Giving Yourself
A Teen Titans Fan Fiction by Jacob McDonald
Standard Disclaimers Apply. I don't own Teen Titans.
Chapter Three
"Excuse me?" Roy blinked through blurry eyes, "You can't keep me here like a prisoner, Raven."
"Because you can do so much to get away right now. You over dosed so badly last night that you were reduced to a gibbering idiot while some horny tramp with more STD's than an aging rock star went down on you like a leech."
"There were way too many comparisons in that sentence."
Raven scowled, "Your charming macho bullshit wont work on me, Roy. I'm keeping you here until you're better. That's it. Final."
Roy frowned and sat up. Slowly, he pulled himself off the couch and to his feet. They were all prickly from sleeping in his shoes all night, but he marched forward with a staggering gait all the same, "See, the thing you're not taking into account, Raven, is that maybe… just maybe…" he was right up next to her, and he breathed rancid breath into her face, "I don't want to get better."
Raven rolled her eyes and poked him firmly in the chest. Roy fell backwards and to the floor with a thud. She glared down at him, "Not an option, Roy."
"Fuck you, Raven! Let me out of here or I'll call Bumble Bee and have you tossed out of Steel City!"
"Oh, because she'd really let you call any shots while you're coming down from a Heroin OD." The dark Titan shook her head, "Come on. You should be in bed."
As she reached down to help him up, he slapped her hands away. "Fuck off!"
Raven stood up, supremely unperturbed. "Fine. When you decide you want my help, call me." With that, she walked into the living room and sat down on the love seat. Picking up the remote to the twenty inch TV that sat on the cheep laminate wood entertainment stand, she flipped on the History Channel and started watching a show about President Taft.
Roy growled low in his throat and pulled himself into a sitting position. Crawling to the door, he reached up and turned the knob.
Nothing happened.
He reefed on the door but it still didn't open. Checking the lock through the haze that seemed to block his vision, he saw it was an electrically sealed mechanism.
"Right… safe houses are all locked by the same code." He muttered, and reached for his T-Comp. Patting around his pocket, he discovered it wasn't there, "Where's my com?" he asked out loud.
"Don't know." Raven replied, "You didn't have it on you when we picked you up." Pulling out her own, she flipped it open and did a quick search, "Oh. You left it at the Titans East Tower. I'm sure doing that made sense when you were trying to hide your drug problem from your team."
Roy growled again, and started dragging himself towards her. He had a feral look in his eyes, "Give me that."
"No." Raven tucked the com away and glared at him.
As the red head made it to the love seat, he dragged himself up on it, then over on top of Raven. His hands were planted on either side of her shoulders, and his pelvis dug into her side as he tried to support himself. He hung his head down, resting it on hers for a moment, and she closed her eyes. Roy breathed hard. If someone had walked in right then, they would have thought the two of them had just been making out.
Roy's arms gave out.
She let him collapse on top of her, then shoved him off on to the floor. Arching an eyebrow down at him, she shook her head.
"Damnit! Give it to me!" Roy suddenly lunged up at her, but Raven was ready. A quick punch to his face knocked him back to the floor, clutching at his nose. "Ow! What the hell?"
"Don't attack me, Roy. I'll beat you in to the ground if I have to."
"Fucking Hell, Raven! Just let me out of here!" his voice echoed desperation.
"No." Raven reached down and grabbed him. Dragging him to his feet, she helped him limp across the apartment to the bedroom, where she dumped him on the bed. "Rest. Get some sleep if you can. When the withdrawal hits, you're not going to be able to sleep at all."
"I… why are you doing this?" Roy crawled under the covers and curled up into a ball, "Why are you torturing me?"
"You want the truth?" Raven leaned over him, and he blinked up at her in a confused manner, "It's because I care about you, Roy. I don't like to see my friends in pain. So get better, or I'll never forgive you."
As she walked from the room, Roy sank back into his pillow. "Right." he muttered. She wasn't fooling him. He'd find a way out. He'd find a way…
He was asleep again before he could finish the thought.
Raven sat on the couch that night, reading a few poems from an online forum she frequented, when a knock came at the door. Frowning, she set aside her laptop and stood up. She'd changed into loose fitting black silk pajama pants, and a white tank top, and had left her feet bare all day. She didn't get the chance to very often around the Towers. The floors were all metal and just got too damn cold to not wear at least a warm pair of socks.
She stopped at the door, then sighed when she sense the presence on the other side. Disengaging the lock, she opened the portal and glared at Karen Beecher. The young black woman was wearing dark jeans and a black t-shit under a jean jacket.
