Short Note: Hey everyone! Here's the revised version of Chapter 1. It's not much different except for a few details I messed up the first time around, but the quality of writing is definitely increased, so now would be a good time to reread the story if you're interested!
Edited: 9/9/12
Fake Left, Break Right
By Socially Suicidal
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Chapter One: Confusion and Basketball?
The empath stood directly in the Boy Wonder's face. "No," she said softly, trying to keep her homicidal emotions intact. But he thought she sounded more dangerous, edgy, and he was weary of the grip she had over the murderous intent rolling off of her.
"Raven, please, they're counting on us to find this bastard! The only way we can do that is if you spot him at one of the games!" Robin insisted but he led himself right into one of her scowls.
Robin was risking his life and manhood imploring Raven to participate in a high school basketball clinic in order to catch a criminal that was thought to have some interest in the sport. He thought his request was simple enough- for her to learn the sport and become skilled enough in it so that she could partake in some games that the suspect might attend.
"Why can't Starfire do it, she is much more fit then I. I don't even know how to play! And even if I did know how, I wouldn't even stand a chance, lookat me for Azar's sakes!" she retorted impatiently. He gave her a once over from behind his white mask, became distracted by some very male thoughts, and immediately shook them off. 'She's right, but you don't have to be tall, or big to play basketball. There are different positions to fit all players, right?' he thought.
"Star can't go it because she would ask too many questions and she is not good at acting like a normal person, we cannot risk her shooting green beams out of her eyes over the smallest of disagreements. You are much better at controlling that sort of thing." He finished and looked into the pair of amethyst eyes looking up at him. Inwardly, the murderous intent shooting out of those same eyes made him doubt his own statement instantly, but he decided it was in his best interest not to voice such thoughts.
Raven was now even more frustrated, he wasright after all, damn him the Boy Blunder for being right! She sighed, she really didn't want to do this, really didn't want to, but to her dismay his logic had won over her stubborn anger. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned closer to him, close enough for his discomfort to be almost visible and the perfect proximity to scare him straight out of his fluorescent green tights.
"Fine, I'll do the stupid basketball thing, but when this is over…" She paused and brought her lips up at his ears, she let him feel her warm breath and then she continued in the lowest, most sadistic tone her throaty voice could muster "…it is in your best interest to be expecting worse than hell." She slowly moved away from his face, glared at him pointedly in his mask clothed eyes, turned around and slipped into her room. Robin stood there, still tingling from the feeling of her warm breath that now caressed his thoughts. He shook it off, knowing that if he thought about it too much; he would feel too strange to take her to the basketball clinic that would start for the day in about fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, in the comfort and privacy of her dark room, Raven was smirking as she recalled the expression on her leader's face as she left him standing there, speechless. That was her kind of comedy, albeit dry and downright sadistic sometimes. She walked over to one of her draws and yanked out some blue basketball shorts that she was dismayed to know would be far too big on her, and a white spaghetti strapped shirt that hugged her small body. Raven pulled her hair up in a ponytail that due to her hair's short length hung only at medium height from the back of her head. Two purple strands of her 'bangs' fell on either side of her face.
Pressing her index finger to the chakra she wore proudly on her forehead, the resident sorceress closed her amethyst eyes and murmured some complicated spell words. Some dark energy surrounded the purple gem and it disappeared from her pale skin and the purple color of her hair bled black. To further disguise herself from unwanted attention, Raven pulled some deep blue contacts from out of a drawer and carefully placed them in each of her eyes. Blinking, she observed her change in appearance dully and rubbed her newly vacated forehead. The disguise would take a lot of focus to keep up for extended periods of time, and she was mildly miffed at all of the energy should would have to put forth into this mission.
Robin knocked on her door and with his voice reluctant he called out to her through the metal, "H-Hey Raven, a-are you ready to go?" The empath quickly slipped on some sneakers (she was inclined to believe Cyborg had gotten her them a while ago) and hurried to the door, keen on continuing the verbal onslaught she had targeted at the Boy Wonder. 'This should be comical.' She told herself as the door swooshed open.
