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Haze
Raven’s used to black. She’s familiar with it; has learned to welcome the obsidian presence that has come to blanket her throughout her days. It’s a comfort, like a second skin.
This is not the same.
This is red, bright red, fiery, and hot. It’s a furnace, and it boils away all Raven’s fought calm, rationality, and stripping her of all but her pure anger.
She doesn’t understand how or why she’s flipped out like this, and now. Raven’s resigned herself to her shortcomings and anomalies a long time ago. She’s used to Beast Boy’s jokes, knows he can’t say anything worse than what she’s said to herself. She’s never thought something could hit her hard enough to make her lose control like this, but like many things in life, it happens anyway.
The haze is so deep and consuming it’s with near complete detachment she watched the familiar tendrils of her magic lash out at her little green teammate. It’s distant and hollow when she hears Starfire’s voice:
“Raven!”
It sounds distorted, like a bad long-distance phone call. She’s close, though; Raven can see her (albeit red-tinted) not three inches from her face.
“Raven,” Starfire says again, and Raven suddenly becomes aware of a touch on her skin. Having found its way through the tangible darkness now surrounding them both, a hand had reached Raven’s and was now clutching it tightly. Starfire’s voice continues to flow, softening as sadness creeps into it.
“I understand, Raven”, Starfire murmurs, as another hand finds her and the face in front of her inches closer.
“I know what it is like to have anger consume you.” Dimly, Raven wants to ask Starfire what she could possibly know, but that is neither here nor there as her throbbing anger recedes in favor of the new hyper-sensation of her hands under Starfire’s palms.
“I know what it is like to have words you did not think would sting burn instead.” Starfire’s arms slide up Raven’s and pull the two girls together. Star’s words hold vulnerability in them, but Star herself feels no weaker, and the embrace holding Raven tight is strong. “But you know you are more than words”, Starfire says, and Raven swears the strength in Star’s gaze brings some of her own back. “I know you are.”
Raven is aware of her power retreating back into the abyss where she hides all her emotions, but it is a secondary perception to the warmth of Starfire’s hug. Star is still murmuring quietly, complimenting her statements with gentle rubs on Raven’s back. It seems sudden and strange, how quick she turned from a crimson rage to nearly crying in her friend’s arms, but not wholly unwelcome. She decides to just accept it, and not ruin the moment.
She’ll figure it out later.