Chapter 13
Raven left her shift at the mechanic shop as fast as she could. She had a shower to take all the dirty and grease. Normally, she would be extremely tired, and would throw herself at the bed, but not today.
Today it was completely the opposite of it, she was energetic as if she had taken lots of coffee cups. She dressed and checked her backpack, she grabbed everything she needed. She checked herself in the mirror for the fifth time adjusting her hair that was loose. She checked her light makeup and waited for a familiar noise.
She smiled at Luna, who was waiting for her at the passenger's side just like the beach day. She opened the door and made her way back at the driver's seat.
"Can I know now where we're going?" Luna looked at an excited Raven. The latina thought for one second and bit her lip.
"Hmmm no" she laughed at Luna's face.
"How am I supposed to know where to go then?" She asked, they were still parked in front of Raven's house.
"I will tell you the directions'' Raven said, putting the seat belt on. Luna sighed and left with the car.
Raven's plan worked until it didn't.
They laughed loudly when Raven startled Luna to take a road direction too late. Raven yelled 'why you didn't turn' and Luna yelled back 'because this isn't how this works'. And after the startle and a quick scared glance they laughed about what just had happened.
"Can I know now?"
"Just turn in the next right" Luna rolled her eyes at the stubborn beside her looking at the maps on her phone. It should be ten pm by now, they drove around the city with Luna's playlist in the background. Now or then she glanced at Raven who was shaking her head in the rhythm of the song, her long brown hair moving and a smile open. She giggled when Raven made her own phone as a mic singing the chorus and smiled even more when Raven offered her "the mic" for her to continue the song.
Two dorks.
It's because of those things that they lost the right exit.
A bit longer trip trying to find the exit to contour and take the road's right turn on the second trial later and they arrived at the place Raven wanted . She glanced at Raven, who guided them, as she parked.
It was an open field in the middle of nowhere.
"I mean if now is the part when you kill me and hide my body you'll have some trouble to get back home" Luna joked and Raven just rolled her eyes. They left the car, after Luna turned on the car's flashlight, and Raven started to take some stuff from her backpack. She covered the floor and sat followed by Luna, who watched Raven take a few things from her backpack.
"That's my favorite thing to do, and it is my favorite place" Raven said, nodding to the little telescope on her hands and then pointing to sky, extremely full with stars. Luna could see the joy in her eyes while she explained a constellation in her book. She watched her hands move as she gestured, her index finger pointing to the book as she was focused reading a line or drawing the constellation, and then, noticing it passing through her hair, changing the side it was falling at then putting it behind her ear, and how her smile was pretty. She didn't notice how long her thought took. She blinked a few times when she realized Raven asked something.
"Sorry, what?"
"I asked you to lay down here" She did after Raven, shoulder to shoulder. Raven gave her the telescope and started to say about what Luna had pointed at. Woods just listened. Luna smiled after the second time she did, Raven knew every single detail and explained about the constellation that she had just pointed randomly.
"... but in the end it's just possible distinguish the boundaries of behavior permitted in the theory of general relativity, and also possibly provide insights into effects related to quantum gravity." Luna just watched Raven finish her long explanation that by now had taken at least two different paths because of Luna's pontual questions. Even if she wasn't following everything because of the confusing theories that Raven minded explaining, uselessly Luna thought, she kept asking, she just wanted Raven to keep talking. Now, if her following was correct, Raven was talking about wormholes, about how it was solutions to the Einstein field equations for gravity that act connecting points in space-time, and how the first of the wormhole-like solutions were found by studying the mathematical solution for black holes. Well, at least Luna could now see she did absorb something in the end. Raven glanced at the frozen girl at her side with a light smile and stopped mid sentence, starting to apologise awkwardly apprehending herself.
"Sorry, I keep talking a lot, I-"
"No! Not at all!" Luna shouted as fast as she realized Raven was going to stop. The brunette smiled embarrassed she knew she probably was the only one talking in the last forty minutes.
"I know when I get into these topics I get a bit insane, it's my drugs" Raven tried to joke, still embarrassed, and Luna released a soft laugh.
"Everyone who sees you can tell you are in love with it, and everyone who listens can get as well. Excited... together" Luna said toying with the edge of a book page as an odd attempt to not look at Raven, inside her head this could somehow take a bit of the heaviness her sentence had, or at least take part of the truest it contains. "That's what you want to do?"
