Hey everyone! Sorry for the extra long wait… how long has it been? More than a month! I hope people still read this story. Anyways, hope you like this chapter and please, REVIEW!
4. Release
Life at Titan's Tower had never seemed as strain. Robin had not return to the Tower from the day he saw Starfire, which was two weeks ago. Bumblebee had officially moved in to stay with Cyborg, using the excuse that it was long due but everyone knew that she was there to keep the peace. Beastboy and Terra made frequent visits. Terra always ignored Starfire; Beastboy stared at her with pity.
Starfire had taken up board in the far east corner of Titan's Tower. Raven herself had appointed Starfire there. Perhaps she thought of it as the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind". However, this wasn't true. Starfire invaded Raven's dreams… always being the villainess who steals something precious that Raven can never get back.
Raven wanted to hate Starfire so much. She wanted to hate her with every bone of her body. Yet, she couldn't. Starfire had been her ex-best friend, her trusting confidant. When Starfire left, Raven had imagined the worst. She kept seeing Starfire's dead and mutilated body in her mind. With the rest of the Titans, she had searched far and wide for a sign of her. And to what? They found out that Starfire was going on a one-way flight back to Tamaran. That last straw broke up the Titans. Beastboy and Cyborg refused to play video games. Raven couldn't speak to anyone for days, weeks. And Robin… poor Robin, he tried to kill…
Oh no… she would not go back down that road again. Everything in Titan's Tower invocated painful memories. Deciding that she needed to get out of the house before Starfire awoke, Raven quickly teleported away to Titans East. She needed the company.
.XxXxX.
Speedy awoke to a pounding headache. Uh, how much did he drink last night at the party? Turning to his side to block the sunlight that was already starting to creep in through the windows, he was met with a warm body. What the! Jumping back too far, he landed on the carpeted floor with a thump.
The bed groaned above him.
"Baby, up already?"
The girl stuck her head out from under the covers to reveal a blond pretty girl. Monica. She leaned over the bed, giving Speedy a nice view of her breasts. She leered down at his naked body on the floor.
He looked down to see that he was showing her all of his glory. Grabbing a sheet from the bed, he covered himself with as much dignity as he could. Nonplused, Monica stepped out of the bed and sauntered nakedly over to where he stood.
"Ready for Round two lover?"
Looking away from her naked body and sitting back down on the bed, he tried to remember everything from last night through his pounding headache. Club 9… shots of tequila… Monica. Turning a bit green, he hurried into the restroom to get rid of all the bile in his mouth. What had he done?
Monica looked over at her boyfriend in the restroom, or at least that's what he called himself, wistfully. She knew that Speedy didn't share the same feelings as she did. Last night was proof enough. At the point of his release, it wasn't her name drunken Speedy shouted out, it was that bitch… Raven. Hell would freeze over before she allowed that bitch her man. Speedy would be hers. She was sure of it. He had to be.
"Raven? What are you doing here?"
Speaking of the bitch, Monica grinned evilly. She quickly grabbed Speedy's shirt and covered her assets. If she was going down, the least she could do is take Speedy along with her.
.XxXxX.
"Raven? What are you doing here?"
Raven smiled a tired smile up at Aqualad. Now, there was a good guy. Why couldn't she have fallen in love with him? He was nice… hot… and not tied down by some lost lover. Of course, there was still the fact that he was gay.
"I needed to get out of there. I guess you heard about Starfire?"
"Yeah," Aqualad contested, giving Raven a small pitiful smile. "I'm really sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Raven said scornfully. "If she's back, Robin will fall in love with her again. Then, they'll get married and have tons of black haired and green eyes boys and girls."
"I know how you feel about—."
"Aqualad!"
The two of them turned to find Monica in nothing but Speedy's green and red shirt sauntering over to them. Aqualad's eyes widened a considerable amount behind the mask whilst Raven glared.
