Teen Titans
Adaptation
By Cyberwraith9
A Love Story, Part II
"The Church of Blood emphasizes unity above everything else. Communities, families—especially family—we're all about bringing people together for the greater good," he said to his chipper morning host and interviewer. "Blood binds us, both physically and spiritually. It's up to us to make the emotional connection, between individuals, people like you and me. That is the mission of the Church."
Skip Kensington shifted in his seat, keeping his lips poised at the immense microphone perched before him. "Absolutely fantastic, Brother Blood," he said. "But many people remain skeptical of your persistent do-gooder image. No offense, but it might have something to do with the mask."
The radio booth rang with Blood's laughter. He touched the silver skull mask that covered his face, and then ran his finger along the edge of the golden goatal helmet around it. Skip's two co-hosts chuckled uneasily with him. "I'll admit, some of our traditions may appear strange. But this mask, as you call it, is meant to ensure that the message of the Church comes from a symbol, not any one face. As the Brother Blood, I stand as a figure apart from the personal edicts of a man."
"And yet, in the last ten years, you've made a lot of changes to the Church," Skip pointed out.
Raven muted the broadcast, unable to stand another minute of Brother Blood's self-serving drivel. She swiveled away from her console monitor to the hovering holographic Alert map that dominated Ops' space.
The interview with Blood on WJMP's morning show had been video recorded live, and was now being rebroadcast on every local station. Skip and his asinine Hoppers were just the latest to check into the biggest cult craze to sweep California since Kabala. It made her sick to think of so many weak-willed individuals falling under Blood's sway.
"Raven? How's it going?"
Cyborg entered Ops from the left, walking casually around the central projector and its map. His voice and face remained neutral to a fault as he took a seat at the console next to Raven's.
"Do you mean me or the city?" Raven asked archly.
He shrugged. "Both?"
Impatience jetted from Raven's nose. She turned back to her console, swiveling away from Cyborg. "What makes you think I wouldn't be okay?" she asked.
When her fingers brushed the console, it blared with Skip's animated voice. "—anks to Brother Blood for stopping by the studio. Coming up next, we've got our weekly funny face contest here on WJMP, The Jump. Stick around for traffic and weather—" She quickly mashed the button to banish the broadcast from her screen.
"Maybe I need to brush up on my Revelation," Cyborg said, "but I'm pretty sure the four Horsemen were Death, War, Pestilence, and Raven Watching Televised Morning Talk Radio Shows. Should I be on the lookout for locusts?"
Her cheeks darkened with embarrassment. "You're a riot," she muttered. "Was there a point to this visit? You aren't due to relieve me for another hour."
Cyborg laced his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the console. He stared down at Sector Prime laid beneath the balcony, and quipped as casually as he could, "Guess I just wanted to see how you were doing. Haven't seen much of you since yesterday."
"Maybe that's because everyone is avoiding me," Raven pointed out. She aimed her gaze elsewhere as he did. "I thought Tek was going to wet herself when I relieved her from monitor duty this morning."
"She was probably just afraid you were going to go Carrie on her like you did to the Commons yesterday," he said coolly.
Her temper crackled beneath her careful control. She had meditated for hours to avoid a repeat outburst. That did nothing to dampen the glare she shot sidelong at Cyborg. "If you're here to take Beast Boy's side, you can save your breath. I'm not apologizing," she told him.
Cyborg snorted at the open air past the rail. "I'm on my Compound's side. I spent yesterday afternoon putting in new windows and changing light bulbs. You and Gar can kill each other for all I care, just as long as you keep the property damage to a minimum. From what I heard, you're both jerks."
"Eavesdropping?" she asked archly.
"I've got a good ear," Cyborg said, and tapped the metal side of his head. "And the walls are pretty thin. Besides, you two weren't exactly being quiet. I've never heard you so riled up, 'cept maybe at Doctor Light. We're worried about you. I'm sure Gar is too, in his own stupid way."
His casual tone irritated her. He sounded as though he were discussing the weather. Rounding her glare upon him fully, she snapped, "You won't even look at me. You sound like you're tiptoeing around a hungry lion. Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"No, it's supposed to make me feel better," Cyborg said, letting some of his own irritation seep into his voice. "You took apart a room with a hissy fit. Then you go and shut everybody out with this look that makes anybody with two brain cells know to steer clear. I'd give you a hug if I didn't think I'd fly apart afterwards." Turning, he pinned her to her seat with a pointed look. "So don't chew me out because I want to help, Raven."
