April. A very successful and romantic camping trip p.4

They were pushed further inside the cave and finally thrown into locking cells, a hole on the wall where a force field came up to keep them in.

Dick breathed deeply and tried to calm himself down enough to face his friends.

"Okay. Alright," he began. "Civilians get caught in the crossfire of supervillains all the time. We're gonna be fine."

"Except we got caught because we were meddling," Vic pointed out.

"The Titans won't know that," Dick said, scathingly. "So it's fine." He looked out through the force field. "And if the Titans don't come, then it's gonna be Transmuto. And if not, it's gonna be Blackwolf. Or Gaia. Or Inferno and Glacier."

It was hard to stay angry, or scared or brave, for the whole duration of their time in the locking cell. They didn't know how many hours they spent trapped. Outside it must have been nighttime, but the lit laboratory was timeless as a spaceship. Dick hardly spent a second of that time sitting down. He tried the energy field at all its corners, went through the whole perimeter of the cell, tried to find a weak spot. He tried hitting everything with the hammer he'd brought. He tried to make something happen with his flashlight and his magnifying glass, in case fire did something to the force field. And he would have gone through every tool on his makeshift belt, if the others hadn't told him to stop.

Finally, a guard let them out. They were cuffed and taken back to the main area. The insects in the tanks looked different: they were skittering, looked ready to leave the tanks.

Gar began to wonder how it would feel like to be eaten.

And then one of the machines exploded.

Out of the sparks, Fimm materialized, hawking out a "Woo-hoo!"

And then the rest of the Titans were upon them.

For the next few minutes, Gar felt like he was inside a video game. He didn't know where to look.

Over here was Lux Piper, her nano-tech full-body armor taking hits and rearranging itself, as its owner fired sonic shots at minions with deadly precision.

Over there, Fimm dodged his opponents with a smirk, zapping through the battlefield as a spark, going inside machines and making them explode, then taking out minions in human form, his lithe body jumping around—he zapped some, kicked others, and even pantsed one.

Lodestar fought from the sky, delivering his signature air blows. In another part of the battle field, Chameleon was cloning herself, disappearing and reappearing, confusing minions into attacking each other. And Kismet! To see her fighting was a privilege; her clairvoyance made it seem like the battle was just a choreographed dance stilted entirely in her favor; the foes were just rag dolls to her precise strikes.

It was over before Gar could decide who to devote his attention to.

The guards who'd been knocked out laid on the ground; those awake, plus the Mad Scientist Guy, were safely secured after Lodestar morphed the cave walls into stone restraints.

Fimm approached the creatures. "That is sick and wrong," he said, sadly stroking the glass. "I can't bear to look at them." He turned back to his team. "I say lemme eat them."

"Fimm!" Chameleon cried. She was so appalled her blondehair turned pale blue.

"That is not an option," Kismet said, quietly but decisively.

Lux Piper had receded her armor into her wrist guard, and had moved to the control panel, from where she cried, "GUYS! These things are gonna hatch now!"

Lodestar flew down to her. "What? You sure?"

"We have twenty seconds to decide what we're gonna do with them!" Lux confirmed.

As if on cue, the creatures stirred.

"Lodestar, Fimm, take those kids away from here!" Kismet hadn't even looked at the five; Dick had been sure the Titans hadn't noticed them. He should have known better.

As soon as the order was out, her two called-upon teammates moved.

Gar felt himself rise off the ground, at the same time as Kori and Vic and Lodestar himself. He looked down; they were on a sort of invisible platform, a foot from the ground. So this is what it felt like to be near Lodestar's hard air thingy.

They flew through the air—out the cave, over the woods and onto high ground. He felt as if inside a bottle, like the air around him was a comfortable but inescapable suit. The suit dissolved when they got to the hill.

As they touched ground, he saw a jumping spark next to him become Fimm and Dick and Raven. Both of his friends fell to the ground on arrival, dizzy. Fimm laughed at them, which was his usual response.

But he stopped laughing, and leaned down to be face to face with Raven on the ground. Gar thought he was going to help her up, but he just stared. He fixed his gaze on her –inhumanly amber eyes on a rich ochre face- and said, "What are you?", like he'd never seen a girl before, and she could only gape in response.

Lodestar was already at the edge of the hill. He looked at Fimm over his shoulder and told him, "Fimm! Come on."

