[1]
When she was a child, Raven believed that Azarathian tunnels were burrowed by Terran giants. The way they towered over their wayfarers was often intimidated her, and she preferred to hold onto her guardian's hand when walking through those deep, snaking channels beneath the High Temples. She would sometimes try to cower near her mother's robe before being pulled out in front, Arielle encouraging her bravery against the damp darkness.
But now, she was alone, with nothing but a swelling speck of light ahead to orient her.
Her steps felt clumsy and broad. Fear drove her endlessly forward until she finally crossed into the glow of the candlelit chamber.
The sudden shock of cold, wet stone against her exposed skin made Raven wince. She regarded the flames and their shadows flickering against the curves of her body when she sat upright on the slab.
From the darkness, a hooded figure rushed to her, and she twisted her arms and legs around herself for modesty. They urged her to quickly follow, but Raven refused and flinched from them.
A gray, skeletal hand emerged from beneath the cloak and seized Raven's arm, pulling her with great force from the stone. Like gasping for air, her powers failed to ignite any resistance against the stranger who aggressively dragged her back further into obscurity.
Raven mused the taste of salt on her tongue just before being hurled into a cold, bottomless void. Unable to scream, Raven fell silently, endlessly into a murky sea enclosed by ebony shores. She braced herself for the severe impact as her stomach twisted at her navel.
When she searched above for the hooded figure, she saw nothing but the wide-open night sky, shimmering wonderfully despite her paralyzing horror.
Finally, Raven pinched her eyes tightly shut and awaited the bone-breaking breach against the water's surface. Still, just before her body met it's sharp, jarring end, Raven's eyes split open onto the ceiling.
Disoriented by the absence of sunlight, she propped herself up onto her elbow and wondered how she slept through the entire day.
Her eyes were drawn to moonshine coming in through a large, curtain-less window on the wrong side of her room.
The bay's vantage seemed much higher than she remembered, and the city itself looked strange and distorted through the glass. Raven suddenly felt weird, nervous, imbalanced. And when she discerned the row of framed vintage comic book posters lining the walls, Raven knew she wasn't actually in her room, but in Garfield's as the color drained completely from her face.
Her chest congealed as she went to sit up, only to be yanked back down by a large and clumsy grasp.
Mumbling in his sleep, Garfield brought her to his chest, his skin warm against her own. His hand tangled around hers as he fitted her body against his, and her resistance woke him.
"What's wrong?" he mumbled as she sat up, realizing she'd need to cover herself with his blanket. Raven faced him as he rolled on his back to regard her calmly through squinting eyes. "Rae?"
Her voice felt displaced and barely audible. Raven could guess her dazed, deer-in-the-headlights bearing brought him to sit up next to her, picking the sleep from the corners of his eye. "Bad dream?" he asked as he brought his lips to her shoulder.
After a breath of her skin, a velvety hum vibrated from his throat.
He left a trail of sweet kisses along her shoulder and up her neck, kindly pushing her hair out of his way. "I've got you."
Unfazed, she knew. The tingle of his lips felt natural, expected. Any or all hesitancy eluded her as she found a haven in his arms.
He reached up to support her craning neck and lightly chuckled against her skin. It tickled, but Raven didn't mind.
When his mouth found hers, she sank into his embrace entirely, falling with him back down against the bed. His roaming hands left a trace of tremors beneath her skin, igniting a frenzy that left her short of breath. A smirk played on his lips when he pulled his face from hers. "Better?"
Eager to taste his lips again, she smiled and reached out for him, but a bright light beam trespassed her vision, calling her from her warm darkness.
Raven's room felt stuffy as the daylight poured in through her windows.
Her breath reeled through her nostrils as her eyes fluttered open, a faint film of sweat coated her flushed cheeks.
The sun's trajectory told her it was afternoon.
Raven's eyes followed sinking fragments of dust while she remembered herself, her dreams faded in and out, blurring static of soundbites and stills.
Her fingers patted beneath her nose to check for blood, but the skin was dry. She did not feel groggy, nor did her ears ring with distant humming or cawing.
Raven felt entirely okay, rested even. Strange and borderline mortified, but rested.
Then she thought of his lips, the soft push of them against hers, his fingers in her hair. Last night, her teammate kissed her and told her she was beautiful.
With the way she is, risks and all, he made her feel extraordinarily ordinary, despite everything in her world that constantly suggested otherwise. How could he ever know how much that meant? And that vulnerability, his honesty, was a gift, and she threw it in his face.
Raven rubbed her sensitive temples, wishing to be ignorant of her affections. She drew her legs up and found a centered rhythm with which her chest could swell and collapse. It would take her several steady and determined breaths to quiet her mind long enough to achieve the stillness she sought. Glimpses of his smile filling her spirit with butterflies.
[2]
Even if she initially found the Tower's silence suspicious, Raven was grateful to enjoy her tea in solitude after reading a note from Kori about meeting them being down at the beach. She took her beverage to the balcony, relishing in the gorgeous sounds of seagulls and sea breeze.
Raven was optimistic about her psyche's shield. Meditation brought her composure, and she had slept hard and well. Yet, her peace would endure only between thoughts of Garfield.
The guilt that agitated her stomach was telling of a need to apologize, but she worried more for her entirely evolved perspective of Gar. There was a new depth to him to navigate, and each time she'd muse over actually waking up in his bed, a fear weighed on her. A kind of fear that wore her mother's likeness, being scolded for singing a small Raven a lullaby.
The sudden beat against the glass door behind her dissolved Raven's mental spiraling, but the playful expression across Karen's face brought a giggle to her lips.
