Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-02-01 08:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, edward elric, rachel roth (raven) |
Who: Ed and Raven
What: Actually being teenagers? Just some general fluff
When: 14 January
Where: New York - Central Park
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Restlessness was Ed’s kryptonite. He probably shouldn’t but he longed for anything to happen abnormally. Living life as a normal person who wasn’t used to normal things was hard. Even his father trying to call him and get his attention hadn’t really broken the monotony. For that to happen he probably had to care about the thing that interrupted the norm, at last he assumed anyway. He didn’t really know anymore. All he knew was he was bored and Raven was sick or something. She was basically living off tea, yeah-he noticed. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that his girlfriend suddenly didn’t seem to want food. He didn’t know how to fix it, but he could continue to be her dealer. So that was where he was off to.
He stopped by one of the fancy ass tea places Raven had shown him once to pick up a tea with a three syllable name that she liked but he didn’t quite understand, and road the bus back to her place. He knew he probably could have just texted for portal delivery, but if magic made her sick he wasn’t exactly all that interested in having her use it for something ridiculous like getting home. So he paid his dollar fifty and got himself back to Raven’s. He didn’t really understand the whole magic thing, but he tried.
He knocked at her door mid afternoon and looked up at the sun while he waited as if it were to blame for his boredom.
Raven was beginning to wonder if the lingering feelings of being sick had more to do with stress than the whole accessing of the Deadly Sins. That had passed, she was back to school and work, but generally speaking, she still didn’t feel hungry. It logically did not make any sense. But given the conversation she’d had with her aunt about the artifacts, in giving them to Zatanna to be hidden away and the pressing question of if her friends knew, if Ed knew? Well. That was enough to keep her distracted and still feeling off or sick, similar to how when she’d felt guilt last year at not being able to heal Ed, she hadn’t been able to heal herself either.
She was pretty sure she was going to just do the letter plan, enchant them to be delivered if she died. But the questions lingered and because she hadn’t made a full decision yet, that meant she still remembered.
With it being the first weekend back for classes, Raven didn’t have any real assignments to worry about, so she was instead reading in the living room when she heard the knock at the door. Sitting up, she ran her fingers through her hair before going to answer the door, blinking at Ed.
“Hey.” And then she stepped aside to let him in.
“Hey.” He stepped in. Ed wasn’t terribly good with romance or touching, but he had different ways of showing it. He remembered the things she talked about and paid attention when she told him she liked something until it changed over to the next thing. Occasional dates happened but he still made sure they suited Raven rather than just the generic movie and dinner thing most people stuck to. They may have been scattered around a bit more, but ended up being memorable. Like this. Randomly showing up with tea and all intentions to give space if she wanted it-but he was glad she didn’t seem to.
‘It’s from the fancy place on Third. With three teas in it.” He offered it to her and looked her over. She still seemed a bit off. Most people might not have noticed, but there were little things he could see that suggested she wasn’t entirely there.
“You okay?”
It wasn’t like Raven was much different. She knew what people seemed to expect relationships to be. She knew that the conversations often left her feeling like something was wrong with her, but what she and Ed had? How they interacted? It felt right and natural and them and she figured that was what was most important.
“Oh. Tea.” Not like it was hard to disappoint her when it came to tea. But there was effort in the tea and she smiled some in thanks. “Unexpected tea at that.” Which clearly was the best tea. “Thank you.”
Then the question on if she was okay. Well, that was all relative wasn’t it?
“I’m feeling better than I was last week.” It was now just a different sort of issue. “Want to go to New York?” Between portaling abilities and the house in Brighton Beach, and just wanting to escape and not think about what she might become, running away to New York for a bit with Ed seemed like an answer. Plus, he’d been complaining about being bored and New York seemed to fit them.
Ed didn’t mind that tea place actually. It was a whole lot less irritating than the hipster infested, script writing hub that was Starbucks. God he hated everything when he stepped through the doors of one of those places. All the strange look he got from half the populous that he wasn’t there to leech terribly slow wifi and sip over priced coffee was enough to make him want to punch things in the face. Apparently that was frowned upon though. The new tea place Raven had found once a while back was far more welcoming, and smelled good.
“Mhm.” He let himself get comfortable sitting on the arm of her couch once she had ahold on the drink and was almost ready to be glad she was better than the week past when New York came up. “Why New York?” Of course he was bored, but was there some other reasoning? “Are you sure you should be portaling places?”
Why not New York? Honestly, Raven didn’t have a solid answer to that. It just tended to be where she ended up going when everything was getting to be too much, or if she felt like she needed to clear her mind. And there was just a lot of things to do there. Though with all the high emotions as of late that she’d been dealing with in trying to figure out if she should tell Ed about the artifacts, and then how to…. And high emotions all around…
So she just shrugged at both questions.
