Reasons
It was peaceful in the city, which was rare, since there always seemed to be some villain reeking havoc and causing trouble for the Teen Titans. Kale Syger, the newest addition to the team sat comfortably nearby as the others reminisced of old missions, always lingering on the hardest and darkest, smiling over the lessons they had learned because of their actions. Kale really couldn't contribute to the conversation much so he sat and surveyed the Titans. They were laughing at one thing or another, happily enjoying each other company.
It occurred to him that none of them ever spoke openly of their reasons for being heroes. They only ever dropped hints, letting something slip in their haste, or the way they acted when something was said or done. Kale was intelligent enough to put the pieces together and in just the eight months he had lived in Titan's Tower, he had placed those pieces together. Each one of the Titans had their reasons for fighting.
Kale looked to the oldest Titan, Cyborg. He never really spoke of the accident that led to his cybernetic body. It was as if it haunted him. Kale didn't know the exact details but from the hints and clues he had gained, it had something to do with his athletic career. Someone hadn't liked that he had been top choice for certain things instead of someone else. No matter how happy he now seemed, with his friends, and his relationship with the fiery Bumblebee, there was always a tiny bit of sadness in his human eye. Regret that he would never experience normality and stability. He considered himself lucky to be able to prevent tragedies such as his own from happening to others.
His eyes then wandered to Robin, the leader. He never talked about his past, but Kale sensed that the fight against crime and evil was very personal for him. There was something in his past that was so horrible; something he had seen or been a part of that had set him on the path of the masked vigilante. All the world knew that he had been at the side of Batman, defending the streets of Gotham long before he joined the Titans. It was obvious to anyone who took the time to look that he was still haunted by that faraway event. It was people like Slade that Robin despised. Maybe someone like that had been the cause of that gruesome happening locked away in the far reaches of Robin's mind.
Next there was Starfire. The girl had come to earth for reasons known only to her. Her reasons were the easiest to figure. The more she looked around the more she liked what earth had to provide for its people. She found the place wonderful and never wanted anything bad to befall the wonderful things she found here. She had been raised to know right from wrong, and while she seemed naive at times, always stood up for those who could not protect themselves. Always learning new things and fascinated by the earth and it's ways she simply loved the planet and it's people.
Beast Boy seemed to be the hardest to figure out. There were things even he didn't understand. The boy was always cracking jokes and just couldn't live with someone being unhappy. Kale sensed that Beast Boy had one of the most troubled pasts of the group. It wasn't anything as simple as an accident that could have caused his involvement with the Titans. The green changeling seemed to always focus on the present and never on the past. Always a joke on the end of his tongue, a prank on the top of his head, and a smile on his lips. It was hardest to tell what he was thinking, even if his emotions were the easiest to see. He wore his heart on his sleeve but kept his inner thoughts to himself. Something from his troubled past kept him going, something important.
Finally his wandering eyes settled on Raven. His own reason for living. Like him she had come from another dimension, a separate reality from this, to escape something or someone. He knew much about his lover, but still only had the vaguest idea of her reasons. He knew that she had issues with her father, a demon from yet another reality removed from Azerath but even that in itself wasn't enough to prompt her involvement in the super group. That had been a personal problem that she had told him she had needed to deal with, on her own she had thought. It had seemed that even with a demon for a father and her grief over loosing her mother at such a young age, she had encountered something in her youth, a shadow of a future yet to be, or a clear and present danger that set her to find those capable of stopping either or both.
Kale knew his reason for helping in the little ways he could. It was his love of Raven, and the knowledge of just how miserable life can be for those less fortunate, that kept him contributing what he could to their efforts. They all had different reasons, and each, whether to prevent something, or protect someone, kept them going. He guessed that even those they fought against had their own reasons for what they did, and it was those conflicting reasons that kept the Titans busy, even after they passed from being real teens into adulthood, maintaining peace in the city they lived.
Kale watched as the sun set over the sea. The Titans were yawning and began making ready for bed. Raven sat closer to him and placed her head on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" she asked curious of his silence throughout the afternoon.
"Just thinking," he said, not wanting to ruin the day with his somewhat melancholy thoughts.
"About what?" she persisted.
"About reasons," he said cryptically. She smiled and, somehow sensing that he didn't want to talk about it, merely sat in companionable silence with him. Soon they rose from the sofa and trudged to their respective bedrooms. They shared a short kiss before parting. Kale smiled and thought happily, he knew his reasons for fighting and whatever reasons the others had, they were just as good as his and maybe someday they would share with each other. But for now it was enough that they had reasons.
A/N: This is just a little something that hit me out of the blue. I decided to throw this out there to let you guys know that I'm still around and that I'll soon be starting work on the sequel to "Flowers Before Dawn". It will be titled "Grace" and it will focus on an entirely different character. I'm going to finish my Harry Potter fic before I place it online, but you can rest assured I will be working on it all the while.
Ciao!