Raven would be lying if she said that she hadn't wondered how her inevitable reunion with Beast Boy would go.
It made sense to wonder, given the way things had shaken out after the Teen Titans' disbandment. She'd seen Cyborg plenty of times, Robin had been sighted back on the East Coast, and Starfire was…gone (even after all these years, she couldn't say the 'd' word, not even to herself). Beast Boy had stayed in Jump City and had even sent her an invitation to the housewarming of his new apartment. With her having come back to town, it made sense that their paths would cross again eventually. Cyborg, ever the big brother of the group (even now that there was no group) had told her as much over the years, going so far as to not-so-subtly hint at how much he would appreciate if they coordinated their visits to the Tower every once in a while. And, well, Raven wanted to, for his sake if not her own, but she thought about how they'd left things and she just…couldn't. She knew the changeling would let it go – he was kind like that, he always had been – but she couldn't shake the voice in her head that told her he was better off without her. That they all were.
Raven heard a lot of voices these days, but that one at least had a point.
Still, the empath could count on one hand how many people she'd considered a friend in her twenty-two years of life, and Beast Boy had been one of them. If she spent her sleepless nights staring at her black and gold communicator, wondering if he might pick up if she called, that was her right. It didn't have to mean anything.
(And if her legs instinctively took her to his neighborhood when she went out to visit her favorite bookstore, well, that didn't have to mean anything either.)
She knew she'd never act on such a selfish whim – Beast Boy was the hero of Jump City now, fighting the good fight all on his own. She'd caught a few of his skirmishes on the news since she'd moved back, and he was doing just fine without a disaster half-demon in his life. If she did see the changeling again, she always assumed it would be a chance encounter, or else due to Cyborg's meddling.
And yet, here she was, standing outside his door, right hand poised to knock and invite her mess into his life yet again.
It's like you don't even care.
She'd tried, okay?! She'd tried so hard to handle it on her own, but she was quickly realizing she was out of her depth. She wasn't a hero anymore – hadn't been in at least seven years, assuming she even counted to begin with. She wasn't built for combat, not against someone who had stayed in peak physical condition while she was hiding in temples and studying the arcane. She hated to admit it, but she needed help. Specifically, she needed his help.
If only she could bring herself to ask.
The gash in her side throbbed impatiently, reminding her that she was running out of time. If she was going to darken her former friend's doorstep like this, she should at least give him time to prepare.
She had just barely brushed her knuckles against wood when the door swung open.
page break*
Being a hero was shitty.
It was shitty when he was getting reamed out by Mento during his Doom Patrol days. It was shitty when it claimed the life of the best person he'd ever known. It was shitty when every girl he dated was star struck over the superhero but couldn't care less about the man underneath.
But it was extra shitty on nights like this, when he'd gone to bed early in preparation for a goddamn press conference at nine in the goddamn morning, only to wake up in the middle of the night to the unmistakable scent of blood right outside his door.
Perfect. Just perfect.
Grumbling profanities under his breath, Gar didn't even bother to throw a shirt on as he yanked the door open, fully intending to let whoever was standing there have a piece of his damn mind…
Only to see a face that had haunted his dreams for the past seven years.
Raven looked exactly the same, down to the precise points of her slanted bob. She'd traded her midnight blue cloak for a hoodie and jeans, but she still wore the signature boots. Her eyes were still flanked by the shadows she'd tried so hard to cover up back in the day, though she seemed to be done pretending they weren't. Her lips were pulled in their same subtle frown, her brow furrowed with that same determination, and her hand still seemed daintier than he'd expect from a terrifying half-demon where it was poised to knock on his door.
Most of all, her eyes still brightened at the sight of a familiar face, before immediately becoming clouded by uncertainty, as if she wouldn't allow herself to believe that the feeling was mutual.
All that time, and the proof was right in front of him.
How the hell had he missed it?
"Raven," he breathed, careful not to startle her. The empath was skittish on a good day, and the last thing he needed was for her to teleport away before he could figure out what had brought her back to him in the first place.
"I–" she swallowed thickly, "I'm sorry. I just– I didn't know where else to go." Her lower lip trembled, as if she were on the verge of tears. It took him a moment to realize that her hands were trembling too.
Without thinking, he stepped closer, pulling her hands into his own and rubbing his thumbs along her knuckles. "Hey, it's okay. I'm just happy you're here." The empath exhaled shakily, clearly still emotional, so he quickly redirected, "I smelled blood. Are you hurt?"
She flinched, but didn't pull away. "It's not that bad. D-don't worry about it."
"Pfft, I remember the types of things you'd say were 'not that bad'. I think I'll take a look for myself, if you don't mind."
Raven looked away, but shrugged as if to say, 'do whatever you want'. He took the blessing for what it was. Inhaling deeply, he localized the scent to her left side. He reached for the zipper of her hoodie, careful to keep his hands where she could see them. "May I?"
The corners of her mouth ticked up into a subtle smile, one of the ones that always hit him right in the chest. "All this time working solo has turned you into a gentleman. Back when we were teammates, we used to just shred each other's clothes without even asking."
A bark of laughter escaped him, foreign to even his own ears. Shit, when was the last time he genuinely laughed at anything? "I know what you mean, Rae, but we gotta work on your phrasing."
She still rolled her eyes the same way too.
page break*
Raven didn't need to be looking at Beast Boy to know when he'd found her injury. The sharp intake of breath and the sudden spike in concern and rage gave him away.
"Rae, what the hell happened?"
Ah, so it still looked as bad as it had when she'd been sat in the hospital waiting room. Good to know.
She shook her head adamantly, "Not out here."
The changeling's resulting growl caused a swooping sensation in her stomach that she was decidedly not dealing with right now. "Fine," he grumbled, scooping her up without warning.
Raven squeaked in indignance as her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. "Beast Boy!"
"Beast Boy is for when I'm at work. When you're in my house, you call me Gar," he corrected, shutting the front door with his foot. He plopped down on the couch, Raven still balanced precariously in his lap as he fished out a first aid kit from underneath it. "Now, are you gonna tell me what the hell attacked you, or am I going to go find out for myself?"
Raven shifted nervously, face aflame. "What makes you think anything attacked me?"
Beas- Gar adjusted her so she that she lay on the couch, injured side facing outward as he ripped open a fresh needle and loaded it into the driver. "The three fucking claw marks curving against your hip, that's what," he scoffed, "I have claws of my own, Raven. I know what they look like."