“No real reason. And I should be fine. It’s not like going to a different dimension or anything.” That might take a bit more out of her.
“Well I am bored, but not other dimension bored so I guess that sounds okay.” That was the thing about Raven sometimes that was difficult for him, even if she was upset about something and he could tell-there was no pushing it out of her. She’d talk when she wanted to talk. Spontaneous trips out of O.C sort of screamed at him that something was off, but he could also be paranoid too. Who knew anymore if he was entirely honest. The dreams often left him on edge. It could have just been that, so maybe he was being a bit over protective. After all he wasn’t her father. If she said it was okay he’d go along with it.
“Coming back tonight?”
That tended to be the best way to handle things with Raven, let her say it in her time otherwise she’d completely close herself off. She was more open with Ed, probably the most open she was with anyone, but just saying something wasn’t something she was good at. Besides, Ed had complained about being bored, New York tended to be anything but boring, and it was something to do.
“If we want, we can play it by ear.” The joys of being able to just go to Brighton Beach to sleep if they decided to stay in New York instead of come back. They had cell phones if the trip lasted overnight. It tended to also be a good place to just use to portal to as well since no chance of running into strangers, and there were coats and the like for the colder weather.
Ed got that, he did. He wasn’t exactly the most open person either, but he was improving a bit. Actually relying on people more now than he ever had. He didn’t really know what to tell Riza so he just decided for now to not tell her anything. Who even knew if they were actually going to be gone all night or not, and if not there really wasn’t a reason to tell her he was skipping states with his girlfriend for a few hours...was there?
“Sounds good to me.” Ed had on his usual red coat anyway, as far as cold went he was pretty good with just that on average so long as they weren’t outside forever in it he’d be fine. Automail tended to freeze up a bit in snow, but he really wasn’t expecting trouble from new york, which was probably mistake number one. “Do your thing babe.”..God that sounded odd, calling her babe, he’d been hanging around the ranch too much obviously. Picking up weird slang. Yep, he was going to chalk it up to that. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Raven didn’t hate it.
Did he just… Quirking a brow at the comment, Raven just shook her head some in vague amusement though she did seem to relax once it seemed that they were indeed going to New York. She wasn’t sure on the weather in New York at the moment. Sometimes she’d decide to go ice skating at Bryant Park (less people) but she wasn’t sure yet what was on the schedule for the day right now. There was the part of her that wanted to negate bad things or news with a fun day which undoubtedly had something to do with her desire for an impromptu trip but no matter.
Instead she just opened a portal and took Ed’s hand, which then had then in the house where she could get a more appropriate coat.
If anything, even just a few hours in the city would be fun. She felt more at ease there than she did in Orange County. It wasn’t so much that she felt that she was safer in terms of the demon and dream issues, those would follow her wherever she went. It was just less oppressive.
He gave Raven an awkward grin as he held onto her hand and let her lead him through her portals. He wasn’t even afraid of them anymore, they were just a part of daily routine now. At first they’d been intimidating, but their use outweighed it now. It didn’t take long to wade through the darkness and back into the light of the city. There was still bits of snow everywhere bit most of it had turned into slush but it still looked nice.
“What do you wanna do first?”
Once she got the appropriate coak, she contemplated for a moment. There was always plenty to do in the city. Mostly she just wanted to spend time with Ed. Yes, she was trying to figure out what she wanted to say but for now, spending time with him was enough.
“Central Park?”
It was peaceful in its own right. Plenty to see throughout its entirety. With it being January, the boardwalk wouldn’t be as interesting as it would be in the spring or fall with all the colors. True Central Park was in Manhattan, but again, she could just portal them there.
“Kay.” Ed could have let go of her outside the portal, but he didn’t really want to. He sort of liked holding her hand, especially when his brother wasn’t there to be ridiculous at him for it. By now they both kind of knew the city, he didn’t even have to just follow her anymore. He knew which streets to cross, but that didn’t make it any less interesting to look at. People in the city were huge and fast, always with a purpose. He wanted that. Orange County could just be so god damn boring sometimes if something bigger wasn’t going on.
Raven had no qualms with holding hands even outside of portal travel. The fact there were less people to make comments or make them feel awkward was also an added bonus. True they would need to get on the subway but even that had it’s own distinctly New York feel to it. So the commute was basically done with typical conversation and nothing spectacular, as if they always did it given their familiarity with the city.
