Disclaimer: Bleh. And then more Bleh. That's really all I own.
A/N: Well, I'm updating. Sorry it's late, I wasn't in the mood for writing. Now to respond to several reviewers that said they didn't think Mammoth was as...perceptive as he was in chapter five. My answer: how would you know? The guy has said a grand total of, like, ten lines throughout the entire series. Not a very reliable source.
And for those of you that still don't believe that, think about Raven. Does she always appear the same around her enemies as she does around her friends? People act differently around different people. And it's my belief that Mammoth isn't as dumb or thick as he lets on. Gizmo on the other hand. . .
Forget this. Read now.
Chapter Six: Dates and Invasions
Terra returned to her room a happy girl. She was fresh and clean, she had on new clothes, and she had just learned the guy she loved liked her back. At least according to Jinx. But hey, some knowledge is better than none at all, right?
Terra walked into her room, still trying to get her long blonde hair to dry. She wanted it to be perfect for her 'date' with X tonight. She really wasn't sure if it was a real date or not, but she didn't know what else to call it.
Closing the door behind her, Terra walked over to her dresser. Her room in the school, once properly decorated, looked very much like her old one in Titans Tower. The walls were painted to resemble mountains during sunset, and stars were painted on the ceiling.
Terra looked in her mirror to inspect her appearance. She was now longer dirty, but was now very clean. The water still glistened off her face. While Terra would have settled to be dirty any other day, she was glad she was clean tonight.
Terra combed her hair, desperately trying to remove some bothersome knots. She looked at what she was wearing while she did so. She was still wearing her usual black and yellow shirt and shorts. Terra wondered if this was acceptable enough for tonight.
'It's probably fine,' Terra reassured herself, grinning. 'It's not like X is going to be wearing anything special!' The masked hero would probably be wearing his usual costume. Terra hoped she could at least try to get his mask off tonight.
She grinned as she thought about his mask. Back when she was a Titan, and not a Reform, she and the others would often debate on what Robin had under his mask while he was gone. Cyborg thought he had a robotic eye, while BB though he just had a bad case of acne. Raven would usually just roll her eyes. Star had always come up with the wildest ideas, of course.
Terra wondered what Red X could be hiding under his own mask. Maybe he was scarred, or maybe his skin was another color entirely, like BB's. Or maybe he didn't have any skin, like Slade! The possibilities were endless!
Terra looked down at her dresser. Lying on top of it was a lone tube of lipstick. After thinking about, Terra pushed it away. That would probably be pushing things.
"Ready yet?" came a voice from above.
"YAH!" Terra screamed, jumping from her chair. She fell over and the chair landed on top of her. Looking around, Terra finally looked up to see her intruder. "Red X?"
"Who else?" X said, jumping form his place on the ceiling. "Were you expecting anyone else?"
"How did you get in?" Terra asked, her eyes wide.
"Air duct," X said, coughing a bit and dusting himself off.
"O-kay..." Terra said. "Well, you seem to be much better already."
"What can I say?" Red X said, shrugging and tilting his head. "I think this is exactly what I needed."
"But why were you in here?" Terra asked, faking anger. "For all you know, I could've been naked!"
"Well, I'll admit, that thought did occur to me," Red X said, grinning behind his mask. "But I figured I was willing to risk it."
"Yeah, you're back to normal," Terra said, smirking. "Back to the fun-loving, anti-serious, slightly perverted Red X we've all come to love."
"Yep," X said, grinning again. "Would you have me any other way?"
"Doubt it," Terra said, grinning. "I'm ready to go, how about you?"
"Good to go," X said, opening the door to her room. "Ladies first!"
"Ooh, what a gentleman," Terra said, smirking at him. She loved jokers. Was it any wonder she had been attracted to BeastBoy before?
The two walked down the main hall until they reached the lobby. They found Mammoth, Gizmo, and Jinx waiting for them there.
"What's up?" Red X asked.
"Just here to wish you luck," Jinx said, smirking slightly. "We'll be sure to contact you if anything goes down around here."
"And I'll have the security system up in no time," Gizmo said, looking up from a pair of wires he was attempting to cut in half. "I'll have this baby shielded before you two even get back from your date."
"Uh..."
"Well, it's..."