Raven looked at a tree near as Luna left her book page to gaze at her.
"Yes, I mean, definitely in this area, I want to work on rocket's mechanic, and I would love to be an astronaut and fix the rockets at zero gravity…but I have a heart murmur and" She pointed at her leg sighing. The silence that fell on them after this was pleasing, both of them gazing up at thousands of sparkling spots, thoughtlessly as the crickets were chirping, making their presence known.
"You don't think it's weird because i haven't started talking about conspiracy theories" Raven said with a little delay, light humor throwing back at their penultimate conversation, pushing Luna's shoulder lightly with her own. A side smile on her face still, it hasn't left her lips since the moment they laid down.
"Try" Luna said, locking eyes with the brunette.
"Definitely exist life not only in other planets but in other galaxies too" Raven said biting her lower lip after expecting a reaction from the girl at her side.
"That's not insane, or weird" Luna said with a soft smile growing.
"At all?" Raven asked doubtful, just for the sake of their conversation, she wasn't thinking before saying, but it wasn't small talk at all. It was just spontaneous and easy.
"Of course, the universe is huge, and who are we?" Luna smiled before continuing. "I mean, we're all made of energy, there are several planes...and we link and intertwine through vibrations and how…" Luna raised her gaze from her gesturing hands and stopped talking as she watched Raven look at her with a huge smile. Okay, she could see she started talking about the universe, energy and spirituality for the most scientifically smart person she ever met.
"What? Are you going to say I'm the insane one now?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, not at all" Raven tried to close her smile but failed, waving her head in denial. She wasn't mocking, in fact, she just liked to see this version of Luna. Her smile growed, if that was possible, at every word in the sentence, which made Luna squeeze her eyes, doubting Raven's seriousness.
"If you're going to say I'm insane then you're lunatic" Luna said and now was her time to push Raven's shoulder with her shoulder. The mess of Luna's curls were spread on the ground beneath her freely. So freely that some part of them was covering a part of Raven's neck and shoulder without the girl knowing. Raven laughed low. She was being honest, she wasn't mocking. Actually, she enjoyed this, even if Luna hasn't exactly spoken about to her, she enjoyed all this peace Luna has, she knew it was her beliefs expressed on the little things in her daily life.
"Huh, What do you think is insane on me?" Raven asked playfully. Still thinking about Luna's last phrase, or a part of that. Without them noticing they started to talk lower, maybe it's because they're extremely near and there's no need to speak louder or because they are immersed in the intimacy bubble they created. Perhaps.
"Hmm, astronaut. The desire of getting so high into the unknown space. Insanely dangerous??" Luna answered after a short second thinking. The answer made Raven mouth open but still smiling, in disbelief.
"What about diving in the deep sea with several creatures that can kill you? Pretty safe huh" Raven answered sassy laughing loudly.
The sea, for Raven, was definitely scarier than space. Way scarier. The last one was synonym of peace and quiet while the first, unpredictability and fury, as the enormous tides shallow whole ships. A few more seconds passed on comparisons until Raven spoke again. Both laying in the middle of a grass field starring up teasing about the opposites they are. Stuck on their own internal universes waiting for the next to say something. Universe. The word in common. That for Raven means science, knowledge, physics, passion for Luna means, meditation, vibrations, spirituality and inner self. Two sides of the same word. Complementing pieces, I would say.
"The sea is just unknown as the space"
"Touché" Luna considered, moving her attention from Raven's eyes to the sky again. In the end, both were linked somehow. Both just extremely beautiful as extremely lethal, unbreathable, just accessible to humans with technology. Two environments as vasts as mysterious, ironically, two opposed places, dichotomized by essence. She could see why someone would risk getting into the space, it's also insanely pretty.
"After all, what is insanity? There's so much we don't know, theories and beliefs to talk about for days" Luna continued, after a moment staring at the dark sea above.
"There are more things in... between the sea and the stars than are dreamt of in your philosophy, right?" Raven stopped after the initial words and tilted her head smiling, she thought for a second before continuing the sentence, turning her head to watch Luna, who was already looking at her.
"I don't think this is the right sentence" Luna said chuckling, knowing the reference.