A retort filled her chest. She poised her sharp tongue for a cutting reply. But when his serious look remained steadfast, she deflated. Sinking further into her cloak, she muttered, "I'm sorry. About the windows."
Cyborg's expression softened. "I don't care about the windows," he said. "Okay, I do. But I'm still worried about you. This whole, um, 'thing' really has you shaken up. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Raven emptied her frustrations with a sigh. The problem was, she had plenty more frustration to replace those she just exhaled. "I keep expecting to wake up. This all feels like some surreal dream. There's a smart, funny, nice guy who's actually interested in me," she admitted. "I guess I still find it hard to believe, and it's making me…difficult."
"It's not that hard to believe," Cyborg said. At Raven's glance, he waved his hands, and stammered, "Not that I…I mean, it's not that I wouldn't…just that I don't… This is the part where I go back to listening."
Her maudlin expression turned wry. "It's just different. I don't do well with different. You might have noticed that. It's just going to be a matter of me… How did you put it? 'Put my freak-out in a lock box.' And stop getting so worked up that I tear apart my teamma…my friend's questionable architecture."
Cyborg smiled at last. Standing, he threw out his arms, and said, "See? Look how warm and fuzzy that was. You're getting better already. I think someone's ready for her hug."
A wall composed of glowing black bricks materialized between them. Cyborg's nose bounced off the wall as he stepped forward. Sobering, Raven dissipated the soul-wall, turned back to her console, and said, "Don't push it."
Rubbing his nose, Cyborg stepped back and asked, "So, uh, when are you gonna see him again?"
Raven glanced at the teasingly slow clock on her monitor. "We're supposed to have a late lunch today. After I'm done with monitor duty, I should have just enough time to get ready."
"Cool. Cool," Cyborg said, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually, why don't you get ready now? I'll take over for you. I can take my shift mobile anyway," he said, and tapped his arm. Its holographic display lit with a smaller version of the Alert map. "I know how you gals never have enough time to primp and pluck and power-sand, or whatever it is you do."
"Thanks," Raven said, tapping her keyboard. "But it's only another hour. It's probably better if I have something to occupy my time. If I think about it too long, I'd probably just work myself up again, and you'd be right back to replacing light bulbs."
A wave of Cyborg's nervousness prickled against her empathic senses, making her pause. "So what you're saying is, less time to get ready would actually be better, right?" Cyborg asked.
Raven swiveled in her chair, lancing him with a look. "What did you do?" she asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.
Picking at his nonexistent fingernails, Cyborg said innocently, "What? Nothing. Nothing."
Her console beeped, interrupting her impending interrogation. Raven tapped the keyboard to bring the SARAH Sim's eager features to her monitor. "Hello! There is currently—one—visitor waiting in the lobby with a pending appointment. He is—three—minutes early, and would like to speak with Cyborg."
The monitor changed again, this time to a live image of the lobby from Sarah's point of view. Raven felt her innards dance nervously at the sight of Dominic looming in her monitor, looking uncertain, his face warped by Sarah's fishbowl view. "Hello?" he asked. "Am I…? Am I supposed to talk into it? Her? Hello?"
Raven whirled upon Cyborg, who smiled nervously. "Did I say 'nothing?' I meant 'nothing that you'd kill me over,'" he said. When she rose from her seat, Cyborg took three steps back and said from behind raised hands, "You can't kill me and go greet lover boy at the front door at the same time!"
Her icy glare lingered on Cyborg while Dominic called uncertainly in the background. "I'll be researching a spell for that," Raven told Cyborg darkly, and masked her face in the shadows of her hood.
She leapt from Ops and glided through Sector Prime, her cloak flapping behind her with the urgency of her flight. Dominic was far too early, something which Cyborg had evidently expected. Those two oddities combined were enough to raise alarum in her. Add the fact that she hadn't brushed her teeth since her morning tea, and she felt ready for panic.
The security door slammed aside at the touch of her soul-self. Raven hit the ground running, and then staggered as she remembered herself. She forced herself to walk coolly into the lobby with a superficial calm, hiding her quickened breath behind tight lips and the drape of her cloak.
Dominic stopped talking into Sarah's face with a grateful sigh when he saw Raven. "Thank goodness," he said. "That felt really rude. I know she's a hologram, but you guys need to get an intercom that doesn't look like a person."
His clothes made Raven pause. He wore shorts and a T-shirt, both obviously new, and a Jump City Jackrabbits baseball cap that still had its price tag dangling from the back. A soft cooler dangled at his side from a strap over his shoulder. Everything he wore and had looked like he had bought it this morning, and hurriedly.
