Chapter Text
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A Lie
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When Raven first heard that Richard and Koriand'r had split up and were now back on the dating scene, she didn't believe it for a moment.
Not only had Kori *not* informed her of this significant change in her life during their weekly 'girl-time', but anything the lean, green, string-bean Garfield said had to be taken with a grain of salt.
“I swear! I was buzzing around, ahem, y'know, stretching my wings for a bit, when I overheard Robin tell Star he thinks they need some time apart and wants to break-up!”
Waving his arms excitedly while hopping around the living room in front of Raven as she sat on the couch trying to read, Beast Boy continued babbling and Raven did her best to ignore him after concluding that the teenage boy must have heard wrong. Her plan succeeded for the most part and Raven settled back into her calm sphere of relaxation, paying no attention to the bombardment of energy from her unwanted company.
“Hey! Maybe now I'll get a chance to take Star out on a date!!”
**SLAM**
The loud thump of her book closing startled Beast Boy enough he jumped back and looked towards Raven, wondering what in the world he said to tick her off this time!?
Her calm completely shattered after that last excited exclamation, the empath threw a glare at Garfield that raised the hair on his hackles and almost had him running out of the room in an instinctual bid to survive her wrath. Stiffly, Raven rose from her cross-legged seated position and slipped the book under her left arm as she released some of her unexplainable and sudden irritation upon the clueless young man in front of her.
“First of all, you were not 'stretching your wings', you were snooping around for gossip by eavesdropping on private conversations. Second, I doubt you heard enough of the entire dialog between Richard and Koriand'r to draw such a farfetched conclusion. Third...”
Here, unbeknownst to Raven, but all too apparent to Garfield, the half-demon's voice got slightly deeper and, well, demonic as she growled out her last point.
“Third, even if you heard correctly, you will not, under pain of dismemberment, attack Koriand'r with your hormone-driven attempts to woo her until she decides she is ready to date again.”
Quaking in his shell since the last half of that command when he got scared enough to turn into a tortoise, Garfield nonetheless felt at least brave enough to put up a token of resistance and poked his head out of the green shell to argue.
“But, but what if the other guys try to ask her before I get a shot?”
Raven's snarl revealed very sharp teeth and her usual deep blue eyes began to bleed into a foreboding red. Garfield's head retreated quickly and he stayed in his shell even as a pale hand gestured and black shadows picked him up gently and brought him eye level with her.
“Rest assured Garfield, they will not.”
Releasing him to bounce upon the cushions of the couch she had previously sat on as she strode out of the living room and towards her private quarters, Raven struggled to control the riot of emotions that had surfaced too quickly within her to suppress. She did not understand why the irritation persisted once she was away from Garfield, but she had an inkling as to what (or who) the cause is.
As she entered her room, Raven took a quick glance down the hall that led to Starfire's chambers, baffled by the little coil of excitement that wound its way around her heart and pressed painfully against her chest. When her automatic door finally slid shut, the only remainder of her presence in the hallway was a rapidly fading prayer.
“Oh Azar, I hope for both her sake and mine Garfield's rumor is only that – a lie.”
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ToaR