Chapter 9: Bite the Bullet
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She poured the cat food into the dish. The little black kitten strolled in and her purple eyes instantly darted to the food. She quickly ran over and started eating. Raven smiled. She loved this cat as if she were her daughter.

Her happiness was short-lived as the doorbell rang shortly after.

"Coming!" She called. She knew who it was. Mainly because she had invited him. She really wished she hadn't. After being at her house almost every day for a few weeks you'd think she'd have gotten used to it by now.

She opened the door and her stomach clenched up. She always did have a thing for men in work wear.

Matthew still had his work attire on. A classic white button up with a blue tie and black pants. He had done nothing to his hair however, as it was as scruffy and as messy as it usually is. Some of it draping over the left side of his face as per usual.

Raven on the other hand, had taken off her sweater and was just in her purple spaghetti strap camisole. She had also left her hair in that bun.

Matthew had the same feeling Raven did, and they stood in a silence that neither of them realized was happening. 

"Hi, Matthew." She walked away from the door. He figured that was her way of saying 'Come in'.

"Find anything?" He asked as he closed the door. Raven quickly pet Lucy and strolled into the kitchen.

"I'm going tonight. Robin spilled enough."

"Really?" He felt his face get red. Probably shouldn't have underestimated her.

"He told me he couldn't tell me everything, but that there was something in the basement that needed to be protected from Nightengale."

"He seriously told you straight up? Wow."

"And that was just my first day. About a week ago he told me how big the basement was in a passing comment, and yesterday I heard him talking on the phone about five cameras weren't enough."

"What was he like sick or something?"

She groaned: "You should have a little more faith in me next time, Matthew." She said 'faith' a little too loudly to the point where it made Lucy flinch. Matthew's cheeks became redder. He definitely shouldn't have underestimated her. She's strong and capable. Definitely able to get information out of a stubborn businessman. Unless he had planned to tell her regardless. In that case she just lucked out.

Raven felt his embarrassment as he stood awkwardly near the door and Lucy brushed up against his legs. She could feel how tense he was. Then she got this idea and a smirk pulled her mouth out of it's normal frown.

She walked out of the kitchen and gave him a piece of paper. With it in hand, she got up close to him and let her smile overtake her face. "You know, Matt," she started. Her voice was low and lustful. "Slade wouldn't have paired you up with me if all you could do was give me information. What else can you do?" She lifts his chin up.

"Uh...well, I'm pretty handy in the lab I guess."

"Perfect." She purred. She gingerly placed her hand on his chest and held up the paper. "Can you help me make something that can open that safe quickly and looks like this?" She asked.

He swallowed: "Like this? Yeah I can help you. But why a piece of mint?"

"I need it to be small, stick to the safe, and look inconspicuous. No one would pick up a wet mint off the floor."

"I see your point. Do you have any equipment?"

She grabbed his free hand and led him to the bedroom which threw a few ideas in his head. He literally shook them off.

What is wrong with you?? She's a killer, a thief!

...And she's your partner... He internally sighed.

She pulled the one pin that kept her hair in a bun out and her violet hair fell into her shoulder. She unbraided it painfully slowly and Matthew watched as it unravaled itself. Now it was wavy from being in a braided bun all day. Matthew simply crossed his arms and waited for her to do something else, avoiding all eye contact.

She purposely brushed her hand up against his when she reached for the wall, making him flinch and draw back his hand. She typed in a code, did a retina scan, and a voice code.

"Nightengale." She said to the wall. The wall opened and the two were greeted by a lab filled with electrical parts and test tubes and vials.

At that point he knew he was being messed with. He cursed himself for letting her do that to him.

But it continued to affect him. The way she moved, how her hips swayed, even how she subtly pursed her lips and glanced at him when she turned around.

"Wow you've got an entire crime lab in here." He said, making sure to give no inflection in his voice to let her know what she was doing was working.

"It's used for the exact opposite."

"If you have all this then why do you need me?"

She sighed. Her actions shifted drastically. This statement from him halted all of her games right there, he was glad, and uneased by what she said next: "I have all this because of my last partner. He was a chemist so we needed these things. I don't use them anymore. I don't know how to really use them." She walked to the opposite side of where the test tubes were.

Matthew hesitated: "I—" He stopped himself.

"What?"

"Nothing. Nevermind."

"What is it, Matthew?" She turned around and got close to him. Obviously pressuring him.

"I...may know a little chemistry." The air went from heated to tense in a split second. Neither of them like it.

She looked at the ground with her eyes, keeping her head faced up at Matthew.

"That's...helpful." A moment of silence: "Then could you put some sort of knock-out gas in it in case someone does decides to pick it up."

"I can make it self destruct and emit a gas that causes hallucinations."

"Would it be poisonous?"

"Nope. Just gives you the feeling you'd get if you were on LSD. Heh." He laughed. Believe it or not this lightened the tension a little. Raven's eyes lightened because of it.

"Make more of it then. We'll probably need it in the future." She started fiddling with some things in her corner.

"How much more?"

"However more you think we need." He waited a bit. And then smiled.

