#robraeedit

“Oh is it not glorious friends? I cannot wait to skate the ice and drink the hot cocoa with tiny marshmallows!” She said, clasping her hands together at the sight of the ice skating rink. Bright lights twinkled above them, in tune to various Christmas songs. Nearby, a Christmas tree stood proudly, wearing ornaments of red and white and gold. Garland surrounded the rink with fairy lights and holly.

“I just wanna go pet the baby goats.” Beast Boy responded, gaze set on the petting zoo nearby where most of the children had gathered. There was a line where others stood, waiting to buy bags of feed. Raven rolled her eyes.

“Please step to your left for ice skates and to your right for other amenities!” A young employee called out to the line that was rapidly forming. Raven sighed when Starfire grabbed her arm and pulled eagerly towards the rink. Beast Boy and Cyborg veered off to the left. That left Robin, who trailed behind them.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve last skated.” He admitted to which Raven rose her brow.

The thought of their leader casually out on the rink before their time as Titans nearly brought a grin to her lips. Of course the young acrobatic prodigy knew how to ice skate, though that thought never occurred to her before now. He was probably really good at it, like most things.

Her curiosity must have gotten the better of her, because she was suddenly blurting out her next words without thinking of them.

“I didn’t realize you knew how to ice skate.”

But she had said them and Robin met her eyes, giving her a knowing grin. He could read the interest in her voice. She looked away quickly.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.” He said.

“You’ve never offered the information before.” She responded, irritation flaring.

His grin grew. “You never asked.”

It was true, she hadn’t, and there was something about that fact that felt wrong. A frown replaced her usual expressionless features, but she didn’t know he had seen it underneath her hood.

“Come on, the skate rentals are this way.” Robin pushed ahead, leaving the two women to catch up.

They got their sizes and Raven looked at the skates in her hands with trepidation creeping up her spine, a stark contrast to Starfire’s happy babbling beside her. The blades glared at her and the smell of leather hit her nose when she brought them closer for inspection. They had been worn in well, it seemed, so she shouldn’t have to be concerned with getting any blisters- though it wouldn’t take much concentration to heal them anyway.

She grasped the laces in her hands, feeling the soft yarn for a moment. She frowned slightly at the chill that hit her face with a particularly gusty wind and her hood flew down as strands of hair flew into her line of vision. Distracted, she tucked them back behind her ear, unaware of Robin who had been watching her since she took possession of the skates.

It didn’t take long to lace them on her feet with delicate fingers, but she froze when she tried to lift a foot, unused to the heaviness.

“Raven, let us go out onto the rink.” Starfire turned to her, grinning from ear to ear. Raven was startled, forgetting for a moment that Starfire was still beside her, but there was no outward show of her surprise.

“You go ahead Starfire, I’ll catch up.”

She didn’t need to be told twice, Raven thought, when the Tamaranean jumped up from the bench and strode onto the rink. A group of young children noticed and flocked to her. Raven smiled slightly at the image of them all spinning in circles around each other, tugging on each other’s hands. The pure joy that radiated from them was intoxicating.

“Ready Raven?” Robin called out to her, distracting her from her musings. She turned to see her leader gliding towards her with ease, stopping short a few feet of her on the ice. His spiky black hair peeked out from the red toboggan he wore along with a matching scarf and gloves.

Glancing back down at her skates, she took a deep breath, watching it come out in a long, swirly white puff of air.

There was a moment of silence between them.

“You never learned how to skate, did you?” He asked.

Raven didn’t look up to see his face and she couldn’t contain the warm flush of her cheeks that were undoubtedly red.

“I suppose Ice skating was low on the list of priorities for someone who was meant to destroy the world.”

Her words laced with sarcasm, to try and cover what she truly felt, embarrassed. She had been deprived of such things as a young child, and now that she was older Titans duties often got in the way of pursuing old interests- not that she would have chosen to learn how to ice skate- but she would have liked to have been able to entertain the idea of learning.

But Robin didn’t chuckle at her sarcasm. He saw through her half-attempts to cover her embarrassment at him being more adept than her at something so trivial. Instead, he smiled.

“Well, there’s only one way to learn.” Robin said, and Raven looked up to see him standing only a foot away from her with an outstretched hand.

The flashback of him holding out his hand to her when she was just a shell of her former child-like self filled her vision, and she couldn’t help but think for a moment that he seemed to always be there, ready to encourage her and help her through any challenge- even if it was to save a world that was already doomed and broken.

And that thought alone had her placing her hand tentatively in his, and he gave her a pleased grin as he pulled her up to stand.

“Here, hold onto my arms like this.” He instructed and in a rare moment of vulnerability she allowed him to place her arms where he wanted them. He rested them on top of his own and he grasped her elbows, encouraging her to do the same to his.

“Now step out onto the ice, and use my arms as leverage.”

With another deep breath she took a clumsy step from the weight of her skate but managed to stand, if not a bit wobbly. Then she took another step with him and she was on the ice completely.

She began to panic when he moved them further out onto the rink. She gripped his arms tighter.

“If you let me fall Boy Blunder I will hunt you down.”

Robin laughed openly, tipping his head back for a moment. “Don’t worry Raven, I’ll catch you.” His voice spoke of promise, so self-assured that he would do anything within his power to keep it.

And she believed him, she realized, because it was true. He always caught her, and in each of her weakest moments he was always there, with open arms.

So she allowed him to skate them further out onto the rink, and listened closely as he took her through the basic steps of skating as he patiently held her steady when she slipped once or twice; and when he released her, she skated without hesitation, if still a bit like a newborn baby deer learning to walk for the first time, because she knew he was close behind her.