Who wants to start reading another multi-chapter fic by yours truly?
Disclaimer: Yeah sure, I own Teen Titans. That is as soon as pigs fly. -Shrugs and continues to try and glue wings onto a piggy- enjoi!
1
A tall teenage figure walked down a fairly busy sidewalk of Jump City. He didn't really bother to pay attention to the world surrounding him though. In all actuality, all he did was listen to his I-Pod, while he silently read a small, leather-bound book in his hands.
Men, women, and children all moved out of his way absent-mindedly forming a slight path for the stranger. He wore a black, very thin version of a pea coat, with a simple grey T-shirt underneath. The teen's pants were black skinny jeans joining a pair of black and grey-checkered Vans. His hair was a light brown and spiked downward and across his eyes, which were a stormy grey, but were concealed by a pair of aviator sunglasses. The most odd thing though about his appearance however, was an acoustic guitar in its case strapped to his back.
He continued to wander, read, and listen to not just his music, but to the thoughts of others as well. Thoughts wafted through the air and went through one ear and out the other. Only a few thoughts stuck out the most and those were the ones that had been shouted from the mind of another.
'I can't believe he cheated on me with Becky! She's totally not even pretty!'
'Ugh, work was killer…I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight…'
'Damn, look at that piece of work. Man I just wanna-' The stranger stopped and shook his head, shutting out the man's thoughts before he could finish the train of thought.
The occupants of the over-crowded sidewalk caved in on the path they had formed for the figure. Dozens of eyes noticed the teenager in the middle of the sidewalk. People started to give him weird looks; few of them even started jarring him with their shoulders.
Massaging his temples slightly, the teen murmured a few words and began walking again. Almost instantly, everyone on the sidewalk gave him space by forming a path with people spreading to the edges of the concrete. He walked for another ten or so minutes before a loud crash sounded from Johnson's Jewelry only thirty feet away before a group of six abnormally dressed teens leapt from the smoke and began to run down the street.
Right as they were about to reach the stranger, a ray of blue light came out of nowhere and hit the biggest of the six in the middle of his chest. With a loud groan, the behemoth of a man fell backwards towards the pavement.
"Timber." The figure mumbled. With intentions set on walking and reading he continued down the sidewalk until six more abnormally dressed teens leapt from a dark shadow of a very large bird. This made the teen to stop in his tracks causing people to swarm him once again.
He turned to the street and watched as noiseless banter was exchanged between the two groups of teens. Then the stranger heard what seemed to be a walking traffic light shout above all the chaos. He must have had one set of lungs because his cry carried all the way to the teen that was now chuckling at all the screaming citizens. "TITANS GO!"
The figure's attention was brought back to the 'leader' of the better morals group. Or 'Titans' I guess I should say… All the teens divvied themselves up and began to fight.
The traffic light was taking on the behemoth along with a blonde fighting the Batman wannabe. A black teen about my age with what seemed to be robotic parts began a sort of… technological-know-how duel with the bald midget in the footy pajamas. The next pair of fighters were the hot as hell redhead pummeling the lanky teen fake Cyclops. Green and red clashed together as the stranger watched the green teen take on the mathematically corrupt hick. Closest to him were two girls that he watched the most. One had pink hair and was throwing pink bolts of energy, while the other only wore a blue cloak with her hood up.
This girl stuck out amongst the others in the teen's mind the most. All of her movements were swift and graceful. Earlier she had used her powers, but now she'd just settled for hand-to-hand combat. Something about her called out to the stranger and it bothered him.
He reeled his mental shields back and reached out to her with his mind to read the girl's thoughts. However, something blocked him. It was as if he'd just been put in the no access zone.
The cloaked teen froze and whirled around facing the figure on the sidewalk. Her eyes narrowed, but then a booted foot came out of nowhere and landed itself in her gut. The fight began again and the figure shook his head, mumbled, and walked through the cleared path and around the corner to the small café he had been scheduled to perform in.
The Titans finished with the H.I.V.E and had stowed them away into Jump City's holding cell van. They all circled in the street and began to make plans for where they should eat. All of them except one who was staring with confused eyes at the spot where it felt like someone had been trying to enter her mind.
