(Untitled)

[deusexblastia]

Who: Raven and Terra
What: Raven and Terra decide to get away from the tavern for some alone time
When: Late night Sunday, October 4th
Where: Outside the tavern and towards the apartment.
Warnings: It's like that one sex scene in the second Matrix movie, where you totally think you're going to see the girl's breasts and it keeps panning up, panning

Comments

[allnaturalmagic]

Terra had no idea how much time had passed when she woke. At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary; she was in her room, in her bed, and if her head felt a little fuzzy still surely the alcohol was working its way out of her body.

...Which, she noticed with a jolt, was topless. Suddenly it all came back to her, and in growing panic she realized that she didn't remember falling asleep. The last thing she could recall was Raven removing her bra. She wrapped her arms around her body to hold back a sob of remorse and embarrassment. What had she been thinking? Did the alcohol really have so much control over her actions?

She couldn't deny that it had felt nice. Very nice. That wasn't why she was ashamed. True, she was inexperienced and she wasn't sure what to do, but Raven had been more than willing to take charge. And then she had fallen asleep, just like that. He had to have been the one to cover her up, too. She shivered, but it had nothing to do with the chill in the air; Raven had made sure that she wouldn't be cold.

Briefly, she wondered if he had managed to make it safely to his room... and then she heard a deep sigh from the other bed. Moving as silently as possible, her head still spinning, Terra walked over to the bed and wasn't surprised to find Raven there, sound asleep. He looked so peaceful, and with his hair loose and tousled around his face he almost appeared younger, more innocent. Unable to help herself, she reached out to smooth a few locks from his eyes, then stood and watched him in silence for a long time.

The slow pulsing glow from the strange object on his chest was impossible to ignore, especially with his shirt unbuttoned. She traced a line from his forehead to his chest, once again resting her palm against the blastia. It was warm, just like before. Why wouldn't he talk about it? Why was he so determined to deny it even existed?

His shirt was nearly off as it was. She carefully undid the remaining buttons, then removed his shirt entirely. He didn't even stir. After she got a better look at the blastia, her eyes confirmed what she had noticed earlier when he had embraced her. He claimed to be an old man that got tired easily, but he was in wonderful physical condition. So why all the lies? What did this man have to hide, and why was he so afraid of showing who he really was?

If he was truly as perverted and uncaring as he tried to let on, he would have taken advantage of her after she passed out. Instead he had covered her up so that she wasn't cold and passed out in the free bed to sleep. Perhaps the remaining alcohol in her system was helping her to distort things. She doubted it, though. Terra now had an even higher opinion of the strange, confusing man than ever before.

The alcohol did help with her next actions, however. She was still dizzy and slightly disoriented, and the chill was getting to her. The short walk back to her bed suddenly seemed impossibly long. Instead, reacting purely on impulse, she crawled into the same bed as Raven and curled up against him.

[deusexblastia]

He stirred quietly, though not enough to wake up. Were he not so hungover and tired out, he likely would have bolted up on conditioning; he didn't like taking his shirt off for anything past taking a shower. As it stood, he just made a small sound after a while and moved his arm onto Terra's side.

[allnaturalmagic]

Terra slept soundly for a while, only waking once morning finally came about. She felt Raven's arm around her and she smiled drowsily, snuggling closer. It took her a few minutes to realize that something wasn't quite right.

She was missing her skirt. Even though she knew she had still been wearing it last night. Trying to make sense of this, she shifted in the bed, careful to not disturb Raven.

[deusexblastia]

If he weren't so hungover, he would have called that a good night's sleep. He woke up in a nice bed - it wasn't his, right? No, he was in Terra's room - and he had a nice girl curled up next to him. Maybe this was just a dream he really didn't want to wake up from.

Terra was awake too. She looked thoughtful, like something had happened and she wasn't sure what to do about it. Was it something he did? He ran through his actions of the night before and concluded that if it was, Terra held drunk grudges. He yawned, squirmed for a moment, and came to one very interesting question.

Where were my pants?

[deusexblastia]

More importantly, much more importantly, his shirt! Where was his shirt!? He looked around for it and saw a fraction of it out of reach, mostly out of sight. He hadn't put it there. He knew he hadn't taken it off, which meant-

Terra.

His eyes filled with dread and fear as he looked down and confirmed the worst possible situation. Terra was indeed awake, and had her hand on his blastia.

Suddenly, this was not such a good morning.

[allnaturalmagic]

Well, there went that plan. She turned to him and was about to explain when she saw the look on his face. Quickly, guiltily, she pulled her hand away from his chest.

She knew she could have expected a reaction like that, but it hadn't gotten though her sleepy, sill-drunk mind last night. It still didn't explain her missing skirt, though. She sat up, pulling the sheet up to her neck, suddenly embarrassed all over again.

