Chapter 10

Due to being on a floor that had been closer to the bottom of the Tower, I was one of the last people to show up to the living room. To which everyone was crowding around…some long hair blonde woman…no wait, she was a Justice Leaguer. Black Canary.

It was easy to forget the other female Justice League members when they had Wonder Woman in their ranks.

She nodded as I appeared.

“Now that everyone’s here, I can start teaching. For those not as well versed in martial arts, you’ll come first. Everyone who already knows more than just the bare basics, please go to the gym and work out. After I’m done here, I’ll meet with you.”

Aqualad, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Galatea, and Bea-Beast Boy!? Beast Boy knows martial arts? Since when? He just…turns into animals! What, does he know monkey kung fu? Which left Me, Raven and Kid Flash alone with Black Canary.

“Alright. Now, would anyone want to volunteer?”

“Right here, beautiful.”

Kid Flash answered as he gave her finger guns and walked up. At the very least I was going to be treated with Kid Flash being punished for that god awful flirting attempt.

Sure, enough his legs were swept down from under him, and he received an elbow in the gut for his troubles. Leading him to weakly roll away. As he did so, Raven moved aside and…was actually smiling for once. Well, smirking in a pretty evil looking manner, but it still counts.

“When you are fighting a superior opponent, or perhaps a very quick one, going for their legs is always a high priority. If they can’t stand, chances are they can’t fight. Not to mention that this also trips them up.”

She paused for a moment as Kid Flash slowly stood back up and faced her. Having a half-hearted smile on his face as he seemed to be in a bit of pain.

“Now Kid Flash, would you be so kind as to help me demonstrate?”

He blinked at that. In mild fear about what is to come, leading him to speak up.

“Uh…am I to try sweeping your legs?”

Black Canary smirked at his words.

“If you can, sure.”

This led him to gain his confidence back as he swaggered towards Black Canary bent down in front of her, and kicked the back of her legs in an honestly pretty tough manner. Like I don’t know what the fuck her calves were made of, but mine would have shattered like a porcelain pot.

Not only did he fail to knock her down, he failed to see what was going to come next. Something I saw from miles away the moment she said ‘if you can’.

She extended her leg out, hooking it underneath the one he was balancing on as his other leg was still extended due to kicking her, and she hooked it upwards. Causing him to fall on his back. Despite being low to the ground already, due to the strength she had used he notably had the air knocked out of him as he was lifted up momentarily into the air before being brought back down.

“A person’s most vulnerable and weakest moment in a fight is when they’ve made a move. Once they’ve committed to an attack, you can proceed with your own. Though this is assuming you’re fighting an opponent who’s attack you can either dodge or take. If you can’t, well, then you have bigger problems.”

And she probably meant that literally. Considering most super strong opponents I’ve gone up against so far have been massive hulking monstrosities. Besides Galat-well…there was something pretty massive with her…

“Alright. I think it’s time to split you guys into sparring partners. Whoever doesn’t get chosen will spar with me.”

Kid Flash groaned as he picked himself up. Already he showed signs of his legs having muscle spasms and he immediately looked at Raven with a wide eyed look.

“H-hey, Raven, baby, d-“

“Law?”

Raven interrupted him, looking directly at me with a frown. Though she was frowning I could swear I saw glimmers of satisfaction in her eyes. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded.

“Sure.”

“W-wait, I-“

Kid Flash immediately got his legs taken out from underneath him as Black Canary warned him that they weren’t done sparring until she said they were. His pleading and begging were overlooked as me and Raven awkwardly got into a fighting stance as directed by Black Canary, and started to fight.

It was pretty pathetic, all things told. Listen. I know how to throw a punch. I’ve gotten into scraps before that were solved with sheer physical violence in Juvie. But here’s the problem. Aiming for someone eyes and nose was very different than going for someone’s legs.

And to add insult to injury, Raven was also knocking me down a lot more than I was knocking her down. Which practically spit in the face of any remaining pride that I had.

Eventually Black Canary showed us a few more moves, before getting into grappling on the floor. It was amusing when Kid Flash was screaming in agony after being pinned down and having his arm destroyed by Black Canary. It was a lot less amusing when Raven was doing it to me.

Thankfully she was obviously nervous and holding a bit back. Something that…well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t doing it too. It was an awkward situation after all.

When I had said that I wanted to wrestle or get into close contact with a girl, this was not what I had in mind. It wasn’t nearly as hot as it might sound, but there were a few situations that were uh…pleasant. Despite the circumstances.

Like when Raven pinned my arm against her. Which while painful, also pressed the full length of my arm against her leotard. A texture that had been unfamiliar to me until recently. Thankfully my costume was pretty thick in several areas. Allowing me to continue fighting without certain things becoming apparent.

Due to the both of us being floundering clowns at martial arts, we were bound to fuck up spectacularly and fall on top of each other. With me on top.

With Black Canary watching and giving advice, she helped couch her and me to grapple on the ground before pinning each other. Which lead to several moments where our faces would get a bit close together. Which also lead to us pulling back about the same time, leading to Black Canary chastising us.

After an hour, we were both pretty sweaty and tired. Leading Black Canary to congratulate us before leaving. Oh right, Kid Flash was still there on the floor, though he had been folded up like a pretzel. I gave him a cursory overview before deciding to put him out of his misery and help him fall asleep on the floor.

After drying herself off with a towel, Raven almost immediately began to meditate.

“Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.”

