Office Work

Even if they were closed for the day, they still had to do some work. Running a business, even if it was magical to a degree, still required some upkeep even on days off. To make sure Cole didn’t overwork himself Raven limited it to just office work. Checking requests, income, that sort of thing. Nothing that would make him have to do a lot of heavy lifting or movement.

What wasn’t easy was the new…, dynamic between them.

A slight blush would pass between them as one handed the other papers and their hands touched, or if they brushed up against each other. Neither were new to the whole ‘dating/benefits’ deal. They were just going through the ‘introduction’ phase of being in a new relationship. And with Raven’s freed emotions, she a bit more impacted by this now.

Normally she'd be a bit more..., coldly coy about it but even slight contact would make her blush now. Mainly due to her emotion clones cheering her on inside her head. Along with Lusts chants of just ‘fuck him’. Something about a tight office outfit and a choker...,

But rather than listen to her, Raven had sat him down and had a talk about that.

They would start sharing the bed together, and physical interaction was something they could do. She punctuated this by giving him a kiss and a slight grope on his cock before backing off. However, she didn’t want this to JUST be a sex thing. As she said before, she was not going to be a Weekend girl or some monthly lay.

If Cole wanted to keep going steady, he’d have to keep up his whole sweet old ‘romantic’ ways of winning her over. Just bending her over the bed wasn’t going to be enough. To which he agreed. After all, he wanted to see how this could turn out. Maybe something better than Penny.

They also had a talk about kinks or boundaries. How hard was 'too hard', what sort of toys could be used, positions and the like. Cole was somewhat against some of the more rougher kinky stuff. Which she could understand; not a lot of guys liked some of the bondage stuff she did, and most ran when wax was involved. They did agree that food and 'foot' stuff wasn't something either of them them enjoyed.

So with the idea that sex was on the table now, and that their boundaries were set up; they awkwardly did some paper work in the office, usually in silence save for the radio they turned on to a slow music playing station.

“Did you… often have to do paper work?” He asked, trying to get some subject of talk going.

“…. More than you expect.” She sighed at the thought, “Usually testimony or insurance. Super Heroes at least in my world usually are treated under Good Samaritan laws. Or close to it.”

“So, you… have to help if you see someone in trouble?”

“Something like that. Honestly the legal side of being a hero is something that probably isn’t covered in the comics or if it is, is weirdly handled.”

“Probably…, the only one I think that kinda tackles that is Batman but that’s because he’s more a vigilante than raw hero. Cops can’t use what he finds after breaking into a mob boss’s place or if they can, they have to go in a round about way.”

“Quite.” She said as she slammed a book closed and got up, “Speaking of which, I'd rather not come off as harping but let's keep our own heroing on the down low. I'd rather not see how they would deal with us in this world. As I get the feeling it won't be asking us to fill out forms in triplicate.”

“…good point.”

“If you’re done, could you get me the big red folder on the book case, I want to cross check some names from local suppliers.” she asked as she put the book away in a filing cabinet.

“And Yes,” She started as he walked to the bookcase, “The house can make us some but I think it would help the cover if we get in contact with them. Along with just needing the raw materials anyway”

“That makes…. Senssssssss….” his words started to trail off, causing Raven to look up.

He gestured at something sitting on the book case. Behind some folders and books there was a black metal box with a keypad and a lever. She put down the folders she was holding and moved over to take a better look at it, her lips pursed in thought.

“A … safe?”

“Seems that way.” He tapped the side of the keypad, “Seems to be locked too…, can your magic…”

“More than likely though if it’s from Cupid, I’d also not want to risk interacting with it in that way.” Her hand stretched out and input a command on the pad which came back with an error message.

“What did you try…”

“The date the Titans were founded. At least in my history.” She turned her head to look at him, “If it’s from Cupid it has to be a number one of us knows, or somehow both of us do.”

“A number both of us could know….” Cole thought for a moment.

His hand moved to the pad and punched in the four digit number. A second later there was a click and the lever moved a bit. He grabbed it and pulled the safe door open. Raven cupped her chin as he started to look inside.

“What did you put in?”

“Errr…. Your…, birthday.” He muttered without looking at her.

“You know my birthday?”

“I know OF your birthday yeah but I wasn’t sure if it would be the same. November 2nd, right?”

“You know my birth-date but you didn’t know who I was when you first saw me.” She folded her arms and looked at him, a corner of her mouth twitching upward.

“Look you get pulled through time and space only to wake up to a goddess next to you and have to deal with all the shit from some company you thought was a dating phishing scam, you kinda lose your marbles for a bit.” He explained his voice sounding chipper, “Honestly if you asked me that the first day, I probably couldn’t tell you anyway. Bit and pieces of comics like 10 years old are coming back to me.”

“Fair enough.” She moved to join him, pushing her body up against him, “What’s inside.”

“Couple books…, these look to be yours though.” He handed her a couple of old worn and tightly bound books, “Also safe seems to be a bit bigger than it should be.”

“Dimension space.” She muttered as she looked at the items given to her, “Mmm yes these are mine. Rather…, forbidden tomes. Wondered where they got to.”

“These aren’t gonna eat my hand are they?”

“Only if you hit them.”

“Can’t tell if that’s a joke or not so I’m not gonna test that.”

“Smart.” She opened a portal and put the books inside, “I’ll put these into a different safe I have. I suppose I had them out of place when I was summoned here thus the shift put them away in a different spot.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah. This.”

