Here is, as promised long ago, in a land where updates were not so scarce as they are today, my Cyborg-centric fiction. It's four chapters and an epilogue long, nothing too fancy. Enjoy!
"Can I sit here?" I looked up, startled out of my thoughts about life. Hopeful brown eyes reiterated the question as a tall redheaded girl looked back at me, a crooked smile on her freckled face.
"Oh. Sure." I swept my arm grandly at the other side of the booth I had all to myself and she slid into it gratefully. The little diner was crowded, not an unusual thing for a Jump City Friday at noontime.
"Thanks," she said, tucking a very short strand of her red locks behind her ear and setting her plate onto the table between us. She bowed her head, eyes closed, and clasped her hands together, about to pray, but opened one eye and raised her head slightly. "Won't bother you if I say grace, will it?" I shook my head, leaning back in my seat, still a bit surprised at getting interrupted in the first place.
"Not at all, little lady." She grinned at me, then closed her eye again. The whole point behind the holo-ring was to avoid attention; I'd worked a long time trying to get it exactly right so that Beast Boy and I would be able to go out into the city without getting the attention being a superhero got you. Though, the more I thought about it, this girl had been the only one to give me a second glance all day, and she was hardly fawning or screaming like a fan girl.
Holo-ring final test: success.
She raised her head, eyes on her food, and grabbed her fork, stabbing ravenously at her French fries. "So," she asked around a forkful of fries, "what's your name?"
"Vic," I said smoothly, having practiced the name in front of a mirror, so as not to stick out when someone asked me the simple question. I reached for my water, spinning the cup between my hands and wishing, not for the first time, that I could feel the cool glass or the wet condensation.
"Vic," she repeated under her breath. "Short for Victor?" I nodded, smiling a little bit. "Very cool. I'm Melody, Melody Jane." She continued spearing fries through with her fork.
"You a local?" I asked, eyeing her curiously. "No one here eats fries like that." I nodded towards her fork. She set it on the outside of her plate, reaching for the salt and the ketchup.
"Ya caught me," she said with that crooked smile, raising her hands in mock surrender. "I'm just blowing through." She picked up a burger, biting into it noisily. "Man," she said after swallowing. "I love the burgers here! The last town I was in had awful burgers." She shook her head, looking sad. "Half beef, half tofu, all nasty." She wrinkled her nose at the memory.
"You don't like tofu, either, I take it?" I asked, suppressing a laugh. Poor vegetarians, all alone in a world where meat was king. She didn't respond verbally, instead wrinkling her nose and taking a very large bite of the greasy burger she had ordered. I grinned, liking this girl more by the second.
"I love little diners like this; they're, like, the pulse of the city." She looked over her shoulder, nodding. "You've got a great city, here, Vic. Good burgers and happy customers. And the diner's just so quaint." I looked around; wondering if anywhere in industrial, smoggy Jump City could be called 'quaint.' Actually, the more I looked, the more I could see the description fitting; it was no wonder Beast Boy came here for pie all the time. A classic black and white checkerboard floor stretched from wall to wall, and faded, yellowed newspaper articles and reviews were framed and hanging across the green paint. There were even a couple of small pictures tacked up on the wall, people who'd come back time and again for good food and struck up a friendship with the waitresses.
"Yep," I agreed, nodding. "S'pose the Teen Titans help with that." She whipped back around, looking momentarily alarmed, then confused. She cocked her head to the side.
"The who?" she asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"The Teen Titans. They're a superhero team. They live in that building in the bay. You know, the ridiculously large "T" shaped one?" She wrinkled her nose.
"You guys have superheroes here?" She stabbed her fork at her fries again, missing once before she actually speared some. "Jeeze. Just when I thought this was a nice place."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, affronted. She shook her head.
"Not to be hating on your local heroes or anything, man, but the fact that you need 'em is something of a shame." She sighed, putting her fork down and taking a swig of her soda. "Besides, in hero towns, everyone talks about their given hero like they're perfect. No freakin' way." She shook her head, then looked up, making intense eye contact, daring me to argue with her. "I'd betcha they're just as messed up as you and me." Unable to help myself, I laughed, thinking of all the issues we had on the team.
"You have no idea how right you are." She raised an eyebrow, giving me an odd look. Then she shrugged, deciding not to pursue the line of questioning. "That's part of why I'm here by myself," I offered, realizing my mistake. "My best friend and I got into a little fight, so I decided to clear out. Give him some time to cool off, come around, you know?" I spun the cup back and forth between my hands, thinking about the little changeling. He and I really had gotten into it, over something that seemed pointless to me. But, something I had said had really set him off, and he went to go fume in his room. "I asked around, but no one else wanted to hang with me today." Raven wanted to read, and Star and Rob had something planned and, for once, the lack of criminal activity coincided. She shrugged, offering a half-smile.
"Leastways, you've got friends. I… find it difficult to stay in one place long." She looked almost sad at this statement, but shook it off. "Take this place, for example." She raised her arms to indicate Jump City. "Soon as I finish my job here," she said as she leaned back, clasping her hands behind her head. "I'll be long gone."
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Thanks for reading; unless this lovely site throws a fit again, I should have the next chapter up tomorrow.
...SnowFallsSlow...