Author's Notes:
General notes: This will be a collection of one-shots, disconnected drabbles and maybe some short stories (two, three chapters max). At first it will consist of some ideas I had while I was writing Gifts, that didn't make it into the story because of plot issues, rating conflicts or other problems. Later I will be including anything and everything that pops into my head and that I consider noteworthy enough to publish.
Reading Gifts will probably not be necessary to enjoy the stories, though it is recommended since I will be making small references to what happened in it. If the reference is critical to the plot, I will try to explain it, but I must say that I hate being patronizing and explaining everything to my readers, so please bear with me if I sometimes seem obscure. Don't be shy about PM'ing me about anything you don't understand or reaming me out in a review.
There will be lemons here – hence the M rating – but I will try to keep them smut-free. I don't feel comfortable writing it that way, though I must admit I did enjoy reading some of them.
The update schedule will be spotty. There may be two updates one week, then several weeks with nothing. It will all depend on the ideas I have and what else I may be working on at the time.
The timeline corresponds to Gifts, i.e. way after Tokyo. Beast Boy is eighteen, Raven is twenty, the rest twenty-ish. Robin is Nightwing, Beast Boy is Changeling. This is mostly to reflect a slightly more mature setting and behavior.
The main pairing will be exclusively Changeling and Raven, because it's that way in Gifts. I warmed up to them quite a bit while writing Gifts and it is the main reason I'm doing this. So you may say I turned to the Dark Side. Other pairings will be canonical, namely RobStar, KF/Jinx and (please don't hate me) Cyborg/Sarah Simms. Some non-canonical friendships may appear, such as Jinx/Rae, as explained in Gifts.
Notes on the story:
Close for Comfort is the story of a first kiss. This was the original version that should have been included in Gifts, but I finally discarded it and replaced it with the Nevermore one. It still stayed with me as an interesting option and I wanted to include it here just so it would leave me alone and stop whirling around in my mind.
Close for Comfort
"Too slow, sweetie!" shouted Red X as he jumped out of the way of a clutch of starbolts hissing his way.
"I love your eyes when you're angry!" he said teleporting right beside Starfire and following his words with a kick that sent the alien girl spinning, falling to the ground. A crate, encased in black mist, sped towards him. He avoided it smoothly, then shot off an X-shaped projectile towards Raven. A black disk formed in front of the missile and swallowed it, vanishing afterwards. Several more crates flew at him, missing as he phased out again.
He appeared on the ground, just in time to see a green gorilla drumming its fists on its chest menacingly and advancing on him. He smirked beneath his mask and launched an electrified, crackling X towards the green ape. Changeling morphed into a kangaroo, supported himself on his tail and used both hind legs to bounce the projectile back at Red X. Surprised, the thief barely dodged his own device and had to phase away immediately to avoid a green utahraptor bounding towards him at inhuman speed.
As he appeared again, he had to duck two wing-dings that Nightwing sent after him, then rolled forward under Nightwing's flying kick. Getting to his feet, he jumped over a sizzling blue bolt and nimbly climbed the scaffolding, throwing himself in the air and catching hold of a horizontal bar, spinning around it like a gymnast, avoiding a pair of starbeams that were seeking him out.
He frowned under his mask. The kids are learning. A year ago I'd have all of them incapacitated by now, but I haven't managed to take even one of them down yet!
He swung hand over hand under the scaffolding, like a monkey, Starfire flying after him, her eyes glowing in anger. Two X-shaped, razor-thin blades appeared in his hands and he sliced the tubes of the scaffolding as he passed them The scaffolding gave way and the entire upper level collapsed on top of Starfire, burying her under the debris.
That should keep her busy for a few seconds, he thought, concentrating on the next target. An EMP grenade flew at Cyborg. He dodged it, but the blast managed to cripple temporarily his electronics. The huge half-robot swayed, paralyzed, then crashed to the ground.
