Raven missed her father. She couldn't help it; he had been the biggest part of her life for so many years but she hadn't thought being away from him on Earth would be so difficult for her. But recently, what with her upheaval of fortunes – being captured by the League, being forced into the Titans, being made to train vigorously – she felt almost desperate for Trigon's familiarity. The final straw had been Damian's blatant rejection of her advances yesterday, she needed some perspective, to remind herself that they were only human and that she was so much more than them.

So, the next morning Raven woke before dawn and made her way to the roof of Titan's Tower. It was quiet in the early hours, the city across the water sleeping, even the criminals in bed. The lack of sirens – usually ever present – was slightly eerie.

Sighing in contentment, Raven settled down to meditate. In order to form a link to her father she had to calm her usually volatile mind, sweep all emotions away. It was annoying but necessary. Still, she wasn't used to it, only having performed the meditation routine a couple of times in her life, so she was prepared for it to take hours which was the reason she had risen so early; this way she would hopefully be done before the six o'clock morning training.

About an hour into her breathing exercises however, she was jolted out of her concentration by a disturbance behind her. Glaring over her shoulder in annoyance, Raven was surprised to see Damian al Ghul standing just in front of the door leading into the tower. He had his arms crossed tightly and was glaring at her.

"What are you doing up here?" he demanded in an icy voice.

"Meditating," Raven's voice was scathing; he had just cost her what little progress she had gained. "You?"

"I come up here every morning," he replied, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

She should have taken her revenge for the day before by getting him all hot and bothered before denying him satisfaction. But Raven's mind was slightly groggy from the meditation and she wanted to talk to her father so she merely shrugged and returned to her lotus position.

After a few minutes, she sensed rather than heard Damian begin his exercises.

As she suspected, Damian's presence hindered her meditation to the point where she was grinding her teeth together and had begun picturing violent, rage-filled acts against the many people on this planet she classed as enemies.

"You're not very good at that are you?" his voice didn't make her jump; she was already so pent up that it merely gave her an excuse to vent some of her frustration.

"Well, I'm sorry if you being here distracts me." She snapped, turning once more to glare at him.

Instead of being insulted, he just looked at her, cocking his head slightly. There was silence for a while before he said. "I can help you if you want; I know some relaxation techniques."

Raven narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And why would you do that?"

He shrugged. "I'm the leader of the Teen Titans, part of my job is teaching my teammates." He strolled forwards until he stood next to her, looming so close that Raven had to lean back and squint slightly to maintain eye contact in the dazzling light of the low-hanging sun.

Damian sat down next to her, body positioned so that he was facing her.

Still suspicious, especially at his motives – was this the next round in their game? – Raven turned so that she was facing him too.

The teenagers regarded each other for a moment until Damian began explaining about a technique he had been taught by Taiwanese monks high in a mountainside monastery.

And so they remained there for the rest of the morning, sitting facing each other on the glass roof, silhouetted against the slowly rising sun.

xxx

Raven paced around her room, her cloak billowing around her.

She was trying, as she had done for the past week or so, to think of a strategy to deploy against Damian in their game of seduction. It wasn't as if she hadn't had any ideas to revenge herself against the damned Assassin. It was just that, none of them were good enough.

He had humiliated her, he had caused her to doubt her own sexual appeal. The revenge must be sufficiently sexually frustrating for him. Especially after earlier.

Raven's eyes glowed red at the memory.

That day, the rest of the Titans had returned from their various mentors to resume life at the tower. Raven had actually been disappointed that it wouldn't just be her and Damian anymore, not that they ever spent any time together – other than their early morning meetings on the roof of course.

However, Raven's annoyance at having a horde of teenagers back in the tower had been almost instantly expelled when she experienced their shock at the state of the living room and their confusion at how the fabric sofa had managed to make a hole the size of a small elephant in the supposedly un-breakable glass wall. When Raven had casually mentioned that she was the culprit, the teenagers had just stared at her, Jon's mouth had actually been gaping open in shock.

But then Damian had entered the room and began kissing Cass like there was no tomorrow. Everyone had practically run from the room when he started running his hands under her skirt. Raven herself had created a portal to her room and had been there ever since, seething.

Even though she now knew it wasn't real; even though she knew he wanted her – there had been no mistaking the lust in amongst the mirth the other day – Raven couldn't help but still resent the Wonder C**t.

That blonde bitch had the audacity to touch Damian, she actually had the balls to touch what was Raven's! Well, she was going to regret that.

