Future
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the show Teen Titans, nor the various DC comics on which this fanfiction is based.
Raven awakens slowly, a gentle purring noise bringing her consciousness away from the comfortable darkness.
A familiar, incredibly comfortable warmth wraps around her body, making a strong argument to just go back to sleep and enjoy it a little longer.
As she begins to lose the mental tug of war and lower back into sleep's embrace, something wet presses against her neck.
She hums in appreciation of the pleasant burn that starts taking form on her skin, though she still fights to fall back asleep.
A soft giggle reaches her ears, and Jinx starts sweeping her finger in slow circles around the drowsy psychic's abdomen.
"If you aren't awake soon, Rae, I'm in no way responsible for what I have to do to get you up," the meta whispers with another giggle.
Raven remains silent, though her lip curls slightly in response.
Seeing it, Jinx sends her tongue up to the earlobe and begins lightly lapping at the skin.
"C'mon. Aren't you going to be embarrassed waking up after me?" she quips.
When Raven makes no audible response, Jinx's lips split in her Cheshire grin and she leans her head closer until her lips rest on the spot just behind the psychic's ear.
"I warned you."
She latches onto the skin and begins sucking, and Raven's eyes immediately snap open.
Grinning into her kiss, Jinx continues sucking on the sensitive flesh until Raven's breaths are changed to quivering gasps.
"I-I'm up," Raven groans.
Smirking, Jinx pulls back to meet her violet eyes.
"You're insatiable, Jinx."
"You know it! But there's actually a reason I'm making you get up," Jinx explains.
"And that is…?"
With a vague gesture to the other side of their bedroom, Jinx lets her head rest on Raven's collar.
"Got a call from Giz. He wanted to let us know that he's got a lead, but he's working on it himself until he knows if he'll be sending us on a wild goose chase. Also got a call from Steel. He said that we need to take a day after he heard about Wotan. Turns out he does care a little if we run ourselves ragged," she quips with a grin.
"It sounds like we have the day off, then. So why did you of all people not go back to sleep, then?"
"Because I tried that when I got off with Gizmo, and just when I was starting to get back to sleep was when Steel called. Who knows if they'll call back if I try getting back to sleep?"
"Your logic is infallible," Raven deadpans.
"Yep! And if I'm up, then I'm not going to be the only one. 'Sides, when was the last time we had an actual day off?"
Raven's eyes rise as she does the math, her mind letting her know she's awake for the rest of the day now.
"The last time we were in Gotham."
"Which was…?" Jinx prompts with a smirk.
"Uh… three… no, four months ago," Raven sighs.
"Exactly. So, why don't you get your cute ass into the shower, and I can take you up on that Angelique offer for breakfast?" Jinx offers.
Raven runs her hand through her hair as a smile forms.
"What? No offer to join me?" she quips.
"Yeah, I'm the only insatiable one here," Jinx laughs. "But nuh-uh. I want to actually go out and enjoy a real date for a change, and I'm not lettin' us get distracted til' we get back tonight."
Raven winces at that, remembering the last few dates they had managed to have during their travels.
It had usually ended up a quick dinner in before rushing off on Steel's orders, or a new lead, or other inane interruptions.
"Then I'd better get moving," she sighs.
She plants a quick kiss on her girlfriend in passing, and quickly moves through her morning routine.
The entire time, Raven has a feeling creeping along her spine.
With the stray thoughts to Wotan, her siblings, and her growing suspicions, the sensation becomes more than a word like "foreboding" would be fit to describe.
It had been a long time since her last premonition, as she'd been forced to acknowledge she had gained with her father's defeat, and right now she knows that is what she's going through.
While there aren't images to go with the sensation, Raven knows that something very ugly is on the way.
With a sigh, her clothes materialize around her form and she sends Jinx to do her own routines.
As the water starts running, Raven decides that, if her premonition is as serious as she thinks, she will be determined to make their date the best experience in Jinx's life.
It's with that thought that the women leave their apartment and head out to Jump City.
Raven's growing plans are sidetracked when something catches Jinx's eye.
Following her gaze, Raven finds herself staring at a large marquee, surrounded by unlit light bulbs.
