My Fiction. My Blog. My Life:After braving the vast world of the internet with fanfictions, I've decided to expand my portfolio with short stories, blog posts, and snippets of my novel.
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Chapter 2Gar woke up as body on top of him moved slightly. Still curled up against him, Raven was starting to wake up. Her heart rate was picking up a tad and she was beginning to make more tiny movements. During the night he had woken up several times. Every time she flinched or started breathing heavy he was subconsciously stirred. Even now he wasn’t really aware of everything that changed as she woke up, he just knew she was waking up. She looked peaceful. But more importantly, well rested. Her hair was disheveled. Her shirt was crooked, slipping off one shoulder and had risen slightly on her abdomen. And her mouth was just slightly open. Only partially awake she reached for the blanket covering her legs. He had pulled it around her when she started to get cold during the night, though she had partially shoved it off a few hours later. Sleeping with a tiger was probably a bit warmer than she was used to. Raven’s eyes started to flick open and he quickly looked towards the door, as if he hadn’t just been watching her. She stayed still for a while, probably gaining her grounds again, and remembering why she was waking up like this. Then he felt the delightful touch of her fingers through his fur. He had let it return to its original stripes at some point during the night, it was instinctively easier to stay as the whole animal. Running through various animals in his mind, he finally settled on a fennec fox. She only jumped slightly as the fur in her fingers shifted. Again he made sure to keep the body she was resting on the same. The tickle of her fingers was enjoyable. Even when she pushed her fingers through, against the lay of his fur, to touch the undercoat. She continued to play with his fur for several more minutes. It was serene and he knew he could stay like that for hours. It wasn’t until she shifted again that he realized he had closed his eyes and began to purr. A little embarrassing.
“Thank you,” she whispered. He opened his eyes and looked at her, but waited as she started to talk a few more times. Obviously trying to figure out what to say. She sighed and continued. “I was going to apologize for trapping you here so long, and tell you that you didn’t have to stay. But I’m not sure I would have slept so long without you here.” She sat up, noticing the blanket. A beautiful smile crossed her face as she must have realized she hadn’t fallen asleep with the blanket anywhere near her. It warmed him to know he could make her smile like that. She twisted around, “What time is it anyway? My alarm must be close to going off.” Gar shifted the cords in his throat, and part of the cat’s mouth. “I turned it off. I’d say it’s about noon.” She jumped, probably from the break in illusion. “Noon?!” Or because of the time he had said. “I haven’t slept this late in a long time. And you…” she trailed off. Her face went from shock to something sentimental. “You stayed this whole time? I… “ He knew there was an apology forming. “Tigers sleep a lot, like 20 hours a day. This is nothing. I could easily stay here much longer.” “But you’re not…” She was thinking it over. She knew him as a human and that’s what he normally was to her. “I normally have human characteristics because I spent most of my time in that form. If I spend a lot of time as something else, I start to pick up those characteristics. Like sleeping a lot.” She nodded, still obviously thinking it over. “I could also kill for a piece of meat, which isn’t going to happen. So obviously they’re not terribly overpowering senses to combat.” Though, at one point they had been a lot stronger. She smiled. “Yeah. That makes sense. I knew about the influence of anger and those kind of emotions. I hadn’t thought about things like sleep. So, what if you spent a couple hours as something that sleeps only a few hours? Would it balance out?” He doubted she could tell he was smiling. They knew a good bit of each other’s powers during battle. They had to in order to become a solid unit. But she had never asked about how it affected him outside of fighting. She only knew what he had offered to tell her, which was a good bit. Being a fairly secret person, he figured she was being as unobtrusive as she wished them to be with her. But he liked her curiosity, it was flattering. “Yeah, sort of. But it gets messy and sort of adds layers of complexity. So I prefer just to go back to being human and letting it wear off.” She nodded then reached out to touch his side beside his shoulder. “Who’s fur is this?” She asked. Her hand flew to her side as she did. She didn’t wince in pain and simply sat back and looked at him to answer. “Fennec Fox, last night it was a chinchilla.” He answered, though his mind was now focused on the side she was tapping. He could see the slight movement in her fingers and she tested out putting pressure on different parts of her body. She giggled lightly, drawing