Disclaimer of doom: Teen Titans is so super duper not mine. Bother and confound it all!
Winner Takes All
Chapter Six: Sweet Raven
It seemed to be a general understanding between each of the five titans that the words of Red X were not to be mentioned and that any questions concerning the resident Raven were to be withheld.
Or else.
As Raven was very, very good at maintaining a rather frigid air of 'Or else', no one felt it worth risking his or her life to find out what would most likely at best be a very vague explanation that left them both at the mercy of her wrath and just as clueless as they began.
So decided, they continued functioning as usual and as it was morning, the usual thing to do was to have breakfast. Today they ate out at what had become their customary breakfasting location and did what they normally did over the morning meal...
"Moonlight Stroll!" Beast Boy suggested, munching on some tofu bacon. Amethyst eyes turned to him and told him he was wrong and if he doubted their meaning, the head holding the eyes shook curtly at him.
"Strangers in the Night," the dark girl said and Beast Boy let out an exasperated exhale.
"That's the fourth one in a row! It's not fair," the changeling complained. The empath arched an eyebrow.
"It's not my fault some of us are more musically informed than others." At this, Beast Boy proceeded to transform into kitten form and seek soothing from a mildly confused Starfire who relented and scratched behind his ears. He didn't really require such attentions, but he figured if he could, then why not, right?
"Shhh, a new one's starting," Robin waved his hand in a shushing manner. They quieted. Starfire looked up as though she might see the song written somewhere while Cyborg's brows knit together in contemplation and Beast Boy scrunched his face in befuddlement, still a kitten on Star's lap. Robin tapped his chin thoughtfully and Raven never changed her expression or position at all even if she did find Robin making said 'shushing' motion rather funny—he looked like an irate librarian or something.
"Moonlight Stroll?" Beast Boy tried again.
"No, Beast Boy," Robin said quickly, noticing Raven bristle at their friend's incorrigible insistence.
"An American in Paris?" Raven supposed out loud but then changed her mind and went back to analyzing the instrumental version of whatever old song was playing.
The titans sat in what could only be described as a diner, having foregone the age old battle of tofu versus meat. It so happened that this was a place that always played old movie soundtracks, each track from a different cinematic classic. They were all instrumental however and after a few times of coming and going, the teens had started a bit of a friendly game as they waited for their food: guess the song and keep count yourself since if you're ahead or behind no one else will tell you and if that happens, too bad about it for you!—the latter part of the instructions came from Raven who instilled them after a rather short-tempered breakfast when argument broke out over who had what points.
They had paid in dish washing for damages.
This day was going by pretty docilely though, the count being Raven-4, Beast Boy-3, Cyborg-2, Starfire-1 (by what means she knew the song, none of them were quite sure but happy enough to let her take the point since as it turned out, none of them had known it until she said it), and Robin-4.
It was not an unusual score.
"Une autre d'ete," Robin finally said with an impeccable French accent and the others—save Raven—groaned as they realized he was right. Raven settled for her trademark scowl. Robin was ahead by one now.
She hated to lose nearly as much as he did as ascertained in recent events.
Picking up the teaspoon at her right, she clanged it absently against the side of her mug, tea steaming as the teabag steeped, sugar dissolving in bursts. While this song finished the titans resumed their meal, their 'fast breaking' as Starfire so joyously referred to it. Cyborg had waffles—as if that was a surprise. Beast Boy had something that looked like eggs but definitely wasn't. Starfire...well, Starfire's plate was a veritable smorgasbord of things that wouldn't regularly go on a normal smorgasbord with a debatably unhealthy amount of mustard. Robin had coffee and toast.
And Raven...
Herbal tea, she thought with a slight mental smile. The very routine of it gave her peace of mind, however brief.
"The Girl from Ipanema?" Cyborg threw out as another song began. Starfire turned.
"Is she your friend?" the Tameranian asked, glancing around for a sign of this 'Ipanema-ian'. The name sounded as odd as hers.
