Because I've been asked, yes I am planning on making this a romance. A pretty hot romance at that. Also some other stuff with this...just want and see.
Terra stayed within the safe house all day and night, though she didn't know why. There were a number of reasons, she supposed somewhere within her, but the main one was that she wanted to see Raven again. When they had met the other night, Terra could sense a tension in her, one that was reflected in herself, but she felt drawn to it. Something about it made Terra want to get closer to her, close enough to ease the tension and break the facade that Raven always put on.
She wanted to see that maybe Raven did care for her as a friend.
What Terra thought about is if she had stayed with the Titans, the first time she had met them. They wouldn't have shunned her, and Beast Boy didn't tell. Raven had been honest about that much; Terra could decipher the truth by the tone of her voice.
A skill that she normally didn't have, but getting close to an empath made strange, supernatural things happen. Not that she was apart from Raven, Terra felt normal again. Well, almost normal. She was in a Titans safe house, waiting for a Titan to come back and monitor her. She wasn't outside, underneath the stars, finding her own path in the world and fending for herself. It was a new feeling, to be safe and secure in this big room somewhere hidden in the city.
Terra came to realize she didn't like it.
All day, she had spent the time examining the room. It was big, with only two rooms. A main room, and then a separate bathroom, that was almost just as big. Terra came to the conclusion that this room must have been built to hold all of the Titans, and maybe then some. There were three murphy-beds and two long couches with pull out beds. And two single arm chairs with pullout beds as well. There were eight chairs total in the safe house, but only four of them were out, set around a medium-sized dining table.
Terra had raided the kitchen, unbelievably hungry.
Raven had been right about Terra not eating very often. She sometimes came by money to pay for food, cheap food mostly. But other times she had friends in the old, out-of-town, run-down diners who would give her a meal on the house, and the only tips Terra had to give was an exciting story or two. And sometimes a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to lean on, for her life wasn't the only hard one out there.
The food in the safe house was almost all canned. There were a few boxes of cereal, and unmade oatmeal and granola, with granola and protein bars. Bottles upon bottles of water, still in their plastic bundles.
Terra went for the cereal first, eating it like she would dried chips. Then had a protein bar. She had been saving the canned foods for last, since she knew that would be where the sweetest, freshest food was. And it was the most variety, too. Fruits and vegetables and even juice lined the shelves of the small-but-stocked pantry. Then there were soups, and pastas, and pre-cooked meats sealed safely away.
Digging deep into the cans, a label caught her eye. Ravioli. Licking her lips, Terra tore upon the can, eating the ravioli straight out of the can and then scooping up the thick tomato sauces that clung to the insides. She ate another can of ravioli, then went for the bottled water. It had all been so delicious, and for the first time in over two months, Terra felt full. Deliciously full.
If she had to bolt from the safe house, leave the Titans far behind her like she had done last time, she felt that it would have been at least four days before severe hunger pains started gnawing at her stomach once more.
But still, as the evening approached all the faster, she didn't want to leave.
Not yet anyway.
There was a small television in the safe house as well. Terra flicked back and forth between the channels, watching them slowly, counting the white digital numbers in the corner of the screen. Ten channels, and almost all of them news stations.
Just as Terra hit the up button once more, a feeling of dread came over her. Backing away from the television, she put her hands up to her arms, bracing herself against the sudden eeriness that had crept over her. At first, she thought it might have been the television. She wasn't used to televisions, and she could count on two hands the number of times she had watched it.
But no, that wasn't it.
Terra's breath came out of her oddly calm, and admist the eerie darkness that was creeping over her soul, something felt soothing. Comforting. It was strange and familiar all at the same time, and Terra let her nerves indulge in the feeling of this enigma.
A circle of black appeared upon the floor near her, white light crackling at the edges, and the colors flowed up and to life. And in the middle stood Raven. As her feet settled onto the ground, the black lights that had surrounded her died away, ghosting away into nothing.
So that was it, Terra thought.
She dropped her hands back down to her sides, taking in the sight of Raven before her. She looked just as she had remembered; black bodysuit, blue cloak, a shadow over her eyes. Blackness edged with white light encircled Raven's hood, and she pulled it back to reveal her face.
