"You motherfuckers," Flower's voice called from the main room as the door to our base opened. "Have some explaining to do."

Anon had insisted on popping Rin's shoulder back into place before we reached the airport, promising to treat her more carefully once we reached home. Despite our two days of rest at the China base before we left the country, my eyes were still heavy with exhaustion. My legs were sorer than they had ever been and my mind still muddled from the stress of the entire situation.

"Let Len tell you," Yuma said, throwing his bags down on the table. He sat in one of the chairs across from Flower, kicking his feet up on the table. "It's quite the tale."

"Bombs?!" Flower exclaimed. "Where in our plan did we discuss bombs?"

"It wasn't us," Anon said. "Len found them in the basement." She glanced at me. "Tell her, Len."

"Did they go off?" I asked Flower. The five of us had had no contact with the outside world since my phone call, except for the airport. And we couldn't check the news there.

She shook her head. "No. Someone called it in. All the stories say they were only seconds away from going off before the bomb squad arrived. I think they're just trying to be dramatic, but you'll know better than me."

Despite my general misery, a grin overcame me.

I took a deep breath. Reliving the event wasn't something I was particularly keen on doing, especially when I was still sore and fatigued from the whole thing. Nevertheless, I sat in one of the chairs and explained everything from the person running through the hall to the boiler room to calling the authorities.

"It was you," Flower nodded as she listened to my story. "You called the police."

"Yeah," I confirmed. "It was me."

"Who could have planted those bombs?" Kanon asked. We had all taken our seats around the table.

"Someone knew we were there," said Rin. "Someone who wants us gone."

A silence fell over the table. Luka's name hung in the air. No one even needed to say it.

"But… but how would she know?" Anon suggested in a soft voice.

"You don't think Meiko-"

"I'm not listening to anything that bashes Meiko. She's helped us way too long, and she has no reason to betray us like this. It can't be her." Rin's voice was harsh. "But Luka… I could see her doing it."

I had known very little of this girl, but if she was willing to detonate bombs underneath a building filled with hundreds of people, I wasn't interested in being friends.

"How else could she have found us?" Kanon reasoned. "How else could she have known-"

"She must have been the client," Rin said.

Kanon leaned back in her chair, considering her words.

"Think about it," Rin continued. "Who just has ten million dollars sitting around? She didn't care about the target. We were the target."

"But she already paid Meiko-" Kanon began.

"Exactly. She paid Meiko to unwillingly send us off to our death."

Kanon was unconvinced, but she closed her mouth and said nothing more.

"It makes sense," Rin said. "She would go through Meiko because she would be able to stay anonymous. Instead of contacting us directly. We would have known it was her. She must have sent one of her guys to plant the bombs while Len was in the basement."

It made sense to me.

Flower frowned. "She found us before we found her."

"We need to warn Meiko," Rin concluded. "She could be in danger, too. What if Luka's trying to take out every-"

"Guys, guys, guys," Yuma interrupted. "Why are we talking about this now?" His gaze turned to Flower. "Did we get the money?"

Her intense gaze was softened, and she smiled. "It was deposited yesterday morning."

"We're millionaires!" Yuma yelled. "Can we save the shitty business stuff for after our celebration?"

The girls exchanged glances. I didn't wait for them to make up their mind.

"Where are the drinks in this place?" I asked Yuma with a grin.

He pointed at me. "I knew there was a reason we decided not to kill you. Come on! They're in the kitchen."

Flower jumped from the table and followed us.

We emerged from the kitchen, carrying bottles of alcohol and individual glasses for everyone, a few short minutes later. Rin and Anon had taken the time to break off from the group and check over her injured shoulder in the infirmary. When we emerged, I cast a glance in their direction. Rin was in a sling. She looked extremely unhappy about it.

"Who wants what?" I asked, the bottles in my arms clinking together softly once I set them on the table. It was already nearly nine o'clock. I was jet-lagged and tired. But sleep could wait for a few celebratory drinks.

