[1]
A quiet evening in the Bay found Raven phasing from her meditation. The Empath basked in the serenity of her candlelit sanctuary, abnormally replenished from a week free of combat. As she lightly landed on her feet, a pulse cast across the room that blew out every last candle. In the darkness, a sliver of sun stretched across the floor from her window. Raven lifted the curtain slowly and found the sun sinking behind a protruding horizon.
"Raven?" called a muffled voice following a soft knock. As the door slid open behind her, she pulled back both curtains to let soft light flood into the room.
"I am sorry if I have disturbed the meditation."
"You didn't," Raven pulled back her hood and softly smiled at her friend, "you look nice Star."
"Oh, thank you," she blushed while tugging on the hem of her top bashfully, almost as if she wasn't used to her midriff showing. "Dick is taking me out for the for the dinner and maybe afterward some iced cream."
"Lucky girl." Raven attempted sincerity, though her deadpan manner always betrayed her. Fortunately, Koriand'r rarely picked up on the "tone of sarcasm".
"I hope your time of the deep introspection was successful?"
"Yes." She assured her alien comrade while pulling a sweater over her head.
"I am gladdened by this." Kori grinned as she hovered over to Raven's bed, sitting gracefully on the end. "I am less gladdened by the current activities occurring in the main room. Oh- Raven," she paused when she saw Raven tying her hair up. "Would it be, I thought I might, may I practice the earthly custom of the hair braiding again? I would very much like to try–"
Raven cringed subtly; cursing herself for agreeing the first time she was asked. "Why not."
Koriand'r relished in this permission and beckoned Raven to sit before her.
"And so Victor kept with the 'boo yahs', which made Dick angry and insistent on the rematches," Kori explained as she continued her second attempt at braiding Raven's hair. Raven bit her lip to keep from lashing out at her friend, even as she casually tore at her scalp. "then it was Garfield who was victorious and so the fighting commenced and–is something the matter Raven?" She hesitated when a few books bolted from the shelf across the room.
"No, just maybe pull a bit more gently?" Raven said docilely to hide the irritation that gurgled in her throat.
"I am sorry. I am still not used to doing the braiding on another's head, but I am glad to have the practice now." Kori smiled, placing a hand on Raven's shoulder.
"It's okay, Star. Happy to help." She lied as she reshelved the rogue books.
"Anyways, I just am hopeful that Dick does not bring his negativity with him tonight."
"Yeah," Raven smirked to herself, "nothing kills the mood like a begrudged adolescent pouting over a toddler-approved video game."
Kori bubbled her signature brand and tied the end of the braid before throwing over her friend's shoulder. Raven relished in sweet relief. A relief that was short lived, however, when they heard a large crash outside her room, followed by the bellowing voices of their teammates.
Without a word, Kori hastily flew out of the room; Raven followed closely. The shouting became more distinct as the main doors slid open, and they found Victor standing between Dick and Garfield. A small amount of blood was smeared beneath Dick's nose.
"Chill!" Victor yelled, his hands trapping them against opposite walls. The couch was tipped over and the coffee table's leg was missing with all of its contents spilled on the floor. "It's a game!"
"Tell that to Boy Wonder's god damn ego!"
"Kiss my ass, Logan!"
"Please, friends, stop this now!" Kori's pleas barely caught their attention.
"You're actually fighting over a video game?" Raven glowered.
Dick whisked from under Victor's grip and stormed away, passing them without a glance.
Stillness engulfed the room before Vic slowly let go of the Changeling. "You good, B?"
Garfield said nothing as he crossed the room and went out onto the balcony. Koriand'r opened her mouth to say something, but then retreated to follow Dick around the corner.
The remaining Titans briefly shared a distressed look before assessing the damage. Vic lifted the couch back upright and began picking things up off the floor, as Raven welded the coffee table.
"So, what happened exactly?" Raven asked as she headed towards the kitchen to make tea.
