Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s 5 pm on December 30th.  Raven mildly turns the page in her book. 

From her spot on the sofa in the living room she can see the sheets of rain continuing to pour down from the sky.  The past week, that strange, limbo week in between christmas and new year’s, not really a part of the old year or the new, has been quiet. 

It’s too warm to snow in California, but the sky has steadily poured down a dark dreary sleetish rain, cold and wintery, and it’s finally gotten cold enough for Raven to get out her sweaters.  It’s been a quiet week too, because of the rain, there’s been no alerts, and Raven supposed that Robin’s hypothesis might actually be true; that selfish criminals genuinely don’t find it worth it to get wet while committing crimes in the rain.  Or, at least, the ones in Jump City. 

And, unlike previous years, all five of them have been around the tower for the entire holiday break. 

In the early years of the titans all three of the boys had taken off to do their own stuff for up to ten days, leaving her and Star behind in the tower alone.  Raven couldn’t lie and say that either of them had actually minded, being left with the peace, the quiet, the cleaner floors. 

They didn’t really much celebrate winter holidays in Azarath, Azar having always deemed them to be far too pagan, and therefore steeped in sin.  Usually she would return home to visit her mother for a day or so around christmas, but it was never good for her to stay too long in her old home.

She was always afraid of causing trouble for her mother, so she kept her visits home short. 

Poor Starfire’s home was too far for that sort of a trip to be made lightly, and, either way, the idea of Christmas was virtually unknown on Tamaran, which sort of made pointless the whole idea of going home for the holidays. 

They usually just cleaned everything, (to remove the smell of boy from the house, for a couple days at least) and then watched really long Korean tv shows and got a lot of unhealthy Chinese takeout food and charged all of it to the team credit card. 

However, for the past couple of years, the boys had not left as much.  The Doom Patrol had gotten busier, (on purpose, around the holidays, it seemed to Raven) and were usually away at Christmas, off in the jungle somewhere. 

Over the years Cyborg and his father’s relationship had gotten worse, not better, especially with the added presence of his father’s new girlfriend, and lately the metal teen had been too angry with his father to consider ‘wasting the holidays’ on him, as he put it. 

Robin and Batman’s relationship, oddly enough, seemed to be the most stable parent/child relationship out of all of them, excepting perhaps, Raven thought, herself and her mother’s. 

They gave each other enough space, and Robin (Dick Grayson) was his first and favorite.  But even still, half the time Batman was busy, or made sure that he was busy for the holidays, and Raven wasn’t sure how much Robin even enjoyed returning to Gotham City anymore anyway, and so, gradually more and more they had gotten Robin over the holidays too. 

It hadn’t been a bad week, all in all. 

They had exchanged gifts on Christmas day, and Cyborg had cooked a lot of food that Raven had only eaten a little bit of.  The following days had settled into soft, rainy wet quiet.  Raven had worked her way through a book and a half, and paced herself with five cups of tea a day. 

Jason had been going out of town for the holidays, a normal habit of his, (she knew he didn’t like the holidays, or like hanging around, letting the drear get to him) but before he had left he had made a point of giving her her present, which had wound up being a beautiful gold and garnet pendant necklace, which he promised was not stolen. 

She only half believed him.

But it was a beautiful antique, small and delicate, and the receipt from the antique shop was in the bottom of the box, so she had, (rather graciously on her part, she thought)  decided to accept it. 

It now hung around her neck, tucked hidden under her sweater.  Its presence there had put her in a good mood for nearly two weeks. 

She hums to herself, and turns the page. 

The rain pattered down, turning the ocean bay outside into a dark, slate grey froth.   Behind her every so often she could hear tapping, as Robin typed on his laptop at the kitchen table.  He had actually let her make him a cup of tea that afternoon instead of having his daily hundredth cup of coffee, and she noted with almost a smirk, that his typing was much less furious and far more benign than normal. 

And then with a slam, and then several more, the serene peace of the afternoon is shattered. 

Raven and Robin both sigh out through their noses at almost the same time. Robin gives her a tired smile and closes the lid of his laptop.  Raven smirks faintly and shuts her book, setting it down to the side of the sofa.

And, counting down silently in her head, just as she knows Robin is also doing, in exactly ten seconds the doors to the common room burst open. 

“We’re back y’all!” Cyborg announces to both of them. 

