Author's Note:
I am very happy for the reviews and the love the first short story received. It is, frankly, more than I expected and it is one of the reasons why I'm following through with another short drabble, and I have decided that I will continue to do so in the future. The other reason? Sheer stubbornness. Few readers have viewed this story, and I want to make it more visible and try to push the pairing harder, so that it starts blipping on radars.
Another thing. Kyd's and Angel's powers here are a headcanon of mine. They haven't been explored much in the show, so I took it upon myself to do it and to make them strong but not overpowered. Their talents will connect to their origins, obviously, and I will write more about that when the time comes.
Day Off
Come to think of it, he should be surprised. Surprised at himself for enjoying it this much.
He usually preferred to stay back in the Academy on Days Off. Everyone else jumped at the chance to get out of the undersea dome, leaving the large installation almost deserted, only Security personnel and those grounded as punishment remaining in it. But as far as he was concerned, the enjoyment of the Day Off was in walking the empty hallways and chambers, feeling like he owned the place, his quiet footsteps softly echoing through the voided spaces. The mute classrooms, deserted training areas and vacant dining halls all whispered wordless stories as he moved through them, all full of pleasant silence and soothing gloom and comfortably stale smells.
He hid a smile, remembering how it happened. How he was… persuaded to go.
He had to overcome his initial reluctance to come into the Common room, but it was a requirement he couldn't escape. He had to inform whoever was in charge of the trip to the surface that he wouldn't be going. He chose to walk instead of teleporting; it would attract less attention than appearing suddenly in the middle of the probably packed room.
He opened the door and paused for a moment, the babble of the crowd washing over him in an almost physical wave of unpleasant murmur, sour and unsettling. His eyes roamed over the throng of students, teachers and support personnel that were already being given their seating arrangements in the sub that would take them to the surface. As it swept around the crowded room, his gaze was met by two pairs of eyes – one pink, with cat-like pupils, and one glowing a solid golden yellow. The two girls glanced at him for a moment, then looked at each other, exchanged a few whispers and giggled. He felt heat rush to his face.
Angel gave Jinx a quick kiss on the cheek and broke away from her, winding her way through the multitude towards Kyd. He stood beside the door, his eyes glued to her, watching her approach, his breath getting shorter and his face getting redder as he realized that she was actually coming for him, not just mingling.
She stopped in front of him, smiling. Her wings expanded slightly, pointing upwards. She took his hand.
"You're coming with us this time, right?"
He tried to shake his head to say no. She somehow sensed it, or was expecting it, because she immediately went on the offensive, wrapping her arm around his and dragging him into the heart of the crowd, pulling him towards the desk where the sub seatings were arranged. "You are, I know you are. Don't tell me you're not. Come on, we'll have a great time together!" Her smile was dazzling, her eyes were mesmerizing, her scent of fresh breezes and storm gusts dizzying…
What could he do in the face of such an assault? He smiled sheepishly and nodded.
"You two sure you don't wanna see the movie?" Jinx asked Angel, hiding her eternal smirk and forcing her face to be serious.
"Nah, we're fine. You guys go have fun, the two of us will look for something else. Right, Kyd?" she asked, turning to him with a charming smile.
He nodded dumbly, millions of thoughts, emotions and doubts exploding in his head, all of them vying for his attention, none of them pertinent or important.
Is she… Has she just… But that means…
Gizmo snorted derisively. Billy popped out two clones and they started snickering among themselves.
"Well, well. Whatcha know, Billy! Y'all seein' what ah'm seein'?"
"Ah sho' do, Billy! Ah think we's got us sum –"
A small pink spark flew from Jinx's snapping fingers and into the speaker Billy's throat. He suddenly choked and started coughing. The other Billies looked at her, saw her dangerous scowl, gulped and melded back into a single Billy, who quickly stepped behind Mammoth's wide back, peering anxiously from his hiding place.
Angel's arm wrapped around Kyd's again, dragging him away, completely dazed and unresisting.
"I asked if you cared for some pizza" her voice finally percolated to his consciousness through the turmoil and chaos that reigned in his head. He looked at her as if he was just realizing she was there, then quickly nodded like a bobblehead. She managed to keep her giggles inside, but couldn't do anything about the grin on her face as she guided him to the pizza place across the street.
They didn't bother to hide their true nature. People in Jump City were used to superheroes and supervillains, and seeing a meta or an alien was almost a daily occurrence for them. The bored waitress dismissed them as kids cosplaying as she took their order.
She chatted animatedly while they waited. He watched her intently, trying to keep an expression of polite interest on his face, nodding every now and then as if he was actually listening to what she was saying. But he was just letting the sound of her voice fill his mind and soul, not paying attention to the words, observing her eyes as they glowed with satisfaction while she spoke, feeling her excitement with the moment infect him with previously unfelt emotions.
It was all way too short, over too soon, the magic suddenly dispelled as the pizza was plopped in front of them. Startled, he hid his confusion by cutting several slices and offering her one. She took it and placed it on her plate, smiling, then turned her attention to the food.
