Blanket Disclaimer: Poison Tonic LX does not own the Teen Titans or any characters therein. Don't sue her, please, because if you do I won't have a home anymore…-Ralph, the muse
He woke with a sad feeling deep in his gut, as if he had lost something.
He stumbled out of bed into the bathroom, gazing at the tired, tear-stained face staring back at him from within the confines of the mirror.
'That's weird…why was I crying last night?' He wondered. 'I'm sure I would have remembered if I'd had another dream about Tandi…right?'
He shook his head and turned the shower on, stripping his clothes off and stepping into the freezing water. He grit his teeth together and pressed his hands and forehead against the side of the shower, willing his body to accustom itself to the extreme cold, though of course it didn't.
He quickly set about washing his hair and body, feeling the sheen of sweat he woken with wash away, getting out of the shower just as his skin began to turn a light shade of blue, and wiping himself off, pulling on the Rush uniform he had just finished making early that morning (he had gotten only an hour or so of sleep) and shivering as his body soaked in as much heat as it could to compensate for the heat lost in the shower.
He stretched and slipped his mask on, running a hand through his hair and yawning as he exited his room, heading towards the kitchen.
This was the first time he had been up this early since he had become an official Titan, and that was the only possible explanation he could think of for the intense silence of the Tower.
He shivered again as he pulled out a teacup and a teabag, setting them on the counter and turning to start the water. He stopped short and blinked at the teapot, which was already whistling shrilly to indicate its readiness.
"Good morning."
He jumped and twirled around, letting out a relieved sigh when he saw the Sorceress watching him with an amused expression from the table, running a finger around the edge of her cup.
Relaxing, he turned back to his tea, pouring the water into his cup.
"Good morning, Raven." He said.
"You're awfully jumpy." She drawled.
"I was tired and you startled me." He replied with a shrug as he stirred his tea. "Do you enjoy scaring the living daylights out of all your teammates, or am I special?"
"No, I enjoy it immensely no matter who I'm scaring." She smirked as he joined her at the table.
"Hn." He took a sip of his tea and shuddered as the warmth of it heated up his insides.
Her mouth twitched and she mimicked his movements. "You're up fairly early this morning."
He shrugged again, leaning back against his chair as he drank more tea. "I didn't sleep much last night. It was strange…" He frowned as he thought back to how he had woken up that morning—covered in sweat and dried tears.
"Oh?"
He peered at her inquiringly from behind his mask—she was obviously trying very hard to keep her curiosity at bay behind her usual stoic façade. "I just had a weird feeling, that's all." He said finally, setting his cup down. "It was almost like I was feeling someone else's emotions…"
She leaned forward, arching an eyebrow at him. "Someone else's emotions?" She repeated.
"Well…I woke up and felt like I'd just finished crying myself to sleep, only I didn't cry myself to sleep and usually I remember if I've had a dream that would stimulate tears, even if I only vaguely remember the dream's contents. It was just…strange."
"Hmm…" She hummed thoughtfully, drumming her fingers against the table. "You should talk to Cyborg about it and let him run a scan to see if anyone's been meddling with your mind. There are a lot of other telepaths out there, and not all of them are as considerate as I am when it comes to people's privacy. They might have gone into your mind and dredged up some of your memories, then covered their tracks, but of course they couldn't have cleaned you up without physically being here. And that's just one scenario…"
"I don't think that's what it was." He interrupted her. "I've had people probe my mind before, and I was able to detect even the best at covering their tracks. It felt more like what I imagine I'd feel like if I probed someone else's mind…"
"Impossible. You can't do that sort of thing unconsciously." She said, waving the suggestion off with a hand. "Besides, you aren't a telepath. Just let Cyborg check it out—better safe than sorry."
He sighed. "Alright." He said, and they were both quiet for a while.
"What do you want to know?" She asked suddenly, and he started for the second time that day (and it was only six in the morning…). He gave her an inquisitive look and she rolled her eyes. "You want to ask a question. Go ahead and ask it."
"You know who I really am, don't you?"
"Red X?" She asked.
He nodded.
"What about it?"
"Why haven't you told anyone yet? Why d'you trust me?"
