Author Note: Here you are my loves. The next installment of Leading the Blind.
"What happened here?" Mr. Tim called out.
The once pristine room was now a complete mess. The bookcase was on the other side of the room, books scattered during its flight. Some book laid open, some pages tattered and torn from the binding. Jason looked up, only to be marveled at the black cracks that scattered over the ceiling, the craveses filled with soot. Whatever occurred here, seemed dangerous, and beyond his comprehension. What was worse was Raven, sitting right in the middle of it. Her hands clenching a mirror for dear life.
"Mister... ?" Raven asked, her voice monotone.
Yet her body betrayed her tone as she instinctively dropped the mirror, like a child's hand caught in the cookie jar.
Raven looked straight at him, her pale purple eyes fixated on him. Not in the half hearted sense, where her eyes somehow landed on him, eyes foggy and glazed over. No, this was directly at him, pale purple eyes focused. He could even see her trying to resist the urge to squint.
This all spelled bad news.
He should have panicked, call the whole thing off. If she saw who he was-if she even had a clue of his identity-it would ruin everything. No, this still could be salvaged, she knew , if she could see, there was still no guarantee that she had a clue who Jason Todd was.
Jason swallowed his suspicion and called out with all the concern he could muster. "Are you okay Ms. Raven? Did someone break in? Who-" He took one step closer to her.
"I'm fine."Raven pushed herself up, tripping over the book in front of her.
Jason caught her, his hands resting on her shoulders. Raven pushed him away, regaining her balance, eyes turning away from him. She ruffled her hair and looked at his direction, her eyes foggy. There were again distant, no longer having a focal point. Jason couldn't help but feel relieved.
There might be a tiny chance he was wrong.
"I said: I am fine." Raven huffed. "One of my books got out of hand."
Books? Jason looked around, looking at the broken bookcase and scattered books. He didn't know if he could believe her. This all smelled like bullshit, and he knew bullshit. However, he couldn't think of a reason why she would lie to him. If she was honest, then this woman had a dangerous hobby.
"Books?" Jason said in disbelief, picking a book up from the scattered mess. "One of your books did this? But, everything is scattered."
Jason looked as Raven stood, her shoulders back, her eyes unfocused to the right. Her face contorted into something that resembled annoyance before nodding, reassuring him. Everything in her stance told him she was telling him the truth. If Raven was a liar, she was a pretty good one.
Seeing no point in pushing the conversation any further her, Jason continued picking up books. There were some that felt wrong to touch, ready to snap shut if his eyes graced the words. Others, well others, felt otherworldly, dark and mysterious; ready to set fire to the room if touched by the wrong hand. Jason sneered, looking away while snapping one of the books shut. She really should have these things behind bulletproof glass.
"Well, just tell me which ones to stay away from the next time I organize your things. Don't want to be sucked into another dimension." Jason joked.
Raven didn't even grace him with a response.
Instead, she softly patted the floor with her feet inching closer to her bed. Jason watched her carefully as her knees hit her bed, as she turned around and sat at the edge. Her dainty fingers ran through her hair, grabbing a tuft of hair before pulling in thought. He would submit all his fortune if he could know what ran through her thoughts as her shoulders slumped in defeat, her face becoming paler by the second..
Jason clutched one of the books tight. He didn't want to care but-
"Are you okay Ms. Raven?" He asked sickly sweet.
-his mouth moved on it's own.
Raven nodded, letting go of her hair.
"You don't seem to be okay."Jason pulled the bookcase up. " You have been sitting on your bed like a deer in headlights for a while there."
Raven shook her head again. It looked like it was all she could do at the moment. "A little disoriented. It was very powerful magic."
Raven was a good liar, he thought.
He paused, the very statement causing an alarm to go off. Why did he think she was lying to him? His instinct told him, that the way her leg bounced in anxiousness, the room reeking of anxiety, that she must have been lying to him this whole time. Yet, that very smell, enticed him not to push it any further. The woman was clearly stressed.
Jason continued picking up the books laying on the floor, piling them in a corner of the room. He picked up a white cover book with silver corners, and quickly looked at Raven.
