Raven, with a frown on her face, cleared her desktop, methodically stashing everything on it into the drawers, until her desk was a flat, clear surface. Pursing her lips, she stared at it as if it was an adversary, or worse an arch-nemesis like Slade, Brother Blood or the Brain.
She went back to her bed, where a shopping bag with a Macy's logo on it was resting. She retrieved a roll of shiny Christmas gift wrap, removed the cellophane wrap from it and unrolled it on her desk.
Heaving a sigh, she walked back to her bed, and retrieved a medium sized box from the shopping bag.
She had planned on letting someone at the department store wrap the gift for her, but it was December 24th and the gift wrap counter was mobbed, with a large sign above it stating that they could not accept any more packages before Christmas. That was when she bought some gift wrap material at the store. She had never wrapped a gift in her life before. Gifts were not exchanged in Azarath, wrapped or unwrapped, so when she first joined the team she would have resorted to having someone at the store wrap whatever gift she was purchasing, which never happened, as she rarely gave anyone a gift, correction, she had never given anyone a gift. Birthdays, Christmas, Graduations, Blorthog, etc. were non events for her.
This was the first time she had not only purchased a gift for someone, it would be the first time she would wrap one herself.
She plopped the box on top of the unfurled wrapping paper and crossed her arms. She had seen Starfire wrap presents before, and the princess did it so well that the paper looked as if it had been sprayed on the gift. No creases, air gaps and the tape would be almost invisible, a literal work of art. She could do it with her eyes closed.
Raven continued to stare at the scene on her desktop.
"All this involves is cutting the paper, folding it and taping it together. How hard can it be?" She murmured to herself.
She reached out, uncertain of where to begin. Then she remembered, Starfire always cut the paper first. Opening a drawer, she pulled out a pair of scissors. Biting her lower lip, she hesitated until she picked a spot, and began to cut. To her chagrin, as she was cutting, she accidentally tugged too hard on the paper and it ripped as she cut it. She heaved a groan, crumpled the torn piece and tossed on the floor. She unrolled some more paper. This time she was more careful and did not tear the paper as she cut it.
She then began to fold the paper around the box the way she had seen Starfire do it. As she proceeded she quickly realized that the paper was too small. Again, she crumpled it and started over.
After four more attempts she finally cut it big enough. She was muttering under her breath how was it possible for Starfire to get it right the first time, as the Tamaranian never measured anything and Raven had been forced to use a ruler to measure the box.
She folded the paper around the box, more than once, until it was moderately tight. Again she wondered how Starfire's wrap jobs made hers look like she had tossed her gift inside a ziploc bag. She uttered her mantra, several times, in a vain attempt to calm herself.
Deciding that this was as good as it was going to get she reached for the tape dispenser. She had never in her life used tape. She was handy with a stapler, as she once repaired Timmy's blanket with one. She pondered if perhaps she could staple the wrapping paper to the box, but quickly dropped the idea.
She picked up the tape dispenser, which she had also purchased that afternoon, and yanked on the tape. A long strand unwound from the roll and stuck to her sleeve. She pulled it off and saw that the it already had some lint on it, so she crumpled it up. She pulled a second piece, this time more slowly and carefully. She knew that she was supposed to use the cutting edge on the dispenser and she did. To her dismay the tape curled up and got stuck to itself. After failing to disentangle it, she threw it away.
She repeated the task a few more times, each time cutting a shorter piece, until finally she had an unspoiled piece of tape. She then turned to the box and frowned.
"How am I supposed to hold the paper in place if I'm holding the tape?" She grumbled.
A small smile appeared on her face. "Of course, why didn't I think of that before?"
She muttered her mantra and a small flash of black lightning shot out of her Chakra stone. It enveloped the package, pulling the wrapping paper nice and tight. Her smile widened.
Until the paper tore again.
She face palmed, and immediately shouted in anger when the tape, which was still in her hands, stuck to her face.
She frowned as she peeled it off.
"Why can't I do this? Even Gar can wrap a package, I've seen him do it."
She tried to calm herself with her mantra, and started all over.
The next time, she tore the paper with the tape. Then she did get the tape on, only to discover that the tape had huge smudge marks on it, with a clear impression of her thumb print on it. For a second she was tempted to say "good enough", but she was kidding no one with that fib, especially not herself, and she ripped the paper off the box. As she tried to unroll some more paper she discovered that there wasn't enough left. Again, she face palmed.