"Raven? Rae-ven!" Beast Boy was waving the one hand that wasn't intertwined with the recently reformed Terra in her face. "Dude, anybody home?" Raven growled quietly and grabbed Beast Boy's wrist. "I was thinking. You might want to try it sometime. She let go of his wrist and pulled her hood down.
"He does think… Just not a lot of the time." Terra smiled gently at Raven and the dark girl vaguely returned the expression.
"Hey ya'll about that café?" Cyborg gestured to the new café that had just opened two weeks ago around the corner. "I heard they have fantastic food! How 'bout it, Rob? Star? Terr? BB? Rae?" Cyborg looked around eagerly at his friends as he awaited their answers.
"Sure why not!" Robin put an arm around his girlfriend's waist. "Oh I agree most enthusiastically! We should indeed partake in this lovely café!"
"Sounds great!"
"As long as they have a vegan section, I'm all for it man!"
"Whatever."
After everyone had their say, they all made their way for the café happily.
Raven stayed behind slightly as always as she tried to figure out whom it was that tried to breech her mind's borders. Before she knew it though, they were all standing in the entrance of 'Coffee House Café'. A petite waitress with shoulder length auburn hair walked over to the Titans and greeted them warmly with a bright smile.
"Right this way please." They followed the waitress to a collaboration of three tables to form one big table. Everyone took their seats as the waitress began to pass out menus. "Welcome to the Coffee House Café, I'm your server, Wendy. Can I start ya'll off with anything to drink?" She spoke with a slight Southern twain. The Titans sat in thought for a moment and ordered their usual drinks. The waitress quickly jotted down the order. "All right. I'll be right back with ya'll's drinks."
Immediately, Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire were in a heated discussion over which fighting tactics would work best against the H.I.V.E the next time they were in battle. Beast Boy and Terra began chatting as well, but on a more…personal level. Raven tuned them all out as she took in their surroundings. It was small, but full of people and life. A small band was on stage playing a cover for a well-known love song.
The half-demon rolled her eyes. She thought love songs were pointless. They didn't have any purpose, they never solved your relationship problems, they did absolutely nothing.
The band on the stage ended their song and began to head for the back room. A man in simple jeans and T-shirt walked on stage and spoke into the microphone. "Thank you, ladies and gents. That was the local band, Darling Someday with their hit song, 'Heart Shaped Boxes'. Now if you'd give a warm welcome to a very new artist and his original song, 'Run Me Down'. Like I said, he's new, so… go easy on 'im." The man winked and walked off stage as everyone quietly applauded.
The Titans stopped their conversations when the announcement had been made. Raven felt the same sensation of having some one press into her mind again as a teenager sat on a black stool in front of the mic with a black acoustic guitar in hand. A pair of aviator sunglasses were hooked on the collar of his shirt.
He glared in the direction of the man who'd just 'introduced' him to the café's occupants. "Hey, my names Jaxon Athens. I'm new here, as the underpaid employee who makes so much less than I do and probably doesn't get any action unless he calls a nine hundred number for a twenty dollar whore puts it, and that's where everyone goes, 'oh no he didn't'!" He spat sarcastically and smirked as people started to break into laughter. Beast Boy was in tears and Starfire looked confused as Terra, Cyborg, and Robin began to laugh. Raven smirked slightly and nodded to the waitress as she came back with their drinks.
"Anyway, this is one of my originals, the first I ever wrote to be exact, and it's called 'Run Me Down'. Hope you enjoy it." Jaxon nodded and started to lightly pluck the strings of his guitar. Then he commenced to full out strumming a sweet melody. He leaned forward and began to sing.
(A.N.: Tell me if you like these lyrics. I'm all insecure about it.)
'It seems you're messing with me
And now I'm starting to see
Maybe we weren't meant to be
Together
'Cause I've been trying my hardest
Just to get you to notice
And now I'm falling the farthest
I ever have
And I've been chasing you down
Through every little ghost town
That you seemed to have found
Along the way
To where you wanted to go
And now it's starting to show
That you'll never, ever slow down
So I'm gonna take a break
From all of the craziness
That you put me through
For so long
Running for a new day
Making a break away
From all of your lies
Head for the wide open skies'
Jaxon plucked a few strings again causing it to dip and peak in pitch. Raven stared at him completely enticed by his voice.
