Curiosity 3/?
Despite her calm (she was calm, not stoic and emotionless as most would describe her, Tim realized), Raven would show small bursts of emotions. Tim noted she was generous when showing her emotions when she wanted to. It was intriguing to watch her emotions on free display whenever she’d allow them.
For notes, of course. Raven had free emotions, contrary to her old report. Update report. Good job, Tim.
Mildly amused, Tim watched Raven bounce on her heels lightly, impatiently waiting for her Dirty Chai at a local Starbucks. It surprised him how normal (also, pretty) she could look in everyday wear (short flowing black dress with cat faces). As her bare back turned to him while she looked at the pastry display, Tim caught himself in brief awe at how the small woman next to him could be so, well, deadly.
“Tim?”
He blinked as purple eyes stared up at him with an amused glint. Smoothly hiding the fact he spaced out, Tim stuffed his hands into his jeans and regained his composure. “Yeah?”
Raven’s lips twitched as she watched him. “I was asking if you wanted to share a lemon muffin?”
Worthy to note, Raven had a sweet tooth. Ah, notes.
“Sure,” he shrugged and watched her return to the cashier to pay for the muffin while he waited for their drinks at the pick up counter.
“Dirty Chai and Americano for Tim!”
Tim thanked the barista, taking the two hot drinks from the counter. Turning around, he caught sight of Raven by the door, paper bag with a lemon muffin in hand. She opened the door for them, engulfing them both in a gust of warm Gotham spring air.
“Thanks,” said Raven, while taking her drink from Tim. They were headed to a nearby park, since it seemed like a good idea that morning over breakfast. Raven had seen very little of Gotham still and the demon threats had slowed down as the week progressed.
“So,” breathed Tim with an amused lilt in his voice as they settled down in one of the park benches in Gotham Central Park. “Verdict?”
Raven snorted and ignored Tim’s inquiry. She gave the park a quick onceover – for a city with a reputation of being dark and gloomy, the park seemed fit into the city’s standard color tones quite well. Trees and flowers had begun blooming in tones of deep green, red, purple, and lavender. Bushes held darker shades of green, and the little pond had darker waters. “Color palette seems pretty much on point,” she said.
Tim laughed and scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Yeah,” he looked around the park, which was still pretty much empty at an early afternoon. “These basically are Gotham’s standard colors,”
Raven nodded and busied herself in splitting the lemon muffin in two. She handed him the other half of the muffin and took a bite from hers. “I like it,”
Tim watched her, curious. “The muffin?”
Raven rolled her eyes. “Gotham,”
“Ah,” Tim watched her for a moment, taking in how surprisingly relaxed she looked. He took a sip from his coffee as he tried to find the right words to say next.
“This is my first time around Gotham,” Raven looked at him. She absently played with the rim of her chai tea. “Richard has never really taken us around for proper sightseeing,”
“But you see plenty at patrols,” Tim took the opportunity to tease. He laughed when he watched her roll her eyes in slight annoyance and her nose scrunched up. Cute. Tim blinked and mentally backpedaled, pulling his body slightly away from her. What?
Raven rolled her eyes, ignoring Tim’s slight panic. “That doesn’t count,”
Tim composed himself and took a bite of the lemon muffin. “We can go around a bit more later, if you want,”
Raven turned to him, watching him carefully. “You wouldn’t mind?” she played with the rim of her chai tea again.
Tim smiled at her. “Nah,” He waived his coffee cup dismissively, nearly spilling some coffee on himself. “Besides, the company isn’t so bad,”
SERIOUSLY?! Tim felt like cringing.
Raven tilted her head and watched Tim for a second. An eyebrow was raised but there was an amused glint look in her eyes as her lips quirked. Who ever said that Raven was stoic obviously did not know her. Tim felt his lips twitch in amusement as they entered what seemed as a stare down. He hoped Raven did not notice his slight panic.
Raven let out a soft huff and shook her head. “Fine,”
They fell into companionable silence as they finished their drinks and muffin halves. A small smile played on Raven’s lips as she watched everything happen around them at the park. While keeping her eyes trained at a couple of squirrels scurry around the bottom of a tree, she could see Tim out of the corner of her eye.
She would be lying if she wouldn’t admit that Tim was nice company – he knew how to hold engaging and intelligent conversations, he wasn’t as of a bossy mother hen as Richard (sorry, Richard), and he was serious and fun where needed to be. Plus, he was good looking – which, while Raven will never openly admit, was always a plus in her book. Jynx and Karen will have a heart attack when they hear this over margaritas.
