AN: Hello all my dear readers, how are you all on this sweltering, hot day. Well, it's really hot in Boston, I don't know about where all you guys are. This chapter I worked hard on so I hope you all enjoy it. Oh, I have a story to recommend, for those who haven't read She has No Time by Sunshine10, READ IT! It's amazing! Right, That's all I have to ramble about for now, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Of course I own Teen Titans… what? You don't believe me? You guys are too smart. .
Chapter 5
The five friends sat comfortably around the large, decorated evergreen tree Richard had purchased from some tree lot or another, laughing and talking. A fire crackled happily in the fireplace as the winter winds pounded the windows and threw so snow everywhere. Stockings hung from the mantle, each with one of the five friends names neatly printed on them, (Richard even had an extra one which he had labeled 'Slade'; it was already overflowing with coal).
"…So anyway I saw these on sale and decided we all must have them!" Kori chattered, holding up a huge box before placing it in the middle of the circle. Opening it, she pulled out a Santa hat, decorated with holly and little felt reindeer. "Aren't they wonderful?" She exclaimed, giggling.
Garfield spluttered, choking on the hot chocolate he had been drinking, as he laughed. Raven's eyebrows raised and Victor grinned. Richard smirked and reached out to grab the hat. "Alright, who's the first sacrifice?" Kori laughed and leapt lightly back up on the couch to snuggle with Richard.
"I vote for Raven!" Garfield laughed as he shot a playful glance over at the girl who glared at him in return.
"There is no way I am going to wear that." She took a sip of herbal tea and sighed
"You've got my vote." Raven murmured from the chair she had curled up in, legs tucked neatly under here small form.
"Aw, come on Rae, you know you don't hate me that much." Garfield grinned and stuck out his tongue as Raven rolled her eyes.
"On the contrary, Gar, I just might." Raven muttered, but couldn't help smiling slightly as Garfield laughed and playfully tossed a cushion in her direction.
"It looks like it's you, Garfield. Here, be a man." Richard joked as he handed his friend the hat.
"Do I have to?" Garfield whined childishly, but grinned as he pulled the hat down over his ears. "How do I look?" he asked as he wiggled his eyebrows.
"You need something else…" Robin trailed off for a moment. "Got it!" Standing he raced out of the room before returning a few moments later. He held a red coat with white fake fur lining. "Here Garfield." He tossed the coat to his friend before he motioned for Kori to join him in the kitchen, muttering something about making cookies.
Garfield held up the coat for inspection before he slipped it on with a smirk. "You can all just call me Santa Claus now." Victor laughed and drained his can of soda as he stood and went to call Bee, she had gone to Chicago and hadn't been able to make it.
Standing, Garfield slipped over to his girlfriend, her eyebrows raised in amusement. "Well, you look stupid…" Raven muttered.
Shaking his finger playfully at her, Garfield chided her jokingly. "Tsk, tsk. You should be nicer to Santa, otherwise you might end up like him." He gestured to the stocking, which bore Slade's name.
Raven rolled her eyes and shook her head playfully before grabbing the small book tucked in her pocket, attempting to ignore her boyfriend. Garfield watched as she buried her nose in her book, her eyes scanning the page. A mischievous grin slipped across his face as he scooped her up gently and took her place on the chair ignoring the yelp of surprise and mutter of annoyance.
"Santa will let you off this time, but only because your so damn cute." He took off his hat and dropped it on Raven's head. "So little girl, what do you want for Christmas?" Garfield said in the deepest voice he could muster. Raven rolled her eyes and set her book down, giving up on ignoring Garfield.
"Someone who isn't so annoying for a boyfriend?" Raven offered.
"You know you love me Rae." Garfield laughed as he gently nuzzled her head.
Raven rolled her eyes again. "You really shouldn't do that so much Rae. One day your eyes are going to get stuck up there." Garfield joked quietly.
Raven smiled very slightly and gently rested her head against Garfield's shoulder. "Only six more days till Christmas… I haven't even started gift shopping." She sighed. "What do you want Garfield?"
