Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo
Chapter 41 - The Titans (part 2) [rough draft 2]
It was late at night. The building was quiet and empty with most of its inhabitants out on patrol. Bruce kept the TV on in case the Titans came up in the news and sat on the floor playing chess with Tim.
"Dick is mad at you," the little boy said out of the blue.
"Yes," Bruce mumbled.
"Why?"
"I...made some mistakes. A long time ago, some people took him away from me, and I wasn't allowed to look for him right away. Later, I thought he would be happier in Atlantis than living with me, so I left him in Atlantis. I didn't know he wanted to live with me more than he liked Atlantis. That was the second time we were separated. Then the third time...I lost Jason and I was so upset that I did and said some bad things. Dick was so hurt by the things I said that he ran away. So now he's angry, because I hurt him and we were separated three times. I don't know if he'll forgive me this time."
"What does 'forgive' mean?"
" 'Forgive' means to stop being angry at someone for something they did wrong. Dick forgave me the first time and the second time, but maybe he won't this time. Sometimes, even if you forgive someone, the pain of what they did to you is still there. Dick is in a lot of pain."
Tim watched him for a while, tentacles thoughtfully coiling and uncoiling. "You hurt children."
Bruce swallowed and couldn't answer.
"You hurt Dick and me."
Bruce closed his eyes. "Yes," he whispered. He opened his eyes again. "I'm sorry I hurt you, Tim. I'm sorry I didn't love you as much as you deserve to be loved. You're a good person and you deserve a parent who tells you and shows you how good you are all the time."
The mer straightened up and looked away, tentacles suddenly grabbing for fidgets. Bruce swallowed and stayed quiet until the boy had calmed down a bit. Tim finally looked back at him and asked, "Are you a bad person?"
Bruce stared at him for a long time. Finally he said, "I feel like a bad person. I know there are many people in the world who are a lot worse than me, who do worse things than I do and hurt people on purpose, because they like hurting people. I'm not that bad. I never wanted to hurt you. But I hurt you, anyway." He paused. "What do you think, Tim? Am I a bad person?"
Tim lay down, resting his head on his crossed arms and just looking at Bruce for a while, his tentacles coiling and uncoiling. At last he sat up again and signed, "I am alone and bored in the ocean. I watch you be happy with Dick and Jason, and they are happy with you. Dick and Jason go away, and you are sad and want to die. You aren't happy anymore, and you hurt children. But I don't want to go back to the alone bored ocean. I want to stay with sad hurt you. I don't want you to die. Dick and Jason are angry and gone, so I will stay with you. Don't die."
Bruce was crying by now. Hesitantly, he held out his arms, and Tim crawled into them. He settled the boy in his lap and held him tightly, feeling tentacles wrap around his waist and arms. "You're a good kid," he whispered into Tim's hair. "I love you." Which was exactly what he hadn't wanted to happen when he'd first taken in Tim. "God help me, I love you so much. I can't lose you, too..."
The Titans finally returned home at nearly three in the morning. Bruce heard them descending from the roof where they'd been dropped off by Goliath and went to meet them with Tim in tow.
Some of them were already dispersing, Wally dashing toward the kitchen and Garth and Vic yawning as they headed toward their rooms. Robin, completely shrouded in their cloak as usual, stalked in the same direction, and Dick maneuvered his wheelchair so that his back was facing Bruce as he continued talking to Kori and Donna.
Raptor trotted right up to Bruce and announced, "I defeated three foes tonight with my own sword, and would have vanquished a fourth if Speedy had not interfered."
"I saved your life, brat," the archer called over his shoulder.
"I did not need saving!" Raptor shouted back.
Bruce patted the boy's shoulder before he could launch into one of his tantrums. "You did a good job tonight, Raptor. Why don't you head on to bed- Unless you're hungry. I can see if Wally will share."
"Hmph. I have been trained to endure days without food; with more practice and a minimal amount of water, I will be able to last two weeks."
"Raptor," Bruce said wearily, already anticipating the dismissive reaction, "whoever 'trained' you in that was wrong...that is child abuse, please consider reporting them to the police..."
Raptor laughed as if he genuinely thought the suggestion was funny, but he only offered token resistance to the hug Bruce held him in for a while.
Everyone was soon getting ready for bed except Raven, whom Bruce found sitting in the living room when he went to turn off the TV. She had an ancient tome on the coffee table, running along the words with one finger as she frowned in concentration at a modern paperback held open in her other hand.
"Planning to go to bed soon?" Bruce asked.
"Yes, in just a few minutes."
"Mm." He rested a hand on her head. "Try not to stay up long, all right? It's already late."
She looked up at him in surprise. "You...really care."
"Kids need a lot of sleep. I know teenagers tend to do better with later mornings, but that doesn't mean they'll get enough rest going to bed after midnight, either."
Raven studied him for a minute, looked back at her books, then shut them both and stood up. "Very well. Before I go, may I ask if you have ever read Lord of the Flies by William Golding?"
"I have, yes. It's assigned reading in a lot of high schools."
"Ah. Would you be willing to discuss something with me tomorrow?"
"Sure." He didn't exactly have plans, other than taking care of Tim and puttering around the Tower (as the Titans called their headquarters), trying to help out where he could.
Bruce and Raven ended up discussing the book during lunch the next day, ending up in a pretty deep discussion about human nature and civilization which turned into some observations about the Titans' living situation. "Until you came, we had no adult company here," Raven observed. "It is not normal for young people like us to live entirely alone. I have been wondering if this is to our detriment, or if we as individuals are such anomalies in our original homes that we work better like this than ordinary young people would."
"It could be a little of both," Bruce mused. "I'm not going to abandon Dick again, but he's very happy here with you all. I know how what it's like to feel like you don't belong, and I think you all probably appreciate having the support and affection of others who feel just as strange and outcast as you do."
