There are many things Jacob loves. He loves the soft smacking sound a woman's lips make when she parts them to let out a little whimper. He's partial to the whimpers let out after he's first buried himself in her, the ones towards the end are just a little too high pitched for him. He loves the full chested groan a man makes when he releases. He loves the soft, hesitant touch of a tongue on his lips begging for entrance. And he loves human bars. The precursor to many of these experiences. There is never a shortage of horny people at human bars.

Still, he's a little disappointed when he walks in at noon to find the bar is empty minus the very tired looking bartender. He rolls his eyes, humans have an arbitrary way of deciding when it is the proper time to imbibe. He almost walks out but he also loves the indulgent food humans decide to fill themselves with. He's convinced humanity never needed him or his brothers; they have a beautiful way of wrecking themselves.

Jacob smiles at that thought before the bartender, who apparently is acting as a waiter too, drops the steak and fries in front of him. No. All wrong.He almost loses his appetite. He quickly moves his plate approximately two inches away from his fork on the left and approximately two inches away from his knife on the right. He shifts the angle of the napkin in front of him so that it is perfectly parallel to the plate of steak. There. No. Wait. He grabs his fork and shifts over the two fries that are touching his steak. Finally, there. He cuts into his steak at exactly a forty five degree angle. He finishes his steak and fries when he sees them walk in.

Ah a brunch date. He leans back in his chair. The woman is in red heels, her hair tousled in a way that suggests she's laid with someone but he can't smell sex on her. She must have spent a good amount of her time achieving that look. She looks annoyed as she drops her purse at the bar. Her date, who looks like he didn't clean himself up after work, almost bumps into her back because he's too focused on the recaps of last night's sport in front of her. What pathetic human entertainment is it? Basketball or football? Jacob questions, then quickly realizes he doesn't care because he catches a whiff of the woman's hair conditioner when she flips her hair over her shoulder.

It was clearly a first date but Jacob didn't sense a spot of lust in the woman for this man. She's typing furiously on her little device, red painted nails making a clicking sound against her phone screen. She doesn't even bother to disguise her annoyance. It's not like the man was much focused anyways. Jacob sips on his water, watching the pair with interest until the man mumbles something about needing to go to the bathroom. At this point the bartender/ waiter is tending to a group of people who just walked in.

How can I do this cleanly?

Jacob moves a table in front of the bathroom entrance with his powers. Then he saunters up to the woman and takes a swift seat next to her. His eyes trace the outline of her full red lips and chin. He looks down the slope of her neck. Where it connects to her chest. His eyes trail down to where her breasts disappear into her shirt. She's distracted by her phone but jumps up when she's noticed someone has come near her. Her lips part over brilliant white teeth. Yes. Jacob thinks. He can sense the first inkblots of lust staining her insides as she looks him over. Jacob looks towards the group at the opposite end of the restaurant and at the waiter who walked behind doors to put in their order. Jacob uses his powers to block the waiter's exit with a jukebox. All the while maintaining eye contact with the woman in front of him.

"That man is too inattentive to be a good lover." He doesn't leave her any room to argue. She doesn't try to. He watches as she moves her drink to her lips, wetting her lips. She puts the drink down.

"The suggestion there being that you actually are a good lover," the woman rolls her eyes, putting the glass against her lips again. She shakes an ice into her mouth. Jacob takes the glass from her hand and places it slowly onto the bar. The woman watches him, her lips parted deliciously. He needs to move this along much faster. He flicks a strand of her hair over her shoulder and leans his lips close to her ears so that his lips are touching her with each word.

"I can show you," Lust says, dropping a hand on her upper thigh. He pulls back slightly, just enough to look in her eyes. "I can show you right now. In this seat," he says, hand massaging circles into her thigh. He feels the woman's legs part slightly. He starts stretching at the edges of those inkblots of lust in her the higher up her leg he goes. He moves his hand. "Do you want me to touch you? Right here in the open?"

The woman nods once and he grins.
"Spread your legs," he says. His fingertips graze the edge of her lace panties, where her right leg meets her body. The woman lets out a little breath, looking at the group of people in the corner of the restaurant. Lust places his lips on her ear again.