"No Star, it's just another song," Beast Boy clarified—having turned himself back to normal in order to eat with a fork rather than his hands—and when her face dropped a bit he patted her on the shoulder briefly, at which she smiled. In his own way, Beast Boy could be as sympathetic as the next guy—well, the next guy who could turn into a 300,000 pound whale and the like.
"In the mood," Raven said, staring over the rim of her mug.
"For romance?" Robin added lightly. This elicited a perplexed look from Starfire and two suspicious ones from the tin man and the green one that Robin took casual care to pretend he didn't notice.
"Glen Miller wrote it; it's one of the most popular of its era," she said, ignoring him blithely. After a bit of an awkward silence, Beast Boy took it upon himself to bring a matter of utmost importance back to the center of attention.
"Okay, chalks up to you and Raven being tied, next song is the last song," he said in a cheesy officiator's tone and while Raven rolled her eyes, she honed her ears to pick up the incoming tune with rabid focus.
Cyborg lifted his hand for the check while Starfire questioned Beast Boy as to why her use of mustard on everything from a blueberry muffin to watercress was so strange and Robin—sitting across from Raven—stared at her to a point of unsettling her.
Not that she showed it, but he could feel it. Their bond could be quite handy. When he could not read her face and she wasn't putting mental slabs up between him and her, he could often sense what she was thinking or feeling, if not see it plainly on her face.
The song ended, and guesses began...
"Moonlight Stroll?" a small voice ventured in jest.
"NO!" all the others chorused. Beast Boy cringed. Okay, bad joke. More silence...
"Ai no fugue, or Fugue in G minor," Robin smirked in blatant triumph as Raven glowered.
She pointedly sipped at her tea.
"And the winner—" Beast Boy's grand announcer spiel blotted itself out as quickly as it had come when he felt the burning stare of amethyst eyes attack him with an expression along the lines of 'I'll tear you to pieces and then sew you together and bathe you in acid if you don't shut up...now'. The shape shifter gave a very forced, extremely nervous laugh and wrapped it up with, "—doesn't really matter because we're done! Time to go home!" His voice cracked on the last sentence and after one more deciding peek at a simmering Raven, he shot out of the booth and the others followed at a more leisurely pace.
Robin walked too close to Raven for her liking as they too exited the diner.
"Like I said, you're a sore loser," he poked at the middle of her back and she flinched.
"Egoist," she shot back, not sparing him her usual sideways glare.
"If you've got it, flaunt it," Robin grinned.
"Yeah, you've got it...got a whole lot of nothing," she muttered under her breath. Unfortunately for her, her leader was feeling particularly cheeky today and had heard her mutter.
"A lot of nothing that it would not hurt you to explore," he tossed the remark over his shoulder as he decided that seeking hasty haven in walking between Starfire and Cyborg was wise when he noticed some dark energy began to fizzle around Raven's clenched hands.
She exhaled roughly. Stupid bird boy. Stupid mask. Stupid masked boys! X...stupid kiss.
Her mind flashed on the kiss, making her squirm unusually. Robin caught a glimpse of that thought but she quickly stuffed it back behind her ears where it belonged before he could really see that's he was, in fact, dwelling on it.
Still, he had an idea.
His eyes scowled behind his mask. Damnable creation, he thought sourly.
Raven dwelled behind her protective mental shields on Red and his actions. It had been strange to have the thief kiss her, on a physical note because he still wore his mask and on another note because there had been such unexpected gentleness in it. Odd though, the mask had seemed to melt away with the gesture and then meld back when he retreated from her. She had later suspected him of having altered the suit.
Very soon after that, she worked hard to meditate the very thought of why or how or when or what, concerning both X and Robin, out of her mind completely, to little avail as when one was gone the other inevitably resurfaced.
And of course there was still the matter of Slade's ability to control her powers, on a darker note—well, not control them, but stifle them, which was in ways, just as bad.
She altered her previous thought: stupid masked men.
There was an instant in which she considered pulling out her hair to relieve the mental hurricane blowing through but thought better of it, calming in time to keep from blowing up the corner store and refrain from sending a few renegade buses off without their drivers.
I am in control, she told herself.
A nearby hydrant exploded. A few civilians yelped in surprise and leapt back.
