InsaneJournal

Who: Peter Pan and Raven
What: Peter wants to know what Raven’s been hiding and Raven gets more than she bargained for
When: [Backdated] 18 November 2015
Where: Coffee shop to Peter's apartment
Warnings: Snark?
Status: Log | Complete

It had been a few weeks since Peter decided that he and Raven should really sit down and have a heart-to-heart and he hadn’t had the chance to catch her alone. She kept darting off when they worked shifts together and he hadn’t had the chance to come in on a day off to catch her by surprise. Unfortunately for her, today was finally that day. He knew her schedule thanks to the perks of writing the shifts and he wandered into the back room near the end of her shift. He was hiding in the back and waiting until she was walking past to head out before reaching out to grab her arms and bring her to a stop.

Raven had been hoping that Peter had forgotten about the fact that he wanted to talk to her about the things the dreams did to her. She wasn’t the most forthcoming of people to begin with, and the whole half demon thing? Not something you just explained. She didn’t even like Peter. He wasn’t one of her people. Peter seemed to think otherwise.

This of course meant that whenever their schedules lined up, Raven made sure to portal away before their paths would cross. She should have known he would do something like this. As it were though, the teen had no idea what her manager was thinking and as she was distracted, she hadn’t noticed his annoying energy signature show up close to the end of her shift. And she didn’t notice his attack on her.

Not that it was an attack. But it came out of nowhere, she was startled, and so a burst of energy seemed to emit from the teen as her soul self manifested to push Peter away from her as he pulled her into the storeroom as a means to protect her, eyes flashing red. Only when Raven realised what had just happened did it seem to vanish, even though an angry energy crackled around her.

“What the hell is your problem!?”

She was more contained than she was a year ago, she was better when it came to control. But she didn’t have years of training to control the reaction when she was startled like that.

So, Peter didn’t really know much (if any) about the things that went on in Raven’s dreams, which was why he wanted to talk to her. And he would be damned if they didn’t have that conversation right now because he had caught the red eyes and could feel the energy. He picked himself up from the wall he had landed against and rubbed his shoulder, “Jesus christ, Raven.”

“You didn’t have to blow me across the room. You could have broken some stuff,” he stepped closer to her and his face didn’t show the anger that may have been deduced from his comment, “I would haven’t have to grab you if you actually stuck around so we could talk.” Yup. Pin this back on her. It was kind of true though because Peter wouldn’t have to resort to sneaking if she would just talk to him already.

She was annoyed. And while there was a slight point in that she was avoiding the conversation, that didn’t absolve him of what had happened and so she just crossed her arms, eyes narrowed.

“And you didn’t have to grab me like that. You could have been anyone for any reason.” Which was why she had reacted as such on instinct. If she had known it was Peter, it wouldn’t have happened because as annoying as he was, he wasn’t a credible threat to her well being. Well. Mentally maybe because he was annoying but she wouldn’t have felt the need to protect herself.

“Who in the hell is going to hide in the back room of the coffee shop and grab you? Come on, now,” he commented, his voice starting to go light as he spoke, and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. She may have a small point, but honestly, she didn’t need to take it to that level when he grabbed her, “So, since you’re here and I’m here, we can either talk in this storage room, or we can go sit somewhere” At least he was being reasonable and he was resisting the urge to grab her and drag her out to the front of the store to sit down with him.

This conversation was going to happen no matter what and Peter was not going to leave her side until it did. She could go disappear on him if she wanted, but he would try and find her.

She would give him credit for not rolling his eyes. And he clearly didn’t understand the concept of reflex since that was just what it was. A reflex of protecting herself from an unknown potential threat. That and controlling demonic power wasn’t exactly easy. Arms crossed in annoyance, she conceded that standing in the back and talking in the storage area wasn’t going to do any good as anyone could show up and that could get ungodly awkward and horrible impressions might be made.

She did debate the idea of just portalling out of there but given he had come in on his day off to corner her, Raven knew it was pointless. He obviously hadn’t forgotten and was determined to get answers. Just...great.

