Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > Die To Save You
Please read the author's note at the end and enjoy this chapter of plot-less fluff.
*
Raven woke up to the metallic pounding of a hammer against a thick nail. Her cloak had been rolled up while she was sleeping and now propped up her head, replacing Holly from the night before. Holly, on the other hand, stood a few feet away from her and was nailing a wood board to connect two of the four posts that would the corners of the soon to be cabin. Raven twisted her head to the side to see the other eight Warriors doing the same thing, each in different stages of their own lodges.
"You're really building it around me?" Raven mumbled as she sat up and dusted off her leotard; brushing her hand over the accumulated stains and a few tears that were beginning to form.
Holly smiled down at her, and said "Of course." through the nails that she had clamped in between her teeth.
"If you'd like you can build your own, I'll help out when I'm done and I'm sure the others will too."
"You really think I can build one of those?" Raven asked rhetorically.
"Point taken, I could make this one a bit larger if you want."
"I wouldn't mind, where could I wash my clothes here?"
Holly gave a curious stare. "You wash them?"
Raven visibly cringed and shuddered at the response.
"I'm joking," She said as she let out a loose laugh. "There's a stream a few minutes' walk toward the mountain, but it's probably too cold this time of year. Just past that there's a small hot spring. That should work fine."
Raven rolled her eyes at the 'joke' and began walking in the indicated direction.
"By the way, Suki gave us the day off today. And why don't you take a spare kimono with you until we can patch up your clothes, before the tears get worse." Holly said over her shoulder, as she tapped in a new nail into the board.
Raven strode past the stew that was brewing over the fire, the pile of debris from their old dojo, and the other warriors each building their own new homes. A calm day after yesterday's events. She thought as she felt the warmth of the autumn sun on her back, and odd sensation as it mixed with the cool air.
*
"Hey, what's going on with Holly? She's actually smiling today, not just faking it like normal." Akiko said as she drank a cup of hot tea with Ko. Akiko had always been able to pick up on those things, more than anybody else in the group. Without Akiko pointing it out, nobody would've been able to tell that her smiles were often just a front.
"I dunno." Ko said, deciding to keep what she saw last night between her and Yumiko. All the warriors knew that Holly had stuck her neck out for them more than once, so respecting her privacy was one of the very least things that they could do. Of course, Ko thought, it was an innocent question. But if anything actually is going on between them, Holly will tell us when she decides to.
*
Raven found the hot spring easily and, using some shrubs as a screen, quickly changed into the green kimono. After placing a few stones on her clothes to stop them from drifting away, she left them to soak in to steaming water and decided against scrubbing them with loose sand for fear that the small tears in the flimsy fabric would grow. She sat down and let her feet dangle in the water, and pulled out a piece of thick paper and a pencil that she had borrowed from the pile of items that used to be in the dojo. It had been a spur of the moment decision once she saw them, unusual for Raven under normal circumstances; however, many things weren't normal right now, such as Holly's state of euphoria – or the fact that it's because of a being from a different world.
She had only written down a paragraph in a small and neat script when she decided to pull her cloak and leotard out of the water and scrub some of the areas that appeared to be free of wear. She slung her wet clothes over her arm and headed back to her new friends, the paper tucked into the sash of her kimono.
*
Cyborg stood in one of the tower's few floors that rested below sea level, hunched over a metal table with several tanks of carbon dioxide next to him. He was welding two halves of a disk back together, moving slowly and carefully, as the seam had to be as strong as possible. The entire floor was open, with two rows of tables against the walls and what was left of the base of the Professor's machine in the center. On the tables were the many parts of the machine in various stages of reconstruction. Only a few of the subsystems of the Professor's machine had the Titans been able to start rebuilding, and while Robin had tackled that job, Beast Boy was sorting through the piles of twisted metal that was left of the machine, deciding what to scrap and what may be of importance. Starfire sitting was next to Robin and absentmindedly twirling her hair around her finger as she flipped through the pages of Raven's books, she was only on the third of seven books that she had found and although she was moving slowly, she had been able to grasp the abstract concepts with amazing ease.