"This, sweet Luna, it's called poetical freedom" Raven says imitating, or trying, the british accent while gesturing exaggeratedly in a dramatic way. Smiling at Luna's warm laugh that covered the crickets noise background.
"Oh, apologies for my awful statement, miss poet." Raven just laughed and gazed up again. The car's flashlight and the moon were the only source of light on them, which made the curly haired take her time noticing the draw of the shades on the brunette's face. Luna had forgot for a moment about the star gazing, or star tracking, and noticing it she pointed at another random sparkling spot.
"And that one?" Raven smiled at Luna's curiosity, before talking about it, turning the subject back to the start, before divagations. Luna paid attention to every word that was leaving Raven's mouth. She lightly turned her head to glance at her star guide, Raven was completely absorbed by what she was explaining, again, but Luna didn't care, she was enjoying it. She was completely abosorbed herself.
"... light-years, you know, but the boundaries of air space and outer space is only 100 kilometers above sea level, it's not that high, actually, it is pretty close" She stopped her left hand that was pointing at the sky as she moved, drawing an invisible doddle that should be the constellation's format. Luna just gazed at her.
"Can you see it?" She glanced at Luna to see if she was visualizing her invisible drawing and the other girl just nodded smiling. She was amazed. By how Raven knew so much and how she loved the stars. She was amazed by Raven, period.
She and all those small things that composed her.
She smiled still watching her, that was where her heart was and her eyes showed it. Luna quickly turned her eyes to the sky as she saw Raven turn to her, with this cute smile she had all the times her explanations ended.
She says.
"Look at the moon" And Luna did it. She didn't need the telescope to see how beautiful the moon was today but closer was different. Luna smiled. Almost magical.
"I love to watch the stars but I really thought you'd like to see the thing you're named after, that's why..." She pointed at the telescope, looking at the girl on her side. Luna glanced at her before she looked at the moon, without and with the equipment a few times in a row, noticing every tiny bit of it. The crickets was a far music as Raven watched her with a small smile, amused with the moon's view perception.
"It's beautiful," Luna said sighing. Noticing every bit of its cratered surface.
"Yeah, so beautiful" Raven said without bothering to look at the satellite, she had a better thing to gaze at. Still thinking about one of Luna's sentences, maybe she is right after all.
Luna turned slowly, feeling Raven's eyes on her, calling her to look as a magnet. Feeling herself drowned in her brown eyes, she doesn't think twice before she leans closer. The other girl didn't move. In fact, it's almost possible to see the expectations on her eyes. It looked like an eternity as she was getting closer, slowly didn't breaking eye contact. Raven's dark eyes sparkled and she thought ironically how she was still stargazing, she broke the drowning glare just to take a sight of what all her cells were screaming to touch since the beach day. Yes, that embarassed moment when she was hit by a tide. But not now. She already could feel Raven's breath, waiting for any sign of confirmation when a loud noise made both of them jump.
It was her phone.
Fuck.
She looked at the screen where the name Lexa was. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She knew she would get revenge, Lexa had this weird need for retaliation. She even made her own phrase, instead of the usual eye for an eye she had: Blood must have blood. Fuck Lexa. She took a deep breath before accepting the call. Raven lifted her torso watching Luna get up and walk a few steps to accept the call.
"What?"
"If you're messing with me..."
"What?"
"Now?"
She watched Luna take a deep breath before turning around, the anger directed to the person at the other side of the line dissipate fast as she looked at the girl with a soft expression.
" is everything okay?" Raven asked, getting up. Luna nodded.
"Yeah...my mother just came from her business trip and wanted to surprise mom, and now I have to pick her up at the airport while Lexa is creating a surprise dinner at home" Luna said confused. Rubbing her forehead, clearly a sigh of a start of a headache.
Mother is really sweet but terrible timing, she thought as they organized everything fast and got in the car. Luna was thinking if she should say something, or do something at the same time that she was overthinking WHAT THE HELL SHE WAS THINKING.
"Sorry for it, I didn't want the night to end like this," Luna said focusing on turning the car on and Raven felt her stomach move. She wondered if the girl meant that or it was just an awful random choice of words.
"I'll pick her first and then I'll let you home" Luna said putting music on and leaving.
They arrived fast at the airport.
Maybe… just maybe, the reason for it was because she was at the edge of the road speed limit. Everything to drop Raven so she could freak out. She was going to kiss her. She was going to kiss her!
