Acceptance
Chapter Ten: Resting
"What the hell is this?" she hissed holding up the piece of paper. She would have liked to have a desk or some flat surface to slam it down dramatically and it took all she had to hold it still and unwavering for Jason's inspection.
"A piece of paper with a drawing on it," Jason answered nonchalantly and looked down to study his hands with a sudden interest.
"A drawing of me," Raven glowered. Her fingers flexed slightly causing the paper to cringle and Jason to look up.
"What about it? Whoever drew it didn't do a terrible job… although the shading on your upper lip makes it look like you have a mustache," he said prying the paper from her and studying it with interest.
"How'd you come across this?" He asked mildly before Raven could respond.
"In the library," she offered her voice still heated.
Jason raised a skeptical eyebrow but didn't reply he folded the paper easily and tucked it into his back pocket. Since the hair on his body was quickly leaving he had taken to wearing more clothing. Today he donned a pair of slacks with a hole trimmed out for his tail, but that was it.
"I'll be sure to have whoever drew this punished," he said easily his tone oddly calm.
"There's two more like it in a black book in the library. There's even one of me sleeping…" she trailed off realizing something.
"You're the only one with hands."
Jason winced and thanked having enough hair on his face to hide his rising blush.
"Oh come off it. You came here suspecting me anyways," he mumbled turning around sharply and making his way down the hall way and towards the library.
He was thankful when she just let the subject drop. He could tell by her flushed face that she wanted to yell at him.
"Why?"
He had misjudged the silence of dropping it. He sighed and looked over his shoulder as casually as he could possibly manage.
"If you had an artistic ability and a faulty memory wouldn't you want to preserve something?"
Silence greeted him but this time he stayed on guard. His shoulder's drawn tight and his legs stiff. He was expecting her to attack or something. Obviously she thought it was weird. Granted it was weird and he wasn't about to tell her the real reason why he drew her. Like everything involved with Raven and himself he still wasn't sure what the reason was either.
"You really think you're going to forget me?"
She sounded so small and hurt. He couldn't help but sigh and turn to face her fully.
"I don't want the world to forget you," he half teased and took the piece of paper out of his pocket. He looked at it hard for a moment debating on what he should do with it before he timidly placed it back in her hands.
Raven looked surprised but she didn't flinch when their hands brushed up against each other for a moment longer than necessary. Her eyes just studied his face and he felt uncomfortable. It was like she was trying to read him or something. After a moment she let out a breath of air and shook her head while a small smirk placed itself on her lips.
"That's noble of you," she answered bringing him back to what they had been talking about. "I found out about the Curse," she said evenly and her eyes went back to his face, studying.
Half the advantage of being a Beast was that his facial expressions were harder to read. When he smiled or laughed often times it could be taken as a snarl or something sinister like that. He was caught off guard though. Raven knew that. It was a complete change of subject and he wasn't prepared.
He felt his lips curl back in disgust at the mere mention of curse and his fur bristle along his back. He ran his hand along his neck and took a deep breath.
"What about it?" he managed to ask keeping his voice as level as hers. After all it was obvious explanation for nothing else could be the reason why he was no longer human.
"That a fairy of the forest cursed you, that you probably have some type of magically artifact somewhere, that there is some way to break the spell, and that the spell is weakening for whatever reason," she ticked off the answers on her hand while her eyes stayed locked on him.
"You sure are a bright little bird," he mumbled lowering his eyes.
He heard her scoff and then silence consumed them. They were near the dining hall and he had been about to go to lunch when she stormed up to him. Somehow the picture didn't seem to be the first thing on her mind, in fact she had already brushed it off and was focused on what she had just learned. Was she going to use it as some type of leverage or something?
"Is that why you kidnapped me?" her voice was small again and he chanced to look up at her. "Did you somehow wring information out of Victor about me and think 'Oh a female monk how amusing would that be to have her unintentionally lift the curse on me'", tears were threating to spill out of her eyes as she barely whispered the last part.
What the hell was she going on about now?
