[1]
The lights in the common room were soft as the rain gently clattered against the windows. Hovering above the couch, Raven sipped some tea while her eyes perused a book. She had not slept since the boys left her room the previous evening, and in lieu of sleep she had been studying text after text since well before dawn. Aside from a small incantation and some burnt mugwort, she had little luck in finding a sound protection spell, since much of it depended on what kind of force threatened her. She knew nothing of what or who the woman was, where she came from, or what was done to her. Raven did not understand the phonetic sounds that were hissed into her chakra, nor could she apprehend its effects thus far. She felt tired but grew restless. Her body felt stiff while anxiety fluttered through her. Eventually she became agitated enough and found it impossible to wait in her room for the sun to break over the horizon. Consequently, she had settled in the common room hours before another Titan made an appearance.
Victor strolled into the kitchen soon after the first sign of natural light, murmuring a tired greeting before fixing himself coffee. He only asked how she felt and left it at that, and Raven was grateful. She only found herself hopelessly wishing that the rest of them would follow suit. Though after a few minutes he firmly told her she had to go out and get a new TV. They eyed each other humorously, and Raven just nodded. He sat beneath her and flipped through some kind of engineering-centered magazine, from what Raven could tell. In his presence she realized she was happy to not be alone anymore, and the two Titans kept to themselves in each other's company for rest of the morning.
Periodically, her eyes would dart from the pages of her book to the vacant and dark doorway, anticipating someone to walk through it. She began to feel almost unsettled by the stillness of the Tower. Unsurprisingly, she felt Garfield in his room a couple floors above. She assumed the rain and lack of sunlight peeling through his curtains would keep him asleep for some time. A couple floors down, Kori was also in her room, where she has been since Raven woke up last night. She scanned the entire Tower for Richard, and when she found him, her eyes peeled open. She lowered herself to the couch and set her book and mug on the table.
"He's leaving." Her voice was husky from neglect. Victor peered up at her with quickening acknowledgment of what she meant. "He's loading up the bike."
"The hell he is!" Victor jumped up from the couch and followed Raven through her portal.
They caught him strapping one of his bags to the back of Victor's cruiser. "Morning." Dick smirked when he felt their sudden presence behind him.
"I said I'd think about it!" Victor walked to the other side of the cruiser with his hands on his hips. "That does not mean 'yeah, no problem buddy, go right ahead'."
"I thought I'd try to bribe you with the promise of upgrades..."
"Upgrades," Victor scoffed, but then quickly narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. "what kind of upgrades?"
"I don't know," Dick's smirk grew wider. "I'd take her into one of Fox's shops…let an engineer take a look?" Victor's dubious expression gradually softened, and his posture straightened.
"Fine," He crossed his arms. "when exactly can I expect her back?"
"Well, the longer it takes...the more upgrades she'll get?" All but Victor's raised eyebrows remained still, "I don't know." He dropped his arms in defeat. His eyes fell on Raven for the first time, and guilt spread across his face. He looked back to Victor. "If nothing else, I can send it back to you."
Victor looked at him a moment longer before holding his large metal hand outwards.
"Thanks Vic."
"Yeah, see you around Grayson." Cyborg shook Dick's hand firmly, offering a friendly nod before turning away to leave Raven and Dick alone in the garage.
"How are you Raven? Feeling better?"
"I am." she sensed his discomfort as it saturated her veins and filled her stomach with knots. She felt his shame, his worry, his determination and calmly reached a hand up to his swollen face. Her fingers lightly kissed the skin around his black eye and forehead. A soft, ivory glow radiated from her fingertips as the skin healed beneath its shimmering light. When her hand retreated, his face was left fresh and renewed.
"Thanks,." Dick smiled, cautiously pressing his fingers around the once bruised skin. Raven kindly smiled and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "We'll miss you."
"You'll call if you need to, right?" It wasn't really a question.
"Don't worry, go do what you need to do." Raven whispered and gave him a knowing look as she stepped away. He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth cautiously, but retreated when the garage roared open and unleashed a tremendous patter of water against cement. The smell softly flowed into the garage, with it a warm breeze that gently billowed Raven's hair from her shoulders and wrapped around her body. While he was careful to guise any expression, Raven still sensed his relief.
However, there was a stubborn twinge of guilt and of frustration that refused to be forgotten and demanded closure. It wasn't hard for Raven to guess its derivation, and as if the universe didn't find this scene dramatic enough, a sudden streak of pink fell with the rain just outside of the garage.
The mildly damp alien slowly walked into the garage, glaring. Richard cleared his throat and glanced back at Raven, but she was already gone through a portal.
"I do not wish for you to leave without saying goodbye."
"I didn't think you'd want me to." Dick avoided her eyes, but to his surprise, she snaked her arms around his neck and pulled him into a firm embrace.
As she withdrew, Kori eyes held his gaze firmly. "Goodbye, Robin."
Her eyes subtly glossed over, but she turned away before he could see this and walked out of the garage. With a final glance back, she leapt into the air and flew against the rain until she reached the balcony. Just inside, the three other Titans were gathered in the kitchen.
