Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > To the End of the World . . . and After
Girl Talk & Dates
0 reviewsRaven decides she needs to try one more thing before the end, but is still surprised at the results.
1Moving
To the End of the World . . . and After
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
Chapter VII – Girl Talk & Dates
Raven decides she needs to try one more thing before the end, but is still surprised at the results.
*
Twenty-three days before the end of the world
“You wanted to see us?” Nightwing asked. Starfire and the recently rechristened Changeling were beside him.
“I did,” Raven agreed. “I’ve done everything I can do until it’s time to prepare the site in more detail, and that really won’t be until a few days before . . . well, before I have to use the site. Meta-crime is way down. . . .”
“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Nightwing broke in.
Raven sighed. “As meta-criminals are being caught, the Lanterns are taking them to Paris, where they are frozen. If the world doesn’t end, then they will be unfrozen and tried.”
Nightwing made a face and scratched his head. Finally, he shrugged, “I’m surprisingly totally okay with that.” If things did end, those frozen would suffer far less than the rest of the world, so the possible short-term lack of due process was hardly an issue. “So, what’s up?” He was surprised at how nervous Raven was.
“I . . . you know I don’t usually like ‘normal,’ right?” she replied.
“True,” Nightwing agreed. “But. . . ?” he encouraged.
“I was wondering if the four of us could slip away for a few days,” Raven replied. “It would give me a chance to use my glamor spells and ring in field conditions, and you three could use your holo-rings.” Nightwing, of course, could either use the ring or go as Richard Greyson.
“The four of us?” Changeling asked. Raven had not had much free time in the Tower over the previous weeks, but much of it was spent on the sofa in the common area, usually with her leaning either on Changeling or Starfire, although Cyborg, Nightwing, and even Jinx had found themselves in the same position a few times. All were happy to supply her with the human contact she needed as she prepared to do something she had never thought she would willingly do. All of them had therefore welcomed her quiet advances for comfort.
“Yes,” Raven replied, a bit puzzled. “Even with a holo-ring, Cyborg is too large to fit in easily. With him, Kid Flash, and Jinx still here, and maybe some backups, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“No, no,” the green teen replied, “I meant us four, as in two couples?” Nightwing was a bit surprised at the eagerness in his friend’s voice, while Starfire merely smiled.
“If you want,” Raven replied in as off-hand a voice as she could manage. She, on the other hand, for once, didn’t catch the tone in Changeling’s voice.
“Like a double-date vacation?” he teased.
“Yes,” Raven snapped, “if only because I would like to date before the end of the world! All right!?”
“Alright,” Changeling nearly chirped.
“You don’t have to . . . what?”
“I’ll be your date, or even your partner; whatever you’re comfortable with,” Changeling said.
“Where would we go?” Nightwing asked, deciding to move things along.
When Raven didn’t immediately volunteer a venue, Starfire jumped in. “I wish to visit the Land of Disney in case it does go away!”
“Disneyland!” Raven exclaimed, dismayed. “Oh, h. . . .”
“Great!” Changeling shouted over Raven. “I always wanted to visit Disneyland.”
“Aren’t we a little too old?” Raven asked.
“No!” Starfire and Changeling shouted.
“I think it would be a great place to go for a day,” Nightwing agreed.
“Et tu, Richard?” Raven complained.
“If we go to Disney, we could go someplace you pick for a second day,” Nightwing offered.
Raven thought about it, then turned to Changeling. “Would you be alright in going to the Smithsonian?”
He thought about it, and looked at Nightwing. “Any chance we could go to Disney and then spend two days at the Smithsonian?”
“Maybe,” Nightwing allowed. “Why?”
“There’s supposed to be way too much there to see in one day. Since there are so many parts of it, we could each pick one and spend half a day in each.”
Nightwing thought about that, and then said, “Deal?”
“Deal,” Changeling agreed.
“It is the deal,” Starfire agreed. The three looked at Raven.
“If you don’t force me on any particular ride at Disney,” Raven said with a sigh, “deal.”
“Will you ride on some?” Changeling challenged.
“I promise.”
“With me?” he asked, trying to be suave.
Raven sighed. “Yes.”
The four then agreed.
*
Some two hours later, Raven looked up from her work when she sensed Changeling approaching her door. To his surprise, it opened before he could knock.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, looking up from her work and taking off the earphones she had been wearing.
“What cha doin’,?” Changeling asked brightly.
“Studying languages, but I don’t think you came here to ask me that.”
While nodding his agreement, Changeling followed this new train of thought instead. “Don’t you know like a hundred languages or something? Other than Japanese, I mean.”
