Updated A/N ( May 1, 2005): I'm reposting this up on the new Teen Titan Account. I don't know how long this is actually going to stay up here, since it might be considered inappropriate and taken down. In any case, I uploaded it to the mediaminer account I've got too, so yeah.

Summary: Robin is awoken in the middle of the night by really loud music. Who's playing it and why? And what, my dear readers, does Robin do when he finds out?

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Tried and Tested
By Em

"I like the way you're not impressed / While you put me to the test"
- Figured You Out, Nickelback

Initially, it was the music that drew him. Well, perhaps not so much the music as the rhythmic thumping of bass against the walls and seeping into his very heartbeat. He looked like a classic sleuth as he perked his hearing, trying to determine the source. He didn't know who would be playing music so loud at this late hour, but God help them when he found out. Just because they were on an island separated from any neighbors didn't mean you didn't have to respect your neighbors inside Titan Tower…specifically him.

He exited the room, looking for signs of a disturbance, but the hallways seemed clear and everyone that was in their room was apparently staying in their rooms. And the further he got from the residence floor, the clearer he heard the muffled voices singing words that he was still too far away to make out.

Maybe it was Cyborg working on the car in the garage? He liked to have the music on extremely loud while he worked, but hadn't Cyborg said he was going to crash early when he left the Gamestation in BB's hands?

The music drew him away from the hallway that led to the garage anyway, so he knew it couldn't be Cyborg in the garage. And if it had been the music in the common room, he would have been able to hear it a lot closer than he was hearing it. He glanced at the digital numbers on the clock in the common room as he passed it and groaned at realizing it was almost 2 in the morning. It wasn't any of the bedrooms, or the sound would be coming from above him and…he paused to listen…he thought he could make out one or two words of the music but he didn't recognize it. But the style, that fast paced kind of guitar and drum heavy music was certainly telling of Beast Boy's kind of music. Well, Beast Boy listened to just about any kind of music depending on his mood, truth be told. Maybe he just had a nagging suspicion that it was the green changeling that was the cause of his lack of concentration…

He was starting to hear the nuances of the music now as he slowly approached. He stopped suddenly when he realized where he was. There was nothing on this side of the tower except the work out rooms.

"This world cannot bring me down, 'cause I am already here!"(1)

He was certainly getting close if he could make out the lyrics to the music but he'd be damned if he still couldn't place the band or the song.

He stopped just outside the doors to the training room and was utterly dumbfounded to find that the music was certainly coming from behind them. Someone was working out inside the room and had the music blasting full force. At just passed 2 in the morning, he didn't know who it could be. The main options were Cyborg and himself. Cyborg he had watched enter his room and he could dismiss himself for obvious reasons.

What if it was an intruder?

'Yeah, Robin, sure...an intruder at 2 in the morning that broke into Titan Tower without triggering alarms only to blast music and work out in our training room…' he scoffed mentally.

But something (curiosity?) stopped him from stepping through the door. Whoever was inside that room was either bothered by something enough to have woken up and gone to the training room to work it off (he had done that himself, so he understood) or was working on something that he or she didn't want anyone else to know if they chose to work out at this late hour and without having told anyone about it.

'Oh, admit it, Robbie-boy,' he chided himself. 'You just want to know who is doing what in there without them realizing you're watching.'

Not that he didn't trust his teammates, but still…

Better to make sure…

And if it was nothing important, he could just leave them working out without having been bothered.

He knew he didn't like it when people interrupted him right in the middle of an all out slug fest with himself.

Deciding, Robin changed course and heading for the observation room next door to the training room, established for the cameras and equipment that could record the sessions so they could watch themselves later…or for someone to watch them from a safe distance where they could point out flaws or weaknesses.

He turned on the camera just in time to hear the song change.

The guitar was still there and it still sounded like the same band, even if the vocals hadn't started yet, but the heavy guitar and drums made that clear.

"Well, I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind," (2) the male voice started as the guitar and drums began in a steady rhythm.

He sought out whoever was inside the room by panning the camera manually and found her in front of the punching bag that they could lower from the center of the room.

"I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time," the singing continued as she approached the bag with measured but sure steps. She rolled her shoulders as she approached and flexed her fist, tightening the tape on her hands.

Robin realized he was staring open-mouthed and closed his jaw with an audible snap. 'What was Raven doing training with a punching bag?' he wondered.

"Well I felt the world float to the dark side of the moon…"

Raven began to bounce on the balls of her feet and Robin couldn't help but notice the clothing. The funny thing was, she normally wore much less than she was currently wearing, as she currently had on a black tank top that covered most of her top, leaving only a slight sliver of skin visible between the bottom edge of it and the elastic waist of a pair of yoga-like workout pants that covered her legs right down to her bare feet.