"They can't see you," he says, and he's done with the whispered touches as he clutches her tightly over her panties. The woman rocks forward with a whimper. He trails his index finger up and down over her slit. The woman looks towards the bathroom.

"He won't come out," Lust assures her. "I'm going to finger you in the middle of this restaurant," Lust says. The woman clutches the edge of the bar.

"I don't - ah- know your name," she says, managing to break his trance momentarily. Lust pushes her panties to the side and touches the outside of her wet lips. She whimpers again and he nuzzles his nose into her neck.

He has one knuckle inside of her when he feels himself getting pulled back.

Fucking shit.

He lands on his feet and turns 360 degrees as quickly as possible.

Only to recognize that he is in a completely...different room?

A hotel?

Then he recognizes him.

"Was that necessary?" Jacob says, rubbing his wet finger against his pant leg. Jared looks down at the finger Jacob rubbed on his pant leg. His face, with its close lips and dead eyes, shows no glimmer of emotions. Jared takes his time answering Jacob's question, deciding it was more important to find a comfortable place to sit. He finally decides on the blue, floral print recliner in the corner of the room. The chair looks comically small as Jared sinks his huge, muscular body into it. Jared crosses one leg over the other one and places his hands on his knees.

"I'm assuming since you are off gallivanting in the streets that you've convinced our sister to join our league."

Jacob throws his body on the bed, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I've done no such thing," Jacob says, picking at something beneath his nail. Jared pauses. Jacob shifts his own body because he can swear Jared is frozen in position. It's silent.

"So you've handled her teammates," Jared eventually says, moving nothing but his lips. Jacob says nothing, playing with his nail again. One second Jacob's looking at his nail and the next he's dragged off the bed by his shirt. Jared's face is transformed, his teeth are bared and saliva is running down his chin.

"Our plan runs on a limited time line," Wrath booms, his spit landing on Jacob's face. His human form slips and his two eyes split into four blazing red ones.

"Your plan was sloppy," Jacob says, forcefully removing himself from Wrath's grip. "And you are not my maker." He plops down on the bed again. Jared's lip twitches as his eyes return to normal.

"Sloppy? You hand an appendage inside of a stranger. In the middle of a bar. At noon!" Wrath booms, and his eyes split back into four again.

"Okay, either two eyes or four. The back and forth is an unnecessary expenditure of energy," Jacob sighs, looking up at his brother's tight face. Jared takes a deep, long breath and his eyes return to normal. He returns back to his seat and sits in almost the exact same position as before. Jacob looks at his nails again.

"If you ruin this plan I will rip out your heart with my bare hands and chew on it," Jared says clearly and slowly.

"My heart isn't the best part of my body anyways. I'm sure I won't miss it. Now as for everything below the belt…" Jacob trails off. Jared's jaw ticks.

"Did you at least speak with her?" Jared asks. Jacob looks up at his brother and shoots him a closed-lip grin.

"Sometimes I enjoy completing the task you assign to me."

"What words did you exchange with her?"

"Well…"

Gar keeps peeking up from the spice packages in front of him to look at Raven. She was thumbing through the packages slowly and gracefully, like when she turned a page in one of her books. Raven looks up and he has to force himself not to look down. He's not going to be the one to break eye contact. If she can look him directly in the eyes, he can return the favor.

"Did you find the anise?" Raven asks, her lips pressed together tightly in a thin line. She looks...slightly annoyed. Garfield can feel that his mouth is hanging open but he can't make words. It's the first words she's said to him since her brother left the common room. He wonders how she can look annoyed right now; had he not heard it properly when her brother announced they wanted to be together? "Changeling."

"Right...um...still looking," he says, hating himself for the nervous way he averts his eyes from hers. He stares down at the packets in front of him but no matter how many times his eyes run over the letters he can't seem to read the words. He can feel her eyes burning holes into his shirt. He hears her suck her teeth and peaks up to see the bottom of her feet walking away from him toward the crystals section.

