Dick remembered her long time crush on the Atlantean vividly. It was long before he and she were even...whatever it is they were. He'd never even seen that side of Raven before. He hadn't known it existed. This Raven flirted openly and often. She'd toss her hair. Bite her lip. Shake her hips. She'd acted like she wanted nothing more than to take her time at Aqualad's touch tank.
Dick didn't know Raven could house such desires. Before Garth, he'd never seen Raven unabashedly wanting before. Not for the last box of chamomile teabags on the shelf at the market, let alone another being. And for someone to bring that out of her... Someone that wasn't him. Well, it still made his blood boil just on principle. Even if the only wide blue expanse her nude body now graced were her sheets.
"It doesn't matter," Dick growled. He was done stewing over the past; he intended to make full use of the present. He was sure in his haste he wasn't making much sense tonight, but that didn't stop him. "I don't want anyone flirting with you and I don't want you flirting with anyone else either."
"Why is that?" Raven teased.
He wasn't sure she was taking it seriously, but he couldn't help it. "I don't want you to," Dick repeated. "And I don't think you want to."
"That's presumptuous of you," She quipped. "There was something about the way he filled out a black and blue unitard that sent me completely off the rails..." Raven was driving him mad. He was certain she was enjoying herself more than a little.
But, Garth. That...that...
That nautical knockoff.
"A black and blue unitard?"
"Yep." Raven folded her arms.
"Something as ubiquitous as black and blue spandex is really all it takes to get under your cloak?"
"And a head of impossibly black hair—probably product enhanced. A winning, photo-op ready smile. Throw in a box of brooding, a forkful of familial issues, and a splash of almost unreasonable moral obligations..." She shrugged and for once he couldn't tell where the sarcasm ended and she began.
But it was her cauldron and Raven's recipe was to be imbibed at her leisure.
"You make us all sound like action figures," Dick scoffed in mock outrage.
"It could start to sound that way, yes," she said casually. "But when you boil it down..." She shrugged as if her point was made.
"Is that all we are to you, Raven? Is that all I am?"
"If the painted on briefs fit." She stifled a snort. "Or bat briefs in your case."
He couldn't tell if she was serious or not, or just toying with him. But he liked it. He wanted to prove himself to her. He was better. He was the original black-haired, blue-unitarded man in her life, after all.
"Raven, I don't know what you're trying to do to me, but I have to admit it's working."
"Oh? Do you like being told you're a product?" Her lips parted wider than needed on the last syllable, so he could just make out her tongue touching the roof of her mouth. And Dick shivered at the memory of what that tongue could do.
He snatched her hand and steered it to his chest, particularly glad he'd spent more time on upper-body this morning. "What else do you think I am?" No longer guided by his own, her touch trickled down to his abs. "Tell me."
"I think, you're..." But with her fingers on his impeccably toned stomach, she was finding it hard to say anything at all. "You're so full of hot air, it's a wonder you need a grappling hook. You could probably just glide over to the next rooftop."
"You think so?" he mused. "Well, I happen to crave an extended session with a rather gifted healer." He bit his lip at the double entendre. "One with a very soothing touch, who's extremely easy on the eyes." Dick's blue gaze shifted over her figure. "Maybe I might have to try it one of these days, see if I stick the landing."
"Pity," she swallowed. "I guess then the Titan's Most Charming Smile Award will go to someone more deserving this year. At long last."
A wide smirk spread across his face. "This smile?" He chuckled. Dick's fingers feathered her wrist and with a swift singular motion, he tugged her closer so he could speak low in her ear. "How about I prove to you once and for all that it's good for something?"
@fuckyeahrobrae / @ravenroth-grayson (Thank you for organizing this for our OGs again!❤)
This is so old and clearly, I'm on another WallyRae kick. Here is part one. The OG ask is from our lovely @ravenfan1242 AND she made some art!
In a dimly lit room there was a window facing the street, out from it were orange traffic cones cordoned off the shoulder of the road. Men in fluorescent vests stood in elevated cherry pickers, uncoiling string lights from the clingy branches of the trees lining the street. The last vestiges of holiday magic were being striped away. The Christmas trees lay abandoned on sidewalks awaiting their pick up later this week. Every last trace of merriment was cleared out, taken down, brought up to attics, or buried back in cupboards where they would remain until the end of the year.
So this was it. The holiday season was completely, one hundred percent, officially over. It was all so fleeting.
The cycle stopped only to spin again.
