Vermillion
Chapter 6: Lovesick Fools
Note: My reviewers have asked I show Red X's face. Queen and Peace215, this is for you.
:1:
He was watching her. Robin was watching her. It was a little unnerving to look up from the steaming cup of tea to see Robin studying her so intently, his brow furrowed. Somewhere in the background, Beast Boy and Cyborg were arguing over breakfast again! "Tofu!" "Sausages!" "Tofu!" was the soundtrack to Robin's unwavering stare. Raven glowered. Staring for no reason was her trademark.
"What?" she asked finally.
Robin didn't answer. He kept gazing at her beneath that mask of his, almost as if he were some kind of statue.
"SAUSAGE!" came the particularly frustrated bellow of the hungry athlete.
Raven sipped her tea and looked at Starfire, reading the nutrition stats on the cereal box. She poured some of the flakes in her bowl and poked it. Then she took out some chocolate milk and practically dumped it onto the flakes. Raven looked back at Robin. His gaze was positioned on her.
Raven gritted her teeth in annoyance and got up, pushing Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the way of the stove. She poured some more hot water into her mug, telling herself not to look at Robin. Instead, she looked down at her cup, watching the tea leaves swirl round and round.
When she did dare to look up at Robin, he was still watching her. Not for the first time, she wondered if he was crazy.
She sat down next to Starfire at the counter, watching her chew the flakes with a look of absolute bliss on her face. "Mmm, Friend Raven!" she said after swallowing the cereal, "you must try this! It is delicious! On my planet, such food would be in honor of a birth!"
Raven shook her head, declining the offer, and took another sip of her tea. She met Robin's eyes again over the rim of her mug. This time, she did not look away. She challenged him and they began a staring contest the others were oblivious to.
The length of their battle could have set a new Guinness record.
It was Robin who first broke away, when Beast Boy asked his opinion on which was better—sausage or tofu. When Robin didn't answer, Beast Boy waved his hand in front of Robin's face and broke his concentration. Either way, the contest wasn't really fair because Robin could have blink behind that mask of his and Raven would never know.
Robin didn't answer Beast Boy. Instead, he walked out of the room, muttering something about training.
Beast Boy scratched his head. "What's up with him?" Cyborg shrugged in reply. Starfire looked between the door and Beast Boy quizzically. And Raven? She could have told them why he went out of the room. She just chose not to.
:2:
On her way to her completely trashed room (the one that she did not sleep in last night; in fact, she didn't sleep at all), Raven went by Robin's training room. The door was open and she looked inside for the slightest moment.
Then she stopped in her tracks and looked inside some more.
Robin stood there, kicking and hitting a mannequin. He had stripped down to a dark pair of shorts, sweat rolling down his chest and his back. He fought with a fury, as if there were some demon inside he needed to unleash. At one point, he broke off the mannequin's arms. In disgust, he gave it a kick and it rolled to the ground, broken. Then he started on another mannequin. She could see his hair glisten with drops of sweat. He had not quite achieved the formidable act of washing all of the pink dye out, and if you looked at his hair the right way, it seemed as if he had a ring of pink around his head.
He suddenly dropped his arms and turned, looking directly at her. "What?" he asked.
Raven didn't answer, her face an apathetic mask. She pulled up her hood and continued on her way, hearing Robin punch the wall in aversion.
:3:
As the T-Car pulled up to an old warehouse where the nightclub was located, Starfire clasped her hands together in delight. "The music may be heard from outside, too!" she said in delight.
Frankly, Raven thought, that was a bad thing.
But she obliged when Starfire pulled her out of the car and raced towards the door, the image of happiness.
"Are you on the guest list?" asked a gruff bouncer in front of the tall black doors.
Starfire nodded. "My name is Starfire and I bring a party of five."
The bouncer checked the list. "Starfire? I don't see a Starfire."
That's when Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy arrived behind them. Raven could almost see the hamster in the bouncer's head start running. Robin, Boy Wonder, Beast Boy the changeling, Cyborg the half-robot man... Starfire must be that alien girl and the cloaked chick must be that witch girl. OH. THE TITANS.
"Come in, come in!" he said after a long pause. He even held the door open for them.
Raven rolled her eyes.
The music inside blasted in her ears, thudding through her whole body with each wave of sound.
Let me hold you, Dance with me!
The lyrics to the techno beat pounded in her head and it was all she could do just to stand up. Starfire, however, was in her element. Immediately, she entered the center of the dancing crowd, rolling her shoulders and hips in time to the music. The men around her immediately turned their attention on the young woman, but she chose to pull Robin into the middle with her. Robin seemed a little ill at ease, but he, too, began to dance.
Beast Boy spread his arms out. "Ladies, the star has arrived!" A group of young women shrieked and ran in his direction, starting to blush. Beast Boy grinned pompously, ready to be smothered in the affection of the fans, but they ran past him, nearly trampling him under their feet as they clung onto Cyborg.
"Yeah, the star being me," Cyborg grinned, smiling at one particularly pretty young woman.
Raven gave the crowd a sweeping stare and walked towards a deserted corner, trying to think straight.
Watch me, touch me, step this way...
The heat of the dancing bodies disconcerted her and she ordered a club soda on ice. As she downed it, a finger tapped on her shoulder. She whirled her head around, expecting Red X, but saw the blue-eyed varsity boy from the café standing there.
He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. A little ways behind him, a group of jocks—his friends, Raven suspected—hooted. "Uh... you wanna dance?" he asked, blushing.
Raven thought about saying no, she didn't dance, but then took a look at the snickering boys behind him.