[deusexblastia]

Don't leave any for him or anything. Pulling the sheet up managed to showcase one slightly important fact - Raven was naked. While he considered grabbing another end of the sheet, he dropped it in bewilderment as another question steamrolled over his mind.

Why were his pants being used as blinds for the window?

Dazed, he got up as the world seemed to shake underneath him. He walked slowly but deliberately, took his pants down, and got dressed. However, he never turned back around; he put both arms on the windowsill and leaned against it with his back to her.

"Go ahead. Get changed."

[allnaturalmagic]

She hadn't meant to take the whole sheet for herself, it just kind of... happened. Terra turned away as he got out of the bed, giving him as much privacy as she could. At the sound of his voice, she jumped; visibly shaken she got out of the bed and retrieved her skirt which seemed to have become a lampshade overnight. She dressed as quickly as she could.

"Raven..." Her voice barely a whisper, she cautiously reached out to him, stopping before her hand actually touched his back.

[deusexblastia]

He reached back from his position and ran his hand over hers. His hand closed on top of it as he looked out the window. Morning had just begun, it was light outside, people were going about their day. For now, he was just content, if he could use that word, to just watch and have nothing to do with this life.

"Now why can't ya just let an old man have his secrets," he said. In the resigned manner that he said it, it barely even sounded like a question. Here he was, Raven the Great, full of life and energy, reduced to something barely alive.

He took her hand, the one on his back, and gently lifted it off of him and away from his body.

[allnaturalmagic]

He sounded so distant, so tired... it sent a sharp pang through her heart, and when she tried to speak, the words and the energy to say them slipped through her fingers.

When he moved her hand away, it frightened her. She could feel the walls coming back up to shut her out, and it hurt more than ever after last night.

Terra closed her eyes and desperately sought the right words. She owed him an explanation, at least. "I only... want to understand. You saw what I am, what my other half is..." She began to talk faster now, her voice gradually going from a hesitant whisper back to normal. "At first, I was scared. I thought you'd reject me, call me a monster, treat me like they did." She didn't explain who they were; she didn't know how at this moment. "Instead, you took care of me. I... I want to offer the same kindness to you."

[deusexblastia]

"I saw through nothing more than an accident. If you had landed anywhere else, I would've remained ignorant. You didn't choose to show me. It just happened." He remembered that event like it was the day before yesterday; diving out of the way, covering her with his jacket, his bewilderment at her transformation.

"This, on the other hand. I didn't choose to show you. I didn't want to show you." Schwann turned his head slightly so he could see her out of the corner of his eye. "So why do you persist? Why do you keep pursuing this? What would it even accomplish if you got an answer?"

[allnaturalmagic]

All very good questions, and ones she didn't know how to answer. Why did she continue to pry? She was curious, but it was more than that. Raven had become someone she cared about a great deal. He was a friend, certainly, but gradually something more powerful had begun to take root in her heart. She didn't understand it completely, not yet, but she knew that she wanted to be close to him. When he had coldly pushed her away, it felt like something inside her had shattered. She never wanted to feel that way again.

How did she tell him this? It barely even made sense to her. "I want you to feel comfortable around me. I want you to trust me. I don't understand why you're so afraid to show that object to anyone, or even what it is. I'm not afraid or disgusted by it, I'm just... confused." She moved closer to him, meeting his gaze intently. "Why does someone else seeing that object fill you with such fear, Raven?"

[deusexblastia]

"I would have been comfortable if you had left it be," he responded somewhat bitterly. If this hadn't happened, he'd likely be cracking a joke, or at the very least trying to get back in her pants. Now, however, her actions were what put all this tension in the air. How could he feel comfortable around that?

He looked back to the window, shifting his arm so that someone looking in his general direction couldn't see anything wrong. He had gotten good at that over the years. "I'm afraid you won't be getting any answers today." He knew precious little about the blastia, and it felt like the only advantage he had in this situation was knowing what to call it.

[allnaturalmagic]

"How could I do that? The way you pretend like it doesn't even exist must mean it's something serious. The first time I got a good look at it, and you woke up... I've never seen you look so frightened, or so furious. It worried me."

She paused, hoping he'd turn to look at her again, but he continued to stare out the window. Unsure of how to continue, she stood behind him in silence.

[deusexblastia]

"And you didn't notice how I was more than happy to let it slide?" He turned around to face her and folded his arms over his chest. He wasn't angry so much as resigned that he was having this conversation. With his arms crossed like that, it was like it didn't even exist.

[allnaturalmagic]

Terra didn't know what to say. She had noticed, of course, but... she hadn't been able to let it go.

"I... Raven, I'm sorry."