robin was training. Starfire was...cooking, gods help us all. And Raven found herself the only one available to answer the door.

She sighed and slowly made her way towards the door. It was raining out, so there wasn't much hope that whoever it was would just go away. So by walking slowly she made them suffer the cold biting rain a little longer.

When she opened the door the sight that greeted her made her start.

Before her was a young man about her age. He was wearing black jeans and a tight t-shirt that showed off his 8-pack and his muscular, lithe form. Of course Raven didn't notice any of that, nope. He had short black hair and piercing stormy blue eyes...eyes that were eerily familiar to Raven.

"Raven..." The stranger spoke before falling forward in exhaustion.

"Ack!" She was so suprised that instead of catching him she floated up and to the side of him, letting him land face first onto the floor. She floated back onto the floor and gently turned him back over. She wiped the still dripping hair from his face and peered into still half open eyes.

She was a bit startled when one of his hands came up to caress her cheek, "I found you...Ra-chan..." (pronounced 'Ray')

Her eyes widened when memories from long ago assaulted her mind.

"Never leave me alone, Ranma, will you always be there when I need you?" She looked up into those grey-blue eyes she'd come to love.

Ranmasmiled and hugged her to him tighter, "Yes, always."

She moved deeper into his embrace,"Promise?"

"I promise, Ra-chan."

She looked at him and leaned into his hand, "Ranma..."

Ranma nodded and gave her a small smile before passing out into unconsciousness.

"Cyborg!" She yelled, hoping beyond hope that the fact she never raised her voice would alert the others and have them come faster then usual.

---

Cyborg gently placed Ranma on the large couch in front of the Tv. Raven sat near his head and looked down at him worriedly.

"So, Raven, who's the guest?" Cyborg asked.

"His name is Ranma and we're...old friends."

Robin stood behind the couch next to Starfire, "So what do we do with him? We don't exactly have any spare rooms for guests."

"He...can stay in my room. He'd be more comfortable if I'm there when he wakes up," Raven said.

It was obvious that everyone except Raven was uncomfortable with the idea, Beast boy especially, but no one outright rejected the idea. So Cyborg, once again, picked Ranma up and was led to Raven's room. Where for the first time ever, he was willingly allowed within her bedroom.

When Cyborg left and the door was closed once more Raven moved the bangs from his forehead, "Ranma...what happened?"

She sighed knowing it would be a while before she got her answer, so she went about lighting the candles spread around her room. She grabbed a random book and attempted to occupy herself, it was hard though, she was too worried about the young man lying on her bed.

Several minutes later a groan was heard. She closed the book that she'd been "reading" and walked over to her bed.

"Ugh...I feel horrible..."

"You should, you were soaking wet when we brought you in...actually, you still are. And now my bed's wet."

Ranma sat up slowly and looked around, "Sorry 'bout that..."

Raven shook her head, "It's alright. Now, the question that's been bothering me since you showed up...what happened?"

Ranma shook his head, "Everything and nothing."

Raven sighed, "Well, you can tell me your story once you're all dry and clean," She helped Ranma up off the bed then walked him to the bathroom, "There are clean towels in the closet behind the door. I'm assuming you have extra clothes on you somewhere?"

Ranma smiled faintly, "Yeah, I have extra clothes. I'll be out in 15 minutes..."

"15?"

"I'm still groggy and light headed."

"Makes sense. I'll be waiting."

And sure enough, 15 minutes later, Ranma emerged from the bathroom. This time he was only wearing a pair of black cargos, though Raven could see the top of his black silk boxers. He was drying his hair with one of the towels he'd borrowed when he walked out.

"Alright, well, I'm sure you're wondering what I'm doing here."

Raven nodded, "Yes, that would help."

"Guess I should start from the beginning then. About a month after the...incident at the shrine...Pops...died."

There was a silent gasp from Raven, "How?"

"We ran into a group of bandits...and Pops protected me. He beat them all, but not without a fair amount of injuries. He died the next day from blood loss. After that I trained everywhere I could," Ranma sat on the end of Raven's bed and bowed his head, looking at his hands, "I swore I'd become strong enough that no one else close to me would come to any harm."

"What happened after that?"

"Like I said, I trained. And I grew. I became stronger, faster, proficient with weapons, my endurance grew, and my martial arts grew. I took whatever jobs I could and became a mercenary of sorts.

"I didn't take the jobs just for the money. I took them for experience. I'm more a fighter for hire than anything."

"That still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I'm getting to that. Relax," Ranma smiled at Raven, obviously enjoying her lack of patience. He started talking again, "Anyway, I dealt with all the things that had come to haunt me about my past," The fiancees were the hardest but I eventually got rid of them... "I was doing a job when I saw something that caught my eye. It turned out to be a news channel that was doing a report on the Teen Titans. And when I saw my Ra-chan alive I had to find you."