On it is a poster almost painful to look at, due to the incredible amount of yellow on it.
Through the garish colors, Raven gets the gist of the film, and her lip quirks in a smile.
"A spy movie, Jinx? Really?"
Jinx turns a brilliant smile towards her, though a slight blush colors her.
"Aw, c'mon, Rae, you don't ever wish that the crap Steel sends us on would be that simple?" she quips. "Nothing wrong with the occasional spy flick for some amusement."
The way Jinx is practically bouncing, combined with her slit eyes and large, toothy grin, suddenly makes Raven picture an excited animal.
Holding back a laugh, she tightens her hold on Jinx's abdomen and practically presses her lips to the meta's ear.
"If you say so. I may just be jaded, but I wouldn't mind indulging if you want to see it."
Jinx shivers at the breath on her ear, and her eyes dilate at the sensation.
"We won't be paying much attention to the movie, will we?" she asks in a slightly breathy voice.
Raven raises an eyebrow at that, her smile turning to a lopsided smirk.
"I do believe, dear Jinx, that you're mistaking me for you. I can hold off on my urges until we're in the confines of our home, thank you very much."
Jinx's eyes narrow at this, and she turns to be even closer to the psychic.
The dangerous air to her smile sends a pleasant shiver up Raven's spine.
"Is that a challenge?"
"No. Neither of us would enjoy such a challenge," Raven quips. "Now, I believe you wanted to see a cheesy spy movie?"
Grinning, Jinx pulls Raven by her elbow to the ticket counter, and the two soon find themselves alone in the cool theater.
They take their seats just as the movie begins playing, and the women quickly fall into the cheesy 60's thriller.
While Jinx pays rapt attention to the tale of intrigue taking place before her, Raven's mind quickly wanders.
She wonders, briefly, if some deity had decided to give the two women this day of rest.
Following the trail of thought, she finds herself very worried over what such an event would mean for their very near future.
Dismissing the thought with a shake of her head, she lets her mind roam in Richard's and Zatanna's direction.
She'd discovered many new talents since her acceptance of her entire being, and her experiment with Zatanna proved to be more successful than she had ever thought it would be.
If her siblings were, in fact, embracing the darkness she'd spent her entire life fighting, that meant nothing good on how far advanced they would possibly be compared to her.
As Wotan had proven, she had fallen woefully out of practice pulling on her powers in the months of C-list villains and misfortunate thugs who happened to find themselves involved in the thefts.
She finds herself wondering if, were a number of siblings to appear in the confines of the shadowy theater, she would be capable of fighting them off.
The thought sends a chill through her entire being, and she's unaware of the red glow her eyes begin to give off into the darkness.
She is, however, aware of how the shadows sink away in her sight.
While not on par with nocturnal vision, with the influx of her soul-self into her body, she finds herself looking out at the entire theater as though the lights had not been turned off.
While the screen becomes glaring and painful to her eyes, the rest of the theater resolves, and she unconsciously holds her breath as she casts her gaze around.
After a full thirty seconds of both her eyes and mystical senses probing the theater, she finds no movement save for Jinx's occasional twitching.
Letting her breath out, she calms and stifles a derisive snort over such a ridiculous bout of paranoia.
That thought itself, though, gives her pause.
If she is correct that her siblings had somehow prodded at Richard's natural paranoid tendencies, then it is possible that she, as a planner herself, would possibly fall victim to the same thing.
With that cheerful thought forming, she snaps her mental barriers to their full power and expands her soul-self in a thick layer through her body.
The black energy begins centered in her mind and heart, and slowly expands throughout her entire body.
Even in the darkness of the theater, Jinx's attention is brought from the screen as Raven's entire body momentarily spills a black glow from its pores.
The energy dissipates, and Raven breaths a sigh of relief.
If there had been any influence on her, from her siblings or otherwise, it is surely gone now.
Raven spares a thought to chastising herself for not doing the purge sooner, but then she focuses a smile on Jinx.
"What?" she asks upon seeing the meta's wide-eyed stare.
"Is sweating soul-self a new trick?" Jinx inquires.
Everything about her demeanor is curious, and Raven's smile grows.
