Raven awoke to the shrill alarm of her communicator going off.
She winced as it pierced through her sleep and ripped apart her dreams, and seemed to drill the unpleasant noise straight into her brain. She rolled over a few times, hands clutched to her ears, before realizing what it was.
Her eyes flew open to see the glaring red flashes coming from the yellow device placed on her nightstand, the shrieks in time with the patterned flashing lights.
Raven grabbed the communicator in a hurry, fumbling with sleep-crusted eyes to see who it was and what the hell was going on. She kept pressing the RESPOND button, but her fingers were clumsy. Finally, she pressed it down directly in the center, and she heard the panicked sound of Terra's voice on the other end.
"Terra?" she asked sleepily.
Raven put a hand to her forehead. Waking up in the middle of the night wasn't something she was fond of, and a headache was pounding against her skull from the shrill shrieks of the alarm.
"Terra? Slow down, I can't…I don't understand…"
On the other end, all she heard was a frightened babble of words that all strung together into pure nonsense. Thinking the worst might have happened, Raven threw on her cloak using her magic to do so, clasped it around her softened, black uniform used for sleeping, and stepped out through the window in a haze of black.
She'd forgotten her shoes in her haste, but it was still a fairly warm night, despite the drizzle and the occasional chilled wind that whipped across the wet town.
"Terra, please, I can't understand you…" Raven said again.
What the hell is going on? Raven thought to herself.
Arriving at the scene did nothing to answer her questions. She merely stood there, watching Terra collect her things in a destroyed cave while she babbled on and on about…something. Raven couldn't tell what, but from her empathic powers she gathered that she had felt threatened. By someone, most likely.
"Terra, stop!" Raven said at last, quieting the blonde girl. "I don't understand a word you're saying."
Terra sighed, and that breath seemed to deflate her entire body. She slumped down, the bag dropping from her limp arm, and she sat back down on the ground, her eyes unfocused. Raven watched her curiously, as if she could gleam from her demeanor just what had transpired. But so far, she got nothing. Not a single hint.
All she could gather was a threat and then Terra had destroyed the cave. The destruction was the only thing she was certain of.
"Sorry," Terra said at last.
Raven looked down at her. She was tempted to ask her exactly what she was sorry about, but decided against it. She wasn't here to play twenty questions with Terra; she was here to help her. And Raven knew from her own experience that although someone might want help, they didn't want to give too much of themselves away.
Now it was her turn to sigh.
"You don't want to sleep in the cave?" Raven asked her, just to be sure.
"I will if I need to," Terra replied. Raven only shook her head; that was not a direct answer. But, she supposed, one she could work with.
"Where else to you propose to sleep?" Raven questioned again.
Terra shrugged her shoulders and made an 'I don't know' sound.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Raven asked, wondering if Terra might let on a little bit. Of exactly what the problem was, and what had spooked her so much as to nearly destroy her home. Terra shook her head, no. She didn't want to talk.
Not only had Slade scared her, but admitting his name to Raven…
She shook her head.
"Okay," Raven said to her, her voice become soft and quiet, "I understand."
Terra gave a sigh of relief, and her body slumped in relaxation instead of defeat. Her eyes closed as she felt the temporary peace slide over her.
Raven walked over to her front, and sat down upon the ground in front of her. She rested her palms, open, on her knees, taking a meditative position in front of her. Raven saw the ease on Terra's body, as well as feeling the waves of emotion that radiated from her. It didn't make her sick, to which she was grateful. This was just one person, after all.
Terra remained like that for a long time.
When she finally did open her eyes, it was because Raven had put a hand upon her bare knee.
Terra wanted to ask a question, but she didn't know what to ask. She only looked down at Raven's hand, up at her face with a quizzical expression, and then back down at Raven's hand and her knee.
Yet Raven didn't answer her silent question.
Her face remained stoic…yet somehow soft…as her hand rested upon Terra's knee. Terra un-clutched her arms from around her legs, and let them cross the same way Raven's were. Her position mirrored hers upon the cave floor, and Terra had the sudden, inexplicable urge to laugh.
What even was this?
Why was this?
"You are humored?" Now it was Raven's turn to be confused, with a puzzled expression written in her own eyes.
Terra shook her head, no. But she couldn't hide it from Raven; she knew. Damned empathic powers; she knew. But she didn't judge; she knew what Terra was going through, with her struggle of being alone with uncontrollable powers. Like before, a wave of sympathy rose up within Raven's chest, and she found herself identifying with the girl sitting before her.
Terra couldn't stand the quiet anymore. The silence around them was eating away at her, nibbling at her skin.
"Do you think the cave is livable?" she blurted out.
"Hmmm…" Raven let out a quiet hum as she thought. Her indigo eyes roamed around the cave, taking in the broken chunks and deep cracks and any potential threats from the weak spots. "Perhaps," Raven said at last, and stood back up.
She held her hand out in front of her. Her eyes began to glow a bright white, and an orb of spiritual black power consumed her hand. The beam of dark energy ensnared a large chunk of stone that lay near Terra's former campsite, and she lifted it up into the air and pushed it far, far back into the darkness of the cave.
Terra watched as Raven cleared the cave.
So calm and in control. Slade's words came back to her mind, about how Raven sometimes had trouble controlling her own powers, and that she wasn't fit to teach anything about control. She just couldn't see it; not now with Raven expertly cleaning out the rubble. Envy rose up in Terra as she witnessed Raven's composed manner, and she almost wished that it were true.
A sudden desire to see Raven slip up, just once, seized her mind.
She is an empath… Terra thought, the wheels in her head turning.
Focusing all her energy on a surge of emotions, she let the emotions overwhelm her, and forced them out of her (or she thought so anyway), towards Raven. Waiting to see if she responded. She got what she wanted when she saw Raven waver, her powers faltering and a hand flying to her head. But still, Raven didn't lose control.
"Stop that," Raven told her.
Terra did, mildly disappointed that she hadn't seen Raven crack.
Raven turned back to her with a huff, and an exasperated look worn on her face. She made her way back to where Terra sat, and crossed her legs as she took seat before her. Neither of them said anything, but listened to the rain instead. It was calm, enough to calm to two girls who sat alone in the cave. Soothed Raven's headache and annoyance, and Terra's panic and envy. It had a melodic effect on them both, to the point where a small smile came to each of them.
Raven reached her hand out once more, and set it upon Terra's knee.
Terra placed her hand over Raven's, and gingerly wrapped her fingers around her palm.
She didn't pull away.
"Thanks for coming," Terra said in a voice just above a whisper.
"Mmhm," Raven hummed back.
Raven had been looking down at their hands, being held together on Terra's knee, but she looked back up to Terra, into her face. She could read her emotions on her face (a far better way to read emotions in her opinion) and she gazed into the blue of Terra's eyes. Shyness was taking over her, for some reason.
Raven didn't have to be curious for long, for she could feel the radiant emotion of attraction seeping through the air between them, lingering upon Raven's skin and drifting inside of her lungs.
The only thought in Raven's mind upon that realization: Huh.
"Terra…?" Raven asked, a question vanishing on her lips.
There was no question. As Terra's name was spoken, Raven felt another surge of attraction rise up with Terra, pushing its way out of her soul and straight into her own. It made Raven slightly dizzy, but she didn't let it show. She was used to dealing with these kinds of things. Terra wouldn't break her, wouldn't run her out. If a thousand people surrounding her while grieving couldn't bring her down, Terra's sudden arousal couldn't either.
When Raven began to feel the same arousal stirring in her, making her blood rush downwards, she decided it was time to leave.
"Wait!" Terra called after her, springing up. "What about me? What about this cave? What am I supposed to do?" she kept asking. Raven steeled herself to face Terra.
"I cleaned up most of the debris. Besides, the cracks aren't major, no matter how threatening they may look. You're fine to sleep here," Raven said curtly, turning once more to storm out of the cave and into the storm beyond the stone. Back into her own room, in her Tower, in her bed under her sheets. Where she could get some peace and quiet and well-needed rest, away from another hazard to her empathic powers.
Already she was pulling her hood up over her head, casting the shadow over her eyes.
Terra ran to block her.
Raven's eyes widened and her jaw set. "You mean to keep me here?" she asked. Raven knew she couldn't; if she wanted to leave, she could very very easily. She could fly, could seep through walls, could physically move her out of the way with a flick of her wrist. But nothing so extreme yet.
"You didn't solve anything!" Terra said to her, planting her feet into the rock.
"I'm not here to solve your problems. I'm here because you signaled an emergency. I don't see an emergency," Raven replied, a hot boiling feeling in her veins. She swept her hand back around the cave. "It's livable. You're safe. Sound. Unharmed. You like living in caves; you can live in this cave. Problem solved. Now get out of my way."
"No." Terra's voice was low and threatening.
Raven didn't think she was threatening at all.
She was a young girl in a cave who'd been frightened enough to call for help. She was a loner who didn't know how to use her powers to her advantage. She was inexperienced and easy to scare. She wasn't threatening, to Raven or to anyone else. Which only made the possibility of her trying to scare Raven even more laughable.
"Raven, please," Terra said, suddenly aware of herself. Being around an empath can do that. "Please. Stay here just for a little while longer. I…I don't want to be alone right now. Your company…would…would mean a lot to me."
Raven calmed when she did. Being an empath can do that.
"Terra. I have responsibilities. I have a team. I can't just stay around here and hold your hand until you fall asleep." She sounded like she was speaking to a child, and that made Terra furious. The anger rose up within her once more, hot and raw, and Raven stumbled back.