“Hardly,” Raven replied. “I am totally fluent in seven languages, and yes, I can read some two dozen others to some degree, but no, I never learned Japanese or Chinese. However, I need to get the right accents for my French and German, and I need to improve my Russian and several Indian languages to at least nearly the point of verbal fluency.”
Seeing the puzzled look on her friend’s face, Raven explained. “I will need a cover identity on the other Earth, one that won’t raise the wrong questions. I know you don’t know much history, but they, like this world, fought a world war that caused a series of revolutions in Russia. It might turn out differently than here, but there should be plenty of upper middle class refugees, ones that have access to jewels and gold, and who travel.”
“So that explains the Russian. . . .”
“Many of the people of that class, especially in St. Petersburg, were more fluent in French than Russian. There were also many ethnic Germans who maintained their own language and culture. With the right accents, my fluent French and German will excuse my very mediocre spoken Russian.”
“Ooo-okay, and the Indian? Like Apache or Cherokee?”
“No, as in from India,” Raven corrected. “If I have to stay longer than the two and half years, it will likely be easier to live in India, so speaking the languages to some degree as well as reading them would be useful.” Seeing he was satisfied with her explanation, Raven asked, trying to ignore her feelings and so not picking up on Changeling’s. “So, did you want something in particular?”
“Err, are we dating now?” Changeling was startled by the emotions that passed over Raven’s face before she was finally able to recapture her mask. “I mean, I hope we are, but why do you want to? If we are, I mean.”
“You know that I feel, Garfield,” Raven said softly. “You know I feel as deeply as anyone one else. You also know I feel the emotions of others. For some reason, I think everyone who should know that forgets that I not only do I know what they are feeling, but that the reason I know is because I FEEL what they are feeling, at least on the surface. Between those two facts, and how my emotions affect my powers, you also know why I have to keep feelings under control. Perhaps not quite as strictly as I used to, but I still need to.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I do know all that. We all do, but sometimes it’s hard for us to remember it.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I guess because it’s outside our normal experience, especially about the part that you feel what we feel. I mean, it’s easy to understand you might know HOW we feel, but that the reason is that you feel along with us . . . it’s just hard to imagine because that’s way outside our frame of reference. We can’t imagine being able to feel everything like that.” His right hand moved up and behind his head so that he could scratch it. “What does that have to do with our dating? I know you didn’t suggest it just because the world might be ending.”
“Your feelings towards me have changed over the last few months. I believe that they solidified right after our return from Tokyo and you finally noticed both that I had grown a cup size and that you had finally nearly matched my height.”
Changeling flushed at that.
“You had always felt sparks of lust towards me and more than friendly affection, as well as constant true friendship of course, but those first two feelings came and went, and not always together. But when your lust peaked after Tokyo, you also started to have . . . well . . . deeper feelings, feelings which, to my shock, I found I was also feeling towards you when were in Mexico. I . . . I would like to believe I might have done something about this before now, but we’ve all been too caught up in the crisis. Time is now too short to see if those feelings could develop into something really meaningful, but I know I would regret not acting on them at all, just in case we don’t have the chance to develop them later.”
Changeling’s jaw was open from the shock.
“And, either to relieve your mind or greatly disappoint you, I have to be a virgin for the ceremony.”
The flush rushed back and his eyes went to the floor.
Raven stood up and faced her friend. “Garfield?”
Changeling looked up.
Raven took a deep breath to assure herself, and spread her arms slightly. He smiled and hugged her, and to his surprise, Raven hugged him back, hard. “Since you feel how I feel for you, you know it’s not just lust, right?” he asked. He felt her breath hitch, as if she was holding back tears. Raven was strong, but was being overwhelmed by Changelings’ affection now that they were in physical contact.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
After a moment of hesitation, Raven gave in. She didn’t want to, but knew she needed to talk to at least one of her friends about this. “I’m afraid,” she admitted. He knew how difficult it was for Raven to admit to having any strong feeling, but especially this one. “I’m afraid of the ceremony; I’m afraid of going to another world . . . I’m so afraid of being alone again, BB.” She hugged him tightly again, needing the reassurance of his emotions. “I care for the four of you all so much, and I have found I especially care for you. I don’t want to lose you!”
Now it was Changeling who had to hold back tears, both in response to Raven’s emotions and to her calling him ‘BB’ – a term that only her ‘happy’ emotion had called him. Then he remembered what he had said to her right before she had hugged him for the first time, years before – ‘you think you’re alone, but you’re not.’ He could understand why she was afraid of that now, more than anything else she faced. Changeling hugged Raven tightly. “Raven, are you sure you have a better chance of coming back rather than having to stay?”
“It is close,” she admitted, “but yes.”
