[1]

"If she is calling to you the gatekeeper for Trigon and this dimension," Koriand'r proposed with a cheek full of pizza. Raven grimaced at the anchovies dangling from the alien's mouth just before being crudely slurped out of existence. "But you have already fulfilled that prophecy, what gate are you keeping now that he is gone? Surely he could not come back?"

"It's complicated." The cambion released a heavy sigh as she rolled back against the bed, letting her shirt rise and expose her belly to the foreign humidity of Starfire's room.

On the south end of the Tower's highest floors, the alien's bedroom was comfortably lit by vast windows that looked out over the fusion of bay waters to blue skies, giving one the sensation of being atop of the clouds. However, since she had Vic exclusively manipulate her HVAC systems to mimic that of Tamaran's tropics, the room was a bit too muggy for Raven's liking as her clothes clung damply to her skin. "In a literal sense, no. Trigon cannot come back. At least not as he once was. But demonic forces still exist in this realm, as do his followers, so he still has...a presence."

Koriand'r's brows tightened over bright malachite eyes. "And beyond a literal sense?"

"I banished my father with magic powerful enough to overwhelm him to the point where he could actually be imprisoned by it."

"Trigon is alive, then?"

Raven sat back up to face Koriand'r. "He is an immortal being, but he's weakened, sealed in a tomb of impenetrable light magic."

"And you are the gatekeeper to his tomb?"

"In a way. But," Raven emphasized as she felt the waves of Kori's distress, "I'm no longer in danger of his influence over me. The white raven severed that connection between us."

"I am still quite confused. What, then, does this woman think she wants from you?"

Raven's tired face cracked into a smile. "I don't know, Star. Maybe we should just ask her?"

"Can this connection go both ways?"

Raven eyed the books spread out between them on the duvet, weighing the potentiality. Still, her focus was stolen by the short buzzing from her pocket that was quickly echoed by Kori's vibrating communicator on the nightstand.

"That will be Victor," Koriand'r murmured as she reached over to silence the pulsating device, and Raven did the same, fishing her communicator from the deep pockets of her duster cardigan.

Once the Great Bay Armory attack was linked to the Ivory Macaques, a lesser-known syndicate operating out of the northern Marina District, the Titans found themselves consumed with their first proper mission in months. After a few days of investigative follow-up to track down the weaponized gas distribution used against the armory's security, the Titans managed to take in several low-ranking and loud-mouthed members of the organization. In fear of time at Belle Reve, links were provided between the Macaques and Spitting Kobra, which caught the quick attention of the League. Vic had been working on the post-investigation communications with the League, which the girls expected a briefing on this afternoon.

However, when Raven opened the alert from her communicator, she was surprised to see that it wasn't a summons from Vic but an alert from Robin's communicator. Addressed to the Tower's general com line was a false location update, revealing a vague "no signal" message.

Raven looked over at Kori with discretion and said nothing, watching the alien's impassive study of the message as a breath fell sharply from her lips with muddled relief.

"Or not," she finally said and calmly tossed the device across her bed. "Which one of these dusty old books might tell us how to get a hold of this woman?" Raven knew better than anyone the ticks of those trying hard to swallow emotion, but she couldn't help staring at the uncharacteristic indifference until Koriand'r lifted hardened eyes. "Unless you believe it is a bad idea?"

"No," Raven answered clumsily, clearing the awkwardness from her throat, "it's a good idea."

Koriand'r picked up the book nearest to her and began thumbing through its thick parchment pages when a smirk lightened her features. "It was Garfield's idea, actually. If I am being honest."

"Oh?" Her voice feigned disinterest, but Kori knew better.

Because of the unanswered questions that dangled between her and Garfield since the transference, Raven welcomed the distracted days of the Macaque's mission, as it split the team into two units, one for stakeouts and the other for covert operations. While she worked into the Macaques lower circles with Karen and Roy, Cy, Star and Beast Boy stood by on surveillance. So thought she worked beneath Garfield's attentive gaze, the mission always gave them a reason to ignore the elephant in the room. Yet, in the spaces between, there were brief moments where a friendly pat on the shoulder or the accidental brush of his hand felt like an invitation that sent her pulse whirring. But Garfield maintained the air of professionalism, effortlessly keeping to the promise he made her that night. So Raven would not dare to react or reach out to him, no matter how her thoughts spun around the memories of his arms, his lips, falling asleep to the strong beat of his heart. After everything, how could she be disappointed that he did just as she asked?