"I feel there's nothing I can do…yeah…"

'Not funny, 'ha-ha' funny, of course,' Robin realized, because for some reason, he couldn't keep his eyes away from her face as she moved fluidly on the balls of her feet around the swinging bag. Maybe it was because her hair was pulled back from her face in a sloppy ponytail on the back of her head and only several loose strands around her eyes obscured his view of her face.

Raven always was covering her face…

Not that he was one to talk…he fingered the mask that still covered his face. Not even Batman slept in his mask…but it was like a habit now…walk out of his room and put on his mask…and sometimes, when he was feeling particularly paranoid, he would even sleep in it on purpose because Gods knew they had had a few mid-night intrusions where his face would have been seen quite easily.

What was he thinking about?

As if in tune with the music, Raven seemed to find an adequate attack point and had at the bag with a vengeance, her face showing the first signs of emotions he had seen in her in a really long time as she punched the bag again and again, moving fluidly and with all the grace of a ballerina…

If a ballerina were punching the hell out of a punching bag, that was.

"I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon…"

Raven ducked the approaching bag and slid under it to come out on the other side ready for it when it swung back at her. And still, Robin looked on.

"After all I knew it had to be something to do with you"

'Why was she using the punching bag?' he wondered. She had her own training routine where she could use her powers, hadn't she?

"I really don't mind what happens now and then."

Why did she feel she had to develop these physical aspects of her abilities when she would never really need to use them in battle?

"As long as you'll be my friend at the end."

And…and…

"If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?"

'She just did a roundhouse kick!' he exclaimed mentally in surprise, whatever remaining confusion and sleepiness remained utterly gone by her perfect execution of a move that had taken him considerable time to master…back when he was still learning such simple tasks, of course.

"If I'm alive, then, well, will you be there holding my hand?"

His eyes opened even wider when she followed the roundhouse with a perfect combination of uppercut, backward roundhouse, and left hook which would leave just about any enemy disoriented if not unconscious.

"I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might"

Robin found himself smiling as she continued on her assault with a quick succession of perfectly executed moves that he could find no fault with, not with her energy or the strength used and…

"Kryptonite."

Was that a sneer?

Raven was actually sneering as she fought the bag. She was actually showing emotion.

This, understandably, surprised him way more than her extreme acuity with physical attacks had.

The music slowed as if in a temporary reprieve and Raven's jumped back away from the bag in a back flip and took a moment to breathe, flexing her hands and testing the wrapping of her right hand while pushing her hair back behind her ears with the other and wiping at the sweat that fell around her face.

She brought her left hand up to her mouth and using her teeth and her right hand tightened one of the knots as she walked to a corner of the training room. Robin watched her walk out of sight of the camera and found himself wishing he could follow her for a few moments before he remembered that he could move the camera.

"You call me strong, you call me weak," the singer continued relentlessly, his words driving Raven to renewed vigor as she attacked the makiwara(3), her arms moving and punching with perfect accuracy in order to make the wooden post give the way it should without hurting her hands. "But still your secrets I will keep." Robin watched as with just as much speed as he himself used, she went through several kata with the makiwara and he found himself wondering even more where she had learned how to use it. He knew from experience that if you didn't use the right kind of movements with the makiwara, you could get seriously hurt, and yet…she appeared to have mastered it.

"You took for granted all the times I never let you down…"

The curiosity at why she was doing such things was superseded only by the curiosity of where and when she had learned such technique.

"You stumbled in and bumped your head…" Robin zoomed in the camera's lens as he saw something in her face that he wanted to confirm and was even more shocked to find her lips moving in sync with the singer's voice. "If not for me, then you'd be dead," she emphasized the poignant words with a sweep of her hand or a punch.

"I picked you up and put you back on solid ground."

Finally giving in to the temptation, Robin walked out of the viewing room and walked into the training room, knowing that so long as she was focused on the makiwara her back was turned to the door and with the music, she wouldn't hear it open. Robin shed his shoes as he approached, kicking them out of the way. Something must have alerted her because just before Robin could reach her for the attack he had planned, she turned sharply to face him, her arms sweeping up to deflect and repel his reach.

In response, he jumped back from her nimbly, falling easy into the battle position and as the chorus of the song began around them, he grinned at her and graced her with the infamous come here move.

"If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?"

Still in her ready stance, she paused before advancing and Robin worried momentarily that he shouldn't have interrupted her. That it would've been better if he would have left her in peace…

"If I'm alive, then, well, will you be there holding my hand?"