“If that changes, if you know you’re going to have to stay there before you go, please tell me so I can go with you.”
“I promised I wouldn’t go through with this if the odds fell to below fifty-fifty,” Raven pointed out.
Changeling nodded. “You said there was at least a sixty percent chance of your coming back. If it falls below that, I’m coming with you, even if it means living most days as a lizard or even a sixty year dye-job as a hamster.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am,” he assured you. “Until then, I’m with you as much as you can stand.”
Raven pushed back slightly. “Really?”
“Really. I’ll tell Rob, I mean Nightwing. He’ll understand. We’re all going through a tough time dealing with this, but you have to go through more. You shouldn’t go through this by yourself, Rae.”
Raven simply kissed him lightly in thanks. She pulled back, deep in thought and then pulled completely away. For once, she decided to act on her feelings in a very direct and personal way. “Sit on the vanity bench, Garfield.”
A bit mystified, he did so.
“Face the mirror, not me.”
He turned around, now facing away from here as she had asked, and then Raven came up behind him and placed her fingers on his temples. “I know how you feel about me to a large degree. I can tell you how I feel about you, but it would be fair if I let you feel how I feel. May I?”
Swallowing nervously, Changeling merely nodded.
Raven’s feeling for him flooded into his mind. He knew that Raven actually felt all the emotions he or anyone felt, but the sheer depth and power of her feelings for him – friendship, more than a touch of lust, and above all the depth of her love for him – surprised him almost as much as it moved him.
Raven in turn was surprised at exactly how deep Changeling’s feelings for her actually were, at how much he had suppressed those feelings out of respect for the emotional distance she placed around herself. Those feelings were now fully released, and the two were surprised to learn exactly how they felt for each other.
When Raven dropped her hands, he turned around, pulling off his gloves. He took her hands in hers and looked up into her face. Both of them had wet eyes, and both were quite honestly aroused. Most of all, their feelings were again coursing through the other. “I love you, too.”
Then Raven leaned down and kissed him again. The end of the world was coming soon; there was no reason to wait for some things.
*
The next morning, Raven sat at her vanity in only a thong, brushing her hair as she thought about the evening before. Her senses alerted her, so without turning, she said, “Good morning, Gar.”
Changeling sat up in her bed, confused for a moment. When he took in the sight of her, he could only say, “Wow!”
“You might want to pull on your boxers and use the facilities before breakfast,” she pointed out, setting down her brush and turning to face him.
Changeling’s only response was to repeat, “Wow!”
Blushing only slightly, Raven replied, “Thank you for the compliment.”
Realizing he really had to use the toilet, and cursing yet again there not being bathrooms connected to the bedrooms, Changeling managed to make his way out of bed, pull on his boxers and head out the door.
“Say hello to Starfire,” Raven told him.
“Huh?” he answered. Shaking his head, he opened the door and saw Starfire about to knock. He blushed furiously and ducked out.
Starfire blinked, confused.
“Come in, Starfire. I don’t want to make an exhibition of myself,” Raven told her friend.
Starfire walked into Raven’s room, closing the door behind her. Her eyes looked at the nearly nude Raven, the unmade bed, and the door several times. It seemed to pose her a puzzle she couldn’t believe the any of the likely answers to. Finally, she said, “I am confused. Did you not tell me several weeks ago, when explaining part of the possible ceremony, that you needed to be pure?”
“A virgin, yes; pure no,” Raven replied. “Remember that talk we had years ago about how human female and Tamaranian female physiologies differ?”
“I remember the discussion,” Starfire agreed, “but I am uncertain as to the specific point or points of difference you may be referring to.”
“The hymen,” Raven replied bluntly. “Humans have one, you do not. Even though I am something of a hybrid, essentially I am really fully human with extra abilities, including some shape-changing. Excluding those, the only true physiological differences most medical scans could detect between me and the full range of ‘normal’ humans are my skin, eye, and hair colorings. In fact, perhaps because ‘being intact’ in that sense is important to many ceremonies, and losing it important in several others, mine may be tougher to break than average.”
“So, you and Changeling did not copulate?” Starfire asked.
“No, and we won’t, unless I am with him after the Ninth,” Raven replied. “I was well able to pleasure him in a different way.” Seeing Starfire’s look, Raven retorted, “As an ex-president might have said, I may have had sexual contact with Gar, but we did not have sex.”
Starfire flushed. “I believe I understand.”
“You’ve been very open about your and Nightwing’s acrobatic couplings,” Raven pointed out. “In graphic and, I must admit, sometimes even stimulating detail. Why does the idea of oral sex still embarrass you?”
Starfire extended her nearly fourteen inch prehensile tongue for a moment, flexed it, and then retracted it. “Perhaps in part because of our tongues, and our abilities to acquire language through lip contact, oral affection of any type is not done on my planet, other than a greeting to those close to use with a kiss on the cheek.” She thought a moment, and added, “It may also be because of the difference between human males and Tamaranian males.”
Raven looked interested, so Starfire explained. “Remember, we have our sexual parts fully internalized, rather than mostly so like human females.”
Raven nodded, and then guessed, “And Tamaranian . . . male parts are also somehow internal?”
“When not in use, yes,” Starfire agreed. “In principal, the . . . motions of coupling are similar for human and Tamaranian couples, but I assure you, average human males are almost twice the size of the average Tamaranian.”
“Really?” Raven couldn’t help but look even more interested.
“I was quite surprised,” Starfire had to say frankly. Then she smirked, “I was also quite pleased that Richard is slightly, but only slightly, above human average. It is remarkably pleasurable, but any larger would have been quite painful.”
Raven smirked in return. “Good for you, and be glad you did not decide to date Gar.” Starfire returned the inquisitive look. “He is well above average. Very.”
Starfire giggled. After a moment, however, she paused in thought. “You stated you pleasured Changeling. He did not pleasure you?”
“Not directly,” Raven confessed. She blushed lightly. “Remember, I feel what people around me feel. Since I’m in direct contact with Gar while giving him pleasure, I feel that pleasure as strongly as he does. When he climaxes, so do I.”
Starfire giggled again before going off on another tangent. “I have found Richard’s oral caresses pleasurable, although perhaps not as much so as he would wish. My nervous system is not stimulated at many of the same primary or even secondary erogenous points as a human female. Still, I should try and treat him as a human male, as opposed to a more generic male, might wish. Then perhaps he will be more willing to treat me as I need.”
“There’s always a learning curve between any two people,” Raven assured her friend.
*
Seventeen days before the end of the world.
In the end, the quartet had decided to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World rather than to Disney Land. The League had transported them to the Space Center in Florida the previous evening, and they had then taken ground transportation to Orlando. Now after an early breakfast, they were near the front of the early arrivals at the gate to the magic Kingdom, all looking very ‘normal.’
“Remember our deal,” Raven reminded the others. In return for promising to ride 80 percent of the rides the other three wanted to see, Raven would conduct them throughout the day and choose most of the rides, especially during the morning.
Curious as to their friend’s plan, the others agreed once again.
Raven had in fact drawn up a complete plan, assuming the rides weren’t so crowded as to prevent them from making all of them:
Up to the ‘Haunted Mansion’
Walk down to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
Walk through ‘Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse’
Back to upper main street, through the castle
Send Changeling and Starfire through ‘It’s a Small World’
Spin the ‘Tea Cups’
Lunch
‘Tomorrow Land Speedway’
‘Space Mountain’
‘Carousel of Progress’
Walk back to Frontierland
‘Country Bear Jamboree ‘
‘Big Thunder Mountain Coaster’
Steamboat Ride
Walk shops of Main Street
In the end, they had to skip the Treehouse and the Carousel of Progress because of the long lines for other rides they really wanted to go on, but to the surprise of the other three Raven did all the rides except ‘It’s a Small World.’ As she had predicted, Starfire loved that ride, while Changeling emerged looking like he had after an encounter with some of Mad Mod’s hypno-screens. Starfire was the only one of the four who seemed to love all the rides. Nightwing really only enjoyed ‘Space Mountain’ and ‘Big Thunder Mountain,’ but really only disliked the ‘Country Bear Jamboree.’ (He was grateful not to have to experience ‘It’s Small World.’ He would have enjoyed the Teacups more if he had not had to hold Starfire back – she would have used her strength to spin them to the point of breaking the ride had he allowed her to.)
Raven didn’t really care for any of the rides, although she got some amusement from the ‘Haunted Mansion.’ More than anything, however, she enjoyed the feelings of the people around her, especially her three friends. She also had to admit she enjoyed being snuggled close to Changeling on the faster rides, and was surprised at how much he was enjoying just being with her. After the ‘Haunted Mansion,’ he had taken her hand, and except when they were eating or using the facilities, he had rarely let go of him. The raw affection he was pouring into her almost made her giddy to the point of giggling a few times, but she managed to reign it in. Raven did not regret trying for this intimacy before, for she knew not only had Garfield been as unready for it as she had been, she had not had the control much before the group’s trip to Tokyo. She did, however, rather wish she had been able to obtain that control earlier.
The next morning, Starfire was pleased to see Raven napping on the plane ride to Washington, her head on Changeling’s shoulder. She was more relaxed in public than at any point she had ever been previously.