Her lover had long ago gotten over any fears of Raven's powers, so she was always fascinated whenever the psychic demonstrated a new ability that she had no prior knowledge of.
"A precaution, to put my mind at ease," Raven offers.
"Um… what kind of precaution?" Jinx asks with slight worry.
"I was getting a bit paranoid. Wanted to make sure that it was my own tendency to be overly worried, and not something akin to what Richard went through."
The movie all but forgotten now, Jinx turns fully towards her in her seat.
"'Kay, if you think you need a precaution, it's reason to worry. Did you feel something? Was there-?"
Raven places her index finger against soft lips, cutting Jinx off.
"Calm. I won't have my paranoid tendencies making this day anything less than enjoyable for you. All I did was an energy purge to wash away any potential influences. Nothing to be worried over, Jinx, though I won't lie and say it would be a poor idea for you to do so as well."
Jinx's eyes immediately snap closed, and her entire body glows neon pink in the darkness.
The glow fades quickly, and she heaves a sigh of relief when her eyes open once more.
"Nothin'."
"Very good. Then let us return to enjoying… oh, I'm sorry," Raven sighs at seeing the credits scrolling up the screen.
Evidently her worry had taken her further out of awareness than she had thought possible.
"No problem. I enjoyed it," Jinx offers with her Cheshire grin.
Scratching at the back of her neck, Raven leans forward and plants a kiss on the meta's cheek.
"As long as you enjoyed yourself," she offers.
Grinning, Jinx pulls her upright by her hand.
A much deeper kiss later, the two walk back into the painfully bright day.
Jinx sends worried glances at Raven every so often as they walk, caused by the obvious tension in the demonling's body.
Her lover's concern, as well as her proximity, grounds Raven, as the meta's presence always does.
Slowly, the tension leaks from her body under Jinx's influence, causing the tension to fade from the meta as well.
They make their way in comfortable silence away from the theater, deciding to walk so as to extend their date as long as possible.
While most of the side shops serve as nothing but scenery, one shop in particular catches Jinx's eye.
She feels her face light up as her eyes refuse to leave the shop window, and Raven once again finds herself wondering what has her girlfriend so engrossed.
For a brief moment, she wonders on why Jinx, who had no inhibitions that Raven had yet to find, would get so embarrassed over a lingerie store.
Then her eyes move to the shop next to it, and her heart skips a beat.
The window shows a mannequin dressed in a shining, flowing white gown, and all the roses decorating the storefront make her glad she has no allergies thanks to her physiology.
Feeling Raven's stare shifting from the window to her, Jinx's face colors even more brightly.
"Could you imagine? I don't get people some times, for how much money those things run," Jinx laughs.
"A hopeless romantic who doesn't entertain thoughts of a wedding? That's an interesting premise," Raven offers with a smirk.
Jinx glares at her, causing Raven's smirk to grow even larger.
"And an Azarathian who would entertain the thoughts would be even stranger," she retorts.
"Those in Azarath were human," Raven argues. "The customs followed with them, at least where that's concerned. Of course, I'd never toyed around with the idea, but take the fact that I hadn't seriously contemplated romance at all until we started dating for what it's worth."
Jinx's brow shoots up at that, her face feeling like it's actually aflame.
"Had never? Now that is a strange idea right there, Rae," she unsteadily laughs off.
Raven simply smiles, feeling her blood pressure rapidly rising.
"Well, you clearly were thinking on it in some way just now, and so the concept just occurred," the psychic defends herself. "It never occurred to me that you would be the kind of person who would want something like a wedding."
"I don't! Well, not a wedding, anyway, they're wastes of money," she mutters.
Raven's heart skips another beat, and she steps up close enough to be practically on top of Jinx.
Their eyes meet, and the embarrassment fades away in an instant.
"We can definitely discuss this in more detail, once the case is over with and the Earth is assured to be whole and safe. Assuming I'm reading between the lines correctly, here."
Jinx feels her heart squeeze, and she lets a smirk take hold to try to lighten the mood.
"I think you might be. At any rate, I ain't exactly the churches and dresses kind of girl. I think the idea of growing old with you definitely has some appeal, though. Not least of which because it'd mean we survive all this crap coming our way, but still."