Cyborg finished the weld and began to grind the seam of another part smooth. He was not working on part of the machine like Robin was - instead he was constructing a small device, no larger than a lawnmower engine, according to the Professor's design. Cyborg took a moment to let the metal cool and surveyed the room.
They had not made nearly as much progress as they had hoped, and while they were working tirelessly there was still many daunting challenges that loomed ahead of them. One of them, that Cyborg was certain that Robin had already thought of, was the fear that was in the back of everybody's minds, whether or not they realized it. Was Raven still alive? There was no way they could know right now, and all of their efforts may have been in vain if she wasn't. That was the reason why Cyborg did not work on the machine to return Raven back to Earth. No, instead he was working to amplify their communicator's signals. Using the theories that their former enemy had provided, Cyborg worked not to return Raven, but to contact her first.
The Professor was not exempt from this tiring work, as he was alongside Robin piecing back together the masterpiece of his life's work. He had already worked out a few of the minor flaws in the design, and was only restricted by the lack of knowledge about the subject. Despite devoting all of his resources to his goal, the key to his success was in the ancient scripts of the leather bound books that were stacked upon a table no less than twenty feet from him. The answers that he so desired were written in the margins of those ancient books, scrawled on sheets of paper that Raven had shoved between pages when she read them.
The room was filled with red light, flashing violently to alert the five people down in that basement room to an ongoing crime, all of which who promptly ignored it. Several floors above them, the same light flashed in the training room and was accompanied by a wailing siren, which had been disabled on the floors below. Out of the Tower rushed nearly a dozen individuals, all from different countries and yet all united in their duty to protect Jump City while its permanent guardians were preoccupied. Jump City had, ironically, never been safer for its citizens. During a time of crisis for the team, their friends and allies quickly rose to the challenge of protecting the metropolis and had done so with a passion.
*
Raven was treated to a great surprise when she returned to the clearing, as two of the nine small cabins were nearing their final stages and the others, including Holly and hers, were almost half way completed. Raven recognized a few of the villagers helping out too, after they had all repaired what damage that had been done to their own shops and homes. Of the villagers Raven quickly spotted a short girl no older than ten, who stood in between Holly and a farmer who was helping with the cabin. Rena, who was also the first to spot Raven gave her a small wave and tugged on the shirt of her father next to her, giving a gesture in Raven's direction.
"Dad, that's the woman that Holly was with last ni-" Rena was cut off by Holly's strong hand clamped over her mouth.
Her father gave a chuckle. "Sneaking around again, were you?"
"I was taking the grains to the diner! It wasn't my fault." Rena protested as she pulled away Holly's now slack hand.
"You need a new hobby. And remember, what's her business is not yours, okay?" Her father told her.
"Yea, yea." She replied as Raven approached, carrying four bowls of the stew that has been cooking. Three of the four ate in silence, and allowed Rena to talk about her morning school lesson. It was an hour past high noon when they finished eating and Rena ran off back to the village to return to her classes.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, as the Warriors and villagers alike worked to rebuild their island better than it was before. All nine small cabins were finished a couple hours before nightfall, along with a single, wide open building that would be used for training.
*
“Being that we have some rare free time," Suki said to the Warriors, once the remaining villagers had all left, "I’m going to the hot springs, anybody else want to come?"
The general agreement among the warriors solidified the decision, and in a few minutes they had all returned to their newly completed homes to change into their proper attire.
Raven followed Holly into their cabin, so far nobody had raised any questions about them being in the same cabin, and Raven assumed it was because none of them expected her to be there for very long. As to how true that was Raven had her doubts, and a mixed opinion.
"If you'd like to go to the hot spring with them, you can borrow a swim suit from Akiko; she's about your size."
"Oh, are you not going?"
"Never have before, why would I this time?"
"Well why not?" Asked Raven, knowing it was a poor argument and expecting a poor excuse in return. "You've been working all day, just relax for a while."