Starfire could only hope that they would be able to have a long life together.
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
Chapter VII – Girl Talk & Dates
Raven decides she needs to try one more thing before the end, but is still surprised at the results.
*
Twenty-three days before the end of the world
“You wanted to see us?” Nightwing asked. Starfire and the recently rechristened Changeling were beside him.
“I did,” Raven agreed. “I’ve done everything I can do until it’s time to prepare the site in more detail, and that really won’t be until a few days before . . . well, before I have to use the site. Meta-crime is way down. . . .”
“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Nightwing broke in.
Raven sighed. “As meta-criminals are being caught, the Lanterns are taking them to Paris, where they are frozen. If the world doesn’t end, then they will be unfrozen and tried.”
Nightwing made a face and scratched his head. Finally, he shrugged, “I’m surprisingly totally okay with that.” If things did end, those frozen would suffer far less than the rest of the world, so the possible short-term lack of due process was hardly an issue. “So, what’s up?” He was surprised at how nervous Raven was.
“I . . . you know I don’t usually like ‘normal,’ right?” she replied.
“True,” Nightwing agreed. “But. . . ?” he encouraged.
“I was wondering if the four of us could slip away for a few days,” Raven replied. “It would give me a chance to use my glamor spells and ring in field conditions, and you three could use your holo-rings.” Nightwing, of course, could either use the ring or go as Richard Greyson.
“The four of us?” Changeling asked. Raven had not had much free time in the Tower over the previous weeks, but much of it was spent on the sofa in the common area, usually with her leaning either on Changeling or Starfire, although Cyborg, Nightwing, and even Jinx had found themselves in the same position a few times. All were happy to supply her with the human contact she needed as she prepared to do something she had never thought she would willingly do. All of them had therefore welcomed her quiet advances for comfort.
“Yes,” Raven replied, a bit puzzled. “Even with a holo-ring, Cyborg is too large to fit in easily. With him, Kid Flash, and Jinx still here, and maybe some backups, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“No, no,” the green teen replied, “I meant us four, as in two couples?” Nightwing was a bit surprised at the eagerness in his friend’s voice, while Starfire merely smiled.
“If you want,” Raven replied in as off-hand a voice as she could manage. She, on the other hand, for once, didn’t catch the tone in Changeling’s voice.
“Like a double-date vacation?” he teased.
“Yes,” Raven snapped, “if only because I would like to date before the end of the world! All right!?”
“Alright,” Changeling nearly chirped.
“You don’t have to . . . what?”
“I’ll be your date, or even your partner; whatever you’re comfortable with,” Changeling said.
“Where would we go?” Nightwing asked, deciding to move things along.
When Raven didn’t immediately volunteer a venue, Starfire jumped in. “I wish to visit the Land of Disney in case it does go away!”
“Disneyland!” Raven exclaimed, dismayed. “Oh, h. . . .”
“Great!” Changeling shouted over Raven. “I always wanted to visit Disneyland.”
“Aren’t we a little too old?” Raven asked.
“No!” Starfire and Changeling shouted.
“I think it would be a great place to go for a day,” Nightwing agreed.
“Et tu, Richard?” Raven complained.
“If we go to Disney, we could go someplace you pick for a second day,” Nightwing offered.
Raven thought about it, then turned to Changeling. “Would you be alright in going to the Smithsonian?”
He thought about it, and looked at Nightwing. “Any chance we could go to Disney and then spend two days at the Smithsonian?”
“Maybe,” Nightwing allowed. “Why?”
“There’s supposed to be way too much there to see in one day. Since there are so many parts of it, we could each pick one and spend half a day in each.”
Nightwing thought about that, and then said, “Deal?”
“Deal,” Changeling agreed.
“It is the deal,” Starfire agreed. The three looked at Raven.
“If you don’t force me on any particular ride at Disney,” Raven said with a sigh, “deal.”
“Will you ride on some?” Changeling challenged.
“I promise.”
“With me?” he asked, trying to be suave.
Raven sighed. “Yes.”
The four then agreed.
*
Some two hours later, Raven looked up from her work when she sensed Changeling approaching her door. To his surprise, it opened before he could knock.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, looking up from her work and taking off the earphones she had been wearing.
“What cha doin’,?” Changeling asked brightly.
“Studying languages, but I don’t think you came here to ask me that.”
While nodding his agreement, Changeling followed this new train of thought instead. “Don’t you know like a hundred languages or something? Other than Japanese, I mean.”
“Hardly,” Raven replied. “I am totally fluent in seven languages, and yes, I can read some two dozen others to some degree, but no, I never learned Japanese or Chinese. However, I need to get the right accents for my French and German, and I need to improve my Russian and several Indian languages to at least nearly the point of verbal fluency.”