He’s followed into the kitchen by Beast Boy and Starfire, who are both laden down with grocery bags.  Raven smiles ever so slightly and slips to her feet, floating just a few inches above the ground into the kitchen to help put away the groceries. 

Robin pauses with the bag that he’s been busy emptying and turns to shoot a rather accusatory glare at Cyborg.  “You bought alcohol?!” he says snappily. 

Cyborg turns around with a rather guilty slant in his shoulders and Raven has to bite her lip to keep from snorting.  With a delicate movement of her fingers the cans dance from the reusable grocery bag and into the cabinet, neatly stacking on top of each other.  She then turns to watch the altercation between the two boys.  

“Shit, you weren’t supposed to get that one.”  Is how Cyborg starts, and Raven can’t help but laugh then.  Beast Boy and Star have gone back to the garage or she’d have a backup choir. 

Robin’s mouth is bent into a displeased upside down u.  “I thought it was too heavy to only have chips in it.” he throws back. 

Cyborg sighs, throwing up his huge metal shoulders.  “C’mon man.  What do you want me to do? It’s not my fault I live with a bunch a’ babies.”

“The word is minors.  Do you know how bad it would look if we got caught with this Cy? We can’t have this stuff.” Robin says, annoyed. 

Cyborg rolls his eyes.  “You mean, y’all can’t have this stuff.  I’m past twenty-one.” 

Robin sighs heavily, knowing that he can’t really argue that particular point any further, and the doors open again, Beast Boy and Star returning, Beast Boy with one tiny bag and Starfire virtually laden down with grocery bags. 

“What’s going on?” Beast Boy says, looking at their faces.  Starfire sets down all of the bags at once and Raven swears the house shakes. 

“And why did you buy this much? Are you having a party? Because you’re not doing it here.” Robin says grouchily.  Cyborg throws back his head, making an exasperated face, making both her and Starfire laugh. 

“Dude, why are you so pissy.” Beast Boy says, flopping his way into the kitchen.  Robin turns his glare towards him.  “Did you know that Cyborg bought alcohol?” 

Beast Boy opens his mouth and shuts it again from a look from the metal boy; but sadly for both of them, no number of words or looks would ever be enough to silence their bright alien princess. 

“Ooh yes we were both aware of Cyborg’s intentions! Has he informed you of his wonderful plan?” 

“Star-” Cyborg mumbles, but the alien is now too excited, fully on a roll, to be stopped.  Raven just watches the whole thing with an amused smile on her face, personally finding the entire thing hilarious. 

“We are going to throw a party! And have the earth ‘alcohol’ and celebrate the human new year in the most normal and traditional way!” Starfire says with a lot of finger quotes and a huge smile on her face.  A little bit of Robin’s irritation bleeds away, and Raven thinks that actually Starfire was probably the best person to tell him. 

Robin still huffs when she finishes.  Cyborg holds up his hands.  “Look.  Not a party party.  Just you guys.  I just wanna have a good time with my best friends! No need to get all mad.” 

Robin crosses his arms.  “There is a need when all of your friends are minors.” 

Raven smirks, looking up at the metal boy beside her.  “What does that say about you?” she asks, arching an eyebrow. 

Cyborg shakes his head at her, but his eye is bright.  “Now, that’s not fair.  We don’t actually know how old Star is.”  Starfire nods empathetically. 

A very sad truth of Star’s being an alien is that Tamarran orbits a binary star and has a monstrously complex seasonal calendar and, try as hard as they might, none of them, Starfire included, had been able to figure out how Tamaranean time fit into Earth time. 

They hadn’t been able to figure out when and how Star’s birthday fit into the typical gregorian calendar (Starfire rather sadly telling them that she was born on the twelfth moon rising in the season of astreala, not being helpful) and Starfire herself not being certain how long she had been gone from Tamaran in Earth time, and how the years fit into each other. 

Starfire knew she was forty eight rotations old, and that she was a normal tamarean young adult, but that had been all they could figure out.  So they just let Starfire pick a day to be her birthday and assumed that she was about their age, and got on with it.  (She had picked July 28th.) 

Robin glared at him.  “Well the rest of us are definitely minors.  And therefore are not going to be participating in your- underage drinking-” 

“Abomination?” Raven offers not without a hint of mocking. 