Jinx shivers as Raven's hand slips into her brunette mane, her fingers lightly caressing her scalp.
"I'm not even sure if I could technically enter a church, so I have to agree with you there," Raven quips. "There are other such ceremonies, though. As I said, I wouldn't mind discussing this when this ordeal is finally finished, if you wouldn't as well."
As Raven begins leaning in to plant another kiss on her lover, a large man seems to appear from nowhere and crashes into the women in his charge.
Raven almost tumbles over atop Jinx from the sudden impact, and she feels a quick stab of pain in her elbow.
She steadies herself, and Jinx turns to yell at the stranger only to find him disappeared around the corner.
"The hell!?" Jinx grouses.
The pain disappears from Raven's elbow, and she spares a glare at the man's direction before turning back to Jinx.
"Could be worse. Could've been that guy who almost ran us over in Gotham," she offers with a smirk.
Jinx giggles, her disgruntled glare vanishing at the memory.
"Oh, yeah, he had to be confused as hell coming out of your portal," she laughs.
Shrugging the experience off, the two walk away from the bridal store and back towards the Angelique once again.
The embarrassment of their previous conversation weighs heavily on the two for most of their lunch.
A strange sensation worms its way into Raven's stomach, and she feels a familiar warmth throughout her entire body.
If her mind wasn't wandering over what marriage would do for the women considering the nature of their relationship already, she may have wondered on how some normal person had managed to injure her arm despite her body's considerable resistance to physical trauma…
******************
"Stop!"
Jinx startles awake with the sound of a crash and scream somewhere off to her side.
She'd gone to sleep with Raven's arms wrapped warmly around her stomach, but now she finds the psychic on the floor.
The grogginess vanishes in an instant at the sight of the wildly thrashing demonling.
Her skin is a shade of red nearly dark enough to be black, and she sports four eyes, all of which are closed in apparent agony.
As Jinx practically leaps from their bed to Raven's side, all four eyes open to reveal stark, black orbs.
"Rae, wake up!" she shouts as her heart jackhammers in her chest.
Despite the utter lack of pupils, Jinx can feel Raven's gaze on her.
As the eyes lock on her, the black fades from them and tears begin rolling down her cheeks.
Even as the red bleeds out of her skin, and her eyes merge back into two, her gaze doesn't leave Jinx.
The horror in her indigo gaze is more than unsettling to Jinx.
Raven suddenly lunges forward and wraps herself tightly around Jinx, her lips pressing into Jinx's forehead and lips.
Jinx runs soothing circles in the tense psychic's back and neck with her hands, cooing sounds leaving her.
With the thought of what it would take to cause the reaction in Raven, Jinx finds herself fighting off panic even as she attempts to calm her lover down.
"Whatever it was, it was just a dream, Raven," she offers. "I'm right here."
Raven's eyes lock with hers again, and the horror very slowly begins leeching away.
Regardless, she shakes her head.
"Not a dream. Nothing like a dream. It wasn't a premonition, either. It was… too concrete… too real," Raven states between gasping breaths.
With the reality of Jinx's presence settling over her, Raven's mind gradually returns to rationality.
It is only when she can breath evenly again that she notices a dull throbbing sensation on her left arm.
Her eyes reluctantly leave Jinx's to travel down to the limb.
Anger pulses headily through her at what she sees, burning the remnants of her fear to cinders.
Wrapped in a thick band around her arm, from her bicep to her wrist, is a group of slightly glimmering black tattoos.
Each one is a symbol, and as she lets her eyes take in the language, she finds something that looks almost exactly like the Mark of Skaath, centered directly on her elbow…
******************
Author's Notes:
For reference on the movie poster, just look up To Trap a Spy. As a designer, it's painful for me to look at.
Cue dramatic music. I tried not to make the rest of the scene outside of this last bit feel too much like filler, though I'm not sure how well I succeeded. I can't quite tell if the pacing got awkward here or not, so I'll look forward to other people's inputs to let me know how it works. Be prepared for a lot of action soon. Hope you're all enjoying, and see you next time!