She was still at the edge of the bed, her eyes again distant. Jason knew he was going to kick himself later for this. Placing the book on the top of the pile, he walked over to Raven's front.
The sound of his knees hitting the floor must have startled her from her thoughts. Her eyes focused on his direction as Jason rested his hands on her knees. He stared up at her pale purple eyes, as she remained stoic.
"You can tell me anything, you know," he whispered. "I am suppose to take care of your well being."
Raven stayed quiet. Moments passed and they stayed completely still. Her face was unmoving, her stature strong, but none of those body languages mattered. Jason stared at her eyes during the stillness, and they held the only tellatale body language Raven had. If only he could name what emotions ran through her eyes. Whatever emotion were held in her pools of lilac, made him want to console her, provide some sense of comfort. Leaving the space of her knee he reached towards her, to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and touch her cheek, but he stopped.
The notion was too tender, too meaningful. It wasn't his job to console her.
Placing his hand back to the safety of her knee, Jason sighed; if Raven wasn't going to talk, then he had to coax it out of her.
"What do I have to do to pull you out of that world of yours?"Jason whispered to her.
Raven stirred, her eyes moving away from his direction. "Huh?"
It was a stupid answer to a complicated question. Raven wasn't stupid and he knew just really didn't want to talk about it.
Jason removed his hands from her knees.
"Tea? Coffee? That eighty percent cacao dark chocolate your love so much?" Jason asked, but no answer.
Jason swallowed, trying to push back his anger. He clenched his fist as it shook, trying to hold insanity at bay. Jason held his fist and sighed, he felt like a small child again, anger rising if no one payed attention to him.
Jason looked behind him and hummed. There was one thing to make her look his way.
"Well, I've got something that should cheer you up." Jason stood.
He picked up his bag from the corner of the room. Digging deep in his bag, he pulled a blue rectangular box. He wiped off some dust that collected from haphazardly tossing the box inside his backpack. Jason squeezed the box in thought. He never planned to give this to her. It was something he bought at the whim. Her constant complaints turned into a nagging voice in the back of his head when he saw it, before he knew it he bought the damn thing.
Jason looked back at Raven, but it might be the key for her to completely trust him. Maybe this was his golden ticket to her good graces.
He walked over to Raven, her eyes focused at the floor. He grabbed her hands, turning it over. At the palm of her hand, he placed the box ever so carefully, while folding her fingers over.
"For you" Jason said.
Raven didn't say a word, her face again emotionless. Yet he could she was contemplating. Contemplating what? He wasn't sure.
Jason watched her as she took caution, feeling the edges of the box. As her fingers circled, she found the hinge, only for her fingers to swoop around to the latch. She pulled the box open, and touched the inside.
He watched her in interested as she felt the rough grooves. Her index fingers circled the inner groove only to stop at the small ball. She then moved to the inside of the inner groove, pressing slightly at small etches, as though counting each one.
Finally, after her careful inspection, Raven looked up at him.
"Is this a-"
"Watch?"Jason answered, a small smile escaping. "You always complain about time passing you by. I thought you can rejoin the illusion of time with the rest of us."
He saw the slight creases of her forehead as Raven retorted "This feels expensive."
Jason laughed. Is that what she was worried about? The price? This didn't even make a dent in his wallet. If he wanted it he could easily offer her anything she wante-
He had to stop himself. He was not offering a last request to a prisoner.
"What? No, thank you Mr. Tim? Or how could you think of such a thoughtful gift?" He joked. " But here you are worried about price."
Raven scrunched up her face. "It's just-"
Jason stopped her. "Look, I don't know about Titan tradition, but normally people don't linger about the price of a gift."
"Tha-, thank you" Raven stuttered as she picked up the watch.
He knew he was suppose to feel good about this. Yet the way Raven observed the watch with her hands, with no expression, not even a sign of a smile, Jason couldn't help but feel he did something wrong. She was lost again, lost in her rational thoughts.
"I've seen this before, in Robin and Starfire and even Beast Boy and Terra." He heard Raven whispered.
"Huh?"Jason asked, confused by her statement.
Raven placed the watch back in the box and snapped it shut.
"I can't accept this." Raven said harshly.