"Dominic, what's going on?" she asked.
Confusion spread beneath the flat bill of Dominic's cap. He set his cooler down and said, "What are you talking about? Cyborg said this was your idea."
Ice trickled through Raven's veins. Her eyes drew into slits. "Cyborg said 'what' was my idea?" she said slowly.
Before Dominic could reply, the Titan in question jogged into the lobby with a readied grin. He brushed past Raven to throw an arm around Dominic's shoulders, scooping the lanky teen off the floor. "Dominic! Good to see you. You find the place okay?"
"Uh, yeah. It's a giant T," Dominic said slowly, casting a startled look at Raven as he swung in Cyborg's half-grasp.
Cyborg deposited him back to the floor and picked up the cooler. "Right on time. What's all this? Aw, you didn't have to bring anything."
Dominic's confusion turned from Raven to Cyborg. "But you asked me to pick up some soda and potato sa—"
"All right!" Cyborg perched the cooler on his shoulder. "This'll be great for the cookout…that Raven planned…" he drawled, suddenly remembering Raven's fuming presence behind him. "Right, Raven? The cookout that you planned? The one that was your idea?" he asked, leaning down toward her.
He began blinking his eye hard. It was only after the fifth time that Raven realized he was trying to wink. She glared harder, half-hoping to lose control and blow out his red optic so he could wink for real.
Impervious to her glacial gaze, Cyborg hefted the cooler and said, "Whelp, you two can say your hellos, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, and then come on down to the kitchen. We've got burgers to pack, and it'll be better if we get 'em done before Gar starts in with his one-man vegan protest shtick."
Cyborg scampered from the lobby, leaving Dominic to weather Raven's eyes alone. Dominic shivered in his shorts as Raven said in a slow, grinding voice, "Cyborg told you that I wanted you to come to a cookout today. Exactly when did he tell you this?"
"I, uh, called your communicator last night. Just to talk," Dominic said, shrinking under her glare. "It must have been turned off, or something, because I got routed to the lobby, and then to this automated system. Finally I get something called 'monitor duty,' and Cyborg picks up."
Raven said nothing. Her grinding teeth did all the talking.
"As soon as he figured out who I was, we got to talking. Then he said you wanted me to come over for lunch today, that you wanted me to meet 'the gang.' Next thing I know, I'm offering to pick up potato salad and bring a Frisbee. I wasn't even sure where you go to buy a Frisbee before today."
She massaged the bridge of her nose, dipping her head to hide her grimace behind her hood. "How could you possibly think I would think of something like this? 'Why' would you think I would want something like this?" she said.
A small, wistful wisp breached Dominic's calm, making Raven look up. His idiotically hopeful expression melted the ice in her veins. "I don't know," he said with a sagging shrug. "I guess I just hoped that you meant it when you said you wanted me in your world…"
Her shoulders fell. She drew back her hood to reveal her annoyance. "That was a low blow," she muttered.
His pout became half of a smile. "All's fair, and all that," he said, and opened his arms.
Raven fell into his embrace. She basked in his peace, allowing it to massage away her annoyance. The last of her foul mood left her in one last, snarky puff. "You look stupid in those shorts," she said, and rested her head on his chest.
Patting her back, Dominic muttered, "That's it, let it all out. I'd hate for us to fight at this cookout you planned for everybody."
A smile stormed her face. She buried it in his shirt to hide it from the both of them. "This is going to be such a disaster," she moaned into him.
Dominic smoothed down her hood-hair. "It's just burgers with your friends. How bad could it be?" he asked.
The question became lost in a deafening klaxon and red light that flashed from all around. Raven immediately broke from Dominic to pull her communicator, readying a portal to leap into action. Then she stopped dead, and felt a headache blossom as Cyborg's voice filled the Compound.
"Calling all Titans! Report to the patio for a Level Five barbecue. And we've got company, so wear something snazzy."
Raven groaned into her palms.
The sunny patio was made a maelstrom of discomfort by the odd collection of teenagers gathered around its table. Raven sat at the heart of the emotional tempest, wondering if murder-suicide was her only way out of this awkward ordeal, or merely her best way out. She could think of no other means of escape.
Dominic sat an appreciable distance from her side, sipping nervously at a bottle of soda. His gaze wandered the street-clothed heroes around the table. He couldn't decide whether to be awed or terrified. "So," he drawled.