"Maybe I don't like swimming."
"And maybe that's a crap excuse."
"Look, you've seen the scars I have. I've managed to keep those hidden from most of them, save for Ko and Suki, I'd like to keep it that way. Besides, they'll ask about the bandages too, that's even worse."
"So you're ashamed of them."
"So you assume things."
"It's not an assumption; my powers allow me to feel some of your emotions if they're strong enough."
"Maybe I just don't want their pity."
"And you're ashamed of it."
"And you're being an ass." Holly said, wanting the conversation to end.
"Yes, I am. But I know exactly where you're coming from. I hid my past for quite a long time, and I did so mostly out of shame."
"You're point?"
"You're ashamed of your scars, but many wouldn't be. Remember my teammate Starfire? She came from a warrior race; her race wears them as trophies, essentially saying that you were stronger than whoever tried to harm you."
"Can this conversation stop now?"
"Only if you go with us."
"Hmph, fine, and for the record, you're a persistent ass." Holly said again, but pondering the new way to look at the foul memories that were imprinted on her body. She got up and started for the door.
"I've been called worse, where are you going now?"
"To borrow a suit from Ko, the one I have is seven years old."
Raven smiled a bit as she watched her walk away. They were both broken souls, she concluded; but just maybe, together they could scrape together one half decent one. They had found each other by chance, but they remained together by choice.
*
The eight Warriors and Raven fit into the hot spring with room to spare, and while Holly was nowhere to be seen, none of the Warriors seemed to be surprised by it. What did surprise them, however, was when she did walk up ten minutes later, wearing a robe over her suit.
Carefully lowering herself into the water while slowly raising the robe as to not allow any scars to be seen. Seven of the Warriors sat there shocked; while Ko, who had known beforehand, watched the others with mild amusement. Holly had never done many recreational things with the team to begin with, despite all of them being a very close knit group. Partly due to the fact that many say she has spent more time in prisons than on the island.
But for her to go swimming with them? It was simply unheard of, despite it being such a commonplace past time with the hot springs on Kyoshi.
Ko, who positioned herself next to Raven, slid over a foot or so to make room for Holly in between them. Raven waited until Holly had settled into the water, and then gave a small tug on the edge of the bandage that still remained wrapped around her arm. Raven's hand was swatted away the first and second time she tried to take it off, but on the third she met no physical resistance, and carefully unraveled the bandage without the others noticing; as the bandage was below the water and out of sight. A silence hung over the girls for a few minutes, until Suki started back up the usual, and in Raven's opinion, pointless, chatter that allowed the warriors to take their mind off the daily stresses of their job.
Holly pulled her hair back and tied it behind her, and proceeded to rest her head on Raven's shoulder; making it clear as to who the others should blame, or thank, for her showing up.
*
"What's that?" Holly asked as she walked in, referring to the sheet of paper that Raven had borrowed earlier that day. Raven was sitting on her hammock and had just finished writing. They had left the hot spring nearly an hour ago and since then had moved up the few belongings of the two into the cabin.
"Just a journal." Raven responded, not knowing exactly why she decided to write one, but not seeing enough harm in stopping. Holly sat herself down next to Raven, putting more stress on the bolts that held in the hammock, but the walls were well built, despite being put together in a matter of hours.
Holly looked at the paper over Raven's shoulder and started reading it silently to herself. "What's that word?" She asked pointing to a line a third the way down the paper. "Antiquated." She said as she folded the sheet of paper without letting Holly finish reading it.
"Hey!" Holly cried in protest.
"It was private."
"Then why did you let me read it in the first place?"
"I…didn't think that you could. We speak the same language but it's written very differently here."
"Yea, it surprised me too."
"Really?"
"Sure. When I was young my mother taught me how to read and write like that. She always said it was an ancient language, and not to use it outside of our home. I've never really seen it since those days –now that I think about it."
"That's…interesting. So why did Suki want you?" Raven asked, changing the topic. I'll have to ask Wisdom about this later.
