Coughcoughcough remind me not to put off my serious stories in favor of romance. Ah well, it is hallmark's favorite day, so I wrote this instead of Shreya.
All characters copyright their respective owners. Plot elements created by author unless otherwise specified.
"Titans are arriving as we speak! I want no mistakes, nobody offended. That means you Beast Boy." Robin was pacing. He had never had this many Titans in one place for an extended period of time, and with the different situations going on chaos was inevitable.
"Robbie, sit down, I'm getting dizzy just watching you!" Cyborg returned to the gadget he had been working on. Beast Boy gave him a glare, he wasn't about to offend anyone.
First into the room was no surprise, really. Kid Flash was slightly jumpy, when he raced in the first thing out of his mouth was. "Am I late?" This brought confused stares from the entire team assembled. As if he could ever be late. "Right, sorry" he chuckled weakly "I, uh, had coffee today."
"Wait, wait, wait, did I hear that right?" Speedy's voice carried into the room as the Titans East arrived. "The most hyperactive, ADD guy I know is on caffeine? What brought this on?" Kid Flash turned, probably ready with a defense, some long winded explanation to be delivered at top speed, but froze in place at the sight of Speedy, arm draped around Aqualad. The stammering look on his face was enough to send the elder Titans East members into near hysterics.
Robin even bit his lip. "Yeah, about them, that's the first order of business when everyone gets here."
"What do you mean when? Everyone is here Robin" Raven commented, pointing to the rift that The Herald, Argent, Hotspot and Jericho had just stepped out of.
"Er, Right." Robin looked a bit uncomfortable, unsure of how to begin. Lucky for him, Starfire was ready, ushering the newcomers to a large table set with all sorts of snack foods.
"Let us enjoy a meal before we begin to speak of the new relationship and other important matters." Star took her own advice and sat down, pulling Robin into the seat beside her. Speedy took the seat on his other side, followed by Aqualad, Mas and Menos.
Jericho hesitated for a moment before taking the seat beside Raven, who raised an eyebrow but didn't protest. Bee, Herald, Cyborg and Beast Boy settled into their chairs, Argent and Hotspot taking the ends. Kid Flash couldn't sit down, pacing back and forth, grabbing food as he reached it.
That only lasted a minute before Robin grabbed him as he passed. "Wally, why are you drinking coffee?" He demanded, using what was known as 'the voice'. The lightning fast teen squirmed under his gaze. He looked extremely guilty and uncomfortable.
"What happened to that girl you were with, Jinx, was it?" Argent asked, receiving a grateful smile from the accused boy.
"Yeah, I've been up a lot lately" Wally began, only to receive 'oohs' from Beast Boy, Bumblebee, Aqualad and Speedy, even a chuckle from Raven. "Not like that! I've been up late working on Jinx's case. She has jail time pending, and I really don't think she deserves that. She is not going to jail! All she did, she did because she really believed she had no other choice. She's a better person than that!"
"You've got it bad for her, West." Robin commented dryly, as Wally forced himself to sit down.
"You should talk, boy blunder." Bumblebee chuckled, jerking her head to indicate Starfire. "We've been expecting you to propose to her, for all those longing looks. But you never even asked her out! How about we do it for you?" Beast Boy and Cyborg burst into laughter, not even trying to hide it.
"You are mistaken." Starfire commented quietly, earning shocked gasps all around. "We have talked about dating. It was shortly before Beast Boy received his message from the Doom Patrol, and I insisted that it would be best for us to wait for things to reach a calmer time."
Robin rubbed his neck, looking at his feet. "That, uh, whole Trigon incident kinda scared me into it, near death experience and everything."
"No WAY!" Beast Boy shouted, grinning and jumping to his feet to give Robin a pat on the back. "This is awesome! Twenty bucks Cy, twenty bucks!" The changeling was doing a victory dance, apparently there was a bet.
"You guys had a bet on those two and I wasn't notified?" Raven asked, arching a brow.
"You would cheat, Raven. You can read their emotions, and if you had cash on it, you would use the near-sister card to force them together." Cyborg pointed out, although Raven gave a slight growl at the word 'cheat', she nodded, murmuring that alls fair in love and wagers.
"So, what else happened that I missed while the law books attacked me?" Wally piped in, avoiding making a comment on the blushing Robin. This was quite a smart thing to do, because Grayson was not in the best state of mind to take it.
"Well, Roy and Garth decided to bat for the other team, wink-wink" Beast Boy giggled. Raven looked at Jericho to have that translated. A few hand signs later and the green teen found his underpants over his head via a Raven powered wedgie.
"However crudely Garfield put it, it's dead true. Give us a show, boys!" Bumblebee added wickedly. She has been kindly teasing the two of them all day. Roy shot her a look that plainly said 'cut it out,' while Garth shook his head sadly. Beast Boy untangled himself from his undergarments and made a comment about how only the Doom Patrol could use his real name.
"Wait, wait, wait, did I hear that right?" Wally was staring wide eyed. "You-" he indicated to Roy. "And you-" to Garth. "Are dating?" at their nods, a look of anger came over his face. "DAMNIT!" a few heads whipped around. "I owe Jinx fifty bucks now. How the HELL did she see that? I mean, jesus, its not exactly something I would have thought of. And, let me guess, you both skirted around the admission until someone else told you to just get it over with, right?"
