Hiya peoples! Sorry for the wait, too many dentist appointments…But healthy teeth are very important!
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, any of the art mentioned in this chapter or even a working stereo; I have to use a karaoke machine…
Roll Film!…I don't even own that quote…
Jake woke up the next morning very nervous, and it took him a while to remember why he felt a sense of impending doom but when he remembered he felt like jumping off the tower.
"Oh man! How am I going to pull this off? Uhh, first things first, get changed, brush teeth…and write will."
Jake was seriously thinking about jumping when he heard a knock on his door.
Jake opened the door to see Cyborg grinning at him,
"Hey buddy! Ready for the big day?"
Jake shook his head and Cyborg frowned,
"You better be ready! We agreed remember?"
"No, you just didn't give me a chance to object."
"Well that to me is an agreement."
Jake groaned,
"I have no idea what to do!"
Cyborg thought for moment,
"Well for starters, you don't want her to think it's a date so you'll have to wear your uniform."
Jake nodded and walked to his wardrobe to grab his uniform.
His uniform was a black singlet with a red sun emblazed on it, he wore black trousers with three red marks on the side of the leg in a slash shape, he also wore black boots and gloves.
"What next?"
Cyborg thought again,
"How bout you just go ask her, I've already told Robin that you and Faith might be going with him and Star."
Jake gulped and nodded.
Cyborg grinned,
"And don't forget to be confident!"
And with that he walked off before Beastboy cooked tofu for breakfast.
"Confident, right."
Jake closed the door to get dressed.
Meanwhile, down in the living room Beastboy was cooking a tofu breakfast for everyone, Starfire was watching Robin play video games and Raven and Faith were reading.
Cyborg walked into the room to be greeted with the smell of cooking tofu,
"Oh man!"
Beastboy turned around and stuck his tongue out at Cyborg only to retreat back to his cooking when Faith glared at them; she had recently started to scare them out of their fighting routine by stopping the argument before it started.
Starfire seemed to get bored of watching the game and decided to try and talk to the new girl,
"Hello Friend, how was your slumber?"
Faith shrugged,
"Not bad," she lied "your's?"
"I slumbered like a Tamerainian Florbakk beetle! Thankyou far asking."
Faith stared, she was just getting used to Starfire's speech but she had absolutely no idea what the alien girl had said.
"Uhh…"
She was saved the trouble of trying to figure out what a Florbakk beetle was by Cyborg and Beastboy getting into another fight, she groaned and stood up, walked up behind them and cleared her throat.
Beastboy and Cyborg froze and slowly turned around,
"Uhh, hi, Faith…Hungry?"
Faith glared.
Beastboy and Cyborg looked at eachother before quickly moving at least five feet away from eachother to show that they weren't going to continue the argument.
"Good."
Faith walked back to her seat.
Just then Jake came down panting,
"BEASTBOY! I was walking past your room when something decided to attack me!"
Everyone looked up,
"What makes you think it was my fault?"
"Because a pile of your clothes, old vegetarian pizza's and whatever else you keep on the floor in there came out of YOUR room, slithered down the hall to me and then tried to strangle me!"
"Then how'd you get away?" Cyborg asked.
"Oh, that reminds me, Beastboy, your gonna need some new clothes, I kinda burned the pile."
"WHAT?"
Jake quickly walked down to where Robin was playing video games and picked up the second controller.
"So, you ready to go to the art gallery?" Robin asked Jake.
Jake kicked his shin and glared at him, Robin quickly put two and two together.
"You haven't asked herMRF!" Jake put a hand over his mouth and looked at Faith who was so absorbed in her book that she hadn't noticed a thing, Raven however looked at them suspiciously from over the top of her book.
Cyborg walked up behind the couch and tapped Jake on the head,
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Ask ay er hay ow nay!" With that he snatched the controller out of Jakes hands and pushed him towards Faith,
"Hey! Watch it!" Faith exclaimed, Jake had actually bumped into her,
"Sorry." he quickly moved away from her.
"Whatever." Faith looked back down to her book.
Jake watched Robin and Cyborg playing the game station for a while but his mind kept drifting back to the task at hand.
Cyborg saw Jake's inner struggle at elbowed Robin,
"What?"
Cyborg jerked his head in Jakes Direction, Robin looked at Jake, then at Faith who was still absorbed in her book.
"Right, gotcha."
Robin and Cyborg stood up and they turned the game station off,
"I think I'm gonna try and get some training in before Star and I go to that gallery, seeya."
