The hooded figure stood in the rain, motionless. She looked up at the sky, her eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to the raindrops rolling down her pale cheeks. And then she lowered her head slightly, her eyes opening into suspicious slits as she took in the sight of the squat building before her.
She didn't know what she was doing here. Before, this would have been the last place she would ever step into. But now, things have changed. In a way.
It was a pretty well-hid secret in Jump City that this was the place celebrities (or people with too much fame for their own good) came to when they needed a listening ear or when they needed a place for a little mental breakdown. This secret was very well protected by Jump City's rich and famous, because no one wanted to risk a civilian running into a place like this. Its location changed every year, and qualified visitors would be updated annually on the new move.
To put it simply, you had to have a certain amount of fame to be able to use its psychiatric services. If you lost too much influence, you got struck off the customer records.
There wasn't a name for this building. It was mostly referred to as The Clinic.
No one knew how The Clinic changed locations at such speed. No one knew beforehand where it would be set up next. And no one knew how The Clinic measured an individual's influence to select its guests. It just happened that way, and people just accepted it with a weary resignation.
Raven Roth allowed her eyes to travel down towards the huge glass doors at the entrance of The Clinic. If this place could solve the problem her meditation couldn't, she was going to start doubting her prowess as Jump City's most powerful demoness.
As if someone was already waiting at the door for her, the large glass doors slid apart to reveal a hooded figure in a white mask concealing his/her whole face dressed in a long and smugly fitting white coat that fell just below the knee, together with a set of skinny white trousers and white boots. Raven had to make a conscious effort to prevent herself from squinting at how white the outfit was; she could swear it sparkled if she looked at it from a certain angle. Based on the figure before her, she was quite sure the person was female.
When the lady spoke, Raven realized her voice had a strange tinge to it, as if she was speaking into a microphone that was distorting her voice completely. "Welcome to our premises, Miss Raven of the Teen Titans. We have been expecting you. My name is S, and I will be escorting you to your consultation room. If you please?"
It wasn't surprising that Raven had such easy access to The Clinic and its services. While she had never been here before, it was common knowledge that the Teen Titans were easily the most influential and famous (albeit not the richest) people in the City. They were granted exclusive access to The Clinic every year, but they never made much use of it. It was, in fact, made into a little inside joke where the welcome pamphlet would be flung around the dinner table during fights or quarrels.
Wordless, Raven followed the mysterious usher towards the hallway in front of them. They passed corner after corner, and made so many turns that Raven could hardly remember where she started from. As they walked, she examined S a little more carefully. It was said that the identity of the employees of The Clinic were always kept a mystery. No one knew if they were normal civilians, or if they were robots, or if they themselves were one of the influential class. All employees were each made to wear a mask that covered his/her whole face, and they were given initials or numbers as identification on the Clinic's premises. They were also trained to speak as little as possible to avoid alluding to their true identities.
When they finally reached the room, S turned around and held out a silver tray she had been holding. "Miss Raven, please deposit all electrical equipment or any forms of weapons here for safekeeping. We will take care of your belongings for the duration of your consultation. Should you require emergency use of them, we will bring them to you immediately. "
Raven reluctantly placed her communicator into the tray. It wasn't a very smart idea since Robin had specified that the communicator was to be with them at all times, but she figured a while wouldn't hurt. With a nod, S pressed a button next to the door. A buzzer sounded, and the door in front of them gave a soft 'click' as if unlocked. With a little bow, S pushed the door open and motioned for Raven to go inside.
The demoness stepped into the room with a confident grace that contradicted her nervousness. It wasn't really the nervousness of meeting a strange person, but more of the nervousness that someone was going to find out that the almighty Raven Roth had just come for a psychiatric consultation. Even though the chances of that happening were non-existent, Raven was still wary.
She found herself in a blindingly white room, staring at two chairs in front of her. Both of them were cushioned, and for fuck's sake, white as well. If Raven saw any more white she was going to throw up. White had never been her colour.
Her attention was immediately drawn to the person sitting on one of the chairs. He was wearing the exact same kind of outfit as S, but this time everything was jet black apart from the mask, that still remained a brilliant white. The man seemed unnaturally stiff and robotic as he lifted a hand to motion towards the chair opposite him.
Taking that as a cue, Raven sat down slowly onto the indicated seat, silently relishing in the comfort of the cushions.
"Good morning, Raven. My name is N. I will be listening to your grouses today, and should you require anything from me, please let me know. Before we start, may I offer you a very interesting drink?"
Raven stared at him. "A what?"
"A drink. I would like to inform you that taking this drink is optional, but it is recommended that you take it for your own benefit."
"You make it sound like it's spiked." Raven muttered, her eyes leveled at the mysterious figure as she started to focus her energy on her fists. She wasn't getting a very good feel from this.
"It is."
Raven looked up, shocked. Her momentary distraction caused her to let go of her powers. "Why are you giving me a spiked drink?"
"I wouldn't call it a spiked drink. It is more of a truth serum."
"A what?"
"A truth serum. This serum normally allows our customers to open up more during their consultation, thus increasing the effectiveness of the consultation. Visitors tend to have a more satisfactory result after using it. The effects of the serum wear out after one hour, which is the exact duration of the consultation."
"And how do I know you are not going to poison me?"
"You don't. We need to work on trust."