"Yes?" Raven was curt.
Bumble Bee tried her best to look angry, "What's this I hear about you stealing one of my team away?"
"You know I can sense your feelings of concern and your trepidation, Karen. Drop the angry act."
"Fine." Bee took on a worried expression, "Sparky wouldn't tell me what was wrong with him."
"He's suffering through heroin withdrawal." Raven glared, "I thought I made it clear that no one was to visit."
"I know… but…" Bee looked away, "I had to know. He's one of my team, Raven. My responsibility."
"He's my responsibility now." Raven didn't move from the doorway, "Go home, Karen."
"Okay, I will… just… here, I brought him some books from his room that I know he's been meaning to read, and some of the curry powder he likes to put on everything-"
"Do you know what heroin withdrawal is like, Karen?" Raven leaned forward a little, "He's going to be writhing in pain, and hallucinating. He'll be throwing his guts up for weeks. He's not going to be able to read anything, or eat anything for the next week at least, then only sparingly after that. His body needs to rebuild from the ground up."
"Oh… I just… I thought…"
"I know you're trying to help, but you have to trust me on this one. I'll deal with it."
"Okay, I just…" she trailed off and looked over Raven's shoulder, "Oh! Roy!"
Raven's eyes grew wide and she whirled around. She'd been so focused on getting Bumble Bee to leave, that she hadn't sensed Roy behind her. She only made it halfway before he smashed the clock radio from the bedroom over her head.
Raven crumpled to the floor and Roy jumped over her prone form. As Bumble Bee blocked his path, he threw a hard right into her jaw, slamming her out of the way. She fell back against the hallway wall and he jumped down the first flight of steps.
Even as Bee was getting back up, Raven was already flying out the door. She looked down at the Titans East leader and scowled, "Don't ever come here again, Karen, or I'll make sure you regret it."
As the dark Titan flew off, Bumble Bee felt hot tears trailing down her face, "Oh God… Roy, please be okay…"
Roy's thoughts were reaching a fever pitch. He could feel the heat wafting off his body, even thought cold rain was lashing against his shivering frame. His feet were bare and his jeans were the only thing keeping him from freezing to death. The shirt he'd been wearing back at the apartment he'd torn off when he reached the ground level, simply because he was so warm.
"Need… more… gotta feel…" Roy staggered against the side of a building. Raven had said they'd busted Luke the night before, so he would have to make it across town to see if Barry had any he could spare…
"Roy!" He whirled around to see Raven flying through the rain at him. Attempting to take up a fighting stance, he slipped in the muck at his feet and fell to the ground. By the time he'd rolled to his hands and knees, she was there, helping him up, "Damn it all, Roy, I'm not letting you do this!"
"Raven… just let me go… let me die out here if I have to… but let me go…"
"I already told you, Roy, no. I wont let you destroy yourself any more."
"Who put you in charge of my life?"
"Sometimes you need someone else to be in charge. Especially when you're not doing what's best for yourself."
Roy looked down at his mud and grime stained clothes, then up at the sky. "Fuck." He muttered, "If you could see me now, Ollie, what would you think? This is the boy you raised, Old Man. This is what you made."
"Don't blame any of this on Green Arrow." Raven helped him to his feet, and when his legs gave out, dragged him back up, clutching his taller frame to her petite one. He pressed close to her and looked down at their bodies, crushed together. The rain had soaked through her white shirt, and her breasts stood out in high detail through the transparent cloth. She smirked up at him. "Like what you see?"
"Yeah." He nodded dumbly.
"Well, you'll stand a better chance of seeing more if you come back to the safe house with me."
"Okay."
"Feh." Raven took to the air, levitating him along with her, "Leave it to a man to go through the Hell of withdrawal just to get a better look at a nice rack."
"You make that sound like a bad thing."
"Shut up, Roy."
When they got back to the apartment, Bumble Bee was gone. She'd left the books and the spice, but Raven ignored those as she kicked the door shut and relocked it. Half walking, have carrying Roy across the living room, she made it to the bathroom and pulled him into the tub with her.
Without bothering to take their clothes off, she turned on a hot shower and let the water pour over them, even as Roy shivered in her grasp. He gasped, and it reverberated in her soul. He was in intense pain.
"This is just the beginning, Roy." She muttered into his hair as she held him tightly to keep him from thrashing about, "You'll have to be strong for this."
"As long as you're here…" he gasped out, "Raven… don't give up on me yet… just don't give up on me…"
Raven held him tighter as another spasm wracked his body. "Never." She whispered.
The hot water poured down, and washed away his tears.