Tek sat at his other side and hadn't stopped staring at him since they had all sat down. The spaghetti straps of her blue sundress swelled with a swooning sigh. "It's just so great that you're here," she gushed, making Raven wince at the force of her enthusiasm. "You have no idea how cool it is to finally have someone normal here!"
"Um, thank you," he said.
Her face fell immediately. "Uh, I didn't mean that we're all freaks or anything. Or that, uh, you're not special. 'Cause you are, obviously. Oh, but I don't mean… It's just that… Well, you'd have to be special to, y'know, date…Raven…"
Her face burned red as she trailed off, sinking into her seat for protection from Raven's mortified glare. Dominic's pale face reddened empathetically as he attempted a casual shrug. "Hey, it's cool. I've always been a big fan of you guys and what you do. I'm the one who should be embarrassed. I read about you all the time, but I hardly know anything about you guys."
Lounging comfortably in a white polo shirt and dark slacks, Bushido sipped from a bottle of sparkling water. His katana hung sheathed on his back. "We prefer a quiet life of privacy and anonymity as opposed to the fanatical hero worship of some of our peers," he said sagely.
Uh, cool," Dominic said. "So what do you do in your free time, Mister…Bushido? What should I call you?"
Raven's jaw clenched with tension enough to torque a steel girder. "Just call him Bushido," she said. "And he's only here because it's safer than letting a murderer like him run free."
"'Alleged' murderer," Bushido said cheerfully to Dominic's shocked look.
Horrified, Tek glanced between them. "Former murderer!" she protested. "Uh, I mean, Ryuko's a Titan now, just like the rest of us. We're all good guys here. And gals. Good guys and gals. And we're all more interested in getting to know you, Dominic. You seem so interesting."
Her innocent interest took Dominic aback. "Thanks. But I'm not that interesting. Not like you guys, anyway. I mean, I don't have an origin story, or a secret identity, or anything. I'm just…me?"
"More the pity," Bushido said. "The relationship will likely not last if that's the case." As he took another drink, he noticed two sets of furious female eyes bear down upon him. "What?" he asked.
The patio door slid aside, robbing Raven of the chance to eviscerate Bushido with her mind. Cyborg stepped out of the Commons wearing a backwards baseball cap and an enormous apron that bore depictions of cartoonish cogs around the words Upgrade the Cook! He carried a platter of raw hamburger patties in one hand, and a series of platters balanced on his other arm, with buns, potato salad, chips, and condiments.
"Aw, yeah, y'all!" he crowed, and swept the platters onto the table. "Let's fire it up so we can chow down!"
Glad for the change in topic, Dominic looked around. "You'd, uh, need a grill for that to happen first."
Tek looked around as well. She couldn't recall the team grilling out since that day at the beach last year. Aside from a few lawn chairs and their long table, the stone patio was empty. "Do we even have a grill anymore, Vic?" she asked.
Cyborg chuckled. "'Do we have a grill,' she asks, knowing who she's talking to. Titans, Titanettes—and esteemed guest—prepare to behold the Ninth Wonder of the world. The eighth being yours truly."
He struck his hands over bare, smooth patio stone and waggled his fingers. Humming a Wagnerian score, he sent a wireless command into the ground. The seamless stone split and slid aside, revealing smooth, polished stainless steel. The metal rose from the stone as a large platform that grew until it reached Cyborg's waist. Then, at his digital command, the platform folded open and extended into a series of gas-grill sections, each large enough to support a full side of ribs.
Cyborg orchestrated the grill's ascendance as a master conductor, waving his hands to guide the grill's components into place. Before him appeared a grill with enough space to cook two full cows with room to spare. "I present to you the Cy-Grill," he said, "a masterpiece of outdoor food preparation technology capable of putting out two hundred thousand BTUs, with eight major cooking surfaces, and," he added, pulling open its front door, "full rotisserie capability for you poultry lovers."
The grill dwarfed every other item and person present on the patio. Given wheels, it might have doubled as a compact car. "I'm surprised you didn't make it play a Latin choir when it rose out of the ground," Bushido noted dryly.
The grill lit with a soft puff of combustion. Intense heat rippled the air, turning the warm day hot in an instant. Everyone at the table immediately reached for the cooler to open a new cold drink. Cyborg took that as a point of pride, but adjusted the fire to a saner level.
"Dominic, let's get this shindig rolling. Meat me!" Cyborg said.
"Meet you?" Dominic asked, while Raven cradled her face in embarrassment. His eyes fell to the platter of patties. "Oh."
