Sleepless Beauty
Chapter Two: Predilection
April 18, 2005
don't let me down hashiritsuzukete mo mata
one more night nigerenai no wa dare
kizukitaku mo nai sono shinjitsu
Predilection; Yamaguchi Kappei (Gravitation)
TRANSLATION:
can't get enough of this beautiful midnight
don't let me down, I'll still run to you
one more night, which of us will never escape?
I wish I knew the truth
(MOO)
"Raven!"
An eye popped open.
"Raven!"
A deep sigh escaped.
"RAVEN!"
"What?" she hissed as the door opened sharply. The cybernetic human in front of her didn't even flinch, even though he should be cowering in fear; after all, he had just disturbed and angered Raven.
"This came for you today." He calmly handed her a thin box wrapped in dark brown paper with nothing other than her name printed on the front. It wasn't heavy; in fact it was rather light and nothing inside made a noise as it was jostled around. Raven began to wonder if there was anything in it at all.
"You don't know what I had to do to keep it away from Beast Boy," Cyborg continued, "He kept trying to shake it or open it or something."
Raven looked up from the box and raised an eyebrow at him. "Thanks, Cyborg, but… who's it from?"
Cyborg shrugged nonchalantly, as if that piece of information was irrelevant. "Don't know. It just showed up on the door step an hour ago."
"It took you that long to get it up here?" Raven looked at him incredulously, as if accusing him of shaking the box.
"I told you it was hell trying to keep it away from the little green dude," Cyborg responded quickly, lest he find himself on the receiving end of her powers. "It's no easy job keeping an unidentified package away from him, let alone one addressed to you. I thought the guy was going to explode with curiosity."
"So, where's he now?" Raven questioned, tucking the box underneath her arm.
"Doing yoga."
"Yoga?" Raven's face showed mild surprise. Beast Boy wasn't exactly a "yoga person", so what could posses him to do yoga?
"Not by choice." His wide grin told Raven all she needed to know.
"Ah… I see." A smile peeled across her own lips as she looked up at him. "Thanks again, Cyborg."
"Sure." Pause. "Aren't you gonna open it?" He looked a little too eager, and Raven wasn't sure if she wanted everyone to know what she got from some mysterious sender. For all she knew it could be some full sized poster of a naked guy… you never know what crazy stalkers will send you.
"Not in front of you," she responded calmly.
"Got'cha," Cyborg said quickly with an understanding nod. "Well, I'll leave you and your box alone. See ya later." With a quick wave he started off down the hall. Raven stood and waited until he had turned the corner to retreat inside her room.
'What is in here…?' she thought placing the box on her bed. Even after examining the box more thoroughly, she found no clue or indication about the sender. The box was free of smudges, postage, return labels; it was completely blank. Raven really wanted to open it, but the last time the Titans got a strange package she ended up in Starfire's body… that was an experience she did not want to repeat.
'But I don't have a choice… what if it's a timed bomb? Then again, what if it's a pressure sensitive bomb that will explode when I open the box?' She paused for a moment and shook her head. 'There are too many what-if's. I have no other option than to open it.' She slipped her fingers under the seams and carefully pulled at the paper.
"Please…" She muttered under her breath as she stripped the brown covering off. "Please don't let it be a bomb… or a full sized poster of a naked man… a naked, fat man. Or Beast Boy. For the love of all things good, please don't let it be a naked picture of Beast Boy." She pulled the top off the box and tentatively looked inside.
It was just a dress.
"Oh, good lord…" Raven murmured as she rolled her eyes ceiling-ward. She pulled the folded gown from the box and held it up in front of her. It was a slim, black, satin dress; simple, elegant, and the perfect size for her.
'What kind of pervert sends a dress that fits perfectly?' she thought, glaring at the dress accusingly. 'That is just plain creepy.' After searching through the tissue paper for a little bit, she found a small piece of red paper… a note.
Raven:
I hope you enjoy the dress; I made sure it was tailored specifically for your body. Come and visit me this evening. I'll be at the CrownePlaza's Crystal Dining Room at eleven o'clock. Tell the maître d' your name and he'll take you to see me. Please wear the dress.
Red X
'Oh no!' Raven suddenly moaned as if mortally wounded. She fell on her bed and reread the note, hoping she hadn't misinterpreted anything; she hadn't. 'This isn't fair!" She thought angrily, 'Isn't that stupid bastard ever going to leave me alone? Isn't it enough that he entered my room and groped me last night? Now he wants me to go and visit him? Who does he think he is?' She glared again at the beautiful dress, feeling very ambiguous about the whole ordeal.