"Hmm, how about a kiss?" Raven smirked.
"Maybe, I'll take that into consideration. Anything else?"
Garfield sighed. "Well, maybe a tofu cookbook. Plain old tofu gets a bit boring after a while."
"I could have guessed that, Gar. Really, try eating real food for once, huh? "
"Hey, respect Santa! Besides, tofu is real food." Garfield pouted. Raven grinned and pulled the hat of her head; holding it up for Gar's inspection.
"How can you be Santa with out this?" she smirked again as he shot her a slight glare.
"Oh, I have my ways, Raven…"
"Friends! Would you like to partake in the eating of cookie dough?" Kori chirped as she bounced into the living room. "Richard says that there is enough to share." Kori giggled as she watched Raven blush and rather quickly stand up from her boyfriends lap. "Anyway, it shall be in the kitchen when you two are ready!" Kori grinned and slipped back out.
"…Well, cookie dough sounds good to me." Garfield said after moment as he stood and gently took her hand, leading Raven to the kitchen.
"So good of you guys to join us." Richard smirked as he pushed a bowl with leftover cookie dough towards them. "While we are on the topic of Christmas, I wanted to invite you all over Christmas Eve for a party. You guys can crash here and then hang here in the morning. What do you guys say?"
"Oh, that would be most wondrous!"
"I'm in."
"Sure…"
"Great, Victor already said he could come, so it's set then." Richard grinned and looped his arms around Kori's waist.
X
"Really? You said that to him?" Garfield chuckled as he and Raven strolled through the park, the snow had let off for a short while, and the couple had decided to get some fresh air.
"Yeah, I couldn't stand him hanging around, declaring himself perfect and how no one was better than him." Raven made a face. "I never knew anybody had such a big ego before." Raven shivered slightly as the wind whipped through the bare trees above them. Carefully she wrapped her scarf around her neck.
"What did you say he called himself? Trident?"
"Mmmhmm."
"All the creeps around here seem to give themselves some odd nicknames." Garfield laughed as his sage colored eyes skimmed over to Raven's face. He watched as she nodded, her amethyst eyes studying the ground as they walked without destination. "You know, my cousin's in a science fair right after Christmas break, would you like to go with me to see him?"
"Sure, that sounds like fun…" Raven replied. There was a moment's silence as Raven took a breath before she continued. "Kori's going out tonight with Richard. Would you like to do something later on?" she shot him a nervous glance and watched as he grinned enthusiastically.
"Yeah, why don't I come and pick you up and then we can head back to my place? You'll be able to meet my cats and everything!" Garfield laughed and gently reached out to pull Raven to his side, his arm looping around her shoulders. "Hey! Not to mention all the great stores and decorations downtown. Why don't you come over for dinner and then we can go and shop for gifts?"
"Yeah, that sounds like fun." Raven replied, a small smile slipping onto her face.
"Great." Gar grinned and tilted his head as he took her in; her hair whipping back across her face as the wind played with it. She truly was beautiful, and Gar couldn't help himself from reaching out and pushing her hair behind her ears. "That's really great."
X
The door opened as Garfield stumbled into the room, blindly searching for the light switch. Raven followed him awkwardly, stepping lightly over and around the huge piles she could faintly make out in the darkness. "Sorry about this," Raven heard Garfield mutter before he tripped and swore. Raven sighed and shook her head before she bent crouched down beside him.
"Ah, poor baby. Did little Gar hurt his head?" She asked teasingly and was answered by a grumbled and a light slap on the side of the arm.
"Ha-ha, Rae, you're very funny." Scrambling up, Garfield groped around again for the light switch and was this time rewarded with the lights flickering on. "But of course," he continued as he turned around to face here, gently pulling her closer. "That's why I love you."
Raven didn't say anything but blushed and rested her head against Gar's shoulder as he held her gently in a hug.
"Meow!" Raven jumped slightly and looked down at the furry presence that had demanded their attention.
