"We're gonna go…Shopping!"
Warren put Raven down and pulled her into a warm bear hug, kissing her soundly. Wolf whistles and cat calls could be heard from the stands.
Their photograph was on the front of the school news paper the next day, it was a picture of Raven being held bridal style in Warren's arms clutching the dummy, both were looking surprised. Raven went down stairs into the control room after school to show her father when some one grabbed her from behind.
Raven wrenched away from the person behind her and flipped into fighting stance, only to be met but a deep exuberant laugh and shining blue eyes.
"Marcus!" she yelled
Her attacker was none other than Marcus Grimm from across the street, the son of Ben Grimm (the thing) and Alicia Masters. He had inherited his father's strength and invulnerability, but had his mother's chocolate brown skin. Surprisingly he had his father's remarkable blue eyes. She ran up and jumped on him; he enveloped the young woman in a warm hug and almost broke her ribs. He set her down and the two of them went up stairs to the kitchen, sitting down at the table she smiled happily.
"When did you get back?"
Marcus spoke up in his deep New Yorkers voice.
"This morning, Mom had a gallery showing up in Boston so I dropped into NY and said hi to some of the guys…they miss you a lot"
He took a sip of water and had a look at the news paper on the table.
"So…you won save the citizen, your dad is sure gonna be proud of you"
Raven looked at the picture and sighed.
"Yeah"
"What's wrong?" said Marcus.
"Nothing" replied Raven "it's just that, well Dad's so set on me following in his foot steps that it's kind of taken all the fun out of learning to be a super hero"
Marcus looked confused.
"So you're saying that you don't wan to be part of the Fantastic Four when you're older?"
Raven looked up.
"Yeah, I mean it would be cool and all but…I might want to go solo or have a partner, I mean where does it say that we have to join the team when we graduate?"
Marcus was about to reply when the door bell rang, Raven went to answer it. It was Layla and Majenta; she let them in and took them into the kitchen to meet Marcus.
"Um guys, this is my friend Marcus…Marcus this is Layla and Majenta, their friend form school"
Marcus smiled and stood up, he turned to Raven.
"I gotta go now" then back to the other girls "it was nice meeting you"
He waved good bye and headed back over to his house, Raven turned to her friends and asked why they were there.
"We have to go shopping for spring fling, and we thought that you should come along" replied Layla.
"Ok…but I'm driving!" grinned Raven.
She led them out to the garage where her dad kept his car collection, including Raven's vintage 1953 black Porsche with the flames painted up the sides. Her friends gaped at her, she shrugged.
"What, it was a present when I got my licence"
They jumped in and Raven cranked up the CD player, the song playing was A thousand Miles by Nora Jones, Raven quickly switched to another station playing Hot Boyz by Missy Elliot; they backed out the drive way and headed for the mall.
They slowed down at a set of traffic lights and pulled up next to a red convertible full of guys. The guys beeped their horn and yelled out to them, Raven smiled and inconspicuously dropped her hand out of the side of the car. The driver took it as encouragement and revved the engine, as the light turned green Raven floored it and sped off towards the mall laughing. She had melted the guy's tires; aside from a disapproving look from Layla they all had a good laugh. They pulled into the car park of a designer boutique.
After trying on dress after dress and combination outfit after combination outfit, only Layla actually found a dress that she liked. It was dark forest green, long full skirt with a knee high split and it had one strap going over her left shoulder. The bodice had small silver beaded designs in the shapes of hibiscus flowers. Next the girls went into Hot Topic which specialised in Goth and Punk style clothing, Maj found a dark purple and black dress that was a medieval style with the lacing up the front and a voluminous skirt. She totally had the dark witch thing going for her, even though she turned into a guinea pig.
Raven found the perfect dress in a knock off place near the centre of the mall; it was a strapless dark violet dress that reached just below her knees. The skirt looked like it was shredded so it moved freely around her pale legs; it had black and red scarves that sat on her hips and were secured with a fake amethyst broche. It also came with matching black elbow length gloves. She also bought some black 4 inch spiked heels to match.
On the way to the car Majenta made a very un-Majenta like suggestion, she suggested that they go and get their hair done. Layla actually squealed at the idea, so they went into Jurlique the hair salon down on Main Street. Maj just had her streaks redone, Layla had her hair dyed in multi-tonal shades of red and Raven had her ears pierced for the third time. So she had two studs in each ear lobe and two earrings on the upper part of her right ear. While Layla and Maj were getting primped and polished Raven ducked out to go to the Tattoo parlour next door and got a tattoo on her right fore arm, it was flames rising up from her wrist and in bold black letters the word TORCHED. She also popped into the costume shop and bought a short violet haired wig that was cut in a bob style.