"I don't really know." Vic sighed as he fell back against the couch. "It went from harmless bragging to something nasty real quick."
"That's it?" Raven scoffed as she rejoined him in the main room. "It's not exactly unlike Garfield to gloat."
"It wasn't like that." he countered. "Something's up with him. He wouldn't freak out on B like that over a game."
"I'm missing something."
"He just went off, called him stupid and naïve and some other choice words that, well, felt weird coming from Robin. Brought up Terra out of nowhere, and," Raven caught his eyes dart away from hers, "you know, it just got heated."
"Perhaps there was too much unchecked testosterone in one room?" Raven said dryly, barely raising a reaction. The kettle began hissing sharply from the kitchen and Raven stood to silence it. Vic followed suit, only to walk passed her towards the elevators.
"I'll see you later, Rae." She let him leave without a response, dropping a teabag in her mug before glancing towards the glass doors. When she didn't see Garfield on the balcony, Raven felt around the Tower for him. She wasn't surprised to find him on the roof, knowing it was his preferred place of refuge. She considered returning to her room, to save herself the drain of attentive human interaction, but then reached in the cupboard for a second mug.
[2]
The elevator doors opened to reveal a darkening sky, as twilight laid a shadowy blanket across the skyline. Carrying both cups, Raven found Garfield sitting on the Tower's edge looking down at the reflection of a twinkling city.
"Hey," Raven said softly as her feet touched the roof.
"Hey," Garfield answered hoarsely. Raven offered him the cup as she sat beside him, hanging her legs over the edge. "Thanks."
Raven surveyed the Tower's grounds whilst sipping her tea, keeping the brim close to her lips. She tried to conjure the words to say but hesitated. It wasn't long before he spoke up.
"Sorry. I don't know how it got so, whatever that was."
"Intergalactic racing will do that to the best of us," Raven smirked, spying a small smile on his lips. "Though, Vic said it turned into something else."
Garfield remained quiet, his face twisted into something resembling anger and shame. There was a darkening spot on his forehead, that solved the mystery of Dick's bloody nose. Raven sighed and set her cup down on the roof. "Look, you know Dick can be a sore loser-"
"It wasn't the game," Garfield interjected. "He just, he's been so uptight. I mean, more than usual. And I couldn't believe some of the things that were coming out of his mouth."
"A week without the taste of justice can take its toll on someone like Dick," Raven said in a dry attempt to be funny, and his reluctance slightly unnerved her. "You guys will get over this."
"He wasn't wrong," Garfield said, his ears softly wilting. "I guess."
"He just knew what to say to rile you up. And Terra," She gently turned her body to face him more directly. This movement seemed to distract him as he looked up at her strangely. "It's been years, so, for your own sake, maybe let it go." Raven sensed confusion from him before his face softened with sudden amusement. "What?"
"Your hair." He grinned and a self-conscious Raven rolled her eyes.
"The alien wished to engage in the 'earthly practice of the hair-braiding.'"
"Aw, girlfriends," he teased, tugging at her braid. She narrowed her eyes and a black mass hit him upside the head, the force sending him over the edge.
Garfield dove towards the bay before morphing into a falcon, veering back up towards the sky. Raven didn't flinch when he soared passed her like a bullet, small green feathers dancing wildly in his wake.
Raven felt reassured watching him sail across the stars; he never stayed down for long. His enlivened spirit is too strong for his own minds discontent. She has always envied him for this, for having the freedom to free himself. Even with all of the Earth's beasts inside him, his humanity always seems to emerge boldly, reminding her of what it is they fight to protect. Over the years there have been many times when Raven felt inspired to slacken her restraints and trust her own humanity as Garfield did, but the consequential desolation of her suppressed demons has been, and always will be, too grave to risk.