"Hm, yes..."
"Dick doesn't have to hide here the way he did at school, and even though he was happy in Atlantis, too, he was born and raised in the surface world and seems to feel at home here. It's...good to see him with friends he doesn't keep any secrets from."
"He is a good friend to us as well. I'm sorry he feels the need to hide that part of himself around you."
"It's my fault... If I hadn't made so many mistakes in the past, he'd have an easier time forgiving me now."
"Apologies won't help, you know. He has to see that you've changed for the better. That will take time and consistency."
"Has anyone told you that you're very wise, Raven?"
She was silent for a moment. Then she said, "People sometimes imply the sentiment. But...no, I don't believe anyone has ever told me so directly." She smiled, a rare and blessed thing. It seemed to soften her entire face. "Thank you, Bruce Wayne. It's a good thing to hear."
o.o.o
Bruce wasn't actually sure how he had gotten roped into a volleyball match with Kori. He remembered finding most of the kids hanging out on a patch of sand Garth had cleared with his powers, all of them in swimsuits except for Raven (and Dick, of course). Goliath was lounging behind Raptor, batting and chewing on some sort of giant homemade toy. There had been some playful trash-talking, a makeshift net had been erected, and now Bruce was facing off against a 90% naked flying alien with super strength, desperately trying to keep the volleyball from hitting the ground on his side of the 'court.'
He was actually doing fairly well, considering who his opponent was, until Wally teamed up with Kori, his superspeed turning Bruce's chances of scoring a point from highly unlikely to literally impossible.
Still, Bruce pressed on despite Dick's judgmental stare on the sidelines and the other Titans' raucous jeering at him and cheering for Kori and Wally. Garth and Raven were watching with interest but keeping neutrally quiet. Raptor was the only one making an effort to encourage Bruce, albeit in a bossy, infuriated way. Tim, perched in his open suitcase-nest about as far away from Dick as he could get, watched the game with detached curiosity. When Garfield bounded onto the court on his friends' side, Raptor shrieked at the unfairness of it and surged to join Bruce.
Bruce was pretty sure by now that Raptor had no superpowers. The boy was so obviously frustrated at his and Bruce's failure to score any points against their metahuman opponents that he would have surely manifested any powers if he had them. Still, for a base level human of his small size, he was very quick and strong, and played well despite the insurmountable odds stacked against them. His teamwork could use some improvement, though; he kept ignoring Bruce's attempts to claim the ball and nearly tripped up the man multiple times.
The little boy was clearly fighting as hard as he could, but with Wally zipping around and Kori effortlessly slamming the ball and Garfield lazily filling in all the gaps (not that his overpowered teammates really left any), the humans didn't have a chance.
"You are CHEATING!" Raptor finally screamed, his voice breaking.
Bruce's heart clenched when he realized the child's eyes were shimmering with tears of rage and frustration. "Hey," he said, making a time-out signal and then setting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Raptor. Ssshh, calm down. It's okay."
"DON'T TOUCH ME! FIGHT, WAYNE! WE'LL POUND THESE COWARDS INTO DUST!"
Bruce knelt and took hold of both of Raptor's shoulders. "Raptor. Hey. Look at me. Look at me, bud."
"We can...we can do it," Raptor choked out, then fiercely dashed the tears away as they spilled down his cheeks.
"It's all right. Raptor, it's all right. You did your best. You fought so hard, you did so well. I'm proud of you. Okay? I'm proud of you."
Raptor's voice was a strangled thread of sound as he slumped in defeat. "We lost...!"
Bruce stroked a palm down Raptor's hair and the side of his face. "Listen to me. We are not always going to be able to win in an equal fight. As long as you did your best, there's no shame in losing, especially when it's not a matter of life and death. This was only a game, Raptor."
"It's not always a GAME!" Raptor shouted back. "True enemies on the battlefield will not make allowances for weakness! Failure is unacceptable!"
Bruce switched tactics. "What you do is learn from your losses so you know what to do better next time. You prepare beforehand for opponents who might be stronger than you in some ways. You anticipate theoretical challenges in case someday they're no longer theoretical. Everyone has weaknesses, you just have to plan for how to counter them, even if it means you can't always battle on equal footing."
Raptor seemed to genuinely consider this for a moment. Then he turned to the other Titans, who were all watching with either figurative or literal raised eyebrows. "Enjoy your taste of victory," he hissed. "It will not come again." Then he whistled sharply. "Goliath!"
The dragon-bat raised his head, ears perked, then got up and licked Raptor, who squawked in protest. The boy swung up onto his companion's back.
Bruce watched them flying away for a moment, then felt a prickling on the back of his neck. He glanced at the Tower and was a little startled to see Robin, the only one of the team who continued to avoid him and, the few times their paths did cross, treat him with silent hostility. The mysterious Titan was, as always, completely shrouded in a cloak almost identical to Raven's, and as Bruce looked, they turned to retreat back into the building. Speedy quickly followed after them.
Bruce looked back at the other Titans. Dick was sulking; everyone else was watching him thoughtfully. "You're good with Raptor," Donna commented.
"He's just a kid," Bruce murmured uncomfortably. "He's obviously had it rough."
"Yeah, but like, he's really annoying sometimes," Garfield said, "but you never treat him like he's annoying. You act like you like him even when he's at his snottiest."
"I do like him." It felt too personal to say that he could practically see the pain bleeding through the cracks of Raptor's defensive shell sometimes.
"It's not fair," Dick growled, then pushed himself upright and walked on his hands into the ocean. Garth followed after him.
Bruce sighed and turned to catch Tim, who was crawling toward him. "Oh, kiddo, you're gonna start flaking in a minute. Come on, we're going for a swim."
TBC