Raven paused, glaring at the figure before her. Everything about this consultation was wrong, but then again, she was already here. She didn't want to waste her time sitting around doing absolutely nothing. It already took so much courage to come here and face so many strangers. It would be stupid of her to back out now.
In one swift motion, she grabbed the drink from N and swallowed it.
"You can wait for something. Sometimes you are made to wait for ages, sometimes you find that you hardly need to wait at all. Maybe that depends on how much you truly want it. If you want something so much, it takes forever to come to you. But when you don't really pine for it, when it's great to have it but okay not to, it comes faster than a blink of an eye.
Say you like someone. You don't necessarily love him, but you quite like the person. You think, no wait, you know, that you never started off liking him. But you've seen him in action for quite some time now, and you find out much to your mortification that he's actually starting to grow on you. Every little thing he does catches your attention, and somehow, stupidly, you hope that every little thing you do catches his.
You go through the standard set of reactions. Number one, shock. Number two, denial. Number three? I'm still trying to figure that out. Maybe I'm still at Number two. Or maybe I'm already somewhere at two and a half."
Raven felt like a freight train. She was just going on for reasons she couldn't explain, but somehow it made her feel better.
N sat calmly across her, still in his unnaturally stiff position. "How much do you interact?"
"We don't talk much. There are many reasons for that, more reasons than I can list. I can give you a few.
In this profession of ours, time isn't something we have the luxury of possessing. We don't have time to sit down and have a proper chat, neither do we have the time to think about our personal relationships. We wake up every morning not knowing what comes next. We are forced to expect anything this city – this world – throws our way. Criminals, demons, apocalypses. All in a day's work.
And then, we have the characters involved. I'm sure the whole city knows me. And him, of course. I mean, he's the fucking leader."
N shifted a bit. Raven ignored him and continued.
"We have been media-shy all this time, but years in the business has thrown our personalities and private lives under heavy scrutiny. I've heard a variety of names given to me by the public. The Deadly Bird, The One Who Does Not Speak More Than Three Words In A Sentence, The Mysterious Witch, you name it, I've most probably heard of it. I don't really care what they call me, but there's one thing they definitely nailed.
I'm a loner. I love being by myself. I don't like having to mix around with new people.
But they changed it all. This group of people who are just so special to me that I can't describe how important they are.
How can I afford to jeopardise this by liking one of them? This is all I can do, talking to him on sporadic occasions, hoping against hope that maybe one day he will realize that there's this person who's liked him for the longest time."
"What do you want from him?"
A small red flush started to creep up Raven's face. She mumbled, "I want us all to move on with our normal lives, and pretend that nothing has happened, just so that this bond between the five of us will never be threatened again. "
"Do you think that's possible?"
"I want it to be."
"But you still want his attention?"
"Why do I want him to notice me so much? I don't know. Did crushes ever need to have an explanation?"
"How much do you know about him?"
"I…" Raven hesitated. "I know he has a lot of things that he doesn't want anyone to know about. I know he likes coffee in the mornings. With no sugar. I know he likes the gym. I know he's pretty bossy."
"Ah. I see." N was silent for a while. "Have you ever considered the fact that your… feelings might be reciprocated?"
Raven gave a little laugh, shaking her head slightly. "It won't happen. I know it won't."
"How are you so sure about that?"
"Look," Raven motioned to herself. "I am a living demon. Demons go around scaring the shit out of people, not attracting them. If he does in fact like me, he's probably a bit messed up."
"That's not a nice thing to sa – "
"I'm not a nice person. I thought my reputation precedes me."
N unfolded his legs slowly, before clasping his gloved hands together and leaning forward. Raven would have loved to invade his mind a bit, just to see what he was thinking, but hey, what was the point in doing that anyway?
It was a while before N spoke again. "Have you ever thought about telling him?"
"I can't. I won't."
"Why?"
"I thought I spent the last few minutes telling you why."
"But you do want him to know."
"I've changed my mind." Raven could feel the effects of the serum wearing out on her, and she was starting to panic. How much had she spilled? In front of this strange, most likely untrustworthy guy? She slapped herself mentally. She was a demoness, a being who trusted nobody. How had she allowed herself to say so much in front of an ambiguous stranger? "You know what? I think we're done talking."
"We still have a few more minutes."
"Wow, sure feels like an hour has passed." Raven got up quickly, replacing her hood as she did so. "Um, thanks for listening."
"Miss Raven…"
Raven started heading towards the door. "There's no hard and fast rule on when a consultation ends, right?"
"There isn't, but – "
"Great. I'm going to make a move first. Good job, by the way, really helped…"
N got up and started following her, his right arm outstretched. "We need to – "
Raven put her hand on the doorknob. "No need to see me out. I can manage."
"Raven."
Raven froze. There was something about that voice. It wasn't a voice she knew, but under all the weirdness of it, there was an underlying authoritative tone she was so sure she had heard before. "No more honorifics?"
"That would be unnecessary." She heard the sound of rustling, as if N was removing his hood.
With a little catch of her breath, Raven turned around.
This could not be happening to her.
She found herself staring at jet black hair, as black as the outfit N was wearing. Even with the mask on, she was pretty damned sure she knew who she was staring at.
Robin removed his white mask, revealing the true one beneath it. He smiled wanly. "I needed a part time job."
There were so many words running through Raven's head that they all got stuck in her throat. "You."
"Hi." Robin paused for a while, before giving her his trademark smirk.
"Sometimes I like my coffee with a cube of sugar."