"Well, I'll be leaving for a bit. There's an annual dance going on in the Fire Nation, several admirals will be there. I'm to go and, ah, 'find' some information about the rumors of an attack on our island." She quietly said.
"That's ridiculous, didn't you just get back here? She can't make you leave again-"
"She asked me, she did not make me. Besides, it would only make sense for me to go. Namely because I don't look like I'm from any particular nation, if any of the others went, they would be stopped before they enter the city. And more importantly, if I go, nobody else had to."
"You're persistent." Raven said, using Holly's words from before.
"I know."
"When do you leave?"
"Midday tomorrow."
"Fine." Raven said resignedly as her beloved got up and slumped down into her own hammock on the opposite wall, falling into a deep sleep within seconds.
*
"Why the hell does she have to leave? Azar knows how long she could be gone!" Love exclaimed to Rude, who happened to have the misfortune of being in the area.
"Then get off your ass and do something about it."
"I mean how could she even do this?! How could Suki do this?" Love had started pacing in front of Rude
"Why are we having this conversation?"
"I swear, if she gets herself killed or something…" Rude picked up a pebble and gave it a hard throw at the purple Raven
"What?" Love demanded, mad at being interrupted.
"This island is not your home. Your home right now is where she is. So go with her and get away from me. Now."
Love grinned and complied with Rude's demand, satisfied with the new option.
*
R&R!
If you're reading this, then most of you probably have an opinion of how it might end, what "should" happen next, or what you think would be interesting to see happen. So send a PM or drop a review! I'm always looking for new ideas, and I will probably work it into the story if I like it / think I can.
Couple things: first I think Raven may be getting too out of character – not quite sure yet – that, and I'd like to ask how you guys picture the OC(s). Curious about that second one because I know that some people (i.e. me) have a (terrible) habit of either skimming past descriptions or to forget them and form an image in my own head of what the person or area looks like. And more often than not, we use a “default” image of the person, and maybe work in a few of the details that have been mentioned onto that “default”. That idea, that every reader’s image of a character could be different, is personally one of the most interesting things to me about reading and writing.
*
Raven woke up to the metallic pounding of a hammer against a thick nail. Her cloak had been rolled up while she was sleeping and now propped up her head, replacing Holly from the night before. Holly, on the other hand, stood a few feet away from her and was nailing a wood board to connect two of the four posts that would the corners of the soon to be cabin. Raven twisted her head to the side to see the other eight Warriors doing the same thing, each in different stages of their own lodges.
"You're really building it around me?" Raven mumbled as she sat up and dusted off her leotard; brushing her hand over the accumulated stains and a few tears that were beginning to form.
Holly smiled down at her, and said "Of course." through the nails that she had clamped in between her teeth.
"If you'd like you can build your own, I'll help out when I'm done and I'm sure the others will too."
"You really think I can build one of those?" Raven asked rhetorically.
"Point taken, I could make this one a bit larger if you want."
"I wouldn't mind, where could I wash my clothes here?"
Holly gave a curious stare. "You wash them?"
Raven visibly cringed and shuddered at the response.
"I'm joking," She said as she let out a loose laugh. "There's a stream a few minutes' walk toward the mountain, but it's probably too cold this time of year. Just past that there's a small hot spring. That should work fine."
Raven rolled her eyes at the 'joke' and began walking in the indicated direction.
"By the way, Suki gave us the day off today. And why don't you take a spare kimono with you until we can patch up your clothes, before the tears get worse." Holly said over her shoulder, as she tapped in a new nail into the board.
Raven strode past the stew that was brewing over the fire, the pile of debris from their old dojo, and the other warriors each building their own new homes. A calm day after yesterday's events. She thought as she felt the warmth of the autumn sun on her back, and odd sensation as it mixed with the cool air.
*
"Hey, what's going on with Holly? She's actually smiling today, not just faking it like normal." Akiko said as she drank a cup of hot tea with Ko. Akiko had always been able to pick up on those things, more than anybody else in the group. Without Akiko pointing it out, nobody would've been able to tell that her smiles were often just a front.
