How dare they betray his trust like that.
Storming into the kitchen where the others were 'eating', Robin (Dick had been put away by then) scanned the room. He saw their faces, the horror reflecting from their eyes. His whole team was crying. He'd never even seen Kaldur get upset, but yet- there he was. Crying.
M'gann was practically sobbing. Absorbing everyone's sadness, loss, and anger will do that to you.
Conner- silent tears were streaming down his angry face.
And Artemis. Stubborn, loud, angry Artemis. Crying.
He got defensive then, "M'gann," He managed to ground out, "what exactly did you just do?"
She hiccuped, and started crying more. "I-I-I'm sorry! We w-were wondering why y-y-you left and then it was just there and I-!"
"M'gann," Kaldur placed a calming hand on her shoulder, "I will take it from here."
She cast a quick, pitiful, look to Robin then nodded her head without another word, crying into Conner's shoulder.
Natasha, sensing the rising argument, intervened; "Everyone needs to calm down. Robin, Kid Flash- take a seat,"
Kid complied quickly, but Robin was more hesitant. Why should he sit down and talk? He wanted- no, he needed answers.
He sat down eventually, watching as the team avoided Wally's heated glares. His face was emotionless, completely opposite from just minutes before. It helped when your mentor had you go through hours of keeping a straight face. Showing any emotion right then was not an option.
The Avengers sat silently, waiting for an explanation. Pepper stood awkwardly to the side, seriously contemplating why she was still even there; "Ah.. Should I go? I could ju-"
"No!" Dick started panicking, "No, I-I mean, you can stay. It's okay.. just-just stay. Aqualad here just needs to explain some things to me," he sent a pointed glare towards the Atlantean, silently daring him to back out of his previous agreement.
Wide eyed, she nodded slowly, and sat down next to Tony at the table. The billionaire leaned over to her, trying to joke; "I don't think your shirt is all that bad, and- I've never seen him this panicky either..".
She scoffed at his attempt, but didn't respond.
M'gann spoke up; "Should-should I enable the mind link?"
"I don't think that would be the best idea,"
Surprisingly, this response came from Bruce who had been standing discretely in the doorway the whole time, "You have to realize that you aren't the only ones being affected by what's happening. You're guests in our world, so be kind enough to let us at least know what happened."
The Team looked hesitant, but the Martian complied nonetheless. She sniffed.
Kaldur squared his shoulders and turned towards Robin. The boy was stoic, looking eerily like his mentor. How could he phrase into understandable words that Robin's team, his family, viewed his dream? One of the most private processes of the mind? Kaldur had the option to say no- to, at any time, try and reason with the others. But he didn't.
The Atlantean couldn't blame himself entirely however, any of his other friends could have spoken out. Wally was the only one who actually took a stand, who actually said no.
Kaldur looked around at the Avengers' faces. They wanted an explanation. He sighed deeply before meeting Robin's masked eyes as best he could.
"I- As you know, Miss Martian was speaking to all of us in her mind-link. Shortly after you fell asleep she received a… dream of sorts, it was yours. Before we actually started viewing it however- Kid claimed we shouldn't even be considering to watch it. He left the link in search of you," Wally let out a huff, "Afterwards… we-we viewed your dream... Robin," he spoke the next sentence with a sincere urgency, "had we known what we were doing, or-or even-!"
"See, Aqualad," Robin's face suddenly filled with anger- a very uncommon occurrence with him, "somehow... I just don't believe that."
M'gann was crying again; "Robin! We're sorry! H-honest! Everyone just wanted to know why you left! We didn't know that would happen! Who could guess that?"
"You did know! I knew! You knew it was wrong! I told you, "This is pretty invasive," but did you listen? No!" Wally objected, absolutely furious that they would try and pull that crap with his best friend.
"Guys..?" Pepper spoke up slowly, she (for once) was at a total loss. "What 'dream' are you talking about?"
Dick and the team all flinched simultaneously. How were they going to explain this?
"It's nothing," he responded quickly, hoping to drive her off. Dick turned away from her and started twiddling his fingers around nonchalantly.
She glared at him.
"Oh really?" Pepper cocked an eyebrow sassily at the boy, "It didn't sound like 'nothing' to me."
Richard sighed. "I- it's nothing I want to get into right now. Just- just not now."
Her heart melted at his crestfallen face. She didn't have to talk to him now. She'd find him later. Besides, she actually heard Tony and Nick speaking about the Team's living arrangements, and if that were true-
"I want you all to come live in the Tower. Temporarily, of course."
Pepper could definitely find him later.
Kaldur's eyes widened. Live at the… Tower? As in Avenger's Tower? That was.. new. He really didn't mind. The place had access to the technology that could get them back home. Technically speaking, it was his decision (seeing as he was leader) but really, it was up to the masses.
"I.." He turned towards the others, at which Robin turned away instantly- Kaldur sighed, "We will need to discuss the matter. Team?"
One by one, each nodded and slowly headed out of the room to discuss the notion.
Clint blinked when Robin finally exited; "...Are we going to finish our breakfast?"
Entering a small conference room down the hall, Robin locked the door behind him and sighed.
"I think we would have better luck with the Parker lady." Artemis said. It wasn't that she didn't like the Avengers, actually, Artemis wanted to spar with that Clint guy- he looked pretty cool. It's just, she had a bad vibe about the place, as if something terrible were going to happen.
"Parker lady?" Robin repeated.
"Yeah. We found this house and the landlady's name is May Parker. It's in-"
"Queens, New York." Robin filled in for her, a slight smirk on his face.
Artemis stared at him, totally baffled. "Right, I guess? But how did you know-?"
"Peter Parker? Spider-Man? Member of the Avengers? Ring a bell?"
There was a beat of silence, then; "So! Now that she's out of the question, are we staying here or what?"
Conner thought for a moment. He was fine with staying wherever really, just so long as everyone was together, "No more splitting up. Let's just stay here. I'm sure Tony has the technology we need to build whatever we need to get back home. Besides," he looked around, "how would we even get a room? The only reason we lucked out before was because Parker didn't ask for background- but even then. What if she got suspicious?"
M'gann nodded at the sound explanation. She really just wanted to sleep on an actual bed. Her Bio-Ship was okay, sure, but it just wasn't the same. "Sounds good to me."
The rest mumbled an agreement. Robin however, was glaring hard at the ground- thinking something over.
"Robin?"
Dick looked up at Wally; "Sounds okay.. but- I just can't shake the feeling off that something bad is going to happen later on."
The speedster nodded. "Yeah," He looked around at everyone's apprehensive faces, "Yeah. I think we're all feeling the same way."
Kaldur nodded once, formally. "So it is decided. We shall be staying in Avenger's Tower."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Dun Dun Duuunnn! Foreshadowing! More emotions NEXT CHAPTER, much much more. If you think I didn't cover something now- it'll be next chapter. Yes. That includes Pepper and Dick's meeting. But hnng. This most likely will be put off for a bit, I need to catch up with my other stories. Not sure yet though. Depends on you guys.
Thank yah & leave a review!
-Thwipity