The empath hissed through her teeth at the touch of an alcohol wipe. It burned like guilt. "I'm sorry," she muttered.
"Stop apologizing and start telling me what's going on."
Raven dug her fingers into the couch's black leather as he continued to sanitize. "I'm being hunted," she gritted.
Gar paused at that, raising a brow. "By?"
"…Adonis" Raven mumbled, shutting her eyes as she felt the sting of anesthesia.
This time, she felt more than heard the changeling's growl. "Cy cured Adonis three years ago. He hasn't been able to transform since before you came back to the city."
"Cyborg's cure involved blocking a certain enzyme that he needed to transform. Apparently, his cells mutated around it." She cracked an eye open, taking in his baffled expression, "He monologues."
"Of course he does. He's a narcissistic asshole." The pressure of the needle going in caused her to wince. "What does he want with you?"
"Do I really have to answer that?" she groaned, "You know what he wants. It's the same thing he always wants – a mate." She laughed bitterly, "Though, he also said that whether or not he kept me alive after depended on how difficult I planned on being, so I assume he also wants me dead."
Gar slid one of his hands into her own and squeezed. "Neither of those things are happening. I'd kill him before I let him touch you."
Several things occurred to Raven at once. First, she'd never felt his hands without gloves before tonight. They were rough and calloused, but gentle with her and surprisingly warm. Then there was the fact that, while she'd never been a fan of physical contact, there was something…not horrible about it when it came from Gar. And finally, her mind registered that Gar was kneeling beside her as he worked, wearing a pair of low-slung basketball shorts and little else, emerald eyes burning as he told her he'd kill for her if he needed to.
Azar help her, she was attracted to him.
She needed to deflect, fast.
"That won't be necessary. I just need some time to rest, and I'll handle it myself."
Gar snorted, "Sure, because I'm definitely going to let you deal with this on your own after he did that." He gestured to her hip, where the first cut was about halfway stitched. "You came to me for help, Rae. I don't take that lightly. I won't stop you from fighting if that's what you want, but there's no way you're doing it alone."
Raven shut her eyes again before he could see the tears pricking at their corners. Azar, she'd forgotten what it was like to have someone in her corner – to know that there were other people she could rely on to handle things when she couldn't. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed it.
She wondered if he missed it too.
"I won't be of much use in a fight. Not until I've slept, at least."
"Then you'll sleep, and I'll handle the fighting," Gar replied easily, "You said Adonis was hunting you, what does that mean exactly?"
Shit. Raven avoided his eyes as she answered, "He ambushed me at my house three days ago. I managed to get away, but no matter where I hide he always finds me after an hour or two. I've had to get pretty creative to keep him off my trail for even that long."
"Does Cy know?"
Raven huffed incredulously. "Of course not. I'm not an idiot. Titans' Tower is the first place he'd have thought of after my home. He'd have been there in no time. And with finding replacement parts for him becoming more and more difficult…"
"You couldn't risk him getting caught in the crossfire." Gar deduced, going back to his stitching. "Makes sense. And I'm guessing you're apologizing so much because you figure he'll be at my door in an hour or two?"
Raven winced. "I'm sorr-"
"Stop. Apologizing. Metahuman or not, you're still a citizen of Jump City, which means protecting you is literally my job."
"But I'm –"
"You're retired, Rae. You're not supposed to be fighting villains anymore – you're supposed to call me the second you catch wind of one causing trouble, and then let me handle it. I'm not gonna be upset about doing the job I signed up to do!" He tugged a little harder than he meant to with the next stitch, too caught up in his mounting frustration, but Raven didn't flinch. He took a deep breath, exhaled, then continued more gently, "Look, you should have called me sooner, is all I'm saying. You don't have to handle everything alone."
The empath gripped the couch with a touch more force as the changeling tied off the first set of sutures. Sitting still through two more rounds of this was not going to be fun. "I know that," she hissed through gritted teeth, "I knew that you would come if I asked, it's just…I didn't want the first time we'd talked since I left to be because I needed a favor."
Gar was so stunned by this revelation that he missed the end of the sutures entirely, scissors snipping through empty air. "You…thought about how you wanted this to go?" There was an undercurrent of hope in his tone, so achingly familiar that for a moment, she was in Titans' Tower again, stone-faced as he pleaded with her to come watch a movie with the rest of the team.
It's like you don't even care.
She studiously avoided his eyes as he finally snipped the excess thread. "I did. None of it seemed good enough."
She expected him to scoff, or ignore her, or maybe make a joke to lighten the mood. Anything, really, except his response. "Yeah, nothing I could come up with sounded good enough either." His tone was so soft, so wistful, that despite her fear and shame she found herself turning her head to look at him.
She recognized the look of regret on his face. It was the same one she saw when she looked in the mirror.
He met her eyes with a renewed sense of conviction as he went about preparing for the next round of sutures, disposing of alcohol wipes and bits of thread, sanitizing his tools again even though he didn't need to. "Listen, Raven… The night you told us you were leaving I said some fucked up things. Things that I didn't even really think were true. It's just…it was only a year after Star, and there was such a high chance that something would go wrong, and that I'd never see you again… I couldn't handle it, and I lashed out when I should have been telling you how much you mattered to me. To all of us. It was unfair, and I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. Everything you said that day was true. I wasn't thinking about how my leaving would impact the rest of you, I did run away because I didn't know how to handle all of your grief, and I was using the prophecy as a way to avoid processing Starfire's…absence." Saying it aloud felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest, so she kept going. "I was terrified. If I failed, I would lose all of you, and then what would I do?! You were all I had left and I just – I couldn't risk–"
"Shhh, it's okay. I know. We were all a mess after Star died, and we couldn't function as a team. If we had gone with you to search for a way to stop the prophecy, we would have slowed you down." He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear as she blinked up at him in surprise, vision watery. He chuckled emptily at her expression, adding, "I've had a lot of time to think it over."
"Seven years, two months and twenty-seven days," Raven mumbled, focusing on the spot above his ear as she fought down her flush, "But who's counting?"
"Twenty-eight, actually. You left around eleven, so the date hadn't changed yet."
She shot him one of her best glares, the one that usually won her arguments with customer service representatives and Jehovah's witnesses. "I was there that whole day. An hour doesn't count."
Gar, ever immune to her ire, just shrugged. "That's an extra hour I had to miss you for, so I have the right to round up."
She didn't even feel the next round of stitches.
page break*
It took him longer than it should have to realize what Raven was not saying.