"I dunno." Ko said, deciding to keep what she saw last night between her and Yumiko. All the warriors knew that Holly had stuck her neck out for them more than once, so respecting her privacy was one of the very least things that they could do. Of course, Ko thought, it was an innocent question. But if anything actually is going on between them, Holly will tell us when she decides to.
*
Raven found the hot spring easily and, using some shrubs as a screen, quickly changed into the green kimono. After placing a few stones on her clothes to stop them from drifting away, she left them to soak in to steaming water and decided against scrubbing them with loose sand for fear that the small tears in the flimsy fabric would grow. She sat down and let her feet dangle in the water, and pulled out a piece of thick paper and a pencil that she had borrowed from the pile of items that used to be in the dojo. It had been a spur of the moment decision once she saw them, unusual for Raven under normal circumstances; however, many things weren't normal right now, such as Holly's state of euphoria – or the fact that it's because of a being from a different world.
She had only written down a paragraph in a small and neat script when she decided to pull her cloak and leotard out of the water and scrub some of the areas that appeared to be free of wear. She slung her wet clothes over her arm and headed back to her new friends, the paper tucked into the sash of her kimono.
*
Cyborg stood in one of the tower's few floors that rested below sea level, hunched over a metal table with several tanks of carbon dioxide next to him. He was welding two halves of a disk back together, moving slowly and carefully, as the seam had to be as strong as possible. The entire floor was open, with two rows of tables against the walls and what was left of the base of the Professor's machine in the center. On the tables were the many parts of the machine in various stages of reconstruction. Only a few of the subsystems of the Professor's machine had the Titans been able to start rebuilding, and while Robin had tackled that job, Beast Boy was sorting through the piles of twisted metal that was left of the machine, deciding what to scrap and what may be of importance. Starfire sitting was next to Robin and absentmindedly twirling her hair around her finger as she flipped through the pages of Raven's books, she was only on the third of seven books that she had found and although she was moving slowly, she had been able to grasp the abstract concepts with amazing ease.
Cyborg finished the weld and began to grind the seam of another part smooth. He was not working on part of the machine like Robin was - instead he was constructing a small device, no larger than a lawnmower engine, according to the Professor's design. Cyborg took a moment to let the metal cool and surveyed the room.
They had not made nearly as much progress as they had hoped, and while they were working tirelessly there was still many daunting challenges that loomed ahead of them. One of them, that Cyborg was certain that Robin had already thought of, was the fear that was in the back of everybody's minds, whether or not they realized it. Was Raven still alive? There was no way they could know right now, and all of their efforts may have been in vain if she wasn't. That was the reason why Cyborg did not work on the machine to return Raven back to Earth. No, instead he was working to amplify their communicator's signals. Using the theories that their former enemy had provided, Cyborg worked not to return Raven, but to contact her first.
The Professor was not exempt from this tiring work, as he was alongside Robin piecing back together the masterpiece of his life's work. He had already worked out a few of the minor flaws in the design, and was only restricted by the lack of knowledge about the subject. Despite devoting all of his resources to his goal, the key to his success was in the ancient scripts of the leather bound books that were stacked upon a table no less than twenty feet from him. The answers that he so desired were written in the margins of those ancient books, scrawled on sheets of paper that Raven had shoved between pages when she read them.
The room was filled with red light, flashing violently to alert the five people down in that basement room to an ongoing crime, all of which who promptly ignored it. Several floors above them, the same light flashed in the training room and was accompanied by a wailing siren, which had been disabled on the floors below. Out of the Tower rushed nearly a dozen individuals, all from different countries and yet all united in their duty to protect Jump City while its permanent guardians were preoccupied. Jump City had, ironically, never been safer for its citizens. During a time of crisis for the team, their friends and allies quickly rose to the challenge of protecting the metropolis and had done so with a passion.