But not yet. Raven couldn't exact her revenge on the slut because that would be admitting that Damian's escapades were annoying her and she couldn't have that. No, now that she knew the game they were playing, Raven wouldn't allow Damian al Ghul to win another round. It was time for her to make her first play in earnest.

But what to do? Perhaps she should leave planning until the morning, when she would meditate on the roof.

It had become part of her routine to meet Damian on the roof every morning, just as the sun began to rise. She would meditate and converse with her father whilst he would alternate between physical exercises and meditating himself. Their time together on the roof was unique, it was free of any ulterior motives on her part and he seemed to respect that. It was nice to just have a few hours in the day where neither of them had to pretend, had to put on masks. He didn't have to be barking orders and making snide remarks and she didn't have to give the impression that she gave a shit about anything.

Their time together on the roof was … nice. The past couple of days they had even begun to talk.

Raven had enquired about a long, deep scar on his forearm and he had told her of his grandfather's ex-heir, Slade Wilson, and his botched attempt at killing him when he was an infant. Raven had been amused to discover that Rose and Jericho were the children of this now-dead assassin and had explained to Damian how it was common practise in her father's realm to hold the lives of an opponent's children in servitude after a feud had been won. It appeared that humans were almost demons in their own way.

These early morning rendezvous were something Raven had grown to enjoy, but the early rises meant that she retired to bed before her fellow Titans.

She yawned and stretched; she was tired and it was getting late, time to stop plotting and get some rest.

As she turned sharply towards the en-suite bathroom, there was a heavy thud. Turning, Raven saw a glass tumbler laying on its side on her bed, her cloak must have knocked it from its place on the chest of draws. She cursed as she saw the water stain quickly expanding on her sheets. Now what was she going to do? Her bed was drenched and she was tired!

Raven paused in her swearing as a thought occurred to her.

Oh yes, that would work. That would work very well indeed.

Smirking, she shimmied out of her clothes and opened a glowing portal.

She stepped out into Damian's bedroom, it was as she remembered from her initial investigation of every room in the tower; cold, impersonal, no photographs, no art, no posters on the wall, not even a tacky animal ornament on display. Instead, large, academic books were crammed into the numerous shelves and every inch of free wall was covered with weapons, no mechanical weapons like guns or crossbows, but close-range combat types. Plenty of swords and bo staffs, daggers, throwing stars, deadly looking needles that Raven could clearly imagine slipping in between her ribs and piercing her heart without her notice. In other words, it was a room that perfectly described its owner.

Raven was a demon; she has been born and raised in a Hellish dimension with creatures so despicable that some of them had even been kicked out of Lucifer's domain for their crimes. Even so, she had never before felt in so much danger as she did when in a room with Damian al Ghul. It should have frightened her – it did frighten her – but it also excited her.

Just being in this dark room with its deadly arsenal looming at her from all sides, caused Raven to shiver. A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature of the mild night swept through her very bones, her nipples hardened as the hair on her body stood on end.

She was so distracted, that it took her a moment to register the fact that the unmistakable sound of running water was coming from the adjoining bathroom.

So, Damian was taking a shower was he? And judging by the lack of steam issuing from under the door, it might be a cold one.

Raven bit her bottom lip in anticipation as she quickly shut her portal and thanked her father for her clear vision in darkness as she slipped under the covers of the assassin's bed. She felt something slightly coarse under the duvet. After a moment of struggle, she managed to extract a large t-shirt from the bed. Raising her eyebrow in amused surprise, Raven slipped it over her head. Instantly, her nose was filled with the delightful scent of Damian al Ghul; hot spices and sharp acidic scents that scratched the back of her throat. The smells really shouldn't go together, unpleasant as they were individually, but Raven found the combination mouth-watering. Especially as she imagined how many people had the aroma as their last, terrified memory.

The sound of the water cut out and Raven's eyes focused intently on the door to the en-suite. Deciding that she was not showing herself to the greatest advantage, Raven quickly stood from the bed, smoothed the covers and sat on top of them, allowing her shapely legs to stretch out in front of her, crossed at the ankles as she reclined back against the headboard, the large shirt just about covering her from view. After all, the imagination he would have to employ was part of the allure.

After a few minutes, Raven was greeted with the most tantalising sight she had ever seen.