He flew back to the battlefield, and Fimm followed suit, sparking away without another word.

The five couldn't see the cave from here, or the lake, let alone Vic's car. They were miles away from where they had set camp. The Titans had meant to get them as far from danger as possible, but now they would spend a while trekking back to their stuff.

They looked at each other, feeling the whiplash from being swept aside from the fight so suddenly. Dick suggested they got moving, and they did. None of them saw the point in staying to find out what the Titans did with the creatures. They knew the team would win, and that had nothing to do with them. This had never been their mission.

They walked in near silence. At some point while they trekked through the forest, the Titans' ship flew away, presumably to the police station and then back to their Tower. The five arrived to their campsite in the dead of night, exhausted, filthy and cranky. Both the tents were still thankfully up, although squirrels were attacking Kori's bag. Gar didn't stop to coo at them; that was how tired they were.

Dick had taken off his makeshift belt in the way. He shoved it in his bag as soon as they made it to camp.

As Vic made towards the car, Raven said, "You shouldn't be driving now. Don't you want to rest a-"

"No," he cut her off. "I just want to get home."

Raven didn't argue further, and neither did anyone, because they were all starving.

They clambered into the car.

They drove in silence a few miles until Vic said, "Hey, Gar. It was your turn with the aux cord."

Gar got off a stupor. "Oh. Uh… actually, I kinda just want to sleep."

"So I am next!" exploded Kori, with a suddenness that showed she'd already worked out the succession and had been waiting for the chance. She quickly connected her phone, and they were treated to a mix of bubbly pop.

Gar stared out the window, letting his thoughts catch up with life for the first time in several hours. When they were in the cell, the thought had passed through his head that at least the very last thing he'd done in life was kiss a cute girl a couple of times. Now they had survived, he kind of wished he'd ended up as hatchling feed, rather than deal with the aftermath of what he'd done.

Who was that guy who'd kissed Raven back in the woods? Who'd been that girl, for that matter? Back there, for a while, it had been like all the planets had aligned, and kissing her had seemed like the best thing—the only possible thing to do, and now he couldn't remember why. Now, Raven was looking out her window, not taking to anyone and looking vaguely disgruntled, and it was like the real world had settled back in.

For a while, after he and Raven got back to the others, he'd felt so good. He'd felt like he was walking on air. Like his life had just gotten to the movie ending—kissing her had been the natural closure of an amazing year, the year where he'd found friends, and now he's gotten the girl too.

Then Dick had said what he'd said. That was when Gar began to realize he'd made a big mistake. Now he was actively panicking.

There was no way to sugar-coat it: he regretted it. In a big part because he could keenly feel she regretted it, too.

Vic had gotten in his head with all the talk of the romance of camping trips—that had to be it. He hadn't meant to kiss his friend; it was all wrong, they both knew it. They were as different as two people could be. What would dating her even look like? What would they do? What would they talk about? They were so different, he'd never thought of her in that way—right up until the moment he realized he kind of did.

While Gar internally panicked, Kori gushed about the Titans, and how exciting it had been to see them fighting up close, and how lucky the city was to have the team. She was very transparently trying to rescue the good parts of the evening. To pretend like the real heroes sweeping in to do their actual job hadn't made them all face their own arrogance, their own shortcomings.

She was the only one with any spirit in the ride back. On the front seat, Victor and Dick were ignoring each other.

Gar felt bad for Kori. Dick and Victor were in a fight she didn't understand, and as far as she knew, he and Raven were ignoring her for no reason. She probably thought they were all down about the Titans thing, so she kept talking, and occasionally sang to the songs—whatever it took to fill the silence. Gar, who would usually be trying to bring up the morale along with her, just didn't have the energy to rise up.

"Sorry, Kori, I'm too tired," Gar told her at one point, when the song she was singing along to ended and he'd noticed she sounded tired at the end of it.

"Yeah, we're all tired, Kori," echoed Dick. To Gar's ears he sounded relieved somebody had said something.

Raven stayed silent.

The sky was clearing by the time they got to Dick's house. Soon the sun would come out.

Dick unlocked the back door for them and entered through the kitchen. Kori saw Vic lock his car and power-walk after Dick, so she wisely went straight to the bathroom when she entered the house.

In Dick's kitchen, Victor sunk his hands in his pockets, and pulled out one of Kori's candies from before. He approached Dick. "Do you want a green tea candy?"