"Good try, but not good enough!" Cyborg growled as he rose to one knee, sparks still coursing over his body, his internal repair systems rerouting power and information through redundant channels, nanobots already at work repairing the burned conduits. Still, he was slowed down and for the next few seconds out of the fight.
Changeling morphed into a leopard and lunged at Red X, his paw clawing at the thief. Phasing out again, Red X cursed softly. So many phasings are draining the energy of my suit! I'll have to fall back to invisibility.
He dodged Nightwing's kick and blocked his staff, striking at his midsection. Nightwing spun, avoiding the strike while his fist went in an arc aiming at the back of Red X's head. Red X ducked and the fist whistled over, but Nightwing's left leg rose and slammed into his shoulder. Because of the position they were in, the strike was awkward and inaccurate, but it still lifted Red X off his feet and tossed him a few feet away.
He rode the kick, bent his body backwards and somersaulted, trying to get some distance between himself and the Titans. He activated his cloaking system, trusting the invisibility to protect him as he selected his next target.
Changeling quickly transformed into a rattlesnake and used the viper's heat-seeking sense to locate the cloaked thief. He quickly morphed into a hummingbird, almost invisible in the gloom, and zoomed after him.
Red X's eyes widened behind his mask as a Sasquatch appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Instinctively he jumped up, avoiding the gnarled arms closing in on him, placed his hands on Changeling's shoulders and somersaulted over him, bending and then releasing both legs to impact into the creature's back, pushing it forcefully and using the impulse to jump away from danger. Surprised, Changeling turned into himself, staggering forward straight towards Raven who was closing in to help him.
Red X twisted in the air and saw his chance. He fired a missile from his left hand and then landed, activated again his cloaking and quickly sought the best route to leave the warehouse where they were fighting. The missile he launched unfurled itself and the large, red X-shape struck Changeling in the back, throwing him at Raven, while the arms of the X closed around them, immobilizing them in a strong, unyielding grip. They fell down, Changeling on top of Raven, her breath exploding from her lungs as they struck the floor.
Nightwing rushed towards them, scanned them quickly and seeing they were unharmed, turned his attention back to the battle.
"Up by the window! He's getting away!" Cyborg shouted, recovered, his implant eye covering EM frequencies from microwave to gamma rays. There was no way for Red X to hide from that.
"Hang in there, you two!" Nightwing shouted to Raven and Changeling. "We'll be back for you!" Followed by Starfire and Cyborg, he left the warehouse in hot pursuit of Red X.
Raven and Changeling, pressed together and bound in the coils of Red X's trap, watched them go.
After a few seconds of silence, Raven spoke.
"Gar, can you morph into something smaller? You're smothering me!"
"Sure, mamma. Sorry about that!"
He started his transformation, then with a cry of pain he morphed back into himself.
"Ouch! It almost tore the skin off my back!"
"Let me see if I can phase out."
She whispered her mantra and her body started losing substance, then she also yelped and her form solidified.
"Whatever Red X is using as adhesive on this, it's not glue. This is some kind of molecular bonder. We won't be able to get rid of it that easy."
"Um… so what now?" Changeling said, trying to keep his nose from touching Raven's. He finally relaxed his muscles and allowed his cheek to press into hers, a strange sensation pervading him as he felt the touch.
"I guess we'll have to wait for Cyborg," she said. "In the meantime, would you mind turning over? I can barely breathe with you on top of me."
"Well, how about that?" he said, annoyed. "I understand it bothers you, but why is it all right for you to squash me?"
"Because I'm at least twenty pounds lighter than you are, Changeling!"
"Girls!" he grumbled under his breath, then spoke louder. "All right, on the count of three, twist left. One, two, three!"
They twisted, trying to turn, unsurprisingly in opposite directions. While their bodies were held tight by the restricting fabric, their heads moved and their lips brushed against each other. Changeling felt an electric current go from his lips down his spine and back up to crash into his brain.
