A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. I've got a good chapter for you. Hopefully, I'll get another chapter up before I have to go back to school...if I don't, I'll get it up next holiday. But I'm going to try as hard as I can to get one more chapter up before I return to the real world.
Disclaimer: see previous.
Ch. 6
A Little Bonding Through Cookies and Tea
Due to the fact that there were only two guestrooms in the Grayson house, the kids had been given roommates according to their age and gender. This was unsettling for some of the older children, but no one entirely objected to their arrangements. Well, to their parents, at least.
"I can't believe they roomed me with her," Aaralyn murmured as she showed Thorn to her room.
"Believe me, Princess, I'm not thrilled about staying with you, either," Thorn snapped as she walked past her into the room. Aaralyn turned a light shade of red and closed the door.
"I didn't mean for you to hear that," she apologized, though she didn't look sorry at all.
"It doesn't matter. Where should I put this?" Thorn asked, motioning to her bag.
"There is good. Is the futon okay for you to sleep on?"
"It's fine," she replied quietly, sitting down on the plush blue futon. "It's not like I'll be doing much sleeping."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing."
"Thorn, can I ask you something?"
"You just did."
"Well...wait," Aaralyn paused for a moment, then shook off the comment and continued. "Anyway, why do you hate me?"
Thorn didn't move her eyes from the floor. "I don't."
"Oh, bullshit! I know you hate me. You hate my guts, and I don't care, you can, but I just want to know why. I mean was it something I said or did?"
"I don't hate you. I don't like you but I don't hate you."
"I don't believe you. What did I do? Is this about Pru?" she blurted out. Thorn flinched at the mention of the girl's name. "Thorn, I swear I didn't start that rumor! That was Kathryn and Laura."
"It has nothing to do with Pru."
"Yes it does, I can see it in your face."
"You'd look the same way if someone you hardly knew started discussing your dead best friend."
"Thorn, I'm sorry. I just–"
"A bit of advice, stay away from the subject," Thorn snapped coldly.
Aaralyn nodded. There was a long silence between them. After three or four minutes, Thorn pulled on her sweater and opened the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Outside. Is that okay?" she asked, although she was going despite the answer. Aaralyn nodded again and Thorn walked out. When the door closed, Aaralyn sighed and collapsed on her bed.
Matt pushed open a large wooden hatch in the ceiling. Damon gave him an odd look as he pulled down a rope ladder.
"Your room is in the attic?"
"Yeah. Why?"
He put his bag on the floor. "No reason, just never knew anyone who lived in an attic, that's all," he replied as he started up the ladder. At the top, he discovered it was wide and cool, completely unlike what he had expected. There was a couch at the foot of the bed and a mattress on the floor. Chris darted past him and collapsed on the couch. Damon's bag shot through the opening in the floor and landed right next to his feet. Matt's head became visible a moment later. He rolled up the ladder and pulled the hatch shut. "Nice room," Damon said approvingly.
"Glad you're comfortable," Matt said, smiling. Then, he shot a glare at Chris. "You, however...lift up that board one time and I don't care what dad says, you're sleeping downstairs."
"What board?" Damon asked, sitting down on the mattress and placing his bag beside his feet.
"There is a board that opens up into my sister's room," Chris replied.
"And it's staying shut," Matt warned. "This is so unfair, you have your own room."
"And Coach has 2 daughters. They need my room. I mean, you don't want me down there with them, do you? Think of the things that could happen."
"All right, Chris, can it."
"Hey, does this window open?" Damon asked, gesturing to a frost-tinged window above Matt's bedside table. Matt nodded.
"Sometimes. Why?" he asked; Damon shrugged.
"I dunno. Just wondering. Where does it go?"
"What do you mean 'where does it go'? It goes outside to the roof."
"Alright, dude, no need to snap!" Damon said quickly.
"Sorry," Matt said apologetically, "I didn't mean to...umm...what's your name again? I know you're Thorn's brother, but–"
"Damon."
"That's it."
"Man, your sis is a freak, huh?" Chris said suddenly, sitting up straight on the couch. "And, like, not in the good way. That chick is scary."
"Nah," Damon replied casually. "You just gotta get to know her. She doesn't mean half the stuff she says."
"I don't know, man. She seemed to mean what she told me."
