"Are you sure this is okay?" Raven asked after hearing Nathan say that she could decorate this guest room however she liked. It felt unreal to get her own room. It wasn't like she hadn't gotten her own room from some nicer people during the time she had hidden away from Trigon's forces, but this time it felt like this could be something permanent for a change.
"Of course, I have some empty rooms anyway." He nodded before stepping away from the door, "I am going to get my afternoon meal. Do you want anything in particular? I can order something for you as well."
"...Can we order pizza?" She hesitated for a moment, but she couldn't help herself. It might be a normal thing for other people, but not to worry about food and to let it deliver to their home was something Raven wanted to experience. It seemed like a novel idea like it was to cook one's own meal.
Nathan gave her a thumbs up, "I will order some of everything then." He went downstairs before giving her time to retort. It wasn't like she had any specific idea on what pizza she wanted but ordering something from everything seemed a bit much for her.
She turned back to her room and smiled at the thought. This was her own room. The room was well lit and had bright colors for the walls and the ceiling, a good thing Nathan had brought her some paint. She cracked her knuckles and went to work.
...
"Raven, pizza is here!" Nathan shouted from downstairs just as she finished rearranging the furniture after having painted the walls and ceiling in a darker gray tone with one side being a darker blue.
She was missing some purple-colored carpet and other decorations in the room to give it a homey feel to it. Her occult stuff would be perfect to be displayed on the shelf on the side. She couldn't forget about some magical diagrams highlighted with some glowing blue ink. They would do well in her room, she realized as she overlooked the work she had done for the past hour.
Her soul-self dropped the brush into the empty paint can. She hadn't even laid down any magical barriers yet but she still felt comfortable using her powers. Even if she used everything she knew about defensive barriers, it would pale against that False Super Saiyan state Nathan was in, but they might be good for decoration.
She was a bit embarrassed after she thought about how excited she was for having a room that would belong to her. She managed to control her emotions in the end but she was still too distracted on how to decorate that it hadn't registered that Nathan seemed to have wanted to explain that state of his.
She shook her head, she could just ask him later. She would also have to wait for the paint to dry anyway before she could even begin to draw on top of the new paint. Now she just wanted to relax and eat her afternoon meal with Nathan, though according to the clock it would be more of a dinner.
Raven blushed slightly as she thought about it being a dinner date. It was just a meal.
She nodded to herself reassuringly as she stepped outside her room and closed the door before going downstairs. She could already smell the delicious scent from the stairs.
There was a lot of pizza opened up and steaming with heat.
"They are all cut already. Dig in!" Nathan said after handing her a plate before he just picked up a slice and started to devour it. It again surprised her how fast he was able to eat, but she found it endearing like a golden retriever gobbling up its food.
She relaxed on the couch and picked up a slice, enjoying the taste of it. She had finished half of the slice, "...Thank you." She uttered surprising herself when she felt tears wet her cheeks. She wiped them away as she tried to suppress these feelings to center herself, but they just came up and up again without her being able to do anything against it.
It didn't help when Nathan hugged her and comforted her, but it didn't feel bad. She couldn't bring herself to extract herself, so she let the tears drip down her face as she continued to stuff her face with another slice.
...
Raven woke up to a dark ceiling, she pushed herself up to sit and looked around the room that she had decorated. She smiled contentedly, stood up, went into her bathroom, and got ready.
She had dressed in the leotard that somewhat resembled what she had worn in Azarath and made her way downstairs where she heard the snoring of Nathan. She knew that he had his own room but he preferred to sleep on the couch downstairs.
Maybe because it was closer to the fridge or because he had just finished his training session and didn't want to drag himself upstairs.
She didn't know where he was training but it seemed to be sufficient enough to push him, at least she had never seen him finish his training without any wounds.
To be fair she had only slept in this place for 3 nights now, so she wouldn't know if this was a regular thing but she knew that she wanted to participate in his training. She needed to get stronger one way or the other and his training might demonstrate itself to be useful for her too.
She opened the fridge and found it empty of the left-over sandwich. Yesterday night, he had made enough to satisfy his hunger twice, probably assuming that she would eat as much as he would, but in the end, it hadn't lasted long enough for her to get another for breakfast.
Maybe he never thought about it being her breakfast and had accounted for a midnight snack after his training?
She decided to bring out some ingredients and make herself some waffles. She hesitated for just a moment before deciding to make some for Nathan as well.
He seemed to have woken up due to the smell if his deep breaths through the nose were any indicator. He groggily stood up. "Whatchu' makin'?" He said before stretching while moaning sleepily.
"Some waffles, but there aren't any for you." Raven said even though she was filling up multiple plates.
"I see. It is a small portion." He said staring hungrily at the numerous waffles.
Her eyes twitched slightly, "I was kidding, you can have some."