*
Raven was treated to a great surprise when she returned to the clearing, as two of the nine small cabins were nearing their final stages and the others, including Holly and hers, were almost half way completed. Raven recognized a few of the villagers helping out too, after they had all repaired what damage that had been done to their own shops and homes. Of the villagers Raven quickly spotted a short girl no older than ten, who stood in between Holly and a farmer who was helping with the cabin. Rena, who was also the first to spot Raven gave her a small wave and tugged on the shirt of her father next to her, giving a gesture in Raven's direction.
"Dad, that's the woman that Holly was with last ni-" Rena was cut off by Holly's strong hand clamped over her mouth.
Her father gave a chuckle. "Sneaking around again, were you?"
"I was taking the grains to the diner! It wasn't my fault." Rena protested as she pulled away Holly's now slack hand.
"You need a new hobby. And remember, what's her business is not yours, okay?" Her father told her.
"Yea, yea." She replied as Raven approached, carrying four bowls of the stew that has been cooking. Three of the four ate in silence, and allowed Rena to talk about her morning school lesson. It was an hour past high noon when they finished eating and Rena ran off back to the village to return to her classes.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, as the Warriors and villagers alike worked to rebuild their island better than it was before. All nine small cabins were finished a couple hours before nightfall, along with a single, wide open building that would be used for training.
*
“Being that we have some rare free time," Suki said to the Warriors, once the remaining villagers had all left, "I’m going to the hot springs, anybody else want to come?"
The general agreement among the warriors solidified the decision, and in a few minutes they had all returned to their newly completed homes to change into their proper attire.
Raven followed Holly into their cabin, so far nobody had raised any questions about them being in the same cabin, and Raven assumed it was because none of them expected her to be there for very long. As to how true that was Raven had her doubts, and a mixed opinion.
"If you'd like to go to the hot spring with them, you can borrow a swim suit from Akiko; she's about your size."
"Oh, are you not going?"
"Never have before, why would I this time?"
"Well why not?" Asked Raven, knowing it was a poor argument and expecting a poor excuse in return. "You've been working all day, just relax for a while."
"Maybe I don't like swimming."
"And maybe that's a crap excuse."
"Look, you've seen the scars I have. I've managed to keep those hidden from most of them, save for Ko and Suki, I'd like to keep it that way. Besides, they'll ask about the bandages too, that's even worse."
"So you're ashamed of them."
"So you assume things."
"It's not an assumption; my powers allow me to feel some of your emotions if they're strong enough."
"Maybe I just don't want their pity."
"And you're ashamed of it."
"And you're being an ass." Holly said, wanting the conversation to end.
"Yes, I am. But I know exactly where you're coming from. I hid my past for quite a long time, and I did so mostly out of shame."
"You're point?"
"You're ashamed of your scars, but many wouldn't be. Remember my teammate Starfire? She came from a warrior race; her race wears them as trophies, essentially saying that you were stronger than whoever tried to harm you."
"Can this conversation stop now?"
"Only if you go with us."
"Hmph, fine, and for the record, you're a persistent ass." Holly said again, but pondering the new way to look at the foul memories that were imprinted on her body. She got up and started for the door.
"I've been called worse, where are you going now?"
"To borrow a suit from Ko, the one I have is seven years old."
Raven smiled a bit as she watched her walk away. They were both broken souls, she concluded; but just maybe, together they could scrape together one half decent one. They had found each other by chance, but they remained together by choice.
*
The eight Warriors and Raven fit into the hot spring with room to spare, and while Holly was nowhere to be seen, none of the Warriors seemed to be surprised by it. What did surprise them, however, was when she did walk up ten minutes later, wearing a robe over her suit.
Carefully lowering herself into the water while slowly raising the robe as to not allow any scars to be seen. Seven of the Warriors sat there shocked; while Ko, who had known beforehand, watched the others with mild amusement. Holly had never done many recreational things with the team to begin with, despite all of them being a very close knit group. Partly due to the fact that many say she has spent more time in prisons than on the island.
But for her to go swimming with them? It was simply unheard of, despite it being such a commonplace past time with the hot springs on Kyoshi.