The titans stared back at Raven, quizzically. Pushing past them in a mood that had the very clear air of 'leave me alone if you don't want to die a very painful death or have me ingest your soul', she proceeded to melt into the shadows of a conveniently placed alley, headed on a direct course for the tower.
Cyborg watched her go and then, a light went off in his head. He turned to Robin.
"What'd you do, man?" he asked. Robin shrugged. "Come on, don't play dumb. I've been watching you," he gave a warning look.
"Don't know what you're talking about Cy," he said easily and added, "Maybe it's that time of the month."
Robin twitched as he thought he felt something sting and hit him. He looked around to find nothing...
Ah, he recognized the source now as a familiar voice crept into his mind by the sharp tips of her nails.
I heard that you dolt, she whispered threateningly, pacing like mad in his brain and using a tenor that said that if what he meant by 'that time of the month' was that time of the month when all Robins had to be careful not to lose their heads due to pigheaded behavior, then yes, it was.
If he meant anything else, it wasn't.
Robin chuckled—seemingly to himself in front of the other titans who shot him questioning stares. (Laughing to yourself was strictly a villain's protocol.)
"It's nothing," he assured them as they all piled into the T car to go back. Cyborg sighed, not believing him for a second but let it go. Starfire remained silent, a bit of worry gracing her usually carefree features and Beast Boy—he had waited for them after having fled from a questionably irritable Raven minutes before—held his tongue as they made their way home.
I'll show you nothing, she spat in Robin's mind again and he winced as he felt her throw up what seemed like several hundred walls of mental steel, successfully blocking him and ejecting him out of her mind entirely.
Ow, his mind recoiled and he was positive that he heard the echo of a feminine snicker.
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"I presume you were successful," one eye stared unblinkingly at the skull mask.
"Was there ever any doubt?" the thief replied, arrogance seeping out shamelessly.
"There is always room for doubt, young one. Remember that," the equally confident voice said with an unrivaled coldness.
"I'll file it under a need-to-know heading," X smirked, unfazed and tossed something at his employer who caught it effortlessly.
"Good, good. You may leave." It was all but an order.
"Payment?" X queried. The one eye scrutinized him.
"Very well. You may be of further use yet," the cold voice had taken on a bored tone suddenly that X found somewhat offensive—he was far from boring after all—but disregarded when a pouch fell at his feet. Picking it up, he unzipped it to find several clips of various bills and nodded.
"I'll be around." And he disappeared.
Slade admired that about the boy, definitely—his stealth, his ability, his confidence, his willingness to do most anything for a suitable price. Yes, these were traits he could manipulate to his liking, the traits of Robin's uninhibited side that the sordid villain had tried to harness within the boy wonder, but could not.
Hence, the hiring of Red X. He was if anything, Robin's equal and rival, or better, since he didn't seem to think twice about fighting with antiheroic tactics, had no trouble playing dirty.
Slade took a moment to examine the parcel X had retrieved for him from the warehouses—apparently it had been in the last one after all—and concluded that he was on the right path. Not able to read into what was uncertain, Slade often had to go on very educated guesses and while he was more often than not dead on, there were times when he was not.
He was glad to know this time was not one of the latter.
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Rain clouds rolled through starting at mid afternoon and spreading into the early evening. The plan was to watch a movie.
"Sci-fi," Cyborg put in.
"Fantasy," Starfire suggested.
"Supernatural...or comedy, comedy is always good!" Beast Boy chimed in.
"Action," Robin said, predictable but amusing nonetheless.
They turned to Raven who gave them all a blank stare before returning to her latest literary feed, The Brothers Karamazov by Vladimir Nabokov. It was a small but very thick novel that Beast Boy theorized to weigh about one ton, no more, no less.
"Aw, come on Raven," he sidled up next to her. Her eyes moved sideways. Beast Boy promptly decided a sideways Raven glare was much scarier than her usual straightforward glower and quickly sidled back in the opposite direction.
The empath was touchy today, no doubt.
