"Raven?" Asked the ex-alien girl, as the staggered over the doorframe that made the ground floor entrance to Titans Tower.
"Yes?" Replied Raven.
"My arms hurt," finished Starfire, in an uncharacteristic moment of complaint.
"Mine too," agreed Raven. Her arms did hurt. So did her torso. And her feet, and her legs…
"And I am hungry."
Raven nodded in agreement. They hustled over to the elevator, and simultaneously dropped their bags. Raven pushed a button. The doors slid shut.
"I have not felt this hungry since my mother informed me that Blackfire and I would undergo Partharg, and were forbidden to eat for three planetary rotations."
"Partharg."
"The ritual of Lipping. No, that cannot sound right, the ritual of… sisterly… err…"
Starfires stomach interrupted her with a loud growl. She blushed. "I am very hungry," she summarised.
The elevator doors slid open. Raven reached down and picked up her bags. She grasped a hold of seven of them, and dribbled the last one out with her feet. Starfire was having some trouble with hers, but had managed to arrange them in a stack, by which means she could transport all nine at once. The drawback to this was, that the bag tower covered her face, and she couldn't see where she was going.
"Need some help with that?"
Had Raven not trained herself never to do so, she would've jumped at the sound of a voice belonging to someone she hadn't thought was there.
Apparently, Starfire did jump though, because there was a rustling kind of crashing noise, and when Raven dumped all her bags next to the sofa in the Titans rec. room, she turned to be greeted with the sight of a very unstable looking Starfire, who's feet were currently surrounded by shopping.
Robin, who was stood to the side, looked sheepish. Then he eyed the bags.
"Cyborg told me you went to the mall," he said. "He didn't tell me you were planning on bringing most of it back."
Starfires stomach growled again. "I must eat!" She proclaimed, somewhat desperately.
Much as she disliked admitting it, Ravens stomach was informing her in no subtle way that she too was incredibly hungry. She growled inwardly, and decided that severe amounts of shopping after basketball with no proper lunch break, was probably not such a good idea with a human body after all. Apparently, demons were naturally stronger and more able to cope with such things, because she'd never wanted dinner so much after shopping before. She stood up.
"I'll go make a pizza," she said, and walked a little quicker than usual into the kitchen. She opened the freezer, pulled out a large mozzarella, and was about to use her powers to open it when she remembered that she had to do everything manually now. She glared momentarily at the pizza box, as though it was the one at fault here, and immediately squashed the tiny spark of misplaced anger and berated herself for feeling it. She sighed, and levelled out her mind again.
Then she paused, and thought.
An idea struck her. It made her feel like a child about to do something naughty. She looked at the pizza box sideways, her hunger, for a second, forgotten. She turned it over, carefully, looking for the 'open here' sign. She took a breath in, and a breath out. And then, in a complete juxtaposition to her previous careful treatment of the box, she tore the 'open here' sign off, ripping all down one side of the packaging, then she yanked the frozen pizza out of it's cave, dropped it ungracefully on the sideboard, and threw the mangled pizza box across the room. She scowled at it as it bounced off a chair, feeling angry at it for her lack of powers, and her sore feet, and… her growling stomach.
Raven blinked, and looked around cautiously, half expecting to see something awry with the kitchen. Her anger had only been small, and somewhat playful in nature, but it had still been a somewhat unrestrained emotion. Her emotions evened out again automatically this time, and she didn't try and rearrange them.
She blinked again, as she realised suddenly, that nothing had happened. She still felt like she'd gone and done something naughty, and she also felt the tiny bits of adrenaline that were making her heart beat just a tiny bit faster. Raven considered doing something else emotional… perhaps laughing triumphantly at the box. Then she felt a stupid, and remembered about the pizza she was going to cook, and turned around to turn on the oven.
Starfire had sidled into the kitchen at some point. Raven knew this, because Starfire was standing next to the oven, looking at the box. Raven was incredibly glad she wasn't inclined to jump at surprises for the second time – after always having known when someone was stood behind her, or when someone was in a room she was walking into, due to her powers and demon senses, it was quite disconcerting to suddenly realise someone had been stood right behind you for at least two minutes without you realising.
Raven ignored Starfires presence in an attempt to get over the surprise, and switched the oven on high. She reached across for the pizza, removed the see-through wrapper, and threw it in without waiting for the oven to properly heat up.
Then she walked past Starfire to go and look in the fridge while she was waiting.
"Raven… are you okay?"
Raven nodded, and picked out a bottle of iced water. She was not going to be ruled by her stomach. She was going to wait for the pizza to be cooked. She did not take orders from bodily organs, when they were clearly weak and only protesting because she'd done more exercise than usual.
"Nothing is… wrong?"
Raven shook her head, and leaned against the counter to drink.
Starfire eyed Raven, then the fridge.
"May I have some of your water please?"
Raven swallowed half of the bottle, enjoying the momentary false full feeling, and hoped it would last until the pizza was done. She capped the bottle, and tossed it to Starfire, who thanked her, and drank the rest, then put the empty bottle down on the counter top.
They stood in silence for a second. Then Ravens stomach growled again. Star's stomach growled in return. Both girls dived for the fridge, and began to sort randomly through the contents. Raven pulled out a bag of chopped carrots, while Starfire grabbed a tofu stick and some mustard.
Then they sat on the floor, and started munching.
---
"So, you're sure they were only small fry?" Said Cyborg, his mouth full of pizza. This evening, he was wearing a pair of Hawaiian shorts and a grey shirt, Raven observed.
