Truth be told, Raven had never hated spending time with her teammates. In the beginning, she was wary of them, sure, but hate was a word specially reserved for her father. And those were two "families" that did not mix.
At least not yet. A shiver danced along her spine, toying with the lightest touch against her skin. She focused back on her book, partially listening to the conversation in front of her.
"But I do not understand. Why do the flowers have teeth, and why must they dislike the fat man in red so much?"
"Chill out, Star." Beast Boy's voice was accompanied by a controlled slamming of buttons. "It's just a game."
From the corner of her eye, Raven watched Starfire turn, looking at the changeling until Robin spoke.
"I think he means sometimes things don't need explaining. They just are."
Raven felt something of a breeze whisper through her. There was something underneath Robin's statement...
"But the princess." Starfire looked back at him, green eyes touched with worry. "She is always in another place of staying."
The back cushion beside Raven, the one Robin was resting against, moved as their leader shrugged one shoulder.
"We'll see."
The team quieted, four of the five titans continuing to watch the game's development, the only noise in the Common Area being the classic 8-bit music accompanied by the occasional boing and pew-pew of fireballs. A riveting soundtrack to a book about ancient medicine, really. And then, a short score Raven hadn't heard in a while.
"Aww, yeah! My turn, baby!" Cyborg snatched the controller away from Beast Boy, whose arms flailed in a vain attempt to retrieve the controller. Cyborg's hand holding his face back helped with this.
"C'mon, man! That was like a developing error!"
"On a game like this? No way. You died fair and square. Now watch me beat your high score."
"Yeah, right. It's a shared score, Einstein. You're just going to help both of us."
Raven's attention moved away from the conversation, Cyborg's playful reply nothing more than a drone of background noise as she felt movement behind her. Robin's arm was draped along the back of the couch—it had been ever since he vaulted over the back of it and landed next to her. When his hand kept its distance away from any part of her, Raven forgot about it. But now that hand had lifted, fingers delicately toying with her hair. Loosely wrapping a lock around his finger.
He's lost in watching the game. Raven told herself. Absent-mindedness. I'm sure he'll realize what he's doing and snap out of it.
She waited, eyes continuing to move along words about voodoo but understanding none of it. They scanned the same line at the top of the page over again, a distant part of her knowing she'd already learned whatever it was saying. But the rest of her brain was focused on the gloved hand hovering behind her neck, fingers still fascinated by the ends of her hair.
An emotion began to creep up, looming towards her chest. Raven immediately silenced it, shoving it back down with the thought of patience. People get lost in thought; sometimes it takes time for them to get out of their own head. The book containing things she already knew suddenly seemed much more interesting.
Four pages and another video game life later, the controller was in Beast Boy's hands. Another paragraph, and she heard the classic score again.
"Duude!" Beast Boy cried, half-tossing the controller down. "What is with this level? I can't get past these dang fish!"
"Well we better find a way to." Cyborg said. "We only got two more lives left."
A tiny part of Raven's attention withdrew from the book. The Common Room was quiet now, the three titans on the floor stuck pondering on how to succeed. This was the part where Robin was supposed to offer advice. He'd been watching the game for over a half-hour now; surely he must have seen a strategy they hadn't.
But whatever idea he had thought of, their leader wasn't voicing. Without moving her head enough to take his hand away from her hair, Raven looked towards him, straining a little to see from the corner of her eye. Cyborg had picked up the game again, and from what Raven could tell Robin was perfectly fine with watching it. The fact that he seemed attentive didn't bother Raven; it was the light, content smile that caused her stomach to clench.
So he knows what he's doing. Raven thought, turning back to her book. Why isn't he stopping?
No more than a few seconds later, the back of his finger brushed against her skin, near the curve of her neck that led into her shoulder. Even beneath the glove's texture, the touch was soft. The start of a loving, delicate stroke.
An emotion scraped through Raven's chest, rough and loud like car brakes being slammed against tires. For a single moment, something else started to bloom underneath it.
A light bulb exploded across the room. Robin's hand snapped away as brief shouts came from Starfire and Beast Boy, already tense from watching a particularly stressful part of the game. The score that Raven now considered annoying sounded again, the ending of it leaving the room silent. She continued to stare ahead at the bottom of the TV, one thought resounding in her mind.
That wasn't on accident.
"Uh, Rae?" Beast Boy asked. "You alright?"
Raven stood, pulling her cloak around her and using her energy to lift her hood up. But the black aura was shaky, performing her request in brief snaps and skitters of lightning. If there was ever a time to meditate, it was now.
"I... Just need some time alone." She turned, floating around the couch and towards the hallway. As the metallic doors parted for her, she heard Beast Boy speak again, directing the question to Robin.
"Dude... What happened?"
The doors closed, preventing her from hearing the reply.
Like the description said, more chapters might come! Tell me what you think :)