He glances at her.  She leans back against the counter, keeping her face carefully blank.  Cyborg turned to look at her too, something akin to pleading on his face.  Raven let her lips curl upwards. 

“You know.  In Azarath even the children drink wine, because they think that water is bad for you.”  she says mildly.  Robin gives her a look, while Cyborg’s grin begins to grow.  She shrugs halfheartedly. 

“And anyway.  I became a legal adult when I turned thirteen.”  

Robin crosses his arms, like he can’t believe she’s not taking his side.  He really should know better by now, honestly.  “Really.  They let thirteen year olds follow all of the same rules as adults in Azarath?” he says skeptically. 

Raven shrugs again.  “It was old enough to be burned at the stake, so, you know. Probably.” she says mildly, while Robin makes a face.  Feeling bored by the conversation, she turns around and gets one of her mugs out of the cabinet. 

“So we’re definitely drinking, right?” Beast Boy asks.  Raven can feel Robin’s scowl pressing into the side of her forehead, and she smirks again.  “No, we’re not.”

“Oh, come on man, do you get off on being this tightly wound up?” Cyborg complains. 

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand the consequences of this! We get city funding! Which could get taken away if the city council starts believing that we’re not doing our jobs, or if we’re thought to be a bad influence on other young people!”

The other four let out a collective groan. 

Raven smiles, humming under her breath, as she runs water into the kettle.  She sets it on the stove, lights it, flips the lid down, and turns back to the group, where Robin is clearly fighting a losing battle.

“You’re makin’ it sound like I brought home a bunch of fake ids and invited y’all to hit up every bar in Jump with me!” Cyborg says, very put out.  “Oh, didn’t you?!” Robin retorts. 

Raven slips back into the group.  “Cyborg and Starfire can drink.” she says flatly, stating a fact.  Robin opens his mouth, but she holds up her hand. He shuts it. 

“In most countries you and I could legally drink now.  It’s only because we live in such a barbarous country as the United States that we can’t.”  She fixes an eye on the sole remaining green teen, whose ears perk up under her gaze. 

“And Beast Boy-” she pauses.  “I don’t think he could have less sense, drunk or not.”  She finishes mildly. 

Beast Boy’s ears droop.  “Dude! Not fair!”

Robin sighs heavily. 

“We’re not going to become alcoholics.  But if we’re old enough to risk our lives, I think that we’re old enough to drink.”  she says with a shrug.  Robin shakes his head at her. 

“It’s a crime.  Criminal.” But she can tell he’s half kidding.  Her kettle begins to whistle, and she returns to the kitchen.  Cyborg whoops behind her. 

“Oh yeah, we’re ringin in the new year for real this year!”

It’s new year’s eve. 

Raven is on the sofa, reading her book.  Cyborg is in the kitchen with Beast Boy and Robin. 

Cyborg is busy making some sort of smelly bean dip, Beast Boy is busy opening bags of chips (Raven can’t imagine how five people are going to eat seven bags of chips, even if three of them are boys) and Robin is mopily eating chips.  Beside her, Starfire is flipping through channels on the tv. 

The sun set about twenty minutes ago, leaving an indigo darkness outside of the glass panelled windows of their living room.  The trees on their little island are bare, branches reaching slender towards the grey sky. 

Inside Raven can feel the hearts beating against her own, the pounding rhythmical feeling of all of her friends, (her family).  Outside is blue, soft and quiet, and inside is golden, a glowing, soft thing. 

Raven puts her book to the side, and just watches her friends for a minute. And quietly, she says a silent thank you. 

Starfire looks over, smiling at her, and Raven returns it.  Then she turns off the tv, and they both get up and go into the kitchen. 

“Okay.”  Cyborg says, when they come in.  “What do y’all want.”  He gestures to the stuff on the counter.  There’s bread and dip and chips, and there’s alcohol.  

They get stuff, Raven gets a small slice of bread, a handful of chips and just enough of the dips to be nice and goes to sit at the table.  And a paper cup of wine, which is just as nice as she remembered it. 

Soft, slippery, terrible for her powers then, less terrible now. 

Robin still refuses the alcohol, determined to be grouchy about it.  Dinner goes well, except maybe there’s a little bit more laughter than normal.  Raven laughs a couple of times, and even she’s surprised, but it’s less embarrassing than it would be normally.