Seeing the puzzled look on her friend’s face, Raven explained. “I will need a cover identity on the other Earth, one that won’t raise the wrong questions. I know you don’t know much history, but they, like this world, fought a world war that caused a series of revolutions in Russia. It might turn out differently than here, but there should be plenty of upper middle class refugees, ones that have access to jewels and gold, and who travel.”
“So that explains the Russian. . . .”
“Many of the people of that class, especially in St. Petersburg, were more fluent in French than Russian. There were also many ethnic Germans who maintained their own language and culture. With the right accents, my fluent French and German will excuse my very mediocre spoken Russian.”
“Ooo-okay, and the Indian? Like Apache or Cherokee?”
“No, as in from India,” Raven corrected. “If I have to stay longer than the two and half years, it will likely be easier to live in India, so speaking the languages to some degree as well as reading them would be useful.” Seeing he was satisfied with her explanation, Raven asked, trying to ignore her feelings and so not picking up on Changeling’s. “So, did you want something in particular?”
“Err, are we dating now?” Changeling was startled by the emotions that passed over Raven’s face before she was finally able to recapture her mask. “I mean, I hope we are, but why do you want to? If we are, I mean.”
“You know that I feel, Garfield,” Raven said softly. “You know I feel as deeply as anyone one else. You also know I feel the emotions of others. For some reason, I think everyone who should know that forgets that I not only do I know what they are feeling, but that the reason I know is because I FEEL what they are feeling, at least on the surface. Between those two facts, and how my emotions affect my powers, you also know why I have to keep feelings under control. Perhaps not quite as strictly as I used to, but I still need to.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I do know all that. We all do, but sometimes it’s hard for us to remember it.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I guess because it’s outside our normal experience, especially about the part that you feel what we feel. I mean, it’s easy to understand you might know HOW we feel, but that the reason is that you feel along with us . . . it’s just hard to imagine because that’s way outside our frame of reference. We can’t imagine being able to feel everything like that.” His right hand moved up and behind his head so that he could scratch it. “What does that have to do with our dating? I know you didn’t suggest it just because the world might be ending.”
“Your feelings towards me have changed over the last few months. I believe that they solidified right after our return from Tokyo and you finally noticed both that I had grown a cup size and that you had finally nearly matched my height.”
Changeling flushed at that.
“You had always felt sparks of lust towards me and more than friendly affection, as well as constant true friendship of course, but those first two feelings came and went, and not always together. But when your lust peaked after Tokyo, you also started to have . . . well . . . deeper feelings, feelings which, to my shock, I found I was also feeling towards you when were in Mexico. I . . . I would like to believe I might have done something about this before now, but we’ve all been too caught up in the crisis. Time is now too short to see if those feelings could develop into something really meaningful, but I know I would regret not acting on them at all, just in case we don’t have the chance to develop them later.”
Changeling’s jaw was open from the shock.
“And, either to relieve your mind or greatly disappoint you, I have to be a virgin for the ceremony.”
The flush rushed back and his eyes went to the floor.
Raven stood up and faced her friend. “Garfield?”
Changeling looked up.
Raven took a deep breath to assure herself, and spread her arms slightly. He smiled and hugged her, and to his surprise, Raven hugged him back, hard. “Since you feel how I feel for you, you know it’s not just lust, right?” he asked. He felt her breath hitch, as if she was holding back tears. Raven was strong, but was being overwhelmed by Changelings’ affection now that they were in physical contact.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
After a moment of hesitation, Raven gave in. She didn’t want to, but knew she needed to talk to at least one of her friends about this. “I’m afraid,” she admitted. He knew how difficult it was for Raven to admit to having any strong feeling, but especially this one. “I’m afraid of the ceremony; I’m afraid of going to another world . . . I’m so afraid of being alone again, BB.” She hugged him tightly again, needing the reassurance of his emotions. “I care for the four of you all so much, and I have found I especially care for you. I don’t want to lose you!”
Now it was Changeling who had to hold back tears, both in response to Raven’s emotions and to her calling him ‘BB’ – a term that only her ‘happy’ emotion had called him. Then he remembered what he had said to her right before she had hugged him for the first time, years before – ‘you think you’re alone, but you’re not.’ He could understand why she was afraid of that now, more than anything else she faced. Changeling hugged Raven tightly. “Raven, are you sure you have a better chance of coming back rather than having to stay?”
“It is close,” she admitted, “but yes.”
“If that changes, if you know you’re going to have to stay there before you go, please tell me so I can go with you.”
