Deep breaths. This is going to be fun.
It's too late to bail.
It'll be fun.
Raven maintained composure through gritted teeth as she found herself, once again, at Kori's mercy while she aggressively unraveled large rollers from her hair. In her contained rage, Raven concluded that Tamaraneans must have thick and nerveless scalps to think pulling on someone's head like this is acceptable. Unaware, Kori cooed with each release of the wide-barrel rollers, letting the graceful waves of long, plum-wine hair fall over Raven's shoulder.
"You look exceptional, Raven." Kori said as Raven sighed with potent relief, not realizing at first how Kori snuck a shiny mass of black into her hands. "And even more so..."
"I'm still not wearing that dress."
The light swiftly drained from Kori as her arms dropped to her sides with frustration. "Raven, you do not understand, this dress is perfect for you. You see, it is black–"
"You mean it's too small for you, so it must be perfect for me?"
Karen groaned from across the room, where she sat in front of Raven's mirror, tying her hair up into space buns. "Will you just try it on, you drama queen?"
Raven almost gasped from the irony, "It is December, Karen, and you'd have me wear close to nothing to go to a crowded hole full of drunk strangers who will definitely catch a nip slip if I try to move around at all?"
Koriand'r scoffed and set her hands on her hips, impatiently. "Yes, Raven. That is clubbing."
The cambion regarded her incredulously. It will be fun.
"If you hate it, don't wear it," Karen told her, "but dressing up is part of it. They won't let you in this club in ripped jeans and converse."
Deep breaths.
Raven flashed an exasperated smile before ripping the garment from Kori's hands.
It's going to be fun, dammit.
The dress was definitely shorter than she preferred, but Raven expected that. What she hadn't expected was for it to fit her so well. Perhaps she found the way it's unyielding black satin once suffocated Kori's curves discouraging; however, the bodycon's elegant draped neckline and flattering tulip skirt fell over Raven's body effortlessly, almost modestly.
"Oh, she loves it," Karen simpered, and Raven rolled her eyes at her own reflection.
"I don't hate it," she agreed, and Koriand'r clapped joyously before crossing Raven's bedroom toward the door, pointing to Karen on the way, "It is your turn!" Karen smiled with a hint of disdain before following the Tamaranean into the hallway.
Once alone, Raven studied the subtle gleam of pink lamplight against the dark satin. Her hands ran gently down her hips as she swiveled, a small smile finding her lips.
I just wish you'd see yourself the way I do.
Raven then imagined, for the briefest of moments, how his hands might feel running down the silky fabric. He'd grip, his breath fluttering in her ear, down her neck, spirits spinning at her center. Raven found herself about to scan the tower for him, stopping in time to ask herself why. But as the answer danced around thoughts of him around her, Raven quickly made for the door. She'd need encouragement, or at least something to dull her nerves if she were to get through this evening.
When she heard Roy's voice approaching from the kitchen, Raven regretted not grabbing a sweater or cloak, knowing the archer well enough to understand that a comment about her appearance would not go unsaid.
"Come on, Logan, it'll be good for you to get around some girls who'd gladly suck off the greenest Titan." Raven hadn't realized she stopped walking until Roy turned the corner and faintly cringed when he saw her.
"Ha, sorry Rave," Raven quickly bowed her head, heat rising beneath her skin as he looked her once over, smirking as he passed, "Okay, I see you. You're trying break his heart."
Every fiber in her being urged her to retreat, to draw a portal back to her room and hide, yet she carried on, bringing her into the kitchen where her bare feet met the cool tile sheepishly. Garfield kept his back to her as the awkwardness of Roy's joke billowed between them. As she crossed the kitchen to the fridge, her eyes followed the soft edges of his shoulder blades, noting how he was, once again, shirtless. She never minded so much before, but now it just seemed inappropriate. Presumptuous, even.
She murmured a quiet hello when Garfield turned to her, and Raven did everything to keep her eyes up. But his drawstring joggers hung loosely off his hips, revealing the elastic of his boxers that hugged him favorably. Just above, a subtle trail of dark hair reached for his belly button amid the unforgiving lines of his abdomen. Then when her curious eyes darted back up, Garfield's mouth parted briefly, but only a strained, husky laugh fell out. Mortified and shy, Raven summoned the nearly empty whiskey handle from the top of the refrigerator and set it down on the counter with a sharp clink.
Garfield leaned back against the counter and grinned as he eyed the glass handle. "You alright?"
"Of course I am," Raven said dryly, comically spinning the cap until it fell and bounced around the counter. "What would possibly give you the idea I wasn't?"
"Oh nothing," Garfield chuckled, "you seem really comfortable."
For a moment, Raven's face cracked as she glanced down at her dress and laughed, crossing her arms in front as if that would suddenly conceal it from the world. "This is what I get for agreeing to girl's night."
"What? A dress?"
"Punished." Raven sneered, taking quick swill from the handle, and winced as the flames trickled down her throat in slow waves. Afterward, she held it up. "Hence."
"Doesn't sound so bad," Gar said, not trying hard enough to hide his amusement. "What's the occasion?"
"Karen finished her paper. And Robin's alert put Kori in a weird way, even though she'd pretend it didn't."
"What alert?" Gar asked, his hands gently feeling around his pockets before realizing his communicator was up in his bedroom. "What, he's comin' back already?"
"A location alert, but a false one."
"False?"
"Came through without a signal," Raven knitted her brows sharply together. "What do you mean already?" When Garfield's eyes darted from her awkwardly, she said his name with a sharper edge.
"Before he left, he said something about not being back for awhile. Needing a break, I guess."