Robin almost felt his expression unhinge but, with years of practice (and the convenience of wearing a mask partially covering his face), was able to maintain his façade before the slip could be registered. Raven observed his change as well; he had sun glasses on, a red shirt that arrogantly displayed his muscled arms and chest, and some black pants. Raven was impressed that he didn't look like he should be hanging on a wire directing traffic, but kept her sentiments to herself in interest of keeping his ever inflating head from floating off somewhere. She waited for him to speak, but the moment never came.
"Maybe we should go now," Raven said trying to get past the wall he had made by just staring at her. His face suddenly leveled with Raven's, like had had just been woken up from some sort of trance or very distracting train of thought.
"Y-yeah let's go," Robin stuttered momentarily, still engrossed by the change he saw on her. She looked… so, well, in a word, different. It would be nearly criminal to say she looked normal, because there was no way the scowl and narrow of her dark eyes could be considered normal.
They made their way into the garage with Robin still staring at her. The agitated empath could no longer retain the urge to snap at him, "What the hell are you staring at bird boy?" she hissed, words dripping with anger.
His covered eyes shot up at her face, which gleamed with annoyance. "Nothing," he said quickly and turned his head to the wall in the opposite direction. They finally arrived at the garage after what seemed to Robin to be decades.
"This isn't your bike?" Raven said pointing to a motorcycle that looked just like a normal one, sporting no obnoxious colors or his usual emblem.
He nodded, "Cyborg made this about a month ago; his baby was perfect and didn't need to be tuned up or anything, so he made this out of boredom."
"Funny, you would think he made it out of motorcycle parts," Raven said with a smirk still admiring Cyborg's fine work.
"Ha-Ha," the leader bit out a fake laugh, "there goes that keen wit of yours," The uncharacteristic sarcasm that dripped from his words widened the disguised empath's smirk.
"It just cannot be stopped," she replied, holding onto him before he revved the engine and sped away.
He pulled up at the local Recreational Center with a newly renewed teasing aura about him. The slight girl slid out from behind him and began walking toward the front doors wordlessly, face set in a grim sort of resignation.
"Bye sunshine!" Robin called, she turned around and he blew a very sarcastic kiss at her. "I'll miss you Rae!"
"It won't be long until I'm back, kicking the ever loving arrogant shit out of you!" Raven replied in the same sarcastic, sing-song voice as Robin, even going as far as to copy the stupid grin adorning his face that made her want to slap him across the room.
Robin smirked at the threat, glad she had taken the bait, and sped off. 'What a jackass, and an idiotic jackass at that...' the disguised Titan thought as she entered the center. The thought that the sentiment was probably mutual comforted her enough for her to discard the thought and focus on her mission.
'Wow, Rae, she's such a… well, guess I don't really know,' He mused and then imagined what Raven would say if she heard that: 'Wow, the Boy Blunder admitted that he didn't know, this will go down in history.' The leader could not help but grin at the thought as he parked his motorcycle in the garage and continued into the Tower.
Entering the gym, she caught sight of the woman that appeared to be the coach speaking with her assistant. 'Oh, shit,' Raven thought, tossing her small bag on the benches and hurrying over to the group.
"…Sorry…" Raven mouthed as she approached them. The assistant coach appeared to be a few short years older than the high school girls dressed in sports attire sitting around him. He had deep black hair, like Robin's, only it wasn't spiked up with copious amounts of glue-like gel, it came to his eyes but it was pushed out of the way, allowing him to see. He had green forest eyes surrounded by dark lashes and was wearing black loose fitting shorts with a grey work out shirt. The assistant was a quite a few inches above Robin's height, much taller than her, and his aura reminded her of her leader as well. Eying her, he whispered something into the head coach's ear and the older blonde nodded with a smile. Making his way over to the undercover Titan, he jerked his head in the direction of the benches and she complied with his silent request.
She observed him as he jogged over to meet her by benches and when he reached her, he immediately extended his hand, which Raven reached out for with her much smaller, pale hand and promptly shook, "Hi, I'm Jay, and you are?"
"Hi," she considered him; damn why did he remind her so much of her leader? "…Raven."