"I have an idea," Robin said as if it has just occurred to him. Raven had a bad feeling he had actually been planning this and let herself sink even deeper into the couch, if that was possible.
"What is it, friend Robin?" Starfire inquired brightly, moving closer to him.
Raven did her very utmost not to care.
So what if Robin had made some painfully obvious advances on herself lately? That didn't mean she had a claim on the boy wonder, hardly. In fact, she told herself stubbornly that she didn't even want a claim on such a cocky, colorblind...
"GLORIOUS!" her mental tirade cracked as Starfire's voice chirped in an intensely merry fashion. Apparently, Raven mused, I missed the big idea.
Shucks.
"What do you think, friend Raven?" Starfire asked, hope glimmering in her eyes unabashedly at the bookworm as Raven squirmed for a way out of whatever the Tameranian was referring to, while simultaneously doing her best to be blind to the redhead's subtly territorial hand on Robin's shoulder.
I don't care, Raven told herself. I haven't even given him an answer, not like I'm going to anyway...she forced her mental barrage away.
"About what, Star?" she asked, forcing both a monotone and a deadpan—they were somewhat different in her opinion and when combined, she sounded particularly intimidating.
Unfortunately, it seemed, tonight was one of those nights that found Starfire oblivious to such specially perfected inflection, as became evident when she answered just as joyously as before, if not more so.
"Dancing!" the alien girl twirled with a smile so innocent, Raven could not maintain the same level of irritation she had been working at.
Still, that by no means meant she would agree to such a heinous activity.
"No," she said.
"No?" It was Robin's turn to ask the questions.
"No, thank you?" Raven responded, annoyance flashing anew at the boy wonder's dubious tone. What was he thinking? He didn't honestly believe she would ever have agreed to...
"You're going," Robin said with an adequately vexing mishmash of sternness and arrogance.
Cyborg and Beast Boy took a shared moment of prudence and backed up a good ten feet. Beast Boy motioned for Starfire to join them who, while confused a tad, did so. Cyborg made a subtle gesture at the black rivulets of power crackling around the increasingly aggravated Raven and Starfire nodded in understanding.
This might get ugly.
"I'll do as I please," Raven gave him a warning look.
If you push me, this face is the last thing you'll see before I send you packing to Hell, she sent him that thought faster than one of Speedy's arrows.
To her further exasperation, he seemed to pay no heed to her caveat.
"You'll have fun," the boy wonder insisted.
"I don't—" she began.
"...yes you do," he cut her off. She sizzled.
Jerk, she shot mentally.
Of all trades, my lady, he returned, discovering a gap in her mental barriers and then to the horror of everyone around him he said aloud:
"Come on Raven, afraid of nightlife?"
It was blatant mockery of her.
Beast Boy slapped his forehead in a 'Dude, no!' kind of way, and Cyborg and averted his eyes, while Starfire's eyes simply widened to the size of fishbowls. Raven's energy escalated frighteningly causing quite the momentous pandemonium: the lights going on and off, the alarm sounding and then cutting out, the toaster blowing up (who knew they had a toaster?) and a few unimportant but breakable objects shattering as well as a certain masked leader's cape bursting with black flame. Whipping it off his shoulders, Robin smote the fire.
He figured Raven's glow to be a different sort than the kind he hoped to have her experiencing some day when all the coasters started to smack him in succession—that is of course, until there were none left, and there were not too many, for which Robin was very thankful for.
And while the wisest of men would know better than to plow on so recklessly, Robin was beyond wisdom tonight. They were going out and Raven would go with them. He watched her until her fury diminished, the lights settling for their previous status of 'on' and the alarm fading out completely as the pieces of various exploded things fell with clatters and pings to the floor. Her fiery violet eyes spared him a scathing look before she shut them fiercely, reigned in all of her emotions—particularly Rage—and floated past him coughing out a disgruntled, "Fine."
Cyborg's jaw dropped. Starfire beamed in what could only be what she would call 'the look of utterly joyful surprise'. Beast Boy tilted his head, not quite comprehending all that had just happened and Robin just looked at them like they had all grown four heads each.
They checked each other, just in case, and then shot one joint stare at him; even Starfire seemed curious.