Nathan's eyes lit up as he looked at her for confirmation, which stunned her for a moment, making her nod shyly. He instantly dug into the waffles without remorse.
Just as he bit down his face instantly grimaced. He seemed to have noticed that she was looking. He hesitated for a moment before he spoke up, "Now that I think about it. I am not that hungry..."
"...That bad?" He nodded seriously at that, but he didn't comment further on that. It made her curious, so she took a bite as well and almost threw up as a result.
"I knew waffles weren't supposed to be purple-black!" She used her powers to open the trash can and threw it all away. She slumped into the chair and groaned annoyed.
"What do we have here?" A sultry voice suddenly sounded out from upstairs, making the two look up from their empty breakfast plates.
A woman with white hair inside a leather outfit came down the stairs. Every movement of her accentuated her curves and Raven couldn't deny the woman's sensual charm.
Raven looked at Nathan who looked at the woman with a raised eyebrow. She hadn't used her empathetic abilities on him since the battle against her siblings and she wasn't going to from now on. Although he hadn't voiced his discontent about her use of powers, she didn't want to invade his privacy any more than she already had.
By the look, Nathan gave the newcomer it was obvious that she wasn't someone that he wasn't familiar with. In fact, it looked like he wasn't surprised by her appearance from the second floor at all.
"Didn't know your girlfriend visited last night?" Raven asked. She was about to move in here so she didn't want any misunderstandings to arise. She might attack her if she coincidentally met her in the dark of the night.
Nathan looked at her annoyed, "Really?? Didn't we go through this already?" His question made her realize that she had stepped into a situation before when she asked a similar question.
The cat-like person stepped next to their table without making any sound. Raven realized that like the other woman before that this one seemed dangerous as well, though in a completely different way like a sharp dagger.
If Maxima represented dignity and elegance, this woman radiated seductive allure, so it didn't surprise Raven when she lowered herself at the waist, while pulling down the zipper of her top, revealing her bountiful cleavage.
"That's right, how about you make it official while Raven and I get to know each other, intimately? A threesome would be a great bonding exercise too, you know?" She said sultry, her pink lips slightly wet and strangely enticing.
A sigh attracted Raven's attention. Nathan flicked his finger upwards and the zip of the woman's costume closed again. She was then picked up in the air and was sat down on a chair next to them.
She blew away a strand of white hair that had fallen into her face before resting her chin in her palm, "You are boring, Nate! I almost had her too. At least, let me have some fun with her. I am Black Cat by the way." She winked at Raven, which she returned with a deliberately blank look.
"Raven, a pleasure." Raven's monotone voice made Black Cat raise an eyebrow.
"Long time no see." Nathan greeted her as he went to get some ingredients.
She let out an exaggerated sigh, "You have no idea. I had experienced some crazy shit. I went with Shiva and some old friends of hers to stop a cult of Cobras. We ended up inside another dimension filled with lizard demons. It was wild, let me tell you, but enough about me. I heard some shit went down here as well."
"Yeah..." Nathan released a sad sigh. "Nick, he became a casualty in my fight."
"...Shit."
"Tell me about it." Nathan said as he scribbled something on a tiny piece of paper.
"I always thought he was an asshole for throwing me in jail that one time, but... he was a good man." Black Cat looked at her empty palm.
"Yeah..."
Raven could only sit there in silence, not knowing what to say in this kind of situation. They didn't say anything either for a moment before Black Cat turned towards her. Raven was surprised that she had taken off her mask even if it hadn't really covered anything at all.
"So, who are you and what are doing here, new girl?" Black Cat looked her up and down before releasing a threatening smile, "Nate, I have to give it to you. You know how to pick them." Nathan rolled his eyes at the comment, while Raven covered herself with her cloak.
"She is my friend and this is her home. Don't make her uncomfortable." Raven looked at him gratefully. She doubted that she would grow tired of hearing that someone cared about her, especially after knowing what she actually was...
Still Raven looked at her indifferently, "You heard him."
"Oho got some sass. I like." Black Cat commented but that was how much attention she was seemingly willing to give Raven. The two chatted with each other while Raven decided to give the two some room to catch up with each other. She stood up and started to look around inside the house.
Since she had decided that she would be living here, she wanted to know every corner of this place and she quickly realized there was a lot of space she would be able to discover.
She shielded her eyes from the shining sun when she stepped outside. The backyard was large, there was even part of a forest that belonged to him. He had told her that he was rich, but she didn't know that cage fighters were earning this well.
She stepped to a lake with some clear water. There were some fishes swimming about inside and it was a beautiful sight especially with the white rocks at the bottom of the lake. She wandered around some more before entering the training section if the holes in the ground and the destroyed rocks were any indicators.
The waterfall was pretty loud too, but she guessed that was a must-have for a training place outdoors. She couldn't help but snicker when she thought that he got his inspiration from some novel he had read. She still couldn't believe that this force of nature would sit down for hours to read something.
