Hello all, and welcome to ze fourth chapter of A Time Again! Sorry for the long-ish update, but hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything not previously owned by me.
Richard will occasionally be referred to as Robin and Nightwing, depending on the situation and/or costume. But otherwise, you might have to figure out why.
Ookes, nothing new, so I won't keep you…now on with the show.
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A Time Again
Chapter Four: Reunion
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Raven yawned and stretched her arms above her head. Despite her wonderful night's sleep, Raven still felt tired and sluggish, even after three cups of tea. For the first time ever, she had slept through her alarm clock's annoying ring and got up two hours later than normal. Luckily her employee David wasn't a bumbling idiot and he opened up shop for her.
She turned her attention back to the supply manifest and rubbed her eyes in a very child-like manner. The mid-morning rush had come and gone, and lunch was fast approaching. A few stragglers remained, mainly college students completing some homework or doing some last-minute studying. Raven was grateful for the silence; the ominous threat of a headache pounded in her head, and noise would only worsen the pain.
Sighing, Raven pushed aside the paper work and strode to the back room. She'd rather restock books than count them any day. Unfortunately for her, the boxes containing the books were on the topmost shelf, way beyond her reach. Frowning, Raven pulled over a ladder and slowly clambered to the top.
She, of course, could have used her powers, but past occurrences were still fresh on her mind. The first time she dared to use her powers around the store ended…differently. One of her employees, David, in fact, had seen a box of coffee beans hovering about six feet above the ground. But surprisingly, he just shook his head, gave a puzzled look, and walked off very confused. Raven hadn't heard anything about it since.
The second time was worse. A girl, new to the city, had walked into the back room just as Raven was touching down from obtaining even more coffee beans. The bloody things were seemingly cursed. The girl was apparently very scared at the sight, and had just backed away very slowly, her eyes as wide as they could get. Raven had been just as frightened and had thought the scare might've brought on a premature heart attack. Luckily, (well, for Raven) the girl told her therapist about it, (apparently she had been going through some tough times) and the doctor had given her a brand new drug to get rid of the weird hallucinations. Let's just say she hasn't been quite the same since…
So Raven had from then on out decided to not use her powers unless absolutely necessary in public. And that included now, though she was tempted to the very edge of reason to chuck that little rule out the window.
But Raven wouldn't do that; she'd do better.
Grasping the box laden with very thick hardback volumes, she used her powers to secretly support the box without anyone but herself from knowing. Gently, and slowly, Raven stepped down the ladder and effortlessly placed the box on the ground. She pulled a switchblade from her back pocket and stabbed at the masking tape sealing the box, ripping it apart to reveal the books inside.
"Uh, Rae?" a voice from behind her asked. Raven straightened and looked to see who was behind her. It was David.
"Yeah?"
"There's some guy that wants to talk to you out there." He said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder.
Raven tucked a loose strand of violet hair behind her ear. "Um, ok, just send him back."
David nodded and took off, and Raven turned back to the box of hard bounds.
"Raven?" came a male voice from the doorway. Raven continued writing down the serial Number of the box on the back of her hand.
"Yeah, what can I do for you?" she asked, not looking at him.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." He responded. Raven picked up a few of the books, careful not to smear the pen ink.
"Alright, shoot." She replied, turning around. "Oh…"
Before her stood none other than Richard Grayson, looking much the same as he had the night before, only now there were sunglasses covering his grey eyes.
"What is it?" she asked coolly, walking past him and to an empty book rack. Richard removed his sunglasses and tucked them into the breast pocket of his suit jacket.
"I want to know why you left."
Raven placed the books on the shelf and stood there a moment, silent, and not looking at him.
"You know why." She answered, sighing and walking over to the computer at the checkout and logging in the box's serial number. He followed her, to some of her discomfort and yet unusual pleasure.
"No, actually, I don't." he said, his grey eyes searching for answers in her own. "I know part the reason, but not all of it."
