A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

This chapter can also be called "Plot Holes? What Plot Holes?"

-x-X-x-

For a moment, Lucien and Raven just stare at each other. He wasn’t expecting her to be right on the other side of the door to Starfire’s room and judging by her wide eyes, she clearly wasn’t expecting him to open the door right this instant.

Fortunately, Lucien is wearing clothes. Pajamas, actually. After getting back to the tower, the three of them had stopped off in the shower first, where Blackfire had proven to be in the mood for some last minute aggressive shower sex. At which point Lucien had realized that if he didn’t do something, they were probably going to wind up fucking the night away at Blackfire’s command and Starfire’s easy capitulation.

That was when he’d demanded pajamas be involved. And boy was he glad for that, because otherwise Raven would be getting quite the eyeful right now… rather than merely being met with Lucien wearing a set of her old teammate Cyborg’s pajamas. Why a man that was mostly robot needed pajamas, Lucien didn’t know, but that was where Starfire had said they came from when she presented the garments to him, baby blue with rubber duckies on them for some fucking reason. Embarrassing, but not the end of the world.

Seeing as Raven isn’t actually saying anything, Lucien slowly floats out of the room, causing her to take a couple of steps back. Once he’s fully outside of the bedroom, he closes the door behind him carefully before giving Raven a curious look.

“… Can I help you with something?”

Raven’s eyes narrow at that, her lips thinned outwards.

“Why are you wearing Cyborg’s pajamas?”

Oh so not only did these belong to the man that was ninety percent robot, but he apparently wore them enough for his teammates to identify them as his on sight. Stranger and stranger.

“Starfire gave them to me. Because I needed something to wear to bed.”

He didn’t really see any reason to lie about that. Or the fact that he and Starfire were a thing. And lying about him, Starfire, and Blackfire now being a thing would be equally silly at this point. Raven’s emotion sensing abilities must be why she’s here. She probably clocked the three of them the moment they stepped back into the Tower. Which meant she knew exactly what sort of things they were feeling.

Though… that did make Lucien wonder how she’d been caught off guard by his approach to the door. Sure, he’d floated over so there was no sound and he didn’t accidentally wake up Kori and her sister. But surely Raven should have sensed him coming, right?

“Where are you going now? Why are you leaving? What are you planning?”

Raven keeps her voice at a respectfully low volume, likely not wanting to wake the Tamaranean Sisters in the room beyond any more than Lucien does. But her tone still grows more and more insistent and demanding the more she talks. Lucien, meanwhile, pauses at the barrage of questions. After a moment, he’s formulated his response.

“Well… I’m going back to my apartment. I’m leaving because I need to feed my cat… and I’m planning on feeding my cat and then coming back here before Starfire or Blackfire notice I’ve left.”

That’s clearly not the answer Raven is expecting. She scowls at him and huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. Lucien raises an eyebrow at her glowering, but it just intensifies in response.

“Your cat. You seriously expect me to believe that?”

Spur of the moment, completely on impulse, Lucien just shrugs.

“Come with me if you want. Confirm it for yourself.”

Then, without waiting for a response from the heroine, Lucien turns and begins floating down the hall towards the nearest exit. He probably should have been wearing his Remedy Mask when he left Starfire’s room, but that cat’s out of the bag now isn’t it? So why not… why not just let Raven in on his ‘great big secret’?

-x-X-x-

To his amusement, the grey-skinned young woman actually does follow him all the way back to his apartment. Together, they fly silently through the night sky, not a word shared between them. Finally landing on his apartment balcony, Lucien goes over to a nearby plotted plant, turns it over, and flicks a switch. He feels Raven tensing up behind him as a low hum fills the air and gives her a grin.

“Just a spoofer for all the bugs and recording devices in my apartment. Perfectly harmless. Now c’mon.”

Her eyes narrow at that, but he’s telling the truth. There’s no trap here… at least, not one set by him for her. There’s always the possibility that his father, clone or otherwise, has finally caught on to Lucien’s workarounds and has sent a team to lie in wait… but Lucien’s enhanced senses are currently showing that the apartment is empty. Well, mostly empty.

“Mrow!”

