A/N: again, a big thank you to all the guest reviews that I couldn't reply to privately.

To the person that said they're not opposed to watching the entire MCU in timeline order, me either lol - that's actually one of the things I'm currently doing in lockdown.

The idea for this chapters 'activity' comes from a guest review under the name Eris, so thank you for that! It's only short but I hope I did it justice.

Lovingly, Bree

also, if anyone is interested in the recipe Raven is following later on in this chapter - it's Jamie Oliver's tofu stir fry

It was raining, or rather it was storming. Arguably, to say either would be an understatement. The wind positively howled. Water in the bay thrashed angrily. Heavy sheets of rain pelted the sides of the tower, so loud that it could even be heard from the depths of the civvie gym, where the titans found themselves once again. The foul weather had come on as suddenly as it was sure to disappear, so while the dense shadows obscured whatever little light that usually fought its way into the cavernous room and plunged their training session into darkness, they were grateful for the cool hand it wiped across their sweaty brows.

Well, mostly grateful, because as soon as the first crash of thunder hit both Beastboy and Starfire were suddenly an awful lot less focused on their individual activities. Neither of the two necessarily loved storms – understandably, the shapeshifter found the noise and heavy atmosphere to be quite overwhelming, and Star had once told them the sound reminded her of something back on her home planet. None of them could repeat the word she had used, as they were sure to mispronounce it, but the overall idea was that it was bad news and she couldn't help but feel uneasy to be reminded.

Raven was considering this when she was called by the blue-eyed boy that was their leader. He beckoned her over to where he stood on the large, padded safety mats in the centre of the room. Both of her friends appeared to be doing fine, so the half-demon in question levitated herself forwards compliantly, despite the frown on her face and the pale hand rubbing at her temple. It hadn't rained for days, and it had been hot. The building pressure, like it did for many humans, even, had given her a headache – only this was presumably much worse due to her empathetic abilities.

While a human empath's power would be specialised, Raven had discovered that she had abilities of all eight types: physical, emotional, intuitive, dream, plant, earth and animal. The feeling of being emotionally exhausted, she could deal with. These headaches, on the other hand, were nothing short of infuriating. With the hope of the storm clearing her mind soon, she stepped forward onto the mat.

Her frown deepened. The squishy, spongey texture of the foam beneath her feet was not one she enjoyed. They didn't have any real need for such precautions – they were each experienced, well-trained and she could heal them if there was ever a need. But Robin insisted on the mats. Just because they didn't need it didn't mean they should just forgo any safety equipment entirely, it was a convenient way to mark out the combat area, and there was no need for Raven to overexert her powers unnecessarily. The logic didn't make the sensation any more tolerable –

Focus.

She lowered herself into a defensive crouch. Robin was near enough her own height, having only an inch or two on her at the most - but she knew this was something he was going to exploit. She was right, of course. There was no count down, no 'go', no tension – only a sudden palpable fizz of anticipation. He went high, she went low. She felt the whisper of fingers over her shoulder, but her own had already latched around his wrist, twisting it behind his own back and shoving him forward. She pulled herself back upright, now in the position he had originally stood, and for a split second the former boy wonder was on his hands and knees on the ground before her. He rolled, came up again; they continued. A bo staff appeared seemingly out of nowhere, soaring towards her – it bounced off a semi-solid black mass and clattered to the ground. The fog in her mind began to lift as adrenaline took over.

'Time!' Cyborg barked from over by the weight rack. Both Titans immediately froze, their positions relaxed, and they broke out into matching smiles.

That afternoon, they played charades. Or, they initially had played charades, but it had somehow ended up an odd sort of game where each of the titans would blurt out whatever random species that they could think of in attempt to find one that Gar couldn't turn into. They'd all been too tired from a combination of last night's movie marathon and training today for anything anymore demanding – though the rapid rise and fall of Beastboy's chest would suggest that this new game was, in fact, very demanding. So far, the others hadn't had much success.

'Northern hairy-nosed wombat - Pygmy three-toed sloth - Red-crested tree rat.' Cyborg listed each animal so quickly now that he didn't even bother to look up from the small, rectangular screen on the inside of his arm (from which he was evidently getting his animals now) as he spoke. He knew from the vaguely impressed murmurs of his other teammates that his best friend had responded with a swift transformation each time.