It looked kind.
"You stayed," Raven said. Her voice was calm, quiet, but still she sounded surprised. She thought that Terra would have been long gone by now.
"Yeah," Terra said, not knowing what else to say. She blushed slightly, and leveled her head down. Strands of her blonde hair fell in front of her face, covering a single eye. It curtained her almost, a cloak of her own to hide her face.
Almost.
"I have something for you," Raven said, causing Terra to look back up at her.
She held two bags in her hand, both of them made only of plain brown paper. But from the aroma that wafter towards her, Terra could tell that in one of them was a hot meal. Her mouth started salivating at the thought of eating something again, and something hot…and cooked well…and maybe with extra seasonings and flavor. There was only so much food you could buy for five or ten dollars at a time.
The other bag, she didn't care about. Not at that moment.
"Thanks!" Terra said, taking the food back from her hand and rushing over to the table. She plopped down into the chair and dug in the bag, pulling out the most beautiful looking food in the world. Her eyes actually started watering over it.
Seasoned scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes with syrup soaked into them, sizzling bacon and sausages piled high in the container, a couple of slabs of toast. Digging into the bag again, she found small little packages of butter and jams and…ketchup. There was another small container in the bag, this one containing hash browns and french fries, and a pasta mixed in with every kind of meat she could imagine.
"Thank you so much!" Terra said again, her eyes wide.
Raven sat down at the table with her, saying nothing and sitting watching her while Terra devoured the meal she had bought for her. To her joy, she discovered she couldn't eat it all in one sitting…which meant that she had leftovers…which meant that she would have good food for the next day…and maybe the next after that.
When Terra regained herself, she looked over at Raven to see her normal cold stare upon her. Something inside of Terra shrunk down, and suddenly she wished she had made more of an effort to talk to her.
"So…" Terra said awkwardly, trying to think of something, of anything to say.
Raven could feel the texture of Terra's emotions thick against her skin. It slid through her veins, filled her head like a vision, and made her blink several times. Just trying to clear her thoughts of the thickness of her emotions, of the whirlwind that was suddenly tearing through her mind.
Raven almost wanted to think, Poor girl, but she didn't.
She knew better than that.
"What's in the other bag?" Terra asked her.
Raven reached down to the floor, and brought the other brown bag upon onto the table for her to see it. Terra pulled it towards her, slowly, not quite wanting to know what was inside of it. She knew it wouldn't be more food; Raven's empathic powers radiated towards her somewhat. It made her freakishly aware of herself, and how she was perceiving everything around her.
Reaching in, Terra pulled out a fresh set of clean clothes, a smaller bag filled with dozens upon dozens of rocks with the dirt still clinging to them, and…
She gulped, not fully able to believe her eyes.
"Is this…?"
"No," Raven said shaking her head. "It's not a Titans communicator. This is a distress signal."
Terra turned the object over and over again in her hand, judging the weight, the shape, the size. It all felt so real, so official. Robin had placed a real one in her hand one time, when he was offering for her to become a Titan. She could almost feel that moment in time once more. Holding the device in her hand for the first time, the sense of pride and happiness that had flooded through her, only to be ripped out of her a second later.
"You told!" she had screamed at Beast Boy. Her throat felt raw, even when she had shed no tears. A tiny, fleeting memory of the stunned faces of her former friends passed through her mind.
"Don't think about that," Raven told her. "What's done is done."
She said nothing in response.
What was there to say?
With a sigh, Terra dropped the device down onto the tabletop, letting it lay there in plain sight. Her eyes were still fixed on it, marveling at it. Not a communicator. A distress signal.
"What do I need a distress signal for?" Terra asked her, looking back up into her friend's face once more. Raven's eyes met hers, and she blinked twice.
"In case you are in distress and need assistance."
"But for what?" Terra asked. Her fingers hovered over the device once more, part of her wanting to clasp it in her hand once more, part of her unable to touch such a thing. "If I'm in distress, I think I can handle it," Terra told her. "I don't need the Titans rushing in to save me."
The fake confidence in her voice didn't fool Raven in the least.