He was midway through the third claw mark when he put the pieces together. "Wait a second. You said you just needed to rest, and then you'd handle Adonis…And that he's been hunting you for the last three days…Raven, when was the last time you slept?!"
Her wince told him that he was on the right track. "Um, probably the night before he broke in. Like I said, I only lose him for an hour or two at a time. I couldn't afford to be caught off guard."
Gar pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "And meditation?"
Another wince. Shit. "I tried to grab ten, maybe fifteen minutes where I could, but it's kind of hard to sink into a meditative state when you were just running for your life, and you know you might have to start again at any moment."
Gar blew out a breath, "Well, I guess that explains how this happened, and why you haven't been able to heal it yet."
Raven nodded. "It happened the last time we crossed paths. He was already tracking me by scent. I figured the smell of blood would just make it easier for him."
He looked up from his suturing in alarm, "So, we probably have less time than you did before?"
The empath bit her lip. "Not exactly. Like I said, I've managed to find ways of losing him. He seems to struggle with singling me out in crowded spaces, so I cut through the hospital on my way here. The scent of my blood is currently mixed in with every injured person in the JCH Emergency Department."
He gave a sharp nod, brain immediately switched to hero mode. "Smart. That'll keep him busy for a while. By the time he manages to figure it out, the scent trail will have gotten fainter. It might still be a few hours before he can narrow it down to the right building, especially since my address isn't common knowledge and you've been sticking to public spaces for the most part."
Raven's shoulders slumped in relief, even as the determination welled up in her eyes. "So, what do we do now?"
Gar chuckled softly. Some things never change. "We? You're running on fumes, Rae. I'm gonna finish this up as fast as I can, and then you are going to bed." He sensed she was still hesitant about leaving him to fight alone, so he added, "Adonis won't be expecting me and I'm a lot more practiced with using my animal senses than he is – by the time he smells me coming, I'll have already gotten the drop on him."
She eyed him warily, "You're sure you'll be okay?"
A younger version of him would have bristled, taking the question to mean that she didn't think he could handle Adonis on his own. At twenty-one, Gar knew better. She wasn't questioning his ability, she was questioning his safety. Because she was worried for him.
It's like you don't even care.
Younger Gar was an idiot.
He gave her one of his softest smiles, the kind he stowed away from the eyes of the public. "Yeah, Rae, I'll be fine. Promise."
page break*
It had taken all of three seconds for Raven to fall asleep once her head hit the pillow.
He couldn't help but take a moment to simply bask in the familiarity of it all. While the Teen Titans had all had their own separate rooms, it was hardly out of the ordinary to catch one of them dozing on the roof or knocked out on the couch. Even Robin, who possessed the hypervigilance of a small terrier, was known to drift off at the kitchen table when his internal programming woke him up at the crack of dawn, though he was quick to jolt back to the land of the living at the slightest rustle of movement. Thus, an unspoken rule was formed – if you saw a teammate asleep in a public space, you kept the volume down and let them be. If you broke that rule, no one would save you. The wrath of a grouchy, sleep-deprived Tamaranean wasn't worth it.
Then Star had died, and interrupting someone's sleep became taboo for an entirely different reason.
Thinking of Starfire caused a pit in his stomach, so he went about distracting himself by grabbing the stack of scientific journals that he'd been procrastinating on, settling back on his couch with a highlighter in hand. Part of being a good shapeshifter was knowing what to turn into and when, which required knowing the different abilities that came with each form. While attributes like flight or breathing underwater were simple enough, it was always helpful to have some understanding of his less flashy animal abilities. Keeping up with zoology research was the best way to do that. Secretly, he thought it was kind of funny – he'd always hated reading, preferring comics or graphic novels for the visuals, much to Mento's chagrin. Rita had even had him tested for dyslexia back in the day because his reading speed was so painfully slow. As it turned out though, he could read just fine when he was interested in the topic – it was boredom that he struggled with, not the words themselves. He hoped he got a chance to tell Raven that – she'd probably respond with some witty remark that would have him both indignant and shaking with laughter.
Fuck, he'd missed her.
He missed all of them, of course – his time with the Teen Titans had been the best part of his life, and he'd spent countless hours wondering what life would be like if it wasn't for that fateful day – but there was always something about Raven specifically that he'd never been able to shake. Maybe it was the subtlety of her expressions, or the bluntness of her words, or the rush of endorphins he got when his badgering of her finally paid off, but the empath had occupied more space in his mind than even their fallen teammate. Where she was, what she was doing, if she was okay, if she was lonely, it all swirled through his mind on sleepless nights and uneventful patrols. More than once, he thought about calling her, only to be paralyzed by the fear of her rejection. Even when she came back to the city, the thought of all the words he couldn't take back prevented him from reaching out. Hell, he'd been so scared to invite her to his housewarming party that he'd made Cy mail the invitation from the Tower, just in case her response was particularly scathing. (It wasn't. It was actually pretty sweet – she'd sent back seed packets for various herbs and mailed him some basic window gardening equipment instead of attending the social event, which was so Raven it made his heart hurt.) Looking back on it all now, it felt so stupid – he was so wrapped up in his own fears of how they left things that he forgot that this was Raven he was talking about – the girl who had been so afraid of being hurt by others that she'd decided to push everyone away before they could get the chance. She would never seek him out. It wasn't in her nature.
And yet, she had stood in front of his door and knocked, just as he had a thousand times before. Even though it terrified her. Even though she definitely didn't want to. Even though she was hurt and vulnerable and all those other things that she tried so hard not to let anyone see. When shit had hit the fan and she couldn't do it alone anymore, she'd knocked. That meant something. He was too tired to figure out what, but it was something.
And then there was Adonis.
The thought of that pathetic excuse for a human being had him smothering a protective growl. Adonis was the type of guy who had always been an irredeemable asshole, and the fact that he'd had his sights set on the empath for so many years only made him worse. Raven had rebuked the spoiled man-child countless times over the years, and yet he still didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer. Well, he was going to learn today. His Beast had always had an unexplained aggression towards Adonis's, which was only furthered every time the half-demon had entered the equation. Gar attributed it to a sort of pride mentality – just as how male lions fought off intruders who posed a threat to the safety of the pride, so too did the Beast. Of course, prides consisted of females that the lion had an attraction to which… yeah, it wasn't a perfect metaphor. But that wasn't important! What mattered was the fact that his Beast was itching for a fight, and he was more than happy to oblige.