Anon and Rin joined us not too much later. In a few minutes, everyone had finished their first glass except for Rin.

"Come on!" Kanon said, her tense mood from earlier completely forgotten as she waved her empty glass at the girl. "Take a drink with us."

"I don't feel like it," Rin responded. "Plus, one of us has to stay sober. Just in case."

Kanon waved a hand dismissively. "You're just mad your arm is hurt."

She shrugged in response. "Won't be able to shoot for a while."

"You won't have to!" Yuma said as he poured another glass. "With this money, we could live in this luxurious bunker for years! Many, many years."

"But that's not who we are," she countered.

"Well," Yuma concluded, bringing his glass to his lips. "Guess Len here will have to take the shots for you." He took a sip and slammed his glass down on the table. "Can we talk about that fucking shot? How? How did you hit that?"

I had been quietly enjoying my drink before Yuma yelled at me to join the conversation. "I just… I just aimed. And shot."

Flower grinned. "Aim and shoot. I've taught you well."

"That's all there is to it." Although Rin wasn't partaking in the drinking, she was still enjoying the lightened mood. "Aim and shoot."

"What I wanna know is how did you manage to put that gun together in the helicopter without losing any parts?" Flower asked, bringing her glass to her lips.

As the minutes ticked by, the topics of our conversation slowly became more and more abstract. I couldn't help but notice Rin's amusement as her friends around her gradually descended into their drunken stupor.

"No no no, you don't understand-" Yuma argued passionately with Flower. "It's fucking Robin. He's a natural badass."

"He had no powers!" Flower argued, her voice full of emotion. "How could he lead the Teen Titans with no powers? Starfire and Raven could have beat the guys into a pulp. One of them should have done it."

"He had no powers, yes. But he still managed to lead a ragtag team of teenage superheroes."

Kanon scoffed. "Barely! Raven was fucking half-demon and died in season four after her demon-Dad who she shares her powers with literally took over the entire world-"

"And Robin saved her," Yuma responded with a smirk.

Rin and I watched the conversation bounce across the table like a tennis match. She was grinning now. At the occasional amusing remark, she would giggle softly.

"What about Starfire? She's an alien Princess. Shoots lasers out of her eyes and shit. She would destroy him."

"He saved her too!" Yuma rose his voice. "You guys are just bashing my boy Robin here when he's the backbone of the entire team! There's a reason he's the leader!"

"The girls are way too strong for them. They could beat Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg into the ground at the same time," Flower said, slurring her words slightly as she tapped her hand decisively on the table. Anon and Kanon nodded in agreement.

"They can't even beat Robin! They prove it in the first season! Did you guys forget that Slade took him in-"

"Terra's the best," Anon pointed out. "You can't change my mind."

"Well she's dead, Anon! We're talking about relevant characters, now!"

Anon leaned forward. "She's not dead! The last fucking episode of season five, remember? They go to the cavern and her statue is gone-"

Rin and I exchanged glances as an uproar of arguments erupted on either side of us. She grinned at me. I chuckled.

Things continued this way for a long, long time.

"You three can argue all you want," Flower said, pushing her chair from the table and standing with a slight wobble. "But I'm set in my ways. Raven and Starfire are the Teen Titans. No one could reasonably beat them."

Yuma opened his mouth to protest, but Flower cut him off.

"Either way, I'm fucking tired, and I'm going to bed. Night." She glanced victoriously down at Yuma as she passed him, exiting into the living area.

"Yeah," Anon agreed, stretching her arms over her head. "I'm with Flower. It's late, and I'm tired." She glanced at Rin. "Careful with that shoulder, okay? Try not to sleep on it."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine."

"Good." Anon disappeared into the hall after Flower.

The second they left the room, the argument was over and another conversation took its place. This one was calm and collected, the opposite of before, and even Rin and I took part in it.

"I found the others," Yuma explained. "Because I had worked with Rin on a bunch of her contracts when she was solo."