She was repeting the scene on her head looking for any sign that Raven would kiss her back or if she would probably just fuck with her new made friendship.
Oh god
They waited for a few minutes before a beautiful middle aged blonde appeared. Luna was waiting outside the car, her foot hitting nervously as she waited. Raven smiled watching them interact, Luna seemed to miss the woman a lot, she watched they hug for a while and got back in the car again.
"Oh, Hi" the woman greeted her entering the back seat of the car. Luna leaves and they're on the road again. Raven smiled at the lady. "I thought I would meet Clarke at home" she said with a smile.
"Lexa's bringing Clarke?" Luna raised an eyebrow exchanging a look with Raven. Maybe her sister had made a move while she was out? Finally!
Maybe there's good news at least for one of them. But deep down she knows Lexa is a gay mess, and this was scaring her. She had turned into her sister!
Oh shit. Luna smiled angry at her own fail, now she could understand Lexa, she really needed to stop mocking the brunette. She was a gay disaster herself.
The woman seemed to notice her mistake.
"I'm Raven, nice to meet you" the latina turned to shake the woman's hand.
"I'm Emma, nice to meet you too. Are you coming to our dinner too?" She looked extremely excited with the possibility of her both girls introducing girls to her in the same dinner. She always worried about if they would make friends, not because they weren't awesome people but they didn't let people get closer easily. Raven let out an embarrassed smile. "No? Luna, why didn't you invite her?" Luna turned to look at her mother at a red light, frowning, her hands in the air expressing her confusion.
"Because Lexa called me 30 minutes ago, I didn't even know you were coming" She said trying to contain an angry tone, paying attention to the road again, as the light turned green without she noticing. The woman put a hand on Luna's seat and leaned forward. "Your surprise to mom surprised everyone, I don't even know how Lexa is going to cook, she's terrible!"
"Stop the car there" the blonde asked ignoring the fact she put a dinner on the hands of Lexa Woods, and Luna did, they parked near a flower stand.
Emma could be so random sometimes. What is funny is that her mom is completely focused on her plans. She always thought their relationship was the greatest example of love and romance, but tonight it fucked her own romance. The woman left the car and asked for flowers, the lovely old lady went to get it.
"Raven honey, I'd like you to stay with us at our dinner" she said in the car's window. Luna looked at her mother who was paying the old woman and sighed. She bought a huge bouquet with pink roses and sunflowers. Raven smiled at her, probably married years ago and still keeping the romance alive. Luna watched the girl on her side looking outside the window, thoughtful.
"If you want me to take you home I do, okay? Don't feel obligated to go just because Emma said so"
Raven smiled and Luna felt the desire of leaving the car and buying lots of flowers just as her mother did. She saw the woman get in again and they drove in silence until they arrived at Woods' house. Lexa throws herself at the woman's arms as soon as she sees her pass through the door, not even noticing Luna guiding Raven to the kitchen, seeing the beautiful job Lexa did putting the table, there was tasty food and lots of candles in the room.
Really, an exaggerated amount of candles, everywhere.
She didn't know how Lexa got the food though, that girl can't cook. Luna lights up all the candles and sits at the sofa with her sister and Raven waiting for their mom, nervously sipping her wine. Maybe that wasn't a great idea, maybe it would have been better if she had left Raven at home so at least she could be less embarrassed. The girl still hasn't said a word. Or at least she could scream at Lexa, any of the two sceneries would be better than this.
She turned quickly at the sound of keys on the lock and the siblings started filming the meeting. Raven watched amazed as the brunette woman's eyes went wide as she saw the blonde waiting for her with flowers. She had a small smile on her face the whole time. They hugged and kissed, just then the brunette noticed their daughters filming.
"Who cooks all this? You girls are amazing!" The brunette said. They stopped filming and walked together at the kitchen just for the brunette smile wide and she inspected what they'd done. Luna went open the door without them noticing, too busy talking about the table, getting back with Clarke a few steps behind.
Lexa smiled big at the sight of the blonde. They all greeted each other and Clarke tilted her head as she noticed something she wasn't expecting, see her best friend there.
