A/N: Extra strong M warning for this chapter. You'll know when. Rest of the notes at the bottom.
Legal Notice: I don't own any of these characters or the D.C. universe in anyway shape or form. I mean it, Steve. Stop calling. It's creepy.
Chapter 9: Crystalised
The Dreaming:
Dream looked from door to door, his star-like eyes deep in thought. Gar looked at the doors blankly, not really sure what they were doing.
Gar interrupted the silence, "So...do we just go through random dreams until we figure out what I need to from this or what?"
Dream sighed. "If it was a normal task of going from dream to dream, you would not need a guide, would you? No, this is something that requires a certain dream, something that contains the memories pertinent to your situation."
"Which situation? The entire 'apparently in a coma' thing or the 'I had a no holds bared fight with my girlfriend' thing?" Gar folded his arms as he frowned.
"I am going to go with my instinct and believe it is the second of those. The coma will solve itself, in time." Dream said simply, hand to his face in thought for a moment, before looking down the hall, back the way they came. "Hrm."
"You're looking at where my dirty dreams are and thinking a bit too hard there, man." Gar looked nervous.
"Maybe I was wrong in presuming they would not be helpful...one in particular will be a good start." Dream began walking back down the hall.
"No it wouldn't, you had the right idea the first time!" Gar said a bit too late as Dream was already a ways ahead of him. "Goddamnit." He grumbled after Dream. "Stupid dream king and his stupid pervy bird."
"You know, in this realm I am neigh-omnipotent, so I can hear you." Dream looked back at Gar, eyebrows raising slightly as his star eyes settled on him for a second before turning back towards the doors, trying to find the right one.
Gar stopped and sighed. "Goddamnit."
"Can't win today, can ya kid?" Matthew cawed at him.
"You have no idea." Gar muttered.
Gotham:
"You have a lot of explaining to do, kid." Nightwing folded his arms. "For one, how'd you figure it out? For second, why not sell the info, half of the scum here would kill for that, not to mention the one's that'd pay through the nose."
"Okay, first off, I'm not a kid, I'm 13." Tim folded his arms in a huff.
"Still a kid by our books." Nightwing raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, whatever." Tim grumbled. "I figured it out through watching you, actually. My parents and I were at your last show at the circus, so that stuck with me, being 4 and all. Anyways, as I grew up, I kinda sorta became a Batman and Robin fanboy. Devoured any news footage I could find, youtubed the shit out of the videos people took when that started happening. And as I got older, I realized there was something familiar about your moves as Robin. So, I started digging and eventually, after about a year, made the connection that you were Dick Grayson. And then if, Dick Grayson was Robin, and he was adopted by Bruce Wayne...well, that was pretty elementary." Tim smiled modestly, scratching the back of his head. "And I guess the first part answers the second question, I mean, why the hell would I sell out my favorite heroes like that? Kinda stupid."
Dick was stunned. "You figured it all out...just by being curious?"
Tim nodded.
Dick and Kori spoke at the same time, both with shocked expressions. "X'hal" "Jesus."
Tim shrugged. "I live on my own most of the time, so I got a lot of free time."
Kori tilted her head, "Where are your parents, Young-Tim?"
He sighed softly; "My dad's an archeologist, so he's always out on trips and digs and stuff, mom passed away a few years ago and my step-mom just kinda...ran off a year ago. Probably another reason why Dad doesn't stick around home."
Dick looked at Tim sadly, "No school or anything?"
"Well not right now." Tim said wryly. "Hence the following, I was actually hoping you would've caught me sooner. But I get it, playing safe an all."
Dick nodded, "So...if you don't want to sell us out, what do you want? Blackmail money?"
He scrunched his face in disgruntlement, "No, I actually want to help."
"How?"
Tim inhaled deeply then breathed out before keeping as serious a tone as he could "I want to be the new Robin."
Jump City:
Raven woke up slowly, looking at the clock. Eight in the evening, she had been out about 6 hours or so. Her nap was nice, if a little restless. She had dreamed of Gar, it looked like he was aimlessly wandering the halls, following a tall, gaunt man with stars for eyes and a raven. She felt like she had recognized the other figure but Raven couldn't place from where so she dropped it for now. Dreams had their own methods about them, so she rarely pried unless she had the gut feeling to do so. Currently, her gut feeling was saying "Food. Now."