He brought out a small worn wooden box that fit into his hand. Though aged, she could tell that at one time it was rather ornate. The craved details and painted on decals chipped or faded away with the passage of time. Sockets that might have had gems or other fine decorations sat empty or cracked, replaced with inferior fits and fake stones. A rusty handle with a cracked wooden head sat on the side.

“I don’t recall owning….”

“It’s mine.”

“Yours?” her eyes moved from the box to his.

His eyes didn’t have his usual energy to them and his shoulders were slumped. He was looking at the box but she could tell his vision wasn’t towards the object but at something else, something in his memory. She waited a bit before reaching up and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Who's?”

“Grandma’s. Father’s side.” He muttered as he brought his eyes to her, color coming back to his face a bit, “She… passed away, recently. Before my failure of a match though…., heh. Wouldn’t have wanted to have her see that anyway.”

He slumped against the book case and slowly slid down to the floor, Raven following him at a more control pace.

“She was… kind. Strong. Lot of energy to her and then just…, didn’t wake up one day.”

“She didn’t have much at the end, most of it went to helping her grand kids. Big family. And well I didn’t want her to try and bail me out of anything so I just asked if I could have this.” He motioned with his hand that held the box.

“When… I was young. I was a nice kid, energetic, brash, maybe a little cocky. Grandma probably had a hand in that. But I had… big emotion episodes. Parents thought it was some sort of disorder or… what’s the proper term these days? Saying mental Illness sounds worse than saying Disorder…”

“Point was when I was sad or angry, I was REALLY sad or angry. And they couldn’t figure out why. Grandma had an idea though. Showed up one day when I was really mad, like put two holes into the dry wall mad. Came to my room, didn’t say a word just sat next to me and wound this up.”

“Fell asleep listening to it, if you can believe it.” He gave a weak smile.

She returned the smile and let him continue on his own pace.

“After that…, she let me keep it for a bit. Any time I was having an ‘episode’ I guess I’ll call it; I’d just get away from it all and listen to this.” He started to wind the box up with the handle, the aged gears squeaking as he did so.

A slow rather sad tune started to come from the box. It was styled a bit like a waltz only with a focus on a piano like tone and even slower. A feeling started to well up in her. It didn’t feel like sadness…, more a **** calmness that settled into a warm sleepy feeling. She had to fight from yawning.

Cole gave a weak grin has his head nodded a bit.

“Yeah… feels weird but…, kinda nice don’t it. Like being tucked into bed…”

“So why didn’t you have this…”

“When I moved away…, my emotions were more stable, I guess?” he gave a weak shrug “Oh, sure I was getting into fights and getting mad but not to the uncontrollable state I was when I was younger. Punching a bully’s face in was more my choice rather than reaction.”

“Till the fight.” She added.

“And it’s not like someone who even knew about the box could have played it during the fight.” He said giving a stretch of his arms, “Maybe if I had sense to think of Gran I would have held back.”

“…, would you mind if I?”

“If you want to look at the box, go for it.” He said, stopping the box’s song and giving it to her, “You’re not the kind of person to rip something apart to see what’s up. Be careful though, it is a pretty old box. Been in the family for generations.”

“Granted, I’m from a world that doesn’t have magic so I don’t know what you’re expecting to find.”

“Can I not be curious?” She carefully took the box from him and put it into a portal, “I’ll look into that later.”

She leaned over brought him into a hug before quickly him a kiss on the lips. She withdrew before he could really get into it though she held him till he returned the hug.

“Hey… thanks.” He said as he ended his side of the hug.

“Being in a relationship means being there for pain like this.” Raven stood and offered a hand to help him up, which he took. “That said do you have any … more baggage you would like to get off your chest?”

“Well there was a dog I couldn’t keep when I was young.” He flashed a bit of a smile, “Mom didn’t want it in the house.”

“If that’s the next worst experience you have, I think we’ll be okay.” Raven said as she moved back to the desk, “That said, I do like animals but I’m not fond of caring for them; so if you wanted a pet…”

“Nah I'm good. Got my hands full with you and this whole cupid thing, rather not bring something else in."

"A handful am I?" She huffed, but her eyes didn't seem to match her words, "Just what do you mean by that."

He paused and thought for a moment before answering the question.

"You want the actual or funny answer."

"....Both. Actual one first."

"You're different from any other woman I've been with. In a good way I suppose, more intense and otherworldly if that makes a bit of sense. Point is, if we met under normal circumstances I think I would still just want to focus on you rather than have to worry about other elements."

"And the funny answer."

"....well. Handfuls of... you know." He made a gesture of his hands cupping something.

"Of course."

He expected the huffed answer. He didn't expect her to use her powers to put herself into his lap. That 'handful' ass pressing into him as she leaned into her, her back coming to rest against his chest. There was a sparkle in her eyes and her lips had a confident smirk on it as her jeans covered butt moved against his crotch. He grunted a bit from the sudden pressure.

"I thought you said you didn't want this to be a 'Just sex' thing." he muttered.

"I don't. But that doesn't mean I can't tease you. Besides I have to humor Lust a few times or else she could highjack me again."

"True...., and while that might be an interesting night, it's you I'd rather be with, not some proxy aspect of you. Though how would that... really work?" He muttered as he kept his hands to himself. Though that was pretty hard to do.

".... Maybe we'll show you that later." she quipped back as she took on of his hands and brought it to her thighs, "Now I do believe we're done with paper work for the day. And while I do not want this to be JUST sex, I do... appreciate being touched. Given you're still recovering a bit, I'll let you decide how far you want to go."

"Well... thanks doc."