Damian walked casually into the room, his flawless cinnamon skin taught over his slim, yet powerful muscles, droplets of water clinging to every inch of body they could. Disappointingly, a towel was tied around his waist, though it was low enough on his hips that Raven could clearly see the lines of his hip bones as they descended teasingly out of sight. He paid the half-naked woman in his bed no heed as he used a smaller towel to rid his hair of the majority of its water content. When he was finished with it, he flung it expertly into a laundry hamper before turning to look blandly at Raven.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Raven thought momentarily that the game was lost; she was so enraptured by this sinfully sexy man that she could barely stop herself from just having him there and then. But her pride, as always, would not allow her to concede defeat, even when she had lost all interest in playing.

"My bed is wet," she smiled evilly – she never had managed to pull off an innocent expression. "I need somewhere to sleep tonight."

"Then go elsewhere," Damian said as he walked over to a chest of draws and pulled out a pair of clean underpants.

Raven was about to give a snide remark when, without warning, Damian allowed the towel around his waist to fall to the floor. The demon's eyes hungrily devoured the exposed flesh in front of her for a couple of glorious seconds until it was covered again as he pulled the pants on.

Having finished, he unabashedly walked towards the bed.

"Get out." He ordered as he threw back the covers and climbed into bed.

"Kicking a young, vulnerable, half-naked woman onto the streets?" Raven mocked. "That's not very gentlemanly of you Mr. al Ghul. Anything could happen to me."

He smirked, but his eyes darkened in warning. "I am not ordering you out of the tower, only my room. Now leave."

Those beautiful eyes of his. At the moment, they resembled a forest in their tones. She wanted to see if she could make them even darker, but wasn't foolish enough to ignore the warning in them.

Raven sighed theatrically and rose from the bed, making sure to keep eye contact before turning and walking towards the door, swaying her hips slightly. She was just reaching for the handle when his voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait."

She remained where she was, hand outstretched, as she heard him getting out of bed behind her. Fighting to keep a triumphant smirk from breaking across her face, Raven shivered as she felt the warmth of Damian's body at her back.

He was so close she could practically hear his heartbeat. Her breath became short, quick. Why wouldn't he just close the final couple of centimetres between them? She wanted to feel his skin on hers.

Raven gasped suddenly as a large, warm hand landed on her clothed hip. It was soon joined on the other side by its twin. Slowly, deliberately, Damian trailed his hands down her hips, and over her exposed thighs, before they trailed back up and slid under the hem of the shirt.

She was frozen as he dragged the material upwards, moving only to lift her arms so he could tug the shirt over her head.

They stood there, naked, her back was practically on fire from the closeness of their bodies.

Damian leaned his head forward and breathed in her scent, his exhaling breath tickling her neck, causing goose bumps to erupt over the area.

"This," he whispered deeply. "Is mine."

And with that, he turned and returned to his bed.

Raven stood there, dazed and confused for a while until her brain started working again.

She was furious, but this was their game, and he had bested her yet again. Without another word, and with no care for her current state of undress, Raven pulled the door open and walked out into the corridor.

xxx

It had been so hard to resist.

She had been lying in his bed wearing nothing but his shirt. It had taken all of his years of training to stop himself from gawking at her legs, long and smooth and disappearing into the shirt's hemline at just the right moment.

And then, because he was clearly a masochist, he had actually undressed her. They had both been naked, mere millimetres from each other. Damian had been able to feel the warmth of her back. He was just glad she hadn't turned around; if she had there would have been a very noticeable sign of his failure to contain his arousal and the points would have all gone to Raven. Hell, if she had noticed, he would have counted her the winner of the entire game and rewarded her victory there and then.

But she hadn't and the game was still on.

So, Raven had initiated several rounds of the game now and he was certain that last night, she had understood that she was actually playing. He would need to be more careful from now on.

But what to do?

Cassie seemed to get under her skin, but he had already used that card several times now. He needed to switch up his tactics. He needed … a new pawn.

That pawn remained hidden for several weeks.

During those weeks, Damian had been busy with his role as leader of the Teen Titans. It was June and time for the bi-yearly Teen Titans leadership tournament.

"The what?" Raven had asked the morning before the tournament was due to begin.

They had been sitting on the roof and the sun's rays had just broken over the glittering, watery horizon.

"The leadership tournament," repeated Damian. "Twice a year we hold it to determine who the leader and vice-leader of the team will be.

"What?" He smirked at Raven's wide-eyed disbelief. "You don't think I'm in charge because of pure nepotism, do you?"

She smirked. "I guess maybe I did baby-bat."

"Well, it's not," he continued. "I have been undefeated for the past three years since, ever since I decided that I actually wanted to lead the team. Before me, Blackfire had taken temporary leadership after the ascendency of Nightwing to the Justice League."