"I don't want you here; I need you here! I almost…I could have…someone…"
What the hell could she say? How could she ever make her understand? Just go ahead, say his name. And lose her entire friendship with the team as well. Fall into his well set trap that he'd planned out months in advance.
"Someone tried to hurt me," Terra admitted at last. Her voice dropped into an even monotone, and she hung her head. "I didn't want that happening again," Terra finished. There. She had said everything that she could have said. Now to wait, see how Raven would reaction.
But Raven didn't react.
She stood there, judging her words. Trying to see whether Terra was telling the truth…trying to see how big a threat she was under.
"I understand that," Raven said at last, her own voice a monotone as well. "I'll stay with you."
"Really?" Terra said, a ray of hope rising up within her. A ray that Raven felt as well. Like it was bursting through the haze of emotions between them. Raven looked towards the ground.
"That…you mean it? That means a lot," Terra began to ramble.
Raven watched as she went back to her bag of things and began to unpack for the night. She kept babbling, saying this and that and thanking her again as she set up her campsite around herself. Unrolling her sleeping bag was the first thing she did, as well as peeling off her shorts. Raven looked down at her legs. She noticed scratches and bruises upon them, but she said not a word.
"You gonna come sit?" Terra asked Raven, after she had bundled herself up into her sleeping bag.
Raven did as she bid, and went over to sit next to her. After a while, she decided that she didn't like sitting upright, so she laid down on the hard, cool stone of the cave. Her cloak shielded her from the strict cold of the stone, and the harshness of its unforgiving, hard surface.
But she wasn't uncomfortable.
She'd slept in worse places than this.
Far worse places.
Places she didn't even want to think about, lest they make chills run up and down her spine. Or make her gag with disgust.
"Don't say anything," Raven said, just as she heard Terra's intake of breath.
Terra closed her mouth, having been shut down so quickly. She hadn't even said what she had been planning on saying, not even gotten a single syllable out. But this time, she managed her anger. It was as small as a thimble within her chest, though it burned hot and heavy like a piece of coal. Raven could feel it like a pressure upon her chest; a heated bullet sinking into ice.
Terra took another intake of breath, determined to say what was one her mind.
"How are the rest of the Titans?" she asked Raven
Raven heaved a heavy sigh, as if answering would consume all the energy that she had left. "They're doing good," she replied automatically, not caring to think about the accuracy of the answer.
"Is Beast Boy still mad at me?" she asked.
"He was never mad at you," Raven replied. She'd said that how many times?
"What about you?" Terra asked, turning to look at Raven.
She laid on her back with her eyes closed. And, Terra noticed, she was now floating two inches up off the ground. Apparently the ground was too hard for her to rest on.
"What about me?" Raven asked.
"You know, you don't have to sleep on the rocks," Terra said, glancing at the gap between Raven's back and the cave floor. "I don't have another sleeping bag, but I've got some more blankets, I think. And if you wad one up, you can make a pillow out of them. I think…"
Terra crawled out from her sleeping bag and crawled towards the open backpack that laid near her feet. Raven opened her eyes to watch. Terra was on her knees as she searched through the backpack, and she had on only her panties and T-shirt. Raven let her eyes linger on the gray cotton of her panties, slightly sheer from the stretch on the elasticated fabric, before letting her eyes travel down Terra's thighs.
Raven remembered the attraction she had felt in Terra minutes earlier.
And now, she thought she felt the same thing back.
An attraction. An arousal. As she stared at Terra's backside as she searched through her heavy backpack for the extra blankets she claimed she had with her, Raven suddenly wasn't thinking of blankets, or of sleeping alone.
Her thoughts were drifting towards…
She shook her head, bringing on a slight spinning headache, which banished all thoughts from her mind.
"Here!" Terra said, pulling a thick brown blanket from her backpack. It as folded neatly, tightly, so as to take up as little space as possible. Raven's eyes were still focused down towards the fabric around Terra's legs as she unfolded the blanket and gave it to her.
"Thanks," Raven said, a bit too curtly, as she took the blanket from her.
"Something wrong?" Terra asked her, absent-minded as she crawled back into her sleeping bag. Once more, Raven's eyes went to the stretch of her thighs, watching with deep interest as the muscles underneath the skin flexed.
"No."
"Then, goodnight," Terra said, and clicked the flashlight off.
The sudden darkness surrounded them, and Raven felt at peace once more. Cleansed, even. The darkness did that to her. And she loved it.
Now, the darkness offered something more.
With the chill of the rain and the wind and the howling that was in their ears, Raven found herself shifting closer to Terra, until her arms were wrapped around her thin frame, sleeping bag and all, and she was pressing their bodies together.
To…get warm.
