He studied his surroundings carefully. The full moon, high in the sky gave ample lighting to make out the street around him. Uptown, near the market district. Store signs hung out front in varying forms above the stores they described. Clothing and jewelry stores as well as a few antique shops lined this particular stretch of road. Shards of glass lay speckled across the ground in front of one of the diamond shops, the target of tonight's robbery. Flashes of fists flying and gunshots ringing out played over in his mind as he felt a distant stinging sensation in his shoulder. He brushed off the feeling as he continued to survey the road.

Next to the aforementioned shop a few police cars had parked, their lights still flashing as officers loosely secured 'Police Line' tape across the area. They'd already received the testimonies of the team and knew what had happened but they would still complete a full inventory to ensure everything found its rightful place. Continuing off to the right of the store an ambulance had arrived in the case that anyone was harmed, though thankfully no one was badly injured. Once again the dull pain began to creep up, this time becoming more sharp with time. Finally being unable to ignore it any longer he looked down at his right shoulder to find his bleeding bullet wound. 'No one was badly injured' he thought and laughed silently to himself. He'd dealt with worse and it was a small caliber gun so he wasn't worried about bleeding out. He figured he'd take a trip to the medbay at the tower after everybody went to bed. He didn't want to worry the rest of the team anyways. He rolled his shoulders, with no small amount of pain coursing through him, and his short cape overtook the small blood stain to hide it from prying eyes. Satisfied he looked back over the scene. Beastboy and Starfire were happily speaking with witnesses-turned-fans as beastboy no doubt pretended the girl's were hitting on him while Star would be too naive to get that she, indeed, was being flirted with. Shaking his head he continued searching for his remaining teammates. Surveying further he found cyborg speaking with a police officer next to the car that housed the petty thieves. He often enjoyed speaking with people older than him thanks to his mature mind and intellect, seeing him speak to the officers came as no surprise. What was confusing was the noticeable absence of the teams resident dark bird. Before he had time to contemplate her disappearance a familiar flat voice broke the silence beside him.

"So. . . Are you brooding or do just like people watching?"

The pale girl took a seat on the curb beside him. Without looking over he responded in kind.

"That depends, which one is more acceptable?"

He said half laughing as he did. Now chancing his gaze upon her he was rewarded with a short, rare smile upon her soft features. Her hair seemed to emit a mysterious light of its own under the moonlight.

"of all people, you know I've no right to judge that."

This time she turned to face him with her response, that same smile gracing her lips. He'd always appreciated her dark and dry humor, it mirrored his own and he enjoyed the small sense of comfort it gave him. She truly was the most like him out of any of the titans, even down to the dark and brooding nature. He turned back to the street as he stared off into space. A moment of silence passed between them before the young girl spoke again.

"Where did it hit?"

The question visibly confused him. 'Did she see me check it a minute ago?' He thought.

"Where did what hit?"

Because playing dumb with the empath was such a smart idea. Looking over he found her gaze on him again but this time with a 'knowing' glare. He could practically hear the unspoken 'Robin' that would have rolled expectantly from her lips.

"What?"

He said, hoping that she'd take the hint and not press further. He did not however take into account her stubbornness that rivaled and perhaps surpassed his own. Her glare stood strong as she spoke again.

"Richard."

This she spoke softly, aware of the secrecy with which he held his true name. He looked down and cursed mentally. He should have known better than to attempt to evade her. With defeat he shrugged his right shoulder. The empath softly reached a hand to pull the cape from his wound. It stuck to his suit being drenched in blood by this point. The young girl did not wince nor gag at the sight but rather concern covered her face as she inspected the wound.

"22, it didn't make it all the way through."

Her hand glowed with black power as a tiny shard of metal was quickly wrestled from his flesh to sit between her thumb and forefinger. She glanced at the offending piece of lead before she carefully placed it on the ground. She moved from her spot seated to his right to sit on her knees in front of him. As she did so she raised her hood before bringing her hands to the pained location.

"Why do you do that?"

The question caught her off guard as she looked up at her leader. She wasn't one to get confused but she clearly didn't understand what he was referring to. After a moment of silence he spoke.