"What?" he asked. When none of them answered he said thoughtfully, "You guys going out like that?" He indicated the chef's hat on Cyborg's head from making dinner that night, then the pajamas Beast Boy was sporting and finally added specifically to Starfire, "Wear something you can dance in," for clarification.
The various titans dispersed and Robin swept up the remains of one of his thirty-three capes—now thirty-two—before going to change clothes himself. Just because he usually dressed like a traffic light (according to Raven) didn't mean that was all he owned. If one asked him, he would have just told them he had a thing for the primary colors of light, which in a twisted, passé way, made sense, as the empath would tell him one day, half amused and half incredulous.
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Raven steamed as they all rode in the T car.
Just because she had consented to this preposterous outing did not mean the same as her consent to enjoy it.
She had made it a point to pick the seat furthest from Robin and when Beast Boy tried to claim shotgun she slipped past him and fastened the seat belt over her with a severe finality to her actions. Beast Boy proceeded to the back of the car to sit next to Starfire who sat happily next to Robin. Cyborg, of course, drove.
Like he would allow anyone else...ha! Letting his cybernetic eye wander, he noted the expressions of the two birds on the team and his inward sigh was something along the lines of amused. Would they ever get it together? Sometimes he wondered. But in small ways Raven was letting her leader get closer to her, small ways that while others just saw as weird, Cyborg saw as pivotal: for instance, her going out with them tonight. No one had really seen her agreement coming, much less the change of clothes.
Raven never changed what she wore except to wash and even then, well, obviously it was the exact same thing.
Tonight, though, she wore a sleeveless leotard with form-fitting jeans and gloves that left her fingers exposed. It wasn't a severe change, but obvious at the same time and if one looked closely when she moved her head, one would catch a glimpse of red sparkle that came from the simple jeweled earrings she donned—the same red as the gem on her forehead.
The cape stayed as Raven had complete disregard for whatever ways it may or may not have gone with what she had changed into, but that was expected. No one mentioned it just as no one mentioned the irate state she continued to be in once they arrived at the club.
"What takes so long? If they're of age, let them in, if not then send them home," Raven growled. The line was not long...just long enough to give her another reason to be unhappy. She figured at this point she was coming off as a bit whiny but this was not her idea and she could not for the life of her understand what had possessed her to agree to come out tonight.
You know, a pink cape flapped at her, giggling.
You shut up and no, I don't, she told it flatly.
You can't hide me away forever, Rae-Rae, it teased. Her inner true self twitched at repeat of the childish nickname given to her by the boy blunder and now coined by what she considered to be her most frivolous of sides.
We'll see about that, she told the fluttering version of herself and brought herself back to what was going on again in the outside world...still waiting in the line apparently. She stifled another complaint but could not quite contain the grumble.
"Patience is a virtue," Robin whispered in her ear.
She jumped.
He laughed.
She glared.
"What makes you think I care about virtues anyway?" she retorted with an inordinate amount of sauciness before shoving her ID card at the bouncer and then icily storming past him. It should be noted that the bouncer had no intention of stopping the crazy, purple-eyed sorceress whether she was of age or not. She rather and completely terrified the man.
The titans felt a little bad for the bouncer. After all, it one didn't live with Raven, one wouldn't know that she had no intention of killing them, even if her expression said otherwise.
Robin followed her volatile figure and the others trailed behind him at a decidedly measured ten paces back, wary still of Raven's next possible outburst.
Said girl found herself a seat at the bar with at least three seats between her and the next person, whoever that was and tried to get comfortable. She had come out, yes. She had changed clothes, yes. But she would absolutely under no circumstances...
"Hey sexy, dance with me," a confident voice said, and she was about to tell Robin to not test his limits beyond where they already dangerously teetered tonight when she realized something: the voice asking her to dance was not Robin's at all. She looked up, puzzled by a stranger coming on to her, much less practically ordering her to dance with him. His eyes were an unnamed color, perhaps too much of a mix to be any one of them, and his build was slender but muscular, evident through the fitted t-shirt. The hair that fell in wisps over his eyes was a sandy blond at best and probably more like the sand than the blond in normal light. She strained to figure if she knew this person.
