Raven woke up early as she always did. She never needed to rely on an alarm clock as she always woke at 6 AM, when she would get up, meditate for 30 minutes and then shower and prepare for the day. She would finish at the same time and enter the common room at exactly 7:10. She would boil water in an electric kettle and make some herbal tea. Cyborg would also be there and have her favorite breakfast food waiting for her: waffles. And not the wretched frozen store bought ones you heated in a toaster; he made them using his grandma's secret recipe. Since Raven was now a vegetarian, but not a vegan, she could and still continued to enjoy Cyborg's culinary treat, which she often covered with jam or marmalade.
As she woke up her stomach growled in anticipation and she began to rise as her morning rituals awaited her. That was when she noticed two things: she was wearing nothing more than her bra and panties and there was a green arm resting on her exposed midsection.
She sighed contentedly and decided to skip meditating that morning and sank back into the bed, making a mental note to extend her afternoon session to compensate. She gently rolled over to face her beau, who continued to snore softly. She admired his calm face, which was at peace. They we in his lower bunk, crowded together in the twin sized bed.
It was warm and during their sleep the pushed the bedcovers down to their waists. She admired his chest and torso. The ropey figure of his early teen years was gone, replaced by broader shoulders and a washboard abdomen. He also had grown some chest hair, and she toyed with it using her index finger. After a few minutes he stopped snoring and opened his eyes.
"What time is it?" He asked in a still sleepy voice.
"Almost 6:15"
"That early?" He groaned.
"Yes, and I need to get up and get ready."
"Wanna shower together?" He wagged his eyebrows at her.
"Baby steps, Gar, baby steps." She reminded him.
He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, you can't blame me for asking. I've never showered with a girl before."
"Not even with her?" She smirked.
"Nope. Never did." He grinned back at her.
She kissed him tenderly on the lips. "Be patient with me, OK? We'll get there."
"We could get married, then we could do anything we want."
"I'm not ready for that either, unless you want us to spend a celibate honeymoon." She replied.
"That wouldn't be cool." He agreed. "But you will marry me, right?"
She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss. She went four eyed and he smiled when he saw her face.
"Of course I will, but are you sure you can handle this?" She remarked as she pointed at her 4 red eyes.
"You know, now that I'm used it, I think it's kind of hot."
"Well good, because this is what I'm gonna look like on our honeymoon, whenever that will be."
He chuckled. "Look at us; we're already talking about getting married. What happened to those teens who busted bad guys, ate pizza and hung out in common room playing video games?"
"You still do all those things." She retorted in her monotone.
"I guess you're right; but you what I meant."
She sighed. "We aren't kids anymore."
"Yeah, we're not."
"And I need to get ready." She said as she slipped out of the bed and stretched, exposing her backside to him.
"You have a nice butt." He teased her as he admired her scantily clad behind.
"So I've been told. Meet me for breakfast at 7:10. Cyborg's making waffles."
Without waiting for his reply she picked up her leotard, cape and boots, sinking into the floor and disappearing.
-( scene break )-
Cyborg was showing Starfire how to prepare the batter and prep the wafflematic when the Chromatically Challenged Couple™ entered the common room, holding hands. Cyborg grinned when he saw them.
"So you two kissed and made up! So did Star and gel hair. I knew it would all work out, which is why I'm making my patented waffles to celebrate.
"You always make waffles." Raven deadpanned.
"Well, little lady, that might be true, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate. Of course, I'm also making eggs, bacon and pork sausage. And did I mention I'm also making biscuits and gravy?"
"Did you remember to take you cholesterol pill this morning?" Raven asked.
"Very funny Raven, but if I remember right, you used to love to eat that stuff."
"In moderation." She replied.
Cyborg laughed. "Well, just so you guys don't feel left out of our celebration, I made tofu bacon for you."
Beast Boy was looking around the room, searching for something that was missing.
"If we're gonna celebrate, where's Robin?" The changeling asked.
"Oh yes, as we rose this morning a message came in from Titans South and Robin went to his office to have the discussion with friends Raptor and Bumblebee."
As if on cue the doors slid open and Robin, with a very stern look on his face, marched into the room carrying a sheaf of papers in his hand.