The moment he slips in through his balcony slider, a ball of fury and fire flings itself at him from the top of the kitchen cabinets nearby. Laughing, Lucien catches Spot in his arms, even as the Snow Leopard Cub struggles for a moment before realizing it’s him and calming down. Stroking his hands through Spot’s fur, enjoying the heat of him against his body, Lucien sighs briefly.

“Hey boy. Hungry?”

“Mrow.”

“Yeah, figured as much.”

Setting Spot down so he can follow his footsteps into the kitchen, Lucien makes his way over to the fridge. The freezer is stuffed to the brim with frozen meat, while the refrigerator has Spot’s actual meals in it, the pieces of meat he’d pulled out of the freezer earlier that morning to dethaw. Just as he’s putting the meat out on the counter and beginning to unwrap it however, he hears a hissing sound.

Looking back over his shoulder to see Raven has entered the apartment at long last, Lucien finds Spot squaring off with the intruder, hissing up a storm with his hackles raised as Raven blinks down at the Snow Leopard Cub.

“Oi! Spot! Calm down, she’s friendly.”

The Snow Leopard Cub gives Lucien a look that might have been termed incredulous on an intelligent being. Then again, maybe Spot can detect something he can’t. No scratch that, from what Lucien knows of Raven, the Snow Leopard Cub probably has good reason to be leery of her. It’s not even anything about Raven herself.

Rather… if Lucien remembered correctly, wasn’t there something from his past that was also the future where Raven’s father turned out to be some big name Demon Lord? And she turned out to be a gateway for his eventual entrance into their reality? From what he’d heard, holed up in this place and being all sick and feeble like he was, the Titans had managed to solve the problem. So they could probably do so again here.

But until then, Spot saw Raven as a threat.

“It’s okay. Leave her alone. Aren’t you hungry?”

That manages to get through to the Snow Leopard Cub. Spot’s eyes dart to the meat Lucien has unwrapped on the counter and after a heartbeat, he bounces over and hops up onto the counter, sniffing at the meat. Grinning as he scratches his pet behind the ears, Lucien gestures with his free hand to the meat.

“What do you think? Warm or cold?”

Spot sniffs at the meat for a second longer before pulling back with a wrinkled nose.

“Mrow.”

Yeah, fair enough. Though he was beginning to wonder if he was spoiling the Snow Leopard, all things considered. Grabbing the cold meat, he tosses it in the nearby microwave and sets the thing for a minute. Spot posts up right in front of it, watching the raw meat go around in circles the entire time. Glancing back over his shoulder at a nonplussed Raven, Lucien grins.

“Just a sec, thanks.”

The microwave dings before she can muster a response and Lucien tugs open the door. Yanking the warmed slab of meat out, he tosses it into the air and Spot leaps after it, catching it mid-jump in his jaws and coming down to the ground in a soft landing. Head and tail both up in the air like he’s the most amazing thing since sliced bread, the Snow Leopard Cub prances over to his preferred eating spot under the dining table and begins to chew into his meal.

Lucien, meanwhile, stuffs a second piece of raw meat into the microwave and starts that heating up as well, knowing full well that Spot will want more sooner rather than later. Only then does he turn back to Raven and raise an eyebrow at her questioningly as if to say ‘See? Told you I had to feed my cat’. Correctly deducing his look, Raven huffs again and crosses her arms over her chest.

“That is NOT a cat.”

Glancing in Spot’s direction, Lucien grins a crooked grin.

“Sure he is. Gonna wind up being a big cat… but still a cat.”

Glowering at him, Raven grips more tightly at her arms.

“Who are you really? Who are you to need a spoofing device to trick the people apparently spying on your apartment? Who are you to have a Snow Leopard Cub as a pet? Who. Are. You?”

He was sort of expecting this. But then to be fair, he’d already given up on keeping his identity a secret from Raven. She’d seen his face. He really had thought he could just slip out of Starfire’s room for a quick second, pop over here, and feed Spot. After all, taking small moments like this to take care of Spot and check on the apartment was what he’d been doing ever since he and Starfire had become much closer.

Unfortunately, Raven had caught him red handed. Fortunately, he’d caught her red handed too. Spying on her teammate? Naughty, naughty. Still…

“The name’s Lucien. Lucien Luthor. My father is Lex Luthor and I hate his guts.”