"And I'm gonna go work on the T-car, seeya round."
Jake watched them leave hopelessly,
"Great, just great."
Raven looked up at him suspiciously as Jake groaned and dropped his head in his hands,
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
Faith looked up from her book to look at Jake.
"Uhh, not really, I don't think so, not…really." He gulped.
Both Faith and Raven raised an eyebrow at him.
"Heh heh, Bye!" Jake hurried from the room, Faith and Raven exchanged suspicious looks before shrugging and returning to their books.
Jake hurried to the garage,
"Cyborg! I can't do it!"
Cyborg looked up from the T-car to look at Jake,
"What do ya mean?"
"I can't ask her! She just looked at me, and I couldn't say it!"
Cyborg sighed and turned around to face him,
"Do you remember when you first joined the team?"
"Of course, I haven't been here that long you know.
"Exactly, you were really confident before Faith joined up, just be yourself, you'll do fine!"
Jake sighed,
"I spose so. Well, I'm off to meet my doom."
Cyborg turned back to his car,
"Kay, seeya."
As Jake walked back towards the living room he saw Raven walking back to her room.
As she passed him he swore he heard her whisper "Good luck." to him.
He nodded and walked into the living room to see Faith getting herself a glass of milk.
He walked up to the bench and sat on one of the stools,
"Hey."
Faith looked up from her glass of milk at him,
"Oh, hi, why were you acting so strange earlier?"
Jake shrugged,
"Probably just a little on edge after being attacked by Beastboy's dirty laundry."
Faith chuckled.
"Speaking of, where is Beastboy?"
"He left a little while ago, I think he said something about getting some new clothes."
Jake smirked.
Faith walked over to the bench and sat down on the stool next to Jake who gulped.
#Stay calm. Stay calm.#
"So, what are you planning on doing today?" he asked.
Faith drained the last of her drink before answering,
"I dunno, don't really have anything planned."
Jake decided that it was now or never,
"Well, Robin, Star and I were going to that new art gallery, wanna come with?"
Faith looked up at him with a strange look on her face, like she wanted to go, but something told her not to.
"I dunno." she said slowly.
Jake saw his chance slipping away,
"But you said you weren't doing anything today, what's stopping you?"
Faith bit her lip,
"Well…"
"I honestly don't see why you shouldn't."
She looked at him with a defeated look on her face,
"Oh, fine."
Jake grinned, but then he frowned,
"You seem upset about it."
"I just…forget it."
Faith took her glass over to the sink and washed it.
"You just what?"
"It doesn't matter."
Jake frowned but decided to drop it.
"If you say so."
Starfire looked up from the television to look at them,
"Is it yet time to go to the gallery of paintings?"
"Yup."
Everyone looked up to see Robin walking in.
"Hey Robin, Faiths coming along too if you don't mind."
"Not at all."
Faith smiled at him.
"So, are we ready to go?"
"Oh I do hope so!"
Robin smiled,
"Sure, let's get out of here."
Fifteen minutes later they were staring at a strange picture at the art gallery, Robin and Starfire walked off to look at a nearby painting but Jake was still staring at the painting,
"I don't get it."
The painting was black with a red border…and that was it.
Faith looked at him,
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't get it, it's just a blank painting."
Faith smiled,
"You don't think much about art do you?"
"What's to think about? It's a black rectangle with a red border! What am I supposed to be figuring out?"
Faith chuckled,
"Well, what do you feel when you look at this painting?"
Jake, in an attempt to impress Faith, was determined to come up with something,
"Uhh…"
He stared at the painting trying to feel something about the painting in front of him.
As he looked at it, he started to feel strange, it made him depressed.
"Depressed."
Faith raised an eyebrow at him,
"How come?"
"Well, it's just blank, kinda empty, you know?"
Faith looked at the painting with a slight frown.
"Did I get it wrong?"
Faith chuckled,
"You don't get it wrong. If that's how you feel when you look at the painting then that's what it means for you."
"I see, well not really."
Faith smiled at him.
"What do you feel when you look at it?" Jake asked her.
Faith looked at the painting,
"I feel really calm, like I've got time and space to think and be by myself."
Jake looked at the painting again,
"…Yeah, I see what you mean."
They continued on to the next painting,
"Oh…"
Faith stared at the painting sadly.
It was a storm, a horrific storm, lightning struck the ground and lit up the sky, wind buffeted the trees, there were animals running for cover and rain was pouring down in icy sheets.