"Solo?" My eyes widened at the girl. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah. I helped her a bunch. We had this one mission - aw, shit, do you guys remember this one? - It was our first hit as a team, and it was this big politician guy-" Yuma went into a rant, recounting how the five of them, six at the time, had decided to work together on the contract of a lifetime.

I listened, amused. "How long ago was that?"

His brow furrowed. "Hmmm. I think I was, like, sixteen or something."

"Sixteen?" When I was sixteen, all I worried about was grades and that cute girl who sat behind me in algebra. I could never imagine plotting an assassination.

Yuma shrugged. "Rin was fourteen. She's the one who killed the guy."

I shot her an amazed look. She shrugged once again.

"I think that's why we got along so well," Yuma continued. He swirled the remaining liquor in his cup as he spoke. "It's not often to find kids ruling the Black Market."

"That's crazy," I exclaimed. "Like, when I was sixteen-"

Kanon laughed, holding a hand up. "Len, no offense, but I don't want to know."

A chuckle ran through the room and Kanon finished off her glass, standing. "I'm beat, too. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Rin nodded to her as she passed.

"Night guys," Kanon said sleepily. And, as she passed him, "Night, Yuma."

"Good night," he answered.

I waited until she was out of the room, then smiled deviously. "Night, Yuma," I mocked in my best girl voice, batting my eyelashes at the boy.

He rolled his eyes. "Shut the fuck up."

"What was that about?"

"Nothing," he responded, looking away.

My grin only grew wider. "That was not nothing."

"It was nothing," Yuma insisted.

"Then why are you getting so defensive?"

"Len, I swear-" He cut himself off, casting a hopeless glance at Rin. He expected her to help him out.

She didn't. Rin, sober Rin, nonetheless, giggled once again. "That was a pretty suggestive Night, Yuma."

"Okay, fuck you guys, I'm going to bed."

I erupted into laughter along with Rin as he stood from the table, and stomped out of the room.

"And then there were two," I said once our laughter died down.

"I figured they'd go to bed early. It's been a long week."

"Understatement of the year." I leaned back in my chair once more.

She sat in the seat across the table, one hand folded neatly in her lap and the other dropping out of her sling. "Yeah. That one was… rough."

"I'm sorry about your arm."

She smiled. "It's fine. It would probably be way worse if you weren't there."

The room was wavering slightly before my eyes. My arms felt warm from the alcohol, and the painful soreness in my legs was numbed. I rubbed at my eyes in an attempt to clear my muddled mind. "I'm still sorry."

"Don't be." She stared down at the table.

"...for everything," I concluded.

Her brow furrowed slightly. "What-"

I wasn't that drunk, but I felt like I needed to talk to her about this and I knew I could use the alcohol as an excuse. "I know about your guys'... thing in LA. With Luka."

She tensed at the name.

"And I know why you were there. And I know how important it probably was to you. And not only did I fuck it up, but I also might have thrown you guys under the bus with her, and now everyone's in danger, and I'm just-" I cut myself off. I knew I was treading on thin ice, and I avoided saying his name, but I knew Rin was devastated at their failed attempt to avenge the ex-assassin. "-I'm just sorry."

Those blue eyes of hers blinked a few times as she tried to find words.

"I kinda… like, I just messed everything up. And I'm trying really hard to fix it, even though I know I can't, you know? So… yeah. I'm sorry." I let out a deep breath, feeling a weight come off of my shoulders.

Rin said nothing.

I continued sipping at my glass, deciding that it would be my final drink. Training would no doubt resume tomorrow, and although I had officially entered the "Assassin" category, I knew there was still much to learn. Everyone would be up before me and I didn't want to be late.

"You didn't know," Rin finally said, pulling my thoughts back to the present. "How could you have? It's not your fault you just… went home."

She was right, but I still couldn't help but feel some sort of guilt. "Yeah, but-"

She shook her head. "You didn't know."

The dismissive tone in her voice told me that this conversation was over.

We went to bed a few minutes later.

If you can't tell, Raven and Starfire are my favorite Teen Titans.

Thanks for reading :)