Sting
)O(
Raven couldn't focus as she sat through what should have been a fairly interesting lecture on Chinese mythology. Her leg bounced, her notes were sporadic and uneven, and she chewed on her pencil; anything to help her pay a little attention. But none of it helped. All she could think of was that at home, undoubtedly lounging on her sofa and flipping through her books, was her ex-teammate. That would mean her apartment would smell like him. She glowered. It would take weeks and two gallons of Febreeze to get the smell out.
He was waiting for her.
Waiting for what? Raven bit back an audible groan as she stared at the whiteboard behind her petite, gray-haired professor. Waiting for her to come home so he could… she swallowed hard, her mind drifting into places it shouldn't have. She shouldn't have been thinking about riding him like prize-winning steed, at least not in the middle of class, and certainly not in public.
But most of all, she shouldn't be thinking about him because it changed everything.
She didn't want him in her life right now, and not ever. She wanted her walls and barriers to be back up, to have separation between the life she had with her teammates and her life now. She had shed the moniker of "Raven" and became Rachel Roth, student and file clerk. Boring. Normal. Utterly void of all the things that would have made her act and behave the way she had when she lived in the tower. She pushed at her hair and tried to stare at her notes, frowning.
Why now? Out of all the times Raven had considered going back to the to the tower, or all the times she had picked up the phone to call her teammates, not once had there been any indication from The Powers That Be that she should have returned, or even made contact with them. But now, when she had finally settled into her life as a normal human, he had to return.
And not just return, set her blood boiling.
And, Goddess help her, she wanted to let it boil.
She wanted feel her whole soul go up in flames as he ran his hands over her body, as his lips and tongue teased her, as he dominated every part of her being until there was nothing left but a quivering mess of flesh.
Next to her a student groaned, their hand trying to discreetly slide between their legs. Raven winced and tried to reel her powers back into her body. Yet another reason she didn't need to be thinking of these things in public. Sometimes it really sucked being an empath.
The professor ended her lecture, and Raven bolted without thinking of anything but going home. She knew it was wrong. Hell, it was beyond wrong, Beast Boy needed time to cope and adjust and change. He didn't need her. He needed a good girlfriend. He needed someone who was going to be everything he deserved out of a partner, not someone who had (and was undoubtedly going to again) take advantage of him. He needed someone normal and benign, not Raven.
The walk to her apartment felt like it took longer than it should have. She practically raced down the sidewalk, ignoring shouts and cries from people she ran into. She nearly tripped into wet cement and slid over a thin patch of ice in the late-autumn air. When she reached her building door, she dropped her keys twice because her hands shook so violently. Seven flights of stairs later, she stood outside her own front door, staring at the numbers in the faded brass plaque.
Holding her breath, she slid her key into the lock and pushed open the door.
She didn't even see him move.
The next thing Raven was acutely aware of were lips on her neck and hands pulling off her winter coat and bookbag. His scent filled her nose and she tried to groan, but his mouth covered hers before a sound could be released. He was greedy, hungry, clawing at her body as if she was a feast set out only for him. Raven begged for him to slow down, to give her a moment to speak, but he didn't seem to hear her mumbled, half-hearted protests through his kisses.
Or he didn't want to.
His hand slid along her thigh until it disappeared under her pencil skirt. She felt him smile against her neck as his free hand cupped her breast through the pristine, pressed cotton of her button-down shirt. "A garter belt, Raven? I didn't know you were so kinky."
She tried to mumble that she didn't like pantyhose, but it came out as an unintelligible gurgle of words and sounds all muddled together. Beast Boy didn't seem to care all that much about what she was going to say anyway, and pushed her panties aside to slide a finger in her. Raven groaned and leaned back against her door. Nine long months had passed without her ever being touched like this, and she had somehow forgotten how wonderful it felt.
"Damnit, Raven." Beast Boy growled against her neck, his tongue sliding against her sweat-soaked skin. "You're so fucking tight."
He pushed another finger into her and Raven cried out, fire and electricity racing under her skin until she was desperate for the flames to consume her. She felt her claws extend and sink into a the old wood of the door behind her as he mercilessly pleasured her with just his hands. Words and phrases that were never meant to be uttered in polite company fell from her mouth, begging him to take her.
