Sorry, it took so long to get this updated. R
I do not own Teen Titans
By the time Cyborg got back from wherever he had been, Nightwing had already devised a plan.
"Raven, as soon as I get files from Batman with details on this magic stuff the league is suddenly involved in, I want you to start looking into it. In the meantime, Cyborg I want you to put out feelers for any kind of unusual activity. Natural, magical, supernatural, or otherwise if so, much as a fly sneezes out of place I want to know about it."
Cyborg, who had been filled in on the details upon his arrival, nodded. Raven acknowledged her orders with a simple nod as well, the whole time desperately trying to ignore Changeling's calculative stare.
"Changeling, you and Star will assist Raven and Cyborg whenever and wherever they need. I'll handle going through all of the files and paperwork and look for any leads. If I find any, we'll investigate them together as a team, and that goes for anything any of you find too. Understand?"
They all nodded in understanding. Nightwing gave a curt nod indicating that their little impromptu meeting was over. As he turned back toward the computer screen Cyborg made his way over to join Nightwing at the console.
"Hey, Dick man I-"
At Cyborg's pause, Raven winced. She knew that he had seen the new indents in the console.
"Maaaaan! What the hell happened to my computer!?"
Nightwing at least had the decency to cringe at Cyborg's outburst.
Not wanting to listen to the resident tech geek chew out their leader, Raven turned away. She fully expected to be facing the changeling when she turned around, but to her utter surprise, he was not there. In fact, he was no longer in the common room.
Raven sighed, both in relief and, in some small irrational part of her brain, disappointment. She had been expecting him to confront her about her near-fainting spell earlier or at the very least to jump on Nightwing's order to "help" her in whatever way possible. In Changeling's case, however, he would be more of a nuisance than a help.
Raven began to make her way out of the room when she caught a glimpse of Starfire out of the corner of her eye. Starfire was giving her that wicked smile that said she was going to be having "the talk of girls" with Raven later.
Raven internally groaned. Great, just what she needed: a lovesick overzealous alien who wanted to discuss Raven's love life, no matter how nonexistent.
Raven teleported herself to her room.
Three days passed before Nightwing had put together enough information for Raven to begin her research. Until then she spent most of those three days in her room avoiding her green and orange teammates.
Even after Nightwing gave her the info to begin researching, she remained confined to her room, but now she had a valid excuse.
Much to Raven's chagrin, however, it only took her two days to go through all of the relevant material she already had. Two days and she was no closer to understanding what the league was doing or how. Nightwing had given her some copies of the reports they had and she could not for the life of her figure out what they were trying to do.
She could not even determine what kind of magic they were using. What they had in the reports made no sense and the few references she did understand made no sense or simply did not work when put into practice or applied to the original text.
Raven went through every book, scroll, manuscript, and ancient form of magical literature she had and still could not find anything. She even meditated and consulted with Knowledge to see if she had read something at one point in time that might be able to help.
Unfortunately, she had no such luck.
She also had no luck in avoiding Happy and Love and a conversation about a certain green teammate that they seemed determined to have.
"You know you like him! Just admit it!" Happy pleaded.
"I have admitted it. To myself and Starfire. I don't know what else you want me to do."
"Admit it to him of course!" Happy squealed.
"Admitting you have a problem is the first step." Love added.
Raven glared at both.
"I will not admit it to him. He is very happy with what he has now, and he has no desire to hear such confessions from me. Besides, I refuse to be one of the many. On top of that, I do not have a problem so admitting it does nothing."
"You do too, and you know it. Admitting that you're attracted to him is one thing. Actually, admitting that you like him is another and so far, all you've done is admit that you're attracted to him." Love stated logically. A little too logical for Raven's taste.
Raven turned to leave when Love spoke again.
"Besides, what makes you think that you'd be one of the many and not just…. the one?"
Raven's heart lept to her throat and then dropped to her stomach. She could not even dare to hope, not if her life depended on it. Even if she could scrape up the courage to tell him her feelings, why would he ever care about someone like her?
She was a demon, a witch, plain and simple. What could he ever see in a dark and destructive being such as her? If anything, he already proved that he did not care about her when he did not come to check on her after her near collapse in the common room.
Raven shook her head.
"I'm clearly not his type. He would never care for someone like me."