Robin nodded, and swallowed his own mouthful. "Positive. All it was was a bad attempt at a jewellery heist. I wrapped them up in a couple minutes, and the police handled it from there." He shrugged.
"So… why'd you get a call about it?" Asked Beast Boy, trying to work out which was the bigger out of the two slices left. He selected the one on the left.
"I have no idea," replied the Boy Wonder. "I guess they did have a couple of fancy weapons. But they didn't really know how to use them, and they weren't exactly experts in robbery either, by the looks of it."
Starfire leaned back. "I am full," she said happily. "Although now I am thirsty. Would any one like a drink?" She got up.
"Could you get us a soda?" Asked Beast Boy, finishing the last bit of his pizza slice.
Starfire beamed, and left for the kitchen.
"Thanks!" He called, after her.
Cyborg frowned, smirking, at her back. "I'd have thought she would be full, after six mini rolls, a bottle of mustard, and two six person pizzas."
Raven pulled a face at him. "You try running around the mall all afternoon with six kilos of shopping on each arm," she said, defending her and Starfires possibly excessive snacking that afternoon.
"Yes," said Robin, "What did you buy?"
"Clothing and gifts," answered Starfire, re-joining the table with a tray full of sodas. She beamed, and cracked open a can.
"Gifts?" Said Beast Boy, with a raised eyebrow.
Raven pulled over a can of soda. "You'll see," she said.
---
"You got me some shoes?" Said Cyborg.
"Size thirteen's," said Raven.
Cyborg opened the box, and pulled out a pair of dark sneakers, with little white 'TT''s all over the black laces.
"Awesome," he exclaimed. Starfire pulled something else out of a bag, and handed it to him. "Socks!" He continued, enthusiastically. He looked at the girls. "Thanks!" He said. "BB, I no longer have to borrow your footwear," he announced, handing the ex-changeling a pair of bright green socks.
"Alright!" Said Beast Boy. "More socks for me."
"How'd you know I was a size thirteen?" Said the ex-robot, eyeing the girls.
"Lucky guess," Raven said, trying not to be distracted by the Hawaiian shorts.
"For Beast Boy," said Star, brightly, changing the subject.
Beast Boy opened his bag cautiously, and started routing through the wrappers. He pulled out a box, and looked at it curiously. "Green… " His eyes widened. "You guys got me green hair dye?"
"Of the permanent variety," said Raven.
"With ammonia," added Starfire, "to allow the dye to better penetrate your hairs follicles and produce a more vibrant permanent green colour." She eyed his hair. "Because green would unlikely show up in hair as dark as yours has coloured without an effective component such as ammonium."
Robin stared at her. "How do you know so much about hair dye?" He asked, suspiciously.
Starfire smiled dazzlingly. "Yours is not the only planet to use such colour altering substances," she said. "Although the dyes from my home world are a little different."
Raven felt like giggling or something. She had no idea why, though, so she didn't. She reached for another bag, and threw it at Beast Boy, who dropped the dye packet, and turned it upside down to reveal the contents.
"Grand master of doomed filled alien monsters from the depths of hell version III!" He yelled, waving it around.
"We figured you might like that," said Raven.
"Just wait till I kick your un-metal ass on this!" He exclaimed, happily, waving the game around in front of Cyborg.
Raven smirked. Starfire reached behind her for another bag, and presented its contents to Robin.
"We did not wish to leave you out, so we brought you a gift," said Starfire. Robin looked at the bag, and shook it a little as if to try and discover its contents. "You may not wish to open it until you are alone, though."
Cyborg and Beast Boy pulled identical sweat-dropping faces.
Robin shrugged. "Okay," he said. "Thanks." He smiled at Starfire and Raven.
"Oh, don't thank me," muttered Raven. "That," she gestured to the bag, "is from Star. But you do have one of these," she said, and held something else out to him.
He held it up and squinted at it. Then he pushed a button. Water squirted from the centre of the watch, which he dodged. He pressed another button, and a Swiss army knife collection of gadgets popped out of the side.
"… They sell these at the mall?" He asked.
"Not exactly," said Starfire. "But we saw one on the way back to the tower, and decided you deserved another gift."
Robin grinned. "Thank you," he said. Then he attached the watch to himself.
"Does anyone know how to dye hair?" Said Beast Boy. "Can we do that now?"
"Uhh… count me out," said Cyborg, grinning. "I've got a date with a certain beautiful set of wheels, and I'm not standing her up to help you spruce."
Beast Boy stared at him. "Whatever, man. Just remember that's a car you're talking about."
Cyborg shrugged, grinning.
"I shall help you, Beast Boy!" said Starfire. "Would you like to subject your hair to the ammonium now?"
"Yay!" Said the youngest titan. "Let's go!"
He jumped up, obviously incredibly excited at the prospect of having green hair again. Cyborg stood up also.
"You have fun now," he said to Beast Boy and Starfire. "I'm gonna go work on the T car." He cracked his knuckles, and started trekking for the elevator.
"Want some company?" Raven found herself asking.
Cyborg paused, and turned. "Sure," he said, grinning. Raven grinned back, and got up to follow him. They stood in the elevator, and as Cyborg pressed the button, the doors slid shut.
Sorry... that felt kind of short. And also sorry for the spelling mistakes I make! I think there were about three in the last chapter, but since I can't ever seem to see them when I re read, there's probably the same amount hiding out in this one.
Review me still, and i'll love you :D