“I promised I wouldn’t go through with this if the odds fell to below fifty-fifty,” Raven pointed out.
Changeling nodded. “You said there was at least a sixty percent chance of your coming back. If it falls below that, I’m coming with you, even if it means living most days as a lizard or even a sixty year dye-job as a hamster.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am,” he assured you. “Until then, I’m with you as much as you can stand.”
Raven pushed back slightly. “Really?”
“Really. I’ll tell Rob, I mean Nightwing. He’ll understand. We’re all going through a tough time dealing with this, but you have to go through more. You shouldn’t go through this by yourself, Rae.”
Raven simply kissed him lightly in thanks. She pulled back, deep in thought and then pulled completely away. For once, she decided to act on her feelings in a very direct and personal way. “Sit on the vanity bench, Garfield.”
A bit mystified, he did so.
“Face the mirror, not me.”
He turned around, now facing away from here as she had asked, and then Raven came up behind him and placed her fingers on his temples. “I know how you feel about me to a large degree. I can tell you how I feel about you, but it would be fair if I let you feel how I feel. May I?”
Swallowing nervously, Changeling merely nodded.
Raven’s feeling for him flooded into his mind. He knew that Raven actually felt all the emotions he or anyone felt, but the sheer depth and power of her feelings for him – friendship, more than a touch of lust, and above all the depth of her love for him – surprised him almost as much as it moved him.
Raven in turn was surprised at exactly how deep Changeling’s feelings for her actually were, at how much he had suppressed those feelings out of respect for the emotional distance she placed around herself. Those feelings were now fully released, and the two were surprised to learn exactly how they felt for each other.
When Raven dropped her hands, he turned around, pulling off his gloves. He took her hands in hers and looked up into her face. Both of them had wet eyes, and both were quite honestly aroused. Most of all, their feelings were again coursing through the other. “I love you, too.”
Then Raven leaned down and kissed him again. The end of the world was coming soon; there was no reason to wait for some things.
*
The next morning, Raven sat at her vanity in only a thong, brushing her hair as she thought about the evening before. Her senses alerted her, so without turning, she said, “Good morning, Gar.”
Changeling sat up in her bed, confused for a moment. When he took in the sight of her, he could only say, “Wow!”
“You might want to pull on your boxers and use the facilities before breakfast,” she pointed out, setting down her brush and turning to face him.
Changeling’s only response was to repeat, “Wow!”
Blushing only slightly, Raven replied, “Thank you for the compliment.”
Realizing he really had to use the toilet, and cursing yet again there not being bathrooms connected to the bedrooms, Changeling managed to make his way out of bed, pull on his boxers and head out the door.
“Say hello to Starfire,” Raven told him.
“Huh?” he answered. Shaking his head, he opened the door and saw Starfire about to knock. He blushed furiously and ducked out.
Starfire blinked, confused.
“Come in, Starfire. I don’t want to make an exhibition of myself,” Raven told her friend.
Starfire walked into Raven’s room, closing the door behind her. Her eyes looked at the nearly nude Raven, the unmade bed, and the door several times. It seemed to pose her a puzzle she couldn’t believe the any of the likely answers to. Finally, she said, “I am confused. Did you not tell me several weeks ago, when explaining part of the possible ceremony, that you needed to be pure?”
“A virgin, yes; pure no,” Raven replied. “Remember that talk we had years ago about how human female and Tamaranian female physiologies differ?”
“I remember the discussion,” Starfire agreed, “but I am uncertain as to the specific point or points of difference you may be referring to.”
“The hymen,” Raven replied bluntly. “Humans have one, you do not. Even though I am something of a hybrid, essentially I am really fully human with extra abilities, including some shape-changing. Excluding those, the only true physiological differences most medical scans could detect between me and the full range of ‘normal’ humans are my skin, eye, and hair colorings. In fact, perhaps because ‘being intact’ in that sense is important to many ceremonies, and losing it important in several others, mine may be tougher to break than average.”
“So, you and Changeling did not copulate?” Starfire asked.
“No, and we won’t, unless I am with him after the Ninth,” Raven replied. “I was well able to pleasure him in a different way.” Seeing Starfire’s look, Raven retorted, “As an ex-president might have said, I may have had sexual contact with Gar, but we did not have sex.”
Starfire flushed. “I believe I understand.”
“You’ve been very open about your and Nightwing’s acrobatic couplings,” Raven pointed out. “In graphic and, I must admit, sometimes even stimulating detail. Why does the idea of oral sex still embarrass you?”
