"Talking"

Thinking

---

Nevermore Smile

It was so delightful and painful this world. She had to watch her bliss from a distance. She had sworn never to touch him, lest he shatter into a million pieces, and take her lost grips of hope with his scattered soul.

A long time ago she had been this way to protect her friends, this distance. It was to stop her father destroying them to get to her, however physical or mentally shocking it was to her. He was twisted enough to make her own body do it through controlling her…no that was no longer the problem.

The sun bathed this planet in its celestial rays with each birth of the morning. Letting it meditate in the quiet cool silence as it left in the evening.

She could vaguely remember a world of pain and loss…and a ghost of a redheaded woman lost a long time ago…but that was a bad place to think of, whiteness usually flashed into her vision when she sunk too low into those thoughts…

Something seemed to draw her back to those thoughts, sometimes she could feel a shudder of cold touch her in a place, it would disconcert her for a moment with its almost-intimate feel. At times she thought she could hear her name, when no one else was around her…or at least her friends said they couldn't hear it.

But here she was, hovering in place, knowing her heart with fragmenting further with every second she watched. Robin had always loved Starfire…

It pained her to watch the Titan leader caress rough scarred hands through soft nourished red hair, while their lips now pressed against each others sharing the warmth.

Raven knew her heart was broken when she lost the ability to hold back her tears…how could a shattered heart ever hope to keep a hold over every little fragment of itself? It was too much.

She didn't even run, she was too broken.

Raven, gave up.

---

Robin walked through the long forgotten halls of the Titan Tower, going to a place he long ago frequented. The infirmary. Within the room, the last survivor of the Teen Titans, slept.

The ex-Boy Wonder had come to fulfil one last wish. It had waited at the back of his darkened mind for years…almost a century. And now he would do as she had asked.

The last Teen Titan was trapped within a world her mind created…a peaceful place. Not here but not quite there either. She looked as young as the day she had fallen to her lost little world.

"Raven," Robin whispered quietly, "I promised a person a long time ago that if I couldn't stop…" tears he once thought he was incapable of splashed against his face, it burned his cheeks, leaving tear tracks seared into his flesh.

---

Raven couldn't see the world was burning too brightly, the earth underneath her crumbled away, if she had looked up she would see the world being torn and disperse into a growing endlessness of white. She would see Starfire smile and fly high into the air, after Robin broke away. She would see Robin turn to her.

If she hadn't of given up, she would hear the voice less clearly…

...Stop…I'd make you smile…

She felt the ghostly cold touch against her body, drifting up to her chin, raising it slightly. The white world, flashed with a whirlwind of colours and she saw a face she could remember far back, buried deep in her white-washed mind, but she couldn't recognise it. It gave way to the teenage boy she longed to hold with all her might.

The old face…it had looked…lost, sad…guilty…had it loved her?

Robin. Your Robin.

She felt her hair being brushed back by green-gloved fingertips. She dared to look up to see what monster sought to collapse her even more.

"R-Robin?"

---

Robin stared down worriedly, as his angel started to show signs of waking up, her eyes had fluttered, and caught a glimpse of him staring down at her. He titled her head towards him.

"I love you so much."

Forgive me.

He pressed her lips to his; capturing her in a kiss she had always wanted…

Please forgive me…

He raised his right hand clenching into a tight fist, electric-like whips of energy forming from his fingertips. The tears burned harder, scarring him more than before. He took one last look at his angel, breaking from the kiss, and seeing her lips curved into a delighted smile.

He plunged his right hand straight into her heart. Freezing her eternally in her dream world; keeping her smiling forever.

Slick, red, unforgiving liquid cascaded mixing with the tear from the burning wounds on his cheeks.

He never spoke again.

He tried to be what he used to be…a Hero of the People…he had destroyed his Master…so now they were free…but why did it hurt so much? Where was his Angel?

The world was consumed in white.

It existed no longer.

A redheaded spirit cried silently unheard.

---

Red X watched the Teen Titans, as they enjoyed themselves at the park. He wanted to touch and hold his Angel. He wanted her so much…but he also wanted her to be happy.

He knew he could never make her happy. So he only watched, and never touched. It hurt so much.

The Tamerainian Princess…she was the closest one he felt able to reach out to…he begged for forgiveness and yet hated it, because he knew he could never truly have it. His world was destroyed…and years before that she was gone too. But she remained…she remained with him guiding him.

Without her he would have turned this dream into a nightmare.

Demons were not supposed to fall in love with Angels. But he broke the rules. He broke them before he even knew them.

She forgave him easily. She always forgave too easily. She was too naïve. Too young.

But she would have to do. Because he could not harm his angel again. So he would cry silently, behind a mask that hid his scar-ridden face.

Demons aren't meant to cry.

For if they do,

On the inside,

They die.

The Angel smiled, not knowing that if she ever woke up…she was already dead.

---

Authoress's Note: Right. Originally this was just going to be a one-shot, then it grew another chapter. But this is the end! Short story. Yeah moan all you want, but it was always going to be short.

Thanks to all the people who reviewed! The list of generous people/sentient beings: liliac gurl; cheekylildevil (wise to use the long stick...I bite!)