Any thoughts or doubts fled as Raven's sudden rush at him spurred him into action and he moved back into a classic defensive moves, letting her attack and reading her moves, learning from her attack on a person what he hadn't been able to determine of her style from her attack on inanimate objects.

"I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might"

She was still good even when attacking someone who was defending back, but it was obvious she hadn't been training with a live person or she wouldn't make some of the mistakes that allowed him to move smoothly out of defensive into offensive when he was ready.

"Kryptonite."

And still, even though now he was on the offensive with jabs and strikes and swipes of his much more accustomed body, he couldn't get the upper hand.

"If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?"

He heard the chorus repeat itself around them and couldn't help widening his grin. She took the moment to dip when he thought she was going to swipe and the wind was momentarily knocked out of him as the flat of her hands connected with his chest, throwing him back off balance in the surprise.

"If I'm alive, then, well, will you be there holding my hand?"

She could've continued to attack, but noticing that she had caught him by surprise, she waited until he regained his feet. He indulged in rubbing his chest for a moment and wincing at her, more amused than really hurt and she knew it because, to his incredible surprise, she grinned back as she continued to bounce on the balls of her feet.

"I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might"

Robin turned his head to the side in order to crack the crick and then bowed formerly to her. A quirk of surprise flittered on her face before she snapped her feet together and her hands at her solar plexus, she returned the bow.

"Kryptonite."

He attacked first this time, but she didn't stay on the defensive and before the chorus had a chance to repeat itself again, they were both trading blows with neither on the defensive and both on the offensive, trying to get any effective punch or kick passed the other's considerable defense.

"If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?"

They were both quick in both movement and thought, knowing how much thought to put into their moves without broadcasting their thoughts to the other too much ahead of time.

"If I'm alive, then, well, will you be there holding my hand?"

It would look, Robin knew, like a well choreographed ballet.

"I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might"

Again, if ballerinas were allowed to kick the crap out of each other. Or at least, to try.

"Kryptonite."

But ultimately, Robin had trained for much longer and with a well timed swipe of his leg he threw her off balance and followed her until she was lying on the ground with his arms lightly pinning her there by the neck.

She was breathing hard, but she was still smiling.

Then again, so was he.

With an echoing chord of the guitar, the song faded into silence and they were both breathing hard, both smiling and both looking at each other, suddenly wondering what to say.

"Uncle?" Her voice, when she finally spoke, was breathy.

"Not until you tell me where you learned to fight like that," Robin insisted, just as out of breath as she was.

"Are those your terms of surrender?" she asked, still fighting to breathe even thought his arms, although touching the bareness of her neck, were not pressing down or impeding her breath.

He nodded and wiped at his brow with his free arm. "They are…" he confirmed.

"Okay," she agreed. She was grinning still and although they both knew she could use her powers to get away from him, made no move to even fight his restraint. "I learned them…" she paused. "From you," she answered.

He blinked and opened his eyes wide, unconsciously lowering himself closer to her as if he wasn't sure that the distance hadn't been too much to make her words audible even though there was no longer any other sound in the training room. "Pardon?"

She smiled wryly. "I watched you when you trained and I kinda hacked into the training tapes," she admitted.

His eyes swept the room, half expecting Beast Boy to jump out at him and claim this was all an early (or late) April Fool's Day joke. When he found no signs of anything out of the ordinary, he looked back down at her, all the while maintaining the contact of his arm on her neck. "Why would you do that?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "It is really you, Raven, isn't it?"

He could feel her heartbeat start to steady under her pulse, even though it was still coming fast.

She nodded. "It is me, alright," she told him and although the smile left her lips, her face still was more open and light than he was used to seeing it. She brought one of her hands to wipe her forehead and the other to the pulse at her neck. She seemed to be counting and when she had her answer she met his eyes again. "I think you might want to get off me, now," she told him. "The adrenaline's leaving my body."

Suddenly blushing at her comment, Robin let her go as if he had been burned and scooted back away from her ashamed she had to be the one to ask. She sat up casually, apparently unaffected, and massaged her neck with one hand, moving her head around as if to test her flexibility.

"Sorry 'bout that" he mumbled.

She shook her head as she brought her legs up to her chest and looked at him, not in any particular hurry to stand. "It's alright," she told him. "It was a good workout, so I'm probably okay for another half an our at least, but just to be on the safe side," she explained, even though he still didn't know what she was talking about and the look on his face must have shown that because she smiled wryly at him. "To answer your question of why I would do that," she paused. "its part of an experiment which seems to have been working these passed few weeks."