"Nightwing being…?"

"My brother and, incidentally, Blackfire's paramour."

"Blackfire has a boyfriend?" Raven screwed up her face in a mixture of disbelief and distaste.

"Technically," shrugged Damian. "It seems entirely one-sided to me though. Whenever they're together she's clutching his arm and hanging on his every word while he's talking to everyone but her."

Raven snorted, thinking of the privileged yet neurotically insecure Tamaranean. "I can see that. So was the leader of the Titans huh?"

"For a couple of months," Damian nodded. "A couple of months too long in my opinion. As soon as the next leadership tournament was held, I snatched the title from her and the rest, as they say, is history."

It was indeed history. In the three years since taking the mantle of leader he had transformed the Teen Titans from a bunch of awkward kids fighting as individuals to a single-entity; a weapon with an arsenal of powers and tactics. He was brilliant at driving people to do better. Even Raven, who had clearly resented being made to actually work in the beginning, had become a well-honed killing machine under his command.

She had been magnificent in the tournament, tearing through Jericho and Rose and even Blackfire – whom she seemed to like – with a delicious savagery. She had come up short when facing Jon though, who had used his speed to his advantage. Though there had been a moment, right at the start of their battle, when Raven had him surrounded by a large bird-like silhouette and Jon's expression had shown abject terror. Damian supposed Superboy had never been in a situation like that before; completely powerless, like an ant under a boot. The horror seemed to have set off some sort of hidden power in Jon though because just as the bird-like shadow had hidden the last inch of Jon's face from sight, there had been a blinding light that had left them all temporarily blind. Raven included. Jon had taken the opportunity to calm himself down so that when the demon regained her senses, he was ready for her. One toss to the ground and it had all been over.

The rest of the tournament had gone as expected and Damian resumed his role as leader with Kaldur'ahm as his left-hand.

Now the Teen Titans were back in formation and were currently fighting a group of rebellious teenagers who had chosen the imaginative epitaph of 'The Outsiders'.

Damian had been keeping tabs on them for some months now, ever since tracking the ion trail of some form of space ship from Mars. It turned out to belong to a Martian who had come to Earth to avenge her people after the massacre of the Martians that Superman had led during the early years of the Justice League. Back then it had been the betrayal of a Justice League Martian member – J'onn J'onzz – that had forced the League to take retribution. It seemed that the girl-Martian was taking a leaf out of their book, but was demonstrating sloppy thinking and terrible execution.

Though, she had gathered quite the team around her.

Damian had been amused to see who she had managed to persuade into rebelling. A traitorous Atlantean, still loyal to a dead King; a magician avenging her father's death at the hands of the Justice League; a speedster who was actually closely related to the Flash – Damian had researched their connection thoroughly but hadn't been able to find any evidence of assistance from the Flash – and even a clone of Superman!

It was an interesting team, and had Damian had been in command of it, there were many ways in which they could have defeated the Teen Titans.

As it was, they were annihilated.

Blood dripped from Damian's sword as he stood over the corpse of the shape-shifter. Most of the Outsiders were lifeless shells now. Especially the clone.

Damian watched impassively as Jon used his laser-accurate heat vision to slice through his opponent's neck. Decapitation was a hallmark of Superman's and he had passed the habit onto his son.

"Hey, Damian," Jon laughed, waving enthusiastically at his friend. "What do you think? Doesn't it look like I just killed my dad?"

He laughed delightedly, like a ten-year-old boy, as he waved around the dismembered head by the hair.

Damian smirked back at his friend. He couldn't help it; sometimes Jon was just too funny to resist.

"Damian?"

He turned his attention to Blackfire. The Tamaranean was dragging the body of the magician over to him. She hovered forwards, gripping the corpse's long hair lazily in one hand, allowing the face of the cadaver to scrape along the floor.

"What do you want me to do with her?" she asked, in a bored tone.

"She's not dead?" Damian asked.

Blackfire shook her head. "Just unconscious."

Damian stared down at the limp magician.

He was just about to order her execution when he spotted Raven out of the corner of his eye. The demon was regarding the girl with look of mild disgust on her face.

"Bring her back to the tower," demanded Damian. "I want her alive."

xxx

A/N: Just in case any of you are wondering "what holiday could the Titan's have been celebrating in May/June?" I decided that the "Justice" League decided that they deserve an internationally acclaimed celebration. So, on 31st May the world celebrates living in a totalitarian world under the heel of a group of sociopaths. Yay!