The nightstand clock ticked quietly in the corner, reminding Raven that it was only ten minutes to seven P.M. She dressed quickly in the purple gloom of her room, pulling on a pair of jeans and yanking a rarely worn midnight-blue sweater off the hanger. The titan hastily combed a hand through her locks as she stepped out into the hallway. She looked both ways for any approaching team members before proceeding cautiously toward the living room, hoping to make a quick, unnoticed exit from the Tower—
"Raven! We need a referee for Stankball—'' Beastboy stood on the couch, a putrid sphere of aged sweaty socks held in his left hand. He halted midsentence, balking at Raven's entrance. "Woah. Dude. Are you going somewhere?" The changeling's mouth hung open in astonishment, the fuming sock-ball now forgotten.
Raven raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm going out. I do possess the ability to come and go at my leisure," she said sardonically.
Starfire sprung over the kitchen table, her hands clasped together and her eyes bright with interest. "Friend Raven, you are going into the town? Might I join you on your trip?" she inquired hopefully.
Raven's mouth twitched, but she bit back a more curt response. "I'm sorry, Starfire. I'm meeting with a friend, and I don't think they expect extra company," the empath explained.
Starfire's eyes widened and she took in a gasp of air. "Does this not mean, Raven, that you are going on a date?" the Tamaranian asked breathlessly.
"I must not have heard correctly. Did you just say Raven, going on a date?" said Robin, strolling in. His eyebrows were lifted curiously. He reached in the fridge and cracked open a can of soda, slurping at the frothed top.
Raven colored slightly, indignant at the implication that such a concept was beyond grasping. "Yes, I am," she said, her irritated gaze snapping to her leader.
Robin choked on his drink, sputtering as grape soda sprayed across the carpet.
"Charming," Raven muttered.
"Wait a minute, you're serious? You actually have a date?" Robin's masked eyes had widened in disbelief, and he looked at the sorceress as if expecting her to slap her knee and exclaim, "Just kidding!"
Raven folded her arms defiantly across her chest. "Yes, and you're making me late for it."
"Cyborg, you don't have anything to say about this?" Robin demanded, rounding toward the largest titan.
Cyborg looked up from the pamphlet he had been reading. His eyes were sharp and they locked on Robin. "No," he said shortly, returning his attention to the systems manual.
Robin looked at him incredulously for a moment. "Who is this guy?" he demanded suspiciously, turning back to Raven.
"Why does it matter?" she asked coolly.
Robin sighed exasperatedly, as if this was the most obvious thing. "C'mon, Raven. We all know you have a history of not exactly picking the best guys—"
"Dude," Beastboy cut him off. "Not cool."
"Its true," Robin muttered, gritting his teeth and giving the changeling a hard look.
"I think it lovely that Friend Raven has a planned evening with an admirer. I am most excited for her," Starfire piped up.
Fury had begun to lick up inside Raven, but her friends' defense of her quenched down the flames to a tolerable level. Cyborg firmly brought an end to the discussion.
"Bro. Let the girl go," he said with finality, giving Robin a hard stare from across the room. The look said Get a grip, man.
Robin conceded, shaking his head like he was the only one with sense. He released a heavy sigh as he backed away. Raven brushed past, heading toward the exit.
"Keep your communicator on in case something happens!" their leader called after Raven as she stepped into the elevator.
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered to herself, jamming the ground floor button repeatedly as the metal doors clanged shut.
Xxx
Raven touched down onto the city pier, her dark hair windswept from flying across the bay. As she brushed it back from her face she saw Jason standing a few yards away, illuminated in a pool of light cast by a street lamp.
He looked taller from a distance. His black hair was tousled and there was a playful, almost dangerous glint in his grey-green eyes. His jeans were midnight blue and he wore a grey t-shirt that fit snugly around his toned abdomen. A black leather jacket had been thrown on top of his shirt to keep the sharp wind at bay.
Jason was leaning against a sleek motorcycle, its sides glinting smooth black metal. He arched an eyebrow at her suggestively as she approached him.
"I don't do suicide drives," Raven told him flatly, eyeing the custom machine with a mixture of suspicion and wariness.