"Kidnapped you? You took your brother's place," he felt his confusion leave a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Don't lie. You've been to Azarath. You know my people possess powers to lift curses from our charkas," she pointed to her forehead where a bright red jewel glittered in the light faintly. It was odd but he had never noticed it until now.
"I thought it was just monks and monks by your people's definition can only be male," he felt so defensive. "Plus if I had just wanted that I would have kept your brother," he snapped.
"We aren't blood related. Surely you noticed that," her eyes were narrowed and they never left his face. Whatever she was searching for she found it as her tone softened.
"Alright I believe you," she finally sighed and took a step back.
He just realized how close they had been to a brawl. She had practically been leaning to yell at him right in his face and his fists were clenched at his sides. He blinked surprised and relaxed his pose. His confusion hadn't been cleared at all though.
"I didn't think you had a charka," he admitted, "at least I never noticed it."
Raven nodded and unfolded the paper. "Obviously or you would have drawn it. I just had to test you."
Her admitting that she had been merely testing him left a dry taste in his mouth. He had been tested once before and failed whatever it was miserably. He swallowed.
"Since I was once a monk in training and no more than that I am limited though. I don't think my charka is enough to break the curse on its own," she offered weakly and shrugged her shoulders.
He eyed her wearily. So she wasn't a full ledged monk, which meant that whatever spiritual power they had given her was unstable and most likely dangerous. He had seen a young boy in Azarath dashing through the streets absolutely insane because he had messed up some type of ritual. Her laughter broke his thoughts.
"Don't worry. They sealed off most of it," she said guessing at his thoughts, her voice was dark and her eyes narrowed. He suddenly realized that she had two more charkas, one on each hand. He wondered briefly if she had any on her feet.
"They?" he found himself asking despite himself.
She just looked at him and then wordlessly pointed to the seal of the Kingdom, of Tamera, that was stitched on to the tunic she was wearing. He found it odd that she always took time to place this little symbol on all of her clothes but he couldn't ask her why. It seemed forbidden, just like her.
"Enough about me. I just meant that I would lend you my services."
"For what?"
"To help you break the curse, of course."
()()()()()()()()()()()
"There are several different stories about this type of curse within your library," Raven said as she paced back and forth. Red X was sprawled along the floor looking more human than Beast. His fur was a light tan and almost skin colored in the light, and his hands and legs were in limbo of somewhere between Beast and man. It looked painful to walk but he never once complained.
"Yes I know this, Doll. I'm the one who gathered all the books," he said in a bored tone, flipping through a book with disinterest.
"You mean stole," she growled before continuing, "They all have the same properties. So there must be some truth behind it," Raven snapped feeling exasperated at his antics as he rolled over to look at her.
"Don't you think I am a walking and living proof of it?" he asked.
She ignored him and continued her pacing.
"Almost all include a rose," she said.
"Which I don't have."
"Or an enchanted castle," she said ignoring him and picking up a book he had discarded.
"Which I do have," he said with a fake pip to his tone.
"Roses indicate love. Castles, wealth and power. You don't have either of those so what do you have in common," Raven said mumbling to herself.
"That hurt," he growled taking the book from her and pulling her so that she was sitting on his lap.
"Let go," she hissed her back rigid against his chest. Other than that though she made no move to get up and glared at the hands that held her fast to his chest.
"Hmm no," he said easily even chuckling when she slammed her head against his as if trying to disorientate him. For several days they had been at this. Searching the library and when that got to boring he found some way to entice her to a sparring match. It relieved stress and got them to work out making them forget about the impending doom that he was facing.
"Red X," she said softly.
That always broke him into releasing his grip on her no matter how much he wanted to spar. It hurt no matter what or how she addressed him, but it hurt the most when she called him Red X. He couldn't be sure why. His emotions were over flowing since she had come to this castle. One minute he could actually be happy and enjoying his time (something that had not happened since the curse) and the next moment he was trying hard not to act like the Beast he was.
Even though he had released his grip, Raven stayed in his lap. Another emotion came up then, something akin to contentment. He found himself humming in approval.