'What about a creature not of this world?' Suggested their Tamaranian resident, she sat on their half-ring couch with her friends, watching Garfield with wide eyes. He stood in front of them, as though they were in an amphitheatre of sorts. The Greeks probably would have loved it.

In his human form, Beastboy shrugged in an off-handed sort of way that didn't quite meld with his confident answering smirk. 'Like what, Star?'

The example she gave wasn't much help – none of them knew what she was talking about – and the shapeshifter stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.

'Ha!' Cried Cyborg, 'I knew we'd find something eventua-'

'Wait! I never said I couldn't, I just need to know what it is, first. Can I get a description?'

'You knew what a saola is?' Raven interjected. She'd been sure she was about to trump him when she had pulled that one. The saola was one of the world's rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos. She was positive he hadn't known it, he spent all his time playing those tedious videogames, after all. She had only just learnt of its existence herself, from a book on Vietnamese culture she had read a few weeks ago. However when he had, she'd just assumed that the actual transformation part of his powers were somewhat automatic too – that his highly malleable DNA just knew how to manipulate itself. She'd begun to tire of the game after that, but her interest was rapidly peaking once more.

'Duh! It's the Asian unicorn, baby.'

Her lips twitched at that response, and he quickly turned back to Starfire.

At her request, he took on a shape similar to that of a gecko, but roughly the size of a lion. Tentacles sprouted from the creatures back, and under Starfire's directions sucked themselves back in to re-emerge from its sides. The process was slow, and deliberate, and made a series of unpleasant popping noises, but the shapeshifter complied, sharing the other's morbid curiosity. He'd never pushed this far.

And then, there was a sudden ripping noise, and Beastboy was back, craning his head over his shoulder to check the seams of his favourite cargo pants. Aside from his suits, he had very little clothing made from material that would withstand him shifting, and what he was wearing now (the black cargos, white graphic and an oversized three-quarter zip 'fleece') created his current favourite outfit. Cy had given him grief over his new 'skater boy' aesthetic, but he thought it suited him. Once the fit was found to be intact, his panic washed away and he all but collapsed into the space between the girls. Sensing how exhausted he was, the violet-haired girl didn't protest when he slumped against her, or even when he pushed his luck by awkwardly curling in on himself to lay in the too-small gap and rest his head against her thigh.

'Do you need me to heal anything?' she offered; when he shook his head no a small novel floated it's way to where she was sat, and she tried not to think about the way his hair tickled against her skin. They stayed like that until Raven had to begin preparations for dinner.

A minute grimace shaped her features as she cubed the bean curd. Once, she had told Beastboy she respected him not eating meat, but asked him to respect that she did not eat fake meat - but now she supposed that while he couldn't eat any animal products, there was no real reason why the rest of them couldn't eat the alternatives every once in a while. It was easier than having to cook two meals. That didn't mean that she wouldn't rather be touching anything else. The previously pleasant scent of the cashews and sesame seeds roasting began to bitter. Silently cursing, the sorceress yanked the wok off of the heat and inspected the contents to make sure it was still salvageable. A number of black tendrils snaked out from under her cloak and began tossing the tofu in a cornflour-spice mix while she did so. She had never been very skilled when it came to cooking; she found herself looking for the green-skinned titan. Not that she needed it, he had usually come to rescue her by this stage. At first, she couldn't find him – from her position in the kitchen she could see Dick and Cy absorbed by some fighting game, fingers clacking against the buttons, Starfire watching them with a curious expression…and then a tiny, green tabby asleep in her lap. The image felt like home.

Calm restored, she placed the tofu into the wok with a hearty glug of oil and chopped up garlic, ginger, chillies, spring onions and other vegetables as she waited for it to fry off. This was one of the soon-to-be-changeling's go-to recipes, and while hers would never taste quite the same as his, she'd cherished his obvious excitement when she'd asked for him to teach her. She probably made it more frequently than he did now, so knew the others were almost definitely getting sick of it – but she relished in the little smile he gave her every time she placed it on the table, not his usual exuberant beam, but a soft, content smile that (stupidly) made her heart soar.