"Ah, Raven," Garfield said as he released Raven and bent down to gently pick up the small tabby cat. "I would like you to meet Timber. She's the baby of the house, always needs attention and always there when I need to be cheered up." He handed Raven the small cat, who immediately began to purr as she snuggled into Raven's arms.
"She's…er… quite sweet." Raven murmured as she smoothed the small cat's fur.
"Over there; sleeping on the couch, (he blends in with the blanket there, see him?), is Crow. He's named for his bad habit of picking off little Timber's food, he doesn't have the most beautiful voice either." Garfield made his way over to the couch where he promptly picked up Crow and gave him a huge hug. "Despite his bad habits, he really is just a big softly." Gar murmured affectionately as he rubbed behind the large cat's ears.
"Who is that one?" Raven asked quietly, her attention caught be a serene white cat that was sitting calmly on a table, her tail wrapped around her front paws.
"That's Frost. She's my oldest cat, kind of reserved." Garfield said as he plopped Crow back down on the couch. "She tends to be slightly indifferent. But, I love her anyway." He grinned at Raven, and she had that slightest feeling that Garfield had just described her. "So, uh, what do you want to eat?" He disappeared into the kitchen and Raven could here him opening the fridge. "The options are… tofu, tofu, tofu… er… some vegetables, and more tofu. Sorry Rae," Garfield repapered, looking rather sheepish. "We could go out for dinner if you like. Bertucci's sound good?"
"Yeah, that sounds nice." Raven gently dropped Timber on the couch and followed Garfield as he grabbed his coat from the rack.
"After dinner we can go shopping, okay? I still need to buy some stuff for Victor and I'm guessing that you still need to, too." He winked and held the door as she followed him out.
"…" Raven didn't reply, instead wrapping her scarf around her throat and lower face to block out the bite of he wind as they headed out into the street.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Garfield grinned as the two climbed carefully into his car.
Dinner turned out to be entirely enjoyable. The restaurant was warm and the food was pretty good. Garfield told Raven about different and complicated cases he'd run into in his years as a vet and in return, Raven filled him in on some stories she had been thinking about writing.
"Then why don't you?" Garfield asked as Raven finished explaining to him about different characters.
"Why don't I what?" Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Write that story. I mean, you have so many great ideas for books, but no one's going to know them if you don't write them down."
"I try, it's just… I can never get myself just to sit down and begin to write, and after a while, the story just slips away."
"Well then I guess you're just going to have to force yourself to write then, because the story you just told me is way to good to waste." Garfield stated as he twirled his spoon around in the chocolate sundae he had ordered. Raven simply shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her herbal tea.
"Here's your check, have a nice day." In a matter of minutes the two were standing once more on the street and heading off toward the shopping district of the city. They passed shops lit up with bright colored lights, displaying in their windows the different merchandise they had to offer.
"Hmm, do you think Richard would like something like this?" Raven asked as she peered through one of the windows at a book on advanced karate moves. Garfield bent down to get a closer look at what Raven was pointing to.
"Yeah, he probably would, even though he might know some of the moves, I bet he would like it a lot." He grinned as he turned to Raven. "You should get it for him."
Raven nodded and straightened up, the loose braid the she had placed her hair in swinging, gently brushing her back. Garfield straightened as well and was about to follow her into the shop when something caught is eye. A smile formed on his lips before he followed Raven into the store.
Raven had already selected the book she wanted and was currently paying for it as Garfield half-hearted browsed the graphic novel section, flipping through a randomly selected book, something about a dog demon and time-traveling girl, or something like that, Garfield wasn't really sure.
"Garfield?" Raven called softly from the door. "Are you coming?"
"Of course, Rae. Hold on one sec," Garfield rapidly stuffed the book back on the shelf and hurried to Raven's side. "There's something I want to show you." He whispered as they stepped out the door.
"What?" Garfield gently pulled her slightly to the side and drew her against him, before glancing up, getting her to do the same. Above them hung a sprig that held delicate round, green leaves and small white berries. Mistletoe. Raven blushed as her eyes met Gar's again. He grinned and carefully rubbed his nose against hers before descending and gently pressing his lips against hers. Raven's eyes flickered close as their mouths met gently. A warm sensation coursed through her small body and she sighed softly as Garfield pulled away after a moment, searching her face for a response.