"Never mind him," Mammoth said, knocking the midget on the head with a fist, but accidentally knocking him out cold. "Oops..."
"You two just have fun!" Jinx said, pushing the pair out the door. "Like I said, I'll contact you if anything happens." Behind her, Mammoth could be seen trying to wake up Gizmo, but failing horribly.
"Um, okay..." Terra said, looking back. Jinx threw them out the door and slammed it close behind them. She turned to her 'date'. "So, up for pizza?"
"Definitely," Red X said. "My teleportation only works short distance though. Wanna take the X-Car?"
"I got a better idea," Terra said, grinning. At once, her eyes began to glow a deep yellow. As X watched, Terra terra-kinetically lifted a huge boulder with a flat top. "Hop on!" she cried, jumping on the rock itself. Red X grabbed her hand and pulled himself up as well.
"Hang on tight!" Terra cried, leaning forward. At once, the boulder lifted up and sprang forward. The rock surfed through the air quickly, flying fast and dodging lampposts.
"Whoa!" Red X said, losing balance. He quickly wrapped his arms around Terra without noticing, to make sure he wouldn't fall off. Terra blushed slightly at the close contact, but otherwise kept the boulder steadily hurling towards the pizza place.
After a good two minutes of flying on the rock, Terra stretched her arms up, and the two glided up to the top floor of the pizzeria (it's the same design as the one from Jump City!).
"Last stop, pizzeria," Terra said, laughing as Red X stumbled off the boulder shakily. He had to grab onto her to keep himself steady.
"That was...interesting," Red X said, his legs wobbly.
"Yeah, but you were hanging onto me the whole trip," Terra said, smirking. She had him now. "You would think a big-time hero like you could keep his balance!"
"Who said it had anything to do with balance?" Red X said, grinning under his mask. Oh yeah, HE was back!
"I...uh, well..."
"Come on, let's eat," Red X said, saving her from answering. He locked arms with her and strode right over to the counter. Both were blushing, but X was glad he had a mask on. He noticed she was blushing.
"You should get a mask like me," he said, pointing at her.
"Why?"
"It would hide your blush," Red X said, smiling under his mask again. Terra, of course, only blushed deeper.
"So are you telling me that you're blushing right now?" Terra countered, trying to get her face back to normal. However, we all know that's humanly impossible.
"Maybe," Red X said, still grinning. Smooth. Didn't say no and insult her, and didn;t say yes to reveal himself straight out. Pure genius, in his mind.
"'Maybe' is just french for definitely," Terra smirked.
"You know french?" X asked.
"Well...no..."
Ten minutes later, the two were still arguing, but they found their table and ordered. Terra found she could talk to X very easily. It was like she had known him all her life! He was, in her mind, the perfect combination. He had the smarts and technical know-how of Cyborg, with the jokes and carefree attitude of BeastBoy. All wrapped up in a Robin package.
And Red X found the could talk t Terra very easily as well. She was very easy to get along with, like it would take a sociopath to not like her! And she was definitely...different from the other girls had known. She was wide open, never hiding anything, always honest. And she never judged anyone, something that Red X found very unique. But then, considering what she had done before, she wouldn't be very judgmental, would she?
After a good twenty minutes of just talking, the pizza finally arrived. Terra quickly pulled off a slice and began to eat. As she did, she looked up slowly. She had never been around X when he ate before. Would he take off his mask!
Unfortunately, no. As she looked, she saw X pull up only the bottom part of his mask. It revealed his neck, chin, and mouth. That was all. But it was enough for the moment. Terra saw that X's skin was slightly dark, and tanned. He looked Hispanic.
Considering he used to live here in Cactus City, this didn't surprise Terra at all. She assumed Cactus City was somewhere in Texas (X never told them), so it would make sense that he be Hispanic. But what Terra didn't get was his voice. His voice, to her at least, didn't sound in the least Hispanic in any way. He didn't have the accent.
Maybe he just never learned Spanish, she thought. You can be Hispanic and still not have the accent, or even the language! He had probably been born in the US.
"Could you pass the pepper?" he asked her. His voice shook her to look up. Passing the pepper, she almost had to stare. His voice...was so different without the mask filtering it! She actually heard an accent there. She was right, he had been of Spanish origin.
