Chapter 6

Saturday October 27

7:45 PM

It is the night of the Halloween Dance at Jump City High School. The dance starts at 8:00 PM. Dick and Logan are waiting in the living room for Kori and Raven. Dick is dressed as Robin and Logan is dressed as Anakin Skywalker. Five minutes later, Kori walks into the living room dragging Raven with her. Kori is dressed as Wonder Woman and Raven is dressed as Padme Amidala. Kori lets go of Raven and walks over to Dick, who greets her with a kiss.

"So how do I look?" Kori asks.

"Hot. Very hot," Dick replies. Raven moves to stand next to Logan. Logan looks at her and smiles.

"Wow Raven, you look—" Logan is cut off by Raven glaring at him. "—nice," he finishes.

"Whatever. Can we just get this over with?" Raven says.

"Raven is unhappy with her costume," Kori says.

"I look ridiculous," Raven retorts.

"No you don't," says Logan. "I think you look great."

"You would probably say that to any girl you were going to a dance with," Raven says, rolling her eyes.

"Only if it's true," replies Logan. "I don't make it a habit to lie to my friends."

"Come on guys," Dick says. "The dance starts soon." They all walk to down to the garage. They decide to take two vehicles in case they don't all want to leave at the same time. Raven and Logan get in Raven's car and Dick and Kori take Vic's car. They drive to the high school where the dance is being held in the gym. They walk in and see tables and chairs around a dance floor in the middle of the gym. On a table by the far wall are drinks and snacks. Dick and Kori head onto the dance floor while Raven and Logan make their way over to a table and sit down. After a few songs play, Logan looks at Raven.

"Do you want to dance?" Logan asks.

"No," Raven replies.

"Want something to eat?"

"No."

"A drink?"

Raven looks at Logan and sighs. "Fine." She starts getting up.

Logan stands. "Stay here. I'll get a drink for you."

"I am capable of getting my own drink."

"I know. But if we both leave to get drinks, we might lose our table. Besides, what kind of date would I be if I made you get your own drink?"

Raven sits back down. "This is not a date."

"A guy can dream can't he?" Logan says smiling. He then walks away to get drinks for them both. He comes back a few minutes later carrying two cups of punch. He hands one glass to Raven.

"Thanks," Raven says as she takes the cup.

"You're welcome," Logan replies sitting down next to her. Several more songs play as they sit at the table and drink their punch. Logan finishes his punch and looks at Raven.

"Raven?" Logan says.

"What?" Raven says as she looks at him.

"Um…I know you probably won't want to, but will you dance to at least one song with me? Please?"

She looks at him and sees a sad and pleading expression on his face. I really haven't been a great date for him—whoa, not a date, she thinks. I owe him at least one dance. She nods at him. "Okay."

"Really?" Logan says.

"Yes, I'll dance with you," Raven replies.

"Sweet!" They both stand up. They throw away their empty cups and go to the dance floor. The song ends as the step onto the dance floor. A slow song begins. Raven looks at Logan.

"Are you okay with this?" Logan asks.

"I said I would dance with you," Raven replies. "I didn't say it couldn't be a slow song."

"Okay." Logan steps closer to her. He takes one of her hands in his and puts his other hand on her waist. Raven puts her free hand on Logan's shoulder. They start dancing with Logan taking the lead. When the song ends, Raven starts to step away from Logan. He pulls her back to him, pressing her close to him. He wraps his arms around her waist. She struggles to get away from him. He lowers his head to whisper in her ear.

"Relax Raven," he says. "I'm not going to do anything to you."

"Then why won't you let me go?" she asks still trying to move away from him.

"Because I see Malcolm and I don't want him near you," Raven stops struggling against him and looks up at him. "Just keep dancing with me. I won't let him hurt you." They continue to dance. Raven puts her arms around Logan's neck and leans her head on his shoulder. As they dance, Raven sees Malcolm watching them. Two more songs play and Malcolm is still watching them. When a third song starts, Raven lifts her head from Logan's shoulder and looks at him. He looks down at her.

"Can we please leave?" Raven asks. "I don't like Malcolm watching us."

"Can we wait until after this song ends?" Logan asks.

"Okay," Raven says then puts her head back on Logan's shoulder. They dance for the remainder of the song. When the song ends, they walk off the dance floor; Logan has his arm protectively around Raven. Malcolm and a group of his friends are standing near the door. When Raven and Logan get near the door, Malcolm and his friends block their path.

"You two leaving to go have sex?" Malcolm asks smirking.

"No," Raven says. "We are leaving because I didn't like you watching us."

"I was enjoying the view of you," says Malcolm, still smirking. "But I like the view of you beneath me more."

"Never gonna happen," says Raven.

"It already did happen."

"Because you raped me."

"Minor details. The view was still nice."

"Just get out of our way."

"I want something first." Malcolm nods to his friends. Two of them grab Logan and pull him away from Raven. Malcolm walks over to Logan. "First I want him to pay for getting in my way the other day." Malcolm punches Logan in the face. He then turns back to Raven. "The second thing I want is you." He grabs Raven and pulls her to him. She struggles to get away. He kisses her hard while holding her tightly against him. She tries to get away and lightly hits his head in the process. He stops kissing her and looks at her angrily. He slaps her hard across her face and she falls to the ground. "How dare you hit me, you little bitch." He pulls her up by her hair and prepares to slap her again. But before he can hit her, he is hit around the middle and shoved back into the wall by Logan, who has gotten free of the two guys holding him.