Two hours later, a familiar scent came through, and Gar felt his canines lengthen with bloodlust.
Being a hero was shitty sometimes, but the job did have its perks.
page break*
Maybe it was the rarity of the occasion, but Beast Boy loved the feeling of being right.
He especially loved it when it meant literally getting the drop on Adonis, furry forearms slamming into the other beast from above with the force of a steel beam.
He'd been a block away when the Gar had caught the scent of testosterone and cheap cologne, shredding his clothes and leaping out the window of his apartment, determined to ambush the rival creature before he could even gather what direction the empath was in. Just as he'd predicted, Adonis was laughably terrible at parsing out scents when compared to the changeling's lifetime of practice. A simple combination of staying downwind and leaping across the rooftops had him directly on top of the other beast. By the time he'd finally recognized the scent of a challenger, he'd had just enough time to look up and see a bright green blur hurtling towards him. Oops. Guess using transformation powers to their full potential was harder than he made it look. Who would have thought?
Adonis's feral form buckled from the strength of the blow, the concrete below him cracking like glass. Growling ferociously, he reached behind him and pulled, attempting to throw the changeling over his shoulder and down onto his back so he could get in some hits of his own. If he were in a playful mood, he might have even let him, if only for the satisfaction he'd get from headbutting his opponent in the face instead. But the thing was, he wasn't in a playful mood.
The Beast was out for blood, and it damn well knew how to get it.
Reacting faster than the villain could process, Gar's Beast form protracted its claws; long, curved, and black as obsidian. Burying them into the thick pelt of Adonis's beast, the changeling used his rival's own flesh to anchor him to the other's back. The brown intruder roared in pain as the smell of iron filled the air. He didn't often draw blood, but neither the man nor the Beast could bring themselves to feel even a shred of remorse. He'd hurt Raven – his Raven. Carved her up like a turkey. It was only fair he knew what it felt like.
No matter how long they went without speaking, Raven was pack. She always would be.
He'd had enough members of his pack taken from him. No one was taking Raven.
Adonis yanked his claws out, flinging him into the air with a whine of pain, rivulets of blood running down his back. Undeterred, The Beast merely twisted midair, facing its rival again before tackling him to the ground with the speed of a semi-truck, relishing in the sound of the brown beast's back cracking from the momentum of the attack as he raised his massive hands and delivered a blow that could be heard for miles. Enraged, the other beast roared, causing the entire street to tremble as it wrapped a steady hand around his throat, applying enough pressure to crush a normal man's windpipe. Unfortunately for Adonis's primal form, he failed to realize two key details: first, that strangulation was a much slower way to render someone unconscious than the movies would have you believe, and second, that Gar was no ordinary man. As the brown beast wasted precious time trying to cut off his air supply instead of trying to get as far away as possible, Gar merely pulled his tree-trunk sized arm as far back as it could go and decked his opponent directly in the face, feeling the crunch of bone as his nose gave way. Then, he did it again. And again. And again, until the rival beast's grip on his throat slackened and his head lolled back, fur receding as he shrank back down to the size of a pathetic, gangly man-child who had never unlearned his sense of entitlement.
The Beast panted heavily, anger still coursing through its veins. How easy it would be to unsheathe his claws again and end this puny human once and for all.
Instead, he shifted back.
For a moment, Beast Boy stood in the middle of the street, stark naked and high on adrenaline. Only when he felt the animal instincts settle back down inside of him did he approach the egotistical villain, lifting him up to eye level by a hand in his hair. The pain had his adversary's eyes snapping open with a moan, the smell of his fear palpable when he saw the look on the green hero's face.
"Uhm," he winced, "I can explain –"
A threatening growl burst through the changeling's elongated fangs. "I don't give a flying fuck what you have to say. Consider this your only warning: birdbrain isn't here anymore. I'm running the show now, which means shit works differently from here on out. Touch her again, and I'll rip off your arms."
Adonis's expression went from terror, to confusion, to pure, uninterrupted malice. "This is about the chick? What, you think swooping in to save the day is going to get her on your dick? Newsflash, dumbass, women don't want nice guys. She's playing you!"
Gar could have told him that women weren't sex objects, nor did they have to have sex with them to be worthy of his help. He could have said that some men have the ability to care about women without wanting to sleep with them. He could have even argued with him about the concept of women not wanting 'nice guys', which Adonis would know if he was actually nice. But the thing was, he knew he would be wasting his breath. Adonis was an asshole, and nothing Gar could tell him would make him suddenly decide to not be an asshole.
Fortunately, Gar was fluent in asshole.
Grinning ferally, his green eyes took on an unnatural glow as they met his opponent's brown ones, "Is that why she's warming my bed right now?"
And with that, he delivered a gratifying uppercut to the chin, knocking the villain out again.
page break*
When Raven awoke, it was to the flicker of sunlight through the blinds.
Instantly, she knew she wasn't in her own bed – her room had blackout curtains and was as silent as a tomb, for good reason. While the empath had always been a morning person, the less sensory input during her most vulnerable moments, the better. Still, the change didn't alarm her. Years of travel as she tried frantically to prevent the prophecy had left her used to waking up in unfamiliar settings, and she'd certainly slept in worse places than curled up in the luxurious, white bedding that she was currently swimming in. Propping herself on her elbows, she took a moment to examine her surroundings as the memories of the past few days came flooding back. She'd been far too tired to note anything when she'd first entered the room, other than the fact that the bed looked sinfully soft and spectacularly inviting. Now, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the changeling had outgrown his tendency to turn his room into a biohazard – like the living room, the bedroom was actually kept quite neatly, with a simple, white desk, a set of closets, and a full-length mirror in the corner of the room. As spacious and welcoming as the room felt, Raven couldn't help but notice how…blank it was. There were no photographs, no posters, no personal effects of any kind. It seemed so sparse, almost spartan, and entirely unbefitting of Gar, who had always been bursting with personality. What had happened to make the most expressive person she'd ever met hide himself away?
A flash of red caught in the corner of her eye, as prominent in the sea of white as a spatter of blood on freshly-fallen snow. She clenched her jaw as tight as she could, determined not to turn her head. It wasn't real. There was no reason for that color to be in Gar's house.
As if he'd heard her thoughts, the green tabby curled up on the other half of the bed gave a wide yawn and stretched languorously, tiny paws kneading into the comforter. Without preamble, he shifted back into his human form, moving to sit cross-legged as he faced her with a bright grin that did painful things to her heart. "Hey, Rae! Sleep well?"