She looked around and found many healthy animals which seemed strangely attracted to the place even though his presence and the kind of training he seemed to be doing should have been a deterrent for any wildlife. There were even some deer that just looked at her before continuing to eat.
A bit further away she saw something strange on the ground. She stepped into a circular indentation. She crouched down to look at it. It seemed like the stone ground was compressed. She sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes. She started to meditate for a moment. After a moment she opened her eyes again.
This was an idyllic place. The shadow of the giant tree fell perfectly as well. She could imagine herself spending a lot of time her. The waterfall and wildlife made one hell of an ambiance.
After going back inside she looked around again. There were some rooms that seemed to be lived in. Shallot's and her room, but there was another with some female decoration. It was probably a guest room for all the females that visited him.
She went downstairs and found Black Cat standing at the door, saying her goodbyes to Shallot. Black Cat caught her sight and waved her to her before Raven could sneak away. She reluctantly stepped towards the woman.
"You are finally leaving?"
Black Cat smirked at her question, "Yeah, just wanted to say that my offer of an intimate session still stands if you want to experience a fun time. Oh, and you two don't have too much fun without me." She winked before going outside. Raven only groaned before slamming the door shut.
"You have some weird friends."
He snorted as a response, "You don't know half of it."
Raven hesitated for a moment as it wasn't really in her place to mention this, but she felt compelled to say it. Maybe he didn't realize it, "It seems clear to me that you aren't interested in them like that. It feels like you are leading them on. Why not tell them that you don't want to be with them? "
He glanced at her for a moment before speaking, "Maxima is a fiery-tempered Queen of a planet who doesn't like being told, No. I had already told her that I didn't have the intention of being with her but she wouldn't take it as an answer.
Although she seems tame when she is around me, I feared that she would escalate the matter if she didn't get the chance to 'prove' herself, so we made a deal. If I resisted her 'charm' or whatever until she found another suitable mate, she would give up on the idea."
"...Seems like a bad deal. What if she never found a 'suitable' mate." He shook his head at that.
"Her main criteria is her mate's strength, so I just have to throw some strong guys at her and the problem would be solved. I am currently looking for a guy I know who could handle her, but he is somewhere in space. Might take me a while to reach him. I could probably toss Superman at her as well, but I am not sure how well he would handle her or the ramification of rejecting her..."
"And what about Felicia, ah and don't worry I won't tell anyone that you told me her secret identity."
He rolled his eyes, "Not like she had hidden it from you... Well, she is a bit different. If anything she is persistent. She pretends she didn't hear me reject her. She comes and goes whenever she pleases. Doesn't help much that she bribes us.
Not to mention that no prison could hold her and no fortress could keep her out. Her being here is not something I could stop- except of course beating her up or worse, the same for Maxima, I guess. It's not something I want to do with my friends anyway."
"I guess, but it doesn't seem they are very good friends. It seems like they aren't respecting your boundaries..."
"An expert of relationships, eh?" He said in a jokingly manner, "Most of the time they aren't behaving that way. They probably felt threatened by you. Well, and you did tease them about it too, not that you knew about it, but oh well."
"They... are threatened by me?" Raven pointed at herself while Shallot looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but he didn't elaborate.
"Anyway, I am going back to sleep again. Haven't gotten enough rest to recharge." He rotated his shoulder while saying that.
Raven watched him walk upstairs. It was probably the first time since living here that he decided to sleep in his room.
"Wait. What did he mean with bribes 'us'?" She frowned slightly but decided to put it out of her mind. She started to walk around the ground floor and found that she had pretty much covered the entire building and plot of land around it.
There were only two doors left. After opening one, she instantly knew that this would become one of her favorite places. The entire wall was just a shelf of books and a soft beanbag on the side. The place looked really comfortable. She felt excited just looking at the room.
She stepped towards the shelf and found it sorted into categories. It was a colorful collection. She picked out one at random. "'The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Full Human Potential.' Wasn't he alien?" She put the book back on the shelf and reluctantly left to explore the last door.
She opened the last door which revealed a set of stairs going down. "Great, a basement. There is no way something bad will be down there-" She pressed the light switch at the top of the stairs, turning on the light that illuminated the entire stairs and the room downstairs.
It wasn't like in the movies at all with only one light providing room for only the room middle of the basement. She sighed out before slowly walking downstairs. She looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary.
She then looked at the wall that seemed to be painted gray. When she stepped closer she realized that it wasn't painted but just a different material. She swept away the shelf in front of it before touching it.
It was indeed a different material, she couldn't understand the thought process in choosing something different for a wall but maybe it was just a weird design choice of rich people. She was about to leave before she noticed the marks on the ground like something heavy was dragged and dropped to the floor.