his attention quickly back to her face. “What?” He asked. “Oh, it just seems absurd to picture a cute cuddly little creature like a chinchilla as a huge tiger. Or vice versa.” She smiled and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why that’s funny to me.” He laughed, “I’m sure I could come up with much stranger tonight.” It slipped out before he realized what he was saying. He had meant to offer it, not assume he would be here again. But instead of looking shocked or offended she blushed slightly and smiled. Her inspection of her side must have been complete and she drew her hand away. “I must have healed my rib during the night. It’s a bit stiff. But a lot better.” “You did get pretty cold at one point early this morning, I figured that’s what was going on and didn’t wake you.” He said. This got her attention more than inviting himself back into her bed had. She regarded him for a few seconds then looked away. Lifting her arms, she started to bend to one side then the other. “Do you mind if I take a look at it?” He asked. She shook her head and lifted her shirt slight, pointing to one of the ribs. “I think it was this one.” Gar made a point of hopping off her bed before he shifted back to being a human. She had shown a lot of trust and openness within the past several hours. And touching her bare side, as a human, in her bed seemed a bit far. Turning around from the ground he reached out for her side. He concentrated on expanding the blood vessels in his hands as he did so, warming his hands so he didn’t shock her. The entire team had seen each other probably more intimately than any of their lovers had. When someone’s life was in danger, on the field or in the infirmary, modesty was not something to consider. They had become stronger and sometimes picked up solo or duo missions, and everyone had to pick up basic nursing skills just in case. He had sown stiches into Robin’s inner thigh. Really, Dick’s inner thigh, but he was more comfortable being called Robin whenever he dawned the mask. And torn off both the girls’ tops in an effort to reach bullet wounds. And through several stakeouts, this actually wasn’t the first time him and Raven had slept together in such a manner. One time he just kept her feet warm by being the dog at the foot of the bed. Another, he had warmed the cave they hid in as a large polar bear. But even so, as his hand slid over her side he felt her pulse quicken. Despite knowing what he had done, he found himself apologizing. “Sorry if my hands are cold.” “Oh, no. They’re actually pretty warm.” She was blushing again, and her own skin was starting to warm. He smiled back at her. Momentarily forgetting the whole reason he was touching her in the first place. “Um,” He started gently feeling her side, examining it similarly to an ultrasound. “It’s no longer cracked. I think you’ve completely healed it. The bruises seem to be greatly diminished. Well, from what I saw. Though I do feel a few knots in your muscles.” His fingers found the three he meant, and gave a light push to tell her where they were. She flinched slightly, but let him continue. “I can always work them out if you want me to.” He had meant to say ‘need’ not ‘want’, but for some reason her odd reaction to him touching her had him focusing more on wants not needs. “That’s ok, I think after breakfast…or, lunch really, I should be fine to heal the rest.” She started to lower her shirt and he realized he had remained on her side a second too long. “Of course,” He stood up, feeling his own cheeks darken. “Why don’t I go whip us up some food?” “Sure.” She tried running her fingers through her hair and stopped. “I think I’m going to jump in the shower real quick.” He smiled at her. And then realized, he was again lingering too long, as she looked away. “Alright, I’ll uh.. meet you in a bit.” He turned and left the room before he did anything worse. He left feeling honestly proud and ecstatic at having been the one to ease her nightmares. His friends meant the world to him, they were his family. And he hated seeing any of them upset. Especially the strong and powerful Raven. He admired her beyond what he had ever expressed. He had looked up to her when he struggled with his own demons, so to speak. Because she had taken what she was born with and did more than anyone imagined she could do. And he had aspired to be like her. So when someone like her kept falling in battle, like yesterday, it pained him. He of course had realized years ago that she didn’t sleep well the week before her birthday, and knew it was coming. This was just the first year she accepted his help. Though he never directly offered, and based on what she said last night, she didn’t know he knew. Gar entered the empty common room. Happy it wouldn’t be too loud for Raven. Scowling he touched his stomach. He really did have a craving for meat. Jokingly he thought about turning into an antelope to try and kill the desire to eat one.
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AuthorI am split between a world of fantasies and science. {Blog}
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