Also, she wasn’t blind. It was surprising to feel his waves of emotions at times. And while she was sure that Tim was the Robin with a calm sense of emotions, she was surprised (and, well, flustered) at the push of emotions from him. It wasn’t her fault really – he really did think and feel quite loudly. Too smart, way too much overthinking for his own good. Raven glanced at him briefly before turning back to the squirrels. Not that she also minded the attention, because a part of her, the Raven dressed in deep red robes seemed to enjoy it -- and well, she did too. She chalked up the attention to his interest of learning new things – and probably because he was one of the nicer Robins.
“So there’s a bookstore around the corner,” said Tim, pointing in the direction of the store with his half-empty coffee cup. “Or we can check out this antique store, I think you might like,”
“What makes you think I’d like antiques?”
Raven turned to him fully again, her head titled and a delicate eyebrow raised. Tim faltered, eyes widening and completely caught off guard by the question. He could see she was amused by the now familiar way she quirked her lips and how she slightly narrowed her eyes. She was teasing.
Raven liked to tease. And it was adorable. Tim blinked. Oh, god.
Tim swallowed and felt a blush creep on his cheeks. “Ugh,” Tim scrambled for the right thing to say, while feeling slightly embarrassed by being caught off guard by her. How did she do this?
Raven rolled her eyes at him. She stood up, dropped her empty Starbucks cup and napkin into the trash bin next to the bench. “C’mon, where is this store?”
Tim scrambled to stand up next to her, pleased with how things were turning out. Dropping his cup and napkin into the trash bin as well, he turned to her. “You DO like antiques,”
They began walking down a path in the park that lead to the north exit. Raven shrugged absently, while looking around the path they were walking along. “I like a finding knickknacks,” she sent him a brief glance. “Also, you never know when you might find a cursed item,”
Tim’s brows furrowed, alarmed. “Cursed?!”
“You never know,”
Unfortunately, (or fortunately) they didn’t end up finding any cursed items. They did however find an old Batman action figure, which Tim had bought for her. (“Why would I want THAT?” Raven looked at the toy Batman in disdain, his plastic cape had a few chew marks on them – whether they were human or not, she wasn’t all too sure.)
They tried to drop by the bookstore Tim mentioned earlier, but when they arrived it was already closed. He noted that she looked a tiny bit disappointed as she peered in through the window, curiously taking in some of the books on display. “We can come back some other time,” suggested Tim.
“Yeah, okay,” Raven nodded and tucked the chewed up Batman doll under her arm.
“Dinner?” Tim suggested, tilting his head towards the direction where ever dinner was. It was nearing dinnertime; Raven was surprised how fast time went by. “There’s a diner a couple of blocks away, we can walk there, if you like. I used to go there a lot when I was a kid,” supplied Tim, again vaguely motioning towards a general direction to the left.
“Lead the way,”
“So, favorite book?” Tim asked casually, stuffing both of his hands into his jeans and briefly glancing down at Raven as they were walking towards the dinner. Was she really that short? Tim blinked at the thought.
“Oh,” Raven breathed. She looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to think of a book that would top the list. “That’s hard,” she mumbled. The sun was slowly setting, casting a soft orange glow over Gotham – a nice contrast to the dark tones the city always held.
“Charlotte’s Web,” she finally answered after a few more moments of thinking.
They stopped at a stoplight and Tim looked at her with mild surprise. He was expecting some ancient literary masterpiece or tome. “The children’s book?” he asked, while they were waiting for the light to turn green.
“Well, it’s an adult-appropriate book,” replied Raven. She rolled her eyes when she still felt Tim’s curiosity. “It was one of the very first books I got as a child from my mother,”
“Oh,” Tim stared at her, as she offered him an unreadable expression. He knew her history well – and what happened to her mother. Everything was in her file. It felt like they were crossing a delicate subject.
The light turned green, and people around them started to cross the street. Raven’s eyes slid back towards across the street and began walking. Tim quickly followed her, stepping up next to her.
“It’s been a long time since I read that book,” Tim finally said.
“It’s a really nice book,” Raven nodded. “When I first moved here, a lot of the themes in the book made so much sense.”
“Do you still have a copy of the book?” asked Tim curiously. He silently pointed towards the entrance of an old diner, signaling that they were near.