"What kind of experiment?" He stood in order to find the towels in the cabinet where they were kept. Grabbing a pair of them as well as a pair of water bottles, he made his way back to where she was still sitting on the floor.

She took the water and the towel he offered gratefully and wiped at her face and neck with the towel before taking a swig from the water. "I was starting to realize that meditating alone wasn't giving me control of my emotions," she shrugged. "I think it might be because my powers are growing as I grow older as well as puberty kicking into my human side…" she shrugged again. "Who knows?" She sighed. "Anyway, I figured I would need another outlet if meditating along wouldn't do it, so I tried working out…but if I tried to work out using my powers, it would only fuel the unbalance." She paused to take another few gulps of the water bottle and Robin found himself watching as her throat worked for a few moments in thoughtless silence before jolting into the realization of just whose throat he was fixated on. As casually as possible, he looked away and busied himself by drinking from his own bottle. Finished, she placed the closed bottle to the back of her neck, presumably to cool herself off and continued speaking as if she hadn't just done something completely alluring. "So a few weeks ago, Star was reading a magazine about how physical exercise can relieve stress and so I thought, unbalanced emotions certainly caused and included stress," she shrugged. "So I figured I'd try that."

Robin could only stare at her. It wasn't only the look on her face or the clothing; it was the casual speech patters and easiness with which she spoke. She almost sounded as if she were indulging in run on sentences. "But why me?" he asked.

She blinked at him. "Why you?" she asked for clarification.

"Why did you pick me?" he tried to explain. "Why did you choose to copy my moves?"

She chuckled. "I would like to point out that I did not copy your moves," she pointed out. "Merely emulated them in order to learn," she offered. Robin raised a brow and Raven found herself chuckling again. "In any case," she continued without waiting for him to respond to that. "I've always liked the way you fight," she answered impulsively, quickly hiding her face as soon as the words had left her mouth. "It's very hands on, much more physical than any of the rest of us."

"That's 'cause I don't have any powers," he mumbled in response.

"Hasn't stopped you from kicking ass before, has it?" she countered.

'Did Raven really just try to make me feel better?' he wondered, looking at her in surprise only to realize that she wasn't looking at him at all, but busy fiddling with her ponytail, trying to make it hold even the rebellious strands at the forehead level. "So you like the way I fight, huh?" he spoke, raising an eyebrow and allowing himself to look proud when she looked at him.

"Don't get full of yourself," she warned, smiling wryly. "Like I said…you're the only purely physical one of us…"

"You also said you liked the way I fought," he reminded her, his tone slightly teasing.

"Anyway," she emphasized, moving passed the tangent. Didn't he know what that teasing tone did to her, she wondered. Especially when she had already allowed her emotions some freedom? "I found that as long as my adrenaline is high for reasons that have nothing to do with my emotions, like working out like this, I could allow some emotions and the energy from those emotions would be sucked up by the adrenaline and my power wouldn't be affected at all." Some part of her realized she wasn't even sounding like herself. She was offering too much information, using too many words. What had ever happened to conservation of words? She sighed, realizing that if she was even just starting to realize that, the adrenaline must be wearing off.

Robin whistled low. "And you learned all your moves from watching tapes of me?" He shook his head. "No wonder it looked familiar."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "How long were you watching me?"

He blushed and it was his turn to hide his face. "The song before this last one? About not ducking and running?"

Raven shook her head and stood up gracefully. "Took you long enough to join me, then," she said over her shoulder as she walked to throw the empty water bottle away.

"Yeah, well," he found himself blushing again and wondered why he couldn't stop himself from doing it. "It took me a while to figure out that it wasn't a dream or anything," he explained, then winced as he realized how that sounded.

Raven didn't miss a beat. She turned her upper body to look at him and raised a brow. "Dream about me often?" she queried.

"You could use some work on your kicks, though…" he answered instead, as if he hadn't heard her. "You lead too much with your dominant side," he stood and executed a kick like he had seen her do. "See? You need to flow into them much smoother, like…" he executed a kick in perfect form, illustrating what he meant. He allowed his mind to replay her moves so that he could point out the deficiencies and planning how to get her to fix them. "It broadcasts what your move is going to be and a smart opponent would have you."

"Hey!" she cut in, bristling. "Don't forget I nearly kicked your butt, Bird Boy!"

Robin was shocked at the tone of teasing in her voice…teasing and pride and humor…and a smidgen of offense. He found himself laughing. "Hey, nothing personal, Bird Girl," he countered, raising his hands in defense. "But you said it, you nearly kicked my butt…" he shrugged. "If you wouldn't lead with your dominant side and a few other things, you would get a lot closer than nearly."