Raven looked at him once more, her arms resting lightly on his forearms, her cheeks flushed, but no longer simply from the cold. A smile danced, playing with the shadows that the brightly colored lights cast across their forms. Garfield returned her smile before they continued on, their gloved hands linked, searching for more gifts for their friends.
X
"Thanks Kori, I've always wanted…err… a pair of… umm… what are they?" Garfield asked as he inspected the odd looking lumps in front of him. The pink and orange colored oddities could've been gloves except for the fact that they were covered with holes and were attached at would have been the hole for the index finger.
"Why, they are Grenmaks. They are very special where I come from and are used on the day of Hibnata to scare off the Ozzinacks!" Kori laughed as Garfield picked it up and grinned.
"Thanks, really. They're… awesome." Richard chuckled and shook his head as his girlfriend clapped her hands in childish amusement.
"All right, it's Raven's turn to open a gift. This one's from Victor, Rae," Garfield said as he handed the dark girl a small package, neatly wrapped and tied carefully.
Raven opened the small package to find an assortment of different types of exotic herbal teas. "Wow, thanks. These are great." Raven thanked her friend earnestly. "I haven't heard of half of them, they look good." She smiled and relaxed against Garfield's legs as he gently stroked her hair, his fingers gently tangling in her soft, dark locks.
"Here," Raven pulled another gift from the small pile and tossed it to Victor. "From me."
Victor grinned and tore the wrapping paper open, finding a book titled '101 Ways To Fix a Remote.' Victor laughed.
"This is great Raven. You have no idea how many times I've broken that damn controller."
"Actually, Gar filled me in." Raven smiled, glad that Victor liked her gift so much.
All in all, the rest of the day went well for the friends. Kori received a delicately entwined gold necklace with a small, jeweled cat dangling at the bottom from Richard, along with many other little trinkets she had told her friends she was interested in. Garfield got his tofu cookbook, and to his delight, a promise that Raven would make any recipe he wanted. Robin got an assortment of different books and tapes, all having to do with fighting techniques and even got a silver wristwatch from Kori. Victor got different things on electronics and gadgets he could repair or make. Garfield got animal related things, including a small stuffed animal from Victor of a cat that slightly resembled Timber. Raven received simpler things, a book on meditation from Richard and a specially made blanket from Kori. However, the final gift she got surpassed the others. Garfield presented her with a beautifully crafted ring, black gold lacing around a black stone on which was carved a raven, spreading its wings as if about to leap into flight. The day ended in good spirits, everyone tired but happy, each having received wonderful gifts.
X
Richard glared at the computer screen in front of him angrily. Really, how did Slade do it? There would be no sighting of him, none at all for a month and then… and then he was there, back again with another insane plot that, in a twisted way made perfect sense. "There has to be something…" he growled as he scanned the files. There was always something.
X
Garfield and Raven wound their way through the throngs of college students weaving back and forth and placing last minute items on their projects. "It's just over here…" Garfield pulled Raven with him over to one of the tables in the back of the room. There, a young man with shoulder length black hair was dropping some fish food into a tank filled with brightly colored fish, swimming lazily about. "Here we are." Garfield grinned as the man turned.
"So there you are, Gar. I was wondering if you were going to show." His long face split into a grin as he patted his cousin on the shoulder. "And who would this be?" he asked as he noticed Raven.
"This is my girlfriend, Raven. Raven this is my cousin, we call him Aqualad, his parents have even started addressing him that way, because he knows everything there is to be known about sea creatures. Right dude?" Though Garfield was older than his cousin, he was not taller. Aqualad stood a about a head over him. His face was proud but kind and he wore a lot of blue, Raven concluded that it was from his like of the ocean.
"It's nice to meet you, Gar's told me a lot about you." Aqualad smiled as he shook Raven's hand.
