I'm a bit late with posting this... sorry about that. I hope your still in the Valentine's spirit, though, and I hope you enjoy this. Do realize that I've been single all my life (gasp!) and so this story isn't your usual Valentine's tale.
Happy Valentine's Day! 3 Even if it is belated.
Valentine's Day, the best day of the year. For Wal-mart. Really, the biggest attraction of the day is for people to make money off of the suckers that are willing to pay thirty dollars for a bow of crappy chocolates. That, or the people clinging hopeless to the claim that the day is 'Singles Awareness Day' buying cheesy romantic movies and tubs of ice cream. Either way, Raven had decided to sleep in for the day.
Initially.
Her plans were foiled by a knock on her door. She rolled over in bed, hoping whoever it was would go away. The noise persisted though, got louder and faster just to irk her. She groaned and stood up, approaching the door with distain. Ripping the barrier open, she glowered at Cyborg as he narrowly missed punching her forehead in. "What?"
"Oh, hey, Raven. You got a lot of mail for Valentine's Day, but there's one package in particular you might wanna look at." He held out a hand, offering her an ordinary postal box, about the size of her fist. She stared at it, her hands still gripping the door and it's frame.
"Am I missing something?"
He glanced down at the box, then back up at her. "Oh! Yeah." Flipping it over in his hands, she could see a verse from a particular poem scrawled awkwardly on the underside. It looked as though whoever it was wrote with their secondary hand to mask the handwriting.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten-" She frowned. "Lore. It's missing a word: lore."
Cyborg grinned, knowing she was curious now. She reached out slowly and took the box cautiously from him. She turned it over in her hands, delicately inspecting each side and corner of the parcel. Without looking up, she shut the door and turned back into her room. She vaguely heard Cyborg calling from outside the door, "Yeah, happy Valentine's to you , too."
She seated herself on the edge of the bed, daring the box to blow up or something with her eyes. After ten minutes in which nothing happened, she hesitantly fingered the seams of the box. A frustrated grunt later, she worked the box flaps up and reached inside to pull out… a raven head. She studied the black stone statue with a grimace. It fit perfectly in the palm of her hand, and as she turned it around to examine it the small beams of light permitted into her room glinted off of the eyes.
She brought it closer to her face and noticed that the eyes were made of some sort of purple stone, and directed towards the beak. Raven frowned and set the statuette on the side table with a resolute thud. Glancing at the bird once more, she stood and threw on a fresh set of clothes. Consisting of, naturally, a leotard and cape. She decided to forget about it and headed down to the main operations room.
Once there, she saw the whole team doing something… Valentine's-y, for lack of a better word. She looked to the stove and watched as Cyborg prepared what looked to Raven like heart-shaped waffles, eggs, and sausages. She didn't have the chance confirm it though when Beast Boy swooped in front of her. "Hiya, Rae!"
She frowned and gave him a level stare.
"Not much for Valentine's, are you?" He frowned back. After a moment, he shrugged and smiled again. "That's alright, I know what'll cheer you up. You just got a present 'urgently' delivered." He held out a box, much like the previous one it was a standard postage-issue container.
It was about twice the size of the last one, and this time she unceremoniously snatched it from Beast Boy and opened it immediately. The first thing she saw was a piece of paper, folded, and she balanced the box on one hand to take the sheet out with the other. She used her index finger to urge the fold open, and mumbled the typed words aloud.
"While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ''Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door—Only this and nothing-'" She frowned, something she seemed to be doing a lot of this morning, and said vacantly: "more." Raven discarded the note on the kitchen counter and headed to the main couch to sit down.
She grimaced at Robin and Starfire, getting cozy at the other end of the furniture. She suddenly remembered her previous decision to sleep in. Still, she peered inside the box and raised a curious brown. She reached in and pulled out a painting no larger than an ordinary book. The colours were primarily dark, but a blazing sun set over a wild field of uneven grasses and tumbling land.
Her fingers traced over the canvas, feeling the smooth textures of heavy acrylic. The brush strokes were fine, practiced, and Raven could tell this was the work of a trained artist. It must've cost a solid deal of money. The thought made her scowl. Here, she can't even manage to tolerate the fourteenth of February much less offer a card to anybody, and somebody has gone out and bought two presents for her. It wasn't even ten in the morning yet.
She set the painting in the box and teleported it to her room, rubbing her eyes with her hands and sighing. The fact that whoever this was, for Raven's mental health purposes she's decided to name them Somebody, was quoting Poe's 'The Raven' was nothing new. It was the fact that they always left the last word out that confused her. And what were the gifts' intent, why such peculiar objects?
Stifling a groan of frustration, Raven stood up and made her way to the stove, where she began to prepare her tea.
.:..:..:.
Noon came around at a fairly rapid pace, and Raven decided she wasn't in the mood for it. She skipped lunch, even though the team had just gotten back from fighting a tiring villain and each of them were rather hungry.