Again, she would not admit it to anyone out loud except for Starfire but she was jealous of all the girls that the green changeling slept with. He would go from girl to girl just as Control Freak went through remote controls, a lot and often.
Raven had not been the only one to notice and appreciate Gar's physical transformation so to speak. Girls from all over had noticed him and he had wasted no time in noticing them right back. Gar had taken to bringing girls home almost every night.
As far as Raven could tell any girl would do so long as they gave the proper amount of hero worship and drooled over his new physique. She had seen him bring in redheads, brunettes, and even colorfully-haired girls that ranged from orange and yellow to pink and green. Tall and thin were clearly a must, though occasionally, Raven would see a girl with a little more on top or bottom than the others.
His favorite type though was the athletic blue-eyed blondes. Raven saw more of those girls come through the tower than she thought could exist. Even California had to have a limited supply of blue-eyed blondes, right?
To that comment Happy and Love had no logical argument so Raven ended the conversation and returned to her room.
Raven actually growled with frustration when she realized that she would be forced to leave her room to go find more research materials, and by association, possibly run into one or both of the two people she was actively avoiding.
Raven slowly poked her head out of her room to check the hall. She relaxed when she found it empty. Raven quickly made her way to Nightwing's office to inform him of her plans. Thankfully she was able to make it there without running into either Titan that she was avoiding.
Raven knocked on Nightwing's office door receiving a muffled "come in" in response.
"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to leave your room again," Nightwing said half joking without his eyes ever leaving his computer screen.
"I need more books."
Raven was determined to get this little excursion over with as quickly as possible.
Nightwing finally looked up from whatever he was reading to face her.
"And might I inquire as to why and what kind of books….?" He asked with a raised brow.
"I need more materials for research into the type of magic the League of Assassins is using. I've looked through everything I have and have come up empty. As for the kind, old. Really old."
"Expensive too I imagine."
"Naturally."
He sighed.
"So, you haven't had any luck with the materials you have?"
Raven shook her head.
"I don't understand it. It's as though the magic they're using doesn't even exist. When I do find something that does make sense when I apply it to the original text it does not actually work. I'm hoping that with other materials I might be able to find a more stable source or at least a key that will make it all make sense."
Nightwing nodded.
"Fine. I'll give you a card to use for the materials you need. You don't have to leave the city to go shopping, do you?"
"Fortunately, no. There's a little hole-in-the-wall bookstore downtown that has the kind of stuff that I'm looking for."
Nightwing raised another eyebrow in a silent question.
"They know me there. They're discreet."
"Alright, if you say so."
Nightwing handed her a card with reluctance.
"Try not to go overboard please."
Raven rolled her eyes.
"Do I look like Beast Boy to you?" She drawled.
Nightwing chuckled. Raven only ever addressed Changeling as Beast Boy when she was extremely annoyed with him.
"No, I should say not."
Raven was about to leave when Nightwing suddenly stopped her.
"Speaking of Gar…."
"Azar…." Raven muttered to herself.
She turned slightly so she could quirk an eyebrow at Nightwing in a silent question of her own.
Nightwing smiled smugly.
"Take him with you would ya? He's been getting on my nerves lately. Getting him out of the tower for a while might help."
If looks could kill Nightwing would have been in the seventh ring of Hell by now.
"Starfire put you up to this, didn't she?"
"How could she suggest something that she has no idea is happening?"
"No, not this specifically. I meant she put you up to getting me and Beast Boy together to talk in some way."
Nightwing leaned back in his chair with his hands woven together behind his head.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Uh huh…. real smooth Bird Brain. I know you're not behind this request. It has Starfire written all over it."
He shrugged.
"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. And who said anything about a request? Either way, you're taking him."
Raven practically snarled.
"He would only be in my way."
"He can help in more ways than one."
"I don't care!" Raven shouted.
For a moment there was silence. Raven and Nightwing stared at each other, both shocked at her outburst. It had been a long time since Raven's emotions were able to break through in such a blatant way.
Raven guessed that she was still on edge from taking on some of Nightwing's emotional burden last week. That paired with her endless search through magic materials and her recent conversation with Happy and Love made it easy for Anger to make an appearance.
Raven took a deep breath to calm herself. The last thing she needed right now was to lose control.
Nightwing frowned and set his jaw which meant that he would not budge on the matter. He opened his mouth, but Raven waved him off.