Raven shook her head. “No. I lost everything when Azarath was destroyed,”
Tim felt like dick to have even asked. Of course she didn’t have a copy. Everything she owned was gone because of the asshole of a father she had. “Right, sorry,” he mumbled. They reached the diner and he opened the door for them.
“It’s alright,” Raven shot him an assuring crooked smile over her shoulder as they both stepped through the doors. She surveyed the diner – it looked like a pretty standard old diner with booths and old tables that probably had seen better days. With the early hour of dinner, there were still just a few dinners around.
“Here,” Tim placed his hand on her back and guided her towards one of the booths in the back. He forgot her dress was backless and was surprised to feel smooth warm skin under his hands. He felt the movement of her muscles as they moved down the rows of booths. He fought whatever feelings that came to mind – thinking how nice the touch felt. Because it did. It felt nice. Comfortably nice. It took a lot of will power not to fan is entire hand over the small of her back.
Tim dropped his hand, finally, finally, once they reached one of the booths in the back. While trying desperately to settle his emotions, he grinned at Raven as she surveyed the diner. “Verdict?”
Raven propped her other elbow on the table, cradling her chin in her open hand. She glanced around before looking at Tim. “Why do I feel like we stepped into a murder mystery set? And it was one of the waitresses who committed the crime?”
Tim grinned, leaned back into the lumpy booth and stretched his legs under the table. He accidentally hit one of her legs. She frowned and nudged his leg, but barely budged. He grinned at her annoyed look. “It’s nice, right?” he said, ignoring another shove from her as his feet crowded her space.
“Hi, Tim!” One of the elderly waitresses came up to their table carrying two menus. Smiling brightly at Tim, she handed the menus over to them.
“Hey, Sue,”
“I’ll leave the menus here for a bit and I’ll be back when you two cuties are ready to order,” the woman nodded, smiled brightly and quickly headed back to the main counter.
“Come here often?” Raven asked, with a slightly amused raise of an eyebrow.
Tim laughed sheepishly and nodded, absently rifling through the menu that never had seen any changes in recent years. It was a menu he memorized by heart. “Kind of,” he replied. “I used to come here often after school when I was a kid. Brought Bruce here a handful of times, so people kind of remember me because of Bruce – it’s hard not to not get recognized when you’re with Bruce,”
“Or when you’re Bruce Wayne’s adopted son it seems,” Raven mused, briefly looking to the side of the diner where a few curious eyes looked their way.
Tim made a face. “Let’s just order,”
Raven shook her head and turned to the menu. Her eyes widened when she saw the number of options. “Do you know what you want?”
“There are some pretty good options,” Time said. He gave watched as Raven’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration, trying to get through the menu. “Here, I’ll order for us. I promise it’ll be good,” he said, sliding his hand over the table and holding her menu, effectively making her stop reading it as if it were a novel. With his free hand he waived Sue over and he smiled brightly at the woman.
“You know what you guys want?”
Tim nodded. “Yeah,” he said while closing his menu. “Could we get two cheeseburgers, with a side of pickles. And chili cheese fries to share?” His eyes slid over a bewildered Raven. “And one chocolate milkshake, a cup of coffee, and save us a slice of pumpkin pie for later,”
“You eat trash,” Raven frowned after Sue had left them. “Alfred will not be pleased,”
Tim tutted. “What Alfred doesn’t know, won’t hurt him,”
When their meal arrived, Raven had to agree it was a good cheeseburger. Where she complained that these were bad calories, he quickly retorted that these were calories that they could easily burn during that evening’s patrol. Raven nudged his foot in annoyance.
It was evening when they finally left the dinner and made it back to the spot near the park where Tim parked his car earlier that afternoon. As Tim was turning on the engine of his car, he briefly glanced at Raven as she stared out the window with the chewed up Batman action figure in her lap. “You had a good time?”
“Clogging my arteries?” she asked.
Tim tipped his head in her direction and laughed softly, pulling out of the parking lot. “Yeah,”
Raven nodded and turned back to the window. “Yeah, it was nice,” she paused. “Thanks,”
They fell into comfortable silence as Tim drove them back to the manor. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Raven just stare silently out of the car window. Her gaze seemed a little distant as she watched the scenery pass by. It amazed him how easily Raven could fall in and out of conversations and how giving she was of her attention and time. The Titans were lucky to have Raven on their team and as their friend.
The longer he spent time with her, Tim had to agree that Raven truly was captivating. He was curious what else he could discover from her. For notes, of course.