Hi! As promised, I'm here with a special first anniversary (to fanfiction, mind you) story! I'm hoping this will be finished by Christmas, since it involves that time period, but we'll have to see. This is Raven-centered, and will be told from her point of view (though still in third person). This story in its entirety is dedicated to my good buddy Furubafun24, because she encouraged me to write it and because…well…because she's just awesome. Everybody, enjoy!
Chapter 1: Blue
Raven let out a contented sigh as she strolled down the many aisles of books, browsing and reading whenever a title caught her attention. Ah, bookstores. There was nothing quite like them; they always seemed to tingle with the magic and mystery of the countless stories waiting for you on each and every shelf. Raven was a firm believer that the right book at the right time could change a person's life forever.
She came here on a quest for a good read to distract her from the Great Tofu and Meat War back at the tower, but that's not exactly what she found.
He was sitting in the far corner of the store, back to the wall and knees drawn up as his eyes roved over the pages of his book. Squinting at the cover, the words Shakespeare's Collected Works shone back at her in gold lettering. The book may have caught her attention, but it was the reader that kept it.
Bright blue eyes were fixed on the page, his brow wrinkled in concentration as his lips mouthed the words silently. Dark hair fell forward over his eyes and trailed down the back of his neck, not curly but not quite straight either. The hoody was plain and gray, faded blue jeans, ripped and frayed, coming just past the tops of his scuffed black sneakers. Most impressive was his aura…not something she had ever felt from a teenager in a bookstore before.
It was when he stirred, blue eyes breaking away from the page and meeting her own, that she realized she had been staring at him all throughout her character analysis. Her cheeks grew hot as she looked away instinctively, only to have her eyes pulled back as though by a magnetic force. The heat intensified as she saw and felt discomfort in his being as his eyes watched her warily, hands gripping the edges of his book so tightly his knuckles shone white.
What is wrong with you? Move! Clearing her throat awkwardly, Raven swerved away and gazed determinedly at the shelf in front of her, picking up the first book she laid eyes on and immersing herself in its pages. Try as she might to ignore it, her neck prickled uncomfortably; not only did she think the boy was watching her, she knew it. Desperate to rid herself of the gaze, Raven began to inch her way casually back to the front of the store, picking up a book here and there. When she stumbled upon a paperback copy of The Supernaturalist, the act became genuine as she lost herself in the protagonist's troubles and forgot the strange boy at the back of the store, and his eerie blue eyes.
A glance at her communicator revealed the time: six thirty. Raven's eyes widened in surprise, realizing that she was an hour and a half later than she'd told the Titans she would be. Shaking her head and smiling to herself, she gathered up her stack of books and moved toward the register. It never failed to amaze her just how lost a person could get in a bookstore.
"All right, your total comes to forty-two dollars and sixty-three cents."
Raven scowled as she pulled out her wallet. It also never failed to amaze her how poor she was when she left one.
After paying for her books and wrestling the bag into a semi-comfortable position, Raven turned towards the window, taking in the gray drizzle and the dark clouds concealing what was left of the sunlight. She could feel the icy rain just by looking at it, and did not savor the idea of flying in this weather.
A glimpse of a gray hoody made her eyes widen slightly, her breath catching as the embarrassment flooded back. The boy glanced in through the window, blue eyes falling on her for the smallest fraction of a second…he looked away hastily, head tilted downward. Eventually the expanse of shop window became inadequate, and he disappeared from sight, leaving nothing but the quickening rain.
Raven shook her head, amazed at how stupid she was acting. She had never been one to swoon over men, especially not some complete stranger who was probably a druggie or a comic book nerd, like most of the teenage populace on this earth. Adding insult to injury, it was plain to see that she had made him incredibly uncomfortable…no doubt he had heard all about the half-demon Raven. Who hadn't in Jump City?
Scoffing at the oddities of the day, Raven pushed open the door and disappeared into the frigid rain, headed for Titans Tower and a warm cup of tea.
"Great, now our pizza's gonna get cold cuz Raven can't read a—" Beast Boy let out a yelp as the half demon phased through the floor and into his personal space.
"What was that, Beast Brat?" she droned, a dangerous smirk on her lips.
Beast Boy giggled squeakily, backing up and rubbing his neck with a small, "Nothing."
Raven nodded her approval, moving towards the stove to prepare her long-anticipated tea.
"Hey Star, did you call Robin?" asked Cyborg as he dealt out paper plates like playing cards.
The Tamaranian nodded, pouring the punch into one glass and flying to the next. "Yes, he said he is—"
At that moment, the door slid open and Robin stepped into the room, quickly taking his place at the table. He seemed slightly out of breath; no doubt he had been down in the workout room, teaching the punching bag who was boss.
After much coaxing from Starfire and harassment from Beast Boy, Raven agreed to eat one of their slices of processed cheese and frozen vegetables. She hastily did away with the sausage, onions, and overcooked tomatoes and olives. The ham would have to go as well; there were always nasty bits of gristle in it. The undesired toppings glowed black and parted company with their cheese, levitating to a corner of her plate and returning to their original colors. She was left with crust, sauce, cheese and pepperoni, which, in the end, tasted pretty good. At lease she wasn't eating what her fellow teammates were.
Speaking of teammates…everyone except Starfire (happily slicing a banana), was staring enviously at her neat little pile of toppings, then looking sadly down at their own mutilated piece. Beast Boy's had suffered the most, as he'd had toremove the vegetables to scrape off the meat and cheese, then put the veggies back on and pray the taste would not linger.
Shrugging, Raven finished off her pizza, took her mug of tea, and left the Titans to their unappetizing messes. Hadn't they ever heard of the 4-For-All?
Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Raven stared thoughtfully at the array of new books spread out on the purple comforter. They all looked intriguing, but somehow she felt no desire to start any of them.
"It's one of those 'old favorites' days," she concluded, stacking the rejected stories on her nightstand and casting a critical eye over her bookcase. The eyes smiled as she threw out a hand and levitated the book out of its place. Perfect.
Curling her legs up under her and leaning back on the pillow, she allowed herself to fall deep into the story. It was one of the first she had read after coming to Earth. She couldn't really say why she liked it so much, but it just seemed to strike a chord in her that no other story could achieve.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.
The familiarity of the story provided just the amount of comfort that Raven needed, yet it was still just as interesting as it always had been.
Interesting or not, the empath felt her eyes grow heavy by the time the third or fourth dwarf had arrived for tea, and when poor Bilbo was sent scurrying off to begin his adventure, the book had slipped from her hands to land soundlessly on the bed.
Raven's dreams were not about hobbits, or dwarves, or even dragons…instead, they featured an unsettling pair of ice blue eyes.
Haha! So there it is! Happy anniversary! Ok, by the way, that was an excerpt from The Hobbit, and J. R. R. Tolkein gets the credit for that, certainly not me. Why did I use it? Well…it may not seem like a typical read for Raven, but I have emotional attachments to it and I thought it seemed like the sort of story Raven might read. All glory to Pizza Hut for creating the 4-For-All...that iswhat it's called, right?The next chapter is mostly written, so it should be coming very soon. Merry Almost Christmas! -Dusty