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.
|
|
Chapter 9As Raven moved from the bed, Gar reached out and lightly grazed his hand over an old scar. It was on her lower back, and no doubt the first time he had seen it. “Prison escape, I think.” She shrugged, honestly not remembering where all her marks were from. “Do people ever ask about them?” He asked rolling on his back to point to the side he was just laying on. “I’ve had a few ask about this one.” It was an odd scar, maybe acid or fire. “Part of me wished it had just healed properly, it’s a little gross.” “That you find gross.” She quipped. “But nothing else we’ve talked about.” He just shrugged in response, and pointed back at the lumpy scar for emphasis. Raven rolled her eyes. “But no, no one asks about my scars. Rachel doesn’t have any.”
He looked a little surprised. “You’ve never had sex as Raven before?” “Well… not till Star. I’m more comfortable going out as Rachel, the human.” Levitating the long since abandoned clothes over she started getting dressed. The conversation was beginning to make her feel a bit more exposed. “Hmm” he snorted, “that’s funny. I don’t see that at all. You’re far more confident as Raven than Rachel. I mean I understand going out as Rachel, I go out in a few different alter egos myself. It’s fun, and protects whomever I end up with. But I can see why you wouldn’t be getting the men you deserve.” “What?” She was momentarily stuck on the last part before she got back to the original topic. “No.” It was a little hard to describe. “I’m… I’m more free as Rachel.” She stammered out, though it wasn’t exactly what she wanted. “Maybe. But I don’t think so. I think you’re much more comfortable being the half demon the world knows than being human.” He countered. “Pff, no.” She shook her head, pulling the shirt on. “The world hated me because of the half demon part. I mean after what happened I couldn’t blame them. So being Rachel, I’m free of all that.” Gar drew himself back up, inching closer to her. “Yeah, sure they did. But you’ve fought to show the opposite. You’ve grown to own who you are. And when we go out as,” he gestured to his green body, “as us. You carry yourself in a different way. They know you as the power woman you are, and you act exactly such.” “It’s partly an act, Gar. I mean when we’re in front of the cameras and such we can’t be seen as weak and scared.” Her voice was low, he seemed to be giving her much more credit than she deserved. She pulled on her underwear and sat back down on the bed. “It was at one point. But it’s not anymore. I’ve accidently picked enough fights with you to know, you no longer give a shit what anyone else thinks. You are who you are.” He stated, lightly resting his hand on her bare leg, and yet another scar. “Ironically,” he said as his voice grew deeper and his thumb started to skim over her thigh, “you would actually get many more suitors as Raven. I’ve been on enough missions with you to pick up on the civilian, other superheros, or even a few distracted bad guys noticing you. The dark powerful woman thing, is pretty damn sexy.” Raven rolled her eyes, eliciting a small chuckle from him. “Whatever,” she stood as one of the communicators started to vibrate. Groaning, Raven let her head fall back to momentarily look at the ceiling. Not another emergency. Before glancing back at Gar reading over the screen. “Just Vic,” he said before popping open the screen. “Hey aren’t you supposed to be in the main room, getting your ass kicked by yours truly?” Vic called, obvious ready for a game. “It’s here man, I told you it would be here in the morning! I’ve already set up our characters. Just get in here!” Gar laughed at the small device, but his eyes still flicked up to Raven. She shrugged and waved her hand to let him know she didn’t care. “Yeah, man. I’ll be there! I do need to eat first though.” “I have plenty of left overs, some sausage, eggs, pancakes…” Vic paused for the familiar groan from Gar. “Yeah…thanks.” He mumbled. “I’m just kidding, I’ll throw some of your fake waffles in the toaster. Hey, Raven wasn’t in her room, and didn’t answer her communicator.” Raven instinctively looked around for it, it was probably still in her room. “If you see her, tell I got real food she can eat.” Gar dramatically rolled his eyes but nodded. He clicked the communicator shut and glanced up to her. “I think I got the message.” She said, opening a portal behind her. Gar gave her a quick wink before she stepped through. She tried to play exasperated, as she would have been less than a day ago, but she couldn’t help the small smile that burned in her cheeks. Raven had quickly appeared in the kitchen just long enough to reheat some food. Gar had glanced in her direction for a quick smile, as he normally did, and went back to playing with the cyborg beside him. She found a quiet window seat in the sun, and ate with a book floating peacefully in front of her. The shower was well received after the exhausting, but now pleasurable week she had been through. All the stress of the constant fighting had vanished from her memory, to be replaced only by how satisfied she felt. Floating the empty plate to the floor, she curled up against the cushions and found her mind wondering from the book. She started to consider the question Gar had asked only that morning. What did she want to try next? As her mind went over a few options, she also began to contemplate the brazen manner with which she would have to ask for such things. An unease followed as she tried to rehearse the potential scenes in her head. She would have to get over her discomfort if she was going to be open and really explore thing. Then her mind started to wander to what Gar had said about demeanor as Raven verses Rachel. As her mind drifted off to sleep, she wondered if he was right. Now if he called her creepy she would really give him something to be creeped out about and move about her day. Sometimes it was a little fun to freak the green man out. His senses had become enhanced that it was a challenge. Folding her arm under her a pillow, she gently laid the book at the other end of the window seat and welcomed the chance for a nap. Refreshed and calm, Raven was enjoying her rather lazy day. Somehow, she had gravitated back to the main room to read near her friends. The common room was lowly lit and Raven tried to take a peek at Gar without him noticing. Flashing lights flickered over his face as the movie played out in front of him. It wasn’t necessarily meant to be a depressing movie. Just an old drama that had aired several times over. But this time as Gar seemed to blankly watch it, his mood was unmistakably troubled by the death of the boy’s mother. Usually he hid his emotions well enough, but Raven assumed the call from Dick had brought up old scars he didn’t want to face. Seeming to come out of his fog, Gar picked up the remote and entered in a few