"In fact, I had quite an interesting conversation with him this morning," Koriand'r tried almost too casually, though unable to restrain an unruly brow.

Raven offered a spiritless eye roll, "Why do I doubt that?"

"Well, at first," Koriand'r went on eagerly as if Raven had taken her bait, "we were talking of Roy's attitude since missing the attack at the armory. How determined, and sober and such a "hard ass" in training...Garfield wondered if it would last now that the League has absorbed the operation. And then, out of nowhere, he is hugging me, promising he would never hurt me on purpose."

"Hmm," Raven murmured, pulling on her bottom lip as she fanned through the book rested on her knee.

"It was not difficult to guess what he was talking about, and so I told him the same as I have told you. That it was only a trick to make you distrust yourself. He agreed easily enough and that is when he asked me if you had tried to reach out her, but when I suggested that he ask you himself, he weirdly remembered somewhere else to be at that very moment," Raven grinned to herself in envy. "I thought, well when I heard you two, or when he stayed the night–"

"Nothing happened," Raven insisted, triggered from having already been teased by their other teammates, which she wouldn't mind so much if things didn't feel so delicate between her and Gar.

Koriand'r scoffed skeptically. "Nothing? I know we have been busy, Raven, but you avoid each other. Something happened, surely."

"I meant that we just slept," she grumbled, cheeks burning, "like, nothing happened."

"And," Kori held back a smile, "that upsets you?"

"No, that's not...he finally saw where I've been coming from, and said I wouldn't have to worry about him. And I guess that's where we left it. I mean, he seems to be okay, not ignoring me anymore but also not...whatever. So, we're okay. It's good."

"I see," Kori said timidly, and the suffocating silence that followed her poorly masked disappointment was timely interrupted by a rap at Kori's open door.

Karen stood strangely in the doorway, leaning languidly against the frame, eyeing her own fingernails.

"Hello, Karen," Kori greeted kindly, and Raven sensed a frenzy beneath Karen's calm demeanor as she strolled toward the bed.

"What are we doing?" Karen asked.

"Working through translations. What, uh..." Raven answered with the feeling that Karen was waiting to erupt. "What's going on?"

"Oh nothing," Karen sighed, her lips curling to expose her large, glimmery teeth, "just sent in my proposal."

"You finished it?" Koriand'r squeaked.

"Fuck yes I did!" Karen released an exhilarated heatwave across the room, and Raven couldn't help but embrace it with easy laughter and congratulations. "Thank you, thank you," Karen relished with a clumsy curtsy. "I think I'm in shock. I closed my laptop and didn't know what to do with myself."

"That's awesome," Raven offered, "because you've been a radiating ball of stress for weeks, so I, for one, am thrilled for you."

Had she not known Raven well, she might have suspected her of being cruelly sarcastic at this moment, but thankfully Karen translated the sincerity and chuckled, "Alright, tone it down a bit, Rave."

"We must celebrate!" Koriand'r announced, eyes wide and full of possibility.

"Yes, thank you," Karen loudly clapped, "that is the energy I wanted from the boys, but no! Gar's MIA while Vic and Roy are still beating this Macaques case to death with Green Arrow. Damn, it's kinda warm in here, guys? Anyway, I'm thinking a girl's night is the vibe tonight? Our friend from Steel is playing that club...we could probably get in for free?"

"X'hal, yes!" Koriand'r reached for them both with enthusiastic agreement and Raven subtly grimaced at the idea of being surrounded by hordes of drunk people. "Oh, please, Raven? It could be so much fun and we could all use some fun, yes?"

"Can we even get into a club? Karen you're barely twenty one and we don't even have a government issued anything."

"We'll get on the list, they won't ask questions. And even if they do, there's that whole, you're an interdimensional space witch who can teleport through the physical realm, thing?"