Raven blushed and nodded. Soon enough Raven had joined Ranma on her bed and were talking about small things, and just plain catching up on old times. Ranma fell asleep two hours later with his head in Raven's lap.

---

Raven looked down at Ranma and couldn't help the smile that was brought to her face. She ran her fingers through his short hair and idly wondered what had happened to his ponytail. She shifted a little bit so she could comfortably lean against the headboard behind her.

Ranma mumbled in his sleep as he dreamt of memories long past...

---

Ranma silently made his way across the shrine grounds. It wasn't long before he spotted her sitting on a stone bench looking at the stars. He smiled at the way the gentle night's wind played with her hair.

She turned to face him and smiled that rare smile that only he got to see. He smiled back and moved to sit beside her. After he sat down she leaned into him and they silently watched the stars together.

The screen fades to black before showing another similar scene.

Ranma sat beside Raven and seemed more nervous than normal, "What's wrong, Ranma?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nothing...Uh...um..." He started searching through his pants pocket and handed Raven a blue gem with a chain on it, "I uh...made this...for you..."

The blue gem had a raven, with it's wings spread wide like it was flying, carved into it. Raven smiled and looked at Ranma, "Thank you, Ranma, it's beautiful."

She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He blushed and touched his cheek before mumbling, "Not really...I could think of something more beautiful..."

Once again the screen faded to black before showing another different scene.

A large man with a yellowish gi, a rag around his balding head, and a pair glasses was carrying a teen over his shoulder.

Ranma groaned as he awoke and shook his head to clear it of cobwebs. He looked around him and deduced that his father, once again, had knocked him out and taken him from someplace.

He sighed and looked up at the night sky. What he saw made his eyes widen, a large billowing black cloud of smoke coming from behind them. The tell tale sign of a fire. Then memories assaulted his mind and he was suddenly out of his father's grasp and sprinting towards the shrine.

Raven...please be okay...

The screen fades before flames spring up and we see Ranma running through out the shrine building.

"Raven!" He searched for anything that looked like a person. He'd found a shrine priest a moment ago that had told him that Raven was inside the shrine building.

Running down the halls Ranma continued to search the shrine, "RAVEN!" He ran into every room he passed and with each one he found empty his anxiety increased, "C'mon, c'mon...where are you?"

He passed a door he knew which led to the library. He stopped briefly before the door, "Raven! You in there!" He waited for an answer and started trying to open the door when he heard a muffled shout.

He managed to open the door by kicking it open and saw the room pratically raining with ashes from the books around them. He ran inside and saw Raven running towards him, "Raven!"

She threw her arms around him, "Ranma!"

"I'm gonna get us out of here, just hold on," Ranma picked her up to carry her bridal style and ran towards the window on the other side of the library. He jumped out the window backwards so she wouldn't get cut up as they exited the burning building.

They stood out on the dirt road that led to the shrine, watching the flames slowly die down as they mourned the loss of friends.

Silence reigned during this time and all that was heard was the crackling fire and night time noises.

Ranma had his arm around her shoulder as he nuzzled her silky smooth hair, the lavender scent calming him almost completely.

A twig snapped in the forest and Ranma tensed. Raven felt him tense, "What's wrong?"

"There's someone out there...and it isn't friendly."

The scene speeds up and we catch glimpses of a fight with a figure covered in shadow. Ranma fights as hard as he can but in the end loses. As he loses consciousness we see things through his eyes.

As his sight slowly darkens we see the shadowed figure grab Raven and knock her unconscious. The figure turns to Ranma and reveals his face covered by a mask. Half of the mask is a bronze color while the other half is black with a single eyehole on that side of the mask.

The last thing we hear and see is Raven being taken away by this mysterious figure and an agonized yell from Ranma, "Raven! NO!"

---

Raven had fallen asleep leaning against the headboard of her bed. So she didn't notice Ranma as his eyes snapped open with a bewildered look crossed his eyes. He calmed as he took in his surroundings.

He slowly sat up, careful not to wake Raven from her sleep. He sighed as he grabbed something out of his pocket. It was a stone attached to a chain. It was a sapphire stone...the same one he'd given Raven when they were 13. That was 5 years ago...he'd found the stone in the dirt after he'd regained consciousness that night.

He stared at the stone, "5 years," he whispered, "Have we really been apart for so long?"

He shook his head and gently moved Raven into a more comfortable position. When he was finished she was underneath the covers of her bed and still sleeping. He found a chair and removed the books from it before placing next to her bed.

He placed the chain around his neck and just sat there, watching Raven sleep. Seeing her so at peace in her sleep helped him relax more. He fell asleep shortly after, sleeping dreamlessly this time.

The End...for now.

A/N: Reviews welcome, flames not.