Starfire and Cyborg are almost completely unaffected, but Raven doesn’t think that the single cup of wine has affected her too deeply either. Beast Boy’s jokes are a little stupider than normal, but he seems fine too. 

Robin at this point is temperamentally watching them, like he thinks the room might explode.  That’s…not completely unfair, actually. 

Still though, everything is going fine. Which of course, is when Beast Boy says,

“Hey! We should do shots!” 

Cyborg glances at the rest of them. “Ooh yes! I have seen this in a movie! Earth teenagers do this all of the time!” Starfire says, loving the idea. 

Cyborg glances at her, like she’s the ringleader of this circus.  Raven wonders when her opinion became so important to everyone. 

Robin leans his head back, like he can’t believe his stupid friends would be this stupid.  He really should know better by now. 

Raven eats a chip.  “That’s too easy.” she says, the dark curl of a fun, uncharacteristically so, idea coming to her. 

Beast Boy opens his mouth, ready to whine and complain, but she beats him to it. 

“We should make it a game.” she says.  This time everyone looks at her, even Robin. 

“What?” Cyborg says, like he doesn’t know her.  Raven smirks slightly.  Oh, she’s definitely slightly intoxicated now. 

“Never have I ever.” she says with full confidence.  Robin is looking at her like she’s lost her mind.  “Are you serious?” 

Raven nods. “Yep.  It’ll be fun.” she says darkly.  Starfire claps her hands together.  “It is settled! We shall play Raven’s game, and it will be a wonderful time.” 

Raven took a small sip of her cup.  “And Robin has to play.” she says.  Robin immediately shakes his head.  “Oh no, I’m not doing this with all of you.”

The whole table groans. 

“Dude,” and “C’mon man,” and “Oh but please Robin!” Raven just arches an eyebrow.  “I never thought you’d be too afraid to play a drinking game with your friends.” she says mildly, and Robin just looks at her. 

“Oh no.  You can’t peer pressure me into this one.” he tells her firmly. 

Twenty minutes later they’ve gotten the dishes washed and the entire kitchen cleaned up, and they’re sitting in a circle on the floor around the round coffee table. 

On one side of her Starfire wiggles in excited anticipation.  On the other Robin is sitting with his chin propped up with the back of his hand.  Raven just smirks at him. 

Cyborg, as the current leader of the group and the only one who actually really has a clue about any of this, sits at the head of their makeshift circle and pulls out bottles of stuff.  “Okay, I got vodka, gin, and soju, I think.  So which one you wanna start with?” 

“Vodka.” Raven says immediately.  Robin holds up his hands to stop. 

“No more complaining.” Raven tells him, still slightly amused.  Robin shakes his head.  “No, don’t worry, I’ve given up. But like, what is this?” 

Raven arches an eyebrow.  “What do you mean?” 

Beast Boy leans forward. “Yeah, like, how do you know so much about this?”

Raven can barely contain her laugh.  “Oh. Well.  I mean.  You’ve met my mom.”  she says, laughter in her throat.  Cyborg shakes his head.  “Yeah, but, like, she’s a nun. She’s nice.” he says so naively and Raven does laugh then. 

“She’s a nun now .  She had me when she was fifteen, and before that she was just wild.” Raven shrugs.  “I think she did cocaine maybe. Alcohol was nothing for her.”

“Wow.” Robin says, pretty much summing it up. 

“Yeah.  Azarath wasn’t just for me, it was also sort of rehab for her.”  Raven says.  Cyborg nods, something in his eyes.  “That’s- I never knew that.”

Raven shrugs.  “It is what it is.”  she laughs rather dryly.  “I got evil magic from my dad and zero impulse control from my mom.” 

“I play the fluga pipes.” Starfire says randomly.  Raven looks at her.  “Like my father.” she clarifies. 

Everyone nods. 

“Can we drink now?” Raven says. 

Cyborg nods enthusiastically.  “Oh yeah.” 

Robin didn’t protest when Cyborg wound up already having shot glasses.  Privately Raven thinks that perhaps the forced down juvenile side of him is secretly starting to win against his more serious, well behaved nature. 

“Okay.” Cyborg says, clapping his metal hands together with a rather painful clang,  “How’s this gonna go.” 

They wait.  Raven rolls her eyes. 

“Never have I ever kissed a member of the titans east.” 