"I'm a young adult male with more testosterone than sense. What could be safer?" Jason grinned, patting the seat of the bike. "Climb on, Princess. If you hold extra tight, maybe you won't slide off."
Raven started to protest—she'd be damned if she was afraid!—but then decided it was a waste of breath. With a huff, the sorceress threw a leg over the seat and wrapped her arms around X's waist. She was intensely aware of the feeling of his warm and muscular torso beneath her grip.
The growl of the engine roared through the street, and any remaining tension erased itself from within her. Holding on tight for dear life, Raven hungrily absorbed the rush of cityscape that streaked past them, neon signs and flashing lights blurring into a brilliant steam of luminescence.
She had never seen the city like this before, this explosion of color and sound and light. Raven had the oddest sensation of being… liberated. Like something immense had been lifted off her chest. She had no responsibilities, no duty to report her whereabouts or her actions. Just the freedom to be herself.
Her long hair whipped around her face in the stinging air, and she felt sure Jason was going a little slower than he normally would have, for her.
Jason pulled into the parking lot of a deserted strip mall, where a dingy but delicious Chinese restaurant was located. They ducked inside the bright, warm interior and ordered steaming dumplings and fried rice from the take-out menu. Once they'd received their food, they were back on the cycle and taking off toward the city park.
It was a beautiful spring night, mild and fragrant, and although the moon was shaded by a swath of clouds, the stars only shone more distinctly.
The chose a grassy hill to eat on, and when they had finished they lay back against the soft ground, gazing up at the twinkling cosmos above them. Jason pointed up at a cluster of stars, tracing an invisible outline with his finger.
"See that? Where those three stars touch? That's Leo. And that over there, with the big, bright star towards the middle—that's Virgo." He studied the constellation thoughtfully. "Virgo reminds me of you, in a way. She represents intelligence, but also a reserved nature."
Raven lifted her head from the ground to look over at Jason, impressed.
Jason laughed outright at her expression. "Just because I'm a criminal doesn't mean I'm not educated," he said teasingly. The sorceress imperceptibly rolled her eyes and rested her head back down on the grass.
Jason began to tell her of his past. "I grew up in a rough part of Gotham. My dad was in-and-out of prison for petty thievery most of my life, so my step-mom raised me."
He scowled, as if an unpleasant taste had filled his mouth. "She was a junkie with a nasty temper. It was up to me to go out and make sure there was enough money to eat."
Jason ran a hand through his black hair. "Luckily, I was better thief than my father ever was," he said wryly, his voice empty of any humor.
"Things changed a lot when I got a visit from some guy I'd never met before. He said my mother had contacted him, my real mother. She had asked him to help me out, give me a better chance in life."
Raven stared at him, curiosity etched in her face. She had never seen this side of him, never conceived that a person with a past, with a family, might exist behind the infamous Red X mask.
He continued, exhaling slowly. "I got to go to fancy school, filled with rich little pricks who thought I was better for shoe shining than friend material."
Jason snorted. "Needless to say, I didn't last there long. Got kicked out for fighting. After that happened, I ran away. Came to Jump, started working small time jobs for local gangs. It took a lot of time and experience to get where I am today."
When he had finished he lapsed into a moody silence. Raven lay still, digesting all that he had told her. She tried to imagine a young Red X, buttoned up in a private school uniform, but found it difficult.
"What about you?" Jason asked, folding his arms behind his head.
Raven did not respond, staring blankly up at the sky. What about her? What could she say to that?
Jason waited patiently in the silence, but when he realized she had no intention of answering he sat up, looking at her.
"Raven?" he asked, looking unsure. She had turned her head away, facing the pond that lay some distance away, at the center of the park.
"You don't want to know," Raven muttered quietly. Her was face set in a hard, unreadable mask.
Jason shifted slightly and brushed his fingers across her arm. "Of course I want to know," he said, honestly.
Raven drew her knees up to her chest, watching ahead but not seeing what was in front of her.
Instead she saw memories, burned fresh and clear as if they had just happened.
People frozen, innocent civilians petrified as stone statues— walls of fire leaping toward the sky, eternally consuming each breath of life, of hope—
Her home, the Titan Tower, sinking into a sea of lava, a mocking throne for the Demon King—
Her friends' looks of horror—their horror at her—when she had lost control and slammed and dragged Slade over and over again, trying to fix what she knew could not be fixed…
"You might as well know. Then you can decide how much you want to know me anymore," Raven told him quietly.