Raven just looked at her with a smirk and a 'caught you' look. However, Griffin stared at her frowning as she lightly waved her head. If Raven had this look, Clarke has the 'plus four card' look. What would Reyes, her friend who skips all the parties at the weekend, be doing at the Woods' family dinner on a saturday night?
"Emma, that's Clarke" Both blondes smiled. Ms Woods extends her hand to Clarke, and they shake it. Lexa handled her a wine glass with a smile, after introducing the both blondes on her life. Clarke was a bit nervous, she hadn't met Lexa's mother yet.
"Hi, Ms Woods" she had a big smile.
"Lovely to meet you, now let's eat" the blonde said, always in a light mood. She was happy to be with her family again but she was even happier for her daughters to be introducing her to girls. Her babies are growing. They walked at the table but before sitting the blonde said.
"Lexa honey, let Luna sit near her girlfriend" Luna choked with wine. Holy…
Lexa had a huge grin and Raven was red. Clarke just looked at her friend trying to hide a mocking face. It was a 'i saw you, bitch' face.
"Sure mother" Lexa said with a smile and made her way to sit beside Clarke and not across her. Luna made the opposite, to sit beside Raven.
"Actually mom, she's just my friend" Luna said looking at Lexa.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to suppose" She said with a grin. Besides this erroneous moment, the dinner went well, Emma talked about her trip and asked about the news. They're all enjoying the food and good travel stories.
"I got into the team" Luna said with a proud grin.
"And arrived scoring" Lexa said looking at her mother impressed.
"Really?"
"Not exactly, I just did one goal" Luna said while eating her food.
"Yeah, but you were essential in all three scores" Raven said for the first time at table. Luna just smiled at her. Regina and Emma smiled at their interaction.
"I almost died in that game" Clarke said, making Raven laugh agreeing.
"So Clarke and Raven, you're on the team too?"
"No, just the theater and plastic arts" Clarke said smiling.
"That's amazing, maybe I could show your work to a friend some day" Emma said, taking a sip of the wine.
"That would be amazing" she said with a small grin.
"And you?"
"No, I'm in the mechanic lab, astronomy lab and robotics," Raven said. Emma seemed impressed too.
"And physical tutor" Luna added making Raven's smile open. The dinner was great. After a few threats, Lexa told the restaurant she'd order making everyone laugh. Soon there's just the four girls on the room as the siblings told their mothers they would handle the dishes.
"Hmm I have to go, I need to wake very early tomorrow" Raven said looking at the hour. It was 1:30 of the morning, she would have just 4 hours of sleep. But she didn't mind too much, the evening was perfect, maybe not what she wanted but still good. Luna's presence makes everything good. She was like fresh air, or a good sunny day. Clarke looked at her friend.
"I think I'm going too, I can give you a ride home"
"You can stay with Lexa here if you prefer, I can take her home" Luna offered, she was hoping she could do what she had tried when the call happened. She still had courage to do it? she didn't know. She didn't know what she was thinking exactly, Luna was just contradicting herself, a hundred thoughts per second.
"No, really, I need to wake up early, promised to my mother" Clarke said, kissing Lexa's cheek and walking side by side to the door. Lexa walked Clarke to her car, she wanted to give her sister some time alone, after the thousands of threats and swearing texts she had received on her phone.
"You could sleep here" Luna said hopefully.
"I have work early tomorrow, I can't really." They stared at each other for a moment. Raven stepped forward and gently rested a kiss on the curly hair girl's cheek, before turning and following Clarke, who was sitting already at the driver's seat. Lexa left the drive window where she had learned on and walked back at the grass line on the sidewalk as Raven got herself into the passenger seat, waving shyly to Luna leaned with her arms crossed at the doorway. The Woods sisters watched them leave and Lexa waited a few more seconds before making her way inside again, sighing. She crossed her arms in an attempt to cover her body from the cold breeze outside as she walked slowly, clearly not expecting that Luna slapped her arm soon as she passed by her on the doorway.
"Ouch" she said with her hand on the hurting spot on her arm, startled, looking surprised at her sister. "I haven't done anything!"
"That's for the call" Luna said with her voice low, to emphasize the threat but this sentence just made Lexa put a smirk on her face as they got back to do the dishes. She holds the desire of laughing just crossing her arms fixing her posture, her eyes expressing all the sarcasm she could, as she raised an eyebrow.
"That, sis, is karma"