So this is his personal counseling. I want to thank JinkPrincess13 and crazy nerd.
One question I also want to ask-do you guys like it better if an author warns of a lemon in a story later on or do you like it better when they wait until they post up a lemon to reveal they included a scene of intercourse? Thanks.
Roy moaned and stirred while a light feeling of heat beamed at his face. He yawned and closed his eyes again, trying to fall back asleep.
A soft hand stroked the side of his neck and the heat vanished in a swish. "Roy? Are you awake?"
He moaned in response.
Rae laughed gently and tousled his hair. "All right, I'll let you sleep for a few more minutes. You have to wake up, refresh your muscles, and take a bath or else you'll smell like BO for the rest of your life."
Roy chuckled and rubbed his eyes. "Did you…go into my…memories?"
Her fingers gave more gentle strokes. "Yes," she said. "I would like to talk about it when you get up."
She leaned down and kissed his arm, sending a lightning bolt down his blood. "But first, you can sleep in."
He gave her a grateful look. "Thank you."
She helped him stumble to the bathroom, where she filled the tub with warm water and set out towels and soap. He stripped his jersey off and waited until she left to continue. He slid in, washed himself, lathered a generous palm-sized swirl of shampoo in his hair, and sat fetus-position on the bottom of the tub considering his 'therapy' with Rae and how he would bring himself to open up until the water grew cold.
Would this be a good idea? Roy asked himself. Could I really trust her with some of my personal life chapters? I have been marked since I was a boy, but didn't someone say she was destined to do something as soon as she was born? How much of me has she seen already?
He shrugged and stood up to dry off.
Rae was sitting at the table with a cup of tea at her side and a book lying across from her. She tried reading it, but couldn't make herself. It was two days after his outburst, since then he had been shaking and thrusting his head and jerking around. At this time, she also saw another memory of his. She rubbed the back of her neck while she recalled that event mentally.
She was in a feely setting-one of those where you were hot and cold at the same time. She looked down at herself and saw only a loincloth wrapped around her hips, the mud squishing between her bare toes. When her face twitched, she could feel something dry on her skin, as if someone had painted marks on her forehead and below her eyes. A beaded necklace was hanging from her breastbone and the wind on her back sent a chill down her arms.
Behind her, two men were talking. She could not hear them clearly, but she knew they were talking about her. Her heart thumped in her ears as her hair brushed against the back of her neck.
She turned around and focused her eyes on a man in jeans, open shirt, and beaded necklaces, with a clothed head-rope or something. As soon as he saw her, he lifted a hand.
"He is right," the man said in a loud, Indian voice. "You are bela gona-the white man. And you must leave nat-sees-an."
She stared at him with dread, knowing he was likely to say something she prayed she'd never hear.
"We will find a proper guardian for you," he continued. "I have in mind a man who can continue to develop your talents." At that point he could see the look on her face. "You feel betrayed now," he spoke her mind for her. "You will miss your life here."
Tears welled up in her eyes. She tried not to blink, but the fire was too harsh on her face. Slowly she arched her head to the flames, fighting to ignore him, though she tightened her lips to keep a straight face. "Someday you may wonder if I sent you away because of something in your blood, the color of your skin. And, child, the truth is yes…and no. I send you away because your path leads elsewhere."
She turned her back to him so he could not see her trying not to cry.
That memory was perhaps the most personal to her. It ran like an ice cube along the inner surface of her chest. Never before has she felt that related to somebody else like that.
She was preparing to talk to him, but what would happen after it? Would their relationship be stronger and more stable…or would she dread visits with the TE?
She suddenly swallowed at a sudden thought. What if, after rehab, he decided he didn't want to work with them anymore and moved somewhere else and found a new job? Rae sighed and looked around. Even if he came out strong, she was not going to let the entire generation of heroes be fragile just from being one member short. Lots of people who find a new 'life' after some catastrophe decide to come clean and start over on life-but that wouldn't help his addiction in any way either. She rubbed her eyes and walked to the bathroom.
"Roy," she knocked, "are you all right?"
"Yes," he said. "I'm just drying myself off."
"Okay," she blushed. "We need to talk."
She left a pile of clothes out of the bathroom door and walked downstairs for a cup of tea and an orange. When he yelled out "I'm done," she walked upstairs, scooped him up on her back, and floated down the steps. He settled himself and his head comfortably on the couch while she handed him a glass of water.
"Okay," she said. "First, how did you sleep?"
He grinned in a grim matter slowly. "Not well," he said dully. "I had…a nightmare…"
"Hallucination," she corrected.
Roy blinked. "What?"
She put her hand on his knee. "I went into your mind…I saw Ollie on top of you, beating your face and yelling at you." She thought about mentioning Hal, but realized he should explain the cause before his first attempt at quitting his habit.
He shook his head and looked past her ear. "He…he caught me. Yes…he did. It was frightening enough to make me stop-he was trying to make me quit."
"Even so, Roy, why did you continue?" She shifted her leg and gave him a pleading look. "You knew, and know, it is wrong, against the law, and-"
Roy looked down so she wouldn't see him struggling not to cry. His fingers flexed around his water glass and he shut his eyes closed. "B-be-because," he choked, "I know it's wrong as it always has been, but I found comfort in the bad side. It made me feel alive…away from…"
Rae nodded, her chest feeling hollow. "I know about Donna."
Roy sighed. "She was my first love," he said. "We worked together after Ollie and his…team…were brainwashed to commit crimes. It was the work of some alien who fed on their crimes. She ended our relationship…because she said she wanted to move on…"
"And you didn't," Rae finished.