Dick has always understood that the most; how important it is to her to remain centered, and this understanding have cemented a trust in him that the other Titans haven't come close to. His competence, courage and unyielding convictions have never failed to make her believe in her place with the Titans. His energy comes with a heaviness that Raven relates to more easily, yet sometimes she feels it may weigh her down further. She found that she occasionally liked to be lifted by the buoyant vims of her other teammates.
In all her strangeness, Kori truly is a beautifully mystic creature capable of captivating all those she comes across. Despite all the horrors she endured on her way to this planet, Kori is stubbornly compassionate and her strength seemingly boundless. Though Raven often finds herself wishing to wring her pretty neck, she doesn't deny that the bond she shares with Kori is profound and ever present. She's a light of a distant fire, forever burning to warm Raven in her perpetual darkness. She is more grateful for Kori's friendship than she'll ever let on.
And then there's Victor, naturally somewhere in the middle of everything. Raven empathizes with the struggle between identities, and with the resentment towards those responsible for his current isolation. In spite of it all, his warmth overcomes his metal exterior and he has never once failed to be Raven's rock when she needed nothing else. She's always wanted to return the favor but never knew how or knew she wasn't needed. Victor has Garfield, as Garfield has him, and she envied their friendship as much as she was an aggravated victim of it.
As she continued to watch him, Raven wondered what Garfield thought of their teammates, and of her, if he ever did such thinking on his downtime. He hardly ever needed the kind of lifting she did, and if and when he does, she's probably not his first choice for the task. Yet sometimes, there were these moments between them that came and went unannounced. In these rare instances, Raven feels as if she is looking at someone other than Garfield, or maybe looking at him anew. She's never been able to fully understand it and therefore tries not to dwell on it, finding it to be as distracting as it is trivial.
The night air picked up a slight chill that breezed across Raven, sending a wave of goosebumps down her body. Drawing in a deep breath, she softly leaped and hovered a few feet from the roof, taking in the city and its flickering impression across the bay.
When Garfield sensed Raven's movement a few dozen feet below, he dove and morphed back before landing on the roof. She didn't seem to take notice of him and gently hugged her cloak-less body as she stared out over the water. Rebel strands of black hair swam through the winds that carried trails of lavender and sage down to him, and Garfield embraced her scent warmly. At this moment, she looked otherworldly as the moonlight reflected softly off her silvery skin. When his eyes began tracing her spine, she glowered at him over her shoulder.
"What?" she cocked her brow and approached him. When her feet touched the roof, something stirred in her chest as she recognized the strangeness of the moment.
"Just enjoying the view in quiet contemplation," he gestured towards the city, "same as you." As the moment fled, she rolled her eyes and lifted up both cups.
"You should check on Cy after you put these away." She avoided looking at him directly when he took the cups from her hands. She didn't wait for a response before engulfing herself in black.
Standing alone on the roof, Garfield faintly smiled down at the cups in his hands. All the hostile self-loathing he had carried up there with him had been eased by the subtle gesture. He scanned the horizon one last time before heading for the doors.
As he descended in the elevator he twirled the mug handles around his fingers, remembering her silhouette against the night sky. Though he knew she's always been a kind person, he couldn't help but feel bemused when her kindness found him. A couple years ago Raven wouldn't have given him the time of day, let alone some tea and a pep talk. Then again, she was much more reclusive before her father's most recent crack at the end of days. He almost broke her and she came back stronger and more open. And over the years Garfield has watched with a growing fascination. Where he once felt confusion and fear, he now experienced curiosity and admiration. He awkwardly desired her respect, more so than from the rest of the Titans. But he also desired her warm scent and the cool touch of her skin.
The elevator doors opened to the main floor, breaking Garfield's train of thought. The reemergence into the common room invited a feeling of dread back into his gut. Ideally, he wanted to avoid Dick and thought about ditching the mugs when he heard voices coming down the hall.
"You cannot be serious! Surely he has others–"
"I have to, Kori. I won't explain again–Garfield," Dick said as he and Kori entered the kitchen. "Can we talk?"