"Like the dead," she joked flatly. "How long was I out?"
"Well, you missed pretty much all of Monday, and it's about 9AM now sooooo, about twenty-eight hours."
Azar. She'd been more tired than she thought. It was a good thing she'd made it to Gar's when she did – another few hours, and she definitely would have fallen apart. "And Adonis?"
Another growl, more of a soft rumble this time. "Handled."
Her resulting smile was weak, but genuine. "Thank you, Gar. I don't know how I can repay you."
Just as she'd predicted, he scoffed and waved her off, "No payment necessary, Rae. It's my job." His grin turned feral, then, and she pointedly did not look at how that expression was complemented by his fang, "And besides, I'll never say no to punching Adonis in his stupid creep face."
She let out the barest breath of a laugh as she rolled her eyes. He was such an idiot. Reluctantly, she threw the covers off and stood, determined to stop stalling and get on with the rest of her day. "I should get going," she said softly.
For a moment, Gar looked thunderstruck. So much so that Raven found herself tapping into her empathic senses in alarm, only to find nothing but shock and…awe? Blushing an interesting shade of maroon, the changeling hastily looked away and cleared his throat as a flicker of some unfamiliar emotion brushed past her like a fleeting breeze. "Damn, Rae," he laughed, "you look better in my clothes than I do."
Fuck, she'd completely forgotten. The empath eyed her reflection in the mirror, burying her face in her hands when she realized how scarlet it was. They'd mutually agreed last night that if Adonis was tracking her by scent, it would be in her best interest to discard her bloody clothes and do whatever was necessary to smell more like Gar. That way, Raven would be safe even if the other beast had somehow managed to get past him. As such, he'd lent her a pair of comfortable home clothes and spritzed her with some of his cologne before she'd rather ungracefully faceplanted onto his pillow. And she was still wearing them. Azar, she probably still smelled like him, too.
Maybe it was the fact that the loose, green t-shirt and sweatpants were the softest things she'd ever worn, or maybe it was the way this older, more mature version of her teammate was staring at her, but the fact didn't bother her as much as it should have. Neither did the faint spark of lust she felt coming from the changeling. While normally, any lust aimed at her filled her with disgust and shame, Gar thinking of her in that way felt strangely empowering. She'd never entertained any of her more 'primal' emotions for fear of what they might do, but knowing that someone she found attractive wanted her back? That was new. She would have to unpack that at a later date, preferably when she wasn't in said person's bedroom.
"I should go," she whispered again, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
So why couldn't she bring herself to leave?
page break*
Gar was completely, utterly, thoroughly fucked.
Looking back, he should have known that lending Raven his clothes would do irreparable damage to his sanity. Despite what the city's trashy tabloids might say, Gar knew exactly what he wanted in a woman – had known since he was a dumb teenager fresh out of the Doom Patrol who unintentionally crossed paths with a demonic enchantress as they tried to free an extraterrestrial from her captors. Raven was dangerous, antisocial, and difficult to read, but she was undoubtedly the most stunning girl he'd ever seen. He'd been taken aback by her beauty from the moment she phased into his existence and advocated for a nonviolent solution to their alien problem, with her soulful eyes and long lashes. And then, when he'd glimpsed her sharp, striking features without her hood, followed by the long legs and subtle curves she hid under her cloak? Yeah, he was a goner. Her insistence in keeping everyone at arm's length only served to amplify her attractiveness to him by adding a layer of mythos and intrigue – here was the most exquisite work of art he would ever lay eyes on, complete with a velvet rope and a sign that screamed 'DO NOT TOUCH' in bright, bold lettering. And he hadn't, ever.
But that never stopped him from wondering.
And now, the empress had new clothes – his.
It was actually a little unfair that Raven had shown him up that thoroughly in his own outfit. There was no reason for the forest green t-shirt to complement her marble skin the way that it did. The fact that she had draped the larger neckline over her shoulder in order to avoid revealing too much…elsewhere had already done him in. That sharp collarbone alone was enough to secure victory, but she just had to be slightly too small for his sweatpants too – even with the elastic pulled as tightly as possible, they still rode low, broadcasting enticing flashes of her bare hips whenever she shifted her weight. Seriously, she'd already killed the competition, in more ways than one. The fact that she looked this good in his signature color was beating the dead horse. Add to that the smells – of his cologne on her skin, of her floral shampoo in his sheets, of the same minty toothpaste on both of their breaths – and there was very little tying him to reality right now. Her presence being so thoroughly intertwined with his own, as if every part of him had been touched, was making him crazy. Not 'stick her in a creepy basement-dungeon' crazy like Adonis, but a distinct 'please stay here forever and let me make you breakfast every morning' crazy that would no doubt have Raven running to file the fastest restraining order in history.
Great. Fantastic. They'd barely been reunited for two days and he was already risking driving her away.
It was somewhere during the ensuing thought spiral that Raven shifted uneasily on her feet, causing her to expose another delicious sliver of hipbone. His eyes were drawn to it instantly, like a moth to a flame, and he probably would have hated himself for it if not for what that section of skin revealed.
page break*
She felt the shift between them almost instantly.
It was in the way Gar's eyes narrowed on something she couldn't see, the hunch of his shoulders as he leaned forward, the crinkle of his brow. Something had caught his attention. Instantly, Raven was on guard – she'd been on a team with the shapeshifter for long enough to know that that look never boded well for her.
Unfortunately, bracing herself had never helped much when it came to Beast Boy. Instantly, he was out of bed and walking towards her, bulldozing through her walls as casually as breathing. "Your hip hasn't healed yet."
Shit. "Probably because I was so tired. It'll heal in a couple hours. It's nothing to worry about Gar, really."
Within seconds, the changeling had crowded her much smaller frame against the door of his bedroom closet, fangs bared. "Liar."
"I'm not–"
"Cut the bullshit, Raven. I can hear your heartbeat." He glared down at her, jaw tense, "You've always been a shit liar, you know. You only managed to keep your secrets because you didn't talk in general. If it were anything else, I would have left it alone, but I'm not fucking around when it comes to your safety." His anger was searing against her senses, but there was something comforting about the burn. Must be the familiarity of it all. How many spats like this had they had when they were young?