Cyborg gives her a flat look and she can’t help the smirk that pulls at the corners of her lips.  Robin snorts.  Raven smiles and lets her dark magic envelop the bottle of alcohol.  It pours into her glass, as well as Starfire’s and Cyborg’s. 

She nods, still smiling.  Robin looks at her, both mystified and a little impressed. 

“And how do you know all this?” he asks her.  She shrugs. 

“I’m a witch.”  she says.  Cyborg sighs.  “So are you gonna tell us, or what?” 

Raven snorts.  “Aqualad.”  Robin chokes beside her.  “What? When?” 

Raven looks at him. Beside him Beast Boy sniggers.  “Dude this is already fun.” he says halfway under his breath but everybody hears him.  Starfire giggles. 

Robin turns almost desperately to his girlfriend.  “Did you kiss Aqualad too?” 

Starfire glances over at her, and Raven gives a barely perceptible shrug of her shoulders.  Starfire, feints casualty and brushes a long lock of pink hair over her shoulder.  “No.” she says, and Raven has to fight the urge to cackle as Robin’s face visibly grays. 

“Not-” he begins.  Raven snorts.  “Just tell him.” 

Starfire rocks side to side.  “It was Bee.” she tells him cheerfully.  Now it’s Cyborg’s turn to look horrified.  “What?”

Raven smirks, twisting her shot glass absently.  “Jinx has some really fun ideas for sleepovers.” she says cryptically. 

Beast Boy laughs again at both of the boys beside him who clearly can’t decide whether or not to be horrified or intrigued.  Raven’s just bored.

“Can we please drink now?” she says flatly.  Cyborg nods, already looking tired.  Raven downs the contents of her glass, the liquid burning warmth against her throat. 

And so the night begins.  

The main struggle, for all of them, is coming up with questions, solely because, all of them already know everything about each other. 

They live together, see each other every day of the year, for most of the hours of the day they’re all within earshot of the other.  And, as the alcohol softens her brain, Raven will admit, they grew up together. 

She is who she is because of these four other people.  She can’t- won’t- doesn’t know how to imagine who she’d be without them. 

They’ve all gotten quite a few drinks in their systems at this point, mainly from a good few from Beast Boy, (“What do you mean, I’ve never worked for Batman isn’t targeted at me.” Robin, complaining.) and a few that were sweetly misunderstood, from Starfire, and usually had them all drinking, including Starfire. 

Cyborg complained about twenty minutes in that the goal was to try not to get drunk, but Raven thinks that they all actually did wanna get into the alcohol and generally have more of a stupid time than actually play any sort of a real game. 

At any rate, it’s ten forty-five, the sky is dark outside the window, and she’s only vaguely sleepy.  Maybe more than vaguely. 

Beast Boy and Robin are handling the alcohol pretty well; Beast Boy doesn’t really seem all that affected, likely due to the animal metabolism, and Robin, just because he hasn’t had all that many shots. 

Starfire is also fine, perhaps a bit more giggly and swaying than normal, but fine.  Cyborg is louder, blunter, but again, fine.  Raven herself thinks that she’s handling things, all right.  She did have to take a five minute break an hour ago when Beast Boy quite kindly, she thought, informed her that her irises were turning red. 

“Fuck.” had been what she had said, before dissolving into the shadow of her soul self.  Luckily a moment of effort to reign herself back in was all it took. 

Damn dark magic. 

Robin leans over his shoulder.  “Wow, it’s not even eleven yet.”  he says.  Cyborg shakes the bottle.  “Last one guys, we’re almost out.” 

Raven pulls her legs up against her chest, wrapping her cloak tighter around herself.  “Ooh, ooh, my turn, I have a really good one!”  Beast Boy exclaims. 

Cyborg glances around the group.  Everyone shrugs, shakes their heads.  Beast Boy grins, leaning forward. 

“Okay, okay.  Never have I ever: dated a criminal.” 

Raven’s mouth flattens into a line even though internally she’s amused by the question.  Robin sighs. “Beast Boy, come on.”  Cyborg nods.  “Yeah man, targeted ones aren’t fun.” 

Raven sighs.  “Guys, it’s fine. I don’t care.” 

Beast Boy glances at her, baffled.  “What are you talking about?”

The whole table looks at him.  Raven chokes on a laugh. 

“Dude, did you forget?” Cyborg asks him.  Beast Boy looks up at the metal man.  “Forget what?” 