As a dare from Hal the wig dude, Raven went and got a bar bell through her tongue…even though it would mean death from her father and laughs from her friends. She could say one thing…IT HURT LIKE HELL! Then there was a pleasant numbness and the inability to speak.
She wandered back into the salon to find Maj and Layla waiting for her and looking very prissy.
"Where did you go?" asked Layla.
"Ith wenth tho geth ma tongue peirthed" Raven replied, her voice muffled by her tongue stud.
"Huh?" said a very confused Majenta.
Rolling her crimson eyes, Raven poked out her tongue to show the metal bar and the slight swelling. She slid her tongue back into her mouth and grinned, she turned around to face the mirror and wound her hair up underneath her new wig. The short purplish black hair completely changed the contours of her face; it was very different from her long dark brown hair with the white streaks.
Layla just shook her head looking amused.
"Come on Rae, Will called and told us to meet him, Zach and Warren down at the Paper Lantern"
"On't all me Wae!" Raven glared at the red haired hippie.
The three girls hopped into Raven's car and drove off to the Chinese Restaurant.
The Paper Lantern
Raven, Layla and Maj were all sitting in their usual booth at the Paper Lantern waiting for Will and Zach to arrive; they had called earlier to say that they were going to be a bit late. Not that it really mattered to Raven because Warren was working tonight and his shift was almost over. Layla and Majenta nicked had nicked off to the bathroom to freshen up, leaving a speech impared Raven to fend for her self. She was sitting there quietly in her wig playing with her tongue stud when Warren came up to the table.
"What can I get you?" he said, he thought that he had recognised this girl; she looked so much like Raven that he had almost walked over there and kissed her…but Raven would never dream of wearing her hair like that.
"Wewl, I'm waithing thor my frienths tho I'll juth have a thpwrite thero thor thow" replied Raven, she knew that some how Warren had understood her.
'Goddess he looks good in that top' she thought. She leaned back in her chair and settled in for a major perv session as her hot boyfriend walked from table to table in his white singlet, torn jeans and standard issue apron. By the Goddess he looked sexy with his hair tied back.
"You work that apron" she whispered to her self.
Will and Zach came in just as Warren walked back into the kitchen; they walked over to the table and looked at her confused.
"Um hi…I don't mean to be rude but this is our table and we are meeting some friends here and…Raven is that you?"
She grinned, cracking up laughing, she winked as Layla and Maj slid into the booth each next to their respective boyfriends. Raven saw Warren walking back to the table with her drink and decided to surprise him. She stood up and sauntered over to him, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. Raven took the drink from him and drained the glass, and then she reached her arms around Warren's neck and pulled his to her in a hard kiss. He stood there passively for a minute before he realised what was going on and pulled away from her.
He took a step back and glaring wiped his hand across his mouth, he was about to yell or some thing when the strange girl smiled innocently and flipped her head back. The short purple bob fell off and gave way to silken waves of long dark hair with two long strands of white. Warren's eyes bugged out of his head.
Warren POV
The weirdest thing just happened, I saw this girl that reminded me so much of Raven that I almost kissed her, so I went over to take her order and she talked in such a slurred for of English that I almost couldn't understand her. So I got her drink and was heading back to the table when for no reason she comes up and kisses me! Right there infront of my friends, she kissed me. I was about to yell at her when she thew her head back and that awful hair fell off. Surprise to me it was Raven the entire time…she just stood there giggling while I looked like an idiot.
Normal POV
Warren looked like a stunned mullet for a minute before grabbing his girlfriends hand and dragging her into the employee lounge. He heard her gasp in pain and looked down at the arm that he had grabbed, a huge white bandage took up most of her fore arm. His eyes narrowed in anger.
"What happened to your arm?" he growled.
"Thathoo" replied Raven in her slurry voice.
Warren raised an eyebrow.
"and the voice?"
Raven grinned. "Thongue thstud"
"WHAT?"
Raven pounced on Warren and knicked him down on to a battered old couch. She captured his lips and slid her tongue into his mouth, giving him a first hand experience of the benefits of a tongue stud. Moaning in pleasure he wrapped his arms around Raven's slender waist and slid his hand up underneath her t-shirt. Warren ran his hands up and down her naked skin, she wriggled at the feeling of his warm hands creating sparks on her back.
They were brought out of their joint trance when a smoke alarm went off in the kitchen and they both ended up being doused with water.
…TBC…
Grettings my pretties, I hope that you enjoyed the story so far, I have!don't mind the tongue stud I just thought it would be cool for her to talk funny for a bit. should she and Warren get busy or remain innocent and boring. im asking you. even if you dont answer the question please review.