Once at Columbus and 59th, it was leaving the subway and to Central Park, heart of the city. Even with the snow/slush, it wasn’t diminished.
This may as well be first base for them, contrary to what the definition of other people’s first base was. They didn’t exactly live by their standards. It had taken them a while just to get to this point. Ed watched a big man give a small dog a hot dog and raised an eyebrow. “Wonder if he thinks that’s funny or I’m the only one.” He commented as they passed by the scrappy animal eating something with the word of his namesake in it. It wasn’t made of dog, but it was still no less funny to him. Especially the image. Some days he wished he remembered to take pictures of random stuff, because the headliner would be hilarious to him. The man showed no signs of it being funny, but Ed grinned nonetheless.
He let her lead the way even though he knew it too, it left him open for strange people watching. He was okay with this. There were other dogs at the park, Ed watched them with various owners. Some stayed close by, others ran off to go play with other dogs-and some looked like their owners which caused another smirk from the alchemist. “Look at them. Same walk.” He pointed out a poodle and a snooty looking woman who weaved the same way her dog did.
Everyone and their expectations. It was annoying. But here no one paid them mind.
“Hmm?”
Looking to where Ed had been in regards to the dog eating a hot dog, Raven just shook her head some. It was an amusing image on paper, though it wasn’t like it was actually a dog. And someone had mentioned some advertisement with a potato eating potato chips. Clearly object cannibalism was in.
“I heard that’s apparently a thing. People take on the personalities of their pets. Or vice versa. I have no idea.” She did smirk slightly at the image though. Because really. How predictable.
“Times I wish I was decent at photography. I’m sure the internet would eat this up.” The internet went viral over all kinds of weird stuff, dog eating hotdog would probably be just as funny as cats and cheeseburgers, which honestly he was a little disappointed he’d never actually seen a cat enjoying a cheeseburger. He had no idea where the meme came from. The beauty of internet memes.
“Hmm.” He responded, looking at the other random dog walkers to see if they had a resemblance too. It was about a fifty fifty split. Ed wanted to look at the fountain in the center. It’s middle was frozen over thanks to the chill of the city so the water wasn’t running but it was interesting to look at anyway. He looked over at all the money in the fountains and shook his head. “When I was like 10 or so I used to take the money from the fountain. I thought people were just wasting it. That probably bought me a ticket to special hell though. I didn’t know they were wishes.”
“You could be terrible at photography and I’m sure the internet would still eat it up.” It was the internet, it wasn’t exactly known for having taste. At least certain parts of it. There was always someone that would like something that no one else did and try to make it a big thing. Not like it was all that hard, she was sure there were already jokes about dogs eating hot dogs.
Following Ed’s gaze to the money along the fountain, she just quirked a brow.
“Oh no. How dare you. I don’t know if I can continue this relationship knowing you took money from fountains.”
Typical Raven deadpanning. It wasn’t like she actually cared, she was sure plenty of people did it even if she’d been one of those kids who actually believed in the wishes. Besides, teasing Ed was fun.
“I know, there’s a place in special hell for me.” He smirked. He didn’t really think it was that terrible, besides some days that money had provided food. Food was a basic human right as far as he was aware, or at least it should be if it wasn’t. “You should clearly just leave me right now if you know what’s best for you.” He teased. Obviously if it really happened he’d be less than amused, but by now he knew her a little better than that. He could spot her dry humor a mile away.
His feet didn’t reach the floor as they sat there, he could dangle them just above the ground effortlessly. Looking up at the sky and the random patchy clouds he shook his head. “When mom was dying Al would always cloud watch to get away and try to make me see shapes. He’d get pissed when I contradicted him and told him clouds couldn’t be things. I thought he’d finally gone insane, but he kept pressing on about the damn clouds. I got annoyed and tripped him. We used to fight about the stupidest shit.” It kind of amused him now, Al looked at him like some kind of shiny hero these days but Ed disregarded it typically. He wasn’t a hero. He never claimed to be. He just wanted things to be good for once, and they were so he fought to keep it that way. He got comfortable with things and intended on keeping them.
Food was indeed a necessity, which was why it didn’t actually bother her. People did what they needed to survive, Raven knew that. While there were things she had seen of the cruelty of people, taking money from fountains? Really not a big deal. But teasing Ed? So she just tilted her head to the side before sighing.
“It’ll be tough but I guess I’ll stay with you.”
As if Ed was getting rid of Raven that easily. Which… was actually complicated because of everything that had happened with her dreams and the things she needed to tell Ed because it would impede that if the last resort became necessary. Thankfully he had changed the topic to the clouds and Al, so her thoughts were pulled from those particular thoughts. At least an afternoon of simple enjoyment before she said something. Instead she just looked up at the clouds.