As soon as Raven opened the door to the hall, her sense of smell was overwhelmed by something that smelled at once amazing and heart attack inducing. 'Oh good, Vic must be cooking.' She grumbled internally as she walked towards the common area. When she hit the main room, she noticed a few things slightly out of place. Rose had completely hijacked the TV, watching a Stallone action movie from the eighties (they all blended together to Raven), Jinx and Donna were chatting in soft, hushed tones, and Wally was zipping around the kitchen, trying to steal the finished bits of dinner. Everyone noticed her walk in and there was a slight pause in all the actions, before Rose simply looked back at the screen and Wally suddenly invaded near all of Raven's vision.
"Awesome, you're up just in time!" He said excitedly.
"For what?" Raven monotoned wearily, quirking an eyebrow.
"Bacon-wrapped cheeseburgers!" Wally near burst with delight.
Raven maintained a flat expression before looking over at Cyborg, who was still getting everything wrapped up, in more ways than one. "Have you been watching that damn youtube cooking thing again?"
"No!" Cy shot at defiantly. She glared at him until he cracked, "Okay, maybe a little. But this is going to be awesome, even made you one!" He grinned ear to ear.
Raven's glare continued as her eyebrows furrowed. "Why is no one watching Gar?"
Cyborg sighed. "I am watching Gar; the camera's and all electronics in the Tower are hooked up to my brain, remember?" He tapped the metal side of his head lightly. "I've been keepin' the security feed and vitals in a window off to the side. He's still sleeping it off. Doing better, I think your patch jobs put him almost two weeks ahead of normal recovery, but he's still out of it for the time being."
Raven sighed. "I should at least be in ther-"
"Nah-uh. You're gonna sit down, you're gonna eat, and you're gonna relax." Vic said sternly, glaring Raven down. They glared off at each other, a small silence in the room save Rose, whose attention hadn't left the TV, whistling the theme from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.". After a minute or two of whistling, Raven's eye twitched.
"Fine, but I only need a half of the burger, if that. I really don't think I can stomach that much meat right now." Raven grumbled, while thinking 'Hell, I don't think I stomach any meat at the moment. Damnit, Gar. Not even here and he's still pushing his vegan agenda.'. Raven walked over to the couch, sitting next to Rose on the side closest to Donna and Jinx, who she noticed promptly stopped talking. After a minute of protracted silence, Raven looked at them, "Seriously, try and make it more obvious next time, I could barely tell you were talking about me." She said in a biting tone.
Donna looked a little hurt, as Jinx furrowed her brows at her, "Well, excuse us for being worried about a friend."
Raven sighed, feeling terrible. "I'm sorry it's just-"
"Stressful, we know." Jinx breathed out as well. "Donna was just...filling me in, that's all."
Raven looked at Donna, not glaring but the hints of it were there. Donna looked away, looking pretty guilty. Raven maintained the look before sighing. "It was gonna happen sooner or later." She slumped into the couch, wrapping her cloak around her. "Guess sooner is better." She grumpily monotoned.
Donna sighed, "I'm sorry, I just thought it would be fair if at least Jinx knew."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "Just Jinx?"
Donna nodded.
Raven looked over at Rose, "Did you hear anything?"
Rose didn't break her eye contact with the screen, as Stallone was now stabbing a guy, "Hear what, now?"
"Don't worry about it."
"'Kay." Rose said simply, smirking. Raven eyed her for a second; if she did know, she wasn't saying, but that's fine. Mean's she'll keep it to herself.
Wally ran up behind the couch. "Foo' beh reahey." He spoke through a burger.
"So I see." Jinx said dryly. "Shave some for us, honey."
"No pramashz." Wally zipped back to the the table.
Raven looked at Jinx and Donna, "Impromptu time-of-girls after dinner?" Donna and Jinx nodded quickly. Raven looked over at Rose, "Uhm..do you want to join-"
Rose cut her off "Does it involve drama?"
"A little." Raven replied simply.
"Thanks but no thanks." Rose responded.
Raven blinked at her, gaining just a few more ounces of respect for the white haired woman. "Okay."
The Dreaming:
Gar was standing in the center of the hall, tapping his foot irritably as Dream was looking between two doors, hand stroking his chin in thought. "I thought you did this normally, guide people and what not." Gar grumbled.
Dream looked back at him with a light glare. "I guide through dreams. Hence the name. I rarely take such direct interaction unless there is a need for me to do so. Sorting dreams directly and properly takes time." He looked back at the doors. "I am looking for the right idea, the right dream that'll put you on the best course most quickly."
"Because you want me out of your spikey hair?" Gar raised an eyebrow.
"No, because time is becoming of the essence. Well for you."
"I thought time doesn't matter here?" Gar tilted his head in confusion.
"That counts when you're a spirit. Time speeds up a little in the dreaming. At least for the dreamers." Dream's tone was slightly exasperated. "I believe it's already been two days in your world, and I think we only have three."
"Oh. Well. Shit." Gar's arms fell to his side.
"Shit indeed." Dream agreed.
Gar blinked "Wait, why do I have only three days?"
"The universe loves that number and on the third, well...I don't want to spoil the surprise but you'll have to wake up. You'll understand." Dream explained calmly.
"...Does your family take lessons on being cryptic and weird?" Gar eyed Dream narrowly.
"It is a trait that comes to us naturally, I'm afraid." Dream shrugged. His star eyes finally settled on the door to his left. "This. This shall be the gate. The key. Excellent." He motioned for Gar to stand next to the door panel. Gar did so quickly, then stood and waited. A minute went by before Dream looked down, frowning. "Well, open the door."
"Why do I have to open it?" Gar asked impatiently.
"Your dream, your subconscious, your responsibility. I'm a guide, nothing more." Dream said, equally impatient.
"Alright, alright." Gar sighed and braced himself, 'This is really going to be uncomfortable.' He thought while pressing the open button to the door.
The doorway was filled with a dull yellow light, but everything in the "room" was obscured. Dream looked at Gar, and simply gestured with his hand towards the entrance. Gar gulped and stepped through, allowing himself to be enveloped by the light, forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a large, open area. It looked to be out in the wine country; smooth rolling hills covered in grass that looked like it was dying, patches of green in a sea of dull, pale yellow. A hill stood out above the others, and single, large tree was there, surprisingly healthy given the state of the grass around it. He saw himself on one side of the tree, and on the other was Raven, both of them naked and near curled up in a fetal position, backs resting on the center of the tree.
"Why the hell was this in the naughty section? Nothing's happening." Matthew grumbled from Dream's shoulder as they appeared next to Gar.
"Context is everything." Dream said simply, observing the scene, then looking down at Gar. "Well?"
Gar couldn't pin the feeling...well he could he just didn't want to acknowledge it. Guilt...immense guilt. "Why...am I feeling guilty?"
"It's your symbols. Your story, Garfield." Dream moved slowly behind him, looking over the fields, analyzing them carefully. "The fields are familiar, but broken, are they not?"
"We...we took a trip out here last October. Well not here, but ya know. I mean, the only way to get to nature in this state is to get out of the city, right? We offered different reasons and different trips, pretended to both be upset when Cyborg told us to just go together. Much fake grumbling. Much private celebrating. A first chance on our own." Gar stared at the tree. He was trying to pin it down. "We're the roots of the tree...that's what that is." Gar sighed. "And we're on other sides of the tree because I fucked up. The grass is dying...make it's way to the tree, because I fucked up."
The sky that was clear slowly began to build into dark clouds, a wind blowing through. Gar looked down, remembering the entire trip; or at least part of it;
Over a year ago...:
"Gar...please..." Raven pleaded. Her strained voice rang throughout his soul. When they did get to this point?
Hours ago;
When they had gotten to the hotel, small out of the way place he had nearly pounced on her. Wrapped his arms around her and attacked the weak area of her neck. She had jumped initially before leaning her neck towards him, sighing lightly.
"You certainly waste no time." Raven said, near breathless.
"What can I say? You have that effect on me." Gar grinned, resting his head on her shoulder.
"I can tell." She replied flatly, quirking an eyebrow at him as her face tinged red.
Gar's face reddened as well, catching the hint, unwinding his arms from her quickly and backing up a step. "Oh-shi-erm...sorry." He said quickly, trying to cross his legs a little.
"I didn't say you had to move." Raven said wryly, grinning ever so slightly before walking further into the room to drop her bag. He blinked in his spot for a second, before shaking his his head for a second.
"You are a temptress, you know that?" Gar raised an eyebrow at her as he tossed his bag on top of the dresser. They had actually gone for a nicer hotel that didn't have any TV's in the room, just focused on emphasizing the beautiful area around it. It was well out of the way, and the rooms were practically divided mini cabins, all with paths leading back to the main lobby area. They had chosen these features for a few reasons...