Kori slid the door open and solemnly looked around at her teammates before joining Victor by the window. She hadn't noticed how cold she was until an arm wrapped around her shoulders, swathing her in sudden warmth. She looked at Garfield as he hugged her closely, and she gratefully rested her head on his shoulder. "We got you, Star." His body heat thawed her chill until Raven emerged from a portal with a towel, and together they wrapped her up in it. Kori looked to Raven, who grabbed her hand and squeezed it. On the other side of her, Vic remained still and silent, his eyes fixed on a black speck making its way across the Tower's grounds. Standing together before the window, the four Titans watched in silence as the cruiser faded from their view.
[2]
Victor was the first to turn away, soon followed by Raven and Garfield. Kori remained by window, gazing about the dreary, blanketed skies that drooped above the city.
"Raven," she mumbled without breaking her stare, "do you feel well enough?" Raven observed the alien's silhouette from the couch where she had resumed her seat. Though she knew what Kori was after, she found it hard to answer. Garfield and Victor looked over from the kitchen, anticipating her response. Kori looked over her shoulder at Raven before turning her whole body towards her. She readjusted the towel around her shoulders and walked over to sit down next to Raven. "You frightened us."
"I'm sorry." Raven's eyes cast across Kori's face before falling onto the book in her lap. "I don't want to frighten you."
"We just want to help." Garfield had crossed the room and was now sitting on the edge of the coffee table, facing her. Guilt and discomfort inflated her chest as she regarded them both; her lip daring to tremble.
Kori's hand reached for her own. "It is all right, Raven."
She took a deep breath and gathered herself, rolling her eyes at her own behavior. "I had this dream…"
Raven went on to tell them of her dreams as vaguely as she could get away with. She told them about the temple under the moons, of her mother's voice and of the horrible cawing…and of course of the crow that lured her to the roof.
"And you don't know who she is?" Victor asked of the woman that shifted from the crow. "Or what she did to you?"
Raven shook her head. "Freed me, apparently...but I don't know what from."
"Is it Trigon?" Garfield asked firmly. "I mean, could he have escaped?"
"I've considered that." Raven murmured with her eyes fixed on the book in her lap. "But her powers just felt different...and even if he could escape...I don't know...I'm trying to figure it out." Garfield, Vic, and Kori all eyed each other but didn't dare say verbalize their shared concerns. Victor's communicator suddenly buzzed wildly in his pocket, and he fished it out before excusing himself from the room. From the tone in his voice, they all knew it was Karen.
"Do you think she will come back?" Kori asked softly. Raven shrugged and opened her book, fanning aimlessly through its pages.
"I've been looking for a defensive spell, something to protect myself…and the tower," she mumbled, accepting the fact that it was easier said than done when she didn't understand what kind of magic to deal with. Once she reached the back cover of the book, she softly tossed it on the coffee table. She rested her face in her hands and rubbed her tired eyes with her fingertips.
Kori gently patted Raven's shoulder. "We will protect you." Raven peeked from behind her fingers to reveal a grateful smile. Kori returned the smile and rose from the couch, the towel still wrapped around soggy clothes. Soundlessly, she caught Garfield's attention and glinted her eyes towards Raven. She announced that she would go check on Victor before taking a bath. She winked at Garfield encouragingly before leaving them alone.
In the lingering silence after Kori left, Raven noticed that the rain no longer bellowed against the tower or its bespattered glass windows. Though still mostly obscured in endless gray, the skies seemed to split just slightly to let a peak of sun through. Garfield watched as Raven was drawn to the balcony like a moth to the light as she stood and crossed the room. She slid open the doors and stepped outside, her bare skin unbothered by the wintry mist that shrouded the skies or the sodden cement beneath her feet. She inhaled deeply, relishing in the fresh petrichor that charged the air around her. It filled her lungs with comfort, and she exhaled tranquility. Raven heeded closely, the wind singing across the bay and the waves dancing along the shores below. Seagulls fluttered with the breeze, calling for their families to join them in the skies while the sun still glistened against stormy waters. Raven cherished each one of her senses and leaned further into this contentment and she smiled; forgetting, if just for the moment, the night terrors of cawing women.
Raven drew in another deep breath through her nose, this time picking up a new, equally stimulating scent. The faintest drumming first distracted her ears. It quickened as it grew stronger and Raven almost believed it was within her own chest. She didn't realize that Garfield stood behind her until his voice engrossed her attention. There was something about the way his eyes held her now that made her blush.
"What?" She narrowed her eyes to mask her embarrassment. He joined her against the banister and smirked before repeating himself. His unruly emerald locks swayed gently in the breeze.
"Hang out with me today."
"What?" Raven said again, this time through a smile. "We hang out all the time."
"I mean just you and me…and I mean somewhere else." She warily searched his eyes, as if trying to recognize a stranger. "Let me take you out to eat?"
As the moment hung in the air Raven recognized the strangeness and for the first time, it seemed so obvious to her. She was suddenly very aware of how close he stood before her; his body turned towards her with one arm leaning against the banister...his face only inches away from her own.
"You mean…like a date?" She almost cringed at the word but achieved impassiveness. She could not seem to sense outside of herself, thinking at first that she felt his nervousness, only to realize it was now her own heart that throbbed inside her chest. Raven felt confused and elated and furious and hung on every second that preceded his response.
"Would that be so bad?" He asked so softly Raven wasn't sure he spoke at all. Her eyes combed him one more time, waiting for any punchline, relieved when it never came. She grinned shyly and shook her head.