“Fine. Where do you want to go.” She may have conceded the point, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

The strange demonic powers that she had (although he had truly had no idea what they were exactly) didn’t make sense to him, so he couldn’t know that she was having trouble trying to control them. But that was one of the many things that they needed to talk about the moment she finally let the talk happen. And when she finally conceded you could have knocked him over because he had not been expecting that in the slightest.

“Do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to go to another random coffee shop? Sit in a park? I’d suggest my place since it’s nearby, but you always seem so appalled by the idea of me,” his tone was teasing at the end there and he took that fact in stride. He knew that she was just slightly prickly sometimes.

Well, if Peter were shocked that she was going to finally give into the talk, he was about to be doubly shocked. Because even though she really would rather avoid the conversation and not be around him, Raven knew that there was a chance she’d need to do demonstrations or drop her glamour. Which meant that public and parks and walking weren’t exactly options.

“Azar help me, but I’m going to say your place. Less chance of raising suspicion that way.” Like it or not, she had to be careful. She already had issues at work sometimes and made things explode or break.

His expression was a bit gobsmacked when she responded with that answer, but he did his best to quickly erase the expression and put one on with a cool acknowledgement and raised his eyebrow. “Azar? Do I even want to know?” he shook his head slightly before turning to head out of the back door that he had come in through, “Alright, come with me. Let’s get out of here.” He had no idea what he was getting himself into, but he knew that he liked Raven enough to care and try to help her out.

Once outside of the coffee shop he stuck his hand in his pockets and turned towards her, “So, you can probably start explaining some stuff as we make our way to my place. It’s a few blocks up and over.”

“You’ll figure it out soon enough.” The comment was muttered to herself, but that was part of it. The monks of Azar were the ones who had raised her after all. She wouldn’t be able to explain it without explaining them. So Azar would eventually make sense. She made no comment or acknowledgement of the gobsmacked expression he’d briefly had.

But right. Leaving. And explaining. That was hard enough because a lot of what she’d say would make no sense just by words alone. And it involved her having to do most of the talking, which was doubly uncomfortable for the teen.

“Short answer, I’m a half demon who was born to bring about the end of the world.” Yeah. That summed it up so well. Which of course would lead to more questions. But it wasn’t like Raven was the most talkative to begin with.

What. His brain was taking a moment to process and he stopped in his tracks. Was she telling the truth? That sounded absolutely insane, but this place was insane. Who knew that he was secretly a forever young boy who fought pirates on a mysterious island?

“What? Seriously? That’s what your dreams are about? Is that why you can push me across the room and poof all the time?” His brow was furrowed as he spoke to her and realized that it explained so much. His feet finally started to move as he made to catch up with her.

“Yes. And why strong emotions give me migraines and then I can’t work.” That had been the first time he’d confused her and shown actual concern. “But that was a part of my soul I guess is the easiest way to describe it. It felt a threat and pushed you away as protection.” It didn’t get into the mechanics of it, but with the whole out in the open thing they currently had, she wasn’t exactly able to do a demonstration of solid constructs, or moving of things or portals or anything like that.

“Most of my dreams are about doing whatever I could to make up for what I was born to do.” Raven and her never ending sense of guilt and responsibility. There was a reason she acted older than her age. It had carried over on top of her need to escape her father.

“Oh Raven,” his voice took on a small note of pity. He felt awful that he hadn’t fully understand what she was going through. He cared for her, quite a bit, and he wanted to try and make things work for her. The days off were never really an issue and now it certainly wouldn’t be a bother, “How do I make myself not be a threat for you?” Obviously not popping out of the shadows was something he could start doing for that, but he wondered if there was a way to be marked as safe forever.

They were finally at his apartment and he fished into his pocket for his keys. He held the door open for her and then lead the way up the stairs and down the hall, “What kind of things are you doing in your dreams?”

Raven never knew how to respond to pity. It was awkward. She knew what she was, she knew in the dreams she had somehow managed to thwart her destiny. If that would bleed over, who knew. She already had her anxiety about when she’d become the portal almost a year ago now, knocking out power, demon birds showing up briefly, missing work. “Don’t startle me.”