He was only too happy to oblige.
He removed his hands from her body and slid them under her thighs, picking her up off the ground and slamming her into her door. Raven cried out as he hiked her skirt up around her waist and pushed himself inside her, greedy for what she offered.
It wasn't beautiful. It wasn't pretty or magical, or any other stupid adjective dewey-eyed girls would use to describe the act of sex. But it didn't matter, it was release. It was fast. It was harsh. It was unrepentant. Raven's back pounded against the door behind them with every thrust of his body, and she eventually began to see stars behind her eyes. She knew bruises would appear on her skin tomorrow, marks of his possession and brands of his dominance, but her skin stopped burning.
And that was all she wanted.
It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, in the end it didn't matter. What mattered was that it quelled the pain and hollowness inside both of them just long enough to let them think almost straight.
Beast Boy muttered her name against her neck as his body shook with a final push. They stayed in that position for a moment before he dropped her legs and leaned his weight against the door, his arms effectively caging her in. Raven looked up at him, knowing tears were streaming down her face, and knowing that she should have been ashamed, but couldn't find the emotion hiding anywhere inside her soul.
He picked up his hand and brushed her tears away with his thumb, resting his forehead against her own. There was a long pause between them as they both tried to calm the frantic beating of their hearts. Finally he looked into her eyes and breathed a small apology against her skin. "Sorry… I should have been more patient." He dropped his hands from around her sides and entangled his fingers with her own. "Did I hurt you?"
"No. I'm fine." To Raven's embarrassment, her voice broke and cracked. Blushing, she pushed him away, stumbling on her feet without the support of his weight against her. She pretended not to notice the way her legs shook under her own weight. "You just… surprised me. That's all. I wasn't expecting… that."
Deciding traipsing around in her high heels was probably a bad idea (considering the condition of her legs), she kicked off her shoes and pulled down her pencil skirt, removing all evidence of what had just transpired. She moved through the entryway into the small living room, her feet cold on the aged hardwood floor. She felt his eyes follow her as she moved a few things around, trying to ignore the dampness between her legs as she stepped.
"So, what were you expecting?" He sighed and leaned against the counter to her kitchenette, choosing not to step into her personal space without her permission. "I gave you fair warning this morning. I told you that I would be at your apartment until you came home."
"You gave me no warning." Raven threw up her hands and stared at him, feeling the coldness of their encounter finally sink into her bones. What had she done with him? Moreover, what carefully placed levees had she broken with their act of passion? "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me. Not after what happened, or what I did."
He shrugged. "I changed my mind."
"You don't get to change your mind. You made it perfectly clear that you wanted me gone, that I had betrayed you, and that I made you feel small and useless. So I left. I gave you the chance at a new start and you just show up in my life again? As if I don't have a say in the matter? You're a real jerk, you know that?" She huffed and pushed past him into her bedroom. "Go away, Garfield, I don't want you here." She slammed the door in his face and fell back against the frame, trying to calm herself down as she felt him cautiously approach her door.
Why now?
She heard his hand slide down the door to her room. "Stop sulking and let's talk."
"No." She stripped her clothes off and threw them into her clothes hamper before stepping into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. She threw her hair up into a stubby ponytail and opened the door, glaring at her ex-teammate. "No, I don't want to talk. I want you gone, I want you out of my life, and I want to go back to the way things were yesterday."
"I don't." He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at her, obviously growing tired of her pulling away from him. "I came back here to try and talk to you, to try and figure out what this is between us, and I'm not leaving until I have some answers, Raven. So, you're just going to have to get used to the fact that I'm here."
Raven had never wanted to see an alien invasion of Jump City until this exact moment. A fire. A bank robbery. Anything to get him out of her apartment and away from her life. She glared and pushed past him, moving into her kitchenette to put the kettle on. It was a moment of normalcy in a sea of chaos, and it made her feel just a little bit better
He followed her into the kitchen, crowding her small body against the countertop. He slid up behind her, his fingertips moving under the thin cotton of her t-shirt and grazing her alabaster skin. His breath slid down her neck, as he pressed his lips close to her ear. "You know, I wondered where this t-shirt went. I was looking all over for it yesterday. I didn't know you kept mementos, Raven."