She considered running out to buy some more, but the idea of heading either to the mall or some big box store, where everyone would stare at her like they had earlier at Macy's, had no appeal to her whatsoever. She wondered if anyone would have some unused wrapping paper she could borrow.
Robin and Starfire were away, as they had gone to a Christmas Eve Mass at the Cathedral, the one where a demonically empowered Slade had chased her and Robin on that fateful birthday of hers. Apparently the alien wished to learn more about the significance of Christmas. They wouldn't be back until much later.
Cyborg was already in his recharging station, and she felt it would be too petty to wake him just to ask for some wrapping paper.
That left her but one choice.
With a big sigh on her lips she rose from her chair and headed out of her room into the hallway. She walked until she stopped in front of Beast Boy's door, which she gently knocked.
The door slid open, revealing the changeling's happy, go lucky face.
"Hey! Wassup mama?"
Raven groaned inwardly. She had repeatedly told him not to call her that. It was, apparently, a lost cause.
"Do you have any wrapping paper I can use?"
"Sure do, come on in, I'll show you what I have."
Much to her dismay, she saw that he had several rolls of paper, each one different. Then it made sense, he gave gifts to several people, and wanted each one to be wrapped uniquely. Starfire did the same thing.
"So, which one do you like?" He asked.
"I don't know … which one is your favorite?"
He handed her a roll with smiling reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. "This one."
Raven took the roll. "Thanks"
She headed to his door and stopped, but did not turn around.
"Anything else, Rave?"
She bit her lower lip. Without turning around she asked. "I need your help."
"My help? With what?"
She turned around.
"I need you to help me wrap a gift."
"Really?"
"I've never done it before and, even though I sometimes help Cyborg with the T-Car, the truth is I'm not very good with my hands."
He arched an eyebrow and smiled.
"I wouldn't say that."
She gave him a very mild glare. "Will you help me or not?"
His smile widened. "Of course I will."
He followed her back to her room.
"Would you show me, step by step, how to do it?" She asked.
"Of course, mama!"
He proceeded to measure the unmarked cardboard box. He then unrolled the paper, which was marked on it's back with measurement boxes, explained to her how many units would be needed on the side. She handed him the scissors. He gave them back, asking if the she had a pen knife. She did and after folding and creasing the paper, he cut it with the sharp knife. After that he cut small pieces of tape, which he stuck to the edge of the desk. He folded the paper and carefully taped the edges. He then handed the finished package to her.
"You make it look so easy. When I tried it was a disaster."
"You'll get better with practice. And speaking of which, I still have a few gifts to wrap, so I'd better get hopping."
Raven walked up to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you."
"My pleasure, and don't forget to to put a "from/to" sticker on it."
"I won't. Thanks."
"You're welcome. And while I know it's not your kind of holiday, Merry Christmas, Rave. See you in the morning."
He winked at her and running out her door, he was gone. She stared at the vacant door for a long minute before turning back to her desk. She prepared a sticker, which had a Santa Claus face on it, and stuck it, along with a green, red and white striped bow to the gift.
She picked it up and phased into the floor, reappearing in the common room. She looked around, making sure she was alone, before walking up to the tree and in an almost clandestine move, slid the gift under the tree, burying it under the other presents. She looked around again, verifying that no one had seen her place the gift, and teleported back to her room.
-( - )-
The Fab Five were gathered around the tree, eating their Christmas brunch. Starfire was in charge of handing out the presents under the tree. In addition to the gifts that Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy gave each other, there were also a few presents from Titans East, Batman, The Doom Patrol and others.
As the pile under the tree dwindled, Starfire picked up a present wrapped in the paper with the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh.
"This one is for Beast Boy, and it is from … Raven!"
As she handed the gift to the changeling, Robin frowned and discreetly handed Cyborg a $20 bill.
Beast Boy grinned as he unwrapped the package. Inside the box was a turtleneck shirt, which he immediately tried on. It not only fit perfectly, it looked great on him. Starfire was beaming.
"Raven! This is glorious! This is the first time you have given anyone a Christmas present."
Raven blushed, and the changeling wrapped an arm around her and drew her close to him.
"Well, he is my boyfriend now. And I guess there is a first time for everything."
They then exchanged a tender kiss. Somewhere off in the distance, a light bulb exploded.
-( - )-
I hoped you enjoyed this little piece of Christmas fluff.