Starfire extended her nearly fourteen inch prehensile tongue for a moment, flexed it, and then retracted it. “Perhaps in part because of our tongues, and our abilities to acquire language through lip contact, oral affection of any type is not done on my planet, other than a greeting to those close to use with a kiss on the cheek.” She thought a moment, and added, “It may also be because of the difference between human males and Tamaranian males.”
Raven looked interested, so Starfire explained. “Remember, we have our sexual parts fully internalized, rather than mostly so like human females.”
Raven nodded, and then guessed, “And Tamaranian . . . male parts are also somehow internal?”
“When not in use, yes,” Starfire agreed. “In principal, the . . . motions of coupling are similar for human and Tamaranian couples, but I assure you, average human males are almost twice the size of the average Tamaranian.”
“Really?” Raven couldn’t help but look even more interested.
“I was quite surprised,” Starfire had to say frankly. Then she smirked, “I was also quite pleased that Richard is slightly, but only slightly, above human average. It is remarkably pleasurable, but any larger would have been quite painful.”
Raven smirked in return. “Good for you, and be glad you did not decide to date Gar.” Starfire returned the inquisitive look. “He is well above average. Very.”
Starfire giggled. After a moment, however, she paused in thought. “You stated you pleasured Changeling. He did not pleasure you?”
“Not directly,” Raven confessed. She blushed lightly. “Remember, I feel what people around me feel. Since I’m in direct contact with Gar while giving him pleasure, I feel that pleasure as strongly as he does. When he climaxes, so do I.”
Starfire giggled again before going off on another tangent. “I have found Richard’s oral caresses pleasurable, although perhaps not as much so as he would wish. My nervous system is not stimulated at many of the same primary or even secondary erogenous points as a human female. Still, I should try and treat him as a human male, as opposed to a more generic male, might wish. Then perhaps he will be more willing to treat me as I need.”
“There’s always a learning curve between any two people,” Raven assured her friend.
*
Seventeen days before the end of the world.
In the end, the quartet had decided to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World rather than to Disney Land. The League had transported them to the Space Center in Florida the previous evening, and they had then taken ground transportation to Orlando. Now after an early breakfast, they were near the front of the early arrivals at the gate to the magic Kingdom, all looking very ‘normal.’
“Remember our deal,” Raven reminded the others. In return for promising to ride 80 percent of the rides the other three wanted to see, Raven would conduct them throughout the day and choose most of the rides, especially during the morning.
Curious as to their friend’s plan, the others agreed once again.
Raven had in fact drawn up a complete plan, assuming the rides weren’t so crowded as to prevent them from making all of them:
Up to the ‘Haunted Mansion’
Walk down to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
Walk through ‘Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse’
Back to upper main street, through the castle
Send Changeling and Starfire through ‘It’s a Small World’
Spin the ‘Tea Cups’
Lunch
‘Tomorrow Land Speedway’
‘Space Mountain’
‘Carousel of Progress’
Walk back to Frontierland
‘Country Bear Jamboree ‘
‘Big Thunder Mountain Coaster’
Steamboat Ride
Walk shops of Main Street
In the end, they had to skip the Treehouse and the Carousel of Progress because of the long lines for other rides they really wanted to go on, but to the surprise of the other three Raven did all the rides except ‘It’s a Small World.’ As she had predicted, Starfire loved that ride, while Changeling emerged looking like he had after an encounter with some of Mad Mod’s hypno-screens. Starfire was the only one of the four who seemed to love all the rides. Nightwing really only enjoyed ‘Space Mountain’ and ‘Big Thunder Mountain,’ but really only disliked the ‘Country Bear Jamboree.’ (He was grateful not to have to experience ‘It’s Small World.’ He would have enjoyed the Teacups more if he had not had to hold Starfire back – she would have used her strength to spin them to the point of breaking the ride had he allowed her to.)
Raven didn’t really care for any of the rides, although she got some amusement from the ‘Haunted Mansion.’ More than anything, however, she enjoyed the feelings of the people around her, especially her three friends. She also had to admit she enjoyed being snuggled close to Changeling on the faster rides, and was surprised at how much he was enjoying just being with her. After the ‘Haunted Mansion,’ he had taken her hand, and except when they were eating or using the facilities, he had rarely let go of him. The raw affection he was pouring into her almost made her giddy to the point of giggling a few times, but she managed to reign it in. Raven did not regret trying for this intimacy before, for she knew not only had Garfield been as unready for it as she had been, she had not had the control much before the group’s trip to Tokyo. She did, however, rather wish she had been able to obtain that control earlier.
The next morning, Starfire was pleased to see Raven napping on the plane ride to Washington, her head on Changeling’s shoulder. She was more relaxed in public than at any point she had ever been previously.
Starfire could only hope that they would be able to have a long life together.
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