Suddenly smirking, he jerked his head to the side and asked very casually, "You new?"
Narrowing artificially colored eyes, she measured him momentarily before responding in an even, indifferent tone that she hoped was not a give-away to her identity. "Apparently, how did you figure?" She found herself relatively but not terribly interested in the answer.
"Good guess," He smiled his easy smile that reached his deep green eyes and caused a dimple to appear on his left cheek.
"Hey Jet, you comin'?" One of the girls called him, eyeing Raven as she spoke, "We're playing knockout*!"
Shaking his head, he motioned toward Raven (who was still trying to figure out what this "knockout" idiocy was) as he replied to the disappointed looking teenage girl, "Sorry, new girl!"
The disguised empath willed her face to take an expression of amusement. "And how do you suggest I'm supposed to take that?" she asked with a small, forced smile that she hoped looked normal.
Jay laughed, "I only meant I have to teach you how to play." He grabbed a basketball and motioned his hand out to the court. "Shall we?" he asked with a smirk.
Switch to First Person Perspective: Raven
'Holy Azar, even the same damned smirk as Bird Brain.' My awed thoughts caused me to hesitate, which did not escape the notice of my new, unsolicited friend.
"What's wrong?" he asked me, and I forced myself not to compare it to the way my leader probably would. I shook my head which somehow warranted a stern look from this stranger that was so interested in my hesitation.
I inhaled deeply and fabricated a response, "You just remind me a lot of my… friend." I said hesitating on what to call him, that cocky jerk I live with that made me come here? Not exactly my best vocalization, but better than some choice words I could think of to describe my leader.
"Oh, is that a bad thing?" Jay asked, seemingly truly intrigued by my observation which fed my growing ire for this entire situation.
"Not particularly," I said slowly, cocking an eyebrow at him and crossing my arms over my chest uncomfortably. He nodded wordlessly, turning fluidly and walking onto the court. I took this as my silent cue to follow him and was grateful for his sudden silence.
"Let's start on some basics: dribbling." I nodded mutely, deciding not to vocalize my ignorance. Perhaps it would have been in my best interest to have Cyborg show me a few things before I showed up here, blind, but it was my dim-witted leader's fault that I hadn't been given the opportunity to.
The dexterity Jay moved with as he showed me how to perform a few basic moves with the ball impressed and discouraged me. How in the name of Azar was I supposed to do that?
As it turned out, I had underestimated both his ability to teach and my ability to learn. I was able to pick up on the skill rather quickly. Jay commented that with my size and coordination, I would make a decent guard*. Whatever the hell that is.
Next, he told me, he would teach me the proper form for shooting. He demonstrated for me the proper posture but again, I found myself unusually dumbfounded and ignorant and considered that perhaps this was how Beastboy felt a majority of the time. I felt newly renewed sympathy for the comedian changeling.
Laughing, he shook his head at me and handed me the ball.
Standing behind me, he positioned my arms to where they should be, nudged my feet to the proper position, and pulled my upper body to the correct posture by holding my arms with his. The strange contact was uncomfortable for me, but I took comfort in the knowledge that it would be over soon enough.
After showing me how to pass, much like when he showed me how to shoot by holding by arms and showing me the motion, he showed me what exactly sprinting was. I could easily describe this in two words: not fun. Or perhaps in one simple word: death. The ridiculous exercise of stamina or agility had me running back and forth from lines on the court more times than I wish to mention.
The coach blew the whistle that signaled it was lunch time after lifetimes of torturous physical excursion. I sat happily alone; up on the stage where the lunch tables were, very much enjoying my meditative solitude and slowly eating my lunch. My table was small and located in the back corner of the stage, near a window that cast midday shadows against some dusty props.
However, it did not seem to be a day that the deities looked kindly upon me and my wall of comfortable seclusion was broken as quickly as it had been constructed.
Jay approached me and placed his lunch on the table next to me, which I eyed like it was an explosive device. "Why are you sitting here alone, Raven?" I shifted my gaze up at his inquisitive, unguarded face.
"I'm not sure. It's… comfortable," I answered honestly, having never really considered but having always simply accepted the fact.
