Paper Dreams
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, the cartoon or comic versions. This is a work for no profit.
A/N: This is my first fanfic. I would appreciate reviews, constructive criticism. Do note that this fic is intended to be a romantic one between Raven and Starfire. By the gods, if you don't like that, please don't read. If someone would like to be my beta, I would really appreciate it ^_^'
Raven sat in her room with an odd air of detachment from her own belongings. She was far too engrossed in her current work.
Her hands were cold. Blowing into them and rubbing them together, she could hardly manage to bring a tolerable level of comfort to her pale digits. The letters on the book page before her swam and shimmered. The cool fingers rose, rubbed their owner's face, distributing relief to the weary flesh. She pressed them in gently, allowing the coolness to soothe the persistent aching.
Many old books filled the dark, cool space of her room. They have long ago begun the process of fading, centuries nibbling at pages and letters.
Removing her hands from her face, she picked up the pumice stone and worked it along the fresh, hairy vellum before her. Ah, vellum, that king of paper unequaled in its use. The ritualistic smoothing and conditioning of the paper was comforting. Transcription is a difficult skill to master, but so needed with the kind of rare, ancient manuscripts Raven owned and used. Without her diligent work, how many of these venerable works would be reduced to heartbreaking ruin? These living works would die slow deaths, a travesty to the knowledge contained within. And so she worked that night on the eldest book in her collection A Treatise on Realities, Dimensions, the Aetherium and Their Manipulation, a real page-turner, as magical teachings go.
She had already worked endless hours on this book alone yet it was only half complete. The team often wondered as to the strange things that certainly must go on behind the door to Raven's bedroom. How outrageously silly their ideas are when, for the most part, she's simply nurturing the helpless child of her library.
Raven knew Beast Boy was always coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas about what she did behind closed doors. There was voodoo, black rituals, and all sorts of chicanery she was supposedly in on. But the ideas in his mind were far more interesting than grinding out page after page from musty books in her spare time. Of course, there were other things she did. One cannot merely leave their room to eat and fend off villains. She frequented the roof for meditation, went to the kitchen often for tea, and would generally sit around reading or watching as the others went about their business.
Following the fall of her demon father, Trigon, Raven had been partaking in a greater amount of these less solitary activities. It was refreshing to be free of destiny. She had believed her fate was set in stone, but luckily, her friends had pulled her up and refuted what she believed would be the inevitable outcome of her life. Still, old habits die hard. Her cynicism and biting sarcasm still very much lived on, as well as her short temper.
But, she noted with a bit of anxiety, those defenses from emotion were slipping. Before the moment of the prophecy, she had wondered whether she really was the person she made out for everyone else to see. She had honed herself for years, and now that it was finished… what was her purpose? They say that, after so much time behind a mask, you turn into what you pretended to be. If that was true, then she wasn't ready for normality, or whatever suggestion of normality there can be for a young heroine.
"It's late," Raven said to no one. The night was an abyssal blue.
Her work could wait. She stood, straightened her aching spine, and made way to her dresser. Opening a wide drawer, the familiar scent of mahogany floated out. She put on her typical night clothes and went about the duties preceding sleep. Every light suffused her senses with pain. She shunned it as best she could on most occasions, but now, it affected her more than ever. Her eyes were taking the brunt of the toll from her scholarly endeavor. The close reading with moderate light had put a definite strain on her eyes, and she found herself wishing for sunglasses so that she may cut the stabs of light from her bathroom sconces.
She crawled into her bed when she was done. Limply, her body slipped between the sheets.
Grateful for the dark, she drowned into slumber.
A/N: So, yeah. That was the start of it. I'll have the next chapter up soon. Again, reviews are appreciated!