"Raven! Your knee!" I can hear Cyborg gasp.
I trudge along past him through the sewers. "I'm fine..." I walk to the end of the corridor and look both ways along the fork in the underground path. "Now let's hurry. That alien dog won't find itself..."
"But your knee!" Cyborg walks over to me and points. "It's scabbed to high Hell!"
"It isn't a big deal..."
"In a place like this, Raven, it could be infected!"
"I know that, Cyborg. I can protect myself. I'm not a little girl," I walk along. I take the right path. "Beast Boy is depending on us," I drone. "The only key to his disappearance is this mutt from outer space--"
"Could you at least--I dunno--stop for a second and let me take a look?"
I sigh.
I come to a stop, fold my arms, and stretch my leg out from the hem of my blue robe. "Nnnngh...Suit yourself. This is a total waste of time..."
"Let me be the judge of that...," he trudges his metal self over and kneels down in front of me. He takes a close look at my knee and runs a gentle metal finger around the red edges of the scrape.
I try not to wince.
Try...
"Damn, girl! This is pretty nasty! It's bruised and everything! What on earth happened to make--"
"I was repeatedly pummeled to the ground by an excitable canine extraterrestrial that had no business of so much as touching me, that's what," I grunt.
"Well if you walk on this thing for too much longer...you're going to limp for a few days."
I squint my violet eyes down at him. "Since when were you so concerned with the way I walk?"
"Jeez, girl! Did you ever even considered healing yourself with them powers of yours?"
"Well, did ya?"
'Ruff! Ruff!' Panting. A wet pitter-pattering of feet. An alien-eyed, green-furred dog runs down an adjacent sewer tunnel.
A growling Starfire soars after it in heavy pursuit. "J'kiul venjaat chlorfarker!"
Cyborg and I glance over. Blinking.
A hyperventilating Robin paces through the tunnel.
He pants and lingers just long enough to get a good view of Cyborg and I.
"Cyborg! Stop proposing to Raven and lend us a metal hand!"
He runs off...leaving Cyborg and I in the awkward, shadowy grace of each other.
"... ..."
"... ...uhhh...," Cyborg sweatdrops and gets up from his knee.
I gulp and glance aside, fidgeting.
"... ...he doesn't know what he's talking about."
"Whatever..."
"And we really do need to go after that damn mutt."
"Whatever..."
"... ...and just why haven't you healed yourself?"
"My own prerogative."
"More like lack of prerogative."
"...look, I don't normally heal myself just--'like that'." I snap a finger.
"Why not, girl?"
"Because..."
"Because what?"
"... ...it makes me tyred."
"So?" Cyborg smirks. "I thought you loved sleeping."
I frown at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing...just...," he shrugs. "I hate to see you suffering, Rae."
"Cyborg...the moment I start getting tortured by a simple, 'playground' injury...I'll let you know..."
"...," he looks at me.
I glare at him. "What?"
"Sometimes... ... ...it's as if you just want a world where nobody cares about you...," he drifts past me.
"... ... ..."
I stare into the shadows of the sewers. The darkness that--without its fragant collection of filth--reminds me ever so faintly of my own room at the Tower. The shadowy margin where I sit and see these people and wish them away with sighs and good byes. I could lose a leg or an arm, and I wouldn't scream for help. I wouldn't call it so much a state of being masochistic as it is...well...regretful. The sight of my own blood is of no bother to me and myself alone. But the thought of anyone coming in contact with my blood...my body...my essence.. ... ... ...That is when I grow concerned. And that is when I grow fearful. For them, if anything.
Right now...I am worried about Beast Boy. But I am not fearful for him. It is only a matter of time before he is found and we restore him from whatever supremely awkward predicament he may be in. We--as the Teen Titans--have grown beyond all measured manners of limitations. And I know that we will succeed up to a certain point in confronting any obstacle...
Except for the obstacle that will bring us all down. The obstacle that is supported and cultivated through me. And I don't want them to have to sacrifice their time, effort, and concern over the banal accident that is me. And--I suppose in that same vein, I have given myself very little consideration too.
It's unfair. In the long run, it's so unfair. And it's not that I'm complaining. The worst way to really hurt these silly...overzealous roomies of mine is to shut them out completely and treat them like dirt. And--as it turns out--treating myself like dirt is a bit like treating them like dirt simultaneously.
I really...
R-Really need to work on that.
Starting...
"C-Cyborg?"
He pauses in the middle of the tunnel. He turns around and glances at me.
I bite my lip.
I know all of you care about me.
Maybe if I feed into it a little bit...
You'll all stop being so desperate?
Yes...that's right...
I'll be feeding into it for all of you.
Just you guys.
Not myself...
Not at all...
"I-I think I can take a break after all. Want to make sure I don't faint while I administer the healing touch to myself?"
"... ...," he smiles. "Can do, girl." He walks over. "Heh...you want me to carry you if you faint?"
I roll my violet eyes. "Don't push it."
Thwooosh-WHUMP! "AUGH!" I collapse into his chest from a landing blow of four paws to the back of my shoulders.
'Ruff Ruff!' Pitter-patter-Pitter-patter-Pitter-Patter...
"Nnnngh...CHLORFARKER!"