Ian awoke the next morning feeling motion across from him as Raven got up to get her herbal tea of the morning. Smiling, he followed suit and stood. "Want some company?" He asked before she exited the room.
Turning, she was about to say he could sleep more if he wanted to but thought better of it and they walked down to the common room together. Once they had both drank some calming herbal tea, Raven went over to the window and began to meditate. Ian joined her without a word as other members of the team came and left. Thinking to himself, he realized how much had changed over the past weeks.
For one, he had a family that while not conventional, was probably the best he could hope for since he died… the first time?
Another thing was that his life was far from boring with the new routine of saving the citizens of the DC world.
Still more, DC was, well, ALL of DC rather than just what he assumed was the Teen Titans world. Or at least the multiverse was a thing and he needed to consider that going forward.
"…ello? Ian?" a voice called him out of his meditation.
"Uh… yeah?" Ian shook his head. "What is it?"
Raven smiled slightly, "I was trying to ask if you would come to our room for a moment. I think it's time we discussed some things."
Ian had a few ideas about what she was referring to and followed her without asking anything personal. When the door was shut behind them, he was about to sit on the bed, but she stopped him.
"Not here." She said, walking over to the dresser.
"Wait… you don't mean… Nevermore?" Ian smiled despite himself. While it was true he'd considered she would eventually let him visit her emoticlones, he would be lying if he said he had been expecting this level of trust between them so soon.
"Yes. Do… do you have an issue with it?" Raven seemed scared as if he wouldn't accept every part of her, almost as if without her white form she was reverting to a closed-off introvert.
"Did I say I didn't want to? I love you, Rae. That won't ever change. And by you, I mean ALL of you."
Ian remembered something and suddenly said, "I'll be right back. Need to go to the bathroom just in case we're in there for a while." He lied.
Coming back to the room after discreetly grabbing what he was after, He smiled, "So how does this work?"
Raven placed her mirror on the bed and took Ian's hand. "Just… stay calm."
Ian took a deep breath and said, "Ready when you are!"
In moments, they were pulled into Nevermore's rocky expanse, and Raven looked around, a worried expression on her face as she felt multiple versions of herself make a beeline for their location.
As Rae expected, Bravery was the first to arrive. "Hooah! S'up Rae? Did'ja bring the hunk this time?" Bravery's eyes zeroed in on Ian, who just waved slightly.
"He certainly looks cooler in person!" Bravery shouted running up to him and holding up a hand, "High five?"
Ian smiled, "You got it." He obliged and was about to continue until he felt an aura of sheer positivity as Happy literally threw herself at him.
"I'm SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!" she shouted joyously as she literally glomped him.
Ian laughed while Raven looked like she was mortified watching her emotions react.
Suddenly, Ian noticed someone behind a large rock clad in grey and realized exactly why she hadn't revealed herself. He stood up and slowly walked over to the other side of the rocks.
"Hey… if you don't want to talk with me I understand, but I'd love it if you could join us." He spoke softly. This was Timidity after all.
She looked at him and blinked, "S-sure…" she muttered as she joined the others.
"I approve. He knows just how to talk to all of us. Even her." A yellow-robed-glasses-clad Raven appeared followed by Rage herself, who seemed miffed for an entirely different reason than what Raven was expecting.
"Why aren't we past first base yet?" she shouted angrily.
"Wha-" Raven looked scarlet as she realized what Rage was actually mad about.
Ian coughed, "I was respecting your boundaries, Rage. We both know neither of us would hold back." He tried to stress why he hadn't tried anything.
"Hell if I care!" she folded her arms as the orange cloaked Laziness slinked over yawning, "I guess everyone's just having another argument then… why am I even… oh… heeeeeeeeey!" she blinked and then yawned while staring at Ian. He just shrugged, knowing that this particular emoticlones would prefer the bare minimum interaction or just vegging on a sofa rather than a long drawn-out conversation.
"Bravery, Happiness, Rage, Timidity, Laziness, Knowledge, and the main Raven… I remember one more…" Ian muttered.
"Oh, I locked Passion in a room." Rage just blatantly accounted for the missing Raven.
Ian blinked. "Okaaaaaaay… so Rae, what are we talking about?"
Raven took a deep breath. "Well, honestly I just wanted the others to see you for themselves without manifesting and causing trouble in the tower."
Ian smiled, and rather than address her directly, he turned to Rage, "Get passion out of that room. I have something you… All of you… need to hear."
Rage shook her head, "I won't let her steal you from me!" she shouted, her red eyes appearing, however, Ian responded by opening his own demonic eyes and exuding his own aura of pure rage, causing her to back off and come back moments later with a purple-clad Passion Emoticlone.