"A break?" Raven frowned, watching him go for the fridge. "From what? Us?"
Gar shrugged, not letting his eyes stay on her long enough to watch her mounting excitement. "I guess."
Unnerved by how silently she crossed the kitchen again to stand beside him, Gar flinched when he closed the fridge with a handful of red grapes.
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean what do I mean?" Gar smiled nervously, popping grapes into his mouth one by one, "He said he needs a break for a while."
"When did he say this?"
"The night before he went, after we left your room. He stood right there and said, 'Gar, I can't stand living in this dumb, giant, T-shaped building in the middle of the ocean while Batdaddy's got a new Robin to brood over–"
"Be serious."
He sighed with some defeat, checking himself from letting his eyes fall too far down Raven's chest. "He said he'd been pent up, wasn't sure why...something about Vic pointing out to him that he needed time away. That's it."
Why didn't you tell me? Raven knew better than to ask, and it was all she could do to hold her tongue until something less hypocritical came out.
"It's not really fair. Keeping all his secrets." she finally managed, far from the mark, " Telling us different things, then just leaving us to figure it out."
A faint and spiteful laugh brightened Gar's features, "Maybe he gets that some of us...handle the truth differently."
With patient resentment, Raven's lids lowered, waiting for his punchline. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Unfazed, Gar bowed his head closer to hers, his eyes narrowed yet full of conviction. "That's really not fair," she practically whispered, "I showed you why, and you told me you–"
"I know what I said," Gar spoke impatiently, "hasn't made it easier."
"It will," Raven told him with some difficulty. "It has to. You just have to try."
I hate that you do this to yourself.
"Okay," Garfield laughed resentfully. "Yeah, I'll do that."
"Gar."
"How about you try?" He gestured to her broadly, "Don't come out here, like that, rubbing my face in it with some shit about 'girl's night' like you're not going out to catch attention from other guys?"
"You're kidding, right?" Raven snarled, "You don't honestly think that's what I'm trying to do?"
"What else am I supposed to think, Raven?"
She scoffed and took another swig, hiding how the way he spoke her full name unnerved her. "Think whatever you want. Doesn't make it true."
"What I want," his breath fluttered harshly against her skin, and his sudden closeness stilled Raven. Hanging on his pause, she watched the words swirl with lust in his eyes as her skin flushed, her unstable heart knocking at her sternum. Raven already knew what he wanted. Because she felt it, fought it, tasted it, just as he did, but there was a pull in her chest that needed him to say it anyway. "Doesn't really matter, right? So why don't you figure out what it is you want, huh? Before you drive us both crazy."
Raven released a breath she didn't remember holding. "What I want and what I can do are different things."
Garfield scoffed and moved away from her. "Won't make it true."
Raven gently said his name, and he waited, his eyes both hurt and hungry as they scoured her face, landing on her lips. Raven's attention was ripped by the elevators' sharp ping, which she glanced to briefly before coming back to Garfield's desperately.
"There he is!" Vic yelled once he and Karen stepped out of the elevator.
Karen threw her hands up, "Gar! Did you hear?"
"Aye, Beecher," Gar said kindly, his eyes peeling slowly from Raven as he turned to congratulate Karen. "Kudos on the project Smarty, I'm stoked for you."
"Good, so can you be ready soon?" Karen asked before catching a sharp glance from Raven.
"Oh...no, I don't think–"
"Come on, B," Vic clapped him on the shoulder, "there's a lot to celebrate. Look, even Raven is coming out to play."
For reasons she couldn't quite understand, a fire billowed in Raven's chest when Garfield looked back at her insolently, almost as if to boast. For what, she wasn't sure. But it angered her all the same. She rolled her eyes from him and turned to leave the kitchen, snatching the whiskey on the way. "Sorry, but I think he and Roy had other plans, tonight."
"Really?" Gar snarled, but she kept going.
"The hell is going on with you two?" Karen scolded once they heard Raven's door close. "She was fine 20 minutes ago."
Garfield said nothing, grabbed his shirt and water, and summoned the elevator to go to his floor.
"Hold up, man," Vic called after him.
"That's it!" Karen yelled, only a little humorously. "I say we lock them in a closet and leave them to work it out and be done. Period."
Vic laughed at this, but Garfield just shook his head, fuming beneath his surface as his pulse pounded in his chest, the smell of her still swarming his senses cruelly.
Raven couldn't realize what she was doing to him. Minutes ago, his carnal self seemed only seconds away from taking her, Raven had no idea how her body called to him; how her eyes kindled while watching his lips, how her scent changed, deepened; thickened the blood in his veins, stood all the little hairs on his neck up with electricity at the celestial, dewy smell so sweet and so close he could taste was no mistaking it, Garfield knew, and it ignited in him a fire that both warmed and consumed.
"Gar?" Vic's voice stifled into static. Because somewhere deep and dark, Garfield felt the Beast humming. It wasn't until the elevator chimed that Garfield snapped out of it, quickly realizing how tensely Vic and Karen watched him.
"You guys go," he said, "Don't let us ruin the party. I'll probably just grab a pizza and hang out here."
"Gar, you sure?"
"Nah, man, I could get down on some pizza," Vic said, "Grab Harper and we'll go with."
Gar nodded, warily running his hands down his face as the doors closed him in the cab.
"What the fuck," Karen held her temple and walked through the hallway.
"Hold up," Vic called as he followed, setting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from charging into Raven's room. "You go finish getting ready. We'll catch up later."
"Alright," Karen agreed and past Raven's door, offering him sympathetic look before Vic knocked at it. He didn't wait for Raven's permission before he went in.