It had been several months since Robin's "Red X" suit had been stolen from his possession, and the new Red X had failed to show up anywhere past his initial debut. The Titans looked high and low for even an inkling of a clue, but the new Red X seemed to be keeping a profile similar to that of dirt. After two or three months the Titans had given up the search for the thief and went on with their daily lives; there wasn't much else they could do. The stranger had eluded them completely and efficiently.
But, now he had appeared again, and Raven found herself at a very strange impasse. On one hand, she knew that Red X was being a perverted, creepy, psychopath stalker. She didn't even know who he was, let alone his motives for tracking her down and "watching" her. She should be running to her other teammates to tell them of his return. She should have alerted them immediately. She should have at least lashed out with her own powers.
But she didn't.
And the strangest thing was that Raven didn't want to tell anyone about his return.
She wasn't sure why, but he sparked a strange interest in her. Maybe it was her dark, masochistic side seeping through; or maybe it was something else… some alluring aspect of his owndark side, or the fact that he actually noticed Raven. Few people on earth actually noticed that Raven existed, let alone that she was a person with feelings and wants and desires just like the rest of the "normal" world.
Whatever it was that drew her to him, Raven was sure there was no set answer; everything was covered in a thick, hazy fog not even she couldn't see through. But there was one thing she was absolutely sure about: she did not want to alert the Titans. If she did, they might take him away from her… and Raven couldn't handle that. She wanted to be noticed, just like Robin and Starfire and Beast Boy and Cyborg. She didn't want to be alone anymore.
'I guess I don't have a choice…' Raven sighed deeply as she took a good, long look at the black dress on her bed. 'I can't very well ignore him, he'll just come after me even more. And it's not like I won't be doing work, or fraternizing with the enemy. I just want to see what he wants with me. I guess I could be considered some sort of inside job or something. Undercover work for the Titans…' She held the dress to herself and looked in the mirror across her room, imagining the way her body would look in it.
'Eleven, huh?'
(MOO)
'What am I doing here?' Raven thought to herself as a snooty maître d' led her through a maze of golden-lined corridors to the back of the Crystal Dining Room. 'Why am I going through all this trouble, just to meet some perverted psychopath?' It had taken Raven several minutes to find anyone that would even look at her, let alone talk to her. She was surprised the doorman actually let her into the lobby; sometimes being socially invisible really sucked.
As Raven continued through the hotel, she pushed off her hood and took a deep, calming breath. Her nerves were twisting and knotting inside her body, making this whole situation very difficult to deal with. But it wasn't just this bizarre meeting that was bothering her. No, she knew that at this exact moment Robin and Starfire would be lazily making their way from a movie theater to an ice cream parlor. And where was Raven? Meeting some pervert of a man she wished she wasn't drawn to. The three Fates must be rolling with laughter on their fat, old behinds right now.
"Miss Raven."
The dark girl suddenly looked up at the maître d' and raised a speculative eyebrow. Wow… he was talking to her. "Yes?"
"Here." He pointed sharply to a door which was nearly hidden by several, large silk plants, and labeled with a golden plaque that stated "Red Crystal – Private Dining". Raven turned to him in slight surprise, as if silently asking what she was supposed to do.
"Your presence is requested in that room," the maître d' responded, rolling his eyes and regarding her as if she were stupid. With that last comment, he turned on his heel and hurried away, lest he be obligated to be in conversation with this nobody any longer.
"Snotty bastard," the dark girl hissed under her breath as she turned back to the camouflaged door.
'Private dining room?' She thought, trying to calculate exactly how much a private dining room at the city's most elite hotel was worth. 'So that means,' Raven speculated as she reached out and placed her fingertips on the handle, 'that whoever "Red X" actually is, he must be loaded. I don't know if I should be comforted by this, or disturbed.'
She pushed the door open and ventured inside. There were bolts of red velvet and wine colored crystals everywhere. There was a single, two-person table, decorated in coordinating flowers, china, and silverware. The overpowering crimson color made Raven suddenly feel as if she had just stepped into a Ricky Martin music video.
"You came."
Her eyes quickly focused on a singular being, clad in black and sitting on a sofa in the corner. He rose and approached her carefully, as if every step he took could be his last. Finally he stopped in front of her and looked into her deep eyes; or at least Raven assumed that was what he was doing. You could never tell with that scull-mask of his on.
"I surprised you decided to show." There was a subtle note of amazement in his voice and he took a half step back, so he could gaze upon her more fully. "Let alone wear the dress I sent. I must say, however, it does fit you quite well."
Raven said nothing; she stood there and glared at him silently, feeling anger beginning to well up inside her.
"You're not very talkative this evening, are you?" Red X questioned softly and gently, slowly extending his gloved fingertips to trail along the soft planes of her face. "We'll have to remedy that."