"A secret door? Seriously, Nathan? A bit cliche..." She instantly guessed before looking around, but she didn't find the switch to activate the door, though she wouldn't need to. She raised her hand that was covered in darkness and pointed at the wall.
Her stomach suddenly grumbled again. She hesitated for a moment. Then she lowered her hand before walking out of the basement. She needed to eat something. She groaned slightly as she thought about having to cook again. Maybe she would just take another of Nathan's prepped meals.
She stepped into the kitchen again and noticed the paper on which Nathan had scribbled on just now. She picked it up and read the instruction on it. The title quickly revealed what he had noted down.
"How to make delicious Waffles..." She mumbled to herself, "Quite the beautiful handwriting for a man like him." She shook her head at that she shouldn't reduce him to his looks.
She put the paper down and looked at the ingredients that were lined up in order. She metaphorically put up her sleeves and went to work.
...
She brought the waffle close to her face and took a good sniff of it. It smelled delicious, though she didn't know if it was worth it. She looked at the battlefield that was called the kitchen. She had used up almost every ingredient Shallot had in the house.
Even with the step-by-step guide, she needed several attempts until she had accomplished her goal of making something one could actually eat without throwing up, but she was still glad that she had succeeded in the end. She put the waffle on the plate with a fork and knife on the table. She put syrup next to it.
"Dafuq happened here?" Nathan's voice sounded out from behind her.
She froze for a moment, not having realized that he had been behind her. She turned around, "I-I made myself a waffle?" She said scratching her cheek, embarrassed to have left the kitchen behind in the state it was in.
"Sure... Why didn't you clean up?" He said as he looked over the mess she had made. He opened the trash can and looked inside, seeing the countless attempts inside.
"I-I just finished and hadn't gotten to cleaning up yet."
"Just so you know. Every mess you make is your responsibility to clean up."
She nodded at that. It wasn't her intention to leave it as is. This was her home now too, the least she could do was to clean up her own mess.
"It seems like I will have to restock soon." He said as he waved his arm, picking up the many dishes and then cleaning them with a sponge and some dishwasher in an impressive display of psychic control. It was pure art and he didn't even seem to put much effort into it.
"Just so you know, I will only do this once, so enjoy your warm delicious-smelling waffle." He said interrupting her before she could even begin to say something.
She looked at the single waffle she had managed to make before speaking up, "If you want to you c-"
"Yes, I guess you can call this my reward!" In a blink, he had sat down next to her with a fork and knife in hand. He cut the waffle in half before placing it on his own plate.
"Are you some kind of food maniac?" She mumbled sitting down before she dug into her own half in fear he would eat hers as well. She had her first bite with a bit of syrup and mentally patted herself on the shoulder. It was pretty good.
When she glanced over to his plate, she saw that he had already finished his half and in its place was one of his prepped meals. He didn't seem to care that it was still cold and just dug in.
She slowly ate while she watched how he gorged himself in his food. She finished quickly and then heard a ding from the microwave. It opened and warmed up food floated towards them. It was placed just in front of her.
She was still hungry, so without saying anything she dug into the warm prepped meal. She smiled slightly. She could get used to this.
After half an hour, the two were more than full. Nathan had finally stopped talking about setting up her brothers to have her fight against them and the two finally relaxed.
The two sat on the couch letting silence reign in the room. She liked this more. There wasn't a need to say anything, they just enjoyed each other presence. 'This is the life', she thought.
Raven looked over and saw him with closed eyes. It almost looked like he was meditating. She almost chuckled at the thought. He most likely fell asleep. There was no way the energetic Nathan would be able to sit still for hours on end as she did, but she could dream.
While looking at his peaceful expression she fantasized about the two meditating with each other. Quite the weird fantasy she had, but the people she had met until now weren't really fond of the idea of sitting in place for hours.
It was one thing to read something, but meditate? For most it was just a tedious exercise with no gain, however, for her, it was a necessity. Who knew what would happen if she dismissed her daily meditation entirely. She would never be able to keep herself in control...
Just as she was in deep thoughts Nathan suddenly opened his eyes and looked at her. She was caught red-handed.
"Want to do some image training?" He asked something, but she didn't know what he was talking about. He seemed to be surprised at her lack of knowledge. He sat cross-legged and turned towards her, she followed in kind.
"Close your eyes and connect your mind with mine." He said and she followed suit. She didn't know what he wanted to accomplish, but she just went with what he said. It was simple to follow his instruction since he described everything with emotions.
The rest was just executing what he said and in the next moment, they stood across from each other. She looked around in the dark place before she looked at Nathan astonished. She could see him as if she looked at him with her eyes.
"B-but, how? We didn't even use a medium?" She asked only to get a smile in response.
"Well, I know a thing or two about meditation. Should we start?" Nathan dropped into a stance with his hands high up like he was about to attack.
"Start with what?"
He only smirked and charged at her without explaining.