InsaneJournal

WHO: Hank and Raven
WHAT: Raven decides it's time for a much-needed discussion.
WHEN: Late afternoon.
WHERE: The lab at the X-Mansion.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Although Raven had been invited to help bake, and decorate, the cake that Steph had offered to make for Charles and Erik, she had ultimately decided against it. It wasn't because Damian had also been invited. She had long since come to terms with the fact that she was going to have to share her best friend with the guy. It wasn't because she wasn't supportive of the decision to bake a cake or her brother and Erik's new relationship. She most definitely approved of both. It wasn't even because she couldn't bake. Since meeting and becoming friends with Steph, she had developed all sorts of new talents and an ability to make things in the kitchen was definitely one of them. No, the reason she had decided not to join in the baking was because of someone who wasn't at all associated with it in the first place.

Hank.

When he had first arrived in the city, Raven had been so happy to see him that she'd completely forgotten the fact that they were, technically, supposed to be on the opposite sides of things back home. She'd also forgotten how much his words, his claim that she was more beautiful in her human guise than as her natural self, had hurt her. She had simply been thrilled that he was finally here, had been so filled with hope at the idea of them continuing their friendship-that-might-be-something-more in a place where second chances happened ever day, that she had never even considered the notion that he might not feel the same way. Yet every time they talked, it seemed as if he was pushing her further away from him. First by telling her he didn't need her help in defending himself, when before he'd never had a problem with such a thing. And then, most recently, the fact that he'd seemed to grow frustrated with her when she'd announced Charles and Erik's secret to the city as a whole.

Raven wasn't stupid. She knew there were probably people who would have an issue with such a thing. No world was perfect and Colligo was certainly no exception. However she had never expected Hank to react as he had. She wasn't sure why. He was right, of course. He hadn't been in the current time period very long at all and such things simply weren't discussed in the time they were from. Particularly not in such an open, accepting fashion. But she had simply assumed he would be happy for her brother and Erik that, when he hadn't, she'd found herself growing angrier at him with each passing second.

And finally, when she'd lost count of how many times she'd lifted her weights and her arms ached from the exertion of the workout, she realized something with sudden, startling clarity.

Her anger wasn't because of Hank's inability to instantly be at ease with the thought of two men together. She was angry because somehow, somewhere, she had lost the ability to understand what he really meant. The bond that had formed during the training they'd undergone when preparing to take on Shaw and his followers had been strained to the point that it had snapped. And if she didn't do something right this instant, it might become completely beyond repair.

Knowing that the time had come to talk to him, face-to-face, and sort the whole thing out once and for all, Raven left the gym in such a rush that it took her less than five minutes to get from the wing where it was located to the lower levels of the house where the lab was tucked away. A record time, and she was certain the people she'd ran past probably thought there was a fire or someone was dead or dying, but she didn't care. She knew, if she didn't act now, she would lose her nerve and, possibly, his friendship forever.

She paused outside the door to the lab just long enough to draw in a few deep breaths and steady herself. Her heart was still hammering painfully in her chest as she finally straightened her spine, reached out, and knocked lightly on the door. Without bothering to wait for permission to enter - it was her house, she reminded herself stubbornly - she stepped inside and instantly set her sights on the tall, lanky, slightly awkward looking man who had been the center of her thoughts for the better part of the last few hours.

"Hey," she said quietly, not wanting to interrupt him with the blurting out of something that would ruin what he was working on. Shutting the door behind her, she took a few steps closer. "I think we need to talk."