Matt had to laugh, "Chris, please–"
"Hey! She threatened to turn me into a six-year-old girl and threw me into a pile of snow!"
"Chris, I watched her, she didn't touch you! She was nowhere near you, so she couldn't have thrown you in the snow. You're just dead clumsy. And as for the threat, well, it's about time someone did," Matt snapped. "You need to stop being such a perv."
"You need to stop being such a woman," Chris shot back. "It's no wonder you don't have a girl."
"Guys!" Damon jumped in, not wanting to see a fight at that particular moment between the two, who seemed equally matched. Matt was strong and Chris was quick; a battle like that would make for a lot of trouble, especially in an attic. However, Damon had no effect on the scene.
"You know what I think?" Chris said tauntingly. "I think you like that little weirdo." Matt's eyes widened and his face reddened; he swung at Chris. Chris dodged the swipe with inhuman ease. "Oh, defensive."
"Shut up, Chris!" Matt snarled, tossing a baseball at Chris's head. Chris dodged the ball just as easily as before; when he did, the ball struck the wall and fell to the floor, leaving a depression where it had hit. Chris glanced at it in amusement.
"Oh, look at that. Another dent in the wall to cover up!"
"You guys, cool it!" Damon exclaimed, now sincerely frightened of both Matt and Chris. They glared at him for a minute and then each other again before Matt kicked the hatch that led to the hall open and threw the ladder down.
"Sorry, Damon. Chris, if you ever do a single intelligent thing in your life, let this be it: Don't follow me!" he yelled and climbed down the ladder. He vanished beneath the floor. Seconds later, the hatch slammed shut and the ladder flew up with it and landed on top of the hatch in a heap.
"See, Damon. He's too emotional to be a guy, am I right?" Chris mused, turning to Damon, who seemed completely shaken. "Ah, don't worry, he's potentially harmless."
"Yeah to you. You can dodge everything he throws at you."
"Well, not everything. Sometimes, he catches me off guard. Trust me, that shit hurts."
"How'd he get that strong?"
"Born that way. Watch," Chris said, digging under the couch. He dragged out a cardboard box and shuffled through various papers until he reached a dusty old photo album. He blew off the dust and flipped open the cover. Damon crawled on the bed and looked over Chris's shoulder. He flicked through several pages then stopped and pointed to a fading picture. In it, a newborn baby boy was hoisting an extremely shocked grown man over him by the man's finger. It was one of the most bizarre things Damon could ever recall seeing, and he had grown up with Thorn. Chris closed the album quickly, stuffed it back in the box, and kicked the box under the bed.
"You can't tell anyone I showed you that, deal?" Chris asked. Damon nodded. "Good."
"Hey, what about you?"
"What about me?"
"How'd you get so fast?"
"Oh, same thing. Born that way. Man, my whole family's like this, which is totally weird 'cause our parents can't do anything we can."
"You mean everybody's like the two of you?" he asked, almost laughing at the thought of little Zoe lifting a grown man over her head.
"No. Well, kinda. Like, I'm really fast and Matt's like impossibly strong, right? My little sister Andy can control liquids, like she can move water from one glass to another glass without touching either of the glasses. And Dustin can set his hand on fire by snapping his fingers."
Damon stared at him, dumbfounded, not sure whether to believe him or call him crazy. A normal person would have taken on immediate disbelief. However, considering what he had grown up with, none of it was sounding completely unlikely. "So, you guys, have extraordinary powers and stuff?"
"I know you probably think I'm nuts but–"
"Actually, I believe you."
"Really? Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because...my family's just like that. But before I say anything else, you gotta swear you won't tell anybody!"
Chris put his hand over his heart. "You have my word."
Damon took a deep breath. Chris stared at him intently. "All right...um...I can like shape-shift into different animals and objects like a vase or a pillow. And...um...crap, I can't say 'cuz Theo would kill me if I told you."
"She won't find out."
"Yes she will, she always does. No one has to tell her, she just knows," he said, as an answer to Chris's questioning glance. Damon dropped his voice to a whisper, "Let's just say that, if she tried hard enough, Thorn could have you believing you are a six year old girl for a good 8 hours."
"I KNEW IT!"
"Dude, shut up!"
"Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Just don't say a word all right?"
"As if I would tell. Please," Chris replied. Damon sniffed the air abruptly.
"Do you smell cookies?" Damon asked. Chris shook his head, then nodded frantically.
"Race you down!" he said kicking the hatch open.
"You're on!" Damon replied, scaling down the rope ladder as fast as he could. Chris pushed the hatch closed and the two darted down the stairs.
Matt slammed the front door closed with his foot as he pulled his coat on. He hopped off the porch and trudged through the snow to the back yard. Sitting on the swing at the far end of the yard was Thorn. She had her sweater pulled tightly closed around her and a steaming mug in her hands; she was staring up, completely absorbed by the moonlit sky. He walked behind the swing and said, "You know the aliens won't come and get you if you act too eager."
She looked at him in vague surprise. He sat down beside her on the swing. "What are you doing out here?" he asked.
"Thinking," she replied simply and stared back at the moon.
"About what?"
"Doesn't matter," she murmured. "What are you doing out here?"
"Getting away."
"From what?"
"My problems."
"Wow."
"What?" he asked, gazing at her expectantly. She didn't face him; she continued to stare straight ahead as the wind whipped her bangs around her face.
"Nothing. You just don't seem like the type to have problems. You're popular, you're smart, and you could have any girl you want in a minute. Life doesn't get much better."
"It'd seem so, but that's not the way it is. I hate being popular and having so many girls drooling over you isn't as appealing as it sounds. It's kind of annoying, actually. But that's not real life. That's just school. It's at home where my problems start."
"Well, I guess I can kind of relate," Thorn replied. Matt gazed at her. She was so honest...so real. And the way the moon lit her face made her look almost–
"Beautiful, don't you think?" she asked abruptly. He jumped and looked away nervously.
"What?"
"The moon."
"Oh, oh yeah. Yeah. Beautiful," he replied, not even glancing at the moon. "What are you drinking?" he asked, grasping for anything to change the subject.
"Herbal tea."
"Herbal tea?"
"Yeah."
"That's...um..."
"Unusual?" Thorn asked, finally turning to look at him. "I know. My mother likes it, and I guess I got a taste for it from her."
Damon slid through the kitchen door just as Chris entered through the stairway. They shared a knowing nod and raced over to the counter where Cyborg had just laid out a sheet of freshly baked cookies. Chris reached for one and Robin slapped his hand with a spatula. He recoiled quickly.
"These are for Santa," Robin said, moving the cookies from the pan to a ornately decorated plate. Chris scowled.
"I'm sure Santa won't mind if I have just one cookie."
"I'm sure he will, seeing as he has to share them with his elves this year," he replied, gesturing to the other Titans. "If you want a cookie, you can get one from the counter. And when you're done call everybody else in to get one."
Chris picked up a cookie and bellowed, "IF YOU WANT A COOKIE, REPORT TO THE KITCHEN IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE GROWNUPS EAT THEM ALL!"
Eight heads bounced into the kitchen and attacked the cookie sheet. Raven's eyes scanned the room. "Damon, where's your sister?"
"Huh? Pip's right there, Mom."
"No, Thorn."
"Oh," he said softly and looked around. "I don't know."
"I'm missing one, too, Rae," Robin said, searching for his son. Chris looked up.
"Oh, Matt's not missing, he went outside," he said casually, "Maybe Thorn went with him."
The Titans exchanged glances and scattered to the window.
"They out there?" Cyborg asked, hovering over the others. Robin nodded.
"What are they doing?" Beast Boy asked, attempting to see what was going on.
"It looks like they're just talking," Raven answered.
"Perhaps we should call them inside?" Starfire asked, eyeing the couple uneasily.
"I think that's a good idea," Robin replied, walking over to the back door. He stuck his head out and called, "Matt, Thorn, come inside."
"Uh-oh. They caught us," Matt chuckled. Thorn gave him a faint smile. They stood up and walked back towards the house.
A/N: Alright, guys, seeing as so many of you have asked, I will answer one question, which is: Will the kids ever find out that their parents are the Teen Titans? The answer is yes. However, I'm not going to tell you how or when, but rest assured knowing that they will find out. Oh and, as always, review and tell me if you liked it. Thanks for being so patient and have a very happy holiday!