"There. Isn't that better? I promise I have a reason, Rage. In fact, I would even say there isn't a better time to do this than now." Ian cast a spatial manipulation spell and a rectangular case with eight smaller colored square boxes appeared. He handed each box of the corresponding color to each Raven, then smiled, and nodded, "Well, open them." He said, as they all slowly opened the boxes, he got on one knee.
Each Raven saw a ring inlaid with a gemstone of their robe's color embedded in the middle glinting in the small box. Their collective reactions were almost instant as each of them pulled the engagement rings out of the boxes. Not a single one of the emoticlones could stop staring at Ian with look of sheer astonishment.
When she finally found her voice, it was Rage who spoke first. "A-all of us?" was all she could say.
Ian looked at the group of them. "For better or worse, I wouldn't have it any other way."
"This is going to be quite a wedding if all of us have to be out at once." Knowledge observed.
"Not to mention the wedding night!" Passion spoke with a coy grin.
Everyone was as red as Rage's cape as they realized what she meant by that.
"I-if it's Ian… I don't mind…" Timidity surprised everyone by being the first to admit that this was a favorable arrangement.
Rage huffed, "I hope this means we're gonna get one-on-one time with him!"
"I'd be happy just sparring every week, to be honest!" Bravery admitted still pink across her cheeks.
"Dibs on movie night." Laziness delivered her verdict.
"I want cuddle time!" Happy shouted in a bubbly manner.
"Wait for just a second! Why are we even divvying up time with him?" the original Raven suddenly shouted, irritation in her tone.
"Hmmm… Why not just get over our differences and go white unless a specific emotion needs to be dominant?" Knowledge suggested. "We're more powerful united. As far as we know the only thing holding us back was not being whole, but with Ian in our lives… any objections?"
"Wait… you mean… Just remain White Raven at all times?" Rage looked like even she was considering the idea.
Ian smiled, "I didn't realize I'd be the reason you went white, but I don't have problems with that either. I mean it DOES increase your powers, and I am sure Catherine and whoever else we… Ummm… never mind."
"I'm convinced!" Passion spoke resolutely upon hearing talk of potential nights of fooling around.
"I can't believe we're just casually talking about this! Merging all our emotions will mean SO much more meditation!" Raven tried to reason.
Until Ian broke her logic.
"Actually, wouldn't not having to hold back any emotions from being a part of your life mean not having to focus on the lids needed to store them? Think about it. Superman just has to maintain his power output as a whole. He doesn't have to focus on each emotion individually, so why would White Rae have to do anything differently? If you have less to bottle up, there's less to meditate on!"
Raven looked at Ian for a moment as if she couldn't believe how his logic shattered her worldview. Then she approached him and locked lips. In the next instant, White Raven reappeared, her emotions merging into one on contact with him, a beautiful diamond on her ring finger.
"Still gonna take my family name?" She asked with a beaming smile.
"Ian Roth. It has a nice ring to it. So, which one of us should tell the team?" Ian asked.
They exited Nevermore hand in hand, only to find Catherine banging on their door, "HEY! YOU TWO DONE MAKING MINI ME YET?" she shouted.
Ian opened the door as Raven went red with embarrassment at that mental image.
"Do you have to interrupt my marriage proposal?" he smirked.
"I was just worried about what to wear on my date with Dubs and thought Mom might have some suggestions—WHAT?!" Catherine's eyes shone as she finally registered the sentence she heard.
Raven showed her the diamond, which seemed to change colors in the light depending on where you looked at it. Catherine smiled, "Now I feel bad asking for clothing advice…"
"I think Dubs is more than likely going to think you look good in anything." Raven offered. "Just be yourself and show him how much you care." She linked an arm with Ian as they walked to the Ops room and Catherine ran off to get ready for her outing that evening.
Ian suddenly had a funny thought, "Want to place bets on who hooks up next?" he offered.
Raven shook her head, "I don't think they'd appreciate that very much. Let's just enjoy life while we can and let them do the same."
"Enjoy life huh… You realize when we die, we'll have eternity together anyway, right? I suppose we are burdened with Demonic Purpose after all." Ian smiled, recalling a similar phrase he heard once before.
"Well then, I suppose we'll have to enjoy eternity together, Mr. Roth." Raven rested a head on his shoulder as they made their way to the Ops room, opening as if to announce their new life together.
...To Be Continued?
A/N: So here we are. To be honest, I don't want to stop the story trajectory with their children or with the other Titan's relationships, but this story was supposed to center mainly around Raven and Ian. If you guys want to see the others and how their lives pan out story-wise, or even a continuation of this one, don't hesitate to send me messages or reviews with anything you'd like to say!