Suppressing his immediate reaction, Garfield set the mugs in the sink and faced them. Kori gave them both a disgruntled look before leaving the kitchen.
"So, listen," Dick cleared his throat, fighting the awkwardness that threatened to suffocate them both. Garfield was pleased to see the slight swelling under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. "I apologize, about earlier. It was unwarranted, and you didn't deserve that kind of criticism." Garfield remained quiet with his eyebrows raised and furrowed. "But sometimes Garfield, I swear you forget that we're not fifteen anymore. You need to take things more seriously. You need to step up if you-"
"Going somewhere?" Garfield interjected, ending the lecture with his arms folded across his chest.
"Gotham," Dick said following a defeated sigh. Garfield looked at him a moment longer before crossing the kitchen to grab a banana. "Won't be for long, I'm calling in someone to cushion while I'm there- hey," he called when Garfield began walking towards the hall, "are we cool?"
"As a cucumber," he said coolly and continued walking away.
"I didn't mean all that stuff about Raven, you know that."
"You should ice that." Garfield said through a mouthful of banana and disappeared around the corner.
[3]
Back in her candlelit sanctuary, Raven bowed her torso towards the ground with deep and controlled breaths. In the background, Debussy softly played. While she wasn't a particularly dedicated yogi, she found the practice to be soothing yet stimulating, especially during a lull period.
She felt a swelling pride from being able to comfort Garfield in his distress, in the little way that she could. Such tasks of emotional consoling once loomed over her as a great undertaking, but she's grown much surer of her ability to "be there" for her friends. Which felt nice, after years of having to be consoled by them.
Thinking of, Raven sensed an agitation looming from the hallway. Sure enough, she heard a soft knock on her door. Raven slowly straightened her spine, bringing her hands to her heart with a deep exhale. The soft knocks returned, and she walked over to activate the tall metal door.
A solemn alien stood on the other side of the threshold, her body wanting to fold in on itself. Her face was damp with tears and her bottom lip quivered subtly. She was a sad puppy with wide emerald eyes, red from irritation. Nothing about the way Kori stood before her was more pathetic than the way she felt. Raven absorbed her sadness deeply as it radiated across the doorway.
"Oh, Kori." Raven frowned and reached for her friend's hand. Fighting the urge to sob, Koriand'r took the Empath's hand and followed her into the room.
Kori sat in the same spot on Raven's bed she did just hours before when she was so blissful. Raven extinguished the candles and turned on her lamps before joining Kori on the bed.
"I can feel the drifting." Kori uttered, wiping her cheeks. "He must go to Gotham, he says. Though I strongly sense that his want to go is greater than his need to."
"Why is he going at all?" Raven asked gently.
"The Batman. When I suggested that he has others now to help him, he became defensive and rude." Though Raven grew more curious about his plans, she withheld her questions as to not interrogate her weeping friend. "I did not mean to make the insinuation that he was not needed. I only tried to express that perhaps we possessed the greater need for him-" Kori paused as guilt glossed over her eyes. "Perhaps it is I that possesses the greater need for him."
"Did you tell him this?" Raven asked.
"I was not given the chance," Kori said, her voice seeming more stable and her eyes more clearly. Then the silence was interrupted by a small growl emanating from the alien's stomach. "I do not believe we will be going out for the dinner after all." She said as she brought a hand to her belly. Both girls smiled, and Kori let out a small giggle.
"How about," Raven began and stood up, reaching her hands out to Kori. "You finish this session with me, and then we'll go out for the pizza?"
Kori's eyes lit up at this suggestion. "With the anchovies and the sauce of mustard?"
"On your half, sure." Raven grinned uneasily.
"That would be a most welcomed evening." Kori grabbed the Empath's hands and stood up. "Thank you, Friend Raven."
Raven simply nodded before snuffing out her lamps, re-igniting the candles, and turning Debussy back up.