Jake looked at Faith who was staring at the painting with a strange look on her face.
"You okay?"
Faith seemed to come out of her trance,
"Huh? Oh, yeah, fine."
Jake looked at the next painting and smiled,
"I like this one better."
Faith tore her eyes away from the painting to look at what Jake was now smiling at.
It was not a thunder storm or anything like the last one, the rain came down lightly, there was no thunder or lightning, the light breeze was blowing through the tree branches, there was a light showing through the clouds and you could see a rainbow in the distance, there was a single flower rising out of a small mound of dirt and there were small animals drinking from a nearby stream despite the rain.
Faith looked at him strangely, Jake smiled,
"Now who's not thinking about the painting? I think it means that the storm, no matter how bad it gets, brings life afterwards, that's probably why they put the two paintings together."
Faith stared at him, than at the two paintings, then she smiled,
"Thanks."
Jake pretended not to know what she was talking about,
"What for?"
"You know what for." she said pushing him slightly.
Jake smiled back at her,
"No problem."
Just then they heard Robin calling them,
"Hey guys, we were gonna get something to eat. You coming?"
Jake looked at Faith who shrugged.
"Sure." Jake called back.
Robin and Starfire waited for them to catch up.
Suddenly they heard a yell coming from around the corner, they all hurried to see what was going on.
A man wearing a black mask that covered everything but his eyes was running towards them and he was holding a brown handbag, there was an old lady chasing him, she was the one yelling.
Robin narrowed his eyes,
"Ok Titans, wait until he comes round the corner, then we ambush him."
Jake and Starfire nodded, but Faith was staring at the man with a glazed look in her eyes, as if she were remembering something, nobody noticed.
The man came closer and Faith seemed to come out of her trance, the glazed looked was replaced by an angry one, a look filled with hate.
The robber was almost at the corner, Robin Starfire and Jake got ready but as he reached the corner Faith kicked a leg out and tripped him, the robber tripped and slid about two meters on his face, Faith ran over and flipped him over with her foot and placed her foot on his chest, nearly crushing his ribcage.
Robin, Starfire and Jake stared at her then seemed to come to their senses and ran over to her.
"Faith, your gonna crush him." Robin said, noticing how hard she was pressing her foot to his chest.
Faith blinked then almost as if waking from a trance she shook her head with a small groan and then seeing that she was indeed causing much pain to the robber, she removed her foot.
Starfire picked up the handbag and gave it to the old lady who had by now caught up with them.
"Thankyou young lady." The woman said, gratefully, Starfire smiled and nodded,
"You are most welcome."
Robin and Jake were handling the robber, Faith walked up to the robber with a scowl on her face.
Robin gave her a warning look, she merely shrugged and reached out a hand to tear the mask off of the robbers head, making careful notice to rip out some of his hair at the same time, the robber yelped and swore at her.
Faith raised an eye brow at him before hitting him on the nose,
"That's not very gentlemanly now is it?"
The robber grumbled at her.
Just then the security guards came running up, Robin explained everything to them and they took the robber away.
Robin looked at Faith,
"Mind telling us what that was all about?"
She looked up at him,
"What?"
"The anger you showed towards that guy, that wasn't just dislike for a criminal, that was hate."
She shrugged and tossed the mask that she had still been holding in a nearby bin,
"What's it matter? At least he got caught, I don't see what I did wrong."
"You could've killed him, you were going to crush him!"
She shrugged again,
"But I didn't. Come on, whose hungry?"
She started to walk off.
They stared after her, then Robin turned to Starfire,
"Go with her, I need to talk to Jake."
Starfire nodded and walked off after Faith.
Jake looked at Robin,
"What did you need to talk to me about?"
Robin looked at him with a serious look on his face,
"Do you know any reason why Faith could've acted like that?"
Jake raised an eyebrow,
"No, why should I?"
"You spend more time with her than anyone else, I figured you might know what triggered that from her."
Jake shook his head then paused,
"She didn't seem to like his mask much though." he said as he walked over to the trash can Faith had thrown the mask into, Robin followed him and pulled the mask out of the trash,
"She doesn't get angry at my mask."
Jake shrugged,
"Hey I might be wrong, I just noticed that she was a lot less hostel towards him after she had pulled off the mask."
Robin frowned and looked thoughtful.
"Come on, let's catch up with the girls." Jake said, Robin nodded.
When they finally arrived at the cafeteria they saw the girls ordering their food, and two boy's eyeing them off.