She finally seemed to be cooperative. It looked like she trusted him, but maybe she was just being nice. Either way he went with it.

A few hours later...

It was dark now and they were still working. Somehow they had gotten rather close to eachother. Neither of them seemed to notice and if they did, they didn't care. Raven was distracted by something else. Her thoughts drifting away from her task and her dextrous fingers hard at work. They worked as if they were independent from her consciousness.

Matthew was thinking too. He wanted to ask Raven something. But it was a toxic thought. So many bad things could happen if he asked this. But he had to get it out of the way. Or else it would be nagging him for the rest of the mission.

"Hey Raven?" He didn't look up, she didn't reply. "Raven?" Again no answer from her. He looked up at her. Her eyes were transfixed on her task. Yet they looked empty and glassy. She was clearly drifting off into space. He got up out of his chair and reluctantly put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't seem to notice. He shook her and the life came back to her eyes. Her head snapped up and her nose was mere inches away from his. Upon noticing this she instantly drew back, her cheeks warming to a soft pink.

He smirked at the sight of her embarrassment. "You're cute when you're embarrassed, you know that?" The pink in her cheeks deepened into a light crimson.

"Sorry. I was lost in thought." She looked away.

"I could tell. You were still working though." He crossed his arms.

"I was? I guess I've done this enough times to know what I'm doing..." she grabbed a lock of her hair and started running her fingers through her hair.

She plays with her hair when she's nervous. Looks like something a fourteen year old would do. Cute.

She stopped playing with her hair and regained her composed attitude.

"What did you need?"

"I wanted to know about your old partner." He said. A frown appeared on her face.

"That's none of your business, Matthew." She continued to work.

"C'mon Raven. Enough with the secrets. At least tell me what happened." She shut her eyes tight.

"I don't want to think about it..."

"If you just get it off your chest it might make you feel better."

"Matthew, I said no."

"Raven–" she reached out her arm to him and a black gag appeared over his mouth.

"Must I treat you like a child, Matthew?" She said angrily, yet calmly. "When I say no, I mean no!" He had had enough at this point. Matthew pushed her arm down and pinned both her arms to her sides. The gag disapeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"Who's really acting like a child here Raven? Using God knows what powers you have to shut me up? How old are you ten? When we first met I thought you were cool and the most sophisticated person I'd ever met, that nothing could get past you, that nothing could distract or upset you. But once someone tries to get remotely close to you, you forcibly shut them out. You're not a robot Raven! You know you actually can feel things don't you?" He stared her dead in the eyes. Her furrowed brow filled with anger devolved into a calm expression, marking the instance in which part of her had been cracked on the verge of shattering.

Raven took a long sigh.

"Let...let me go, Matt. We need to finish this first. Then I'll tell you." She said relaxing her body into his hands.

What are you doing?! Don't give into his meaningless words!

Zip it. I need to tell somebody.

But why him? Out of all people?

Because I don't HAVE anyone else.

They finished the mint-looking pick lock and Raven put it in a tiny case to be used in a few hours.

On their way out Matthew noticed Raven's agent, dismantled and broken.

I was wondering where he'd went.

Raven shut the secret door and he heard it lock.

"So?" She kicked her shoes off and he finally saw how tall she really was. Every time they had seen each other she had been wearing heels, which brought her up to the space between his eyebrows. Now she just under his nose.

"It was about a year after I started and I had no problems with partners. They came and they went. All I needed was their help. None of them treated me more than a business partner. But one of them..." she sighed. "He liked me. Loved me. He liked being around me. He liked being my partner...And I liked him." She walked away from him. "We worked together for months. Then when they finally placed a bounty on my head, he was too scared to even go outside with me."

Matthew had a feeling he knew what was coming.

"He thought he could make some money if he told the police who I was." Raven turned around and her hair fell into her face, covering her right eye. "I figured out his plan before he did any damage, and I killed him."

"Raven..."

"Now you know why I don't like having partners." She said

"He broke your heart..."

I can't believe I just told him that.

"I couldn't function after that. I wasn't productive and I didn't even have the heart to take on any assignments."

"So that's why the news was so quiet. But for 4 months?" She nodded with the one eye he was able to see shut. "You're worried I'll do the same thing?"

"No. It's not that..."

"Then what is it?"

"I just...can't really trust anyone with my personal life and my job life anymore."
She looks up at him. "And then you happened..." She stated this with an almost bitter tone. She tried to hide a scowl under her curtain of thick hair covering her face, but it didn't really work out too well.

He walked over to her and grabbed her shoulders tightly. He looked into the one sparkling violet eye he could see with a stone gaze.

"Raven, I can tell you honestly that I'd never do that. I'm not in it for the money. I have enough damn money. If I was I could easily get it and leave you out to dry. I'm this for the endgame. The same reason you are." Her eyes darted downward as she inhaled deeply. Then to his shock, she grabbed his hand with both of hers. It sent a tingling sensation up his arm. She relaxed her entire body. She felt comfortable around him.

"Thank you Matt." For a second, he thought he saw a real, genuine smile.