"Don't call me that," she said finally and looked away, deciding she didn't know him.
"Come on. Take a chance, sexy," he flattered her brazenly with the repeated compliment and ignored her order, grabbing her hands to pull a sputtering Raven to the center of the lively club's dance floor.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with," she menaced him with her darkest glare of the day—which was saying something it should be realized—and continued to resist. He spun her out of his arms and back into them in a strange modernized version of a waltz that only worked with the industrial tech music blaring through the speakers by some strange grace of God or the stranger's undeniable skill.
Stubbornly, Raven was ready to believe in God first.
The music got to a point where she realized she'd been out there for more than five minutes and she finally relented, letting him lead, and her natural grace flowed through her steps as she matched him move for move. His voice reached her through the incessant beat of the catchy tune flooding the room.
"See, is this so bad?" he dipped her, a strong arm cradling the small of her back.
"I'm here," she stated blandly as ever and the stranger chuckled at her refusal to give him a straight answer.
Now remember, the stranger and the Raven had chosen the center of the room. Well, the stranger had chosen and the Raven had after a time, submitted. As such, their unusual style of dancing to the contemporary music had drawn attentions from not only surrounding patrons of the club, but the other members of her team as well.
Particularly a blue eyed one with a mask of white to cover said blueness. And Robin felt the beginnings of what X had awakened in him the other night: jealousy, possessiveness, and fear that someone else might snatch her away. It had all been rather akin to the cliché of fun and games when it started with their chess match; he had been under the impression that though it would take time to get to her, he could win her over eventually and this had been okay with him. Now, what with Red X and this...whoever he was, dancing with Raven so fluidly, he wasn't so certain that time was all he needed to claim her heart.
Winner takes all, Robin mused gently, watching as the admittedly attractive young man looped his arms about Raven and then twirled her out in three-quarter time that somehow managed to go with the fast-paced rave music that blasted around them. Pushing jealousy aside—or running with it, he wasn't certain which it was—Robin strode to the dancing pair.
"Mind if I cut in?" Robin tried to be polite.
The stranger did not hesitate with his answer.
"Actually, I do," he said.
"Sorry then, it's very important," Robin said in a voice that suggested he wasn't sorry at all to the blond man and with a grace learned from years of training of all kinds, he caught Raven's free hand, pulling her away in time with the song playing overhead.
"What was that?" Raven asked as Robin spun her inward.
"Protecting my interests," Robin replied smoothly. Raven did not respond to this but she did not retreat back to the bar either.
Not for the next song, or the next.
Not for the next five songs actually.
And the two might have continued all night together but for an innocent request.
"Friend Robin, would you join me in the next of the dances?" Starfire asked, glowing with the recent exercise of dancing around regardless of whether she had a partner or not—which she usually did, being so amiable. Robin paused but Raven pushed him into the alien's arms...well practically. It was more of a slight tap in her direction as if to indicate that he should, and therefore he would.
"Sure Star," he said uncertainly, glancing over his shoulder once before Star had him lost in another part of the moving crowd. Raven sighed. Earlier she had felt envious of Star's mere hand on his shoulder and now she was feeling guilty about everything that was so much more than a handhold that she, herself, had done with Robin and unhappily aware of Star's ignorance to it.
Her head pounded suddenly and not for the first time, she knew that she did not like or understand her recent rollercoaster of emotional fluctuation.
That on her mind, she stepped out of a side door of the club, letting the cool air of 3 AM settle around her. She sniffed curiously. Was that smoke?
"Hey sexy," someone greeted from her side and she recognized the blond man from earlier.
"My name is Raven," she deadpanned and eyed the cigarette that was lazily hanging out of the stranger's mouth with obvious distaste.
"Not much for smoke?" the stranger asked out of the unoccupied corner of his mouth.
"Not much for cancer," she clarified. He laughed at her and spit out the column of white, smothering it beneath the heel of his red sneakers. "Nice shoes," she said in a monotone that would have meant indifference coming from anyone else.