She then embarked on telling him of her past, encapsulating all of the grim details— from the demonic red marks that slashed across her skin, Slade's role in aiding her father, Trigon— to her mother, Arella, along with the monks of Azarath who raised her.
While she was speaking, Jason had gently tugged her down and rested Raven's head in his lap, brushing his fingers through her silky hair as he listened to her recount the sadness that had haunted her life.
When Raven finished, she waited with a dull ache of expectation, resigned to would come next. It didn't come, however.
"I think lot of you for being able to endure all of that. And for always trying do right by your friends and other people." His voice was low and soft, but his mouth twisted into a rueful smile, as if his words stung himself.
"Thanks," Raven muttered, uncomfortable to hear someone praise her instead of recoil with horror.
Jason's fingers ceased their combing and rested idle in her hair. Raven looked up, startled by how keenly aware she was of missing the sensation.
"Why did you stop?" she asked him, feeling stupid for caring enough to mention it. Jason smiled down at her.
"So you'd look at me."
He leaned over and cupped her face with his hands, planting a gentle kiss on her lips. His thumb traced across her cheek and down her chin.
Raven's breathing hitched a little and she blinked, trying to bring things into focus.
Jason looked down at her coolly, a smirk on his face. "Doesn't take much for you, huh?" he said, his tone arrogant.
Raven flushed angrily, her cheeks tinged with red. How dare he laugh at her—she wasn't some fumbling little girl!
She glared at him and twisted her arms around his neck, forcing his face down at her level. Furiously she pressed her mouth against his, trying to show him that she wasn't anyone's pushover.
After a few seconds Jason pulled back and raised his eyebrows, chuckling at her attempt to prove herself. And Raven suddenly realized he had been playing her right along, pushing her to do exactly what she did.
Feeling embarrassed that she had allowed him to get the best of her but not wanting to show her humiliation, Raven stared him straight in the eye, defiantly.
Her look said, Don't test me.
"Think you're pretty tough, huh?" he asked her, his voice husky.
The empath opened her mouth to whip out a retort, but Jason took that moment to bend over her and began sucking the skin between her earlobe and neck.
A gasp of surprise escaped from Raven and a shudder unexpectedly ran down through her. Her skin burned pleasantly where his mouth was. She could feel his hands travel back to her head and knot themselves tightly in her hair. His teeth grazed her skin lightly before he began to leave searing kisses along her jaw and down her neck, one hand sliding behind her head and bringing her face closer up to his.
Raven closed her eyes and clenched her hands in fists, trying to maintain some grasp of control as feelings of pleasure beat against her. It felt like all reason and sense had fled her mind. All she knew was Jason; his touch and his kisses and the way he handled her—despite her pride, she wished he would never stop. Raven released another small gasp when he reached her collarbone, his lips whispering over her flesh. A tingling sensation traveled from her fingers down to her legs.
Breathing heavily, Jason raised his head and looked at her, his green-grey eyes sparkling.
Jason saw something in Raven's gaze that he had never seen there before—he couldn't find a word to describe it except… wonder.
He placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
Xxx
The drive back to the pier was over too quickly for both of them, and as Raven got off the cycle Jason caught another glimpse of that look in her eyes.
She smiled in her subtle way. "Goodnight," she said to him, pulling her sweater tightly around her as she stood on the windy dock.
Jason smiled back, and they shared a look that lasted a few moments before he returned, "Sweet dreams, Bluebird."
The engine revved and he took off, gliding smoothly into traffic and disappearing from sight as elusively as a shadow.
Xxx
That night in her bed, Raven gazed at the origami bird that sat on her nightstand, a small smile on her lips before she fell asleep.
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Woahhh. Sorry for making you guys wait so long. I felt I had lost the spark, but thanks to all the wonderful reviewers whose encouraging comments helped spur me to get this completed and up! For making ya'll suffer, I threw in some complimentary X sexiness. On the house. ;) If you can spare a moment, please leave a review or feedback to nourish this starving writer's heart!