As Dominic stood to bring the platter to the grill, a tall figure dressed in purple and white emerged through the patio door. Beast Boy, still dressed in his uniform, took two gruff steps from the door, and then stopped dead upon sight of Dominic.
Both boys stood frozen, facing each other with a plate of raw meat between them. Their wide eyes wandered each other with mutual surprise. Dominic recovered first to shift his platter to one arm and free his other for a handshake.
"You must be Beast Boy. I'm Dominic. You're a lot taller in person," he said.
A long, slow breath rolled into Beast Boy's nose as he stared at the proffered hand. His senses tasted and weighed every aspect of Dominic on levels even he didn't fully understand. Buried deep within Dominic's scent, Beast Boy found…something.
Beast Boy's eyes narrowed. A low rumble resounded from his throat. His hackles rose on the back of his neck. A sliver of white appeared between his curling lips.
Dominic leaned back slowly, lowering his hand. His voice dropped into a murmur, which he aimed over his shoulder at the table. "Is…Is he growling at me?"
Raven's stomach sank in mortification as Cyborg rushed forward, stepping between the two. The massive Titan took the platter in one hand as his free arm scooped Beast Boy to the opposite side of the table. "Gar, growling? Nah! He's just hungry, 's all. Right, Gar?"
A hearty Cyborg-shove dropped Beast Boy into a seat between Tek and Bushido. The shapeshifter glowered all around while Cyborg took the meat to the grill. Cyborg's surreptitious glare and waggling spatula made Beast Boy grunt, "Yeah, super-hungry. Nice to meet you, Dom."
Sitting with some uncertainty, Dominic said, "Nice to be met. I was wondering if I would get to meet the whole team today. Like I told Tek and, er, Bushido, I read all about you guys in the news."
Beast Boy's narrowed eyes flicked between the cautiously cheerful Dominic and his abashed lady love, whose face was hidden in the shadows of her hood. A cheshire smile revealed Beast Boy's fangs, which flashed at Dominic. "Heck, call me Gar. Raven's just told us so much about you, it's like you're one of the team already," he said.
"She has?" Tek asked. Then she yelped as her chair rattled with an under-the-table kick.
"She has?" Dominic echoed, looking to Raven in surprise. Her head sank lower. Affecting his best smile, Dominic said, "Well, hopefully she left out all the nasty parts," and laughed weakly.
Beast Boy laughed with him. "Oh, she's got nothing but good things to say about you. Of course, you'd have to be a real sweetheart to date a gal like Raven. She's our special girl."
"Uh, she sure is," Dominic said. He looked around, confused. Tek was rubbing her shin, while Bushido watched the conversation raptly and sipped his water. Raven was nothing more than a hood, cloak, and shadow at this point.
"Of course, it isn't easy getting to know someone like Raven," Beast Boy continued, heedless of Dominic's look, and of the glare aimed at him from Raven's hood. "She can be kind of cold to new people. Especially friendly guys like you. Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Frigid?"
The glass bottle in front of Raven split with a hairline crack. Soda frothed and dribbled down its neck to pool on the table.
Dominic frowned, and said, "I wouldn't say that at all. And I think you shouldn't, either."
Beast Boy's smile widened sickeningly. "Just what was it that attracted you to our wonderful, closed-off, cute-as-a-button Raven anyway?"
"Gar!" Tek cried.
"Hey…" Dominic said, half-rising from his chair.
"It's the sex, isn't it?" Beast Boy asked with a faux-conspiratorial wink. "Sixteen years of repression must really—"
A half-cooked hamburger patty landed squarely on Beast Boy's face. Raw juices dripped into his eyes, his nose and mouth, filling his senses with the sensation of a fresh kill seasoned with garlic. Something deep and feral in him rumbled in delight while he gagged and tore the patty off his face.
Cyborg slammed the spatula down on the grill and stormed over to Beast Boy. His tone and cheer were strained to their limits as he chimed, "Whoops! Sorry, Gar. That one got away from me. Let's go get you cleaned up. Watch the grill for me, guys!"
He cast one apologetic look in Raven's direction as he dragged Beast Boy into the Compound. The sorceress couldn't even lift her head to meet the look.
Beast Boy bounced blind in Cyborg's grasp all the way through the Commons. By the time they reached the hallway, Beast Boy had cleared his eyes of meat, and saw the wall very clearly as Cyborg threw him into it. "Ow! What the hell?" he snapped.