"Would you check my back? I think it's fully healed, and then we can spar," Raven said quietly and leaned forward so that her back wasn't pressed against him.
A reminder of why being called Red X hurt so much. Even if it had been on accident he still couldn't get over the fact that he was the one that left these angry red scars on Raven's back. It looked all the more perfect because of it though. It fit Raven. She was broken on the inside, he knew, he could tell when she stiffly mentioned her past, yet on the outside she was strong and powerful. No one would ever see Raven's back, so hurt and mutilated, no one would ever guess unless they saw it. Her back was a perfect description of her.
He found his fingers tracing the angry marks, not even realizing that he had tugged up her shirt and was doing what she requested. He pulled out a few threads of stitches that were no longer needed and then just like that he was done. His hands rested lamely at his sides although he yearned to caress Raven's warm skin some more. He found that reaction strange and restrained himself.
"You look all healed up," he said after a moment when she still didn't move.
"Then you can spar me without holding back," she said and looked at him over her shoulder. A wicked grin in place as her legs tangled around his neck.
()()()()()()()()()
They were resting in her bed. She found that this was slowly becoming her favorite part of the day. In the library Red X was often bored and indifferent and when they spared he was angry yet cautious. In bed though, they laid a safe distance away from each other and just talked. Slowly trying to piece together how to break the curse.
Raven didn't know that Jason knew the answer. He hadn't really mentioned about what had happened after the Fairy had slapped him and Raven never asked, or at least she didn't think to ask.
She was just giving him space. She knew that there was something off about his story, that there seemed to be something more but she didn't press him. After all he never pressed for details about her.
"Don't go," she whispered as Jason got up to leave. Besides the first time she had asked him to stay he had yet to comply with her request again.
Her heart pounded in her chest loudly every time she asked him to stay. She didn't like sleeping in this room alone and despite the risk of waking up and cuddling into his arms, she would rather have him stay. Every night since that first night he would just mutter a soft 'I can't' and leave the room quietly. Leaving Raven to a night full of nightmares. Tonight however, he hesitated.
He looked over her for a moment as if trying to read what she really wanted. Taking advantage of his hesitance, she reached out and grabbed his arm, slowly tugging him back into her bed.
"Raven," he whispered quietly and she heard the exasperation in his voice.
"Jason," she said evenly and gripped his arm tightly as he stirred.
He chuckled and threw the blanket over her. Slowly as if he was scared about her reaction he lowered his hand over hers and brought it to his lips. His breath danced across her hand and sent a shiver down her spine. That was just odd.
"You're just using me for my fur again," he teased and kissed the back of her hand and then he placed it over his chest.
"It's so warm and fluffy," she teased back and twirled her fingers in the soft curls.
"What happens when I lose it all when I'm human?" he asked.
The question threw her off and she turned to face him fully. What did happen then? Would he let her go? Could she return to her friends and brother and get back to her life? What would he do? Go back to a life of thievery?
"I don't know," she said quietly.
"We're so close to breaking the curse," he said making a show of yawning.
"Yeah," she yawned and with that she promptly rolled over and fell asleep.
Only she was barely in the stages of drifting off to sleep when she heard Karen in the corner say something to Jason.
"What does happen when you become human again?"
She had forgotten that more than one life rested on lifting this curse.
A/N: Alright so this past weekend I was supposed to work a shit ton but luckily for you guys I caught the flu and spent my entire weekend on my computer which led to this chapter being writen. Going over it to check for errors was a bit unnerving because I have just written an (ENTIRE) story in the first person point of view to try my hand at it. If you are interested in One Piece I'd tell you go to check it out but this is Teen Titans. Anyways... my fever has left my brain not on par with my thoughts... I'm surprised I was actually able to write chapters that were understanable and followed my plot.
The poll is still up for you guys to vote... although I have already decided and I have started writing the next chapter anyways (I'm not going to tell you *laughs evilly*)
Thank you to my reviewers. You guys rock. If I wasn't in such a weird state right now I'd go back and thank all of you personally. I just need to get to sleep. I have school in the morning. *hangs head* why the hell I am I still up...?