"Your hood, I mean. Anytime you heal someone you put it up, why do you do that?"

The blank stare she offered seemed to be frozen on her features as she just looked on at the boy wonder, trying to understand for herself what he'd said. It was true she did always put her hood up when she was healing. 'Concentration?' She mused though she knew that wasn't the truth. She shook her head and motioned to take hold of Robin's shoulder, ignoring his question. To this he pulled his arm away from her and she glared back at him.

"Robin I need to heal you."

Robin allowed a grin to take control of his features as he responded.

"You don't get to dodge my question, Rae."

She continued to glare back at him. She knew he'd be stubborn until she gave in and frankly, with the amount of blood she could sense escaping his body she was inclined to take a hit to her ego rather than let him lose more blood.

"Fine. . . But you have to promise you'll let me heal you if I tell you."

The grin on his face turned into a victorious smirk.

"Deal."

He said with finality. He brought his shoulder forward to where it had been so she could continue tending to it, awaiting her explanation.

"So empathic healing is a little different than most other forms of magic mending."

She began. She wasn't sure how best to explain without causing at least a little bit of concern in her leader.

"When I heal I use my own power and spirit to mend the wounds, it takes a part of me to do so."

Robin nodded following her train of thought this far. He watched as she levitated a small casing of gauze from the ambulance, careful to hide her actions from being noticed.

"That's not the hard part though. As the wound mends the pain that would be experienced throughout the regular timespan it would take to heal is compounded into the few seconds of mending."

Robin's face began to show concern in the direction her words were going. As if ignoring his questioning gaze she continued to blot the blood from his uniform using the small pack of gauze.

"The pain in it of itself would be unbearable so I. . . Take it upon myself, so that the person doesn't have to experience it."

Ravens hand was inches away from his flesh about to begin its empathic healing when he seized it with his own hand.

"That's why I put up my hood. To hide the pain."

She looked into his eyes, shrouded by the thin cloth mask. She knew of their deep blue color and could imagine them gazing back into her own azure orbs.

"Raven."

He said as if about to question her further. Before he could gather his thoughts she spoke again.

"You promised."

She said plainly enough. After a moment Robin reluctantly released her wrist and her hand gently pressed against the wound. She closed her eyes as he witnessed his own pain leave him. Her face wretched in what must have been weeks worth of pain all mustered into mere moments. His hand, still raised, grasped her wrist again though this time not for deterrence. He let his hand squeeze her gently as his thumb rubbed over her bare knuckles in a vain attempt to offer comfort. The pain was evidently clear on her face, though anyone further than where he sat would surely be unable to see the expression she held under her dark hood.

While it truly lasted but a moment Robin felt as though eternities plagued him at the sight of her pain, himself being helpless to contain it. At the moment's end she brought her hand away from his shoulder and his grasp, disappearing within her cloak as she stood. She quickly turned and walked away leaving the boy wonder in awe of her power and her selflessness.

She truly had no sense of self, to a fault in some cases. His mind drifted to the countless times she had healed them all, even Beastboy on occasion. He thought of the wounds she'd healed, normally mere scrapes, cuts, and bruises. The titans all seemed to recover fairly quickly from physical ailments with the exception of himself. He was the most human out of all of them and as such he was the slowest to heal.

As he pondered he also realized that he was the one to most often receive her empathic blessing. She'd mended his broken arm the night of the motorcycle accident to only a small fracture. When he'd fallen victim to Slade's poison dust not only did she experience the pain of his battle firsthand when she entered his mind but also when she took it upon herself to heal each and every wound he'd accumulated throughout the nightmare. The pain that had coursed through the young girl was both astounding and sorrowful. No one deserved to experience such things, least of all her and especially for the pain of his own faults. Mentally he took note to never let her try to heal him again, he couldn't bare the thought of seeing her face wretch as it did so very few moments ago.

As his thoughts came to a close he watched as the titans took to the car and skies on their return home. With a sigh he stood and mounted his bike. Within moments he was headed off toward home.