Jump City, daylight.
Today is an on-the-clock day for the resident teenage superheroes. After getting a report on their Titan Tower computer about someone selling pirated copies of Cringey Yuri 2: Electric Pillowdude, they decided to take it upon themselves to investigate the criminal activity around the city.
In all actuality though, it was mostly just Starfire and Raven agreeing to tag along so that the guys would stop being so annoying about how it's the best sequel since Lily is Strange.
Upon arriving in the centralized zone of the city, it was agreed upon that more ground could be covered if everyone split up to investigate. Of course, Beast Boy and Cyborg were first to express how their love of all things cringeworthy media and investigations in general would make them the perfect tandem, so they went off together. Robin was just about to ask Starfire if she'd like to accompany him, but she got distracted upon seeing a stray kitten and chased after it. Raven took it upon herself to go after her first, and, well… Robin was left to do his sleuthing alone.
It all worked out well for Raven though. Not only did she have zero interest in hearing anymore talk about movies based off stupid fiction stories, but she decided very quickly that she'd be doing no investigating.
And if she just so happened to end up tagging along with Starfire, no harm done. She'd rather hear about her overjoyed love of kittens and sunny days than the ridiculous he-bro topics the guys harp on about.
Not to mention there are certain things she'd like to think about, and certain feelings she'd like to work through, all involving the Tameranian princess.
…
A couple hours have passed since everyone divided, and the girls find themselves coming to the city park to try and find the owner of a certain little kitten Starfire caught up with.
"It would have a collar," Raven tells the other girl matter-of-factly.
"That would be most convenient, but I cannot simply give up on the little guy," Starfire says with a smile regarding the feline cradled in her arms. "A kitten this cute has to have an owner, and I will be the one to find them!"
Starfire starts to beat Raven's pace, and the Azarathian allows herself to fall behind a bit to reflect on things.
"Well, this beats playing find the pirate booty with those bozos," she thinks aloud.
She looks around at the unfamiliar faces wandering through the park. There are boyfriends and girlfriends, mothers and daughters; really just all around happy looking people.
Maybe it's true what they say about laughter being contagious, at least to an extent. Somewhere between the lovely summer weather, and the smiling faces all around her- particularly that of one fellow female Titan… she finds herself smiling for no real reason at all.
She then lets her eyes follow Starfire, who innocently and politely asks the park's patrons if they know who that complacent little cat belongs to.
"Excuse me, miss," she says to a woman wearing a FIRST robotics T-Shirt, "Would you happen to know whom this kitty belongs to?"
"Aww!" the stranger gushes. "No, I'm sorry. He is a cutie though!" she answers before going on her way.
"Oh… Well thank you very much, anyway!" Starfire replies with a friendly wave goodbye.
Raven actually laughs the tiniest little nasal-laugh from watching this. "She's really something…"
"But what? I mean… What's changed? I never used to think this way before. Before it was annoying just how happy and eager she is all the time."
"She means so well, though. She's never done me or any of the guys any wrong. She's always first to try and help, like with me these last few days..."
"I guess I'm just changing. I mean, I never liked Beast Boy either, and things really changed between us… Is it fair to compare what I'm feeling for her to what I had with him?"
"Could my emoticlones be right? Could I be… infatuated with her?"
Despite being thoroughly distracted by her doubt filled monologue, she's able to make out what appears to be the sound of someone crying in the distance. She perks up, focusing her efforts on listening for the source of the bawling.
It leads her over to a secluded shady spot hidden in an offbeat corner, where she finds a small boy curled up in a fetal position and sniffling. She does a little double take as she considers her next move, then cautiously approaches the boy.
"Uhm… Hey, kid… Are you alright? Are your parents around?" she asks.
The boy looks up to her with puffy red eyes, and ungracefully wipes some snot off his face with his forearm. Raven tries not to make it obvious that she wants to cringe.
"I- I- I lost my- I- I-" the boy stammers over and over.
"Woah, easy there, John Moschitta," Raven quips, "Relax. I can help you. I'm with the Teen Titans," she says.
The boy sniffles some more, but does his best to regain a little composure. "I lost my cat. He's just a little baby kitty, and his name is Sill-Sill," the boy explains.
Raven raises a brow. "That's… kind of a strange name for a cat," she utters.
"Will you help me find him?" the little boy says with tremendous desperation, actually reaching out to take Raven's hand.
Although somewhat stunned by just how forward the child is being, and how he probably hasn't washed his hands recently, she does know where to find a kitten, and she is a Teen Titan. Teen Titans help people, first and foremost.
Despite what TV leads people to believe...
"O- Okay kid… I'll help you find your cat. Just… please don't turn out to be some secret supervillain or something lame like that," she thinks aloud.
"Whuh?" the boy cluelessly blurts out.
"Nothing. Come on," Raven tells him as she escorts him through the park. She pulls up her communicator, and dials for Starfire. "Starfire… Come in, Starfire."
She almost immediately responds.
*Raven!* she gladly exclaims from the other end. *I was just about to call you! I believe I have found the pet parent of the tiny furry kitty!*
This puzzles her. "Uhm, Starfire… I was calling to tell you that I found the person the cat belongs to. Where are you?"
There's nothing but incoherent mumbling from the other end for a moment, but Starfire answers soon enough. *I am at the pavilion closest to the bridge,* she says with an uncharacteristically curt tone before hanging up.
"What the-?" Raven wonders before putting her communicator away. "Come on, kid," she orders the child as she gruffly presses forward.
Raven reaches Starfire's location, and finds her standing by two skeevy dudes. They're both laughing hysterically, and Starfire is pitifully frowning to herself while trying to coax the sad little kitten in her arms.