They had been...skirting the edges of sex for a while. Never getting quite to that point just, moving around in the region. Heavy petting here, a mouth applied there...small things. The main problem that they skirted up to was two-fold; Both were incredibly nervous about the idea of it. Sure, they had both watched porn at some point (it took Gar at least 6 months to drag out of Raven that a good chunk of her books were romance novels that she "enhanced" to look like tomes), so they knew what to expect. What to...do. In practice however...they were both nervous. It was one thing to flirt, tease and make all sorts of suggestions. It was completely another to follow those up; to touch, grope, kiss, suck, bite and apply pressure to sensitive areas. These were new things for both of them, and they had discovered Raven had...difficulties applying this. If a kiss could destroy a hall, both were slightly terrified of what an orgasm would do. So they had moved slow. Almost methodically. Gar had been impatient initially, but he did his best to move at her pace. Raven was appreciative...and showed it in quite a few ways. Which Gar didn't mind, he just...didn't feel it was fair. A one sided kind of thing. Hopefully this trip would end that.
But that was all for later, right now, it was time for settling in.
Later;
When they had got back from the very nice, very fancy dinner that they had gone to, Gar had near pinned her to the door to their room, the deep kiss broken by Raven, who was breathing heavily.
"One...moment...let me just get the-Ah!" She gasped when his teeth hit her collarbone, closing her eyes slightly, and having to use the door and his arms he had around her waist to hold herself up for a moment. She felt his hand moving up her leg, sliding her long, blackish-blue dress up slightly, sending sparks throughout her. She sighed before grabbing the wrist of the traveling hand, which stopped. Gar pulled his head up to look at her, hazy but understanding.
She breathed for a minute, collecting herself, before saying softly, "Couldn't wait for me to open the door?"
"I've been staring at you in that dress since you put it on all evening, holorings or no, that's torture." Gar said in almost a low growl.
"One could say the same for having to stare at you in the suit." Raven raised an eyebrow, smirking as her hand stealthily unlocked the door behind her back. "You clean up nicely." The door popped open, allowing her to disappear inside quickly, almost causing a slightly stunned Gar to stumble over.
"Oh, c'mon, that's not fair." Gar said into the dark room, closing the door behind him and near instantly taking the holo ring off, skin color changing back to normal in an instant. They had worn the clothes over, half for fun and half because they have discovered that the rings' projected clothes are shit when really close to people. Gar looked about the room, sighing. "Y'know I can still find you in here, lights or no."
"Who says I'm trying to hide?" Raven said playfully from the dark, a slightly warm large piece of soft cloth hitting Gar's face as she said so. He pulled it off and squinted at it, checking to make sure that his nose was right in confirming it was Raven's dress. It was. "Okay, that's just mean."
"Oh, and pushing me up against the door wasn't?" Raven's voice asked from the dark.
"No, that wasn't." Gar grinned at the dark, following his nose to her scent as he removed his suit jacket and kicked off his shoes. She had to be on the bed, from the smell and where it voice sounded like it was coming from.
"And why is that?" She tried to maintain her normal flat tones but failed slightly.
"'Cause I did it, that's why." Gar leaned on the bed, crawling towards where she was slowly.
"Oh. Well that's fair." She tried regain her normal sarcastic tone a tad as she felt him crawl over her, feeling his breath line up with her face.
"Damn right it is." Gar said lightly before kissing her deeply as she wrapped her arms and legs around him.
This moment:
"Gar...please..." Raven pleaded breathlessly.
Gar's brain went over the entire evening that had let up to where they were at the moment. It, seemed to have gone well, and everything seemed to go smoothly...but at this moment...
"Please...just...wait..." Raven looked at him, eyes wide.
She had been saying that over the evening as they kept getting closer to this moment. She didn't really stop him but just kept asking him to slow down a bit. And he didn't. 'Isn't that why they were here?' He had thought. And she was enjoying herself, he knew it. Or did he?.
"Gar..." She looked up at him and he saw it in her eyes; abject terror.
And it all clicked with him; She wasn't ready for this much yet...and he just had kept barreling through and now they were here; he was over her. He was...ready...as was she; they hadn't quite...done anything. A simple movement and they would be but he had stopped when she finally fully spoke beyond pants and moans.
And all at once, Gar felt like the largest known piece of shit in the universe.