Everyone had long since returned from their vacations. All automatic replies were turned back off. Normalcy and schedules resumed. Relaxed attitudes were abandoned, while deadlines pressed in. It was as though the universe was screaming to its inhabitants: get over it. To all but one, who had yet to return to the office. And she would… Eventually.
Raven just needed a distraction. Though, there wasn’t much of anything special to look forward to for a while since Valentine's day had come and gone. Raven had spent it the way she always did, with her favorite trio of reliable companions. She could count on them because they always got the job done. She personally referred to them as the unholy trifecta: takeout, toys, television.
"I know you don't ever do this kind of thing, but..." Their mouths moved closer and closer until they were within inches of each other, staring into each other’s eyes.
It was about damn time, wasn’t it? They’d only been teasing the audience for over a season and a half.
“Exactly. I don’t do this kind of thing. I’m not that kind of woman…” She turned her cheek to him. “Besides, what would people think, Dorian?”
Again with these two? What was with them? It was a nonstop push and pull. Will they? Won’t they? It was frustrating. And yet… She was inexplicably fascinated and couldn’t bring herself to look away.
Besides, all this frustration was why she needed the toys in the first place.
Before Raven realized it she was five episodes deep and didn’t know how she’d gotten here. Raven slipped a kernel of popcorn into her mouth and swallowed hard. And followed it with another and another. Trying not to notice that she was masticating so vigorously she was practically grinding her teeth between mouthfuls. There was no use pretending—these romantic comedies were downright ridiculous. But deep down, she enjoyed them a little. Okay, more than a little. And she knew the main reason why she liked this one in particular. The appeal was all in the male lead. He was a dashing man with bright red hair.
And ever since he left…
Since Wally left and all she had to remember him by was his favorite mug that she had found on her desk the next morning after his departure. She hadn't had the heart to use it or to look at it. And she'd kept it covered up with a black scarf in the bottom of her cabinet ever since. Almost as if she’d been in mourning. But she was done with that place now.
"I don’t care what people think and neither do you, Sparrow. So please… Stop pushing me away... Don’t we owe it ourselves, to see what we could be—"
K-KNOCK KNOCKK
KNOCK
An odd and jarring knock pattern, sent popcorn flying as Raven careened out of her trance and bolted upright. She held a hand to her chest, quelling her pounding heart.
Could it be?
Was it really?
But—
"Raven—it's me."
"What is he…? How did he…?" she mumbled under her breath. She knew she wanted it to be Wally coming to her to make some grand gesture. But it was too good to be true. Maybe she’d been watching too many romantic soaps. Perhaps this was all some wonderful dream her subconscious had conjured up? Or it was possibly she’d accidentally fallen asleep on the couch again.
He knocked louder this time. “Raven, if you’re in there can you open up? Please?”
Could it actually be real?
She rose from her perch on the arm of the couch, tiptoeing to the door in a rush. She was in a daze, she was so lightheaded. Raven could scarcely believe it, even though she knew from the first knock, it had to be. Her shaky fingers ran through her mussed hair as she leaned her back against the door.
“I can hear you breathing, Raven,” he coaxed, his voice drawn even closer. There was a creak from the sound of his body pressing into the door. There were mere inches of wood separating the two of them. Slowly, she felt herself slowly slide to the ground, almost unconsciously, holding her trembling knees, just listening to the words reverberate through the other side of the door.
“Okay… I realize how that sounded and how this must look,” he continued. The teasing lilt was fading from his tone. He sounded the way she’d felt for months, anguished. “Was it the note? Maybe it was too much… Maybe I’m too much and that’s why I haven’t heard from you.”
The pounding from her heart was so violent, maybe he could hear that too. How was it that he could be so close and yet still feel far away?
“I heard you left your old company too,” he murmured. There was no humor anymore, he sounded serious and worried. About her. “That must have been a difficult decision.”
Yes, it had been. She still had more than a few regrets.
Raven squeezed her knees tightly to her chest. "Oh, Wally," she whispered. Now she could hear his ragged breathing and the way his hands were grasping the door hinge and the sweep of the vibrant red locks along the wood as if searching for a secret combination to unlock it.
Her door wasn't simply keeping them apart, it had become an impromptu confessional.
“I’m here for you if you need it.” Wally said, resolute. “Even if all you need is a friend…” He gave a soft final knock, and his feet shuffled as if he was preparing to walk away.
Hesitantly, she slid her palms up her side of the door as she lifted herself up to chance a glance through the peephole. Only to see an inquisitively bright seagreen orb staring straight back.