But they weren't young anymore. Back then, the rest of the team would curtail his pushing when it was clear that her own anger was rising to meet his. Right now, it was just them, and the changeling showed no sign of stopping his interrogation. "Did Adonis do something else? Something that made you unable to heal? Does he have some sort of venom now, or was it psychological?" Instantly, his eyes widened in horror. "Rae, did he—"
"No. No, Gar, he didn't. I promise." Without thinking, she reached up to cup his face, forcing him to meet her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "Adonis isn't the one who changed. I am."
Even without scanning for it with her powers, she could see the way his anger quickly gave way to confusion and concern. "Changed how?"
Raven pulled her hands away with a sigh, squeezing her eyes shut as she committed to explaining, "Everything to do with demons has a cost. Everything. I was created to be the portal – the key between this realm and my father's. My inheritance, so to speak, was a contract."
"Inheritance… as in, your powers?"
She nodded. "I was given virtually unlimited demonic power, in return for fulfilling my purpose when I turned sixteen. As you know, I didn't uphold my end of the bargain."
"So, your evil demon dad took your powers away?"
"Not exactly," she winced. "I never got a choice in the deal, obviously, which also meant I couldn't exactly choose to back out. My existence was the deal. Specifically, the half of my being that came from him. To break it, I had to destroy that part of myself."
She still couldn't look at him, but she heard the incredulity in his tone, "What, so you got an exorcism or something?"
"It's…more complicated than that but, kind of? I can't exorcize the demonic parts of myself, because they're not a separate being. It's more like…any of the traits I inherited from my father have been sealed away, down to the molecular level."
Gar was silent for what felt like an eternity. Hesitantly, Raven cracked an eye open to see him running his thumb along the angle of his jaw. "Well, I have a lot of questions about how that affects your biology, but I'm going to skip those for now," Raven had to swallow a laugh at that – the changeling had clearly been spending too much time with Cyborg – "because my understanding is that you were trying to outrun Adonis for three days, without any powers, before you came asking for help. Now, I know I'm really stupid, so I'm hoping I'm reading this wrong, because if I'm not, Rae, I'm actually going to lose my shit."
Raven didn't doubt that. He seemed pretty close to losing his shit already. "If it helps, it wasn't with no powers. I don't have access to anything I inherited from my father, but that still leaves my mother's genes. My mother was a powerful witch, which was how she was able to summon Trigon in the first place, and that power was passed down to me. I can still perform witchcraft, the same as any other magic user you've seen on the news. But magic isn't easy, especially when you haven't been studying it since birth the way the most proficient mages did. It takes time and focus, and it's extremely taxing. It's not something I can keep doing without a break."
Gar, to his credit, was listening intently, green gaze burning as he hung onto her every word. "Wait, but you did magic all the time back when you were a titan. You read those giant-ass spell books, and then you'd practice anything useful in training drills. We'd run those drills for hours. How come you didn't tire out back then?"
That her green companion had paid so much attention to her habits made her heart flutter in a way that she was absolutely refusing to think about, ever. Everyone knew she liked to read. It didn't mean anything. "Demonic energy is a lot more potent than the energy of a human, even a mage. Think of it as going from being plugged into an electrical socket to being on a portable battery. You go from never running out of energy to having a set reservoir to draw from."
The changeling nodded. "And I'm guessing no sleep and constant anxiety makes the battery go down faster?"
"Bingo." Her amethyst eyes met his and softened, "I was holding my own just fine, at first. I came looking for you as soon as I wasn't. I promise."
You're not going to lose me.
Judging by his sharp intake of breath, Gar knew exactly what she was thinking. She could practically hear the gears in his brain turning as he regarded her with consideration. "Well, you said Adonis ambushed you at home. Safe to say your place is probably trashed. Where are you staying while the city does repairs?"
"I'll book a hotel."
Gar raised a brow. "In tourist season? Rates are gonna be crazy, plus most of the extra rooms are being used by people who got hit in the last Plasmus attack." He eyed her curiously, "Why don't you stay in the tower? I'm sure the Tin Man can move his junk out of your old room."
Remembering his words about her lying capabilities, Raven merely shook her head. "Too many ghosts."
It's like you don't even care.
(If only.)
The changeling hummed in understanding, then went quiet. Blessedly, it seemed as though he wouldn't press her on the details of that particular statement. Raven moved towards the nightstand to retrieve her phone, intent on looking at cheap motels in the area.
She'd hardly taken the first step when he blurted out the stupidest thing she'd ever heard in her life.
"Then you'll stay here."
page break*
Shocking Raven was difficult. Getting Raven to express her shock was even more difficult. Borderline impossible, actually.
So when she stumbled on her way back to the nightstand and whipped around to face him with wide, startled eyes, he knew that the truly insane thing he'd said had, in fact, left his mouth.
"What?!" she shrieked.
'What?!' he yelled at himself, barely overriding the urge to acquaint his face with his palm. If Raven had access to her demon side, she would have killed him on the spot. And he would deserve it for being such an unhinged lunatic!
Can't let her leave. Not safe.
Lovely. As if his life wasn't complicated enough, the Beast was apparently hijacking his vocal cords now, presumably with the goal of getting the empath to take them out and use them as her own personal jump rope.
Actually, Raven might buy that as a reasonable excuse for his sudden death wish. He opened his mouth to explain, only to immediately be shoved out of the driver's seat again. "I let you keep your distance because of your unlimited power. Your power has limits now. You'll stay where I can see you, can keep you safe."
Huh. He'd never seen her make that expression with only two eyes before. Well, as far as supers were concerned, he'd had a good run.
He was too busy mentally reviewing the latest copy of his last will and testament to realize that Raven's face had changed to something indecipherable, violet eyes piercing into the depths of his soul. "Which one of you am I talking to right now?"
Wait, what? Okay, maybe he could survive this encounter if he played his cards right and – nope, no shot, Raven had just crossed her arms in disapproval and she was very clearly not wearing a bra, he was done for. Fuck it, at least he'd die happy. The Beast seemed to agree, if the deep, appreciative growl that erupted from his throat was anything to go by.
Raven merely raised an unimpressed brow, "Guess that answers my question. Well, in that case, I'm honored that Gar's primal instincts still see me as someone they need to protect, even after all this time, but you can't do that by locking me in a cage. Like I said, I'm fine. I had it handled."
The Beast took a step towards her and gently lifted the hem of her (his) shirt slightly upwards, careful not to touch her skin. It stared at the angry marks curving along and down her hip, before meeting her eyes with a pointed look, as if to say, 'You call this shit handled?'