When she arrived at her room, however, there was another mailing box in the floor. It rested against her door, clearly left there by one of her teammates. She pondered briefly on whether or not this was another urgent delivery for her. There was the off chance that one of the Titans meant it for her from somebody else or themselves. Either way, she used her powers to bring it inside and closed the door behind her.
She ripped off a sheet of paper that was taped to the box, clearly this was from Somebody. She skimmed over the next two verses of the poem, stopping in the middle of the fourth total stanza of the poem. "But the fact is I was napping ,and so gently you came-" Raven couldn't particularly remember the next word, but assumed that when it rhymed with napping it was most likely rapping. She examined the box, this time thin but long. Standing, it came maybe to her waist and was about her width. Only about four inches thick, though.
Opening the box, four rolls of wrapping paper came tumbling out. Each was decorated with a different pattern of ravens. One was royal purple with black birds, another violet with green birds, the next black with sky blue birds, and the last grey with lavender coloured birds. She frowned in frustrated confusion. What kind of person gives another person wrapping paper? Was she expected to wrap the mailing boxes they came in? Wrapping paper… "Wrapping paper," she muttered. Then louder: "Wrapping paper. Wrapping. Rapping. And so gently you came rapping," she whirled around to locate the first present.
She looked closely at the bird's head, but finding nothing of relation to lore, she summoned a dictionary into her hands. Skipping through the pages of the book to the letter 'L' was fairly easy, she looked through here often to further knowledge herself and thus the pages were worn and comb-able.
Lore, definition two: The space between the eye and bill in a bird…
She closed the dictionary and looked at the statue. It's eyes, they weren't staring down its beak. They were trained on the lore. The space between the eye and bill.
Raven then searched around for the second box, not sure where it was deposited when teleported here. She found it in the corner of the room, behind on of the bookshelves. She took out the painting, and thought of the missing word. More, wasn't it? Somebody seemed to be cleverly mixing the words and meaning around, though, so she searched her mind for another meaning or word for more.
"More… moor. Sounds familiar, I guess." She snatched up the dictionary again and found the 'M's, them 'Mo's. Moor, uncultivated land. She glanced back at the painting. One thing was for certain, the ground in the picture was wild and untouched.
Now she was less cautious and much more eager about the rest of the presents. She assumed there were more, as the poem wasn't even halfway finished yet. That brought upon another observation, though. It seemed as though each time, the parcels got bigger and the section of the poem got longer. For all she knew, there could only be two more. Her thoughts were interrupted by a solitary knock on the door.
She glanced at the clock to see it was already past one and opened the door. Robin stood there, a large box in his arms. It seemed to be shorter than the last, but was much wider and square-shaped. He just barely managed to grip the corners of the box as he lofted it in front of his torso. "You have another package," he stated flatly.
Feigning indifference, she levitated the box and placed it on her bed. "Thank you," she bid as the door slid closed between them. Mildly thrilled, she made her way over to the bed and kneeled by the box, peering over it. No note on the outside, she figured it must be packed in. Unfolding the flaps, she found it to be filled with packing peanuts. Resting on top was a sheet of paper, on which was three and two halves of stanzas of a certain poem. The last line read dutifully: "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no-"
She frowned. Craven was an odd word to stop at. She dug through the foam nuggets and pulled out… a chicken. She had to give Somebody props for being humorously witted, but there was something that nagged at the corners of her brain. This chicken was identical to the one she'd been won at the fair a few years ago. A chill ran up her spine, but she found it to be less of a nervous tremor and rather more… thrilled.
Something tugged at her, urging her into further curiosity as to who this was.
.:..:..:.
She spend the rest of the evening meditating, hesitantly ignoring Somebody for the time being. A knock on the door interrupted her and she opened her eyes to Starfire's calling. "Friend Raven, it is the time of dining. Another package came for you as well, is there somebody you are sharing the romantic feelings for on this glorious day of love?"
Raven imagined her twirling around, and grimaced. "No, Starfire. I don't even know who's sending these. I'll be down shortly, though. Thank you."
When the alien left, Raven peered outside of the door and found a large box nearly the size of her standing in the doorway. She wasn't curious as to why it was Star to bring this one up. Not even bothering to bring this one in her room, she used her black energy to cut open the box, careful to go only deep enough to reach through the cardboard. She lifted the top half off, and was confused to see this one wrapped in tissue paper. A paper fluttered down to the floor, and she reached to pick it up. She read over several verses, ending with: Meant in croaking-
She tore off the tissue to reveal… a mirror. A very large mirror. She scrunched her face and circled the object with a frown. Looking closer, she could see it was unusually thick. She looked at herself in the reflection and noticed a thin line on her leotard. Looking down at the cloth, though, there was nothing. Now she was floored, what kind of mirror was this?
She looked closer at the glass, and realized that the line wasn't on her. It was on the mirror. She used her powers to lift the mirror out of the box and placed it on its base on the floor. Discarding the cardboard, she fingered the line on the glass. It lead all the way through the horizontal length of the mirror, ending before the frame on the left and going all the way through on the right. She pulled at the right side, and with a small tug the top half of the mirror swung open. Inside was regular shelving, the same as any mirror in a bathroom. She did the same for the bottom half. This time when the glass moved forward, she found these shelves filled with colourful cloth. There was yellow, green, orange, pink… She lifted up a grey cloth and it fell open to be a cloak.