She hadn't even tried to address what Jacob said when her barrier broke. She just started barking out directions to everyone. You go to the florist...And you get the mortar and pestle...And Garfield will come with me to the wiccan shop. And she had looked at him directly in the eye, with her chin tilted up as if daring him to question whether it was odd for them to go on a solo trip after what had just been said. He thought she was insane. Did she not have a hundred questions in her head right now? She was more militant and precise than Nightwing.

Anise! He plucks the package. Finally, his eyes were working again.

Raven. Sexually attracted to him. He drops the anise package. Holy crap. He's spent the whole past hour chewing on what she could possibly be thinking that he hadn't even thought about that. How did one even begin to think about that? They are close friends now, always had been, but Garfield is sure he isn't exaggerating when he remembers that there was a solid year where Raven would roll her eyes anytime Garfield parted his lips. Raven? Wanting to be near him? Desiring him? Garfield shakes his head. He looks at Raven who places a purple crystal into her bag. Her eyes meet his. Again. He scampers to pick up the anise package and hits his head against the side of the table. Garfield clenches his eyes tightly, resisting the urge to yelp out. After a few moments he peaks at Raven through his lashes.

Raven's lips are in a tight line again. Her shoulders look straight and tight. He feels irritation pricking his own skin like a thousand little needle points. She could at least look a little concerned. She tilts her chin to the checkout line.

They wait in line, shoulder to shoulder, with probably exactly six inches between their bodies. How does she not feel the weight in the air? He looks at her, purposefully, waiting for her to turn her head and meet his eyes. She's staring intently at the potion bottles behind the cash register with such a disinterested look that Garfield is sure that she had to do a lot of work to make her lips the perfect distance between a frown and a smile. Because there is absolutely no way. He knows she has a tight rein on her emotions but she cannot possibly be this comfortable in the knowledge that was just dropped on them. But Gar isn't about to bring it up in the middle of a wiccan shop.

So they stand in line. Silently.

Then take a long flight back to the Tower. Silently.

Then enter the elevator of the Tower. Silently.

"So we're going with ignoring it?" Garfield challenges, arms crossed over his chest. Raven glances at him. "Just trying to make sure we're on the same page."

Raven looks forward and doesn't say a word. He notices her fingers are pink because of how tightly she's clenching the plastic bag of supplies.

"And taking it out on shopping bags apparently," he says. She loosens her fingers immediately.

"We have more pressing issues."

Garfield pauses. They're almost to the common room.

"If we talk about it it would probably be a lot less awkward."

"It's not awkward."

"You sure? Because you've been switching from making the most eye contact I've ever seen you make with anyone to starring anywhere but my face for the past half an hour."

"I'm so eternally sorry if I haven't been keeping track of how long I'm looking at you Changeling. My brothers are trying to release my father from Hell." She says it like she's seconds away from picking her nails but of course that would require her to look anywhere but the elevator buttons she's intently focused on.

"Yeah I know, one of them told all our friends we wanted to fuck each other," Garfield says and he knows its crude but if she's going to be this difficult he's going to give himself room to act the same.

"Jesus-" Raven exclaims, smacking a hand to her forehead and turning to face him. He thinks she looks kind of like a tornado.

"I think your brothers are a little further south than him," he says. Because apparently he wants to die young.

"Clearly Jacob is saying anything to distract us," Raven bites out, pointing a finger at his chest. He's come a long way from the sixteen year old boy seeking constant validation but her words make him play with the point of his left ear.

"Clearly?" Garfield asks lamely. Raven's eyes widen at the same time he realizes he wants to vacuum the word back into his mouth. Raven pauses, her fingers now curled in a loose fist between them.

"Yes. I mean- you're not attracted to me?" Raven mumbles, her words tumbling past her lips in a weird pitch. Garfield has long since sucked his lips into his mouth, hoping nothing else would come out. He tries to find the right words. 'No I'm not' would do just fine, he tells himself.

But instead the elevator opens up on the whole team. Plus Aqualad. And Terra. His girlfriend. Raven's already halfway out of the elevator. She turns away from Garfield in a millisecond but it's slow enough for Garfield to watch the way her lips return to their frustratingly perfect line. It takes Garfield a few more seconds to exit the elevator with the same level of nonchalance.