Raven scoffed with amused defeat. She eyed the piles of old, tattered texts spread menacingly across the bed before bringing her narrowed gaze back to Karen and Koriand'r.

Raven conceded with a small smile and braced for exaggerated Kori's auric and audible elation.

[2]

When alone and absent of his music, the Titan training dome was a vast and eerie echo chamber that ricocheted sharp whispers of Garfield's fist against the swaying heavy bag. Realizing his playlist ended, Garfield slowly made his way across the room, unraveling one of his hand wraps before picking up his phone and Nalgene. With a careful flex of his hand, his joints ached faintly with overuse, and Garfield knew he had been going at this bag a little longer than he needed to.

The sun dropped behind the distant skyscrapers when he first started his set, and now the gym's lights glared brightly at him from the broad, darkened windows. Panting through gulps of water, Gar noted his reflection dotted with the little black scratches left from Raven's fusion of its once shattered glass. He reached out to one of those scratches, expecting to feel the raised scars of mended shards, but it was smooth beneath his fingertips. Almost as if nothing had happened at all.

But that wasn't the case, Garfield observed soberly, because something had happened, even if he agreed to pretend otherwise. He's the one who cracked the partition between them, and Raven had done her best to weld its pieces back together, and even though these little black streaks stayed behind to remind him of his shortcoming, Gar couldn't bring himself to regret it. Any of it. The feeling of her made it all worth it. Her taste, her smile, the ethereal shimmer of her wary eyes. Even if just for those short and uncertain moments, Raven was his.

Maybe it was selfish of him, but knowing that it was her fear that kept her away, not her rejection, eased the awkwardness of seeing her now, trying to remember how it was before he revealed himself to her.

Don't try to make it into more than it was.

But she revealed herself to him too, in ways Garfield knew she wished she hadn't, because it made this game of pretend all the more tiresome. He wondered if Raven understood that she might not ever be able to lie to him again.

He passed his empty Nalgene between his shaky hands as he made his way across the gym, switched off the lights, and made for the elevator. The silence weighed on him as the elevator dragged him up the Tower, and sweat pooled obnoxiously around his face. With one arm, Gar peeled his shirt over his head and ran it across his face before draping it over his shoulder, the fresh air helping to cool him down.

The Tower felt withdrawn as he made for the kitchen, passing deserted hallways and empty rooms. When he realized he didn't have his communicator, Garfield wondered briefly if he'd missed the post briefing summons for the Macaque case, but the depth of silence ruled out anyone on this entire floor.

With Karen still working on her proposal and Koriand'r helping Raven read, or whatever it was they were doing, he hoped that Vic and Roy would show themselves with something to do. He wasn't in the mood to sulk anymore, and the boxing hit him with just enough endorphins to get him through the evening.

"Hello?" Garfield called out when he reached the kitchen to the only discernible life coming from the television that someone had left on. He pulled out the filtered water from the fridge and waterfalled it into his mouth, quenching a thirst that grew stronger with each swill. Across the common-room on the other side of the glass, the strange dancing of a lone ember caught his eye and with an instinctual adjustment to his vision, he made out the vague silhouette of a horizontal figure smoking a cigarette.

Roy lay alone on the balcony, his back against the long bench near the idle firepit. He took long drags and released even longer clouds of tobacco smoke that mingled with his hot breath in the cold night air. He was drawing vague smoke spirals with the burning end of his cigarette when Garfield slid open the glass door and lingered in the threshold, with two beer cans caught between his fingers.

"Sup' Rocky," Roy murmured between drags, noting the dark green marks where Gar's boxing wraps bit into his skin. "How's the other guy lookin'?"

Gar stepped outside and shut the door behind him. "Like a heavy sack of sand, my guy," he held out a can for Roy, who briefly hesitated before taking it with thanks.

"I thought you didn't like my piss water beer," Roy mumbled with the cigarette between his lips as he sat back up and opened the can.

"Figured you'd want to celebrate the mission, and I couldn't let you do that alone."

"What's there to celebrate? The League stole it out from under us when it graduated to a big boy investigation."

"You're the one who uncovered the ties to Kobra, so either way, you should be stoked. And also saved my ass from two lungs full of nighty-night gas. So, thanks for that," Gar held out his beer can, and Roy gave him a muffled grin and clinked his own against it.

