Hm. Interesting guesses I have received. I think I'll just leave it at that.
Disclaimer: I own nothing not previously owned by me.
Enjoy.
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A Time Again
Chapter Five: Playtime
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The soft warm rays of the morning sun gently tickled Raven's face as the empath woke from her sleep. It was not like the rude awakenings by her overly-annoying alarm clock, but like slowly adjusting to the light and taking your time, waking up a bit each passing minute.
Raven smiled and snuggled in closer to the warm body she was laying next to.
Wait, now that wasn't right. Her eyes shot open, wide with fear, her heart palpitating in her chest. Who was she sleeping with? And how the hell did they manage to get her to agree with it?
Raven shot upright, her hair sticking out in odd places. Then it all came back: the flowers, Robin's message, meeting him here. How could she forget?
Richard slowly sat up, his eyes adjusting to the bright sun.
"Raven?"
Heart still pounding loudly in her head, Raven gently removed his coat (that had somehow gotten around her shoulders) and handed it to him.
"I-I gotta go." She muttered before phasing away and to her apartment.
X
Richard sighed and stood up, putting on his jacket. Somehow, he should have expected her to do something like that, but something inside wanted to believe that she would be the same woman he knew seven years ago. But she wasn't.
Raven had changed a lot, and this realization hit him harder than he expected. She had had time to open up, become the woman she had always longed to be. But he had to adjust to this, just as she would have to adjust to his changes also.
Taking one last look at the forlorn Tower, Richard revved up his motorcycle and sped away.
X
Raven reappeared in front of her door in the solitude of her apartment. Groaning, she sagged to the floor and rested her head against the wooden frame. Screwing up her eyes, she softly banged her head against the door in annoyance. That was the second time in at least twelve hours that she'd done that. She'd have to cut back on the frustration with herself if she didn't want to loose too many brain cells.
Sighing, Raven slowly clambered to her feet and headed for the shower, late for work for the second time this week.
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"Hey, you doing anything tonight?" Raven looked up from the cash register and at Shannon.
"Uh, not really. Why?" Shannon pulled a strand of stray auburn hair off her jacket.
"A couple of people from work are getting together to play cards. Sort of as a celebratory event of Gary's return."
"Oh, Gary's back?" Raven asked, ringing up a customer's purchase.
"Yeah, all nice and tanned too. From what I heard, he had a blast also."
Their friend Gary Sioux had taken a three month trip all around Africa, having won the adventure in a sweepstakes not long before. He used to work with Shannon at Wayne Enterprises, but quit his job and opened his own hair salon. He said it gave him more free time to do what he wanted.
Raven smiled at the memory. She thanked her customer for coming and turned to her friend. "It would be nice to see him again." she mused. "Alright, I'll come."
Shannon grinned. "Great. I'll pick you up around 7-ish, mmkay?" she said, heading out the door.
Raven smiled and waved goodbye to her friend; Gary always had some outrageous stories to tell, and was funnier than Beast Boy had tried to be. She was looking forward to tonight.
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The rest of the day was uneventful, and Raven found herself longing for the cappuccino machine to break again, or something hectic along those lines.
When she finally left work, Raven literally flew home to get ready. She quickly jumped in the shower to remove the strong coffee smell and gobbled down a sandwich all in forty-five minutes. Secretly, she was quite proud of herself. In the years past since she had been a Titan, her daily rituals and movements became slower and more relaxed; whereas when she was a Titans, things had to be rushed in case of an attack.
What amazed her was that she hadn't thought about Richard all day. But what flabbergasted her even more was that he had kept his distance from her. If memory served her right, he had absolutely no clue when to leave someone alone or when to intervene.
Shannon arrived around seven like she said she would, and they drove to another side of town that wasn't a whole lot different than her part. When they reached the apartment Shannon hit a button labeled 'Warner'.
"Hello?" came a female's voice that sounded agonizingly familiar, though it annoyed Raven to no end.
"Hey, it's Shannon." The buzzer sounded and the door opened. Shannon smiled at Raven and walked on in.
The little get together was on the second floor in room 12. The apartment was small, but arranged expertly to make the residence appear much larger than it actually was. Raven waited uncomfortably as Shannon greeted everyone; meeting new people always bothered her, considering they had a tendency to judge her before they got to know her. Sure, she met people everyday at work, but those were people she was probably never going to see again in her life; but here showed a small promise of meeting again. And of course, there was always that small chance that someone would recognize her from when she was a Titan, and that was publicity she did not want.