Dick had opened the fridge aimlessly –he knew there was nothing in there he would like- and now closed it. "Um," he went. He didn't really feel like it. He felt mentally hungover with crashed excitement and bad decisions, and he was hungry for a meal, not candy. But he felt like refusing it was to deny an offer of friendship, so he took it. "Sure. Thanks."

Vic sighed. "Look, man, I never told you this, but… When we first met, when I was trying to join the Club, the way you treated me was really important to me."

Dick looked at him searchingly. "What do you mean? I treated you badly. I tried really hard to kick you out."

"Exactly!" cried Vic. "You didn't care who I was or what had happened to me. You just wanted me the hell out of your Club. You were the first person who didn't treat me with silk gloves after my accident. And you kinda set the bar for those other guys." He gestured vaguely outside the house, then folded his hands together. "That clubroom was the first place where I didn't constantly think about what happened to me. It became like a haven." He shook his head. "What I'm getting at is, I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable in your own group of friends. I'll stay out of your business. I promise."

Dick moved the candy around inside his mouth as he listened. Either the sugar was acting on him, or Vic was being really heartwarming. "Thanks, Victor. Really. And for the record, thanks for trying so hard to do something nice for me. I know your heart was in the right place."

Vic nodded solemnly, and clasped his shoulder. Dick smiled, but then moved the candy too near his throat and he choked.

Victor laughed and hacked him in the back. "You okay there?"

"Too many feelings," Dick choked out, with tears in his eyes, and they both laughed as the tender moment got away from them.

Gar didn't have to try too hard to catch Raven alone. When Dick and Victor entered the house, Gar just lingered by the porch and waited. Raven caught his eye and slowed down, letting Kori get ahead and enter the house.

It was the first time they faced each other after… the incident, and Gar found himself remembering how she felt wrapped up in his arms, precisely because he was telling himself not to think about it. He dropped his eyes and balanced on the balls of his feet.

"Hey," he said, when she came to a stop in front of him.

"Hey," she replied.

They both started talking at the same time. "I'm-" started Gar, as Raven began, "We-"

They stopped themselves. Raven signaled him to go first.

Gar said, "I'm sorry I made things weird."

"No, you…" Raven trailed off. She frowned at the distance. "It obviously wasn't just you."

Her face was unreadable. Gar wished she wasn't able to make her face so damn neutral. He wished he knew exactly how much she regretted it: whether she was delicately deciding to pull back to being friends, or whether she was disgusted with what had happened.

He heard himself saying, "Look, I don't want to make things awkward… with our friends and all."

"Yeah," she said, finally looking up. She sounded relieved. "Yeah. Me neither. I mean it's not like we're…"

She trailed off, but Gar completed it in his head. It's not like we're Dick and Kori.

Dick and Kori were the couple everyone expected and everyone rooted for. They were the ones doing a constant dance of offhanded flirting and blissful denial, always staying in the brink of it, locked in a harmony where they never argued and seemed to have a supernatural understanding.

He and Raven… lacked that grace. If they got together, Gar knew, they wouldn't end up together—provided he survived long enough to see the end of it. They would eventually split up, and carry that split to the rest of the group.

And it wasn't even just about the group. Gar sincerely didn't want to be nervous around Raven. He didn't want to have coupley fights with her. He didn't want to sit up in his bed wondering if he should call her or not. He didn't want to have to mince his words and thoughts as one would around a girlfriend. He liked their friendship as it was.

Which didn't mean he wasn't dying to know how she felt about it. Gar knew he was an open book; people had told him his face was transparent. But Raven was a mystery. He would have been willing to meet her halfway and tell her what he was thinking. He wished she would just give him something, anything, to go by.

But perhaps it was better that they didn't say any more about this. He wasn't sure he could explain to her why he'd kissed her. There was a moment under the golden sun where it felt like all their differences didn't matter. She'd gone out of her comfort zone to tell him –him!- a joke. She'd surprised him. How could he explain to her that she'd been smiling, and when she smiled the sky opened up and unicorns came riding out of rainbows, and that still didn't mean they should be anything more than friends?

"No," he finally said. "We're not Dick and Kori."

Vic's voice boomed from the inside. "Guys! We're calling for pizza! Place your orders now or face meat lovers' pick by default! Got that, Gar?"