"Dude! You're just in time for breakfast!"
Robin snapped out of his trance, and looked at all the food Cyborg had already piled onto the table.
"Right … after we're done here pack your bags; we're going to San Antonio."
"Why are we doing that? I thought Bumblebee was going to help Raptor get the Tower ready." Raven inquired.
"That's not why we're going." He replied.
Starfire knew her boyfriend well enough to read him like a book. "Robin, has something unfortunate happened in the San Antonio?"
"You could say that. Last night, on the Riverwalk a sniper took a shot a Raptor."
Beast Boy leapt to his feet. "Is she OK?"
Robin raised his hand in a calming gesture. "She and Aqualad are fine. But she doesn't have a team yet, except for Pantha and Captain Marvel Jr., who just accepted an offer to join the team."
"Captain Marvel Jr.? Since when is there one of those." Cyborg asked.
"Since Cap inducted him. He suggested a few days ago that Freddy, that's Junior's name, join the Titans."
"Does he kick butt like Cap?" Beast Boy asked.
"Close, but he's green behind the ears. Anyway, it looks like the drug cartels have already declared war on the Titans. We're going to help out until Raptor gets her Tower finished and her team in place. We're going be on a rotating schedule with Titans East, one week us and one week them in San Antonio, though this week we'll both be there. This is probably going to take a few months, team and I apologize, but after discussing the situation with Bumblebee and Raptor we decided this will be the best approach."
Robin sat down and began to serve himself some breakfast as he continued speaking.
"You'll need to brush up on your Spanish, as some of the new recruits who will be arriving don't speak English and we'll be bringing some of them back on the rotations to train here."
"Great." Raven mumbled under her breath. "There's nothing I love more than training newbies. Except for training newbies that don't speak any of the languages I speak."
"Ah, c'mon Raven, you like learning languages. I'm surprised you haven't already learned Spanish. I mean it's like California's second language." Cyborg teased her.
"I suppose that I don't have any other choice." She remarked dryly. Raven was the only team member who couldn't speak the language.
Robin finished his plate, washing it down with a tall glass of orange juice. "We leave in two hours. Don't be late."
-( scene break )-
The flight to San Antonio was uneventful. Cyborg piloted the T-Ship while Robin went over police reports over the three gangs that dominated the drug trade in the Alamo city. All had ties to south of the border cartels and had reputations for being ruthless and ultraviolent. For now they would not engage them and they hoped that the local mafia would leave them alone while they trained the team. This of course was highly unlikely as the gangsters had already demonstrated that they would attack Titans South while it was being formed and thus weak. It was hoped that the presence of an experienced team at the campus site would deter any direct attacks and it was decided that the Titans would avoid public places like the Riverwalk, at least for the time being, to protect innocent bystanders from being harmed.
This was going to be different for them. Rather that deal with empowered supercriminals who were only interested in stealing valuables they were going to be facing large groups of highly organized thugs, who would fight tooth and nail to defend their respective turfs.
For this reason the San Antonio Tower would be even more impregnable than the original tower. Its windows were to be made of transparisteel, four inches thick. Even military grade weapons would have a hard time breaching such defenses. Efforts to finish the Tower's interior had been doubled and the new plan was to have the Team move into the still unfinished Tower as soon as the power came online.
"OK y'all, we're here!" Cyborg's voice boomed over the intercom.
The cybernetic Titan guided the original T-Ship to a flawless landing between its red and blue twins. Raven and Beast Boy shared a compartment during the trip and as soon as their canopy popped open the hot summer air blasted them.
"Now I'm glad I transfer here, this place feels like a sauna, I couldn't stand living here."
"Oh, I don't know … I mean, this is perfect poolside weather." Beast Boy replied.
"Except that we're not here on vacation, we came here to work … a lot. Thank Azar that they don't have an obstacle course here yet."
As the team climbed out of their signature orange jet, Pantha came out to meet them.
"Welcome, friends, to Titans South." She greeted them. "The only hospitality I can offer you at the time are these trailers. We should able to move into the Tower tomorrow, though it is still unfinished.
"As long as the air conditioning works, I'll be fine. This is hotter than the time we went looking for the Doom Patrol in the jungle." Raven complained.