Raven said nothing and went to get more books.
"I remember something along the lines of me being a 'bigoted ass', and I commend you for being so honest with me. But that couldn't have been everything." He added, continuing to follow her.
Raven sighed and turned to face him. "Leaving was probably the best thing I ever did for myself, so don't try to make me feel horrible for it. I've spent enough years bashing my head against the wall wondering if I made the right choice." She said coldly.
"Did you?" he asked.
"What?"
"Did you make the right choice, I mean."
"Yes." She confirmed. Richard looked doubtful.
"What, you don't believe me?" she asked accusingly. "Did you ever look into their eyes? Did you ever see their faces, their expressions? They were afraid of me, Robin, and do you think you can just change that? People are afraid of what they don't understand. That's the simple truth. They didn't understand me, or what I could or could not do."
"They weren't-"
"Don't tell me they weren't afraid of me. You didn't see it in their eyes, or hear it in their voices. I'm surprised you ever heard anything at all; all you cared about was Slade." Raven spat. She knew that wasn't true, but her bitterness had been locked up for too long and it had finally found a way out.
Richard looked taken aback by her words, but did a fairly good job of hiding it. He opened his mouth to speak, but Raven shook her head.
"I have work to do. Can you please just go?" she sighed, pushing past him and walking back to the rack she was trying to fill. Richard frowned; he had hoped this would go better, but he was, after all, dealing with Raven, the most stubborn person he knew besides himself and Bruce. He left anyway, knowing that once someone gets into a state of mind like hers, there's not much you can do.
Raven groaned and stood in a dark corner of the back room, gently banged her head into it. Why the hell did she have to be this way?
Footsteps approached her from behind, but Raven ignored them.
"Uh, Rae?" David said a hint of desperation in his voice. Raven grunted and threw her hand above her head, hitting it against the rock wall.
"The cappuccino machine's broken again." Raven began to slam her head a little harder into the wall and 'arghed' loudly.
"I'm coming…" she muttered, shuffling out the door.
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Dropping her bag and coat where she stood, Raven slowly made her way into her bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Today had been positively exhausting, both emotionally and physically. And having Robin stop by didn't help things along.
Out of the corner of her eye, Raven could see the little red light on her answering machine blinking. Moaning quietly, she stretched out her arm and hit the button, listening as the machine replayed Shannon's message.
Finally sitting up, Raven picked up her phone and dialed Shannon's number. Her friend hadn't said what she wanted, just that she wanted Raven to call her back pronto.
"Hey Shannon, you said you needed to talk to me?" Raven said once Shannon picked up, cradling the phone with her shoulder while she was taking her shoes off.
"Oh Raven! So what's happening between you and Richard?" her friend asked slyly. Raven rolled her eyes and sighed silently.
"Absolutely nothing." She replied, falling back against her cushiony mattress. Shannon shorted over the phone.
"Yeah, right. I supposed that's the reason he asked me where you lived today." Raven bolted upright.
"He did what?" she exclaimed, not really sure if she was alarmed or pleased.
"That's right. He asked where you lived, and when I asked why he wanted to know, he just said he hadsomething foryou. So what'd you get?" she spat out, talking so fast she sounded like chattering little squirrel. Raven shook her head as her brain slowly pieced together the sentence she had just sputtered out.
"I dunno. There's nothing here that I've seen." She responded, standing up. Raven could almost hear shriek in disbelief; but it was so high, only dogs could hear it when she became this excited.
"Well look! My gosh Rae! Have I taught you nothing?" Shannon nearly shouted. Raven suppressed a laugh when she thought of Shannon jumping up and down, which she was most likely doing this very moment.
"Alright, but chill, okay?" she responded, walking to the kitchen.
The sight before her stopped Raven in her tracks. On the table, arranged perfectly in a vase that had a pewter design of a raven's wing wrapped around the whole thing with the rest of the dark bird near the bottom, were seven dried red roses. In front of the exquisite vase was a small piece of paper with a note on it.