"Stop." She turned around and put her hands against his chest, forcing him to take a step back. His muscles rippled under her fingertips, and she wanted nothing more that to tear his clothes off and take him to the floor. She pulled her hands away from him and forced her expression to stay blank. "Just stop this for thirty seconds so I can think."
"Maybe thinking is what got us in trouble in the first place."
Her eyes narrowed and she turned back to her kettle, pretending to be more interested in that than her company. "What in the world are you doing here, Garfield? More so, how in the world did you find me?"
He shrugged and backed up a little, giving her some false sense of security and space, but his eyes never left her petite body. "I made a few calls, called in a few favors, and when I found the neighborhood you were in… I just sniffed you out. Easy." He chuckled. "You know, Robin isn't the only detective in the tower. I can do just as much as him."
"That still doesn't answer my question." She rolled her eyes, desperately fighting the myriad of emotions swirling inside her like a torrential storm. It he touched her again, her defenses would break and she would find herself in the same position she had all those months ago. "What are you doing here? I don't see why you're looking for me now. Not after you were so mad with me before."
He shrugged and leaned against the counter, watching her move in the small space. "Jinx unsealed my memories."
Raven's stomach dropped to the floor, and she finally turned and looked over at him. "I see. So, you remember everything that happened that night?" She waited for his nod. "Well, that doesn't negate the fact that I took from you without regret. You should be more furious with me than you are."
"I don't want to be furious with you. Not anymore." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, looking at her with sad eyes. "And you didn't take without regret, Raven. If you didn't have any remorse, you wouldn't have run away from me and the team. I know, logically, I should be furious with you, Raven. V-card aside, you betrayed my trust, you took from me something I would have easily given if you had just asked, and you utterly destroyed the team dynamic. I have every right to be angry with you right now."
Raven winced under the weight of his accusations. "So, why aren't you?"
"Because what I saw in my memories was beautiful." His voice was so pure that it forced Raven to look up into his eyes. "We made love. We didn't fuck, we didn't have sex, and we didn't just do it to get our rocks off. You told me you were hot, but it was more than that. You laid in my arms. You tried to make sure I was pleasured. It wasn't just sex, Raven, it was love… and I didn't want to lose that."
Raven blushed and looked away, rubbing her upper arms in the chill air of her apartment. So, he knew. Surprisingly, she wasn't all that frightened or upset. There was something strange and comforting about that idea. There was nothing more to hide between them, that there were no more secrets whispered in the dark. They knew the truth.
Her voice was small in the quiet of the room, but that didn't detract from the weight of her words. "I wanted to make love to you, Gar, I really did. But…" She trailed off and sighed. "I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to get to the point where we could. I didn't know how to let you know my emotions without breaking what was already between us… I was frightened I would destroy everything, and in the end, I did."
"Raven." He cornered her in the small kitchen, eyes darkening. "Hush." He bent over her body and his lips met hers in a searing kiss. It took all of Raven's willpower to not melt in his arms as they wrapped around her. He nudged her lips open, sliding his tongue into the sanctuary of her mouth. Raven traced his fangs with her own tongue, hearing his muffled groan through the heat of their kiss.
He pulled away and looked down at her. "You want to tell me that isn't beautiful?"
Raven blushed and looked away again, knowing he was right. "I don't know what to say."
"So, don't say anything. Just shut up and feel something for once." His lips found hers again and he pinned her against the countertop behind her, arms caging her in as his body hovered over hers. He never moved beyond the gentle insistence of his lips against hers, and Raven was grateful that he didn't push her any more. And so they stood in the quiet of the kitchen, just kissing, until the kettle began to whistle at them.
Raven pulled away and turned the heat off the stove before looking back at Beast Boy. "So… what now?"
"Now?" He smiled. "It's about time for lunch, so you and I are going to order a pizza… and move some furniture around."
"Oh."
)O(
The "pizza" line is (to date) one of my favorite lines from Supernatural and I had to find a way to include it in my chapter.
Anyway, I had another, more innocent scene that followed this last chapter, but I decided to include it in the next chapter. Which will undoubtedly have more copulating. Because, ya know, it's me.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!