"That would have been Karen." Garth said, fighting back his grin.
"HOW DOES SHE BLOODY DO THAT!" Wally shouted, privately cursing the idiotic urge that caused him to bet an additional fifty that they would get together in that manner.
A throat was cleared, and Argent spoke up. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not on first name basis with everyone here."
"How rude of us! Let us dispense with the formalities and use our common names." Starfire added, which made Robin squirm slightly. He still had issues with the secret identity thing. "Koriand'r is my full name, but please just call me Kori."
"This is Roy, and I'm Garth." The atlantean stated, giving a pointed look to the boy wonder. Speak, damn you.
"Victor Stone and I'm sure you know about Garfield here." Cyborg put in, also glancing nervously at his leader.
"Wally West. Oh, are those nachos?" Attention flitting from one topic to another, the speedster was eating anything he could get his hands on.
"Karen Beecher. You already know Isaiah and Mal, right Toni?" Argent nodded.
"Mister grumpy there won't speak his name for fear of Batman swarming down on him. It's Richard, Dick if you want to push his buttons." Raven commented dryly. "I don't have any other name, just Raven Roth."
Jericho squirmed uncomfortably in his seat before signing "Joseph Wilson. Joey please. Every time someone calls me Joseph it makes me think of my father…" He shuddered there, and Raven frowned. Wilson….why was that familiar?
"If you don't mind my asking, your father is who now?" Raven was the only one who could pry about father issues; if anyone else had tried she would have hung them from the tower roof by their tongue.
Joey paled visibly, glancing at Robin about five times before giving a silent sigh. "I am not the same as my father, understand, and I must apologize for his actions. Richard, please restrain yourself, I have no contact with him anymore. When my throat was slit, he saved me and vowed to have nothing more to do with me, that I would be safer that way." He was avoiding the issue, not giving a name. Not looking at any faces, he seemed to want to leave it there for now.
"He sounds most kind though, why are you apologizing for him?" Kori wondered when Raven voiced the words. "If indeed he saved your life, what then could he have done to warrant such a fear of Richard's reaction?" It wasn't as if his father would be coming to cause trouble for them, right?
Raven noticed the signs being made, and took it upon herself to use telepathic communication. 'I can tell you if they will be upset, and if so, I won't tell anyone you don't want to know.'
Joey nodded, mentally transmitting the name. Raven gasped and fell out of her seat. "Dear Azar, Joey, I'm sorry but they do need to know that." She whispered so only he could hear. It was then that Richard began to twitch. Eyes widening beneath the mask, he suddenly darted from the room.
"Uh, what was that?" Toni asked, voicing the question all the honoraries were thinking.
Vic and Gar looked at each other, and began cracking up. "His Slade sense is tingling." They managed between gasps for air. It had been a private joke that could stay private no longer. "When ever something seriously odd happens, his mind jumps to Slade, and he runs off to check for reports."
"He gets it from Bruce, this obsession thing." Roy added, less amused. "So does his Slade sense ever work?"
"It did this time." Raven said flatly. "We finally have a last name to old one eyed and creepy. I would never have thought it, looking at you, Joey."
Karen felt the tension level in the room rising. "Kori, how about you go find Dick and let him know, he won't give up unless someone distracts him." She knew that Kori would be the perfect distraction, and maybe he would return in a better mood.
The Tamaranean nodded, and floated out of the room. The room was oddly silent, especially considering how many Titans were there. "…wow" Garfield whispered, no other words coming.
"Ok, just to get things straight, Roy and Garth are dating." Wally was having a great deal of trouble coming to accept that fact. "And thus I owe Jinx a hundred dollars. This has to be a scheme; she put you up to this, right? Just because of that singing valentine joke I made."
Roy grinned; he would have to find out about said valentine joke later. But for now, well. As if the two chairs weren't already close enough, the archer was bold enough to tug the smaller boy onto his lap, to only mild protests. "Not a joke toes. You have one sharp girlfriend. How long ago was this bet placed anyways?"
"Right before the Brotherhood fight…" Wally reluctantly admitted.
"Don't call her his girlfriend though." Raven smirked. "He's her pet."
"Hey, now! That isn't true!" Laughter filled the room, and it wasn't long before Wally threw a sandwich at a cackling Garfield. When Dick and Kori returned to the kitchen, a massive food fight has begun, Raven and Joey sitting under a dome of dark energy, to keep themselves clean. Roy was using carrot sticks like arrows, fending against the grapes Vic had loaded into his cannon. A glob of potato salad hit Dick in the face. The mayonnaise soaked hero turned with an angry glare and seized a soda can, shaking it to prepare to join the battle.
"Joey, remind me next time to just endure the boys making out." Raven groaned, half serious.
"Aww, but they're having so much fun!" The mute boy signed, giving a silent chuckle as he saw Karen get knocked out of the air by a glob of tofu shot out the trunk of a green elephant.
"Well I'm not cleaning it up."
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