Roy shook his head and set his glass on the counter. "Later, I found out that she heard of a vision saying that if she married a redhead, he would die, but she didn't know the victim was the redhead she eventually married. She told me at the funeral. I have never been affected like that because rarely did anyone lie to me…and the lie ate me alive. I even planned to propose to her at that time." He sniffed and squeezed his eyes shut. She continued watching him until he looked down at his hands.
"Shortly after that, Ollie began ignoring me because his fortune went away, and he became preoccupied with his team…and his women. I felt like I had no one who loved me. Donna was out, and Ollie ignored me like a puddle, and the Navajo tribe I grew up on thought I was better off without them because of my skin and 'different path' bullshit. I felt like I had no one who loved me or cared about me. So I found a heroin den…" he tugged on a flake of skin from his lower lip "and I decided…to give it…a shot."
He swallowed. "As I said, it made me feel alive. It was a sub for companionship. Then apparently Ollie tracked down the dealer…and he found me…ready to drug myself. I lied to him that I was going to bust the drug ring to hide my addiction. Ollie found out the truth and hit me on the streets. His girlfriend Dinah-Black Canary, you know her? She works with the Justice League, I think they're married now-and Hal hid me and helped me recover from withdraw, but even that didn't fully stop me. Then Ollie and I fought and I ran away to continue fighting alone and I did, occasionally…injecting it. I haven't spoken to him or Dinah or Hal or the League ever since."
The half-breed gripped his shoulder.
"Then came the Tournament, and after Dick, whom I thought was awesome because of his skills and outstanding leadership abilities, gave me a communicator, I stopped using heroin for about a year. Then I joined the East Team, and here's the thing-I wasn't used to working on a team. I was used to working alone, or with a professional. It just…stresses you out, makes you act stupid. I barely knew Karen, and she-all she did was yell, tell me to stop combing my hair, start fixing the house, be nice to the twins…I just had a rough start with her. It's like every time I tried to speak to her a hurricane would form.
"So…I found heroin again in a private drug street after I stormed out of the tower because Karen and I had a massive screaming scene, and used it like twice a month. I would casually agree to go shopping, and would lie that there was too much traffic, people would be fighting, and the employees would get distracted. If I stayed overnight, I would tell her I would be on night patrol looking for street crimes, and if she found one, I would say I wasn't there when it happened. Then…the Brotherhood knocked in, and-"
He slapped his hands against his face. "Oh my God!" he cried shakily. This was too devastating for him, unlocking his private door, explaining the most horrifying moments in his life…he was so shaken up he didn't care if he wept.
The girl wrapped her arms around him and laid his head on her chest, sobbing and shaking. He pulled away, his eyes watering and bloodshot. "I am SICK of being 'Robin's clone!' I was tired of being 'second fiddle.' I am TIRED of falling! But I can't escape…"
She closed her eyes and hid her nose in his oily, damp hair, pulling her back to him. "It's all right, Roy," she whispered, "let it all out." She ran her hand down his back and rubbed his spine in small circles.
He lost his father at a young age. He was left out of his childhood home because of his 'different path' explanation. His first girlfriend mistook him as the victim of a prophecy. His father figure beat him. He is labeled as a 'clone' and once a hero wannabe. He was forced to adapt to working on a team and failed his first major mission. He fell to a society of crime committers…twice, and would never be able to reinvent the past. All he ever wanted was to be respected for his bravery and independence-but he had no powers. All he had was arrows and a bow.
Every member in the whole entire team had suffered serious problems like that. What confused her was why instead of like the others, he would not push his painful past behind, move on, and focus on making the world more peaceful and crime-free. Even BB knew better-but Roy choosing drugs was not an escape. He needed help. He needed to understand why he knew heroin was not useful but harmful yet he continued using it when it jeopardized his entire team, who suffered circumstances similar to his.
Was it because he felt like an outsider his whole life? He was the only 'white boy' in the reservation and likely didn't have as many friends. His 'adoptive father' was not a nice person and likely neglected him before he even found the ring. He may have felt like a loner if he barely had any team experience.
Somehow during the 'dream intervention,' he fell asleep on her shoulder before she saw it. She sighed to herself but fell back and allowed his head to rest on her chest. He grunted and fell back asleep. She snaked her hand through his still-sweaty-and-oily bangs and hummed softly.
"Poor baby," she mumbled. She focused on his naked eyes and closed her purple eyes. If he wanted to break from the protection bubble that threw him back into the pit or kept happy moments from him and fed him horrifying memories, she was going to help pull him out of it.
She knew it would be a long journey…but she was willing to do it.
The whole 'team experience thing' came from the original comics, where he was hesitant to be part of the team because he wasn't used to how a team works. Also I came up with the idea that he resumed injecting heroin because in the comics he recovered thanks to Dinah and Hal, but fell back to heroin addiction and became psychotic, even fighting with Dick, after his daughter died in "Cry for Justice," (in my opinion one of the most idiotic deaths in the history of comic books) so Dinah tried to help him overcome again. Unfortunately, he never recovered.
Donna (the original Wonder Girl) rejected him because of a prophecy the psychic Lilith held, but I don't know if Donna actually lied to him, so I added it because it seemed like a simple attempt to avoid offending him. I didn't mention Lilith because the producers said her powers were too close to Rae's and avoided using her, so I didn't know how to portray her.
Now that Roy's origin has been revealed, should I make him see Rae's at her insistence? The way it would go would be that her mother would have shown her memories of her childhood and Rae would show them to him. What do you think? Also, will you let me know whether you read this on the weekends or weekdays please? That way I'll know when to update.
Oh, and I don't mention his eye color because I have no clue what color his eyes are-blue or green. Or do the comic colors vary?