Cyborg jabbed a finger at Beast Boy while the shapeshifter rose with the wall's help. "What is the matter with you? Are you crazy? Do you have rabies?" Cyborg demanded. "Because I am about ready to take you out back and Old Yeller your ass with some sonic sense." His arm mechamorphed into its cannon to drive the point home.
Shoving the cannon aside, Beast Boy said, "I was just about to get him to admit to it when you slapped that meat in my mouth! I think I'm going to blow my breakfast here," he said, clutching his stomach with a grimace.
Reverting his cannon into a tempted fist, Cyborg fumed, "Admit to what?"
"It! It!" Beast Boy insisted with an explosion of his hands.
"What 'it?'" Cyborg demanded.
"I don't know," Beast Boy snapped, and folded his arms. "But there's something about him, Vic. I can smell it. He smells…wrong. He's up to no good with Raven! And I almost had him cornered into admitting everything with my sneaky trick of getting him mad until you blundered everything up with your flying meat-saucer."
Cradling his face, Cyborg drawled, "What would Dominic admit to? What possible reason did your pea brain come up with to act like such a jackass? Because all you did back there was seriously piss off the really nice guy that Raven's dating."
"I don't know what it is yet!" Beast Boy shouted. "But there has to be something. I know he has an angle. I mean, why else would anyone ever date a jerk like Raven?"
Cyborg pinned Beast Boy to the wall with a smoldering glare. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you are way out of line here, Gar. You're gonna apologize to Raven and Dominic for this after you take some time to cool off."
Disbelief spiked Beast Boy's cry. "You're taking 'his' side? He's the bad guy! My nose knows, Vic!" he said, and pointed to his face.
"I'm taking Raven's side. Now take a walk."
"But—"
"Take a walk, Gar," Cyborg said, and pointed down the hall.
Beast Boy glared at him with stung eyes. The shapeshifter stomped down the hall without another word, his skin abuzz with the fury of a dozen predators begging to be unleashed.
Cyborg watched his friend disappear around the corner. Then he slumped against the wall, feeling drained and miserable. He could only imagine how Raven felt. The whole point of this disastrous cookout was to show Raven that she didn't need to hide Dominic from them. Cyborg wanted her to feel like she could be herself in her own home as well as around her boyfriend. Now Cyborg would feel lucky if Raven ever spoke to him again, let alone brought Dominic around for a second visit.
Reassuming his host's smile, Cyborg trotted back out to the patio. "Sorry about that. Gar's gonna go…" He trailed off as he straightened his cap. Tek and Bushido were the only people left at the table. The burgers sizzled in symphony on the grill, the only sound to be found outside. Looking around, Cyborg grunted, "Gone, huh?"
Tek winced with apology, though part of that could have been the shin she still clutched. "Dominic said he needed to use the restroom, and asked Raven to show him. She ported them away."
Sighing, Cyborg said, "Sarah?" A SARAH Sim resolved next to him on the patio. She wore a puffy chef's hat and an apron over her pink skirt suit which read, Overclocked, Not Overcooked. In a miserable tone, Cyborg said, "Locate Raven."
Sarah chirped, "Raven's communicator signal is currently six point eight feet to my immediate right, and remaining stationary." She stepped around Cyborg, her heels clicking against the patio stone, and reached Raven's abandoned seat. Reaching down, Sarah picked up an abandoned communicator and showed it to Cyborg.
Glancing at the other pair in mild irritation, Cyborg said, "You two just let them go?"
Bushido finished his water. "One is wiser for watching a soap opera rather than becoming part of it," he said.
Cyborg sighed again. "Ain't that the truth," he said. Turning to the grill, he saw a lunch that needed salvaging, and said, "Well, we've got a ton of burgers and no one else to eat them."
"You'll excuse me," Bushido said, and rose from the table. "I don't eat red meat. But thank you for the water and the entertainment. I will be in my room if you need me."
Tek limped after him into the Commons. "Sorry, Vic. I'm gonna go to Medical and get my leg scanned. I think Gar gave me a hairline fracture or something. It's killing me. Sarah, could you please have a…um, another you…waiting for me there?"
"Of course, miss. A duplicate is already standing by," the chef-appareled Sarah said.
Cyborg watched the patio empty itself. Then he turned to the grill, and to the food piled high on the table. "Eight pounds of hamburger, two pounds of potato salad, three watermelons, and two bags of chips… Sarah?" he said.
"Yes, sir?" Sarah chirped.
"Get me my rib bib. I've got some serious work to do."
