Raven Made Breakfast

Cole rolled over, letting his nose point upward. The smell of something good wafted into his nostrils. Two scents really, one a deep roasted smell the other a fluffier sweeter smell. The pair merged together to make Cole’s body react in two ways. First get up; second get hungry.

“Alright Alright, getting up…,” he grumbled as his stomach growled. He pushed himself up into sitting upright, yawning on reflex as he looked around. He was still in that weird bedroom though. “So that wasn’t a dream. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.” The boxer muttered as he got up off the bed. He gave a bit of a stretch as the memory of yesterday started to come back. Cupid, the store, his new wife…,

“Wait where’s Raven?” He thought, rubbing his eyes. His ‘wife’ was no where to be seen. She wouldn’t have gone off on her own without a reason, and someone had to be in the kitchen. “Unless the house cooks too..,” Cole thought as he scratched his side and lazily mad his way to the bathroom. One thing at a time.

The boxer finally got into the kitchen after taking care of needs and a light wash. Raven was already dressed and had her back turned. A stack of pancakes by her side as she attended the stove-top. Sensing something, Raven turns down her head to the side. Just enough to see behind her. She gave a small nod after spotting Cole.

“Good Morning Cole.” She called, sounding far more awake than he expected. “Take a seat, I’ll get you a plate.”

“Uh, thanks?” He got out as he took a seat at the kitchen island. A plate loaded with hot cakes quickly floated over to him along with a cup of fresh coffee. A few utensils and toppings followed shortly after.

“It’s just simple pancakes, nothing fancy. Help yourself as I don’t know how you take them.” Raven called as she kept working at the stove. She paused long enough to flip one, sending it into the air before catching it on another plate.“I figured I could repay the favor yesterday.”

“Didn’t know you cooked.” Cole said as got his pancakes the way he liked them. Which was with a good amount of butter and plenty of syrup. He paused for a moment before taking a few of the offered strawberries. Raven used them with waffles yesterday so why shouldn’t he try just a bit?

“I do know how to live and work as someone that isn’t super powered.” Raven explained as she finished the last batch, putting two more on the plate for herself. “While you might be the better cook it is a skill I can do. Along with driving, laundry, taxes; and so on. It’s just I’m assuming the stories you know me from, ‘Raven does bills’ probably isn’t funny or exciting.”

Raven sat down on the other end of the kitchen island, quickly making her own finishing touches. Cole notes the black balls inside her own hot cakes. More black or blue berries no doubt. As he took a bite into his own, savoring the taste, something dawned on him. Maybe not the most important thing but something he hadn't really considered.

“Wait you can do bills and taxes?” He blurted out after swallowing. Usually he had to get some help on bills himself cause it just hurt his head so much.

“I have lived without a team before.” Raven stated, a vein on her head starting to pulse, “But let me offer a different question. Would you trust Starfire, Cyborg, or BB with money?” A small smirk appearing on her lips at the memory of her friends.

“Uh…, well okay Cyborg probably but he seems…”

“Impulsive with his shopping over games and his car. And BB’s influence.” Raven sighed but the light smile didn’t leave her lips as she continued,“Honestly he has a computer in his head, you’d think he’d make better choices with his money.” The amount of money he threw at fuzzy dice was a tad worrying.

“That aside, what do you think?” Raven asked, leaning forward a bit with one hand draped over the other. Cole was pretty sure she was talking about her cooking. He took a bit to get going in the morning but he wasn’t totally stupid.

Cole took another bite and tried to pay more attention to the taste. It wasn’t bad all and all. Not great either but if there was a way to taste effort, it was clearly there. Throw in the strawberries that he’d never thought to try before meeting Raven; and it was pretty good.

“Not bad. Good actually.” Cole answered, taking another few bites to illustrate that.

“Again, simply returning the favor.” Raven replied. She kept that same small smile she had when talking about her friends though. Probably a good sign all things considered.

The two ate largely in silence after that. Punctuated a few time by slight question like how one of them slept or how the shower was. Raven left out details from her side of course. Eventually Cole asked a question that deserved more thought.

“So what’s the plan today?” The man asked as he neared the end of his plate.

“Light training.” Raven answered almost instantly. “We’ll try to get you a solid understanding of your new powers, or at least something basic so you don’t hurt yourself.” The spell caster was almost done with her own plate. Being more awake and alert let her eat just a bit faster.

“And the plan as a whole?” Cole pressed as he leaned forward pushing for some laid out idea. Anything Raven came up with was bound to be better than his own. Granted his own was to semi panic.

“Currently? Keep our heads down.” Raven explained with a flick of her wrist as she poured more coffee to the both of them, “When we can teleport, we’ll head to my world. Get some help. I know a few people that could help or get in touch with those that can. I have a few ideas and more to the point, stop my friends from worrying.”