It was a short answer, but honestly what else was there to say? It wasn’t like Peter was an actual threat. He was a threat to her patience, but that was different. When she was aware of who it was, she was fine.

“Stopping villains from trying to create havoc in the city with my team.” Because shockingly enough, Raven was able to work on a team. She was the loner, kept to herself mostly, but they were still a team. No. A family really. And she missed them despite it all. Yes, Raven technically counted as a superhero, but she would never see herself as such. It was all atonement to her.

“Ah, so you’re a superhero? That’s kinda hot,” he commented offhandedly as he flipped his keys around and unlocked the door to his apartment. It was a bit of mess all the time, but Peter liked to claim it was organized chaos. He was a fairly simple person when it came to furniture, but the things he used often (school books, notebooks, computer, guitar, etc) were a bit scattered around the living room. He had an incredibly comfy couch and loveseat and a small dining room table. He wasn’t going to allow her to go into his bedroom, but at least he had managed to clean up after the shadow incident.

“So, tell me basically everything, Raven, you’re being a bit mum on most of the details. What does being a half demon truly mean? Do you want anything to drink or eat?” He gestured to his couch as a place for her to sit if she wanted to, but he was going to stay on his feet until he discovered if she was set.

“I guess technically that would be accurate.” Just because it was an ‘accurate’ description of how others would describe what she did, that didn’t mean Raven agreed with it. And she had no comment for the offhanded comment about it being ‘kinda hot’. It didn’t really register to her. Nor was she surprised by the clutter. She needed things clean and orderly, it helped with her meditation. But she would deal.

Ugh. Why did he want to know everything?

“I’m fine. Thanks.” Looking around, Raven eventually decided that levitating was going to be the way to go. Just because there weren’t crumbs or whatever didn’t mean much. Also it was becoming more of a habit when she was around people who knew what she was or about the dreams and what could come from them. Admittedly she was levitating just above the couch as if she were sitting on it, legs crossed in lotus position, but still. Levitating.

“It means my father is an inter-dimensional demon who wants to take over the universe and he seduced my mother who took me to the Monks of Azar when she found out she was pregnant and then she left me with them because of what I was.” No, there were no issues there. She understood, of course. Just as she understood that they had wanted to kill her at first. “I was a danger and a threat but they eventually were convinced to let me stay and the high priestess taught me how to learn control my abilities and emotions to keep him out of my head.”

No need to go into those specifics. It wasn’t really something she discussed with anyone. The fact that the monks of Azar had wanted to kill her, that one of the magistrates had tried to only to be destroyed himself instead. That she sometimes felt they would have been better off if they had as it would mean there was no way for Trigon to be released.

“I always knew my destiny and so when I felt my father’s presence, I fled to Earth. Met my team. Did the hero thing if that’s what you want to call it.” There still wasn’t much in ways of her abilities being discussed but it wasn’t like she even knew how to do this sort of thing. Opening up.

When she declared herself fine he still continued into the kitchen to grab himself some water. he may drink a lot of coffee and espresso at work, but he tended to stick to water when he was home. Usually because he was already on a caffeine high by the time he came home that it seemed pointless to drink more coffee. He listened carefully before coming back over to the couch and then noticing her levitating.

His drink almost fell from his hand, but he managed to catch himself in time, and instead stepped forward carefully. He reached out a hand and brushed it through the air between her and the couch. Was she seriously levitating right now? Holy shit. When she explained how she came into being he couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow. He understood parents giving children up, but that seemed awful to just abandon your child because she could potentially destroy the world. Basically lonely.

“I’m sorry your dreams are like that,” he admitted with a sad smile. His mother had abandoned him in his dreams, but he was so happy to be Peter Pan of Neverland that it didn’t really affect him too badly, well not until Wendy came about, but things were only slightly different here. But hers were far more intense than he expected them to be, “Your life isn’t like that here is it? Well, I mean, I hope you have a team here of people.” Their personal lives wasn’t something they greatly discussed at work, well Peter made some allusions to his, but Raven obviously didn’t open up about hers often.