Her eyes had focused a little too long on the bead of sweat as it trailed down the side of his neck and disappeared into his shirt before she realized it and slammed her shields down to taper that runaway emotion, cursing mentally. 'She could not afford to have Passion make an appearance tonight,' she thought. Not when she was having a longer and more complex discussion with Robin than she had had in a long time. Feeling the beginning of anger for having to do it at all and realizing that just because she felt Anger even a little bit it was time to shut the emotions down for the night, she forcefully brought most of her shields back into place. The change was almost immediate. "Thanks for the tip," she told him instead, her voice once again neutral and devoid of emotion. "Anyway, I better get to bed…" she started to walk toward the doors.

"Wait, to bed?" he asked. She stopped mid stride to turn back to him with an upraised eyebrow. "Don't you wanna go again?" he asked hopefully.

She looked at him for a few moments, Humor and Flirtation sneaking passed her haphazardly placed shields onto the surface before she could stop them and something like a wicked gleam entered her eyes. "I wouldn't want to wear you out, Boy Wonder," she drawled, her control once again dragging the escaped emotions and dragging them behind the shields, turning her back on him so he wouldn't notice and walking the rest of the way to the door in an attempt to get away before her emotions did any more harm. "Hate to leave you all excited and flustered," she called over her shoulder. "But I'm done for the night." She cursed mentally at her emotions and realized that perhaps she needed to practice being able to let them out during these workouts a little more. At least, she thought, they weren't the dangerous emotions…just the annoying ones.

Robin blushed at the possible insinuation when he realized how it might sound should someone else hear it, but then chided himself. 'This is Raven we're talking about!'

"Goodnight, Robin," she said as the door opened.

'Yeah, it was Raven…' he thought and grinned. And he was only just starting to figure out just who Raven was. "Scared?" he goaded.

Raven stopped as if she had been frozen in place, just shy of the hallway. Little did he know that her momentary lack of movement was due to the internal struggle she was having to keep Courage and several other of her emotions from rising to the bait, but in the end, someone won that wasn't the normal her because she turned back to look at him.

It seemed to him she was trying to read him, but before he could decide what she was looking for, she turned back and walked into the hallway. "Same time tomorrow," she said once again over her shoulder and the same kind of neutral tone was back in her voice. "Don't be late."

Raven ignored the internal cheer that went up inside her as her emotions celebrated their victory. She hadn't wanted to test them any more by sparring with Robin on any other nightly rendezvous, but in the end, she hadn't been able to say no. She had been able to lock away her emotions before she replied, she knew she had…but she still hadn't been able to say no…she had still wanted to spar with him again tomorrow night…

She shrugged as she walked to the bathroom. 'I'm sure there's some logical reason for my decision,' she thought. 'And I'll think of it…tomorrow.'

Robin, for his part, stared at the door long after it had closed. He found himself smiling as he realized that he had been wrong about her tone at the end. It hadn't been the same neutral tone to her voice. There had been a hint of challenge in it even when her emotionless mask was back in place.

"Oh, I won't be late…" he told her even though she couldn't hear him. "You can count on that."

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A/N: Blame Jurodan for this. Oh, he didn't say I should write one of these or anything like that, but I had just read his wonderful fic "Shards of Hope" last night which is a crossover between Inuyasha and Teen Titans and I was thinking about Teen Titans as I finished up my researching last night and I got a reply review from him in one of my Inuyasha fics and the idea for this came into my head as I heard "Kryptonite" and since I'd been on a Teen Titan watching kick lately, Puck, my muse, wanted to run with this quickie.

So…yeah…blame Jurodan, Three Doors Down, and late night inspiration for this.

Disclaimer: Nah…I don't own them. I don't even know who really owns them at all. But I surely don't. I'm not even a regular in this fandom…I'm a visitor here…I usually write over in "Inuyasha" world. So, yeah. (FYI: I don't own Inuyasha, either…not that there's any Inuyasha here, but I wrote in it and…eh…you get the point.)

Notes:

(1) Duck and Run by Three Doors Down.

(2) Kryptonite by Three Doors Down

(3) Makiwara: The are two types of makiwara, the tachi-makiwara and the age-makiwara. The most common version of the makiwara is the standing makiwara (tachi makiwara). However, there are also two types of standing makiwara: (a) a flat wooden post extending up from the ground with a pad (or straw wrap-around) on the top. This makiwara is struck from the front only. (b) The other type of standing makiwara is constructed of a round pole which is set into the ground as well. Straw padding is wound around the pole, and it can be hit from all sides. (See http/ monaghankarate . tripod . com / id8 . html)