"Fine. I'll take him with me, but not because I want to."
With a final huff of frustration, Raven turned and stomped out of the room.
Raven was not usually childish. On the rare occasion that she was, however, she was the first one to admit it. To herself at least. To anyone else, she would go down fighting in order to defend her own actions.
Raven admitted to herself on the way back to her room that her behavior towards Nightwing had been childish. She also knew that trying to get dressed in street clothes and teleport out of the tower before Changeling could find her was childish.
In fact, she was thinking about just how childish her actions were as she fought with her jeans' zipper when there was a knock on her door. The sudden knock startled her, and she bit back a curse when her finger got caught in the zipper.
"Who is it?!" She shouted in frustration at the door.
"It's me. Uh, you ok in there Rae?" Changeling's deep voice came through the door.
Raven bit back another curse. Clearly, she had not been fast enough in dressing. She adjusted her plan to finish getting dressed as quietly as possible and teleport out before he figured out what was going on. All their bedrooms had been soundproofed a few years ago when Dick and Star had started dating. Surely with that, she could be quiet enough that he wouldn't hear her.
Raven gave up with the zipper and reached for her shirt. She had just slipped it on over her head when another knock sounded.
"I know you're in there Rae. I can smell you and while the soundproofing may interfere with my hearing that doesn't mean I've gone deaf. Open up."
Raven clenched her teeth both in irritation and to keep from spitting out a few choice words at his god-danm supersonic hearing. That and his uncanny ability to read her mind. She had no clue when it had happened, but she cursed the day Changeling had learned to read her.
Shoving her violet hair out of her face she looked franticly for her shoes so she could teleport away without him.
Another knock on her door sounded, this time sounding like a freaking SWAT team was ready to bust down her door.
"Look Rae, either you open up or I come in through the air vent as a fly or something. Your choice." He sounded annoyed now, though Raven could not imagine what he had to be annoyed about.
"One…."
'Azar! Is he really counting to three right now!?'
"Two…."
Raven huffed and glared at the door.
"Three…."
"Azar…" She swore to herself.
"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" She shouted.
Raven opened her door and glared at him.
"I'm not a child Garfield. You do not have to count to three to get me to do what you want."
He raised an eyebrow at her clearly unamused.
"No?"
"No."
"So, you weren't trying to get dressed and teleport out before I noticed?"
"Of course not. That would be childish and petty." Raven said in her monotone with a straight face.
"Uh-huh. Suuuurrrreee."
He placed a hand on her door frame above her head and leaned against it throwing a look into her room.
"Well, it's either that or you have become even more of a pig than I was a few years ago."
Raven crossed her arms defensively.
"Did you just call me a pig? Charming." Raven's voice dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.
He threw her his signature grin and a wink.
"That's my middle name. Garfield Charming Logan."
Raven rolled her eyes, again.
"That may work on all of the blonde club skanks, but not me." Raven practically hissed with bitterness in her voice.
Raven was upset at him for being a jerk and treating girls like trash. She was angry with him for being an idiot and being oblivious to her feelings despite her actively hiding them from him. And she was frustrated that he had not checked on her after keeping her from collapsing nearly a week ago. Raven had thought that if nothing else he cared about her as a friend and teammate, but clearly that was not the case. And so now when she was determined to avoid and ignore him, she was being forced to go on an extended shopping trip with just him.
So yet again she was childish and released her venom upon him in a far too low a blow. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them.
Instantly the mood changed. His eyes darkened and his grin vanished. Changeling rose to his full height and Raven could see the muscle in his jaw working overtime from him clenching and unclenching his teeth. He gave her a death glare so potent and intense that the only person he could have learned it from was herself.
It took all the pride Raven had to stand her ground and not shrink in shame from him.
Raven tentatively reached out a hand to touch him, but he flinched back as though her hand was poison. At this point, it might as well be.
"Gar I-"
"Save it." He growled.
Raven swallowed any apology she was about to give. If he was going to act like an animal toward her then she would treat him like one.
Raven raised her head in determination and gave him a stink eye of her own.
"Let's just get this over with." He gave her a once-over and turned to leave.
"Oh, and your fly is open."
Raven's face turned crimson and all she wanted to do was sink through the floor and into another dimension, all her bravado from a moment ago long gone.