This was the mantra Raven used to meditate. As well as to use her powers whenever she was doing something that needed a lot of effort. Perhaps it helped her concentrate. Much like my mints.

Whenever Raven would meditate, she would be dead to the world. Something BIG had to happen to snap her out of it, as she withstood about thirty minutes of meditating over Beast Boy’s incessant questions about what she was doing. There was also just the fact that she would ignore every question thrown her way when she was meditating.

I wasn’t sure how she knew when to break out of her meditation. It probably functioned on some sort of…magic rules.

All the while chanting her mantra quieter and quieter until she finally stopped. Entering her mind palace, or whatever the hell meditation stuff was called. It was kind of cool how she could float in the air while doing it.

I’ve never been into meditation before, but Raven did make it seem pretty magical. Likely due to using actual magic. At least, I think she was serious when she said she could do magic.

Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.

…I wonder what those words meant? Were they magical, or were they just like…meditation words? Like another language’s version of ‘breath in, breath out’?

I looked around the room. Making sure no one was in before I approached Raven. She had stopped chanting a few minutes ago, which meant she was in her deep sleep meditation phase. Which meant the only one conscious in this room was me.

There were also two cameras in the living room, but it was pretty easy to avoid them. Though it did mean getting somewhat closer to Raven to do so.

Fuck it. It was now or never.

I sat on the floor cross-legged. Breathing in and breathing out. Before chanting out loud in a whisper.

“Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.”

I didn’t feel especially zen, or one with myself. Maybe I had to just…relax. And close my eyes, like Raven.

“Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.”

Yep. Just…imagine my mind palace. A place that was incredibly comforting to me. Full of stuff like cash, chicks, pizza, gold, diamonds, unlimited power, a bed…friends…blankets…no threats…no reason to have my guard up…just peace and tranquility.

“Azarath. Metrion. Zin-“

“…What are you doing?”

I was startled awake. I immediately stood up and made momentary eye contact with Raven. Considering her raised eyebrow, I was pretty sure I had just completely embarrassed myself in front of her and would possibly never live this down.

Mmhmm, yeah, why did I think this was a good idea again.

“Uh…I…”

Due to be taken off guard so suddenly, I wasn’t sure of what to say. Raven on the other hand simply kept watching me. Her eyebrow lowing back into just her customary frown.

“I though you didn’t hear anything when you’re meditating.”

I accused her, pointing a finger in her direction. She blinked at it before responding.

“No, I do.”

“But…when Beast Boy kept asking-“

“I heard it. All of it.”

Oh. Oh. Well. This had been an incredibly awkward and shameful moment of my life. If it was possible to overdose on mints, I was pretty sure I was going to figure out in the next half hour.

And Raven was still looking at me as if expecting an answer. I think I’d rather be publicly flogged than have this conversation continue any longer. So, I stretched before saying I was beat and going to head to bed.

I promptly ignored her reminder that it was one in the afternoon, and holed up in my room for the rest of the day. I did indeed figure out that one can not overdose on mints. Though I did make myself anemic trying.

When the next day came, I decided to simply to do what everyone does when having experienced an incredibly embarrassing event. That was to of course pretend it never happened in the first place.

Besides, Raven could be sarcastic, but she wasn’t actively mean. Not only that, but her social life was practically non-existant. Which meant she likely told no one about the event. It was also likely that it wasn’t even a big deal to her, so that she’d forget it quickly anyway.

Ugh. I don’t know why this was bothering me so much. If something like this happened in Juvie I’d simply deal with the problem or I just wouldn’t care.

Was it because she was a girl? No, that can’t be it. It didn’t matter to me whether someone was a boy or a girl. I’d beat the shit out of them regardless if they came at me. And to be quite honest, Raven wasn’t even that attractive.

She was attractive in the sense that she was a girl who lived nearby, but besides that…she didn’t have much going for her. Starfire was much peppier and more exciting to be around. As well as showing more skin and just being hot. Galatea had muscles and breasts.

Raven? She had uh…really pale skin? Well, I did like her hair, but besides that, she just wasn’t that exciting.

Which once again begged the question. Why was I bothered so much by this?

Despite not having an answer I showed up to breakfast with a big smile on my face. After a few people inquired as to why I wasn’t at dinner, I simply stated I hadn’t felt well and that I wanted more time to study some chemicals. As no one was interested even slightly in the chemicals I was studying, that usually ended the line of questioning right then and there.

As expected, Raven barely looked in my general direction during breakfast. Likely meaning she didn’t even bother remember the event herself. After dinner, I had to do the dishes. Leading a much calmer version of me to start hand washing them before toweling them off.

It was a pretty easy job since most people cleared their plates, and there wasn’t anything sticky being eaten for breakfast. So, I finished pretty quickly. Turning around, I was immediately face to face with a frowning Raven.

“Uh, hello?”

I greeted her, curiously. I couldn’t remember the last time she initiated a sort of conversation with me. Hell, I don’t think she ever initiated a conversation with any of the Titan’s.

“About yesterday…”

So she did remember. Great. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. She continued onwards.

“When you were trying to meditate…did you…maybe…want to try again? With me?”

I blinked at that. Was she…offering meditation lessons? Well…huh. That was unexpected. After a long period of me simply not saying anything, Raven looked around awkwardly.

“Uh…”

“…Sure. When did you want to start?”

I commented. Even though I had been embarrassed last time, it didn’t mean that I wasn’t still interested in meditating at all. Raven jerked a thumb towards the elevator.

“Right now…if you’re up for it.”

I guess I was.