All completely true, of course. Not a single deception to be found there. It had taken Lucien a while to fully internalize his feelings but looking back now, it was simply how it was. He almost wished he could go back in time again, this time to the day of his birthday. He sort of wanted to kill his father right then and there. Except… no. Because that wasn’t the real Lex Luthor, as he’d found out. His father was somewhere else and using a clone to hide from him right now.

Well, not hide from Lucien… but from something, that was for sure. The only saving grace was that Mercy hadn’t known about his father’s replacement. Lucien still held hope that that lie on Lex’s part would sow discord between him and his ever-present right-hand woman.

Regardless, back to the conversation at hand. Raven is certainly surprised by his reveal. As she’s assimilating the bombshell he’s just dropped on her, the microwave dings behind him. Without taking his eyes off of Raven, Lucien reaches back, opens the microwave door, and pulls out the warmed up raw meat before tossing it to Spot under the dining table.

“Mrow.”

“You’re welcome.”

He really was spoiling his good boy, but at least the Snow Leopard Cub was grateful. The interaction between them has the added effect of knocking Raven out of her introspective stupor. Jolting out of whatever inner monologue she was having with herself, the grey-skinned heroine straightens up, glaring at him again.

“Is that why I can’t sense your emotions? Because of something your father gave you?”

Wait, what? Now it’s Lucien’s turn to be shocked. Can’t sense his emotions? That was so far out of left field… but no, it actually kind of made sense looking back. No wonder Raven had never called him out. He was quite literally invisible to her.

Rather than answer her immediately, Lucien tilts his head to the side.

“If you can’t sense my emotions, why didn’t you say anything earlier? Especially to the rest of your team?”

Huffing, Raven shrugs her shoulders, arms still crossed over her chest.

“Because there have been plenty of people I can’t sense for all sorts of reasons. Not all of them have been evil. And you… you healed Beast Boy without any expectation for repayment or even a thank you. So that had to be worth something.”

Ah, right. Lucien vaguely remembered something about Raven and Beast Boy having a relationship in the future just like Starfire and Robin. But it was way more lowkey since they weren’t the Titans’ premier power couple. They probably liked it that way, to be honest. Regardless, they clearly weren’t together yet. But that didn’t mean Raven didn’t already potentially have feelings for Beast Boy.

“Well, I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt. As for my blank status, no I don’t think that was anything my father did to me. But I also can’t say for certain.”

Raven’s eyes narrow at that.

“What do you mean?”

Shrugging, Lucien goes ahead with the same story he told Starfire.

“I’ve been sick all my life. Frail, even. I was nothing more than a disappointment in my father’s eyes. And then, somehow on my last birthday a while ago, I wake up feeling amazing. Spectacular, even. Healthy and strong. And then that same day my father ran me through the same battery of tests he’s had me ran through every birthday for my entire worthless life.”

Lucien shrugs.

“He knows I’m not sick anymore. He knows I’m healthy now. But does he know about my powers? Did he have anything to do with me gaining them? I don’t know. I don’t know what Lex Luthor is planning for me, Raven. And that’s the god’s honest truth.”

He does the usual song and dance of making sure he’s presenting nothing but pure honesty physically. But Raven has never relied on that sort of thing before and it’s not like he can fake emotions that she can’t even sense. Hah, he had thought he was all this time, but in the end it turned out he was relying on something he didn’t even know was possible.

Somehow, he was invisible to Raven’s empathic powers. How curious. Had to be a Death-related thing, right? Something about whatever he was to Death of the Endless was protecting him. Did it also extend to mind reading? Mind control? Possession? All were possibilities in this crazy world of theirs… but Lucien didn’t know what this mean.

He did know one thing however. Raven now knew the truth. And unlike Starfire, she was under zero obligation to keep his secret.

“So, what happens now? I’m sure Robin would love to find out I’m Lex Luthor’s son. Would make his day. But only you can decide if he gets to know that or not.”

Raven pauses at that, frowning slightly as she considers him in silence. Then, she opens her mouth to speak.

[ ] Raven promises she won't snitch on Lucien - 32%
[X] Raven isn't done questioning just yet and she feels like Lucien is trying to rush her to make a decision - 65%