'So now let me say
That I'll walk away
From all of the games
That you like to play
It started as fun
But now you just run me down
Into the ground
So now I'm breaking away from you
So I'm gonna take a break
From all of the craziness
That you put me through
For so long
Running for a new day
Making a break away
From all of your lies
Head for those wide open skies'
He clenched his eyes shut and his arm picked up speed quickening the tempo of the melody as he started the bridge.
'I'm walking away
I'm running away
Making a break from you
Walking away
Running away
Taking a break from you'
Jaxon slowed down considerably before he started again.
'So I'm gonna take
A break
From all of the craziness
That you put me through
For so long
Running for a new day
Making my break away
From all of your lies, lies, lies, lies'
The tempo picked back up.
'I'm gonna take a break
From all of the craziness
That you put me through for so long
Running for a new day
Making a break away
From all of your lies
Head for those wide open skies'
Then it slowed back down and Jaxon's voice grew exceptionally soft.
'I'm breaking away
I'm not here to stay
I'm breaking away'
The song ended and Jaxon stood. He laughed at everyone's expressions. "Well that's that. I wish I could say I'll be here every Thursday, but I think I've pissed the assistant manager off enough with my jeers. Ha, ha!" People started to applaud loudly. Jaxon just laughed again as me made his way back off stage while flinging out his sunglasses and putting them back on.
"Wow, he was good." Terra had a slightly shocked expression.
Raven nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he was better than I thought he would be. Definite potential…" The dark teen hadn't noticed that all the food had arrived and she realized that she'd been to distracted to order anything. Great. I'll be paying for that later…
She silently drank her herbal tea as another band went on stage. Instead of tuning out her friends' conversation this time, Raven decided to actually listen to wipe her mind clean. But we all know that's impossible, especially because at that exact moment the weird sensation returned.
The half-demon looked around and caught Jaxon on the other side of the café staring at her with stormy grey eyes. Raven's eyes widened slightly. Jaxon blinked and looked away. He walked out of the café and down the street guitar in tow. Right as his figure left the building, the pressure on her mind disappeared.
Shaking her head, Raven turned back to stare at her tea. This day is so weird…
The waitress returned and cleaned their table. Cyborg pulled his wallet from a compartment in his backside, almost like a back pocket, but Wendy stopped him. "Ah, ah! This is on the house. Ya'll save the city countless of times. There's no need in payin'. But, please come again!" Wendy walked off after being graciously thanked by all six Titans, and the Titans began their journey back home.
-Titans Tower-
Cyborg yawned. "Welp, ya'll, I'm gonna hit the sack. Night everybody!"
"I believe I will retire to my room for the night as well. Would you care to escort me to my room, Robin?" Starfire batted her eyelashes innocently and Robin laughed. "Of course, Star! C'mon, let's go." He grabbed her hand and they left the main operations room followed by Cyborg, then Beast Boy, but Terra stayed behind as well as Raven.
"Raven is something…bothering you? You've seemed so distant all afternoon. It's not like you." Terra put her hands on her hips.
Raven rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about? I'm always distant." She deadpanned.
The blond stepped forward and crossed her arms. "Yeah, but at least you try to join in on the conversations, tonight you just seemed…distracted."
She arched an eyebrow as the empath sighed. "It's nothing really, just a really strange feeling."
"Like…?" Terra pressed.
Again, the teenage empath rolled her eyes. "It feels as if someone is trying to pick through my thoughts, but they can't…"
Terra had a thoughtful expression as she spoke. "Maybe you just need to meditate." She yawned. "Anyway, I'm going to bed. See you in the mornin' Rae." Terra walked away.
Raven nodded. She's right… I probably just need to meditate. She headed for her room and walked inside her darkly decorated living space. As she was about to sit on her bed something caught her eye. Two roses sat on her pillow; one white, one black. They were crossed together to form an 'X'. In the center of this organic intersection sat a small card.
'Raven,
Hope you don't mind me entering your room.
Meet me tomorrow at Jump City park by the fountain, please.
Enjoy the roses, and sleep well.
I'll be waiting.
Jax'
Oh Azar…He went into my room!
That's chapter one. Tell me if you enjoyed it or not through a review. And that song, Run Me Down, was an original by my brother's band Too Far Gone. Look them up on FaceBook please! :D review