Raven flushed slightly from the contact, reaching behind her neck and blindly pinching at the air before she realized she had no hood to hide in. Heh. For someone so terrifying, she was such a dork sometimes. She recovered quickly, tilting her chin up in defiance and glaring him down with all the disdain of a royal as she sniped, "You don't control Gar, and you definitely don't control me. I'm not staying just so you can watch over me like some babysitter!"
The Beast was silent for a good while, which didn't surprise him. Honestly, even when it influenced his words or actions, it wasn't much of a talker. More of an incoherent growler, if anything.
"And if I said we are in agreement?"
He really would have expected the amalgamation of his primal instincts to include survival instincts, but alas. Raven's eyes widened, then narrowed, and really this was on Gar for feeling nostalgic because that look on her face was almost always accompanied by the taste of brackish water as he was launched face-first into the bay surrounding Titan's Tower. Seemed he'd be reliving some memories today.
To his utmost surprise, Raven merely gave a long, loud sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Azar give me strength," she mumbled, before inhaling deeply and proceeding to talk to him as though he was a particularly cranky child. "You mean to tell me," she began, "that the logical side of Gar, the one who I assume is capable of rational thought, thinks my new limitations mean I can't take care of myself, even though I'd been doing so perfectly well for the past six years without him even knowing about them?"
"No."
"No?"
The Beast shrugged, "He just wants you to stay."
"Why?!"
The Beast met her gaze slowly, weightily. "He's missed your company."
The Beast had to be fucking with him at this point. Gar refused to believe his own subconscious was doing this to him. Please let this be a horrible nightmare. Please.
Raven spluttered, mouth agape at the suggestion. She shook her head, as if to clear it, then tried opening her mouth again, but no sound came out. Great. He had truly broken her. Finally, on the third attempt, she managed to respond, face flushed scarlet even as her voice remained monotonous, "You know, I think this conversation would go better for the both of you if you let me talk to him instead."
Evidently, that was the right thing to say. Gar resumed control of his mouth with a cough, a slew of hasty explanations tumbling from his lips. "Raven, I am so, so, so sorry, I know you can take care of yourself –"
"– Was that true?" she asked softly, blinking up at him with an impossible tenderness in her amethyst eyes.
His ears burned in mortification. "What, that I've missed having you around?" She gave a singular, sharp nod, eyes filled with the same nervousness they'd had when he found her at his doorstep. "Of course, Rae. I miss all of you, all the time." A quiet sadness washed over her, and he hastened to dispel the memories that were no doubt plaguing her mind, "I mean, most of the heroes in the game are so much older than us! It sucks to be around them because they either expect you to act like you're forty, or they talk down to you because they see you as a little kid. It was…different when we were all teen superheroes, figuring shit out together. And it's also like, I didn't exactly have a lot of friends growing up, being that I'm green and all, so being on a team with you guys made me feel like…like I belonged somewhere, I guess." She gave him a sad smile, and he added, stupidly, "Not that I don't also miss you, specifically! Even if we didn't hang out as much, it was always easy to talk to you, because you just…got things, you know? Robin's superpower is basically his freaky discipline, and Cyborg knows exactly what his powers can do because he's the one who builds his weapons. They control their bodies, not the other way around. They didn't understand what it was like to have powers that just kind of…do what they want sometimes. You did."
Raven stared off into the distance, gaze clouded by grief. "Starfire did, too."
Gar nodded, chest aching the way it always did when he heard the Tamaranean girl's name, or flew past the giant, bronze memorial statue at the outskirts of the city, or smelled the strawberry shampoo she always used on a passing civilian. "Star did too. But it was always harder to vent to her. She'd get confused by certain words or phrases, and I'd keep having to stop and explain them. Or she'd get sidetracked by some minor detail and we'd get stuck on a tangent. In my head, you guys had different roles. She was one of the nicest people I've ever met, and she was always down to drop everything if I needed her help, or if I wanted someone to hang out with. You just…listened. Even when you were pretending to be annoyed about it, you always listened to me when I needed to vent. You gave me solid advice when it was something important and helped bring me back down to Earth when it wasn't. Mostly with sarcasm." Raven's mouth twitched as she tried to smother a smile. "I owe a lot of my success as a solo hero to you. Probably more than you realize."
"Now you're just being ridiculous," she scoffed. "We weren't even in contact when you made the switch!"
"Yeah, but we didn't need to be. Whenever I was having a hard time, or getting to heated about something, or stuck on how to handle a villain, I used to think 'What would Raven tell me to do?' It helped, almost every time."
The look in her eyes was indescribable. It seemed, for a moment, as if there were entire galaxies shining within those eyes, shifting from inky blue to the darkest navy to a vibrant violet that made his heart stop. They were already standing so close, and yet, Gar yearned to pull her flush against him, to live under her skin and in the marrow of her bones the way she lived in his.
It seemed, in that one, singular moment, that she'd let him.
And then the clock struck ten, activating the obnoxiously loud alarm on his phone and causing them to jump apart, effectively shattering the moment.
Gar made a blind dive into the bedding, fumbling to find the device and silence it. When he looked up at Raven again, slightly more disheveled than he'd been mere moments ago, she was still frozen in place, beautiful and indecipherable as ever. That fear was back, but for what, he wasn't sure.
page break*
"You don't have a guest room."
The look of pure befuddlement on his face almost made her laugh. Some things never change. "Huh?"
Raven gestured vaguely towards the bed he was currently sprawled on, "That's the only bed. And I'm not letting you sleep on the couch in your own home, so unless you let me take the couch –"
"–Not until you're healed."
"Gar."
"Rae," he challenged, raising a brow. "My house, my rules. Not until you're healed."
Raven shot him an exasperated glare, "Okay, so then my point still stands. How would this work?"
Gar huffed a disbelieving laugh. "Easy. I sleep as a cat most of the time. We'll just do what I've been doing while you were catching up on three days' worth of sleep."
"We'd kill each other in a week."
Emerald eyes glittered with mischief. "Careful, Rae-Rae, those are betting words, and you know I never lose a bet."
"I don't know if I snore," the empath blurted out, increasingly questioning her sanity.
Gar snorted, "Twenty-eight hours in what I hope was the deepest sleep of your life and an ultra-handsome guy with super hearing say you don't."
She glared, "You have to let me contribute to the rent."
The changeling bared his teeth in an animalistic growl, pupils turning to slits. Evidently, the Beast didn't like that idea. In a blink, Gar was back to his usual self, if a little sullen. "Fine."