Raven gave no indication of a reaction when Peter swiped under to see if she was actually levitating. Honestly, if he was freaking out about levitation when he apparently could fly? What would he do if she dropped the glamour? Honestly. Though lonely was definitely an apt word for her dreams. Even with the team, she had isolated herself. They got under her skin and a part of her, but it had happened without her noticing it.

Much like had happened here. She had kept people away from her to protect them from her father and his men. But somehow, people started to become her friends, people she cared for and would react to their being in pain or injured without thinking. Usually she’d just show up through a portal.

“Against my better judgement.” Raven really wasn’t fond of talking about herself. And while she brushed a lot of things off with sarcasm, there was always an undercurrent to the things she said. The dismissive attitude because it seemed safer.

Hey, levitating wasn’t something you saw every day. He could fly, but he was still trying to get a handle on his own type of levitating. He would probably enjoy seeing her without a glamour because it would be one of the more personal things that happened between them. At least he didn’t have anything completely scary in his dream world that he had to worry about. Except for the part where he easily murdered pirates and chopped off Hook’s hand as a child, but you know...it wasn’t that big of a deal, right?

A small frown appeared on his face as he set his drink down on the coffee table and stood by her. That kind of comment was something that he was used to from her, but it still seemed a little sad and he studied her briefly. “Why do you say things like? Are you honestly surprised that people want to be your friend and care about you?” It confused him that she didn’t seem to think very highly over herself.

Raven figured she would always live in fear of Trigon showing up. That she wouldn’t be able to defeat him here. Even with her birthday, she was worried. The markings had shown up the year before and she had panicked. But nothing had come of it, or the portal in December. Nothing had happened this year like that. People said she should take advantage of being a normal teenager when she could, yet she still would go out at night and try to help people.

At least she hadn’t driven anyone to insanity since the time with the man who had shot Dick. She counted that as a success.

And… cue Peter once again doing that thing where he confused her by seeming like he was actually concerned about her. Part of the reason she had avoided the conversation for so long was the fact that she was pretty sure he’d use it as a means to annoy her or mess with her. So whenever he acted like he was genuinely concerned or bothered by something she said? It was… unsettling.

“...Well, yes.” Even in the dreams… I’m not creepy, I’m just different. It had hurt even though she had known she pushed people away. Of course that then led to Malchior and all of that. She trusted her team but it still felt odd that they would trust her or like her. And it felt strange that anyone would feel as such here as well, even as she just went with it.

Here’s the problem. Peter did care. He cared a lot about Raven, probably far more than he probably should, but there was something about her. Yes, she was cold and sarcastic most of the time, but she never fawned over him or treated him with pity. Two things that he got a lot - pity when he was younger and fawning now that he had grown into his looks. There was also a hint that deep down under that armor she wore that he could find the true Raven.

His feelings for her had been a bit of a slow burn as long as they’d been working together and he never truly understood them. Nor, did he ever make them known to anyone. But here she was finally explaining what had been going on with her and opening herself up. And when she said that she was surprised that people actually cared about her he couldn’t take it any longer. He stepped up to her and shook his head. “Well, stop being surprised, because I care,” he explained to her before he leaned in to capture her lips with her own. At this point he honestly didn’t care what kind of reaction he got because he just wanted her to know how deeply he did care.

And… Peter was now being weird. Well, weirder than usual and he tended to be pretty weird. Raven tended to be good at reading people and reading their emotions. It came with being an empath. So while she had very high walls about her to keep people out and safe, she tended to be able to read people. It came in handy when deciding how to deal with someone who was hurting others, or if they threatened to get too close and she needed to push them away.

Why was he stepping up to her?

Why did he just… Did he just kiss her?!

The teen had no idea on how to react to what was happening because seriously. What in the name of Azar!? Startled and not knowing what to do or say, Raven’s concentration broke and she dropped from her levitation.

And he caught her. Because this couldn’t be any more awkward.

“....Why did you do that?” Blinking, Raven just stared at Peter in confusion. No snark, no pushing away. Just still and confused.