"Everybody," Shannon said, interrupting Raven's thoughts, "This is my friend Raven. Raven that's Robbie," she pointed to a man with dirty blonde hair and wire-rimmed glasses, "Gina," Shannon gestured to the tall red head with amazingly bright hazel eyes sitting at the table, "and Kit. This is her apartment."
Raven's glance lingered on Kit for awhile longer. The woman was pretty, there was no hiding that, but she had a hardened glint in her blue eyes that could pass as a stolid façade presented to the world. Her fair blonde hair fell to her waist and the clothing she wore accented everything to almost a repulsive degree.
This was, coincidentally, just the quirk Shannon had been talking about before they went to the Valentines Day party. Kit had worn a very revealing, gaudy, pink, frilly thing as a dress that night. Luckily Raven, as well as Shannon, had steered clear of her general area, though Raven had caught bits and pieces of her conversation and the annoying voice stuck in her head.
Then the knowledge of a memory stirred in her mind. But for this to be who she thought it was would have to be a very large coincidence. Of course, this seemed to be the week for great coincidences to pop up in her life, so she went with it. But to avoid nasty repercussions and uncomfortable silences, she decided to find out if this was true through small talk.
"So," she started, standing next to Kit with her hands in her pockets, "Is Kit short for something? Like Kitty?" Raven asked, cringing on the inside of have to use such a…juvenile word.
"Kitten." She replied, a hint of annoyance discernable in her tone. Raven smiled, no, more like smirked in victory.
"Sorry, my mistake." Raven answered, seating herself at the card table.
But one thought struck her mind; did Kitten know who Richard really was? When Robin had to take Kitten to her prom, she had seemed pretty infatuated with him, that is, until her ex-boyfriend Fang showed up. But still, it was possible that she still desired his attention and power over him, and that would explain how she coincidentally ended up working in the same department as Richard did.
Then this train of thought led to another. She remembered how incredibly jealous Starfire was of that one date, and how much she could sympathize with the alien. Secretly, Raven had been burning up on the inside; and all hell had threatened to break loose with her emotions. Jealousy, that green little demon, was stark raving mad at the thought of that pink little bitch getting anywhere near Robin.
She had had quite a rough week after the entire incident had blown over.
After everyone that was there was seated around the table, Robbie began dealing the cards.
"The game's BS, we'll go clockwise starting with Gina." At the announcement of the game, Raven relaxed a bit. She had figured they'd play some rule-infested game like Euchre that completely befuddled her mind. But BS she could handle. In fact, the Titans had played often, usually with either herself or Robin winning, unless Beast Boy tried to cheat.
The first 'bull shit' came at Kit's supposed two nines, and was ratted out by Shannon. Raven assumed that either that was a lucky guess, or she had three nines, since Raven had one of them. But Kit's facial expression was priceless. She was half-way between a deep menacing scowl and a plastic smile, and the effect on her face made her look like an incredibly ugly lawn gnome.
"So what's the topic of discussion tonight?" Robbie asked, laying down two Queens. "And please don't revert back to Richard again."
"Rae has a little thing going with him." Shannon commented slyly, looking at Raven over her cards.
Gina and Kit stared at her, gawking. Raven opened her mouth in protest, her face turning a lovely shade of red.
"No I don't." she muttered, not meeting any of their eyes. Shannon grinned like the Cheshire cat and laid down three Kings.
"Oh no, of course you don't." She said sarcastically. "Then why did I see a beautiful vase filled with dried roses sitting on your table?" Raven's faced reddened even more and she stared down at her cards.
"Bull shit" she replied, staring at Shannon, and smirking triumphantly. Shannon muttered something to herself and unwillingly gathered the hefty pile of cards in the center.
Just then the buzzer rang, and Kit answered it.
"Hey, it's Gary, lemme up." Raven's heart leapt at the sound of his voice, and she smiled; he had finally shown up.
The door opened and Raven nearly laughed at how tan Gary was. His bleached blonde hair clashed interestingly with his dark skin, and his brown eyes still had their mischievous sparkle to them. But other than the skin, absolutely nothing had changed.
"Hey everybody!" Gary exclaimed, removing his jacket and tossing it on the pile that now consumed the couch.
Everybody said some form of 'hi' back and Gary settled himself down in the empty chair next to Raven.