Without any warning, Raven's hand came up toward the villain's face. Red X simply caught her wrist mid-swing, and stopped her attack. There was a slight pause, and then he began to chuckle softly at her. The dark girl stood there and continued to glare at him as he held her left arm in a bind. His laughter was starting to really get on her nerves.
"What do you want with me?" She suddenly asked, her eyes narrowing at him.
"Ah, so she can speak!" Red X teased gently, his fingertips now slipping lower to span the back of her delicate neck. "What I want with you should be fairly simple, my dark princess. But, if you can't figure it out…"
There was a sudden onslaught of her right hand and Red X stopped that just as easily as her first attempt. With a quick, firm pull, he stretched both her arms straight out to her side, thus forcing Raven's body inches from his own. There was nothing she could to but glare up at him with cold, angry eyes. She was beginning to hate the way he talked to her, the way he "looked" at her, the way he smelled. Everything about him screamed danger and sensuality. All of her senses were putting up a good fight against Raven's sensibility.
"Temper, temper." Red X teased playfully as he looked down at her, cocking his head to the side in wonder. "Why the violence tonight, my little bird?"
Raven stared at him incredulously, as if she couldn't believe that he didn't remember last night's episode. "You groped me last night!" She cried, forcing her wrists to struggle against his vice-like grip. It seemed very futile, as none of his fingers barely even budged. After a long moment of toiling against his grip, she stilled and settled for glaring at him some more. "What am I supposed to do when you cop a feel? Thank you?"
"That's an option." Red X bent his head to her own, so that his mask hovered only centimeters from her face. Although Raven couldn't see past the scull-barrier, she could feel the heavy, sexual gaze he had planted on her, and it made her very, very uncomfortable. She suddenly felt very vulnerable, her body trapped by his strong hands and held completely open to him.
"I really must apologize for my crude behavior last night…" Red X began his voice playful in tone. "But I had to make sure the dress was going to fit properly. You, of all people, should be aware of your large… endowments. It's very hard to have a dress made for someone with a body like yours."
"You are a sick bastard," Raven hissed, her voice wavering under the onslaught of emotions he placed upon her. She wasn't sure how much longer she could bear to be this close to him.
"Is that so?" He pulled her arms farther outward, forcing Raven's body completely against his own. They were pressed so tightly together, that it was impossible to tell where one left off and the other began.
Raven's cheeks quickly stained a deep red, and she looked up at him accusingly. "Excited are we?"
Red X laughed earnestly, his head tossed back as if he found the whole situation very humorous. "Why should I hide the evidence of my desire, little bird? What do I have to keep from you?"
A small smirk appeared on Raven's lips, as she whispered, "Your identity… Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
The hard, scull-mask of Red X began to spider, and in seconds the whole thing had shattered to the floor in a tinkling of protective metal. Raven felt quite happy at that moment, for now she would figure out who Red X was, and give him a good beating for being a pervert. With a smug smile placed on her face, she looked up at him…
… and then her smile fell into a look of despair.
A cloth, red, X-shaped mask covered just his eyes, further hiding his identity.
"Do you feel accomplished, little bird?" He teased gently, bending his head so close that his lips brushed her own. With his mask on, Red X had been a very sexual person, but with his mask off he screamed sexuality from every pore of his body. A slow, soft smirk appeared on his lips and his silver locks of hair fell forward to brush gently along Raven's face.
"You-" her words were suddenly cut short as he pressed his lips tightly against her own. Raven stood there in shock, her eyes slowly drifting close. His kisses were hard and forceful, as if he were demanding her response instead of asking for it. The dark girl had no other choice but to comply and kiss him back.
After several, long minutes, he pulled away and smiled at Raven. "Now, little bird, that wasn't so bad… was it?" With a slight nip to her lips, he let go of her arms. Taking a step back, he watched as her strong blush slowly faded away, and Raven finally became aware of her surroundings again.
"Come and sit down, Raven… or our dinner will get cold." Red X turned and walked away. Raven stared at his figure for several moments, trying to figure out not only who he was, but how he had anticipated her motive. How had he known that she had the intentions of unmasking him today? What did this guy know about her? And why was his kiss permanently burned into her soul?
"Wine?"
Raven gave a start as she was pulled from her reverie. "Huh?"
A smirk appeared across those perfect lips. "Did I surprise you that much, little bird? I didn't mean to be so harsh with my kisses… next time I'll be gentle, I promise." Pause. "Wine?"
Raven stood there and watched as he poured a half-glass of some dark, expensive wine for himself, and positioned the bottle over her own. "I don't drink," she responded shortly, looking at him with a suddenly accusing stare. What was he trying to pull with her? She wasn't stupid enough to go all giggly when someone waved alcohol around. Getting drunk was never appealing to her, and even less so when she was in a dangerous situation such as this one.