They ate in silence. He tried to keep his eyes on the pizza slice in his own plate, using the knife and fork instead of picking it up in his hand and shoving it into his mouth as he used to do, as all his friends always did, as is the proper way of eating pizza. But that would mean looking up and maybe meeting the gaze from those golden, glowing eyes…
His eyes went up. There was no force in the Universe that could've prevented it. They went up and they took her in and then realized she was looking back at him.
Both sets of eyes dropped down in a split second, suddenly extremely interested in the pizza in front of them. Both faces reddened, both throats tightened and the breath going through them quickened.
She stuffed her mouth with a large piece of pizza to prevent herself from speaking. He had a problem; he wasn't able to fake it that way. So he concentrated on cutting small pieces off his own slice with the knife and spearing them with the fork, carrying them to his mouth. Rinse and repeat.
And then catastrophe struck – the pizza was finished. Over. Eaten away. The strong bulwark, the reliable shield, the irreducible bastion of defense was no more. He searched for scraps, desperately picking tiny pieces of mushrooms and sausage, but there was no more hiding to be done there. He had to face it. He looked up.
She was gazing at him, her eyes glowing golden. A small smile appeared on her lips. Her hand grasped a napkin and moved towards his face.
"You've got some sauce on your cheek" she said in a half-whisper as the napkin tapped his face gently. A small part of his mind groaned at the corniness, while the rest of him sang at the touch. She leaned closer to get a better look and make sure her efforts were successful and that there were no sauce streaks left on him. Or maybe because of something else.
Their heads bent closer, their faces heated, their pulse drumming in their ears. Their mouths opened a little, their lips puckered ever so slightly.
Something red crashed through the glass door and slammed into the opposite wall, slumping to the ground. The guests shrieked and shouted in alarm. The smashed glass fell on the floor, tinkling. A groan came from the crumpled figure. An apparition from Hell followed it through the destroyed entrance.
Adonis? he thought that he recognized the figure on the floor. The red power armor was enveloped in blackness and launched out of the pizza parlor through a concrete wall.
He sprang up and followed through the freshly-made hole and after the forcibly expelled villain. As the dust cloud settled, he could see Adonis suspended in the air, several black tentacles coiled around him.
"Is that Raven?" Angel gasped as she appeared at his side, making him look to where the tentacles were coming from. A menacing figure floated closer, hidden beneath a blue hooded cloak, four eyes burning with the flames of all the Pits of Hell deep in the shadow of her hood.
"This is not our fight. Let's get out of here!" Angel said with concern, looking around. She noticed Beast Boy on the ground, apparently injured, Cyborg ministering to him. Where were Robin and Starfire?
She tugged Kyd's arm with urgency, her wings unfurling and expanding. "Come on, Kyd! Let's not get involved! There's nothing for us here!"
But Kyd could not move. He was riveted by the dark aura that was enveloping Raven, the aura that probably only he could see. It was so familiar, so terrifying… Suddenly he understood.
She was going to kill Adonis.
The sudden shriek of torn metal hurt their ears. The sleeve of Adonis' power armor was ripped off, as if it was made of tissue paper and not titanium alloy, revealing his scrawny arm flapping helplessly. Raven tossed the torn sleeve aside. It fell with a clang, ignored.
Kyd shook off Angel's hand and moved. He understood what the dark aura around Raven was. He realized what would come to pass if she killed the red-armored villain.
He could not let that happen.
His cape swirled and he teleported in front of Adonis, lifting his hands in the air to get Raven's attention. She ignored him. The black tentacles squeezed; the red armor buckled; Adonis whimpered in pain.
Kyd let his power flow through the cape and whipped its edge against the tentacles. His cape became a border between the mortal realm and another dimension; everything that the edge of the cape went through was separated, cut, divided. There was no material or force that could withstand it. It sliced through the tentacles and they coiled back into Raven, the portions enveloping Adonis withering and disappearing. He reeled and fell on the pavement.
The four eyes turned on Kyd.
A blast of black power screamed at him. He covered himself with his cape, allowing the strike to dissipate into another dimension. It was a practically impenetrable shield, but its disadvantage was that he couldn't see behind it. What was going to be Raven's next attack? The best defense was not to be there when it landed. He teleported a few feet to the right.
He didn't take into account Raven's empathy. She sensed him while he was still materializing and an explosion of black energy burst over him. Most of it struck the cape, dissipating, but enough flowed around to slam into him, lift him up and drop him to the ground, dazed.
"Leave him alone, you black witch!" Angel screamed and slammed Raven against a wall with a gust of wind from her furiously beating wings. She soared up to gain altitude and dive down on the sorceress, her eyes glowing wrathfully. She heard a familiar hiss behind her and quickly wrapped her wings around her.
Starbolts exploded harmlessly on the indestructible feathers. Angel spread her wings again, dodging the remainder of the starbolts and swooping into a sharp loop, turning to face a furious Starfire, a barrage of green bolts searing out from her hands like tracers from a machine gun.