A small smile caused the dimple on his cheek to make another appearance. "Well, don't get used to it here bec-" he began, but was interrupted by a loud girl with a high blonde ponytail and chocolate brown eyes bounding up to him and latching onto his sleeve.
"Jet, please come sit with us," she whined and glanced down at me threw her long lashes disdainfully. I raised a pale hand in a silent greeting, which she promptly ignored in favor of staring up at the dark haired male pathetically.
"I'm sorry Britt, but I told my new friend I would sit with her," Jay replied and looked down at me with kind viridian eyes. I narrowed my artificially blue eyes right back up at him in response to his lie, but decided not to directly call him out on it.
"It's perfectly alright for you to sit with your friend, I really don't mind." I told him, eyeing the scowling girl pointedly and adding obvious inflection into my words, leaving them to drip with clear connotation.
"Rae," 'he's fucking joking calling me that, this guy has a death wish,' "I'm going to sit with you because I want to," he replied sternly, leaving no more room for argument as he sat down next to me. The girl made a rude sound and stomped off in another direction, leaving me alone with the enigmatically friendly older male.
'Fantastic. Another cocky moron calling me that,' I considered if I should correct him and tell him my name was in fact not Rae, but Raven, and I would be damned if I was not addressed as such.
I opted for vocalizing a question that was nagging and tugging at my attention instead.
"Why do they call you Jet instead of Jay?" I attempted to ask with casualty while taking a short sip of water, eyeing him across my shoulder and studying his suddenly mirthful expression.
The taller male leaned toward me, close enough so I could hear his barely audible murmur into my ear, "Because they don't know my real name. Jet is my nickname."
"Really," I inquired rhetorically, considering the new knowledge. 'Odd, he just met me and he told me his real name. Yet he has probably been acquainted with these girls for a time and has chosen not to reveal it.'
As I reflected as to why he would have preferred to keep that bit of information to himself, I recalled the loud, screeching voices and pathetic expressions of my fellow "teammates" and quickly found a very plausible reason.
He had taken to contently eating his lunch when I startled him with my next question, "Why 'Jet' anyway?"
After taking a long gulp from his water bottle, he turned to me with a wide, proud grin that immediately made me regret my conversational inquiry, "Because," Jay began, arrogance seeping from his words, "they say I move as fast as the Lockheed Blackbird jet."
I rolled my eyes and nearly choked on the egocentric aura rolling in waves off of him. "Of course, why didn't I think of that," I replied dryly, which caused his grin to impossibly widen.
"Who's that?" he asked suddenly, pointing across my body to to a figure in the shadows of the curtains that appeared to me motioning me to come over to it.
"Who's who…" I looked over and also noticed the figure. I cocked an eyebrow and wondered who it could possibly be. My first instinct had me thinking along the lines of Slade, but I quickly shook the irrational notion away and swallowed the twinge of fear that came along with it. I decided to cease being ridiculous and rose to meet the person.
Catching my wrist before I could walk away, Jay stood as with me. I turned to him and he stared down to me with imploring, worried green eyes.
"Please be careful," he muttered, eyeing the figure with a sense of contempt I had no time to investigate.
"Yeah, don't worry," I dismissed and he let go of my wrist and sat back down accordingly. I approached the figure, reaching out and probing with my empathic senses. I opened my mouth to give a rude inquiry with some very choice words as to who they were and why they were there, but snapped it shut in shock as they picked me up and swung me around behind the curtains. I saw Jay stand up again over the shoulder of the person in front of me, staring with narrowed eyes and lips in a thin, tight line.
The figure leaned into me and said in an unbearably arrogant and familiar voice, "Hey sunshine."
Go forth and Review.
*Knockout: A somewhat adolescent shooting competition played with two basketballs. Lining up at the free throw line, the players shoot and try to make it in before the person behind them can. If the person behind them makes it before them, they are knocked out. If they make it before the person behind them, they go to the end of the line and the game continues like this until only one person is left.
*Guard: The position that is normally played by the smallest players on the court, the guard and point guard are usually the quickest and most skilled with handling the ball. They dictate the offense and control the tempo of the game.