"And groceries."
"Don't push it."
She wanted to snipe something acerbic and petty, but the second their eyes met, she was suddenly unable to stop herself from laughing. Gar was quick to come back to himself and join her, bursting into guffaws that only made it harder to catch her breath, which only set him off more. By the end of it, Raven's face was bright red from the lack of oxygen and the changeling was wiping tears from the corner of his eyes.
"So, we're really doing this?" He smiled up at her hopefully, ears pricked up in excitement.
A boy who had looked at her like she hung the moon, "You think I'm funny?! Sweet! I know some jokes!"
But so much had changed since then. He wasn't that boy anymore, but did he know she wasn't that girl?
"First, there's something you should know." Slowly, hesitantly, the empath made her way to the bed and perched at the very edge, turning to face him. "I was too exhausted for it to manifest, I guess, but Starfire's…absence, along with the team's disbanding, had some…effects on me."
The shapeshifter blinked, tilting his head in confusion, "Is this about that nightmare you had?"
Panic clawed at her throat. "Nightmare?" she whimpered, dread creeping in.
Gar continued to stare at her, puzzled but not alarmed. "Yeah. You were screaming. You called out for a few different people, I think, but mostly you kept calling for Star." He paused, suddenly shy. "You were crying, too. At some point, you sat up opened your eyes, but it was like you weren't seeing what was really in front of you. You kept saying things that didn't make sense – something about your dad, I think, but the words were all garbled. Eventually I got you to calm down and go back to sleep. You really don't remember that?"
"No," she wheezed, the panic filling her lungs like water.
"Hey, shh," he shifted into a rabbit, hopping over to her side of the bed before changing back. "It's okay, Rae. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. Just tell me what's going on so that I can help you."
Raven took a deep breath and began to count in her head, feeling her fear ebb and flow. When she felt it begin to recede, she began to explain. "Remember when I told you that the ritual that stops me from being the portal only works because I chose to keep my demonic powers locked away?" At the changeling's nod, she continues, "Well, it can also be undone, if I ever decide I want them back."
"Why would you, though? Don't get me wrong, your powers are cool and all, but wouldn't that mean the end of all life on the planet?"
"Yes. Which is why I would never want to undo the ritual. Unfortunately, it's not exactly that easy." The empath scrubbed a hand across her face, suddenly exhausted despite just waking up. "Demons have their tricks. My father is an extremely powerful demon, who wants to tempt me into unsealing my power, so he can use it to invade. He hasn't been successful, obviously, but that's not exactly stopping him from trying out a few dirty plays."
Gar narrowed his eyes as he replied, "And by 'dirty plays', you mean…"
"Hallucinations, nightmares, fatigue, insomnia, depression." Raven rattled off quickly, "Basically, his goal is to drive me insane so that I give in and undo the ritual against my better judgment."
Her former teammate stared at her, utterly heartbroken. "Shit, Rae. Why didn't you ever ask for help?"
"A lot of the time, it's hard to reach out when my own mind is telling me all these terrible things about myself and reminding me of all my failures. I worried about being turned away. I worried that I deserved it." Her breaths felt shaky, but she barreled on, "I see and hear all of you in my head, telling me that it's all my fault, that I'm not good enough, that I'm nothing. That if only I had more control over my powers, if I had unlocked my full potential, Star wouldn't have…" She heaved a shuddering sigh, the word lodged in her ribcage. "And even if she had, I would have found a way to bring her back." She stared at her trembling hands, fending off the voice in her head that was telling her it wasn't too late, she could still bring the alien girl back from the next realm, if only she would let them free –
Gar gently took her hands in his own, running his thumbs soothingly along the inside of her wrists. "You could never deserve that blame, Raven. Starfire's death wasn't your fault at all. None of us knew what to expect that day, and none of us were strong enough or prepared enough to stop it. And yeah, maybe you could bring her back, but what would be the point if the entire planet died in the process? She loved Earth more than anything. Even the gross, weird parts that we all kind of take advantage of." Raven heaved a watery laugh at that, remembering the other heroine's fascination with the world of fungus. She met Gar's steady gaze as he continued, "Star wouldn't want to come back if the cost was that high, and you know it. You didn't fail her. If anything, you showed her what it was like to have a sister who actually cared about her. Her life was so much shorter than it should have been, but I think, if she really was able to talk to you, she'd have told you that you were one of the best people in it."
Raven felt a lump settle in her throat like quick-dry cement, suffocating her instantly. She tried desperately to hold back the tears that pricked at her eyes, but the changeling's words circled through her mind over and over again, a record stuck on the best part of the song.
If anything, you showed her what it was like to have a sister who actually cared.
A sister who cared.
It's like you don't even care.
Gar's gaze on her was knowing, a determination in his eyes as if to say, 'Of course you care, Rae. You always did.'
Launching herself into his arms, the empath finally sobbed.
page break*
It felt like hours had passed by the time she let him go, his shirt sticky with her tears. Her dry eyes burned as she met his own, expecting to find sympathy, perhaps even pity in the green forests before her.
What she actually saw, however, was pride.
(He'd always just 'got' her too. More than she'd been willing to admit.)
Clearing her throat, the empath held her head up high, gaze sharp even as her voice stayed soft, "Okay. I'll stay. On one condition."
Emerald eyes sparkled with delight, "Anything."
Filled with a determination she hadn't possessed in years, she glared him down. "If I ever get to the point where I'm too close to taking my powers back…If I ever become too dangerous for life on Earth, promise me that you'll lock me away."
The changeling growled in defiance, "You'd never go that far."
"I hope not. But if I do, you and Cyborg, you have to work together to make a place that can stop me from doing it. Keep me contained." She could see the urge to argue on his face, so she added, "That's the only way I'm staying, Gar. It's too risky otherwise, to be around you when I don't always know if you're real."
He faltered, then nodded. "It won't ever come down to that, but, fine. If that's what you need to hear to stop forcing yourself to be alone, then I promise. If I really have to, I'll lock you away myself."
The empath took a deep breath, then smiled, soft and welcoming, "I guess we're roommates then."
His sparkle returned, a wave of his happiness hitting her in the face, though deep down she didn't mind. "I guess so."
Shyly, she tucked a strand of purple hair behind her ear, "So, how much do you want to bet on us killing each other?"
A thousand things had changed in the past seven years.
His laugh wasn't one of them.