Red X looked at her and laughed lightly, as if she were being too stubborn for her own good. "The wine isn't to get you wasted, it's so the food tastes better."
"Aren't you supposed to drink champagne on romantic outings?" Raven questioned sarcastically as she took a few, tentative steps toward the dark man.
He poured her glass and began to put the wine away to chill. "Champagne should be drunk alone, with desert, or with fruit. Its flavor is to light and sweet to match the heavy flavor of a meal." He answered deftly. There was another pause and he looked up at her strangely, as if silently asking why she refused to sit down. "Now, sit, Raven."
She sighed deeply and plopped herself unceremoniously in front of her plate. "I'm not hungry," She said as he removed the silver dome from her plate. He looked at her and shook his head, short silver locks twirling gently around his face.
"You're being stubborn, Raven. Now, eat." He picked up his glass of wine and took a sip, his eyes never leaving her confused face. Raven hated it that he never looked away from her, it made her feel as if he were reading her every move.
She picked up a fork and prodded her food for a moment, before looking up at him again. "There's an aphrodisiac in my food… isn't there?" Raven accused suddenly.
Red X paused for a moment, and then began to laugh heartily, a heavy rhythm falling from his lips. "An aphrodisiac?" he questioned his voice husky and deep as his gaze bore into her. "I never thought of that before… I suppose I'll have to try that on our next meeting, my little bird."
Raven continued to glare at him, feeling her anger start to flare again. "What makes you think there will be another meeting?"
"What makes you think there won't?" His lips twisted into a sly, seductive smile.
"Stop that!" The dark girl hissed, her eyes narrowing at him. She was becoming frustrated with his teasing games and short answers. Raven wasn't finding out anything about him, except that he was highly seductive in nature, and even she was susceptible to his charm. That wasn't an answer she wanted; she wanted to find out what he was doing here, what he wanted, and how he knew everything there was to know about her.
"Stop what?" Red X looked up at her calmly, as if her sudden outburst didn't faze him in the slightest. "I am merely telling you the future. We will meet again…"
"What makes you so sure?" Raven snapped suddenly, his cockiness starting to pound on her nerves.
"If you are interested in me a fraction of how I am interested in you… then you will come and see me again, I guarantee it." That stupid smile appeared on his lips again.
"Stop speaking in riddles! And stop smiling at me like that! It's unnerving!" She hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I want answers, and I want them now!"
Red X laughed again, his broad shoulders moving slightly with the thick, heady sound of his voice. "Tell you what, little bird. I will answer any questions you might have… as soon as you finish your meal. I don't want you to starve yourself because I'm 'unnerving'."
"Promise?" Raven questioned, cocking an eyebrow.
"Cross my heart."
Across the city…
"Cyborg?" A tall red-haired alien padded softly into the living room and addressed her companion softly.
"Yeah, Star?" the mechanical man questioned, turning slightly to look at her with an expression of mild surprise. "What are you doing home so early? I thought you and Robin would still be out right now."
"Oh, the movie was a lot shorter than both of us had anticipated…" She sat down next to her mechanical teammate. "And shortly afterwards Robin said he received a call from Batman. He had to leave for Gotham immediately." She paused and turned to look at Cyborg with confusion. "Why is he not answering his communicator? I merely wish to know how his trip went, and if he arrived in safety."
Cyborg shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it Star. It's hard to get a communicator signal across the space between here and Gotham. Besides, when Robin is with Batman, there is no getting a hold of him. Those two can be as stubborn as a pair of grumpy, old mules." He put a comforting hand on her shoulder when he noticed Star's downtrodden expression. "He'll be back soon enough, I guarantee it."
"I suppose you are right," Starfire responded, her face suddenly brighter. "I should not worry. Thank you very much for your support, friend Cyborg."
"Welcome, Star. Anytime."
(MOO)
So, this is the second chapter of Sleepless Beauty. I hope you enjoyed it, as I enjoyed writing it… :Grins: So, what will happen now with Red X and Raven… can you guess? … I hope not, because that will just ruin the whole darn story for you and me. I'm almost done with the last chapter of Solidarity? In case anyone is wondering, but don't expect it out anytime soon, as I have WAY too much going on in the next two weeks. (Two AP tests AND the play AND world lit AND prom AND work… life really sucks)
ANYWAY… PLEASE REVIEW! I love it when you review.
Side Note to My beta-er: Sorry I didn't wait for your reply… I wasn't sure when the next time I'd be able to use my computer again. I still love you, if you're reading this.
PLEASE REVIEW… I love it sooo much!