Robin and Jake frowned and started to walk over, they could hear the guy's talking.
The two boy's walked over to Faith and Starfire,
"Hey," the taller of them said to Starfire "Aren't you one of the Titans?"
Starfire nodded and smiled at the boy.
The other boy smiled at Faith,
"You're the new girl right?"
Faith nodded and tried to ignore him.
The boy grinned again,
"Your hot." he said to her.
Faith turned around and looked ready to punch his lights out when Robin and Jake walked up,
"Are these two bothering you?" Robin asked them.
Starfire shook her head and Faith continued to glare at the guy who had hit on her, she wasn't the only one though, Jake looked like he wanted to burn the guy to a fiery crisp.
The guys looked at Robin and Jake,
"Hey, your from the Titans as well!" the taller of the two said, he seemed to only be interested in meeting the Titans.
The other one smiled and extended a hand towards Jake,
"It's an honour, I've always thought it would be cool to be a pyrokinetic!"
Jake faked a smile and shook the guy's hand,
"Great." He said through gritted teeth, he then accidentally burnt the guy's hand.
"Ahh!"
"Oh sorry, sometimes it just goes off when I haven't used my power in a while." he lied, Faith sniggered.
The two guy's seemed to figure out that they were not welcome and stalked off.
Robin and Jake then ordered their food and they all took a table.
While Robin and Starfire were talking Faith turned to Jake,
'So, does your power really go off when you haven't used it in a while?"
Jake smirked,
"Nope. I just didn't like the guy."
Faith smiled,
"That doesn't explain why you burnt him though."
"Well, uhh, he was bothering you right? It was obvious that you didn't like him by the way you were glaring at him, I just wanted to help out a friend." he said quickly.
Faith shrugged,
"If you say so."
Jake looked at her, he knew she knew he was lying.
Jake found himself studying her again and before his common sense could kick in in he said quietly,
"He was right though."
Faith looked up at him, startled.
Jake gulped #shit, she heard me.#
"Uhh, thanks, I guess." She was blushing, and so was Jake.
Just then the food arrived, Jake had ordered fish and chips, Robin had some potato dish, Starfire had ordered the same as Robin except hers was covered in mint frosting and Faith had ordered those tiny little pancakes with the maple syrup and caster sugar.
Jake looked at Faith's lunch,
"What's that?" he asked.
Faith looked up at him,
"Poffertjes." she said simply.
"Oh…What's that?"
Faith hid a smile,
"Dutch pancakes. They're good, try one."
Jake shrugged and picked one up with his until-now unused fork,
"Mmm, these are good!"
Faith grinned,
"Told ya."
Jake, now wishing he had ordered poffertjes instead of fish and chips, finished his lunch.
Robin stood up,
"Okay, I think it's about time we got back to the Tower. We have to try and figure out what Slade wanted with that chip."
They all agreed, even Faith who would have rather stayed and looked at some more paintings.
When they got back Starfire walked off to meditate with Raven, Robin walked off to try and figure out what Slade was up to, Faith picked up her book and Jake decided to talk to Cyborg, who was probably still in the garage.
Jake had been right, as he walked into the garage he saw Cyborg working on his precious car.
"Hey Cyborg."
Cyborg looked up,
"Hey Jake. So?"
Jake looked at him confused,
"So what?"
"So how did it go?"
Jake sighed,
"Not bad, I learnt about paintings, we stopped a mugger, we all had lunch and Faith introduced me to poffertjes and I nearly burnt someone's hand off."
Cyborg raised an eyebrow,
"Why'd ya burn someone?"
Jake glared at the wall,
"It was just two guy's talking to Faith and Starfire."
Cyborg smirked,
"Lemme guess, one of em hit on Faith?"
Jake glared and nodded, Cyborg grinned,
"Look's like someone got jealous."
Jake grumbled.
"Did I hear right? Did Jake get jealous and burn some competition?"
Cyborg and Jake looked up to see Beastboy grinning at them.
"Yup. Perhaps he would be so kind as to tell us the details?" Cyborg said and he and Beastboy looked at Jake expectantly.
Jake responded with a groan, this was gonna be a long day.
And that's the end of that chapter!
I'm going through the extremely aggravating writers block and shall need ideas from you wonderful readers, such as: help with fight scenes (which I suck at…), another way to bring Faith and Jake closer, Robin/Starfire fluffiness (Which I am also horrible at).
Any other ideas are appreciated as are your opinions on the story and how I can improve it.
Now review or else my shoulder demon will attack!