Halfway through furiously drafting, second-drafting this and phone-final-editing this back in May, I realized participating in this Week was the first time I've written on a deadline since I was nine years old.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

Day 1: Meet the Family

Chapter summary: Meeting the newest addition to the Titan family leads Raven to experience some unexpected feelings about motherhood.

"She's perfect," said Raven, looking down at baby Mar'i asleep in the bed between her and Kori. "I know it's a cliché but… it's true."

"I don't get tired of looking at her," responded Kori, also staring at Mar'i with a tired smile. "Thanks for making her sleep."

Raven shook her head with her eyes still stuck to the baby. "I'm glad I can take one thing off your shoulders."

The newborn baby was the picture of peace. It was hard to believe that when Raven and Victor had arrived, Mar'i had been crying her head off, the new parents taking turns walking her through the apartment in a frenzy.

Raven and Vic had looked at the chaos, then at each other, and taken charge of the situation. Now Mar'i lay asleep and Vic was in the kitchen making a much needed late breakfast for Dick and Kori. The only remaining force of chaos was Dick, who was zooming by completing random household tasks in a disorganized fashion.

"Honey," Kori called out when he happened to steer close enough to them. "Come sit down. You have to slow down when she lets us, remember?"

"Right." Dick slowed down with effort and joined them, laying at the foot of the bed. Kori laced her fingers through his, and it was like a switch went off in him. Raven could tell he was now drawing full breaths again. Kori smiled when she recognized it too, and turned back to her baby.

"To think I've always wanted to be a mother," she mused. "It's odd to think it finally happened."

"You've always known that?" Raven asked, and Kori nodded. "I never saw myself having children. Still don't." She said it because she had realized it at that moment, and then wondered if that was insulting, seeing as she was looking down on her friend's baby as she said that.

But Kori was Kori. She didn't take offense. "You've never had baby fever?" she wanted to know.

"No," chuckled Raven, and left it at that to not put her foot in her mouth any further.

But the truth was, part of her still doubted the so-called baby fever was even real. Seeing a baby awoke a primal urge to take care of it, sure—humans were designed that way. It was so parents wouldn't abandon their babies for being so needy; it was so the human species wouldn't die out. Anything beyond that, though, Raven was skeptic towards. Maybe it was because she held such tight control on her emotions, things like that didn't make it through her primary filters. Or maybe the fever was a myth.

"I'm just fine being an auntie," Raven chose to say, smiling down at Mar'i.

Suddenly Dick sat up and cleared his throat. "Raven, is Gar coming now?"

"Yeah, just after the table read," Raven confirmed.

"Um, when he comes, can you keep him from trying to pick Mar'i up?"

Raven finally ripped her eyes from Mar'i to look at her friend in surprise. Dick at least had the decency look sheepish. Normally he'd at least be more eloquent about it, thought Raven; exhaustion had made him callous. Kori shook her head smiling, in a way Raven could tell they had talked about this beforehand, and hadn't reached an agreement. "Excuse me? Why?"

"It's not personal, alright? I'm just trying to keep my new baby from being dropped."

"What?" Raven couldn't help feel immediately defensive of her boyfriend of two years, and made no effort to hide it. "Why do you think he's gonna drop her? I was much more likely to drop her."

"Nope, you've taken care of kids before," Victor's voice joined the discussion from the kitchen. "They're fine to this day. No evidence of a long-buried head trauma you conveniently forgot to tell us about."

"I'm trying to protect my child here, Raven," Dick pleaded, more frenzied the more he saw Raven's frown didn't ease.

"Gar seemed so eager to visit, too," Vic's voice commented airily. "He looked particularly excited today. Flippant. Butter-fingered."

Raven called out, "Thanks, Vic. Don't help."

Kori calmly said, "If Mar'i was dropped, she would simply fly."

"That's right, can't Tamaraneans fly from birth?" asked Raven.

"She's half Tamaranean," Dick pointed out, at the same time Kori laughed, "He hasn't allowed me to see if she can fly or not."

"Of course not!" Dick cried at his wife, who smiled so warmly at him in return that his face slackened, and he gave her a kiss as if to apologize for being a raw nerve.

He looked so pitiful, Raven couldn't help but want to be diplomatic. "Well… with any luck Mar'i will stay asleep through Gar's visit."

However, there was no such luck. In the next hour, Mar'i began to fuss, then move her little feet, and open her eyes at turns, and she was well awake by the time Gar let himself through the door, bellowing, "Uncle Gar is here!"

"Shh!" Dick admonished, having materialized at the door next to him.

Gar's ears dropped. "Is she asleep?" he asked, now in a whisper.

"No, but she just was," Dick said, his tone plainly regretting that she wasn't still asleep.

Gar perked up and scanned the apartment for his niece. His eyes brightened when he located Raven –it was a thing she always noticed happened when he saw her again after a while of being apart, and it was one of her favorite things in the whole cruel world-, and he made a beeline for the bed, laying a kiss on his girlfriend's temple before he turned his attention to the baby, wherein his eyes widened and he gasped.

"Whoa, Kori… she's so beautiful. And so tiny."

And then the thing Dick feared so dearly happened in a split second. Dick was leaning against the opposite wall, half asleep on his feet, when Gar asked, "Can I pick her up?" and Kori nodded.

One green hand went under her head, another scooped the rest of her body, and Gar delicately lifted Mar'i on a seamless journey to his chest, wherein she laid her head, perfectly comforted and safe.

Dick had been halfway across the room. Gar turned just in time to see him stop cold inches away from him, and cocked his head at the spatial disorientation of his friend being four feet closer than where he thought he was.

Dick had stopped cold because Gar had turned, and the sight of him holding Mar'i was so undeniably peaceful that his sleep-deprived mind could now scarcely remember what he was scared about. He let out a mystified, "Oh," and straightened.

Victor came out of the kitchen with the last batch of pancakes, most of which would be for Gar. "See, told you he wasn't gonna drop her."

"You thought I was gonna drop her?" Gar demanded.

Kori laughed at the scene and looked at Raven, but her smile fell when she saw her friend's face.

Raven was staring at wide-eyed at nothing, face flushed red. Kori called, "Raven?", and when the room's attention inevitably turned on her, Raven went redder, covered her mouth, and coughed into it to cover it up. Kori patted her back, and Raven could feel her boyfriend's concerned gaze on her.

Raven had never wanted children. It had never entered her mind before in any shape or form. But all it had taken was Gar holding Mar'i like that for her to be hit upside the head with a deep, irrational longing.

Maybe she wanted kids. Maybe she wanted one right now. The certainty split her brain in two: on the one hand, she knew her new feeling was as unreasonable as it was sudden; on the other, she was sure she needed to have a baby right this moment, with that exact guy. Goddamn it. The stupid fever was real.

"I'm fine," she said as Dick brought her a glass of water. She was still avoiding Gar's eyes.

If you concentrated hard enough, you might hear a clock ticking.

As you may know, the 'Raven and motherhood' area of fanfic is divided in two camps: an angstier take that takes into account how Raven's demonic genetics and traumatic upbringing would inevitably cause a really complicated relationship with anything surrounding babies, and a lighter, fluffier approach that just does its thing while handwaving the heavy stuff away. This oneshot lives in the fluffier territory.

Also, this is legitimately all based off this tiktok: / lBTURDMEn1M?t=90 (minute 1:30 if the link doesn't work)

I kinda stretched this prompt thin, mainly because there was a runner-up prompt 'future' that I was sure was gonna make it and I didn't realize it hadn't until after I was attached to this idea :| but hey, at least it keeps with the family theme!

(Next two chapters coming out in the next two days!)