Not a Couple

Raven wanted to strangle her communicator. "So what you're telling me," she said through gritted teeth. "is that that weak sorceress cast a spell on Damian and I that forces us to tell the truth, and that we can't leave until Cyborg comes back from his mission with the League to examine us?"

Jaime and Garfield's sheepish faces nervously smiled back at her. "Sorry, chica," Jaime apologized. "We don't know if what she hit you with is contagious."

Raven looked ready to murder Jinx. "So, I'm stuck with Damian until the curse wears off?" she asked viciously.

"Or when Cyborg comes back," Garfield added.

Jaime smirked. "By the way," he began. "Damian, is it true you call Raven "Beloved" in your sleep?" Damian's cheeks turned pink. "And Raven, do-"

Raven snapped her communicator shut to save them both the embarrassment. She then covered her ears, as not to hear his answer.

Damian gave her a quizzical look. "Why did you block your ears?" he asked.

"Becuase I'm a decent person," Raven retorted. "I didn't want you to be forced to tell me anything like that."

Damian narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but remembered that they couldn't lie and put his guard down.

It was awkward as the minutes passed. Raven was thinking how the hell did she get herself into these things and Damian's thoughts drifted to Raven herself.

As Raven paced around his room he studied her carefully. Usually, Raven was cool and collected because of the little emotion she showed. But today you could tell she was worried. Her eyes were wider and her body was slightly shaky. Even her hood was down, revealing her eyebrows that were scrunched together in nervousness.

In all honestly, Damian sort of liked this side of Raven. Seeing her face full of emotion satisfied him. She was always hiding under that damn hood, hiding herself. Damian hated that hood with a passion. It hid her from the world. It hid her from him.

"You're pretty."

Time seemed to stop. Raven gazed at him, amethyst eyes wide and mouth agape. A blush appeared on her pale gray cheeks, giving them a cute, pink tint.

Damian snapped his mouth shut. Damn, I shouldn't have said that out loud, he thought. Must be that damn curse.

"Uh... I-I, you," Raven stuttered. The empath quickly regained her composure. "Thank you, I guess."

Damian stared at her and Raven began to grow more insecure. She lifted her hood to cover her face again, but something stopped her.

Damian's hand was around her wrist, not too tight as to hurt her, but tight enough to keep her hand from moving.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?" she demanded, trying to wrench her wrist free.

"Don't," Damian spoke. His voice was tender, so much so that Raven wouldn't have believed had he not been speaking to her. "I hate it when you hide."

Raven's eyes filled with tears as she swallowed the lumo in her throat. "I do too," she admitted as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Damian let go of her wrist and gently wiped away her tear. "Then why do you?" he asked. Sure, that wasn't very fair because she had covered her ears when Jaime had asked him, but he was asking an answer of her. But he needed to hear this. He needed to know why she hid her face when he thought it was the most beautiful sight in the world.

Raven sighed, knowing the spell would make her answer. "When I first came to Earth from Hell, it was rough," she revealed. "People saw my almost gray skin and unatural eye color and thought I was a freak. It didn't help that I was the weird freak that didn't talk or interact with anybody. Each new town sooner or later either chased me out or tortured me so bad that I fled. I-I thought that if I hid myself, no one would see me for the ugly freak I was, no one would torture me again."

By the end of her story, Raven had tears streaming down her face rapidly. Damian swore he could hear a vase or three shatter, but he really couldn't find it within himself to care. The green eyed boy was livid. He just couldn't understand why someone would hurt his Raven. "That's why you're so loyal to Kori," Damian deduced. "She saved you; she gave you a home and friends and madre you feel accepted. And for that you feel you owe her."

It was true. Raven would follow Kori's orders without question, even if her plans weren't the brightest and had almost got the team killed once. She would faithfully follow Kori to the ends of the earth if she was told to do so by the alien.

Raven nodded. "Uh-huh," she confirmed. "Kori took me in when no one else would, she was the first person to show me love."

Damian brought his hand up to Raven's face and caressed it with his thumb. "Raven, you are not ugly," he insisted. "You are the most beautiful girl I've ever met."

Raven shook her head. "Damian, you don't understand," she said, glancing away from him. "They were right. I'm a freak, a monster. I-" Raven didn't get to finish that sentence before she was pulled into Damian's chest.

"Stop," Damian interrupted. "I don't appreciate you speaking about yourself like that." He gently pushed her away from the hug and looked her in the eye. "Raven, if it weren't for you, I'd still be that same bastard I was when I first came here, you have asisted me in more ways than I have the ability to count."

Raven gave Damian a watery smile. "Yeah, what would you do without me?" she joked.

Damian smirked. "I probably wouldn't be here," he joked back.

Raven smiled at Damian. Yes, she was stuck with him, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad.