The Required Kiss (Wrath)

Bow was trying to clear her head. She had just come from Adam's. Things had been said. Things had been thrown. He finally came out that he was just trying to manipulate her into being exactly what he wanted. That she seemed dumb and easy to control. Man was he wrong. The girl's hair was already back to its normal hair color.

It had all started when she told him that she was now the leader of her Titan's team. He lost it. Luckily, this time she didn't hold back. She let herself fight back, and god that felt good. It was insane! She thought she'd feel as horrible as she did when her and JaK went their separate ways, but no. She felt relieved. It was splendid, really.

With that thought, she smiled and leaned her head back, sighing in contentment. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She giggled and started to fly through the trees, singing sweetly and jumping around like a little kid.

This felt great! Just being free! Just doing what she wanted! Not caring what happened! Nothing could bring her down right now! She felt like she could take on the entire world!

Kuro was sitting in front of a cafe, "enjoying" a cup of coffee as he got ready to do some intelligence gathering for his next assignment. As he looked over the paper to keep with the goings-on of the nation, he noticed an odd sight; a girl flying. He lowered the newspaper to look at her as she got closer, seeing she had very familiar violet hair. All too late he realized who she was, quickly covering his face with the paper.

It was the girl at the Titans Tower that night, the night he had disabled the feature that was making his police scanners go haywire. But surely she didn't remember him? He had nothing to worry about.

That was when he remembered he had indeed shown his face to her.

Cursing in his own head, he waited for her, hopefully, to not have noticed his face and pass by. He was such a stupid child back then.

Too bad. The pink haired Titan had indeed saw his face and smiled brightly. She zoomed towards him at full speed and landed with a graceful flip right into the seat across from him.

"Hi there! You're that guy from when we discovered the Titan tower...umm... Black Reaper! You're the one that actually found it! Did we ever really say thank you for that?? If not then thank you so much!! *giggle* She had actually forgotten the other part until she saw his face again and blushed.

Her voice got slower and lower, but her smile stayed gentle. "So how have you been? Kissing many other girls lately?" That made her think again and blink. "I'm sorry I haven't actually contacted you since then. I'm pretty sure I might have accidentally burnt your card... Have you been okay? I don't think I've ever seen you on the news, but that could be for a few reasons..." It seemed the girl was now lost in thought, trying to remember if she had seen him. And that reminded her that she would have to start paying closer attention to the news and things. And that she would have to start doing reports and things... And so on and so forth with her new leadership duties. It made her sigh and begin to rub her temples.

He sighed as she recognized him and flew over to him plopping down into the chair across from him quite audibly. He looked around to make sure people weren't looking at him too overtly. He thanked the heavens that Jump City's massive population of metahumans had desensitized their citizens to a point where they didn't especially care about a flying girl talking to some guy at a cafe.

She confirmed that she had recognized him truly and fully as the Black Reaper, the one who assisted in the discovering of the Titans Tower that fateful night. He had been out to do nothing so glamorous; his only purpose there to stop whatever was jamming the frequency of the broadcasts on his police scanner. She thanked him once more for his assistance in that endeavor.

His eyes took on the gaze of someone more familiar, as he smiled, putting on the façade of that of his alias, and spoke to her. However, his voice was drastically different from the time of his face; though he was smiling, his voice was emotionless and dead.

"You're welcome. And yes, I have. As you are aware, I require kisses to use my powers. I would have called you, but you never called me. I assumed you wanted to forget the incident. What is it that you want, Bow?" he asked politely.

As a being fueled by emotion, it wasn't hard to tell that her acquaintance seemed absolutely void of any kind of emotion whatsoever. The girl tilted her head and studied his eyes. What was it again that he did? He told them before that he was a good guy, but she had never met a hero that looked so... empty.

When he asked her the question, she blinked and was brought back into reality with a spark. "Oh! Nothing really... I just saw you and though I would come say hi! *giggle* I would never ever want to forget that night! Not any aspect of it! Nope nope nope!" She then thought about it and smiled. "May I have your number again?? This time I promise I won't burn it!"

Her eyes were bright and sincere. Maybe if she did call then she would learn what he really did! Then she could bring it to the eyes of the Titans to possibly add him to the team! That would be awesome!

But, at the same time, those eyes and that voice still concerned her. She wanted to ask, but wasn't sure it was quite appropriate at this juncture. It might turn him away rather than get him to open up like she wanted. For now, she would just show him happiness and kindness, hoping that the genuine feelings might rub off on him a little.

He smiled at Bow as she said she had only wanted to say hi to him, and said she wouldn't want to forget about that night even in her wildest dreams, though that was paraphrasing. He raised an eyebrow, and listened as she then asked for his number once more, promising not to burn it.

He brought forth a scrap of paper, puking out a pen with a darker, blue green ink, and scrawled his number onto it.

"Yes, take care that you don't. And as I mentioned before, this number is only for you, not your friends. Don't give it to anyone," he said firmly. "I am indebted to you, so whenever you need me, that's what it's for."

The girl took his phone number and immediately added it to her contacts in her cell. "This way I know I can't lose it..." She then thought about something and shot him a text. 'This is the girl sitting across from you! Hi! :P'

When he said that he was indebted to her though, she blinked. A look of confusion crossed her face as she furrowed her eyebrows and then relaxed, giggling lightly. "You owe me nothing, Black Reap-... I'm just gonna call you BR... Bro! May I call you Bro??" She smiled brightly in excitement to nickname him, though she would obviously understand if he hated that name...

In all honesty, the girl just wanted to talk to him. It didn't make any sense to her, but he made her feel light hearted. She hypothesized that because he was blank of emotions, she was able to fill in the gap and be even more emotional than usual, and she liked it. That was an interesting revelation... Her eyes were still trained on him though as she awaited his response!

Kuro watched her apathetically as she added his number to her contacts. He watched her take further action, likely texting, and sure enough, he received a text a mere few moments later. He looked at it, and then smiled at her. His act was professional, but she could still probably tell he was acting only.

She asked him if she could call him "bro," at which he gave her a bit of a glare. "No. Call me Kuro if you wish. It's Japanese for black."

He watched her quietly after that, waiting for a point to arise. He watched a man walk out of the cafe shortly after, realizing he was one of his marks. He paid close attention, waiting for Bow to say something.

Bow thought about that for a moment. Her gaze wandered up into the sky and pondered. Soon, she met his eyes again and smiled gently. "Kuro, hm? I like the sound of that... Though I'm not exactly fond of what its meaning is..." She giggled lightly and saw him watching a man that exited the cafe.

The girl blinked and tilted her head for a moment, before leaning into him and whispering. "Is that one of the bad guys that you're after right now? What did he do? Why are you after him? What are you going to do with him?" The girl's eyes were bright with curiosity. More so than she probably should be.

Kuro heard Bow going over his name, saying she liked it. She said she didn't like what it meant, though. Normal people would probably be offended and ask why, implying it was their real name. Normal people.

She watched him observe his target, though, and asked who he was, what he did, and what Kuro was going to do in retaliation.

His face drained of all emotion, the façade gone, showing his real face. No emotion. Just cold retribution. "Years ago, he ordered the execution of a woman trying to get by in front of her own child. And I'm going to kill him."

The girl had already figured that it wasn't his real name. He was faking emotions to be pleasant with her. The first time they met he had given her a code name, of course it was probable that this was just an alias he used. Especially with a meaning like black. Most parents wouldn't name their child something with that kind of ridiculous attachment to it. Most parents.

That's when he showed himself. His real self. She smiled. Then that smile quickly faded. Her eyes grew wide and the rims began to change into a dark blue, almost black, as she worried about what he was about to do. She couldn't just sit back and watch him muder some one. Even if the reason was an extremely justified one. But even so. Her voice was smooth, but urgent and sincere. "This is what you do every day? No wonder you lack emotion... Don't do it. Don't kill him. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." She took his hand in hers and bit her lip, knowing she didn't get through to those dead eyes. They had been cut out long ago.

He looked back at Bow when she asked him if this was what he did every day. Well, she didn't really ask; she seemed to have already figured out the answer for herself. He cast her a brief glance before returning his gaze of murderous intent to his target. He didn't respond to her query as it seemed it was a rhetorical question to begin with.

Then she suddenly took his hand, begging him not to kill the man. He turned his eyes full of cold resentment to her. "No, it doesn't. It leaves one person with one eye," he replied curtly. "And why? Why shouldn't I? If I don't get to decide who lives and who dies, why should he?"

She shook her head, close to tears. "H-he shouldn't... But that doesn't mean you should either. He might have a family that is completely innocent. Even if he doesn't, it won't help bring back the woman that he executed! It will do nothing but cause you to hurt even more. I know you must be hurting. Under those cold, calculating, void eyes, there must be emotion." She looked up at him with determination. What that determination was for, wasn't very clear.

After a moment, she sighed and finally released his hand. "Do what you must... I will be sitting here when you get back... Please, at least think about what I've said..." She couldn't look at him. She didn't want to see those lifeless eyes.

Kuro watched the man exit and walk down the street, listening to Bow's drivel about how he shouldn't kill the man. But she did draw his attention when she said that she knew he was hurting, and that killing the man in retribution would only intensify that pain. He looked at her apathetically as she said he must have emotion somewhere.

She eventually released his hand, however, telling him to go do what he needed to, and that she would be waiting for his return. He blinked, his expression unchanging.

"I'm not killing him right now. It would be foolish. He has men laced throughout the area, and I'm not willing to blow my cover. This is merely surveillance."

The girl stood up without warning and her words were a little harsher than she meant them. "Then I will be the first to leave. It was nice seeing you again, Kuro. If you ever need me, you have my card." The girl already had a lot on her plate, adding this sociopath to the mix would only cause her to crumble quicker. Maybe when she had a better hold on being leader, or wasn't involved in so much. Then she could help him better. But not right now.

As she stood there, tears started to fall down her cheeks for seemingly no reason. Her hands raised to her eyes and she sobbed. What were these tears coming from?? Why was she still standing here?? It's not like this man cares. He doesn't have any emotion! She's already seen that! And yet, here she was, crying in broad daylight while he was trying to do surveillance. Though she wasn't being loud.

Her mind was just too full. She had to research every villain the Titans had ever fought. Then she needed to research every hero in the world. Then she needed to look over Kale's battle strageties, which were almost none existent. So she needed to make her own. She had never done anything like that so she had to investigate different tactics and then match those with the skill set of her team and then she had to make sure that she was completely accurate with those to ensure that no one got hurt. Oh, and then there was volunteering at the homeless shelter, soup kitchen, and hospital and whatever events any of those three needed her at. Then Grayline, but she wasn't sure if she would actually continue that even though it was really the only source of fun and relaxation in her life...

The girl had not slept in three days.

Not to even mention the fact that she had just broken up with her boyfriend.