Raven settled back against Dominic's chest with a sigh that unbound the tight knot in her chest. A warm, gentle breeze stirred her hair into her eyes. She brushed them clear to gaze upon the distant city. The skyscrapers looked like models from the grassy ridge where her portal had deposited them.
Shifting, Dominic rested them both back against the trunk of a tree and cradled Raven in his lap. His deep sigh bounced her slowly, until she all but pooled on top of him. Together, they watched the city, its buzzing activity and deafening ether made still by the distance. The gentle song of the forests north of the city lulled their troubles to rest.
"I don't think there are words to apologize for how awful that was," Raven said. "In any language." Her hand rested on Dominic's bare leg curling around her.
Dominic wrapped his hands around her waist. His words tickled the hairs on her neck. "It wasn't all bad," he said.
"It was horrible."
"Okay, yes," Dominic admitted. "It was pretty bad. But Cyborg and Tek seemed really friendly. And Bushido seemed ambivalent, which I guess is a comparative plus. They're all good people. I can see why you're their friend. I just wasn't expecting…some things."
I never told Beast Boy anything," Raven said, turning in his lap so quickly that she accidentally elbowed his ribs. "He…guessed," she explained, blushing. The idea of telling Dominic that Beast Boy could smell certain aspects of their relationship made her modesty squirm.
He pulled her back to his chest. "He's obviously very protective of you…in his way. But he seemed really upset about something."
Raven's face darkened. "He's a toad," she uttered. "…and not just when he wants to be."
Her resentment echoed in the stillness of Dominic's touch, eventually fading into the sweet nothing that filled her. She let the feeling fizzle naturally instead of tamping it down as she normally would. Her father's hate could not reach her in Dominic's arms. Dominic was her shield, her protector.
As they lay beneath the tree on the ridge, she thought about what that meant, and what it would mean. Thus far she had only reacted to the freedom of his touch. Whatever muted emotions escaping her control to echo in his silence were one thing. But to fully let go? To have a real, whole emotion all to herself? No hatred to consume it, no outside world to drown it out? The notion thrilled her with the fear of the unknown.
She must have considered the possibility for some time, for Dominic grew nervous in her silence. He squirmed, moving his mouth from her hair to say, "He…Beast Boy, I mean, he, uh, raised kind of an interesting question. Um…why are you with me?"
Nervousness whispered in the stillness of his touch. It made Raven turn to consider him in disbelief. "What?" she asked.
His nervousness rose from whisper to shout beneath her twilight stare. "No," he said quickly, "it's just…I don't know. It was a stupid question."
Raven rested a hand on his cheek, silencing him. She stared into him, waiting until his nervousness became stillness once more. Then, releasing every last shred of control she possessed, she answered him in a way that needed no words. She summoned every butterfly in her stomach, every spark of lust he ignited in her, every thrill and fear, and lifted them from the quarantine deep inside her soul. She thrust her feelings into the silence, unafraid of her father's hate, yet terrified of how Dominic would react.
She kissed him, deep and slow, savoring the flavor of her own feelings unleashed. Almost at once, she felt new feelings swirl amidst her own. For an instant, she thought the magic of his touch had been undone, that the outside world was pouring into her to consume her as it had tried to do forever. But the feelings belong, not to a world, but to one man.
Dominic poured into her as she into him. Physically. Psychically. Completely. The choked emotions of two lifetimes crashed together into a tempest that filled Raven with something she never knew she had lacked.
Her burning lungs made her break the kiss. Raven panted, clutching Dominic's face. She touched her brow to his as the tempest calmed inside of her. She rose and fell as he heaved, running his hands along her sides.
"Good answer," he gasped.
"You make me feel like this," Raven said, amazed at the rush of her own feelings. "You let me feel like this. I don't know why, and I don't care anymore." The reason didn't matter. Raven had found another soul, another person trapped between hell and earth as she was. Together, they made a whole.
Dominic froze at her revelation. "You…You feel it too, don't you?" he said in awe. "The quiet. When we touch, it's like…"
"You can feel it?" Raven asked. Her surprise was lost in the tide of her other emotions, like driftwood swallowed by a crashing wave. Running her hands through his hair, she said, "I've never felt anything like it before I met you. No ambient empathy, no noise, no…influences. Just…"
"Silence," Dominic finished. The corners of his mouth turned up. Raven may have imagined it, but she thought she felt the tiniest pang of sadness from him. It washed away in her loosed feelings too quickly to be anything but a fleeting worry.