Terra continued to at her pizza as she stared at him. She noticed that along his jaw was the beginning of a scar. It stretched from the left side of his mouth and up to who-knows-where else. Terra could even see he had a gold tooth in the back of his mouth. Terra could only realize how he had obtained those.
"Something wrong?" Red X asked, looking at her. She had been staring at him for minutes now.
"No! Nothing wrong..." Terra said nervously. When he continued to look at her strangely, she sighed. "I was just...looking at your face. Of what I can see that is. I didn't know you were Hispanic."
"Is that a problem?" Red X asked. He didn't sound it, but he was slightly hurt. "I mean, I know you're white, but..."
"No, it's nothing, really! I don't care!" Terra said, trying to convince him. "I just thought you might have been white too, what with the voice and all. I guess that was probably racist, now that I think about it..."
"It wasn't," X told her. Without the mask, his voice was accented, even just slightly. "You're right, the mask filtered it to make my voice more...like Robin's. I can put it back on if you want..."
"Really, it's fine. I actually like it," Terra said, grinning. "Besides I should have guessed it, you said you used to live here. And we are in like, Texas or something..."
"New Mexico, actually," Red X told her. "We are currently in New Mexico, very close to the border, actually."
"Oh," Terra said. She was curious to learn more. Besides, when else would she have another chance to learn more about X's past? "Was your family Mexican?"
She could tell right away she had done something wrong. Red X stopped chewing without swallowing. His eyes slowly turned down and he looked away.
"Look, I'm sorry," Terra said, getting up to go over to him. "I really didn't mean to mention that. I didn't mean anything by it..."
"It's okay," X said, looking back up. His voice, no longer filtered, finally revealed emotion. And it was sad, hurt. "You have a right to know the truth. My parents...were illegal immigrants from Mexico. When I was six, we came over the border, but were stopped by border-police. They told us to stop, but my father told us to run. The border-police...shot both my mother and my father that night. The police found em and put me in a foster family for ten years, until they died as well. And now...here I am."
"X..." Terra said, looking at him with concern. "I'm so sorry. I've never lost family before, so I may not know much about that, but it sounds painful! I don't think I could have lived like that..."
"It's okay," he told her. "I've accepted it by now, it is nothing new to me."
"But it doesn't mean I'm not still sorry," Terra said with a slight grin.
"Thank you," X said. "But it really is nothing." After a moment he finally asked, "how about you? Any family? Madre, padre?"
"I had...my grandmother," Terra said. (A/N: Please keep in mind I have no freaking clue what Terra's origin was in the comics, so please bear with me). "There's really not much to tell. I lived with my grandmother until a few years ago, when I ran away, because of these powers. I couldn't control them, and they accidentally caused me to...hurt someone. I ran away and found the Titans. And you know everything after that."
"I see," X said, his accent still apparent without the filter. "It seems neither of us has had a normal live, the?"
"Nope," Terra said, laughing. "Still...it's looking up right about now!" she said, looking up at him. Without the mask covering his entire face, Terra could actually see his mouth smile visibly. She felt her hand interlock with his own.
As the two held hands, they both blushed. Terra could actually see the red materializing in X's face finally. Taking a chance, she began to lean forward towards him, slightly. Red X followed suit. Both of them moved ever closer, inch by inch, centimeter by freakin' centimeter. Terra could feel his breath on her face, and she welcomed it. She closed her eyes as she felt her lips brush against his. . .
DEET DEET DEET!
Both Red X and Terra pulled back as they heard X's communicator go off. Terra looked down, blushing madly. She could hear X curse in Spanish next to her. He picked up the communicator and quickly pulled his mask over his entire face. He pushed the red button.
"Yes Jinx, what is it?" he asked, exasperation apparent in his voice.
"GET YOUR BUTTS BACK HERE!" Jinx yelled into the communicator, making both Red X and Terra stare at her. Jinx never yelled!
"Jinx, what's wrong?" Red X , panic now apparent in his voice, despite the filter.
"What's wrong!" She cried, staring at them. "I'll tell you what's wrong! Some nutcase is invading the school! We're under attack!"
A/N: Well, hoped you likey. I'll probably add either three or four more chapters altogether, whichever. Remember to review. If you don't review, I'll never make Red X and Terra kiss! HA! Don't you just love blackmail?