"Listen, I'll understand if you say no. I'm not pressuring you or anything and I know you aren't the type that dances... though I'd really like it."
Maybe she'd do a good deed. After all, he does look pretty cute...
Most definitely cuter than Robin. Yeah. Right.
"Ok," she said.
His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth dropped open a little. "Really? I mean, great. Oh, by the way, my name's Eric."
"Raven."
"I know," he said with a disarming grin. "You're one of the Teen Titans."
She took his offered hand in getting down from the stool. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyborg give her a thumbs-up.
She gently rotated her hips in time to the music, like she had seen Starfire do, her back facing him, and felt his hands being placed hesitantly on her waist. They danced together, in almost perfect synchronization, stepping and rolling in time to the music. His friends were watching them, slack-jawed with shock.
When the song ended, he led her out onto the porch where the wind pushed his hair into his eyes. She laid down her hood and offered a small smile. He grinned again, dimples appearing in the sides of his cheeks.
"I don't dance much." she said.
"You dance well," he replied.
They fell silent for a while, looking up at the big, gleaming moon.
"Why did you ask me?" she said after a while.
"My friends dared me to," he replied. "See, I live on Lincoln Ave, and I saw you and your friends fight that girl Jinx and her friends, and I... admired your fighting skill. You're really smart too, so I envy you. My parents are always getting on my case about grades. And... you're really pretty," he finished rather lamely.
"But I'm so dark and depressed. Wouldn't you like someone more cheery?"
"Like Starfire?" he asked shrewdly. "Nah. You're dark but you've got a good heart. Why else would you be fighting crime? It doesn't matter why you're dark or what your past is. What matters is what you make of your future. "
She looked at him in surprise.
"I read that off a fortune cookie," he admitted.
She chuckled.
Perhaps lovesick fools weren't so bad after all...
Suddenly, Eric was punched across the face. "Dude, what'd you do that for!" he yelled at the figure approaching him.
Red X snarled. "Raven is mine. Keep your filthy hands off of her," he said, picking Eric up by the collar of his jacket.
"Who I associate with is none of your business!" Raven yelled. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A nearby streetlamp hit Red X and he dropped Eric, staggering back. "Get inside," she said to the dazed high schooler.
He stood up and tried to be chivalrous. "No. Whoever this creep is, you obviously don't like him. I exercise, too. I'll take care of him!"
"Eric, no!" Raven said as Red X punched him. He hit his head against the wall and crumbled to the ground, unconscious.
Raven rushed to his side and her hands began to glow ghostly blue. She healed the crack in his skull, but was unable to revive him. "I can't believe you," she hissed, turning to Red X. "One moment you're destroying my room, the next pleading for me to go away with you, and then you're punching someone that I was dancing with. What's wrong with you?"
"I'm in love. That's what wrong," Red X said. He caught Raven's wrist and shot his grappling hook upwards, catching onto the side of the building. He pulled them onto the roof and set Raven down gently.
"I can't have anyone interrupting us," he said.
"There is no us!"
"There will be." His arm snaked around her waist and his voice grew soft, like a caress. "There soon will be. Come away with me. We can start anew, in a different place, just you and me. We can set up our own kingdom! You will be Queen Raven. No, Empress Raven."
"Empress? And what will you be? King Red X?"
"Emperor. Emperor... Vermillion."
Raven raised her eyebrows in marked disdain.
"You don't need to be afraid to express yourself there. You will be Empress and our subjects will always love you no matter what. Even if you are the daughter of Trigon, it won't matter. It will be our own heaven."
"And what's heaven for you? Me walking around naked all day?"
"No. A little girl child named Violet bouncing around, levitating items and blowing up teddy bears," said Red X almost dreamily.
"You're right," she replied with a shy smile. She placed her hands around his neck.
Red X was surprised, but also wary of the change in Raven's attitude. She placed her head on his chest and smiled. "I understand you're in love with me."
He shivered with delight and wrapped his arms even tighter on her waist. That was when she reached up swiftly and pulled off his mask.
His eyes grew wide; then he began to laugh. "I should have known that would happen."
Raven stared up at him, completely speechless. How could it be?
How could it be Robin?
:Fin:
Disclaimer: Not mine.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Sorry, had to get that out. How many people anticipated that? Raise your hand...
No, Eric has nothing to do with Eric Forrester from the comics.
Whooohooo!! 160 reviews! Me love, me love!!
PlAySw/Fire: Gay? Where'd you get THAT? And who would he like if he were gay? Cyborg? Beast Boy? robi
Instant Coffee: Oh, thank you! Best Ficcies?? I'm so honored!
Miyu399: Thank you, but I'm not THAT good. I just... got inspired. I suppose Red X is a stalker.
Idoliar: Yes, I'm thirteen. But, then again, I read a LOT, so I get influenced by a lot of ways of writing. XD
Person: Heh... I'm in love with ten different fictional characters, so it doesn't really matter....
Ripdos A.K.A The Bad Ash: Okay..
TheDarkAzar: Oh, I don't reply? Sorry! Did I mention that Kevin is like 40-something?
Lotus Cat: Eh... he's still rather possessive. He's just really... yeah.
Serene's Magick: Right. He isn't normal.
Springsprite: Nah. He'd just find a way to get out of the darkness. He's Red X!
Le Chat de Darigan: Eh... the entire universe? You mean Starfire, too? 0.0
Queen: Yes, I am an EVIL MASTERMIND! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Arrendi: Raven? We'll see...
Peace215: Woohoo! Sugar! [Bounces around]
Thank you, my wonderful, brilliant reviewers! Keep on reviewing! Keep on reading!