[1]

Have faith, he told her, and it was all Raven could do to not let small blows of black matter level the lights that lined the walls which presently held her world together. Let me take care of you.

There was something instinctive in the way Raven sank into him, intoxicated by his smell, his voice, his breath on her skin; her senses becoming lost in a turbulent storm of light and sound of which she was the very center. It was at once consuming and infinite, and in her surrender to it all, Raven felt limitless. And she fucking loved it. Even if her touch was shaky, Garfield's felt sure enough for the both of them. Fearless hands exploring the valleys of her body with care, fingers pulling at her dress so his mouth could seize the skin beneath, and with each stifled whimper, Raven sensed a fervor sway within him. But it wasn't until Garfield lost his studied calm, setting her against the wall more aggressively than he meant to, that Raven felt how hard he was against her. Nervously, she ripped away from him with a hitched breath, quickly embarrassed of her reaction and even more so by Garfield's crooked smile. Raven was sure he could smell her panic as quick fever dreams of his body took her, his glowing skin hot and firm and rough against her own. The air had thinned, Raven decided as she grew desperate for a decent breath.

"Hey," Gar murmured before touching his forehead to hers. "You're okay." The way his voice shook seemed to surprise them both, and Raven realized she was projective her nerves erratically onto him. "It's just me."

She clung to the kindness of his voice, all while undergoing a slight disassociation of wrapping her thoughts around the concept that this person who wrapped himself around her was Beast Boy. The kid with the dumb mask over his stupid green mug who once called her creepy because she wouldn't give him a high five. The same trying grass stain of a roommate who'd stop at nothing to get a rise from her in the worst ways, simply because he was bored and thought it'd be funny. This gold-hearted pain in the ass, who's helped her through the darkness more times than she could count by shining his light. Because that's just how Garfield is. Her teammate and friend, her headache and her confidant, her loud-mouthed and hopeless defender. Her hope. Her Beast.

Raven returned her attention in full to him and his calming breaths and smiled at the thought of how easy it had been this whole time to trust so profoundly without fear. It warmed her like nothing she'd felt before.

"Gar, I..."

"You...want to dance now?" he asked with a laugh and a determined step backward.

"Wh, wait," she furrowed her forehead while reaching out for him, "what's wrong?"

Humored, Garfield swept her back between the wall and himself, "The things I'll do to you in this hallway if we don't stop."

Raven bit her smile at the flutter between her legs. "What if I don't want to stop?" At this, Gar hummed with delight, and she watched as he waged war with himself, his grip around her tightening and loosening within the second.

"If you knew how long I've wanted this...you like this," he paused when her lips found the sensitive skin beneath his ear. "Fuck, Raven...I wanna take my time." His hands slipped behind her neck, his thumbs guiding her mouth back to his. He drew the breath from her lungs as he pulled away. "It's your turn to be patient."

He flinched slightly when the nearest lantern shattered in its sconce above their heads, but when Gar saw the wanton gleam of intention in her amethyst eyes, he smirked.

[2]

Koriand'r peered out in quiet contentment over the shimmering hive of spirits from her vantage point at the booth. Like a sovereign over her kingdom, she thought playfully, though if the thought lingered too long, Kori risked growing more solemn than she already had. Not entirely convinced that she'd become weary from the dancing or the yelling or laughing or drinking, Koriand'r reflected sadly of how, despite the jovialities of the evening, a voice in her head kept reminding her how much better her night would be if Dick were here with them. It definitely did not help that his disquieting lost location signal from this afternoon wouldn't stray far from her attention, filling her with more dread than his prolonged silence did.

His fingers most likely slipped, she kept telling herself. He would not want his location to be revealed if he was still undercover. Unless he was in trouble.

This latent worry was silenced by a cold bump to her elbow, setting her lean against the railing off balance. Kori looked over to Victor, who grinned knowingly at her.

"In the morning," he said as he too looked down over the dance floor. "We'll track his last location, make sure he's good, alright?"

"It is that obvious?" Koriand'r grimaced bashfully before taking a searing sip of vodka from the small glass she whirled between her fingers.