Angel dove and spiraled, avoiding the green bolts, seeking to get closer to the Tamaranian. Starfire came after her, her eyes glowing an angry emerald. Angel smirked and beat her wings powerfully, gaining altitude, the alien following relentlessly.
She turned to Starfire and beckoned mockingly. The glow in Starfire's eyes turned vicious as she blazed after the winged mutant. Timing it exquisitely, Angel dodged Starfire's body slam, whirling around and smashing her left wing into the Tamaranian's back as she streaked by.
Angel's wings could cut a steel girder in half or break a concrete pillar. Starfire was thrown down, crashing onto the pavement, her mind addled for a few seconds, but the alien's incredible toughness prevented any serious damage.
Angel looked at Kyd, seeing that he was still dazed but struggling to get up. She stole a quick glance towards Raven, noting that she was kneeling, her hands on her head, as if massaging a major headache away.
Time to pick Kyd up and make ourselves scarce. If Cyborg and Beast Boy join in, we'll be outnumbered and outgunned.
A flashbang exploded almost under her nose. Disoriented and stunned from the concussion, she dropped down, hit the pavement and lost consciousness.
She forgot about Robin.
Kyd materialized over her unconscious body, facing Robin. The staff went for his head, was met by the cape's edge and its upper half flew up, sliced away. Robin kicked at him, the strike blocked by the cape. But again it hid the opponent's movements from Kyd's eyes for a moment, time enough for the Boy Wonder to drop down and sweep the legs out from under Kyd.
He landed painfully on his butt, but the degrading position was the least of his worries. The world moved in slow motion around him while he watched Robin's fist coming closer to his face, unable to lift his arms and block, unable to move his head and dodge…
"STOP!"
Robin's fist stopped an inch away from Kyd's face, showcasing the incredible skill and control of the leader of the Titans. All turned their heads to where the voice came from.
Raven limped towards them slowly, her face a grimace of pain.
"Robin. It's OK. It's not their fault. They didn't attack me, I attacked them. They were just defending themselves."
"Are you sure, Rae? They are HIVE members, and they're –"
"They may be so, but they're not being wanted for any crimes that we know of" Raven cut him off coldly. "In the eyes of the Law, they're just as innocent as any passerby."
"They are villains!" Robin shouted, exasperated. "Why are you defending them?"
Raven's eyes flashed, her voice becoming sarcastic, almost contemptuous. "Will you serve preventive justice, Robin? Will you punish evildoers before they commit any crime? Batman must be so proud of you!"
Robin's teeth ground against each other, but then he relaxed. "You're right. We do have a morality that we must uphold, as… painful… as it is sometimes" he said, frowning at the two HIVE members. "If we didn't, we'd soon be like them!" he spat out venomously, then turned and walked away.
Raven approached Kyd and gazed piercingly into his eyes.
"Forgive his words. He doesn't know. But you do. I see it in you. You saw what I am. What I represent."
Kyd nodded. Raven kept staring at him, gauging him, analyzing him. He felt like a bug under a microscope.
"You stopped me from… doing it. You knew what the consequences were. You helped me."
Kyd looked down and nodded.
"Thank you" Raven said simply, then glanced at the still unconscious Angel.
"Let me check her out. She may be injured."
Kyd nodded again and watched Raven as a bluish-white glow enveloped her hands while she healed the winged mutant. Finished, she sighed deeply and rose. Kyd's hand closed on her arm, helping her to get up. His other hand touched gently several bruises and scrapes on Raven's arms and head.
"I'll fix it in the Tower. Don't worry about me."
Kyd's head cocked questioningly, the grip of his hand on her arm tightening a little.
Raven frowned. "I prefer not to talk about it" she said.
Kyd's grasp loosened and slid down to take her hand.
She sighed. "It will happen soon enough."
He nodded and smiled at her. Her frown turned into a scowl.
"There is nothing to smile about. Enjoy the few months that we have left. Once he comes, we'll all be better off dead."
Kyd's grip on her hand increased. He showed her his fist, then pointed it towards her friends, lifting a finger for each one of them, as if he was counting them. The five fingers splayed wide, he closed his fist slowly again, then banged it over his heart.
Raven watched it carefully. "Courage? What can mere courage do against him?" she said, still scowling.
Kyd banged his fist insistently over his heart.
"Courage and… hope" Raven whispered. Kyd nodded and smiled again. "There is always… hope" Raven said, her voice stronger. "Azar used to say that."
Kyd tightened his grip on her hand, then released it. Raven looked into his eyes.
"You are not demonspawn, but the mark of a demon is all over you" she said, curious. "I wonder… Never mind. No time for that now."
He brought his hand to his forehead and straightened it in a gesture of farewell. Raven's lip curled upward a bit.
"Goodbye to you, too, Kyd. You two take care of yourselves" she said and floated off to join her friends.
Kyd looked after her as she retreated, then bent and helped a groaning Angel get up.
"Man, what a Day Off! We gotta do this again one day" she grumbled ironically.
Kyd smiled while his hand twirled around and then touched his other wrist.
Anytime.