His smile grew full, and then drew to her lips for a gentle kiss. Raven felt her head spin at the simple contact. It was small wonder she had blacked out the night they had spent together. She pulled away, expecting an electric charge to jump between their smiles. "You're amazing," she murmured.
He grinned, and stroked her hair. "I'm sitting on a pine cone," he whispered back, his voice slightly strained.
An alien sound leapt between them. Raven realized a second later, when her throat began to ache, that it was her, laughing. She floated up from his lap, listening to the sound of her laughter, careful to keep her hand in his. She helped him to his feet and then giggled as he dug a pine cone from the back of his ridiculous shorts.
Turning, she looked back upon the far-off city, smirking haughtily at its cacophony of feelings that could not touch her. The city glinted in the midday sun, glistening with possibility. "We have the whole day, and I have no communicator," she said, surprised at the cheery sound of her own voice. "What should we…? What are you doing?"
Dominic's free hand was wrapped in a phantasmal red claw. He used its long nail to scratch the bark of the tree. With a few deft etchings, their names took shape in the old tree, separated by a plus symbol. "Just recording something for future generations," he said. "They'd never believe it without proof. Sometimes even I find it hard to believe how real it is," he added, and smiled dopily.
Raven laughed again. It was a sound she could get used to. She leaned into him as they inspected his handiwork together. "If you're going to be clichéd, you may as well go for broke," she told him. Her black soul-talon pushed his red claw aside to carve a heart around their names.
Their soul-selves dissipated as they drew together, gazing at the carved proclamation on the tree trunk. After a moment, Dominic said, "So, you were saying? We've got a whole, beautiful day, and nowhere to be. What should we do?"
His touch tingled against her skin. She felt the contour of his body pressed through her vestments. Amidst the glorious storm of emotion in Raven, she felt those lustful sparks blossom. Her fingertips trailed the sculpt of his back.
Her eyes grew sly, and then flashed.
A portal opened beneath them to swallow the couple with cold darkness. Dominic yelped as he fell out of the warm forest and into a cool, dark, familiar room. He collapsed onto a mattress, and then curled with a whuf around the sorceress that landed in his lap. Her cloak fell over them both, veiling her ravenous grin.
Dominic tossed aside the edge of her cloak to look upon the interior of his room through the gauzy curtains around his bed. When Raven pulled her knee out of his stomach, he found breath to say, "Most cultures frown on sudden teleportation without warning, you know."
She straddled his hips, pinning him to the mattress with her thighs. The cloak let her shoulders with a dramatic sweep to fall to the side. Her chest heaved with a desire that overwhelmed every conscious thought she had. "I'm sorry," she said, wholly unapologetic as she crouched atop him. "But you look so stupid in those clothes. I had to do something right away."
Black ethereal shears manifested in her hand. She swept the soul-shears through his shirt. The blade vanished before it reached Dominic's flinching face. His flinch fell to pieces as she swept the halves of his shirt aside to explore his chest with her mouth. "Raven, I—ah!—adore your enthusi—oh!—asm, but I don't…"
The weak protest broke through her burning desire. Her lips and eyes left his chest to meet his apologetic expression. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing, how she had all but tossed him underneath her and torn off his clothes, and she felt mortified. What was she thinking? What was she doing?
Raven dismounted him at once, backing across the mattress. Tears welled in her eyes as she tried to control the raging storm in her head, preparing to shove it deep where it belonged. "I'm sorry," she said, her eyes watering. "This was…I…"
"What? No!"
Dominic sat up and caught her hand before it could leave his chest. His desperate grab preserved the peace between them. Sitting forward, he cradled her hand against his chest. Thunder raced beneath his skin, pounding against her touch.
"Raven," he said, stroking her hair behind her ear, forcing her to look at him. "I want to. Believe me. I just…I don't want it to be like last time, when you woke up and got scared. I…"
Raven blinked her eyes clear. Her desire flickered back to life. She let it build slowly this time, determined to control it. She would control it. For once in her life, her emotions would work for her, instead of the other way around. Slowly, she took his hand and placed it at the back of her neck. Her fingers guided his to a small metal tab hidden within the seam of her taut vestments. It was a zipper.
Locking her gaze in his, Raven leaned into him, letting go of his hand to grasp his face. The weight of his hand drew the zipper down to the small of her back. Her vestments rolled off her shoulders and down her arms, revealing ashen skin that longed to press against his.
In a hushed voice, Raven said, "I'm not scared anymore."
To Be Continued