“Yeah…, last thing I need are the Titans ticked at me. Oh crap BB is gonna strangle me.” Cole thought. Being part of that reunion was going to go poorly for him.

“After another two weeks we’ll make for your world to stop your folks from worrying.” She concluded. The words she said took a bit to register as he had other thoughts processing but when it did, Cole was taken a back.

“Wait you’d do that?” Cole bluntly asked snapping back to attention, “But that’d be two weeks of not solving this mess? Why?”

“First, from your story it seems you have close ties to your family. I’d rather not have you fully vanish from their lives until we solved this.” Raven said her face softening and her tone sounding more supportive, “I’m restrained in my emotions. Not heartless.”

“Second; doubt we can get everything together to break the contract in two weeks, even with say someone like Dr Fate helping. After we visit your world, we scoot back to my own. Hopefully they will have found more hints and info.” The hero continued to explain.

“Honestly, we can probably keep to this cycle or so depending on how long it takes or having to visit other worlds.” Raven finished as she got up to put her plate away.

“That makes a bit of sense. Well, can’t think of a better idea.” Cole offered with a shrug, “Not like my world has anything to offer to help. All just weird stories, legends and rumors. No super heroes or gods running around.”

“I expected that honestly. Just felt like a good guess.” The hero replied as she sat back down, “If there’s anything in your world that’s supernatural, it would be hidden.”

“If it does. So yeah I don’t have a frame of reference for all this magic and heroing stuff short of what I’ve seen in fiction.” Another thought came to him as he finished the rest of his meal.

Hey can I ask you a power question?” Cole asked as he got up to put is own plate away.

“Depends. Ask me and then I’ll tell you.” Raven replied as she folded open a newspaper. Cole gave a confused look and gestured towards the paper. Only for Raven shrug and say, “It was on the table. Blame the house. So about powers?”

“Well…, okay so its really two questions. One, what can you actually do. And two, what’s up with the chant.” Cole only had a small recollection of her powers but recalled those words she spoke. She usually did something with shadows though or dark energy.

“To answer your first question; far more than you expect.” Raven holds up a hand, counting on her fingers as her magic kept the paper upright. “You know flight and my shadow control so I’ll skip those from the list, along with empathy. I have access to more ‘basic magic’ letting me manifest and control energy. Usually heat and light so fireballs, lighting, etc. Illusions too.” Raven held up a hand and conjured an orb of light and the a small fireball. A flick of her wrist and the red burning ball turned black before she banished it.

“Couple powers picked from my father that I can use but don’t want to. Not going over those. Save for some basics like enhanced resistance, faster reflexes, and increased stamina.” Raven folder the paper closed as she finished browsing through it. “Physical I might be the weakest combatant, but I have the ability to keep up with the other Titans so that should speak towards what I can do.”

“As for the chant, it’s a focusing tool. It helps to control and empower my spells.” Raven said forming a small ball of energy in her hands before chanting those trade mark words of her’s, forming another sphere that was bigger and looked denser. Well as dense as darkness could, hard to tell. To Cole it just felt heavier if that made any sort of sense. Raven banished it when she thought Cole was enough.

“Huh…, neat. So how do you…” Cole started to ask as he scratched his temple.

“Use them?” Raven finished for him, “Focus and desires. I make a mental command such as lift, and wish for it to happen, Hmm now for example.” One of the bar stools near them started to float, black energy coating the bottom half of the legs. “However, under non-optimal conditions my emotions would either distract me, or fuel the magic in a different way.”

“How so?” Cole asked, paying attention as closely as he could.

“Take this stool. We’re in the middle of a fight perhaps in my haste to use it as a weapon, My ‘Courage’ Or ‘Headstrong’ side could put too munch pressure on it, breaking it. Or my Fear would cause me to grab more than expected. Maybe my Anger super charged the throwing action.” She put the stool back down car. “There’s using it to clubbed someone, and then hitting someone so hard the stool turns to sawdust.”

“Good point.” Cole muttered, picturing the thought.

“I’m sure you have even more questions. But if you’re ready, to wash up. I’ll be in the hidden room after I’m done reading” Raven said, flicking a page as she took a long sip, “Hope you’re ready.”

“Don’t have a choice now do I?” Cole said with a weak grin before heading out of the kitchen with a wave. “Don’t worry I’ll warm up enough for you.”

“Hmmm please do.” Part of Raven thought. She surprised herself at the implications of the thought. More than likely some lingering thoughts from her time in the shower. "At the very least it's not like Lust is kicking me in the back of the head all the time. More like a small poke." She thought. The hero turned away to do some cleaning up while Cole was in the shower.

It was going to be a long day?