That had been the kind of reaction that he had been expecting and he couldn’t help but smile a little bit. He had managed to take her by surprise and that was kind of amazing since it rarely happened. And she hadn’t slapped him for kissing her, but instead she had landed in his arms after her levitation stopped. and asked him why he had done that.

There was a smile on his face when he asked her that and he just stood there with her in his arms, “Because I like you and because I care about you.” It was a simple answer and he knew that she would probably be annoyed with it, but he could wax poetic about how adorable she was when she was being snarky if she truly wanted him to.

This wasn’t adding up. It was confusing and Raven didn’t like to deal with confusion. She suppressed emotions like that. Which admittedly tended to be bad. At least it wasn’t fear that turned into a fear monster? But there were some shattering cups and she winced as her glamour flickered.

“Maybe this was a bad idea.”

She had known it was a bad idea when she had said they go to his place. But she had chosen it in case she needed to demonstrate abilities. Levitation came naturally to her so it had worked. And now with the flickering glamour.

She wasn’t portalling out though. She still wasn’t sure what was going on or if Peter was messing with her. She didn’t know if the kiss had thrown her perception since it startled her and that she was missing something.

This was all so very confusing and Raven didn’t know what to do about that beyond staying completely still as if she’d just disappear that way.

His head snapped up when he heard the cups breaking and a bit of a confusion glimmered over his face before he looked down and noticed that she was changing in front of his eyes. It was still her, but she looked different and he couldn’t help but admire how she still looked pretty no matter what she looked like.

“Bad ideas are the best kind,” he commented offhandedly before smiling just a little. She wasn’t moving to get out of his arms immediately and she hadn’t portaled herself into a new place just yet. He needed to remember to ask her about that later, but right now he decided just to go with the flow, “Oh, and happy birthday, by the way.”

Maybe he was a day or two late, but he hadn’t seen her. So, instead of putting her down or allowing her to answer him he leaned in once again and gave her another kiss.

The joys of powers that were connected to her emotions and the strict need for control so things like flickering glamours and breaking of glass or her soul self lashing out didn’t happen.

“You would think that…” The snark was coming back as Raven slowly started to come back to herself from the sheer confusion of everything that had just transpired. Then he mentioned her birthday and she tensed since Raven and birthdays just weren’t a thing. She didn’t like thinking about them and didn’t talk about them. She’d been tetchy leading up to it as usual but…

And then he kissed her again. Really. How had she not seen this coming? So she pulled away and just looked at him oddly. “You’re really strange. I’m a seventeen year old half demon and you’re kissing me…”

No one said Raven had subtlety.

That was a truth bomb if there was ever one. That was not the age that he thought she was according to her paperwork at the coffee shop. He just assumed that was the correct age and didn’t ever make it clear. So, his hold on her stumbled up slightly and he almost dropped her on the couch so he managed to recover and set her down.

He scooted back just slightly and stared at her, “Seventeen? Raven...your paperwork and ID say that you’re 19, should have turned 20. What do you mean you’re seventeen? Shit, I shouldn’t be kissing you.” Peter’s expression had turned serious and worried as he ran a hand through his hair.

Then he realized how that sounded and quickly backpedaled, “Not that you’re not great. You are great. I really do like you, but you’re underage. I don’t want to end up getting in trouble for something like that. But seriously, you’re great. I like your snark and you’re incredibly pretty.”

Well it wasn’t as if she couldn’t just catch herself if he had dropped her. It took her a moment to follow his train of thought and words just because Raven really didn’t think about the fact she had lied on her paperwork and had gotten a fake ID when she had first started working at the coffee shop.

...Seriously? He was more freaked out about her age than the fact she was a half demon? “I got a fake ID so I could work, so what?” Though okay. That was fair enough since laws and the like.

“I’m pretty sure you can’t get arrested for kissing me. It’s not like you’re under surveillance or anything. Or are you?” Honestly. How was someone going to find out he had kissed her?