Jason took a step back. Maybe his hearing was failing, but did she really say she couldn't accept his gift? Jason watched as Raven outstretched her hand that held the box in front of her, coaxing him to take it.
He didn't get it.
Jason breathed in deeply, feeling his rage pushing to the surface. He took a step closer, wrapping his hand around her hand forcing her fingers to clasps around the box.
"Why not?"Jason asked.
Raven pushed her hand forward to place it in his hand, but Jason pushed back in resistance.
Raven sighed in annoyance. " I'm afraid it means a little more to you than it does to me, Mr. Tim"
Jason looked at her confused. "What?"
Raven tried again to push it to his hand with no avail. She gave another heavy sigh, putting down her hand. Turning her palm upright her fingers wrapped around the box, Raven focused her eyes at Jason, with no expression of emotion.
"I always hear of a patient falling for their take carer because they mistake the take carer's sense of duty for true compassion."Raven grabbed his hand dropping the box on his palm. "But never the other way around."
Jason tensed his jaw. What was she implying that-
What?
What?
No, no , no, no.
This was something he just stupidly bought out of the whim. He couldn't stand her constant sulking and complaining of time passing her by. So what he happened to stumble buy a custom watch place.
It was a meaningless thing. He payed up the ass for it, and wrote it off as business expenses in his head. This was supposed to be the pot of honey that caught the batch of flies.
So what he wrapped her hands around her wrist burning her wrist size into his memory.
Jason took a step back. There was a feeling of disgust, fear and something else in the bottom of his stomach. He felt like throwing up. He felt like balancing her at the edge of the window by her neck. Taking a step towards her, rage in his heart, he stopped himself. This was insanity rearing it's ugly head. Jason swallowed hard trying to push it back down.
He wanted to say something witty, something to tell her she was wrong.
Because she was wrong, right?
Yet all that pathetically came out of his lips was "I'm speechless."
"What you feel is an illusion." Raven said, and the words felt ever so cold. "You are very kind Mr. Tim. It was my fault for taking your kindness and part of your duty. Maybe it is your lack of experience in this sort of job, that made you feel something that wasn't there."
Jason clenched his fist around the box, a slight creak escaped as the box gave under his pressure. He looked at the box and back at Raven. Raven stood in front of him, her head turned away and her eyes shut tight.
In that moment, he never felt anything colder in his life. The embrace of death, or the hard concrete dirt he dragged himself out of, or waves of the Lazarus Pit were not even close to the steely expression Raven gave him or more the expression she wasn't given him.
Jason bit his lip drawing blood. He reminded himself that all the devious thoughts in his head wasn't him. That he was still the Jason that brought Raven flying, the Jason that threw a snowball at her. The Jason who had something burning deep in his chest, and was trying to hold it there. That burning feeling, whatever it was, could not be the fire that burned down his carefully constructed walls that kept that other Jason bay. As he licked his lips, the strong metallic taste of blood at the tip of his tongue, he felt the fires calm down.
He touched the wound on his lip, and looked at the droplets of blood on his finger. He had a mission, and this was never truly about her. This was about him, and what he wanted. She was just the goose that had the golden egg in her needed to fix this. She could easily fire him, and all those months being her chore boy would be for naught. He plotted too many years, waiting for the perfect opportunity to arise, and he couldn't let it go because what she thought he felt. Not when he was this close.
"I-"
"Let's keep this professional Mr. Tim." Raven cut him, brushing her hands against her pants. "Act like this never happened."
Jason rubbed his fingers together in thought, smearing the blood between his fingers. It was the logical choice to keep him around. Less energy exerted to train another hopeless fool. Jason clenched his hand, was everything always so logical for her?
Raven walked passed him, their shoulders slightly bumping together. She outstretched her hands searching for the door frame. As she wrapped her hand around the frame, she turned her head towards him.
For a moment, a nano of a second, he would have sworn she had a look of remorse in her eyes.
"Let's go Mr. Tim" Raven called out.
Jason placed the watch in his pocket, wondering if he imagined that look.
Probably.
Pulling the Mr. Tim act deep from his chest, he spoke like nothing ever happened. "Okay."
Author Note: I am so happy you guys have enjoyed the story so far. The last plot arc will start after the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading.
You guys have been amazing!