"Thanks, I think so too," he said conversationally and then, "Raven huh?"
"So?" she got the feeling he was insinuating there was something wrong with her name.
"So...is there a last name that goes with that?" the left side of his mouth quirked upward in a sort of crooked grin that, for some reason, only enhanced his good looks.
"Not for you to know," Raven said. He nodded his assent, to her surprise and to her relief. He wasn't going to press her for it, it seemed. Ten points.
"What brings you here?" he did keep trying to talk to her though. Minus twenty.
"That is a bad line," she told him. He shrugged.
"Maybe so, but I'm a nosy guy. What brings you here?" he didn't even bother to try and rephrase it.
"Stubborn friends," she answered him after a moment's worth of deciding between that and something far more callous, directed specifically on pinning the whole night on a masked leader of hers.
"I see," he acknowledged her response and leaned against the brick wall of the building.
"Yourself?" she felt it only polite to inquire the same thing.
"Boredom," he paused, "And you."
Raven's head shot up from looking at the ground and she threw a probing stare at him.
"What? You don't even know me."
"I do," he countered.
"Then why ask me my name?" she challenged.
"I didn't ask. You offered," he corrected her.
If Raven hated anything as much as losing, it was being corrected by someone more stubborn than she was.
"I think I would remember a person so incurably egotistical," she said flippantly and then pretended to look at a watch she did not own. "Oh look at the time, I find myself remembering I have to wash my hair tonight," she drawled in a way that she hoped annoyed him and began to walk away. He followed.
"What about your friends?"
"They know the way home."
"Won't they be worried?"
"Why do you care?"
"I don't," he admitted.
"Leave me alone." It was not a request.
"This is no way to treat an old friend," he teased her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Hands off, stranger," she glowered, finally losing her cool.
"Whoa, simmer there doll face," he smirked and her glower dropped.
Oh, stupid, stupid, stupid! Her many selves fought with each other, particularly Wisdom wielding a 2 by 4 from goodness only knows where and Happy with what must have been a distant cousin to a candy cane—which was odd not because it resembled a confectionary, but because typically Happy didn't fight at all; it wasn't her style.
But her emotions were having a free for all now that she realized that knew that voice, though it wasn't distorted as usual...once she realized how well she knew that arrogant stance.
That absurdly cocky line.
"X!" she did not hesitate to throw a trashcan at him with her telepathic abilities. He dodged it, of course.
"Mm, not the warm welcome I'd hoped for but you know what they say about the best laid plans I'm sure," X grinned at her as he continued to evade her attacks, fueled by a reinvigorated upset.
"You dare to come near me after that show at the docks," she seethed.
"What?" his eyes flickered with puzzlement before they regained their conceited luster, "Oh I know, the kiss!" His fake forgetfulness only fueled her temper.
Oh and what a temper she had...
X ducked what looked like it might have once been a motorcycle, but one couldn't really tell after it hit the wall behind him.
"What's the matter, Raven," he asked and flipped behind her adding in a hushed timbre, "In denial?"
"Never," she spat and with surprising strength actually reached behind her and flipped him over, having him land to her satisfaction, on his back and very much on the ground.
"—more," he quipped audaciously, rolling out of the way as she sent the fire escape crashing down where he had just previously lain. There was a flurry of noise and the side door of the club burst open as Robin and the other titans rushed out. Taking that as his cue to disappear, X sped toward Raven and with a grunt grabbed her by the waist, shooting up onto the nearest roof, by way of a gadget that had Raven wondering where he hid the damn thing.
"Imbecile," she pushed away from him. He feigned hurt.
"Just wanted a more private goodbye," he said and added, "Besides, the mask was in our way last time, my new alterations to its ability to meld aside." With that he pressed his lips on hers, more forceful this time...more sensual...and warm, biting softly on her lower lip before he made himself stop just in time to see the titans reach the roof as well. "Until next time, sweet Raven!" he shouted and did what very possibly, he did best: jumped off the roof and disappeared.
He didn't see the hollow look that had captured Raven's face with his parting words.
Sweet Raven.