He breathed softly, looking at her eyes, ears dropping as he sighed and rolled himself to lay next to her on his side, back to her so he could regain his brain, beyond the guilt that was eating up at him. Raven breathed heavily for almost a minute, staying on her back before rolling around wrapping her arms around him from behind, hugging him.
"...Thank you." She said softly, to which he said nothing.
They didn't do anything else the rest of the weekend. They actually checked out early and headed home, the drive in the rented car being very quiet, no speaking beyond what was necessary. A precursor to the next couple of months for them...
Back in the Dreaming:
Gar had sat down, was crying to himself softly. Rain had begun to pour throughout the area, soaking him to the bone but he ignored it.
"Oh, goddamnit..." Matthew shook his feathers lightly, but it didn't change his level of drenched.
Dream sat down next to Gar, his black hair and cloak clinging to him but he appeared unaffected by the change. There was a few minutes of pause, him letting Gar cry silently before speaking. "You have a lot of will."
Gar looked over at him, confused. "What?"
Dream raised an eyebrow at Gar; "I watched the memory with you." He pointed up, "This is my world, remember?...You have a great deal of control."
"If you saw what happened, then you're lying." Gar folded his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, trying to get a semblance of warmth.
"Really? From what I saw, you stopped before the situation got worse." Dream said softly.
"I was almost a goddamn rapist, that's what happened. Hell, I practically am for what I did." Gar pushed his face into his arms.
"You do not listen to yourself well, do you?" Dream asked, causing Gar to look up at him with another confused expression. " 'Almost', 'practically', but not 'was' and 'actually'. You had enough will to know when to stop. You respected her enough to do so. Not...not many can say the same." Dream looked off to the side, star eyes staring into the distance in a distracted manner.
Gar mulled it over as he looked ahead, the rain beginning to lighten slightly. "I don't think she's still forgiven me."
"I think you might have it backwards, kid." Matthew said, hopping on the ground next to Gar. "I think you mean you haven't forgiven you." Gar continued to stare ahead, grumbling internally at the raven's words. Matthew sighed and continued on, "Man, she hugged and thanked you for stoppin' afterwards. She continues to be with you, and hell, she put you weeks ahead of healing you. That's a weird way to say she's still mad at you."
Gar looked down at the raven with a light glare. "She also threw me into glass, a wall has thrown things at me, nearly suffocated me and refuses to actually be public with a relationship, what the fuck else could it be?!"
Matthew tilted his head. "I dunno, what else could you have done?"
Gar narrowed his eyes...then it struck him and he put his head in his arms. "I cut everything off afterwards. That's what I did."
Dream looked down at Gar sympathetically, "You could not stand the guilt."
"Felt it every time I looked at her." Gar said softly, before groaning, trying to push his face into his arms more. "And if she actually didn't really blame me for it...goddamnit." he sat his head up a little. "She'd blame herself for it all. And then when we just began doing what we did normally, I made sure it was completely on her terms...which stressed her more...which led to all..." He put his head back down into his arms. "Goddamnit."
Dream put a comforting hand on Gar's shoulder. Gar blinked and looked up at Dream, who was smiling lightly at him. "You have everything you need to put it back together, though, especially the most important part."
Gar raised an eyebrow at Dream. "Recognition that I've been a selfish jackass?"
"Well, that helps, and...just remember two can play that game...but no. You love her, correct?" Dream asked carefully.
Gar nodded. "Yes."
"Then you will be fine." Dream patted him on the shoulder, before looking at the area around them. "And it looks like time is up."
Gar blinked and followed his gaze as strips of landscape seem to tear away, leaving a stark white, blinding light.
"Good luck, Garfield." Dream said with a small smile as he and Matthew faded away as the landscapes reshaping rapidly increased and Gar's vision was filled with white light.
Gotham:
"You want to what?" Nightwing blinked.
"Be the new Robin." Tim said sternly.
There was a small pause as Dick stared Tim up and down. The kid had to be crazy; the last Robin had died not too long ago, horribly. He just gave up the position today. What the hell was he thinking? "Why on earth do you think that's a good idea?"
"Batman needs a Robin." Tim said in a matter of fact tone.
Dick raised an eyebrow at him. "And you think this because...?"
"You've only been back here for a few months, I've been watching Batman since whoever was the second Robin died overseas. He's gotten reckless, damn near suicidal. I don't think he cares what happens to him anymore. A few weeks before you got here, he actually willingly took a shot during a hostage rescue. One of the hostages posted it online as 'Batman being awesome.'" Tim grumbled, "Idiot."