"Educated guess."

"It feels strange for him not to be here. Even if he would not have so much fun."

"Yeah," Vic laughed between sups of beer. "He'd probably have to turn it into a stakeout—surveillance of underage drinking. Or ceasing illegal transactions out of the bathrooms."

Kori chuckled. "He would enjoy the music, I think."

"You know," Vic nodded toward the DJ's booth below them, "I am not mad about the 80's vibe this girl is pushing."

"Oh, yes, your enthusiasm has been noticed."

"My god," Karen appeared between them, her eyes fixed narrowly ahead. Kori tracked her stare down to the crowd's back edge, where Garfield spun Raven in his grasp, a reckless smile on her face. "How'd you do it, Vic?"

"Do what?" Vic asked, his face also glowing at the sight of them sharing a secret kiss beneath the dancing lights.

"Aww," Roy cooed sneeringly, meeting them at the railing. "About fucking time, kids."

Koriand'r beamed as her concerns of hypotheticals now tempered by the joy in watching her friends together.

"You have been beautiful," the DJ announced over the dwindling music, "here's one more."

She returned with another track that Koriand'r did not initially recognize, even as the crowd erupted with glee. It wasn't until the first verse began that Kori remembered it from that older movie that the boys often enjoyed, the one about the school kids who became unlikely friends over breakfast or something along those lines.

As her friends sang and danced clumsily around the booth behind her, Kori turned to Roy, remarking strangely on his serious demeanor. His eyes fixed intensely on something below, and again, Koriand'r followed his gaze. "What are you looking at?"

"Check your six," he said, and Kori's eyes dropped to the bar below, scanning people who lined its counter. "The kook with the glasses."

Kori narrowed on a caucasian man's side profile, dark hair wearing eyeglasses with thick frames. His attire appeared military, and his facial hair sharply groomed, but the most notable thing about him was that he had his attention fixed on Raven and Garfield.

"Who is he?"

"Some creep who was hitting on Raven."

"Oh? He is jealous?"

"Probably, but he's been watching way too long. And then look," Roy pointed quickly so Kori would see the man tug at his collar, drag his finger strangely down the bridge of his nose before tapping it once. "He's been doing weird shit like that."

"So? Maybe he is susceptible to the airborne allergens?"

"Hold up," Roy indicated her gaze just across the bar, "See the girl? Blonde with the same jacket? She just nodded at no one. Watch her. Aye, Tinman!" Roy turned while Koriand'r kept her eyes on the girl who wore a remarkably similar high neck black tunic.

Still uncertain if it was more coincidence and Roy's paranoia, Koriand'r watched the girl take a drink from the bartender and take a sip from the glass. Eventually, Kori caught a glance over the girl's shoulder in Raven and Gar's general direction, but nothing Kori would judge as suspicious yet.

"Which one?" Vic appeared next to her, but Koriand'r kept her focus.

Then, the girl pulled a chain from under her collar, revealing a long necklace that held a long dark pendant. Kori watched as the girl brought the cocktail glass down to her lap, subtly fingering the pendant above the glass's rim.

"I can't get a good read," Vic said, his cybernetic eye set on the guy by the bar. "He's too far."

"Looks like they have a friend. Two o'clock." Karen said, and Koriand'r inspected across the club, spotting another, less distinct individual, though he also wore a high-collared shirt and seemed to be surveying the specific space where Raven and Garfield had been. This was when Kori realized that her friends were making their way back towards the booth. If she weren't as concerned with their present surroundings, Koriand'r would have relished more in how Garfield led Raven by the hand through the crowd.

"He's up." Karen reported as the man with the glasses finally moved from his post at the bar, heading toward the club's main gate.

Vic quickly readjusted his scope. "That's more like it."

Koriand'r quickly scanned below for the girl, panicking slightly when she was no longer at the bar, and without realizing it, the metal railing that Kori leaned onto was warming and softening in her grasp.

"Anyone too drunk to fight?" Roy asked with only a hint of humor, and Kori quickly took her palms from the hot railing and nodded.

