Shower and Later

Cole dragged himself to the bathroom, hoping to get a shower. He wasn't fully stupid though and paused long enough to make sure Raven wasn't inside. Given everything that had happened thus far, he wasn't sure if the universe would make him walk into a showering Raven. Seemed she had only jumped in for a quick rinse so they had avoided each other. He could still feel a bit of the mist in the air from her time in the shower. The image of her standing there in the water, the droplets caressing her nude form was enough to send blood to a certain part of him. Combined with the view he got earlier, his little man was a bit more prominent as he stripped down.

"Wonder how the other Titans worked this out...," he muttered as he washed up, trying to calm himself down with a cold shower.

Last thing he wanted to do was basically send a message to Raven that he was some creep jerking it in the shower. He still wasn't sure how much she could sense but her Empathy power was something only..., loosely discussed in stories. At least in the versions he could remember. Some made it seem like she was overwhelmed by the emotions of others around her while still other stories just made it seem like it was a more passive thing. It was never outright mind reading but he still didn't want to send off the wrong signals. Raven probably couldn't punt him from the house but he was pretty sure she was experienced in putting guys into the 'dog house'.

"Hell she probably already sensed when I stared at her ass yesterday." Cole thought. Those had been some pretty tight jeans though. He wasn't sure if it was due to her new form or she just liked wearing stuff like that..., Raven never flaunted her body but was never really shy about that leotard either. His cock pulsed at the thought, even with the low temperature water around him.

"Oh don't you start now!" He muttered at his body. He gave a long sigh as he reached for the shampoo out. "Maybe I can talk to Raven about..., alone time." he grumbled.

"What was that about alone time?"

Cole turned in a panic and started to cover his crotch but didn't see anyone to hide from. He clearly heard the woman's voice but the fact she wasn't there was a bit off putting. Instead he just saw a small black disc floating there. Another one of Raven's spells no doubt. Maybe this was better than thinking she suddenly had invisibility. The Sorceress' voice came from that dark shape a moment later.

"Whenever you're done in the shower, can you meet me in the supply area on floor two? I want to look things over." she said, her tone a bit warbled by the magic.

"Right... got it um..., can you NOT do this again unless it's really important?" Cole asked as he slowly got back to work washing his hair, "I'd like for the bathroom to maybe be a bit of a private place for both of us if you don't mind. At the very least, don't magic up this... little disk thing inside the shower." He paused for a bit before asking, "This only transfers sound right?"

"Is there something you want me to see Mr McKay?" her voice came back. Cole could picture the condescending smirk on her face.

"Only if you're willing to repay the favor." he answered. Raven wasn't the only one that could give some barbs. Nice girl but sometimes rubbed him the wrong way. Being bugged in the shower like this was one of those moments.

The silence from the other side was a bit off putting. "Hmmmmmm...., no." Raven eventually answered, "Think that would be crossing a bit of a line. I'll leave you to it though." With that the little disc seemed to grow smaller till it disappeared.

Cole gave another sigh, this one of relief. He was pretty sure Raven was just messing with him, probably like she would do with BB or Cyborg. If she was feeling that comfortable around him to do the same, that was probably a good sign.

"Well, at least living with her isn't going to be boring ever." the boxer muttered.

“So how much do we have?” came the question.

“Rough guess…, 50k books and titles? Math is a bit off because of how this building works.” Cole answered as he flipped through the inventory.

The pair were in the storage room for their store, as Raven had asked. Given the amount of business they did yesterday, it made little sense to do some restocking. The shelves were still stocked full of books, zines, and manuals. All in all, it was a drop in the bucket but if they were to run the store, they might as well get used to doing this. At the very least look at what they had to work with.

As he noted when he searched the place yesterday, each floor had their own storage area, complete with a small 'back office' off to the side. Just a small desk and a few filing cabinets to go with it, right next to the door. The main bulk of the space was taken by four rows of heavy crates on large storage racks, two levels high.. Each crate containing plastic wrapped packets of books. Besides them there were a couple of book shelves. Some assembled others still in the box. A few cleaning supplies off in a corner seemed to finish the supplies.

Everything they needed to run the store, and a small area to help manage things without having to go up to the main office. Heck even had some lockers for any employees that they might sign up. Cupid's work continues to be both impressive..., and worrisome.

“That should give us enough time to keep operating till we jump.” Raven said as she checked the desk. Mainly more inventory sheets and some employee records. Blank but fully ready to be filled out. “Not sure how we’ll get more unless there’s a contract with a provider in one of the desks around here.”

“Given the house I wonder if it can’t just print books.” Cole muttered as he climbed down the rolling ladder. Each shelf unit had one, locked to the frame too so it wouldn’t go sliding. Raven shook her head when he rolled towards and got off the ladder.

“I don’t believe so. At least not outright.” She started as she leaned back and kicked her legs up, “It seems as if the house can manipulate items and the properties of said item but can’t produce them. As an example…,” Raven said, her eyes lazily drifting side to side in thought before she opened one of the drawers of the desk.

“There’s no way for the house to make a bag of chips appear in this drawer but…” she pulled the compartment out and took a small snack bag out, “It doesn’t have an issue in getting me one from the kitchen.”

“Explains the berries.” Cole thought as he watched Raven bite into more chips. The house must have 'heard' him looking for the berries for pancakes and simply moved them into his range and vision. He thought about yesterday some more, about what else he had done with the house. “So it could change the chips if you wanted? I used it to change a book yesterday from..., I dunno what it was to a school book." Cole explained.

“Yes. Though I’d make sure to make sure the two items are as similar as possible. Less energy spent in the process.” Raven explained as she slowly held up another chip, showing it to be in a wavy design now rather than the normal ones, “Easier to go from chip to ridged chip than from potato to chip. Or from Potato to Tomato.” She paused to take a large crunchy bite and swallowed before continuing, "I'm not sure it can but so long as it's binding and paper you can probably make it turn into a book. I wouldn't try doing the same thing with a boot or something."

“Makes sense. But why give us a magic house like this and not just have it filling cater to our needs?” Cole voiced his concern,“I mean they ripped us through time and space to have a new 'perfect life' it seems. Why bother with all this?"

“So we have a level of independence without being dependent on it either. So long as we put the leg work into getting it the supplies, the house should do the heavier lifting. Also allows us to stay operational regardless of the world we're in. We can do business in a ninja world, cybernetic nightmare, or one of those fantasy lands.” Raven said, banishing the empty chip bag through another portal, “But given we still have to help manage everything, we can't just get lazy with our actions." She folded her arms and tilted her head just a bit, "Unless you trust this house to cook.”

“Nah…, kinda get it.” Cole quipped. It was just enough help for two people new to this to operate a store. With only the minimum amount of outside assistance it seemed. “All we have to do is feed it mats. Hmmm, wonder if we can just toss in note books.” He paused to think about how much they could make with buying ten buck compensation notebooks and turning them into twenty dollar books.

"It's not a bad deal. Could be worse, we could be reporters." Raven mused as she got up, and conjured up a pair of glasses over her eyes, "Think I could pull this off?"

"...., Maybe? Though the skin tone alone is probably something that would clue people in about who you are." Cole replied with a bit of a grin. Raven's lips twitched upward for a moment before banishing the glasses. "So What now?"