Dick folded his arms in thought, considering what Clark had told him earlier as well. Bruce wasn't holding up well, and, frankly the only thing that seemed to have perked him up the last few weeks is training and patrolling with Dick again. Tim was a kid, but so was he when he started. Hell, he already had an edge on the detective work...scarily so. Might actually be better than him already, and given a few years and practice, might rival Bruce himself someday. Then an idea crossed Dick that gave him a grin.
"Alright." He said simply.
Both Starfire and Tim blinked looking at Dick and saying the same thing at the same time in slightly different tones of confusion. "Alright?"
"Yup. We'll take you to Bruce, see what he thinks, but first things first." Dick looked over across the buildings near them. The apartment buildings near them were spaced extremely close, this being Gotham after all, some having no space between them, and the ones that did had, at most, a six to eight foot gap. They were in a rough square shape, and loaded with minor obstacles. A perfect mini-testing ground. "I'd like to see how fast you can run around these for building and back to this spot."
Tim blinked at him. "Right now?"
"No, tomorrow, at noon, where everyone can see. Damn right, now." Dick said cheerfully.
Tim gulped. "I...I uhm, only...just started taking parkour a few months ago so-"
"I said run, not give an excuse for why you're gonna suck before you get started." Dick said sternly, in his best Bruce impersonation he could give. Might as well prepare the kid now.
Tim looked at Dick with a skewed expression at first, before sighing and then putting on a face of grim determination. He settled down in a running stance before taking off, starting to make his way around the buildings.
Star floated down next to Nightwing with a worried expression on her face. "Are...are you sure this is the best method to test him out?"
"I'm sure. Just keep an eye and be ready to dive after him if he misses one of the gaps." Dick said calmly, watching Tim awkwardly climb over an air conditioning unit with a smirk. 'I remember when those gave me some trouble.'
Star watched as well, hovering up a bit to get a better look from higher up. She winced as Tim botched his landing after clearing the gap, stumbling and rolling into the loose rock on the roof. "He does not appear to be an acrobat." Star said simply, to which Dick nodded. To his credit, Tim simply got up and kept going, running over any other obstacles in the quickest route as best he could. It was the second gap that gave him a tad bit of trouble. He had jumped to early, and ended up gripping the ledge frantically. Starfire initially began to move towards him but Dick held up his hand at her, watching intently. Star stopped, but gave a weary look at her boyfriend. They were quite a ways up, but she could only out fly gravity so much. Then she watched as, after a minute of straining, Tim pulled himself up, and rolled onto the roof that he had started on, panting wearily and resting on his back.
Dick walked over to him and looked down as he loomed. Tim looked up, still panting and gave a smile. "So?" He asked.
"I said make it all the way around to the starting point." Dick said grimly, causing Tim's smile to falter. "And you took almost ten minutes." That erased his smile completely. "But..." Dick smiled. "Not bad. Could use a lot of work, but it's a start." Tim smiled again, still worn out.
"So now what?" Tim asked in a slightly exhausted tone.
"Now you have to argue your case to Batman, and pray to whatever God you believe in that he listens." Dick raised his eyebrows at Tim.
Jump City:
Jinx and Donna settled in Raven's room after dinner and let her fill in some of the gaps in the story of how everything had reached this point; going over the trip to the wine country and the aftermath.
Donna and Jinx simply stared when Raven described the evening's...events and the moment where everything pivoted and changed.
"You mean he just stopped...because you asked him to?" Donna asked, almost confused at the concept. Raven nodded softly, embarrassed as hell that she was even going over this with the two of them, but they had put up with her lying for this long, she might as well tell the truth now. Donna took a sip of water before stating outright what was on her mind; "I don't think there are Green Lanterns that have that much willpower."
Raven shrugged uncomfortably. Jinx picked up on her awkwardness about the entire story, and did her best to delicately pluck at it. "What's wrong?"
"What do mean?" Raven asked in an unsteady manner.
"I mean, he stopped when you asked him to, that...doesn't seem too bad, so why are you...unsettled?" Jinx raised an eyebrow at the question.
Raven grabbed the edges of her cloak and wrapped them around herself slightly, hands wringing at the cloth lightly, biting her lip in thought, before sighing and muttering something they couldn't hear.
"What?" Donna leaned forward a little.
"...I...I...didn't...want...him to stop." Raven finally said out loud in a barely audible tone.
Jinx and Donna blinked. "What?" they said at the same time.
"I...didn't want him to stop...at least not completely." Raven wrapped the cloak around herself tightly, wishing her hood was up to hide her red face. "I...just wanted him to slow down, that's all. I mean...we had gone through all of that to get set up. We even added all sorts of seals on the place, I wore a power reducing necklace, everything. I...I wanted to go forward, but he...just was going...too fast."
Jinx remembered what the Grey Raven had said in the corner of the safe room; "Couldn't do it, too scared, too close.". The extra context was slightly enlightening of that statement. Jinx sighed softly "You got overwhelmed."
Raven nodded. "But I didn't want him to back off completely. And then I felt terrible afterward...he didn't talk to me, he avoided me, he couldn't look at me...because he blamed himself. And it was my fault...I put us there, I got us into that situation and then...wussed out." Tears welled up in the corners of Raven's eyes. "And when we finally did starting spending time together, it was on me to figure out how. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know if he could really be around me anymore after all of that but...I could not just go without him there. So we hid, because that's all I fucking do with things I don't know how to figure out. Hide, misdirect and pretend there's no fucking problems." She was full on crying now. "That's why I've been lashing out. That's why everything's gone to shit. I can't fucking own up to the fact that I love the green jackass." There was a small fluctuation in the lights, which caused Raven to blink, mess and all, unwinding herself from her cloak enough to look at a small amulet around her neck. "Great, now I'm overwhelming this. Sorry, mom." She said flatly, before curling back up into her cloak.
Donna and Jinx looked at each other, each trying to figure out what to say. Donna nodded at Jinx, deciding to defer to her experience, before Jinx shook her head, saying softly to Donna "Why don't you tell her about you and Roy?"
Raven looked up, tears still going down her face. "What about you and Roy?" she asked though a small sob.
Donna sighed, grumbling internally at Jinx. "A few years ago, actually before the Titans were first formed, the Justice League members brought up their sidekicks with them. Different reasons of course; Bruce to point out to Dick who everyone was, Donna to get me more acquainted with the superhero community as I had just got here from Themescyra, Barry just to be nice and show Wally the tower, and I honestly think Arthur and Ollie brought Garth and Roy to show off." She rolled her eyes at the last part before continuing. "Anyways, Roy and I started talking then, and kinda been friends off and on ever since. About three years ago, I met up with Roy to check out the Titans East tower and...he started hitting on me. I didn't really know what to do in that situation and do what I know to do..."
Raven winced. "How bad?"
"He was out for about a week." Donna sighed. "Since then...I dunno, I've learned a bit more, it's still just...I feel bad, I didn't want to hurt him or anything I just...didn't know what to do."
Raven nodded softly, sniffing. "So what do you do now?"
"Well, I learned from it. Asked Diana about it. Which was probably the most awkward conversation a sister has to have. And then just...kept going, making sure to not well...react badly in all situations. Just the unwanted attention ones." Donna said with a grin.
"So I noticed." Raven raised an eyebrow, remembering the Adonis fight, if you could call it that, clearly. She sighed to herself, looking over at the large mirror she had over her dresser. "I'm a mess."
"Well, yeah, you've been kinda sobbing for twenty minutes or so now." Jinx said frankly.
"Not just that, in general..." She sighed again, looking back down. "What am I gonna do?"
Donna tilted her head. "Learn from it. Talk to Gar when he wakes up, settle things. You two obviously love each other."
"You make me and Wally feel almost self conscious." Jinx raised her eyebrows, then grinned "Almost."
They all jumped at loud thumps coming from the door. Cyborg talked through it without opening. "Sorry to interrupt, Ladies but I'm about to get Gar up, thought Raven should know."
They all stared, then looked slightly confused.
Jinx was the one who first said what was on their minds. "What does he mean by "wake him up"?"
"I guess I better go find out." Raven said simply, standing up quickly to wash her face in her small attached bathroom's sink before walking as fast as she could out of the room.
Donna looked at Jinx. "Should we...follow her?"
"Naw, let them have this. I think Cy being there is going to be bad enough." Jinx replied calmly.
"True." Donna nodded.
Down in the infirmary, Raven walked in to find Cyborg standing next to the mess of machines, a small needle laid out on a tray.
"Cool, you're here, I can start now." Cy said with a grin.
"Start what? What the hell do you mean wake him up?" Raven folded her arms as she walked to the chair that was next to the bed to sit down.
