Fan Fiction ❯ Sweet Dreams ❯ Opened Book ( Chapter 2 )

“It's the greatest statue made since Cy's leaning tower of pizza…THE SUPER MEGA NON-MEATY MONUMENT OF TOFU AND OTHER SOY PRODUCTS! Yeah baby, break out the syrup!”

 

“AW NO MAN BB, NONE OF THAT SOY JUNK WHEN I'M HERE! Today, we eat real food for once...bacon, eggs, and real milk, GOT IT?”

 

“So then, leave!…Starfire wants to help me eat this tremendous tofu tower, doncha Star?”

 

“Friends….please, do not fight…for I know how to settle the argument of food! I shall make a plate of delicious Tamaranian Sapcrogles! They taste like the Earth Bladlehog with a sprinkle of Zorking…”

 

“And you think tofu is funky? At least it isn't fermented blue curd stuff covered in boils!”

 

Pizza boxes frisbeed across the room, as did Cyborg's Game Station, cartilages, and three controllers. Beast Boy shouted and mocked Cyborg over his booming voice while tears welled up in Starfire's eyes. She stomped her feet and tried to maintain order as their voices grew louder, but everyone fell silent when the doors slid open, with Raven emerging from the dark hallway. Sleep masked her face as she ignored the other's stares, filling a kettle with water. Soon after she arrived, Robin stood at the top of the stairs and looked at each titan, one by one.

“Uh…good morning?” He declared uncertainly, descending the staircase and walking over to the kitchen.

“Robin, good morning to you as well! Today is a beautiful day…perhaps we should commence in the…Obstacles of Training?”

“Man, I don't feel like doing diddly today, Star…not after all those back to back missions- Dr. Light, Father Blood, Cinderblock…” Cyborg responded to her request, reaching into the refrigerator to use the eggs and milk.

“Yeah, Star…maybe we should all catch a flick instead?” Beast Boy looked around hopefully for replies, but saw that everyone stared at Raven.

 

She turned the teapot on the burner quietly, remaining speechless.

 

“Oohhkay…so some of us had a rough night?” Beast Boy crossed his arms and grabbed the syrup bottle from the pantry.

Starfire and Cyborg just looked at each other and shrugged.

 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

 

Raven hovered down the dark hallway with the kettle of tea, looking at the ground…expecting something. Stopping, she set herself down to the floor and tiptoed the rest of the way to her room, unusually aware of the ground beneath her. It's still solid. It's still there. The sliding of a door made her jump and phase through her own door, not bothering to open it first. Gasp…Who's there? She pressed her ear to the door for two minutes, waiting, and then relaxed in the silence of her room. All of a sudden, there was a knock on her door and the tea flew into the air, crashing noisily to the ground.

“Hey Raven, it's only me.” Answered Robin, as she stood up with the empty kettle and opened the door.

“Hi…” Raven said sarcastically, looking down at her tea-spilled uniform.

“Oh, I'm sorry- did I scare you? Uh here, let me help…”

“I wasn't scared, I was just surprised…no, it's alright, really.” She said as Robin tried his best to brush the tea out of the fabric, which didn't do much help at all.

“Er, Robin?” Raven blushed and stared at his misplaced hand, brushing the tea off her chest.

“Oh! I uh…” Robin dropped to the floor and began scouring her carpet with his cape, drying the spots and blushing even more than she was. As his cheeks cooled down a bit, he quickly stood up and met his eyes to hers again.

“Yeah, so the real reason I came by was to…help you clean your room.”

“Ah, Robin…I cleaned it last night.” She waved her hand around her room, displaying the lack of bed sheets, curtains, and books.

“Right. Maybe we could just, I don't know…talk?”

Raven looked down at her feet and fidgeted with her fingers before deciding, “Yes…I'd like that. But not here- can we go somewhere else?”

 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

 

The cold, metal doors slid open and a cool air curled around Raven's cape.

“Wow…” She looked around the room in astonishment, unsure of what to say.

“'Wow' what? Have you never been in my room before?”

“Actually, no…all of these articles and pictures of Slade…defeating him really was a lot of your life, wasn't it?”

“Yeah, I guess…now that he's gone, I'm not sure how to go about myself. Heh, maybe I should think about redecorating?”

“Haha, perhaps…um, do you mind if I sit down?” Raven walked away from the light towards his desk.

“Not at all, take a seat anywhere.”

She folded her legs under her in midair, her cape draping beneath her.

“Raven…you may sit on something real if you'd like.”

“Well, alright.” She blushed slightly before hovering to the edge of his bed. Robin walked over to the bed and sat next to her.
”So you had a dream last night…tell me what happened.”

She sighed and glanced down at her hands. Raven began in a paced manner, from the very beginning, not leaving so much as a scent out of her description. Robin nodded his head and drew in closer…never saying a word, just listening. Her voice would fluctuate when she felt scared, soften when she was unsure, and become faster and faster as she fell into the orange abyss through the cliff rocks, “…And as I fell into the light, it was as if hands were dragging me down…I screamed and screamed but no sound came from my throat, and being sucked in felt much darker than the dark I had been pulled from, and-“

Raven's voice cracked beneath her story as she doubled over, tears splattering the concrete floor. Her breathing came out in small, choked gasps.

“Raven…” Robin whispered, swiftly taking her into his arms.

 

“It…it felt so real.

 

I felt trapped, alone…

 

As if I were the only being ever alive

 

Damned by my own father, I suppose…”

 

The two sat on the bed, Raven in his arms crying openly, finally breaking her shield. Tears burned her face and her knees curled up to her chest, wrapping herself in a tight ball that Robin rocked back and forth consolingly by his side. Through the cracked bedroom door, an eye glowed green with envy, but grew dim soon enough. “I wish it had been me, but if my friends are now happy…then this is as it shall be.”