Raven smiles to herself.  “Beast Boy, who were you thinking of this question for.” 

Beast Boy leans back slightly, like they’re all stupid.  “You know that time Robin had to take Kitten to the prom right?”  Robin’s groaning and Raven is cackling before Beast Boy even finishes talking. 

“What? What?”

Now they’re all laughing, Raven is laughing so hard that tears are bubbling in the corners of her eyes.  “What did you think I was talking about?” he asks, once they’ve all managed to stop laughing. 

“Um. Jason?”

Beast Boy’s face is blank.  “What about him?” 

Cyborg begins laughing again.  Raven just shakes her head at him.  “B.  He’s Red X. He’s actively Red X.  He once glued you to a wall.”  Beast Boy blinks, and then realization dawns on his face. 

“Oh! Yeah, I totally forgot.”  They all start laughing again. No one has drunk yet. Starfire tilts her head to the side. “But friends, I do believe that we are leaving Cyborg out.”  She fixes him under her blinking emerald gaze. 

Cyborg visibly sweats.  “Ah, to what are you referring?” he says. 

Raven arches an eyebrow.   Starfire’s smile widens.  “I remember Jinx telling me that she was your date to the Hive Homecoming dance.”  Raven leans back on her hands, enjoying the expression of deep discomfort on the usually unphasable metal teen. 

Jinx had told all the girls about her and Cyborg’s momentary love affair with something Raven could only describe as great glee.  But Cyborg, of course, didn’t know about that.  Raven watched Starfire watch Cyborg squirm with great amusement. 

“That-ah may or may not have happened, but it definitely doesn’t count as dating a criminal, because I was undercover. Right Robin?” 

Robin smirks, leaning back on his hands.  “Yeah, Kid Flash told me that Jinx told him that you were a terrible boyfriend.  She was so disappointed that you weren’t evil.” 

Beast Boy cackles, and Cyborg pouts.  “Well, then.  Me, you, and Raven.”  He says, rather put out by the whole thing.  Beast Boy hums, under his breath.  “Actually.” 

Everyone looks at him.  “Starfire.” 

Raven’s eyes flatten.  “What about her.” 

“She’s dating Robin!” 

Robin looks at the green teen, mildly offended.  “Yeah why?”

Beast Boy leans forward, gesturing with his arms, like they’re all stupid for not getting it.  “He was Red X! The first one!” 

They all groan, and Starfire giggles.  “That’s stupid man.”  “That doesn’t count.” 

Starfire laughs.  “Friends I do not mind.” 

They all stare at the glasses.  Finally Raven decides that she has to say what they’re all thinking.  “I think…probably.  I mean.”  She felt confident going into the sentence, but couldn’t really finish it. 

Robin finishes it for her.  “Maybe, um.  I think. Terra.  Would probably count.” 

Beast Boy nods, looking down.  “Oh. Yeah.”  They pause, staring at the tabletop.

“Are we-doing this wrong?” Cyborg says finally.  Robin sighs.  “Just…don’t tell the justice league.” 

“Agreed.” they all chime in.  And they clink the glasses together.  

Outside the window the stars are out.  

Robin picks up the stuff from the sofa and coffee table and carries it into the kitchen.  Raven follows him.  He begins loading it into the dishwasher.  “I’m not going to ask for an apology for all the grief you gave me about Jason.” she says, leaning against the wall. 

It’s blunt, but there’s a smile in her voice, on her face.  Robin looks up, a wry smile on his face.  “I think I remember apologizing to you about it, actually.”  he tells her dryly. 

She smiles.  The others were putting the pillows up (and throwing them, in the case of Beast Boy and Star) but they’ve paused to listen in.  She fiddles with the edge of her cloak, unsure of what to say, what she wants to say. 

“Thanks.” is what she finally settles on.  Robin’s smile is confused, and his brow furrows slightly.  “Why?” 

Raven shrugs, feeling awkward.  “I don’t know. I know that I’m…not the easiest person.  And Jason wasn’t the best choice. But I- I don’t know. Thank you. For being my friend.  All my friends.”  She says the last part at all of them, the other three having wandered their way into the kitchen. 

Cyborg smiles, shakes his head at her.  “Who’d thought you’d be a sappy drunk.”  he says, but it’s teasing.  Raven rolls her eyes.  Robin finishes putting the dishes in the dishwasher and leans back against the counter top. 