Shannon's yelps for her attention brought Raven out of her mind-thwarting daze.
"What? What is it?" her friend asked over and over again. Raven still stood, wide eyed at the amazing spectacle before her.
"Nothing. I gotta go." Raven said, ignoring her protests and hanging up. She set the phone on the table, but missed by a long shot and it clattered to the floor. But she didn't care, the only thing that mattered right at this moment were the flowers and note before her.
She slowly sat down, nearly in a daze, and pulled the note towards her.
'I thought you might like these. Meet me at the Tower.'
The note wasn't signed, but she knew who it was from. Sighing, Raven sat back in her chair and idly caressed the vase. She could go, but what would that mean? This whole situation confused her. What did he want? Why did he want it?
Should she go?
Raven rubbed her temples slowly. Since when did everything become so complicated? When he had been out of her life, things had been much easier. Sighing, Raven stood up, deciding to go and get it over with, and move on with her life.
But she knew that it wouldn't be that easy.
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When Raven phased to the Tower, no one was within her sight. But she knew he was there, somewhere.
"Hello Raven."
Raven's heart skipped a beat at those two simple words and she whirled around. Boy was she becoming sloppy.
Richard melted from the shadows, and Raven found her heart pounding, but not from surprise.
"Robin." She replied softly, but it sounded quite loud in her head. Then she reconsidered this. "I suppose you're no longer called that now, are you?" she added. He smiled.
"No, not really." He walked a little closer. "But it's nice hearing it again."
Raven's heart thumped louder, and she looked away over the water. She had missed this place, more than she had realized.
"It's nice being back here." Raven murmured. Richard stepped beside her, the fading sun casting his shadow long in front of them. Richard didn't respond; he knew he didn't have to, and Raven could tell he felt the same way.
They sat there for awhile, just silently taking in the evanescent beauty of a sunset. But soon unspoken words and still questions lingered in the air, making the atmosphere buzz with its cumbersome weight, and chilling the space around them.
Richard chose to speak first, knowing he had a lot more to apologize for than Raven did.
"I'm sorry for earlier." He said, looking down at her, his eyes filled with so many emotions Raven wasn't accustomed to.
Raven looked up at him, a soft smile playing on her delicate lips. "For what? You didn't do anything wrong." She looked back out at the bay. "Just cared." Always cared.
"Besides, I'm the one that left." She settled down on a rock, staring up at the star-dotted sky. "I should be the one apologizing."
Richard lay down next to her. "You had your reasons for leaving; you shouldn't be blamed for that."
"But-"
"Let's stop there. We could go in circles for hours." He looked at her, smirking. "A compromise. No one apologizes, because there's nothing to forgive." Raven glared at him then her features lightened.
"Fine." She answered, shaking his extended hand, electric shivers running down her spine.
"Glad we got that settled with little force." Richard muttered.
Raven grinned and smacked him in the stomach.
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He had watched them since they arrived, his ever watchful stare following their movements ever since hedrove upto now.
He could go down there, confront them easily, reveal himself to their conscious minds again. Their reaction would be priceless;a perfect combination ofshock and horror. He could see their faces now. He granted himself a small mirthless chuckle.
But what would it be for? That would clash uncomfortably with his well laid-out plans, despite the amount of the short-lived glory his was bound to achieve.
But without a plan, he failed to remain who they remembered.
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And so concludes chapter four. Have fun musing to yourself what that final part was about. I must say, this is getting very amusing, for reasons I barely know. It's hard to contain myself from jumping up and down. But that's ok, enough about me. Onto you and the review you were going to drop my way.
Just so you know, this week is exam week, and me being a freshman means I'm new to this whole business. So that should be fun. And my mom wants me to study a lot so the next chapter won't come for at least another two weeks, if that. Sorry...