Ko, who positioned herself next to Raven, slid over a foot or so to make room for Holly in between them. Raven waited until Holly had settled into the water, and then gave a small tug on the edge of the bandage that still remained wrapped around her arm. Raven's hand was swatted away the first and second time she tried to take it off, but on the third she met no physical resistance, and carefully unraveled the bandage without the others noticing; as the bandage was below the water and out of sight. A silence hung over the girls for a few minutes, until Suki started back up the usual, and in Raven's opinion, pointless, chatter that allowed the warriors to take their mind off the daily stresses of their job.
Holly pulled her hair back and tied it behind her, and proceeded to rest her head on Raven's shoulder; making it clear as to who the others should blame, or thank, for her showing up.
*
"What's that?" Holly asked as she walked in, referring to the sheet of paper that Raven had borrowed earlier that day. Raven was sitting on her hammock and had just finished writing. They had left the hot spring nearly an hour ago and since then had moved up the few belongings of the two into the cabin.
"Just a journal." Raven responded, not knowing exactly why she decided to write one, but not seeing enough harm in stopping. Holly sat herself down next to Raven, putting more stress on the bolts that held in the hammock, but the walls were well built, despite being put together in a matter of hours.
Holly looked at the paper over Raven's shoulder and started reading it silently to herself. "What's that word?" She asked pointing to a line a third the way down the paper. "Antiquated." She said as she folded the sheet of paper without letting Holly finish reading it.
"Hey!" Holly cried in protest.
"It was private."
"Then why did you let me read it in the first place?"
"I…didn't think that you could. We speak the same language but it's written very differently here."
"Yea, it surprised me too."
"Really?"
"Sure. When I was young my mother taught me how to read and write like that. She always said it was an ancient language, and not to use it outside of our home. I've never really seen it since those days –now that I think about it."
"That's…interesting. So why did Suki want you?" Raven asked, changing the topic. I'll have to ask Wisdom about this later.
"Well, I'll be leaving for a bit. There's an annual dance going on in the Fire Nation, several admirals will be there. I'm to go and, ah, 'find' some information about the rumors of an attack on our island." She quietly said.
"That's ridiculous, didn't you just get back here? She can't make you leave again-"
"She asked me, she did not make me. Besides, it would only make sense for me to go. Namely because I don't look like I'm from any particular nation, if any of the others went, they would be stopped before they enter the city. And more importantly, if I go, nobody else had to."
"You're persistent." Raven said, using Holly's words from before.
"I know."
"When do you leave?"
"Midday tomorrow."
"Fine." Raven said resignedly as her beloved got up and slumped down into her own hammock on the opposite wall, falling into a deep sleep within seconds.
*
"Why the hell does she have to leave? Azar knows how long she could be gone!" Love exclaimed to Rude, who happened to have the misfortune of being in the area.
"Then get off your ass and do something about it."
"I mean how could she even do this?! How could Suki do this?" Love had started pacing in front of Rude
"Why are we having this conversation?"
"I swear, if she gets herself killed or something…" Rude picked up a pebble and gave it a hard throw at the purple Raven
"What?" Love demanded, mad at being interrupted.
"This island is not your home. Your home right now is where she is. So go with her and get away from me. Now."
Love grinned and complied with Rude's demand, satisfied with the new option.
*
R&R!
If you're reading this, then most of you probably have an opinion of how it might end, what "should" happen next, or what you think would be interesting to see happen. So send a PM or drop a review! I'm always looking for new ideas, and I will probably work it into the story if I like it / think I can.
Couple things: first I think Raven may be getting too out of character – not quite sure yet – that, and I'd like to ask how you guys picture the OC(s). Curious about that second one because I know that some people (i.e. me) have a (terrible) habit of either skimming past descriptions or to forget them and form an image in my own head of what the person or area looks like. And more often than not, we use a “default” image of the person, and maybe work in a few of the details that have been mentioned onto that “default”. That idea, that every reader’s image of a character could be different, is personally one of the most interesting things to me about reading and writing.
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