"Speaking of which," Terra said, making her way to her feet, "why haven't any of the other Titans noticed I'm here? This is one of their safe houses, shouldn't they have been alerted that someone was in it or something?"
Raven shook her head.
"The point of a safe house is for a hideout. Someplace to go where you will be safe from others, from prying eyes, and from any villains who may want you dead. If someone were to seize control of Titans Tower, and we were all forced into a safe house, and if we have monitors around or in the safe house, then it'd give away our location." Raven put a hand to her temple, looking exasperated, unbelieving that she had to explain this.
If everyone knew about the safe house, it wouldn't be safe.
The texture of Terra's emotion slammed into Raven once more, knocking surprise into her. With her eyes opening, she could see Terra wearing an angry look upon her face.
Oh, wonderful, Raven thought.
"Don't speak to me like I'm a child," Terra told her.
"Then don't ask dumb questions," Raven responded, her voice oddly cool. She pressed her fingers further into her head, rubbing circles around the temples, as the force of Terra's emotions grew stronger.
"It wasn't a dumb question!" she told her. "It was a reasonable question! A question that…that…that was reasonable."
Raven tried to bite back the snide remark, but it left her lips too quickly. "You have such a way with words."
"Will you quit making fun of me?!" Terra asked, her voice bordering on a scream. She leaned in close to Raven's face, as if challenging her, trying to impose some kind of dominance over her. Terra jabbed a finger towards Raven's chest, trying to validate herself all the more.
Raven didn't want to hear it, but she listened anyway.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to be me?" Terra suddenly asked her, tears stinging her eyes. Raven raised her head once more, locking eyes with her. The bruises underneath Terra's eyes were darkening, and a redness was creeping around the skin. A single teardrop ran down Terra's face, but it was out of anger just as much as sadness.
This Raven knew.
"You're right, I'm sorry," Raven said to her, trying to do anything that would make her empathic headache go away. She breathed deep, sighing with every breath. A strong urge to meditate came upon her, and she considered just leaning Terra once more and for good. A soothing cult of tea, an hour long meditation session in the calmness of her room.
It sounded like paradise to her.
But she stayed. Reaching forward, Raven grabbed at the cloth back filed with the rocks, opening the drawstring and emptying the contents onto the once-clean table.
"What are doing?" Terra asked. Confusion mixed in with her other emotions.
Yes, I do know how hard it is to be you. Have we had been in different positions at different times, you might be the Titan with a secured place in the tower, and I still the loner girl trying to stay alive." She gestured to the rocks that had tumbled down onto the table. "I want to help you."
"Help me?"
Holding her hand out, a yellow glow emanated from her palm, and the rocks on the table starting shaking, following her commands. They all rattled and quivered against the wooden surface until Terra had had enough. She dropped her hand back down to her side, not even bothering to cover up her desperation with false confidence.
"Do you mean it?"
"Yes."
"Do you think you can?"
"I believe so." Raven stood up from the table, and went to stand close to Terra. With their bodies so close together, Terra noticed that Raven was a few inches taller than her. And the soft scent on her skin, wafting towards her and putting her at a strange ease.
"My powers are far more dangerous than yours, and I've managed to control them."
"So what's your plan? Have me meditate all day long while balancing a rock on my head?" Terra asked her, her tone snarky.
Anger contorted Raven's face, and for a moment Terra thought that she was about to drag her, and make her eat her words. But just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared once more. Raven's control over her emotions and thoughts showed. Calming herself, she spoke once more:
"Do you want my help or not?"
Terra thought for a moment, considering the alternatives. Roaming around through the cities and small towns, forests and craggy rocks that eventually led to the ocean. It didn't sound bad at all; Terra loved every moment of it, of being free to go where she wanted and do whatever she wanted. But still, even free and alone, she was scared of losing control, of her powers lashing out, and eventually crushing her.
The other alternative was to become an apprentice to…
"Yes," Terra said, "I would like your help."
Raven smiled. An actual genuine smile.
Terra stared at her lips; seeing such a happy expression on her features was still something foreign to her. In time she would get used to it, Terra told herself. If Raven kept on seeing her, and Terra kept on sticking around to let Raven help her.