"I could have done without the interrogation for Boy Wonder," Roy said, crushing the end of his cigarette against his boot. The smell stung Gar's sensitive olfactory glands, but he knew better than to give Roy shit after catching the way his face hardened when Canary kept asking where Robin was during the briefing.

"It's surprising to see us little tykes saving the day without Dear Leader," Garfield grinned, working to lighten Roy's mood. "Maybe they're just worried Rob's gone A-Wall over the new Boy Wonder."

"Hardly. From what I hear he's a little street rat. Hardly sidekick material."

"Yeah?"

Roy looked over at him with animated eyes. "Kid tried to lift the rims from the Batmobile when they met."

Garfield released a sharp laugh, "That's awesome."

"Aren't you cold, man?"

Garfield looked down at his bare chest, suddenly remembering his shirt crumpled somewhere in the kitchen. He shook his head and lightly poked at his bicep, "Perks of unstable DNA, instinctual adaptation. In the cold, I run hot."

Roy nodded with impressed approval before turning his attention inside, where life had suddenly emerged from the hallway. Gar turned his head enough to spot Raven, scowling classically while Kori stalked behind her with what looked like fabric dangling between her hands. Karen followed, appearing amused by Raven's animosity.

"So, where'd that end up?" Roy asked vaguely, but Gar knew where Roy was headed. "Couldn't keep up if I wanted to, honestly."

Garfield chuckled, "You and me both."

"These Titan chicks man, they know how to fuck with us, huh?"

"Roy, I gotta level with you, dude. It's really not gonna happen for you with Kori."

"Oh, I know," Roy smirked, crushing the can between his palms. Garfield eyed him strangely before catching his grin.

"You do? Because it seems like–"

"Don't get me wrong; the things I do to get her in bed are inexcusable. Seriously. Deplorable. You know what I mean, you've seen her ass," Roy laughed at Gar's uncomfortable grimace. Sure, one would have to be blind not to want to fuck Koriand'r from time to time, but since she and Dick got together, her status as off-limits molded her into more of a sister than anything else. To think of her that way now seemed too unnatural, but he understood that Roy shared no such familial feelings. "I mean, look at her! How can one wear so little and still leave so much to imagination?" Gar reluctantly turned his head again and sympathized with Roy's frustration.

Though long-sleeved and high-necked, the alien's skin-tight mini dress hugged her ass way too lovingly. Gar couldn't help but think how territorial Dick get to see her in that. But his eyes were easily pulled by Raven, who, now under the kitchen lights, realized donned comically large hair rollers. A smile found his lips as he watched her storm from the kitchen into the hallway, Karen and Kori close on her heels.

"Anyway," Roy's deflated voice suddenly weighed heavily in his ears, as if something terrible occurred to him, "I just know what it's like when the person you love leaves you without really explaining why. And how small it makes you feel. So guess I'm just trying to make her feel...less small."

Gar offered a tight-lipped, sympathetic smile.

"I mean, I still want to fuck her, but my expectations are low."

"Yeah," Garfield sighed, "probably for the best, bud."

"And you?" Roy asked a playful grin on his lips. "You gonna sell your soul to the unholy daughter?"

A spiteful laugh fell from his lips, "Tell me you don't say that shit to her."

"Of course not, I enjoy being alive."

"Good."

"Look, normally, I'd advise you to run for the hills, go out into the night and find yourself an eager fangirl with which to fuck the pain away," Roy paused, evidently struggling to finish his thought. Then, abruptly, he stood and walked away.

"But?" Garfield shouted, quickly following Roy inside.

"Oh, I just talked myself into going out. You down?"

"What?"

"Come on, Logan, it'll be good for you to get around some girls who'd gladly suck off the greenest Titan."

Garfield laughed, letting Roy turn the corner without him as he crossed the kitchen to fill his Nalgene with water. He paused when he heard Roy's faint but nervous laughter.

"Ha, oops. Sorry Rave."

*Author's Note*

I'll be doing some small edits on previous chapters that will involve combining them, so with the next update (which will be soon I promise!) the chapter count will be smaller. Thank y'all for reading ilysm