"Well..his vitals had been stable for a few hours, hell since yesterday so I emailed one of the League doctors about it. Turns out the bastard's just sleeping, all the major injuries are gone. Said it'd be best to just kinda get him awake for the moment, make sure there isn't any major brain issues, then he can go back to resting. So I'm putting a tiny bit of caffeine in his IV." Cyborg lifted the needle, examining it before injecting it into the tubes connected to Gar.
"Is that what the doctor said to use?" Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Sure." Vic said calmly. Raven's glare told him she wasn't convinced, so he sighed. "Look, it was the best thing I could find on short notice."
A minute passed before Gar sorta jumped a little on the bed, eyes opening quickly then shutting out the light as he shook his head.
"What the hell, dude?" Gar said wearily, looking at Cy through squinted eyes.
"Welcome back to the world, green bean. We've been worried about you." Cy smiled.
"We?" Gar looked to the other side, seeing Raven looking at him with slightly wide eyes. "Oh...hey Rae-" He was cut off as she jumped onto the bed, hugging around his neck and kissing him. Gar was caught off guard, but wrapped his arms around her, kissing her back deeply.
Vic looked at the two and began backing out. "So I'm gonna count that as my neurological test that everything's doin' good and just...leave you two alone." Gar gave him a thumbs up, not breaking the kiss. Vic leaned out of the room, then back in quickly. "No strenuous activities!" He barked before closing the door.
They broke the kiss after a moment, Gar scooting over enough to let her lay next to him better. They simply laid there for a few minutes, Raven wrapped around him as best she could be.
He then broke the silence. "You could use a shower."
"You too." Raven said dryly.
A/N: Annnnd that's chapter 9. Not really sure what to say about it. Kinda proud of this one over all. Only real regret for this and the last chapter is if I had a way of making Dream's dialog outlined in black in white text. What can you do? So you may have noticed that I've been avoiding le sexy times overall in the story. Mostly cause it doesn't serve much overall plot purpose, partially because I have nagging paranoia's about doing so and also a friend of mine said he'd laugh at me. That last one's a stickler. I'm honestly still wavering on full whether or not to go full lemon down the road, and if I do, whether or not to post it here (following the example of a certain fic writer I follow). Know what songs I'd use as chapter titles, figured that out a while ago. ...Have I mention I'm a nerd?
Review responses/Distractions from awkward notes!:
LurkingShadowWillow: Coma/sleeping. I...think I covered most of it? I'm actually trying to leave a few time gaps here and there so I can go back and throw in a scene or two down the road if I want. Open-ended time frames give me a good chunk of options. As for Cy's dad's secret...I might get to that this story. Might. ^^
QuxxnofThrones: Um, damn. I've had a lot of nice things said about this fic, I mean everything y'all have said has been awesome, but knowing I made someone stop reading a book? Damn. Wow. o.o That's a hell of a feeling, a good one just...odd.
ChaosIsBeauty23: ^^ thanks, glad I was able to sync it right. I actually had the song for this chapter on repeat when writing. Half to keep the tone right, half because it gets stuck in my damn head. It's weird, cause they're not that much older...well from my perspective. I have all their ages in the notes, I dunno if I've put it anywhere beyond mention Dick was 21 at the start...well crap. That just sank in that I forgot to do that. Fuck it. Anyways, as far as drawing, it's turned into this thing that like, I have my little table set up with laptop to one side, sketchbook to the other and I just jump back and forth, so it has actually not been to bad a detriment. To words for balancing life and writing in my case: Night. Shift.
charmedprincess101: ^^ thank you. I enjoy making the twists, just a fun thing to do...have no other way to put it.
Alright! let's see. Chapter title song by The xx, check out the song on Youtube, it's awesome.
Next chapter is: ...shit. Uhm. I don't have song. So uh...pay attention to this space for a bit, I'll put it here as soon as I figure that out.
8/8/13 Update: Okay, Next Chapter song is "Snow(Hey Oh)" By Red Hot Chili Peppers. Less Lyrically based more just...attitude/tone of the chapter I'm going for? It's been making sense so far, and y'all have stuck with me this long, so hopefully it'll make sense to you too when it's done. ^^ that is all.
Extra shout out to the now 60 followers of this story...like just hit that benchmark a bit ago. I mean. Damn. Thank you, you all are amazing. As always, thanks for reading, review if you'd be so kind, and keep up being awesome, all of ya'll. ^^ see you next chapter! Peace!