"Rae! I haven't seen you in forever!" he whispered as cards were dealt to him. Raven couldn't help but smile; Gary was just one of those people that instantly lit up a room when he entered, kind of like an explosion of good karma that wouldn't let you be anything but hyperactively happy.
"Hey Gary, how was your trip?" Raven asked, laying down two threes, even though they were on Jacks.
"Oh it was just wonderful, I'll have to show you pictures sometime. But enough about me, what about you? Seems like it's been ages since we last had a good talk." He laid down three cards. "What's up?"
Raven called bull shit on Gina's supposed 3 aces, "Oh, nothing much." She replied, smiling.
"'Nothing much' my tan ass." He said. "Who's the guy?" He asked slyly. Raven gaped at him, appalled.
"There is no guy." She insisted, hoping with all her might that Shannon would keep her mouth shut. No such luck.
"There is. And it's Richard." Shannon whispered to Gary. Raven elbowed her in the arm violently.
"Really, nothing is going on." She said, glaring at Shannon. "So can we just drop it?" Gary and Shannon shrugged in unison and left the subject alone.
Gary was silent for a few minutes, but couldn't stand the quiet; it was just one of his pet peeves. He slowly twirled Raven's purple hair in his fingers.
"You could use a haircut." He commented. "I could do a super cute look on you."
Raven looked over at him. "Nah, I'm actually trying to grow it out."
It was strange really; she used to hate her hair being long. But she grew to like it quite a lot more than she expected after she lost a bet. ( Shannon had bet Raven that she couldn't go one day without making a sarcastic remark. The only setback was that if she lost, she had to grow out her hair. Needless to say, she lost.) Raven told her friends that she only kept it long because it kept her neck warm in cooler weather. That was, of course, only partially true. She secretly loved the length because when a good wind or even a soft breeze hit her, she loved the way the wind carried her hair and made her feel like she was flying again.
Gary stared at her, surprised. "Really now. Last I remembered you didn't like your hair long."
"Well maybe I'm growing to, eh?" She responded mysteriously, going back to her cards.
"Hey, can I put it on the weather? I want to see if this warm front is here to stay." Raven asked Kit in reference to the television. Kit nodded and Raven changed the channel.
"Sorry Rae, doesn't seem as if you're warm weather is going to be sticking around too long." Shannon said through a mouthful of pretzels.
"Ah well…" Raven responded, reaching for the remote.
Just then, bold red letters reading 'News Break' flashed across the screen and a news reporter came on.
"We've just received urgent news that in the down town vicinity there has been an explosion in an abandoned warehouse off of 5th Street. We'll go to Paul Sutherland live at the scene." The picture switched from the woman to a man standing in front of a fire truck with a blazing building in the background.
"Thank you Theresa. As of now, the authorities are unsure if anyone was actually in the building or injured in the blast. So far, only minor cases of smoke inhalation have been treated for the unfortunate people near the building at the time of the explosion." Paul turned towards the building and the camera man zoomed out on the destruction. Then the picture changed to an over head view. "As you can see from the air, the smoke and flames are like a beacon to the entire city."
"Paul, do the authorities know how the explosion was caused?" Theresa asked as the camera continued the overhead shot of the warehouse.
Raven stood up, almost knocking over the table as she did. Something wasn't right. Who would blow up an empty warehouse? Then it all flooded back. It was a beacon. The bait for a much larger trap. The announcement of an arrival that was never supposed to come.
" Shannon," her friend turned to her. "Where doesRichard live?"
"Why-"
" Shannon." Raven interrupted. "This isn't the time. Where does he live?" Shannon's mouth moved silently for a moment.
"Uh, Turner street apartments, room 27." She responded confusedly. Raven grabbed her coat and headed for the door.
"I have to go." She said.
"Wait! Don't you need a ride?" Shannon asked as she walked out the door.
"I'll manage." Raven muttered.
Once in the hallway, Raven made sure no one was coming and silently phased out.
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And so concludes chapter five. I had originally thought that this would be something of a filler, but it was a lot longer (well, on Word at least) than I imagined. Anyhoo…sorry if it was a wee bit slow or boring, but it was supposed to be a filler-thing… Chapter Six will be along in awhile, I just get so damn distracted online. Someone needs to threaten me into typing or something…seriously. I've got the ideas, but I can't put them into words, y'know? So sorry ahead of time if it's a long while until I update again…