Starfire absently floats up to sit beside him, legs crossed over one another.  The kitchen is quiet, glowing yellow.  They’re all tired, but still somehow not quite ready to go to bed. 

“It’s been a good year.” Robin says finally.  His smile is wry, still careful, still guarded, but still filled with genuine affection.  “It’s-not something I take for granted.” he says quietly. 

Raven thinks that maybe, before all this, Robin might have been the saddest.  It rests somewhere between him and her, she thinks, a contest no one wants to win.  Starfire leans over to wrap an arm around her boyfriend’s shoulders, resting her head against his other shoulder. 

“Yes.” she says, before yawning.  Raven leans against the other counter, Beast Boy drifting over to where she’s standing.  The kitchen is warm. 

They all talk for a little while longer, about things that aren’t important, (maybe buying a new refrigerator, if Cyborg can’t fix the cooling system,) (or when they’re going to go to Tamaran again this year) (Could Cyborg maybe help Raven move her bookshelves a tiny bit to the side?) 

(At this point Cyborg complains that these are all just chore requests for him, and they all laugh), and slowly they get more and more tired. 

Starfire and Beast Boy fall asleep first, to be jostled awake, (Starfire gently, by her boyfriend, and Beast Boy with a poke in his side, from Raven).  And slowly they all begin to drift off to bed. 

“I will see you next year my friends.” Starfire says, floating out the door while muffling a yawn with the back of her hand.  Beast Boy goes next.  “Bye dudes.”

The last three of them, her, Robin, and Cyborg are left.  They talk, just for a moment about going over budgets, about having a zoom call with the rest of the honorary titans early in the year, but then Cyborg protests any more work talk with a yawn of his own. 

“Gosh, I’m done.  I’ve gotta get myself to sleep.  I’ll see you two birds next year.”  he says, smiling at his own joke, before walking out of the living room, and then it’s just the two of them, Raven and Robin. 

Raven puts on the kettle.  “You want a cup of tea?” she asks.  “Sure.” he says.

The space is filled with a soft, comfortable silence. 

Robin leans against the countertop, arms folded over his sweatshirt.  The kettle whistles, and she pours the water into the mugs. Raven smiles a tiny smile, and then levitates ever so slightly to hop onto sitting on the counter. 

“I thought you hated it when people did that.” Robin says teasingly, knowing very well that she’s done it in front of him before.  Raven smirks. “I shower every day.” 

Robin grins, and they lapse into silence again.  Robin takes his tea wordlessly.  Raven laughs at the muttered words under his breath as he takes a sip of too hot tea. 

“It’s weird.” she says suddenly, gazing out the window.  “What?” he says. 

Raven shrugs.  “I don’t know.  I feel.  Excited.” she says, and suddenly realizes that she’s smiling.  Robin returns it faintly.  “I know what you mean.”  he says quietly.  They nod to themselves, the words going unspoken, the past dread and sadness that’s been left behind.  The brighter days ahead. 

“I…never knew.  That I’d have.  A family.” Raven says softly, the words escaping her mouth.  Robin smiles. 

“Yeah.  I-when I.” He pauses, coughing.  “When I. Lost my family.  My first family.  I thought that it was just. Over. That it would never happen again.  That it was something I’d never have again.”  He shakes his head, smile even brighter. 

He looks around the room.  “But here we are.” he says, grinning, wry disbelief in his voice. 

Raven returns it.  “Here we are.” she says. 

Outside the world is a dark veil, a hidden world, glittering with stars.  Raven realizes that the clouds must have blown out.  She’s too busy looking to notice the clock on the wall. 

Robin clears his throat. He nods towards the wall clock.  Sure enough, the hands have hit twelve midnight.  Raven smiles, jiggling her mug slightly.  “Happy new year.” she says whispering. 

Robin grins.  “Happy new year Rae.” he says, kissing her cheek lightly.  Raven rolls her eyes. 

Robin only grins and puts his cup into the sink.  “I’ll get it next year.” he tells her cheekily.  Raven looks at him flatly.  “You’re a minute and a half too late for that joke.” she tells him, but he only grins. 

“I’m going to bed.  Goodnight Rae.” he says, waving to her, before he leaves the room.  She waves back, smiling.  Raven watches the stars from her spot on the counter for just a moment longer. 

And then she goes to bed too.