Only one man had...one dragon...had ever called her that.
She shivered.
Unintentionally, Red X had brought back bad memories, old insecurities and fears for the empath and she found herself dropping to her knees.
Arms embraced her.
She collapsed into them, not caring whose they were but aware of the familiarity of the kind pressure they put upon her as they pulled her more into them. They were Robin's, but who else would dare? She was dimly sentient to his voice, but only just.
"Who was that? Was that the guy? Did he hurt you?" Robin asked both as urgently and as tenderly as possible. She nodded vacantly and Robin tried to search her mind as to what she was nodding to, only to find the thickest and most effective of her mental walls yet. "Raven, let me in. Please."
She either did not hear him or refused him, and he could not decide which hurt him more.
"Friend Raven?" Starfire reached out a hand tentatively and in a show of concerned affection, rubbed her hand in a comforting way on the empath's shoulder. Raven looked up at the action to see the wide green eyes look at her with distress, but did not, could not hear anything that was said to her, not even registering her own name.
"Rae?" from Robin again.
"Raven?" from an apprehensive Cyborg.
"Raven!" from a panicking Beast Boy who reached out to her only to have Robin shakes his head at him, halting his show of unconscious affection.
She was too far to hear any of them now.
Why had she let Robin talk her into this? Why had she come out tonight? Why did she wear different clothes? Why did she feel jealous of Starfire even when there was no reason as Robin himself had told her? Why did she try so hard to convince herself she did not want Robin's attention and then find herself wanting more? Why did X kiss her for the second time—to mock her?
Old memories brought anew, she would not put it past him, now blurring the actions of a man from her past with the ones in her present, unfairly if understandably.
Why, when she finally began to let herself believe she could allow Robin's feelings, why did X have to say her name that way?
All those questions starting with the most universally unanswerable of words:
Why?
Sweet Raven.
She desired rage.
Sweet Raven.
Or indifference.
Sweet Raven.
Either would suffice.
Sweet Raven.
But instead she felt her heart shatter again with the false endearment's echo. She saw what she had hoped never to see again: silver, almost white-blue eyes...saw a dragon she once saw as magnificent who, in turn, only saw her as a pawn...saw a beast who despite all his trickery had been the very first to make her feel beautiful instead of creepy, wanted instead of misunderstood and more than all of that: blessedly human.
She remembered Malchior, holding her like a lover...Malchior, disdaining her like a toy, and she saw herself opening up and then losing everything she had opened herself up to.
In one fell swoop, bitter with wings of black.
And suddenly she wanted nothing more than to go home.
Without warning, she disappeared into her soul self, leaving Robin's arms filled with nothing but air.
Thank you for the reviews, friends. Hope this chapter suited. Let me know if you've got a moment. Sorry if it's a tad depressing at the end but I thought first love—from a personal standpoint—would only be a natural thing to have resurface for our beloved empath. That is after all where part of her strengthened fear comes from and keeps hindering her ability to accept Robin or even comprehend X. She remembers being used and as unjust or even unrelated as it seems for her to use that as an excuse to run away or keep defending herself from said advances, it's also very human—a thing she'll notice later, I promise.
Or a certain someone will help her notice.
Sound good?
In any case though, I understand this might be perceived as coming completely out of left field and I can only hope that this does not keep you from enjoying the story/ reading it.
(worried)
Let's see, ahead then: more drollness next time. You all deserve it after that silly and, yes, drama-driven twist my mind would not let me change. I apologize.
Though, I hope the bits of wit in this one were decent too, can't deny some of it I actually like, myself.
Is that a bad thing? Haha. Xx
Hehe. Face made of X's...
-Rei
Oh p.s. special thank you to castle in the air for critiquing this before I posted it. Helped a lot. Stupid typos. Watch, we'll have missed some anyway. Bah. Haha, anywho, thank you and as for everyone who doesn't know the name castle in the air ...go read the stories! Er, well, if you want.
Uh, I like them anyway. gives cookie to castle in the air
Okay, gotta go to work now, probably for the good of everyone else too—seems I'm rambling yet again. Oy.