"'Morning guys. Did you have a good night sleep?" said Monica, eyeing Raven challengingly. Without waiting for the two of them to answer, she plunged on. "I am like so tired. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Speedy is like such a beast. Wouldn't you agree Raven?"
"I wouldn't know," Raven said dully.
"OH! I guess you're not exactly his type," Monica snipped, looking Raven up and down. "He'll never go for such a boring girl."
Ignoring Monica's comment even though her fist was itching to give her a good sock in the face, Raven turned back to Aqualad, "I guess I should go right now."
"Raven!"
Before teleporting, Raven turned back to look at speaker to find Speedy looking at her apprehensively.
.XxXxX.
Shit. Just shit. That's the way his life always is. With one freaking night, he lost Raven. How could he have been so careless? How could he have slept with Monica? Raven probably thought he was some kind of man-skank who couldn't keep his dick to himself.
Sure, he had slept with girls before… countless girls actually. But to have such evident evidence in front of Raven… shit. Just shit.
.XxXxX.
Starfire stared around her empty room. Gone were the pink wallpaper… the pink dresser… the pink bed. Everything seemed so colorless, a tasteless black… the same way that she felt at that moment. Why did she come back? How can she make her friends understand the torment that she faced up there in Tamaran? Hearing all those Tamaranians talk down on the humans, she nearly gave up. Those people had no idea how humans really were… how kind and caring they could be. But she had to be strong… she had to stop the war between Tamaran and earth. Accomplishing that caused her to give up the greatest part of her life… her friends.
Her friends are incredible. Beastboy with his continuous amount of corny jokes was able to keep her laughing for hours. Cyborg and his great big brother personality gave her a feeling of protection wherever she went. Raven and her strength… her peace… gave her someone to look up to. And Robin, dear sweet Robin…
She needed to get her life back. She needed to get her friends back. She could not live without them.
Leaving her room, she headed down to the basement. It was time to talk to Victor, always Cyborg to her.
.XxXxX.
Aqualad glared at Speedy across the large kitchen space that they had at Titan's Tower. Of all the dumbest things to do…
"What?" Speedy said, looking up from his fried chicken long enough to send a questioning glance Aqualad's way.
"I couldn't believe that you would bring a girl home! Of all the stupidest things… you drove Raven away! She's heartbroken right now! She needed someone to talk to about the problems at the other tower. But no… your slutty girlfriend had to make her too embarrassed to stay."
Choking on his chicken at the mention of Raven, Speedy forced down the mouthful.
"Problems? Raven has problems? What problems?"
"Why would you care?" Aqualad said irritably. "All you care about is getting some."
"Of course I care about her!" Speedy replied back heatedly.
"Why? 'Cause she's better looking now… you want to bang her too?"
"Now you wait here you little overgrown fish! Raven is--."
"Wait for what? You to grow up! She's my friend you stupid twig. I, for one, care abut her."
And with those last lines, Aqualad left with a flourish. He wasn't exactly angry at Speedy. He just wanted him to think about Raven a little. Sometimes, the guy just has no brains. What would the world do without Aqualad?
.XxXxX.
"Cyborg? Can I talk to you?"
Victor stopped fixing the wires to the car as he heard the familiar girlish strong voice say his ex-alias name. Wheeling out from under the car, he raised one eyebrow at the edgy Starfire, something he never thought he'll see.
"You called?"
"Hi Cyborg. I was wondering if we could talk," Starfire said to the ground, not dare looking up at Victor.
And so, the two ex-friends sat down together to talk. One down and three to go.
.XxXxX.
An/ Sorry for the huge wait guys. Thanks for all the reviews too. I haven't have time to answer all of them but now that summer's here, I promise to dedicate part of my time to answer them.
You know the drill. Review! Nothing to say? Answer this question: How did you like this chapter?
Also, Aqualad is currently in the dark about Speedy's feelings about Raven.
Poor o' Speedo.
I promise, with all of my fingers, to type a longer chapter next time.