Neither of then made a move to answer him.

"I think I'm just gonna go," said Raven.

She walked past him. He stared at the ground while she did. After she passed him, he turned, about to tell her to text when she got home safe, because he thought that was a more appropriate note to end on. But then he remembered she didn't have a phone, and on holding himself back, he made a sound with his throat, and Raven turned back, eyes wide, attentive to what else he could want to tell her. Gar realized with horror that he'd made it seem like he'd stopped himself from saying something else—something much more passionate, much more important. But she dropped her gaze quickly, as if to endorse his decision to hold himself back, so he stayed put, too. When she was out of sight, he turned and buried his face in his hands, cringing away the entire past day and a half.

He only emerged from his hands when the door opened, and it was Dick. "Hey, didn't you hear? Vic's serious about the meaty pizza thing." He looked around, obviously searching for Raven.

"Rae went home, and… I think I'm gonna do the same. Later."

Gar left before Dick could say another word, and walked home quickly. After all the excitement and weirdness, he only felt empty.

The news broke a day later. The Team Titans had been in outer space for the last few weeks, helping out the Justice Union against an alien threat. The mission had been kept under wraps until it was resolved. On their way back home, the Titans had even stopped by the outskirts of Jump City to foil the plans of a brand new supervillain attempting his first exploit.

The news thankfullysaid nothing of a group of teens caught in the crossfire.

When Raven woke up that day, however, their lapse in judgment with the mission wasn't the first thing on her mind. What made her feel like the day before had been a dream was the fact that she'd ended up kissing Gar. Class clown, gratingly obnoxious, little blond sideways cap-wearing Gar. Her friend she didn't even like.

She forced herself to calm down and sat cross-legged on her bed. It almost seemed wrong to bring this to her meditation—something so petty and juvenile. But she couldn't hide from it, either. Like it or not, it had happened, so now it was part of her life story, and she had to work through it.

First off was the guilt, because her mother had been kind of right after all. Raven had told Arella they were all just friends, and then Vic had tried and set Dick and Kori up, and she herself had gone and had her first kiss. Maybe her mother had seen through something Raven didn't; maybe Raven had been naïve to think a camping trip would just be a camping trip.

As for why the kiss had even happened, she could only think it was because Gar the impulsive unpredictable person that he was, and she… well, she was getting kissed by a cute boy, one who regularly made her feel out of control in the first place. She wasn't immune to hormones. It was just… people usually backed off at her glowering; they left her alone naturally and she'd never had to learn to reject people—she'd never gotten to the point of needing to turn down a kiss. He'd caught her off-guard. And it was her first kiss. She guessed it was… natural that she'd gone along with it.

Kissing did make you a bit mad; it was electrifying, like books and songs and movies promised.

When she thought back to that moment, she remembered she'd wanted to kiss him, as much as that was inexplicable to her right now.

And who knew what Gar was thinking. He was kind of girl-crazy. For all she knew he was just taking a chance at something—he was reckless enough that she'd believe it. The fact that even he regretted it too said a lot about his wrong this was.

She had never gone camping before. She had never spent so long outside, with people who weren't family. The entire day could be written off as a fever dream, because she'd been so overwrought with too much experiencing things and not enough processing. Of course things had slipped through the cracks. She didn't have to understand it. She could simply let it go.

End of April.

In all aspects of this month's plot, the kids weren't ready. (You can yell at me, I don't mind :D)

(A note about my Team Titans: I don't expect you to love my OC's as much as I do, so I'm only gonna sprinkle them in when they're plot relevant and I promise I won't show them in a scene without the core five ^^)

PenJunior: Wait when did you predict the mad scientist? I forgot lol. Or did you not tell me? Anyhow, yes, we share a brain cell don't we? It's kinda scary… So. Hopefully this chapter clarified what Gar and Raven were both thinking and feeling around/after the kiss. And hopefully them writing off the kiss like you guessed at was satisfying. Communication is key! Being honest with each other is good! It just so happens that they're not being honest with THEMSELVES, and that can't be helped until they grow up a bunch :) And Vic has a GPS they didn't get to use here, but an SOS signal? Mmm I don't know. This is not the end of dire situations for them so maybe in the future :) (Thank you for your thoughts as always!)

Next up: May. Finishing the year with a bang, but having to leave town for a while.