Have you ever been bone tired? I know that’s a weird expression, I think I picked it up from some old movie. It might mean something different to the rest of you, but to me it is a running on fumes kind of tired. My body feels about 300 pounds heavier, and my muscles feel like they’re made of wet clay barely holding their own weight.
Everything that I do is harder, everything that would be automatic, every step, lifting my arm to turn on the shower, pealing my nearly destroyed clothes off, I have to figure it all out.
I take the hottest shower I can stand. I need too, it wouldn’t matter if I did save the world she would throw me out of her room if I tried to lay in her bed as filthy as I was. I found that out the hard way and ended up shifting into a cat and sleeping the hallway my back against her door the whole night.
After the shower I put on a loose pair of gym shorts and trudge down the hallway. This is the hard part, when my joints start to feel like there rusting over, end everything starts to stiffen. Here is where I am bargaining, begging and bribing my body just to make it to her door reminding it that there is something waiting that is so much better then collapsing in a heap in the hall.
I rested a moment leaning against the door frame. After a few lungs full of air and assuring my legs that we were almost there just another 10 feet I lifted my fist and knocked on the door. There was no reply but the door slid open and I stumbled inside.
Raven is sitting on her bed her back against the headboard her legs pulled up to support the book she was lost in. She doesn’t look up at me as walked in. Her hair was still damp from her own shower and she was in wearing on over-sized T-shirt and not much else. Her bare legs were a welcome sight, her feet tucked under the edge of the blanket that was pooled in the middle of the bed. I love seeing her like this, maybe because I was the only one who can.
I don’t get a chance to finish her eyes still locked on the page she shifts from the middle to one side of the bed. Her hand pats the empty place next to her. She would tell me later that I didn’t need to ask, or even knock, I was welcome her as long as I didn’t reek. But this little ritual felt right to me.
I finally get to give my body what it needs. Rest, real rest. I get to lay down under clean sheets on the firm mattress. I get to close my eyes and all is right in the world. Raven doesn’t need to do anything. She will just sit there reading but her presence is enough. To be let into her world, to be surrounded by her scent to hear the familiar rhythm of her heart. I am safe here. Nothing else puts so much of me at peace. Everything is quiet, everyone is in its den, its burrow, its nest. Nothing is hunting or being hunted the jungle is quiet. I fall into the most satisfying hibernation.
If we are lucky and no one tries to rob a bank using a meatball cannon or take over the world using characters from old Tv shows. If jump city can stay safe and sane for just a little while, I will wake up with Raven cuddled up tight to me. Then we will go out together and eat our body weight in waffles.
I don’t know about the other super-people but that makes doing this all worth it.
This story bangs around my head every time I take a shower, I finally was able to get it down on screen. Btw today is the start of @beastboyappreciationweek this story is not based on any of the prompts and to be honest do not know if it would fit but I thought I would mention it because I love the concept.