"She lives?!" In a bikini and a pair of half-fastened dungarees, Karen joined Raven on the balcony, bringing with her a strong scent of coconut. "I was coming to check your vitals to make sure you were still with us." She took a seat opposite of Raven. "Well, that and to refill the cooler. How are you feeling?"
Raven nodded while sipping the last of her jasmine tea.
"I take your sleep-depriving weird dream potion charm was successful?"
"Sure," Raven said, setting her mug on the glass table, "you could say that."
"Good," Karen agreed.
"What about you? Did you finish your work?"
Karen grunted, "The important parts. I'll be happy when the semester is over. I'm much better suited to working in an actual lab than this remote bullshit."
"I think it's pretty cool," Raven said, "sometimes I wish I could do it. University, I mean."
"Yeah? Why don't you?"
"I'm not sure what school would see past my nonexistent transcripts from the High Temple of Azarath."
"Right, you grew up in another dimension, how could I forget?" Karen played. "Well, there are tests you could take. Like homeschooled kids."
"Maybe," Raven found herself blanking on accessible forms of small talk as her curiosity burned. "So, how, uh, how is everyone...today?" She grimaced.
"Gar's been kinda off," Karen smirked, "but it sounds like he didn't sleep much either."
"I asked about everyone, but okay," Raven mumbled defensively, triggered by Karen's suggestive tone.
"Uh-huh," Karen watched Raven fidget from her peripheral.
"So," Raven's concern over her fingernails was less than convincing, "Weird how?"
"I don't know, I just remember him being funnier."
Raven scoffed. "That might just be your skewed memory."
Karen snorted, "No, he seems okay. Just quiet. But I won't pry." Raven relaxed with a grateful glance. "Because Roy already told me y'all had a domestic."
Raven's lips twisted into a frustrated grin. "What does that even mean?"
"A lover's quarrel of sorts."
"Ew."
Karen found Raven's rare bashfulness cute, if not totally bizarre. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No," Raven sighed, subduing her quickened pulse, "not really. It was a dumb fight."
"So dumb that you're hiding from him up here?"
Raven was then reacquainted with Karen's signature directness, something which she both hated and admired, depending on its target.
"I'm not hiding," she insisted, "I'm relaxing."
"Are you going to be relaxing forever, or...are you going to come down to the beach and play nice?"
After an uncomfortable silence filled the space between them, Raven looked to Karen meekly. "I, uh, don't know what to say...to him, yet."
"What do you mean?" Karen chuckled, "It's not like you guys don't bicker all the time, what's different?"
Well, this particular argument was preceded by his mouth on mine.
The way Karen eyed her made her question whether she just said that out loud.
"Wait, oh my god, you're blushing!?" Karen's eyes widened, and she pointed accusingly, "What happened last night?!"
"Nothing," Raven hid her face behind her palm, clutching the heat radiating from her face.
"Oh, okay," Karen teased, "did you guys, like, you know...?"
Raven's face twisted with horror. "What?"
"Ayyyeeee," Karen savored Raven's fear, "Get it, Gar!" Karen leaned close to Raven with a mischievously broad grin, "Tell me, he a beast in the sheets?"
"No, stop," Raven forced stability into her tone over Karen's cackling, "nothing happened."
"Yeah, I don't believe you," Karen smiled, "something happened, or you wouldn't be an absolute radish right now. Come on, spill."
Raven shook her head, "It was just a kiss, alright. Like barely."
Karen's smugness gave, "That's really sweet."
"Shut up." Her sincerity made Raven wince.
"I won't. That really just gets me," Karen put her hand over her heart, "right here."
"I hate this," Raven fussed, a small smile playing on her lips. "Makes this whole thing so difficult. Everything's all weird now."
"Listen, I get it. It's tough to have feelings for a teammate, even tougher to have these hard conversations with them. But it doesn't have to be weird. Like with Vic, part of me was dreading coming here, but we were able to be adults about it, and now we're fine."
Raven knew from passing comments over the years of Vic's small crush and assumed it to be one-sided. "About what?"
"He's been, um, a little extra since Mal and I split."
"I didn't know, since when?"
"A couple months ago. But it's okay everything was mutual, we're just not up for the long-distance thing right now. But that doesn't mean I want to get into anything with Vic, you know? Just out of respect for him and Mal. And myself, honestly. With school and relocating and the work...I don't have the mental energy for that kind of mess right now."
Raven chuckled apprehensively with Karen, wondering what kind of mess she was referring to.
"So anyway, we talked, he was cool. Bummed, but he got it. And we move on. It doesn't have to be all drama. Just be upfront about how you feel, you know?"
Raven nodded, "Right."
"I mean, do you know how you feel?"
"Well, yeah, I think that we, I mean, even if," Raven gnawed on her lip when her words stumbled over her lips.
"Okay," Karen smiled sympathetically, "Here, are you still mad about whatever went down last night?"
"No," she said quickly to assert redemption, "I'm not. Like I said, it was dumb."
"So maybe start with a "sorry, honey" and keep it light?" Karen suggested, "and then, decide if you'd maybe want to kiss him again." When Raven remained pensive, Karen grinned. "Do you?"
"I don't know," Raven lied, trying to push her dream to the back of her mind to where it couldn't taunt her. "Probably not. Not that I didn't, it's just that I'm not the kind of, ugh, shit. I don't know what I'm trying to say."
"You'll figure it out." Karen clapped her palm against the glass table. "For now, get out of your head and come hang out. Help me with this cooler?"
"Yeah, okay." Raven sighed and followed Karen inside.
"Hey, and," Karen paused and faced Raven again. "I know that I just got here, and we're not super tight, but I hope you know you can talk to me. I get that you value your privacy, but sometimes it can help. So, yeah, just putting that out there."
Raven smiled and offered a small nod before closing the balcony door behind her.