"The other left, you idiot!" Raven hissed at him, startling him out of the daze he found himself in. His nervousness made him react angrily.
"Oh yeah? What makes me the idiot? Was it not your other left?"
A flash of white fire sparked in Raven's eyes, then quickly extinguished. She took a deep breath.
"We'll gain nothing by fighting. You turn to your right, I will turn to my left. You do know what your right is, don't you?"
He frowned. "That was uncalled for, Raven. This is my right!" he said, flexing the fingers on his right hand, grasping at something soft and warm.
He saw the white flame ignite in her eyes again. Why is she angry again? Did I confuse my right and left?
Again he bent the fingers of his right hand to make sure it was his right hand. Again he felt something warm and soft under his hand. Raven's eyes blazed. Her teeth clenched and a soft "Garfield…" hissed between them, loaded with menace and promise of great pain.
He swallowed, desperately trying to understand. He concentrated on his right hand, making triply sure it was correct, finally realizing what was going on.
His right hand was trapped, stuck by Red X's fabric, someplace around… Raven's hip. A bit… behind. He swallowed again, closed his eyes and tried to keep himself from blushing.
"Uh… Rae, sorry, I… didn't realize… I didn't mean to… Sorry!"
The white blaze left Raven's eyes. She could feel he was sincere and wasn't trying to cop a feel. He hadn't even realized where his hand was. Until now.
Well, I just opened his eyes to the fact, she thought, smirking at herself.
"It's OK, Gar. It was an accident. I do trust you will behave gentlemanly in this situation."
"Of course, Rae. You know I'm not a creep."
She smiled at him. "No, Garfield. You may be immature, insufferable, childish and stupid at times, but you're not a creep."
He grinned at her. "Why do even your compliments sound like insults?"
She looked away, aware of a painful stab in her guts. He was right. It was completely uncalled for. He was behaving irreproachably, given the circumstances. It was her who was cranky, unreasonable and just plain cruel.
"I… I'm sorry, Gar. I… I didn't mean to…" Liar. You did mean to. You always mean to, a merciless voice said in her mind.
"It's OK, mamma. Don't sweat it. Let's turn over. On the count of three… One, two, three!"
They twisted, turned and managed to switch positions, with Raven now on top.
"Better?" he asked.
"Much. Am I heavy?"
"Not really." He actually found the pressure of her body on top of him… pleasant. It was confusing.
Raven let her head fall on his shoulder. An electrifying zing coursed again through his body.
"Comfy?" he asked.
"As much as one can be in such a situation," she replied.
"OK, let me know if you need me to move a bit."
She nodded, strangely content. She actually felt very comfortable. For some reason his closeness was relaxing, calming, soothing. She could smell his scent. It was unusual, wild, animalistic, but far from unpleasant. She could also sense his soap and shampoo, the deodorant and after shave, but they were minor components, his own musk easily dominating them. She felt a bit light-headed.
He could feel her breath tickling his neck and throat. At first it was slightly irksome, but soon it became a source of pleasure. He found himself waiting for her every exhalation so that he could feel the warm air caressing his neck again.
After a couple of minutes, he squirmed slightly. She glanced at him, noticing his forehead was beaded with sweat. Her empathic sense told her he was extremely uncomfortable for some reason.
"What is it, Gar? I can feel something's bothering you."
"Um… No, nothing. I'm fine."
She frowned. "Don't lie to me, Garfield."
"It's… not important."
"Not important? You're sweating and squirming!"
He sighed, obviously embarrassed. "It's… my hand. I feel it burning. I want to move it, but…"
She frowned at him, but her sense told her that again he was being sincere.
"All right, then. Move it if you can."
"Just a little. I swear, I'm not trying to…"
"Enough, Garfield!" she said, more sharply than she wanted. "Do what you must."
"OK, OK, just don't get mad at me!"
"I won't. Do it already."