"I don't completely trust you." She corrected him. "Like I told the others—I've sensed no ill will towards us from you. If anything the only thing you feel towards us is curiosity and some mild annoyance towards Beast Boy, Starfire, and especially Robin. And Robin himself has told me hundreds of times that everyone deserves a second chance, so I thought I'd try it…willingly, for once. So far you've not made me regret my decision."
He felt strangely honored by her testimony. "Thanks. But I don't think the kid was talking about someone like me when he said that."
"Someone like you?"
He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, don't tell me you haven't caught onto it yet? The kid hates my guts."
She returned the favor. "That's mostly because as Red X you flirted constantly with Starfire, and whether or not she responded positively he still got jealous. Part of that is that he has a difficult time expressing himself towards her."
"The irony of it is that I'm not interested in her romantically at all." He said, putting an elbow on the table and leaning against his fist. "I just did it to get a rise out of him. Considering he was taught by the Batman, he sure is hot tempered."
"Batman has a fairly short temper himself." She said, mouth twitching. "And what do you mean you aren't interested in her? Why not?"
He shrugged. "I'd like a girl with some actual brains. Starfire's smart enough, I guess, taking into account that she's come here from a different planet and learned…basic English and is catching on to our customs, but I'm not patient enough to explain everything to her. Actually, I don't have enough patience for her. I prefer someone I can have an entire conversation with, without having to stop every few seconds to explain something like sarcasm."
"What if you didn't have to do that with her?" She asked.
He paused thoughtfully. "I might consider it, but probably not. She's too chipper, and no offense but she's too skinny, if you ask me."
She blinked at him. "Too skinny?"
"Way too skinny. I mean, I've got nothing against skinny girls, but she almost looks like she's sick or something. The orange skin doesn't help much on that count. And…" He trailed off.
"And…?" She prompted.
"Well…to tell you the truth, I'm just not really sure how I'd feel about dating a girl who was taller than me." He admitted with a sheepish grin.
She stared at him, then did something he would never in a million years have guessed—she burst out laughing! His jaw dropped as her hands snapped up to cover her mouth, her eyes wide as she had apparently not expected to do such a thing either.
"I-I'm sorry." She sputtered. "I didn't mean to…I've never done that before."
His mouth slowly stretched into a wide grin. "Oh, really?"
She nodded, still looking completely taken aback by her outburst.
"Well, you ought to do it more often." He said decidedly.
She gave him a startled look.
"You're gorgeous when you laugh." He elaborated.
Her eyes widened even more. "W-what?"
"I said you're gorgeous when you laugh." He repeated. "I mean, you're beautiful normally, but when you're laughing you're drop-dead gorgeous. You should do it more often, or at the very least give us a real smile every once in a while."
Her mouth worked soundlessly.
He stood and leaned across the table, putting a hand on her cheek. "Besides, I'll bet the others would love to hear you laugh, too. They've wanted to hear it a lot longer than I have." He said softly. "I'm telling you this for Cyborg especially. You're like his little sister, y'know. He'd be ecstatic to hear you laugh, even just a little."
If anything, her surprise only grew with this revelation.
Unable to help himself (the expression on her face was too cute to resist), he pressed forward and brushed his lips against hers, almost immediately pulling away, gathering his teacup as if nothing had happened and heading back into the kitchen.
"Oh, and by the way…the real reason I'm not interested in Starfire…is that I've got my eyes on someone else." He said, smiling back at her, and left the room with her still gaping after him.
Even though he had just witnessed the reason he had joined the Titans in the first place…he was going to have to stick around for a little while longer…
But it was just to see her laugh like that again…
Right?
(THE RUSH)
A/N: Neo's name and the name of another character who shows up in…erm…three or so chapters…anyhow, their names have absolutely nothing to do with the movies you'll think of when you see them…I'll go ahead and explain Neo's name now, and the other one later on: Omega, as in the name for all the clones, means 'End'—it's also the last letter of the Greek alphabet—and Neo means 'New'. So his name is 'the New End'. And JIC you were wondering, Max's 'codename' (Omega Prime) means: 'the Beginning of the End'. Yay for cool name meanings! Anyone notice that's sort of been around since the prologue when Rush tells about his name…? I just thought of that…lol, okay, I'll let you go now. See ya next! -PTLX