Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Thirteen

(Art Not Mine- All Rights To Original Artist)

"T-the cat was wal-wal-"

"Sound it out.", Raven advised the little girl she was sitting with, watching with satisfaction as she continued reading on.

"-walking do-down the st-street.", Bella finished the sentence, smiling accomplishedly at Raven.

"Very good!", she whole-heartedly praised. "Now, let's move on to the next one."

Bella nodded at her enthusiastically before remembering that she had wanted to ask the TA a question.

Staring intently, she asked, "Miss Roth, why is your hair purple? Did you colour it?"

Raven responded, "No, I was born with it this colour. Do you like it?", she teased at the end.

The girl reached out to the ends of Raven's hair, playing with it, "Yes! It's so pretty. I wanna have purple hair! Or maybe orangey-red like mummy's!"

With that, the child launched in to a monologue about her beautiful, kind, wonderful mummy who made all the flowers grow. After five minutes, during which Bobby and Tatyana both started talking about their parents, Raven checked the butterfly-clock on the wall. Remembering that she was leaving at one-thirty (which was in a two minutes) Raven announced to the three that she had to go (although their 'awww's of disappointment made her not want to leave).

After alerting the teacher that she was leaving, Raven exited the classroom, waving to the kids. Once outside the building, she looked around. Upon spotting the person she was looking for, Raven walked over to him, a small smile still on her face.

"Raven.", he acknowledged with a nod of his head, though he was staring at her strangely.

"What?", she asked, confused.

He shook his head slightly, "Nothing, you simply appear to be... in a better mood than usual."

She shot him a look as if to say 'are you serious?'.

"Am I not allowed to smile, Damian?", her tone had just enough sarcasm in it for Damian to know that she wasn't upset.

Again, he shook his head at her, the corners of his mouth lifted up. Unsure of what drove him to say so, Damian commented, "You should smile more often.", quite surprising her.

She returned his quip, "Well, maybe you should take your own advice."

The two walked in companionable silence to the supermarket, just as they had done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past three weeks. It had become routine for them to do so. 

After their usual stop at the supermarket, Damian and Raven strolled to the usual spot where Raven would transport them back to the Manor. The tranquil mood was ever present as they basked in the afternoon sunlight and kicked their way through golden piles of leaves. Car horns and screeching tires were lost upon them. 

Raven's eyes met those of the boy besides her, enraptured.

His eyes weren't merely green...no, they were a symphony of jade and chartreuse, lighting his image in a way never witnessed by her before...except for that time.  But she would keep that at the back of her mind for once, only focusing on the present.

On those eyes when they were graced by the sun.

Those eyes that were so much more than just purple...no, they were an ensemble of amethyst and periwinkle, stunning Damian in to a near stupor. Certainly, he had known that Raven was attractive appearance-wise, though she appeared entirely oblivious to the fact, and being raised to not take any notice of a person's beauty had left a large impact on Damian yet he couldn't cease his awe.