Vermillion

Chapter 1: Red

:1:

Red is a color.

Boy, that's a brilliant statement.

No, I wasn't finished.

Fine. Go on, then. 'Red is a color...' Psh...

Red is a color. It is a blend of pigments on canvas, a trick of the light, a tint corresponding to the most important liquid in our bodies—blood. Red is beautiful. Red also goes by different names—scarlet, crimson, cherry, blood-hued, sanguine, ruby, garnet, cardinal, and lastly, vermillion. In this particular story, red has a great significance. Why, you ask?

No, I didn't.

Shut up. Why, you ask? Because our hero (sort of) is a man named Red X.

[Insert maniacal laugh here.]

God, she's pathetic.

I said, shut up!

:2:

Red X. Tattered cape, skulled mask, a tear-like X on his muscular chest. Even though he was a villain in some ways, Robin's alter ego was pretty good-looking.

Not as good-looking as Aqualad, but up there among the most attractive.

Why? Maybe it was his mysterious ways. The mask he wore to hid his features, he dark clothing, the ability he had to disappear—all were symbols of his enigmatic personality that was truly attractive to members of the female population. Or maybe it was his malevolent hobbies—stealing, fighting, consorting with villains.

Red X was rather irresistible when you really thought about it. Too bad he was gung-ho Robin at heart.

Right?

:3:

Raven perched on a high wooden stool in her favorite café, populated by beatniks wearing shades and snapping black-clad poets. The shaded lights flickered as a favorite rapped out a poem, to which many others snapped in approval. A painting caught her attention for a second, a new arrival most probably, of a black bird battling with a white bird and the world was trapped between them, an allegory of the battle of good vs evil, a battle she herself was so familiar with. She sipped her tea, an Indian-Chinese mix, and flipped through the book she had just bought from a hopeful, aspiring young girl standing outside the café.

The nights throb with...

...Our love courses like...

Typical of young writers—they don't address anything important. They focus on such pathetic, hormone-driven things as love and lust, cold hands and gleaming eyes, sweeping locks and muscular legs, and the cliché Raven hated the most—satin sheets. Who the hell had satin sheets automatically when their crush drops by for a visit?

She snapped the book shut and laid some change on the table for Kevin, her favorite bartender.

"Young crap?" he asked sympathetically, taking out some kiwis.

Raven rolled her eyes affirmatively and headed out, bypassing the enthusiastic young writer. When she turned a corner, she dropped the book on a bench for someone infatuated to pick up and devour ravenously.

Someone—or something—suddenly pulled her into an alley. "Disregarding a teenager's dreams, Raven," the young man whispered in her ear. She struggled and tried to pull away but the assailant had pinned her against the brick wall tightly. "Now isn't that a little cruel?"

Her eyes beginning to glow white, she started to mutter her spell when an adhesive strip suddenly covered her mouth. She had felt this once before. X. Robin.

She turned to regard the man to see a skull-like mask looking at her. The eyes gleamed – oh, the irony! – in mischief and he let one of her arms free to stroke her thigh. "Perhaps you haven't experienced the cold hands so often described in their poems, have you? Beautiful Raven, caught in her own misery!"

She froze in her place. Was Robin hitting on her? "Mmmmph!" she said in shock. Then, remembering her freed limb, she swept up her hand and slapped him on the cheek. She could almost see him grin devilishly under the mask and let her go, sinking into the shadows on the opposite wall.

Raven tried to pull the X off, but it stayed like a piece of her skin. Cursing in her head, she headed back towards the Tower.

:4:

A mute scream and a faded angry mark later, Raven knocked on Robin's door only to find Starfire coming out of it. "Oh! Friend Raven!" Starfire said, blushing fiercely.

"What are you doing?" asked Raven, an eyebrow cocked.

"Friend Robin accompanied me to the mall of shopping and I wished to thank him so..." Starfire was positioned exactly in the doorway, as if blocking something.

"In his room?"

"Why, yes..." Starfire trailed off and blushed even harder, if it was possible. Raven opened and closed her mouth several times before she could figure out what to ask next.

"He was with you the entire time, then."

"Yes. Why?" Just then, Robin came out from behind Starfire, looking as amiable as ever.

"Hey, Raven. What's up?" Robin asked, looking unusually upbeat.

"Nothing, Wonder Boy," said Raven, looking him over. Did he attack her earlier? Was it Robin? Starfire giggled a little and moved out of the doorway.

"I will leave you to your discussion then," she said before fleeing to her room.

"Something wrong?" asked Robin.

"You didn't leave Starfire the entire time you were shopping, right?"

"Well, besides when she was changing, no. Why?"

"No reason. Oh, and Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have your belt on."

Robin turned an alarming shade of red as Raven smirked at him.

"Starfire is very pretty, huh?"

Before he could answer, Raven walked off, deep in thought. If Robin wasn't Red X, then who was? And why did he touch me? As she entered her room, she opened the light and it took most of her training not to scream. On her bed, as a farewell, was a big, red X.

:Fin:

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. Nor will I ever. Sigh.

Hoped you liked my chappy one! Please review!