notsogroovy | (no subject)

The dreams had started after Darwin. The night after, in fact, and she was glad that her room was away from most of the guest quarters and that Charles usually didn't go to sleep until late. He wouldn't hear her dreams and neither would anyone else. It started with Darwin, of course. She got to watch him die all over again. It didn't stop there, though. Next was Sean and Alex. Hank and Erik. It was usually around the time they got to Charles that she started screaming. The screams woke her almost immediately and she waited desperately until she knew that no one had heard or, at least, no one was admitting to having heard her screams.

Tonight was similar. This time, she'd woken up to the image of Hank's body contorted on the ground after having been dropped to the ground from a hundred feet up. She sat up in bed, stared at the door, and panted. She waited, hoping that no one had heard her. Of course not. Why should it be any different tonight than it had any other night?

Except then she heard a distinctive creak on the floorboards and froze.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Raven took that as permission - or at least the opportunity - to slide in a little closer and wrap her arm around his stomach. She closed her eyes and sighed. The sigh felt like all the tension in her body was leaving in that one breath and she stretched her body to revel in the feeling.

"Feels nice," she murmured. She turned her head and lifted heavy eyelids to look at him.

"Y-yeah," Hank replied. "It does." Despite the mild stammer, he actually was feeling much better now. A bit bold, in fact. He wanted to kiss her, but hesitated if only because he wasn't sure if the time was entirely right - he wasn't very good at judging that sort of thing. Then again, a kiss hadn't seemed appropriate when he was taking her blood, and they had almost shared one then. Hm.

"You should have told me you were having nightmares earlier. I would've stayed with you every night," he decided to say in a weak effort to sort of gauge her attitude towards the situation. She had never given him reason to doubt that she liked him, yet he required confirmation all the same. Romance was far too new to him.

"I didn't want to worry you. Any of you. I guess I thought...I don't know." She knew exactly what it was. She didn't want to be the weak one. She didn't want to be the one who couldn't handle what everyone else seemed to be able to. Maybe it was only in her head, but she wanted Hank, Erik, Charles especially, she wanted them to look at her like she wasn't just some kid they had to take care of.

She did smile a little when Hank mentioned staying with her. "You'd do that?"

"Of course I would," Hank answered. "And you shouldn't be so concerned about making the rest of us worry. It's okay to ask for help, you know."

Come to think of it, that was something everyone on the team could learn. Perhaps they'd all been on their own for so long, isolated due to their differences, that asking for help just didn't come naturally anymore. Alex's teasing even made it hard for Hank to feel like he fit in among his own kind. Maybe Raven was the same way?

"You can ask me for help anytime."

Raven smiled weakly. "It's just been me and Charles for almost as long as I can remember. I'm not used to having anyone else. And Charles..." She shook her head. "He gets lost in his own problems sometimes." Right now, his problems were all of them and what was going to happen in the future. Who was she to add a few nightmares on top of that?

"I don't want to be a burden. To Charles. To you." She let out her breath in a soft sight. "But it means a lot that you offered."

"I understand," Hank said. "For a long time I didn't really have anyone so it's different for me, too. Suddenly having you guys here, I mean. Admitting it is the first step, though, right? We should make an effort to change how we think. Nobody should have to feel like they're alone."

(And especially with the completion of his serum they wouldn't ever have to cause they'd look normal!!!11!1)

"You're not. You have us. Me." Raven flashed him a smile and leaned forward, a hand on his chest, and kissed the corner of his mouth. She hesitated for a minute and then slid an inch to the left so that she was kissing him full on the lips. She wanted an actual kiss from him and now she was pretty sure he'd bolt, but at least she could say that she'd had the one.

Hank did come very close to bolting, made obvious by the way his entire body suddenly tensed as though he were ready to leap from the bed, stammer an excuse, and leave. Perhaps it would've been better that he had, too, but for some reason he stayed.

Once the first kiss was broken he leaned in and kissed her again. It was a tad clumsy – his inexperience was clear – but he didn't let it stop him.

The first kiss was nice. She'd expected it to be nice and sweet and all the things she thought a first kiss should be. What she didn't expect was that he'd lean back in and kiss her a second time. She made a soft noise and leaned in closer, fingers curling a little in his shirt. She hadn't expected that their first kiss would be with her sprawled half across him in her bed.