"Stay away from Raven," Logan says angrily to Malcolm. Malcolm shoves Logan off of him and they start fighting, mostly Malcolm throwing punches and Logan dodging them. As Malcolm throws another punch at him, Logan grabs his arm and twists it behind his back. He then shoves Malcolm against the wall. "No one hurts my friends," Logan growls in Malcolm's ear. He then lets go of Malcolm and walks out with his arm around Raven. They drive back to the Tower in silence. Logan parks the car in the garage and turns it off. They walk to the elevator and go up to their floor. They walk to their rooms. When they get to Raven's room, Logan stops. "Change clothes and meet me in the living room?" Logan asks.

"What for?" asks Raven.

Logan shrugs. "Just thought we could watch a movie together since no one else is here."

Raven thinks about it for a little bit then nods. "Okay." Raven goes into her room and closes the door. Logan goes to his room and changes into sweats and a t-shirt. He then goes to the kitchen and heats up water to make tea for Raven. When the water heats up, he pours it into a mug with a tea bag. He finishes stirring in the sugar when Raven walks in wearing pajama pants and a short-sleeved shirt.

Logan hands her the mug. "Here you go. Just the way you like it," Logan says smiling.

"Thank you," Raven says shocked. "How do you know how I like my tea?"

"Well you drink tea all the time. Kinda hard not to notice."

"Why'd you make it?"

"I knew you would want some. Whenever you have a bad day or deal with a lot of stress, you like to drink tea."
"Thank you."

"No problem. It's just tea."

"Not that. Thank you for dealing with Malcolm tonight."

Logan's expression turns serious. "I will always protect you from him."

Raven smiles slightly. "I appreciate it."

"Your face is kinda bruised from where Malcolm hit you. Does it hurt?" Logan lightly touches her cheek. Raven slightly flinches.

"It's a little tender."

"Do you want ice for it?"

Raven shakes her head. "No thanks. I'll be fine. Just like my head where he pulled me up by my hair." She rubs that spot on her head.

"Are you okay?" Logan asks concerned.

"I'll be fine." They stand there in silence for a little bit.

"So you wanna watch a movie?" Logan asks, breaking the silence.

"Sure," Raven says. They walk over to the living room.

"What do you want to watch?" Logan asks, going over to the movies.

"I don't know," Raven replies as she sits on the couch.

"How about one of these?" Logan says, holding up The Adjustment Bureau and The Replacements.

"Both are really good movies," Raven says. "It's hard to choose between them."

"I know. We could always watch both of them," Logan says hopefully.

"We could," states Raven.

"So does that mean we'll watch both?"

"I guess so. I'm not really doing anything tonight or tomorrow morning anyway."

"Sweet! So which do you want to watch first?"

"The Replacements. I could use a comedy right now." Logan puts the movie in and sits on the opposite end of the couch from Raven. Halfway through the movie, Logan grabs a blanket and wraps it around his shoulders. After the movie ends, Logan gets up to put in the other movie. Raven gets up and starts walking toward the hallway. Logan turns around and sees her leaving.

"Where are you going?" Logan asks. "I thought we were watching both movies?"

"We are," Raven replies facing him. "I'm just going to grab a sweatshirt. I'm a little cold."
"We could just share the blanket if you don't mind sitting close to me."

"I can just get a sweatshirt."
"Do you not want to be that close to me?"

"Why wouldn't I want to? We were pretty close when we were dancing tonight."

"And you were uncomfortable with it."

"Just at first when I didn't expect it."

"So you were okay with it?"

"If I wasn't, I would've fought more."
"So what's wrong with sharing the blanket?"

"Nothing I guess."
"So why don't we just share it?" Logan smiles at her.

Raven sighs but can't help but smile back. "Fine." She walks back over to the couch. Logan sits on the couch and moves the blanket, inviting her to sit next to him. She sits beside him and he puts the blanket over both of them. He presses play on the remote to start the movie. After a few minutes, Logan puts his arm behind Raven on the back of the couch. Partway through the movie, Raven curls her legs underneath her and leans against Logan. He moves his arm from the back of the couch to her shoulders. She tenses slightly but quickly relaxes again. When the movie ends, Logan notices that Raven has fallen asleep on him. He turns the movie off but doesn't get up to take it out because he doesn't want to wake Raven. He uses his foot to pull the coffee table closer to the couch. He shifts so he is laying down more with his feet on the coffee table. Raven has her head on his chest and one hand by her head on his chest. Logan still has one arm around her. He covers her more with the blanket then puts his other arm around her as well. He flips through the TV channels and settles on Spike which is showing Star Wars. He falls asleep a little bit later.

Two hours later, Dick and Kori walk in and see the TV on. Dick walks over and sees Logan and Raven asleep on the couch.

"Kori," Dick whispers. "Come here." Kori walks over to Dick and sees Logan and Raven as well.

"Aww! They look so cute!" Kori whispers excitedly. Dick pulls out his phone and takes a picture of the sleeping couple.

"Could use that as blackmail sometime," Dick says. "Or just something to bug them about."

"I must ask Raven about this tomorrow," says Kori happily. Dick turns off the TV then he and Kori go to their rooms, leaving Logan and Raven asleep on the couch.