"You too. So… what is your science project."
Aqualad grinned and turned once more to the fish tank. "It's a way to understand what fish are thinking about, it has to do with the bubbles they create and how they move. It's all written down here." He picked up a book and handed it to Raven who flipped through it before nodding.
"Interesting. So the whole ocean thing is like an… obsession?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah, you could call it that, but I'm nothing compared to my science teacher, really, if you met him, you would know the origin of obsession."
"He's that bad?" Raven asked. Before Aqualad answered a loud voice boomed across the room.
"Yes, this is all very… interesting. But what does it have to do with LIGHT!" The three turned and saw a girl cowering slightly in front of the man who had spoken.
"Err… Professor, um light wasn't in-"
"For the last time child, it's not professor, it's Doctor Light! LIGHT has everything to do with science. Haven't you heard of the speed of LIGHT, or maybe you simply underestimate the power of LIGHT. You fail!" The man started to laugh as the girl backed away slowly.
"Professor Lumen, what are you doing here?" The science teacher turned to face the judges of the science fair, their glasses resting on their noses, each baring an expression of cold distain.
"I was simply telling this girl that her project was not suitable because it did not include LIGHT!"
"Well, yes, that is all very well and good, but erm, we are the judges and shall make those decisions." The man who was obviously in charge sniffed, his hands clasping a clipboard tightly. Behind him the two other judges nodded, one, a tall woman with a grey bun set on top of her head coughed scornfully. "I think it best if you leave professor.''
"Yes, very well. But sending me away will not save you from the power of LIGHT! You shall never be able to block it out. Never!" And with that final statement, the man left.
"Well, I see what you mean." Garfield said as he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "That guy has issues."
Raven nodded, her eyebrows raised in half shock, half amusement.
X
"Raven, could I talk to you?" Kori asked as she plopped down on the couch next to Raven. The windows were shut against the cold, pounding rains the March threw at the earth.
Raven glanced up from her book, eye's and attention fixed upon her friend. "Yeah, sure Kori."
"Well, you see, I.. well that is Richard invited me to live with him, in his apartment. I said that I would very much like to, but I wanted to make sure that it was okay with you first. I don't want you to be lonely here, and if you wish it, I can remain here with you."
Raven smiled slightly. She had been expecting this for some time, Kori and Richard had been growing constantly closer, as she and Gar had been. It would only have been a matter of time before Richard asked her. "No, it's fine. It was nice of you to ask if I would mind, and I don't. I'm happy for you." Raven gave her friend a small smile.
"Oh thank you!" Kori squealed as she embraced Raven, squeezing the air out of her friend before she released her. "I'm so glad!" Raven simply nodded and returned to her reading. The phone rang and Kori bounced up to answer it. "It's for you!" she called to Raven.
"lo?" Raven picked up with receiver.
"Hi, how about a walk?"
"Hello Gar. In the rain?"
"Yeah, it'll be fun!"
"I'm comfortable here."
"Ah, stop denying yourself the pleasures of nature. Besides, I have an umbrella.
"All hail the umbrella god."
"Ouch, easy with the sarcasm there Rae. Okay, I'll throw in hot chocolate and herbal tea at my place afterwards. What do you say to that."
"…"
"Good! I'll be over in two seconds."
"Wait, I never said-"
"beeeeeeeeeeeep" The dial tone interrupted her.
"Looks like I'm going out Kori." Raven sighed as she set the phone down and got up from the couch stretching. She headed toward her bedroom to pull on some warmer clothes as Kori simply grinned and nodded.
"All right Raven."
To Be Continued…
I intened this chapter to be longer and then thought better of it, so all the other stuff will be in next chapter. I know a lot of you are probably saying that Aqualad is older than Gar, but I really wanted to get Dr. Light in there and a science fair struck me as the best way. I'm sorry it took so long to get this out, after I cam back from Seattle, I kind of wrote in bits and pieces, going a lot slower than I usually do. Alright, well, till next time then, and remember to REVIEW!
-cookiesandmilk.