numbers. The channel changed to some announcer talking sports, and Raven gave up assessing Gar’s mood to return to her book. A name caught her attention, and she glanced up at the screen. “That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, what we’ve witnessed today is a shocking defeat of one Beast Boy to the reigning champ of the tower, Cyborg.” The voice was edited over the normal newscaster whose mouth obviously moved on about something else. Raven’s eyes flicked back to Gar as she felt a pang of pity for the poor guy. Not only was he clearly distressed about something, but now Victor was rubbing it in his face that he lost the earlier game. Gar’s eyes seemed to focus on the screen now, as he must have finally realized the recap of the game being explained was not related to the basketball game in the background. The screen flicked to a few playbacks of what she assumed was their video game, with Victor describing the way the character fell. A deep chuckle startled her and she looked to see Gar starting to laugh. Victor went on, “The sad performance continued as Beast Boy failed to use his back up health points to heal himself. Rookie movie, Paul. “I agree, Sean, it’s just such a shame. I mean it just all went so wrong, and there was such promise in this young player! “But was there, Paul, was there really?” Victor changed his tone slightly to take on a few different announcers. Gar had fully begun to laugh and turned his head slightly away from her. “I think you might have lied about how long you had been practicing before I showed up!” He hollered as Vic came through the door behind. “Hey! It’s not my fault you were ‘distracted’ and forgot about our plans.” Vic leaned on the back of the couch as his recorded voice continued in the background. “Tell ya what, you take whatever time you think I had and then we’ll rematch. I’ll still win.” “Whatever,” Gar mumbled, returning his attention to the screen, only to laugh at another ridiculous description by Victor. Raven regarded the two for a second. Their pranks had always seemed foolish and stupid. But twice today she had seen some sort of prank pull him out of his fog. It was interesting to see him from this point of view. And she blankly looked down at her book thinking over the other more recent pranks they had pulled on each other. From an outsider’s point of view, it had all seemed like he hadn’t a care in the world and just pulled pranks for his own amusement. “B, what are you doing tonight?” Vic called from the kitchen. “I don’t know, why?” “The Renn girls are in town. They want to get a taste of the brave men and women who protect this city. I of course being the generous selfless gentleman that I am, have offered to show them around town.” Gar turned around in his seat. “Are those the heiresses that got caught stripping in Vegas last week at The Black Diamond?” “Yeah, they seem like really nice girls. I think we should show them around. You know, be nice, do the hero thing. We’re getting dinner at the 39th street grill.” Gar seemed to think if over for a second. “I talked to the chef, he’s up for the challenge of impressing you with a delicious vegan dish for the table.” Victor added, obviously trying to bait Gar in. “And Raven,” Victor sang. She looked up, a little startled. “They have a very handsome brother, that’s in some dark rock band.” He obviously didn’t know much about the brother, but was trying to use it as leverage. Raven rolled her eyes and made a disgusted groan. “No.” She flatly replied. Victor shrugged and went about making a snack. “Alright, well I promise we won’t drink much, in case something pops up.” “Mhm,” she sounded, refocusing on the book in front of her. Gar and Victor eventually left to go get ready and let Raven fully sink back into her book. It was a mystery novel that she was sure she had already figured out. After several chapters in the pleasantly quite room, she leaned forward in her seat. The main character was going back to his mother’s home, but that wouldn’t make sense. He despised that place, it was where it had happened. There were reoccurring nightmare about that very place. He had told his therapist about it many times. As the man rounded the corner to that broken door, he heard a noise… A warm hand touched her shoulder and Raven jumped back, twisting her head to see who it was. For a second she saw no one, but a set of lips on her other side told her enough to settle her nerves. Or rile them up. His lips drew away from her neck as she spun to glare at him. “A little warning would be nice.” She growled, floating the book she had accidently dropped back up to her hands and wiggling herself back into the pillows she had accumulated. His eyes sparkled in amusement, and a bit of mischief, as he looked down at her. Before he could say anything though, the doors opened to present the other half of the duo. “Well, Raven, last chance?” Vic offered, raising his shoulders slightly. “No.” She flatly replied, looking back down at her book. Not really reading it, but more for show. “Alright, well you call us if you need anything.” He called behind him as he was already making his way to the exit. “Yeah,” Gar’s voice was too low for Victor to hear, “if you need anything.” She felt herself blush slightly as he winked at her. It was if she had already forgotten all the intimate things they had done. And she was still an easily flustered girl not accustom to flirting. Especially when it was being kept secret from a mutual friend. Gar gave her his signature lopsided grin and strolled to join Vic in the elevator. He was wearing a very attractive grey button down shirt and black slacks. Raven had to admit, he cleaned up well, and she was not doing a good job of hiding her satisfaction as she watched him walk away. He turned, casually rolling up his sleeves, to catch her eye. He gave another wink as the doors slid shut, forcing her to realize she had been indeed staring. The room fell silent again as they left. Not that they were particularly loud, just passing through, but everything seemed more charged when he was around. A calm settled in around her as she knew the building would be empty for a good bit of time. She was comfortable around Gar now, very comfortable in fact. But he incited a lot of emotions in her, and she needed a break once in a while. So even though she pictured him out flirting or partying with various other people, she was content. He needed that extroverted side of his nature fulfilled. While she could get all the company she needed from simply sharing a building with a few other people. Especially now that their weekend warrior kids were showing up. Tomorrow surely a few more would come in with Quill. And with the new aquatic titan, there would be plenty of unfurled emotions. A night alone was just what she needed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am split between a world of fantasies and science. {Blog}
|