It was an exact copy of her cloak, save for the colour. She figured all ten cloths in the mirror were cloaks. What word was this replacing? Her brow furrowed and she moved to skim her bookshelf. She pulled out the Poe Collection. Skipping several pages, she arrived at 'The Raven'. She looked a couple stanzas down and looked for the last sentence on the mirror's note. Her blood ran cold when she read the word over and over. 'Nevermore'.
It made sense though, a mirror containing the cloaks of each of her emoticlones as well as her usual navy and balanced white. Clever, very clever. But how on earth did Somebody know about her personal Nevermore?
She moved the mirror into her room and left, deciding to think about it after dinner.
The five of them were seated at the table, quietly eating their fettuccine alfredo. A chime sounded, and Robin got up to check the mail chute. He came back with a USPS envelope, addressed to Raven, and handed it to her. She set down her fork and furrowed her brow, opening the sleeve carefully. She pulled out two folded papers, one white and the other blue.
The white paper held most of the rest of the poem, cutting off the word 'dreaming'. When she unfolded the coloured sheet, her brow dug further down on her face. It was blank. She flipped it over. Nothing. The rest of the Titans watched her curiously as she flipped the paper back and forth with frustration. She brought her dishes to the sink and washed them quickly before bringing the papers upstairs.
When she entered her room, the light of the moon was shining through her window and glinting off of the hinged mirror. She threw the papers down on the side table and sat on her bed. She rested her head in her hands and sighed. When she looked at the papers again she noticed something. A frown settled across her face and she stood up slowly. She picked up the blue sheet and narrowed her eyes. In the moonlight, she could faintly make out some writing.
It looked like it said: "And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor." If you're not too busy dreaming then know him through the roof's door.
The message lacked the signature poetry of Poe, but the words repeated themselves in her head. Meet him through the roof's door, it'd said. This could very well be some sort of trap, a plot. She should probably tell somebody. Against her better judgment, she simply made her way from her room to the roof's access. She opened the door and was surprised to find Beast Boy standing there, staring out at the sky with his hands in his pockets.
When he heard her, he turned and raised a brow. "Raven? What are you doing here?"
She frowned. Fantastic, now that Beast Boy was here, she wouldn't find out who Somebody was. "Just getting some air. I also need to figure out what to do with all of the things S- that person gave me. I'll have to redecorate."
He smiled and turned back towards the water. She moved to stand beside him, gripping her upper arms. They simply stood in a comfortable silence for some time, neither talking nor looking at each other. It was a calm night, no clouds or wind to block the stars. The sky was a deep blue, dark and vast. She thought of Somebody, and how she'd really have no way of figuring out his intentions.
Why was he giving her things? Why today? Did he… or she… want them back? Her thoughts were interrupted by Beast Boy's soft sigh. They turned to look at each other, and Raven was taken aback by the sincerity in his eyes. "Yes?" she breathed.
"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor."
Raven's eyes widened and the air around her seemed a tad bit colder. Her lip quivered slightly as she responded, "Shall be lifted – nevermore…"
He smiled again, tenderly, curiously.
She slowly lowered her eyes, looking down at the rooftop. When she looked back up at him, there was only one question on her mind. "Why?"
"It's Valentine's, Rae. I'd imagine you could figure it out." When she rolled her eyes he smirked. "Figured you'd appreciate a puzzle."
"Very well done, by the way. Props to you, didn't even cross my mind that it could be you in all its cleverness." Raven smiled lightly.
"I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or an insult."
She snorted, "Take it as you will."
He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Compliment it is."
Raven ran a hand through her hair, taking a deep breath. "Thank you, I needed something entertaining. You really had me going, for a time there I thought you were some stalker villain."
"Yeah, well. Just some stalker teammate."
"Just a teammate?" She asked lightly.
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Teammate, friend… soul mate."
"Soul mate, huh?" She teased. "That's a strong word."
"Soul mates could be friends, you know." He shrugged noncommittally. "Doesn't always mean… lovers."
"So what is it then? Friends or… lovers?"
"Now you're just mocking me.
"Am not," she defended. He rolled his eyes, and took hold of her hands. His forehead rested lightly against hers, his hair melding with her own. They spent some time like that, relaxing in each other's auras while the calm around them lasted. They didn't really do anything, the most they moved was to sit or stand, lock fingers or hold onto shoulders, necks, heads.
All they needed today was to know the other was there, and that they were both satisfied with just that.
Raven once thought that the only point of Valentine's Day was to waste one's money on a relationship built on a reliance of cheap gifts. She used to sleep in every day, ignore the day in its whole. She would deny any point to the day, go out of her way to avoid Starfire. Ever since that particular day, though, that specific Valentine's Day… her whole point of view changed.
Strictly for Valentine's Day, of course. Azar forbid she lets this one foolish day alter her whole yearly spectrum.