"I am ready," She said, glancing over in time to see Karen raise her hand.

[3]

Raven's empathetic barricade had weakened significantly since following Gar from their safe and dark and quiet corridor back into the sensational chaos to the wide-open dance floor. Wistful emotions bombarded her from each side, and she found herself, still high from Garfield's touch, welcoming the potent energies that fixed a dumb smile on her face. Unbothered, Raven spun in and out of Garfield's embrace until the music slowed again, drifting into a slower, more sensual song. She let herself fall back, resting her head against Gar's shoulder as he hugged her from behind, swaying them along with the music. Raven felt his breath faint along her skin as she gazed above at the softly spinning kaleidoscope lights.

"Any chance you'll be this into me in the morning?" Garfield asked her with poorly masked sincerity beneath his question.

"Can't say," Raven teased, facing him again, "it might just be the whiskey."

"Figures," Gar chuckled, but there was a seriousness in his voice that made Raven nervous. "So, if whiskey makes you...friendly, is it gin that turns you into a old timey mobster? Or was that tequila?"

"That was a game we were all playing," Raven maintained, recalling the night in question when they played a murder mystery game for Dick's birthday. "And it was tequila."

"You kept calling everyone your little polpetta."

"I did not," Raven rolled her eyes, though her cheeks flushed with a telling embarrassment.

"You did," Gar laughed, "and it was hilarious."

"You might just be easily amused," Raven grumbled.

"By you?" Gar said with a smile that turned her stomach over, "Constantly."

Raven tried to hide a grin, squinting at him accusingly, "When did you get so..."

"Charming and refined?" Gar offered, "Distinguished? Gallant?"

"Can you even spell distinguished?"

Garfield abruptly dipped her in his grasp. "Can you meven thpell disthinguish?" He mocked and kissed her smirking lips before returning her to her feet, nodding to follow him back to the booth.

They were almost to the mouth of the stairwell when they started—small whispers, like a strange chill swept by Raven, giving her pause as Garfield led her through the crowd. When she looked over to follow the noise, her eyes once again caught the obnoxious glare off a pair of eyeglasses. The man from the bar bent his neck in both directions before moving in her direction, and so defensively, Raven hardened her focus and pulled her hand from Gar's. She caught the man pursing his lips moments before a jarringly cold liquid cascaded down her back.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry, fuck," a woman cursed frantically, dabbing the wet from Raven's skin and dress with her sleeve. As Garfield also offered his jacket, but Raven underwent a strange confusion of her senses, between the sound of their voices, of the music pulsating around them, the wet of the spilled drink, and the brush of the fabric against her skin; it all felt lagged and twisted like she was slipping though she knew she stood still.

Garfield's voice finally broke through, his hand on her shoulder abnormally cold, "Rae, you okay?" As she glanced from his hand to over her shoulder, a panic rose when she couldn't see the guy anymore. "Raven?"

"I'm fine," Raven pushed the woman's shaky hands away. "It's fine." She quickly lowered at Gar, knowing he'd catch the signal in her eyes.

And he did, even if if the distinctly familiar stench of ammonia hadn't already set him on edge, Gar quickly grew defensive of Raven, covering her back as they ascended the stairs to the booth.

Koriand'r had been waiting for them, a wary expression on her face as she held Raven's coat open to slip over her shoulders. "Raven, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes," Raven answered quickly as she checked her phone, though Garfield knew Koriand'r shared his doubt when she glanced at him.

"Looks like your fan club crashed the party," Roy murmured with his eyes locked on something below the booth. "Can you get us outta here?"

Raven only nodded, her eyes set downward studying a few focused breaths, but Gar caught how she scrunched her nose and gritted her teeth. "Rave," when he moved closer to her, that pungent chemical scent became sharp enough to make his eyes water. "What's happen-"

"Let's go!" Raven growled in unmistakable pain now, and Garfield caught how the drinks around the booth's table shook, tipped, or shattered, and as her Azarathian whispers sounded rushed and desperate, the booth was swiftly enveloped in black.