The boy holding Raven's hand brightens up upon seeing the cat, and releases his grip to run towards the Tameranian.
"Sill-Sill!"
Perplexed by the whole ordeal, Raven simply watches on before carefully pacing to Starfire.
"Star, what's going on here?" she asks.
Starfire hands the kitten off to its pet parent with a soft little smile, and the boy gladly takes it and wraps it in a big hug.
"Sill-Sill!" he happily cries again. "Thank you ma'am!" he tells Starfire.
"You are quite welcome," she says with her same smile, but there's an obvious sadness in her tone that Raven easily picks up on.
The little boy takes off with his cat, leaving the two young women to deal with their other dilemma.
"Thank you too, Raven. You're welcome little boy," Raven quips before turning her attention back to Starfire. "Hey, what's the matter?" she asks her.
She sighs. "The two gentlemen laughing at my expense; they are the same gentlemen from the supermarket the other day…"
Raven looks to the stupid, punchable faces of the skeevy dudes, feeling like she could turn red and let steam seethe out of her ears like in the cartoons.
"Oh, they are, are they?" she says before starting to make her way over to them.
Starfire takes her wrist and stops her though, "Raven… No…"
"What? No! Those two losers need someone to teach them a lesson," she barks.
"You are absolutely right," Starfire responds, to the surprise of her friend. The sorrowful look on her face then turns into one of anger. "And I shall be the one to do it."
She lets go of Raven, then trudges her way over the laughing idiots. Raven just looks on, flabbergasted.
The two guys stop laughing long enough to measure up Starfire. "Look it, bro. Genius came back for more!" he teases.
"Yeah, sorry to mess with you babe. That wasn't really our cat, but what can I say? It's always fun talking to you," the other says to her as he cups his grody finger under her chin.
She instantly swats it away.
"Do not call me babe. And do not think that I am simply a pretty face," she sternly tells them.
Somewhat taken back, the two dudes look to one another before sneering. "Ooo! She's feisty!"
Starfire grabs the closest jerk by his index finger, clamming him up real quick.
"You listen to me, and you listen to me good," she begins. "I am not dumb, I am not a bimbo. I am a strong, beautiful woman. And no one will tell me any different. If you wish to treat me or any other women as horribly as you do in the future, I will make it my top priority to pulverize you. Am I understood?"
Skeevy guy simply nods, and the other's ghostly white face is a sufficient enough response.
"Excellent," Starfire says with a smile before releasing him. "I would also kindly ask that you stop selling those pirate movies and turn yourselves in to the local authorities."
The dude with the aching finger turns to the dude with the ghostly white face, and slaps his chest to bring him back to.
"Let's get out of here!" he clamors.
And with that, they hurry off as fast as they can, leaving behind a large box of illegally downloaded films.
Raven makes her way over to a very proud Starfire, and looks to see that she has indeed solved the case of the bootlegged yuri movies. Of course, she could care less about that.
"Starfire… That was awesome!" she blurts out.
"Was it, really?" she giddily asks.
"Definitely!" Raven says with a very rare glimmer of excitement. "You really put those guys in their place."
"Well, I certainly feel better now," Starfire says, her cheeks reddening a little as she looks away from Raven's eyes.
Raven feels her cheeks flushing a bit as well, but she really doesn't want to look away. So… she doesn't.
Even so, Starfire looks to the box of DVD's the skeevy guys left behind, and takes one of the cases out. "Interesting… These are not the movies about the pirates?" she thoughtfully says.
"No, Starfire. Those are-" she begins, but she stops herself. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is that, in some way, she was able to help Starfire feel better about herself just as she was able to for her. And in doing so, she gave her the gift of this warm feeling that she feels right now.
"Actually, never mind," she simply says with a smile.
Starfire smiles back before allowing herself to become riddled with doubt once more.
"Should we call the others and tell them about these videos? That was the purpose of the mission, was it not?"
Raven thinks it over for a moment, but keeps smiling as she comes to a decision. "Eh, don't worry about it. Actually… Maybe… Why don't we take a walk?" she suggests.
"A walk?" Starfire simply responds.
Raven's smile ebbs, and she feels this weird anxiety inside her chest. Like, rejection almost.
"If you don't want to-"
"No," Starfire interrupts, "A walk sounds lovely," she answers with another warm smile.
"Great," Raven simply says, the weird feeling of anxiety being replaced by an even weirder feeling of excitement.
With that, they leave the pavilion and the box of cringey yuri behind, making their way off to the walking trail of the park. They don't even get to see the cat they returned to the little boy attacking the skeevy dudes for trying to pickpocket its pet parent, not that they would care.
For Starfire, she's happy knowing that she's done two good deeds today in helping return the kitten to the boy, as well as stopping the illegal barter of pirate movies that aren't actually pirate movies. She's happy knowing that the skeevy dudes won't be perpetuating their misogynistic ways any longer, and she's happiest of all to know how well Raven seems to be enjoying herself lately.
And Raven? Well… She's just happy to be here with Starfire.
Funny story, my cat's name is Cillian, but we pronounce it "Sillian." Someone in my family got the idea to name him after Cillian Murphy, but we always thought it was pronounced like that, and the poor little bastard's been called this and "Sill-Sill" ever since. (I wanted to name him Balls because I'm an idiot who's easily amused, but I digress).
Anyway… this chapter is mostly here to set up the next chapter, which will get into good stuff that I promised would happen in this chapter. I'm terrible with hindsight, people.
Anywho, please stay tuned for more, and thanks as always for reading:)