“You would contradict that. And isn’t that the whole point of siblings? Fighting over stupid things?” She wouldn’t know. Raven had been isolated for so long that a lot of things that would be seen as normal were beyond her. She just knew what she observed.
The fountain was big enough to lay on, so he decided to. It wasn’t like they were doing anything pressing, so with his head closer to her and his feet opposite, he looked up and watched her for a moment with a smirk. “I’ve got to. There’s literally no point of siblings unless you can pick on them.” He mused as he rested an arm under his head.
Looking up at her instead for a little while as she watched the clouds he was quiet for a moment as he watched her. “Hey. Guess what?”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Not that it mattered here. Demonic siblings aside in the dreams. All they did was provoke her own demonic side and then she had turned on them and tried to turn her friends, her true family into the Deadly Sins with her instead of the sons sired by Trigon.
Falling silent for the time, Raven was content to sit there with Ed. It was comfortable. Calming in its own way. Until he broke the silence and pulled her from her thoughts. “Hmm?” Blinking, the teen turned her attention to Ed and quirked a brow. “What?”
He motioned with a finger for her to come down a little closer to his level. “Closer.” Sure he was comfortable with silence, but he’d also gotten it in his head that many things could be done in silence. Especially many things without anyone around being ridiculous and pressuring. When she got close enough he turned slightly to kiss her, it wasn’t a thing he did often due to ridiculous amounts of awkward but he didn’t hate it. Completely the opposite actually. Especially when they were alone, and he remembered when Neal had said girls sometimes liked it too. Even Raven shaped ones probably would occasionally. He never actually did bother answering her response. It was mostly rhetorical anyway at this point.
What was he getting at? Even so, confused and perhaps a bit intrigued, Raven leaned closer to see what it was Ed wanted to tell her. Or… he could kiss her.
Well, that was unexpected. Not that she minded. As Ed kissed her, she returned the kiss. Well, that was certainly one way to do it. And like Ed, she was more comfortable with that sort of thing when there was no one around who would make it all awkward with teasing and pressure.
And she could tell it was a rhetorical comment at this point. But for once they were just being two teens so that had to count for something.
Ed wasn’t always good at touching, or being touched; but sometimes when he wanted to and for no other reason, he could. When other people got involved things got a little more complicated. He tended to freeze up, public affection was probably his weakest point. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, he just had no idea how he was supposed to initiate it 99% of the time. For now he just decided to let his head shut up for a bit and deepen the kiss, tugging her a little closer. “Should I stop?” He asked a little breathlessly. He gave her a chance to back out if she wanted but he really hoped she didn’t take it.
There were very few people Raven was fine having physical contact with. There was also the ever present concern on what would happen if she lost control of her emotions, but she (mostly) had a better grasp on them at the moment even with her concerns. So letting brains shut up for the time being was always a good thing. Which was why there was really only one answer to give at the question. “No.”
“Then ow, gotta move.” He was twisted in an odd way so he shifted a bit more to face her. Flesh hand against the back of her neck to draw her in again to a bit more of a heated kiss this time. He figured automail to skin would be a little creepy for this sort of thing, that hand slid against her side, resting just under her shirt. With the hand that was on her skin he moved it upwards to brush a bit of hair from her face so he could see her better. It was sort of like their own little snow globe world for a minute there, the loud crowdedness of the ridiculous Orange County drowned out and forgotten for a little while.
Shifting positions was probably a good idea, though it was mostly done subconsciously. There was a small voice in the back of her mind telling Raven that she was only going to ruin the day that was she quickly pushed aside. And perhaps there was a fear in her of what could happen because of the artifacts that propelled her in this. But being in their own little snow globe, ignoring the insanity of Orange County and the people of New York City (and its tourists) was a much needed break. So even once the heated kiss broke, Raven remained where she was, forehead pressed against Ed’s, arms over his shoulders.
This definitely helped cure his boredom. This was a good step. “Guess we actually are teenagers. Who knew.” He smirked, just enjoying the bit of closeness they had for the moment. Nobody around to bother or interrupt made that possible, and he was damn glad. This was much easier without ridiculous nerves getting in the way, when that happened he tended to get frustrated by the world and just gave up. There was no pressure here, no prying people.
“Stop the presses, the world might end.” Really, people just needed to accept that they had their own way of doing things of interacting and stop being so damn pressuring on what they should be doing. It was annoying. So the lack of pressure and prying was a relief. It was nice to just sit and not really need to say anything or do anything or have things expected of her. Peace in the middle of chaos, that seemed to sum up New York for them.