#jayrae

The depths of the underworld seemed to rise up in an echo in the column of her throat and lunge toward him, hovering in the air like a thousand suspended daggers waiting to strike at her command.

Jason recoiled ever so slightly, his neck jerking backward as he cleared his throat. 

“Well, it’s not that I’m impatient.” 

Even if he had been sitting on the floor of her room for over five hours. Quietly. With his legs crossed. How the hell did she do this day in and day out without her ass getting sore? The whole levitating thing probably helped. He probably shouldn’t have been thinking about her ass as often as he did. But he couldn't really be blamed for that, could he?

Could anyone with eyes and a pulse?

“And…uh, it’s not that you’re not doing your best and I don’t want to interrupt you while you work.” Even though she hadn’t spoken anything aloud since he stepped into her chambers. 

Other than indecisively muttering to herself on occasion. 

“And yet, here you are, you’re interrupting me…” Raven mumbled with just a smidge more unmitigated disgust than Jason would have liked.

With a crooked finger she coaxed a stained, cloth-bound book forward and tucked a chin length lock of hair behind her ear. Was that a coffee stain? Maybe. A spilled potion? He couldn’t tell. Or maybe it was blood…?

Oh Gods, this spell didn’t involve some sort of blood sacrifice, did it? Although, depending on how Raven inflicted said pain, he might not be entirely opposed. 

“You’re doing great work here, really. I’m sure you are,” Jason nodded, gesturing vaguely to the theatricality of flickering candles. “And it’s not that I don’t enjoy the vibe, with this whole witchy ASMR situation you’ve got going on.” He shrugged. “But, it’s just…”

She closed the cover and it flew back into its place with the spine stacked neatly next to its fellow. The next book in line landed neatly in her palm, while the rest in the queue waited patiently, as if they were all standing in line for opening day at Jump City’s newest artisanal doughnut shop. 

Her flashing eyes flew from the page and up to his own. “Get to the point, Jason?” 

“Raven,” he started again. And he tried not to smirk, though he couldn’t help but feel a shred of vindictive pleasure at her annoyance with him. From the undisguised patronizing. The taunts. His proclivity to take up even more space than she allotted for him. From the widened width of his legs to his outstretched arms. But mostly, her inability to figure this out and wrap it up with a big red bow. 

“Raven, there’s no place I’d rather be, believe me.” He detected an undertone in her throat that denoted she felt otherwise. "But it’s just really, really hot in here.”

“Hot?” Raven’s face froze. Her lips refused to form their additional question. 

“I was referring to the temperature. Not the glassy eyed affect of yours where you stare into space during a trance like some sort of cloaked, stuffed creature.” He gestured to the room. “All these candles are a bit much.”

“So?” Her forehead creased. “They are necessary. You, however…”

“Well, alright, then.” Jason shrugged, sounding as though whatever happened next was on her. “If you refuse to make your little fire hazard up to code, I’ll just have to help myself.” 

“Whatever. Just don’t break the circle,” she said dismissively, waving a pale hand at the flickering wax pillars enclosing her lotus positioned body. 

Raven’s eyebrows raised as he stripped off his brown leather jacket. He could feel her purple stare searing his skin and he’d be damned if he stopped there. He reached for the hem of skintight black and red spandex and pulled it straight over his head.

“Ah, that’s much better already.” He sighed and laid back, pressing the dome of the Red Hood mask to his forehead. “I’ll confess, I don’t know how you do this every day.”

The purple eyebrows hiked further and further up her face. Then she tilted her face away from his direction, subtly as she could with cheek in hand.

“I wasn’t aware—I suppose I’m used to it.”