The half-demon thing really wasn’t a big deal to him. He dealt with mermaids and fairies, so he wasn’t surprised about half-demons being a thing. He read the network a lot and knew that people had all sorts of weird things going on. He was a little more surprised by the age thing than anything because he had thought it would completely normal.

Yes, twenty year olds and seventeen year olds dated all the time, he was sure, but it had thrown him completely off. “Why would you want a fake id to work? No one wants to work that badly, Raven,” he answered her with an amused chuckle before letting out a sigh.

“No, I’m not under surveillance. I just wasn’t expecting that. I feel weird, like I’ve pushed myself on you and I don’t want you to be upset with it,” he didn’t want her to turn on him and get him in trouble for it. He didn’t regret kissing her though because it was nice and he had liked her for a long time. But it had to have her approval as well and he certainly wouldn’t be kissing her again unless she initiated it.

“Because it’s not just in the dreams that my father is a horrible thing? I wanted to get away.” Absently she tugged on her hair before shrugging and her face became impassive again. No need to go into that. Really though, Raven’s self isolation and low self image started long before the dreams compounded her issues.

“Well that’s good. That would be creepy.” Because who wanted to be under surveillance? Though would someone know if they were under surveillance if the point was to be discreet? God they would all be screwed if somehow those on the network had ended up under surveillance. Right. Not the point.

“You’re confusing me, but if any part of me felt you were a threat or whatever, you would have been defenestrated.”

“Is your dad awful here as well? Do you need help with anything?” the need to protect her was suddenly high and he wanted to make sure that she was safe. If her father was any kind of threat to her then he would try to pull a knight in shining armor even though she was fully capable of handling things. Feelings just complicated things quite a bit.

“How am I confusing you? I’m pretty open with how I feel about you. Sorry if it’s a bit of a surprise but that’s why it’s called a crush. The person you’re crushing on shouldn’t really know about it until you make a move. And I have no idea what defenestrate means, but I’m going to assume isn’t not a good thing, but I should be happy that you don’t think that I’m a threat. Because I’m definitely not. Just a dude that likes you and need to try not to think about kissing you,” he was confused that he confused her. Or maybe it was that she was confused and not sure how to take the events that just happened. He wasn’t surprised she hadn’t picked up on his feelings for her, but now he needed to try and sort himself out in regards to her.

“I live with my aunt now. He’s….” Raven shrugged, “He’ll pay no attention to me unless he feels he needs to make a point. I’m fine.” It always had been that way. It didn’t mean that her father’s men didn’t keep an eye on her in case his enemies tried something, but she knew that he would probably keep his distance unless something came up in his dealings.

Then Peter started to ramble, which again. Confusing. This whole situation left her confused. Raven didn’t exactly acknowledge many things and given she hadn’t even wanted this conversation to happen in the first place and was always on her guard…

“Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out a window. It was coined around 1618 from an incident in Prague Castle. De is for out of or away and fenestra is window or opening. Latin.”

When in doubt, stick to what she knew. Which was random facts and terms. She buried herself in school work and books, so giving a random definition without blinking? Not so much a problem. And easier than trying to sort through what had just transpired.

His brow furrowed at her randomly throwing out the definition of the word. He wasn’t surprised at all that she did that, but he noticed that she had not acknowledged anything that he had said to her in his earlier rambling. And now he was at the fork in the road because he had no idea what else to do about this conversation. He wasn’t going to kick her out of his apartment, but they didn’t have much else to talk about.

“So….is there anything else I should know about your powers? Or do you want me to walk you home or anything?” he glanced over at her and wondered what she would choose to do. She wasn’t very easy to read sometimes, but he was slowly working on his ability to figure her out.

Raven had no idea what to say about the rest of Peter’s rambling. She latched onto the term defenestration and went from there. She was getting a headache.

“Just that they’re tied to my emotions I guess…” He’d seen her soul self and the demon eyes. Knew about the empathy and levitation. They were too complicated to explain. “I can heal people if necessary...Um.” Yeah. She was suddenly feeling very awkward. “I can… go. No need for that.”

Never in her life had she ever felt so awkward. With that, she just opened a portal and vanished.