"I agree, it is most humid. Is the weather always like this?" Starfire asked.
"Only in the summer. But winters can be quite cool and cold. But please, come inside, we have a meal prepared."
The trailer they entered was a single room, with a long table in the middle, which was laden with all sorts of Mexican and Tex-Mex plates: enchiladas, tamales, tacos, roasted chicken, carnitas, fajitas, carne adobada, chile verde, stacks of flour and corn tortillas, and all sorts of beans and rice.
Cyborg rubbed his metallic hands together. "I love Mexican food!"
Everyone seemed to have a healthy appetite and began to serve themselves from the ample buffet. Raven choose the cheese enchiladas in ranchero sauce and was about to help herself to some rice when another gray hand beat her to the serving spoon. The offending hand quickly retracted.
"Please, guests go first." An all too familiar monotone greeted Raven.
She looked up and saw Rachel, who was wearing a tan colored cloth unitard with the red bird of prey on her chest.
"Did you get tired of wearing leather?" Raven asked as she scooped some rice onto her plate.
"It's pretty hot here, actually, I wouldn't mind going back to the leotard, at least until fall, when it cools off a bit."
Raven handed the serving spoon to her clone. "Sorry, that's my costume."
"I know, you don't like to share, do you, sister?"
Raven locked eyes with her. "You're right, I don't. Of course, you don't need me to share, do you?"
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked with an air of fake innocence.
Raven frowned. "You know perfectly well what I mean. You do deserve to be congratulated, you got Aqualad to go out with you on a date, and on the same day you arrived."
"Don't be jealous sister; you did get to keep Gar … though I heard that you nearly dropped the ball with him … again."
Raven had to summon every ounce of her self control to not explode.
"What are you talking about?"
Rachel smiled as Raven dished up some refried beans.
"The beans are vegetarian; no animal lard; they won't offend your dear Azar and her meatless monks."
"Don't change the subject." Raven hissed at her.
"I heard that you became … jealous when you saw who my date was and that you hurt poor Gar's feelings."
"How in Azar's name did you …"
Raven turned and saw Bumblebee and Cyborg chatting. "He just can't keep his big mouth shut, can he?"
Rachel chuckled. "Yeah, Cy told Bumblebee, and she told us"
Raven continued to fume.
"Oh lighten up, you guys made up, right?"
"What do you think?" Raven answered in a growl.
"Of course you reconciled, he looks as happy as I've ever seen him." Rachel whispered as she nodded at Beast Boy, who was at the far end of the table. "Tell me, how did you do it? How did you convince him that you love him?"
Raven didn't answer.
Raptor grinned and after a brief pause, she continued. "Did you fuck him?"
Raven went four eyed and without using her powers she mashed her loaded plate into Rachel's face. Blinded by the rice and refried beans that stuck to her face she didn't see the thrust side kick that Raven gave her, hitting Raptor square in the stomach and sending her crashing into a wall, from where she slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Rachel didn't fight back and instead smiled at Raven through the food that was still plastered on her face.
"I'll take that as a no." Rachel moaned.
"What's going on here!?" Robin shouted. "Don't tell me that you guys are fighting again?"
Raptor stood up and wiped her face with a napkin.
"My apologies, Robin, this was entirely my fault. I got carried away teasing my sister. I forgot that Raven has no sense of humor. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean myself."
Robin turned to Raven. "What the hell was that?"
Raven's eyes were back to normal. "She provoked me. I'm sorry, Robin, there's no excuse for my behavior."
Robin turned to the changeling. "Do me a favor, Beast Boy. Keep Raven away from Raptor."
Robin then stomped away, clearly embarrassed by the intramural fracas that had just occurred. Beast Boy placed a calming hand on Raven.
"Jeez, Robin looked pissed. Usually when he's that angry, he's angry with me … Rave, what happened? Why did you do that?"
"I'll tell why later, but I will tell you one thing now."
"What's that?"
"It felt good, it felt really good." She remarked in her gravelly monotone, while a hint of a smile appeared on her face.
-( scene break )-
I apologize for using the f-bomb. It's crude and vulgar, but I think it was appropriate for the scene.