Fortune Cookie
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. No matter how well I write them. Or whatever.
I was dreaming when I wrote this/ So sue me if I go too fast
Dedicated: To artemisgirl and Pandora, faithful reviewers. Also to my little sisters, who will hopefully find this someday when they're old enough to use the internet for puposes other than games.
There was no doubt that they were getting older. Soon, they'd just be the Titans. Cyborg was seventeen, almost eighteen, Raven, Robin, and Starfire had all turned seventeen just recently, and in two months, Beastboy would be seventeen, too. They were getting stronger. Years of training and working as a team had made them more skilled. Even Beastboy made it a point to not joke around during training sessions. And he'd become very dependable during battle. Robin's reflexes, which had always been nothing short of amazing, were now so good that the rest of the Titans were careful to not make sudden movements around him. Cyborg had updated his tech and was running like new, able to process information very quickly and recharge almost twice as much energy as before. Stafire had gained another Tamaranian power: creating and wielding a sort of whip out of her green star energy. Raven had a better grasp on her emotions than she could have ever hoped for, and the fact that her father was destroyed made her work harder every day for the life she had ahead of herself to do whatever she wanted with.
So it came as almost nothing of a shock when Raven was sent alone to deal with Dr. Light. Robin told her that they'd be standing by in case she needed back up, but that was very unlikely since he was sure she'd be able to handle it. Raven, stunned but pleased, went off and defeated the villain within an hour.
The next day, Beastboy was allowed to go handle Adonis by himself. Again with the promise that he only need call if he needed assistance. At one point he did call, but by the time Cyborg arrived, Beastboy had managed to turn the tables.
It went on like that for a while. Eventually, they only went as a team if there was something big going on. Which usually meant Plasmus or someone equally as difficult. Of course, sometimes they went as a team because they felt like it, too. And always after they went out to eat as a treat.
"I love this place!" Beastboy exclaimed. The Chinese restaurant happened to serve his favorite brand of tofu along with a medley of vegetables he was particularly fond of.
As for Raven, she had a secret weakness for the herbal tea they served. Robin and Cyborg liked the fried rice and Mandarin chicken, and Starfire loved the Orange chicken. She even brought her own chocolate syrup to pour all over it.
"Fortune cookies!" exclaimed Cyborg as the waitress approached them.
"Glorious!" cried Starfire. She thought the little strips of paper were fascinating, and she collected them. For her birthday, Raven found her a sort of scrapbook to keep them in. The alien girl had over two hundred from previous trips to Chinese eateries.
"Mine says: 'You will be victorious on the field of battle'," read Cyborg.
"Today is the perfect opportunity to visit someone special," read Beastboy. "I guess I'll go visit Terra, then. What does yours say, Raven?"
"Nothing," she replied flatly, slipping the strip of paper between the pages of her book.
"What about you, Robin?"
"Just something stupid and pointless," their leader muttered, counting out money to pay the bill.
Later on that day, while Beastboy was off visiting Terra, Raven looked around the living room to make sure she was alone. Cyborg was out dealing with Overload, Starfire was adding her newest fortune to her book, and who knew where Robin was. She curled up on the couch and carefully opened her book, shaking it slightly so that the thin strip of paper fell onto her palm.
Your true love has always been closer than you think.
Raven scoffed at the slanting red script, slipped it back between the pages, and walked back to her room, trying not to think about it.
"Raven!"
She turned around and saw Robin jogging up the corridor. She blushed and pulled her hood as far over her eyes as possible. "What is it, Robin?"
He shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other. "Well, I was heading over to Starfire's room to give her my fortune to add to her collection. I wondered if you'd let her have yours, too?"
She opened her book and took out the fortune, reading the words again, frowning. "I suppose she can have it…" she was suddenly hesitant. Starfire would no doubt take the frtune seriously and insist Raven look for her 'true love'. Raven groaned inwardly. "What does yours say, Robin?" she asked suddenly, remembering that he had also avoided Beastboy's question.
A tinge of pink graces his cheeks and he held it out to her. "Don't laugh," he warned.
"I won't," she replied. For some reason her stomach gave a violent, involuntary lurch that had nothing to do with the fried rice and herbal tea she'd had earlier. There, on the slightly crumpled strip of paper, were the words:
Your true love has always been closer than you think.
Writer's note: Just a short little thing I came up with while I was bored and couldn't get to sleep last night. Since I like fortune cookies so much. Not that I believe in what they have to say or whatever, but I like them just the same. Kind of loosly based on a story I read in some Chicken Soup book, called "Fortune Cookies". It must have been Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul, something like that. If you get a chance, you really must read it.
Go review already.
Signed,
The Writer, you fools