He tried to move his hand but the bonding fabric kept it stuck fast in place. He tried pushing, pulling, moving sideways, all to no avail. In the end he pressed down, noticing that this finally gave him some room to wiggle. He was able to move his hand slightly, relieving the burning sensation, suddenly aware again of the soft flesh under his fingers. Three of them had travelled downwards and were now touching her skin, below her leotard. He blushed fiercely.
Raven cleared her throat.
"Enjoying yourself?"
"Uh… I…" he stammered, then recovered. He grinned wryly. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't. But it was not my intent."
She looked at him coldly. "That is the only reason why you still have hands."
He gulped and made himself relax. They waited.
She was too busy wondering about her reaction to this entire situation to notice the tension slowly growing in him. After a couple of minutes, though, his feelings were pouring out strongly, in spite of the valiant efforts he was making to try to subdue and control them. It finally reached her consciousness, almost bursting upon her. She lifted her head and looked at him, their noses almost touching.
"Now what?"
Instead of answering, he lifted his head slightly and pressed his lips over hers, his tongue gently probing against her lower lip.
Startled, she didn't even pull her head away. She just gasped, which gave his tongue the opportunity to sneak into her mouth and start playing inside.
She fought desperately for control, but for some reason she was unable to move her head back and away from the kiss. She felt herself slipping, a maelstrom of unknown emotions twisting and sucking her into its dizzying spirals. Her mind floundered like a drowning man, trying to swim back to the surface and breathe, trying to tread water and keep her head above it. But the vortex of ecstasy pulled her under, the wonderful waves closing over her head, her chest expanding with desire, her nostrils flaring and her eyelids fluttering before falling down completely over her eyes, her sight now obscured, his scent and the feel of his lips and his tongue the only things left in her universe, responding to his kiss the only thing that mattered.
The fluorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling above started exploding. The small windows high up the walls of the warehouse burst outwards with a shower of glass shards one by one. Crates, boxes and loose items started flying across the warehouse, slowly whirling in a tornado centered on them, picking up speed until they were a blur. Scaffolding flexed with a shriek of protesting metal, rods and tubes bent beyond the material's tolerance to break with a loud pang and join the rest of the debris swirling around them.
Two crates collided, breaking open and spilling most of their contents, adding to the mass of swirling bits and pieces. But some of it landed on them, startling them both back into the real world.
She finally managed to jerk her head back and break away from the kiss. White fire blazed in her eyes as she breathed heavily, trying to calm herself and reestablish control. She tried to speak, choking a couple of times, until she finally managed to do it, her voice shaking with repressed anger.
"What in the Nine Hells do you think you're doing?" she said, her tone rising. "First you grope me, then you kiss me?" she was shouting now. "Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am?" She was almost shrieking. The crates, boxes, barrels and assorted whatnots that had fallen around them now started exploding in showers of wood chips.
"I know you're angry, Rae!" he said quietly, cutting her off, making her stop her ranting and listen, amazed, to his soft tone and the certainty in his voice. "But I will not apologize. I wanted to do this for a while now. Whatever you do to me, it was worth it."
He closed his eyes, awaiting what will happen. He was fully conscious of the fact that she could teleport him to some very unpleasant places, or simply rip him apart into very tiny pieces. He failed to observe the white flame extinguish in her eyes, replaced by something that was never there before.
Azarath Metrion Zinthos! he heard her whisper. He flinched, expecting pain to start any moment, but instead he felt the bonds holding them weaken and disappear. He opened his eyes to see the last remainders of the red fabric being eaten away, disintegrated by a black mist.
He felt her weight coming off him as she rose and turned her back to him, dusting off her cloak.
"Raven?" he asked. "You could do that? Why didn't you…"
She finished the dusting off and straightened up, her back still turned to him. She pulled up her hood and allowed herself a small, mischievous smile before putting on her usual expressionless mask and speaking to him over her shoulder.
"Let's go find the others."
She floated out of the warehouse, leaving him staring after her.