Control

Chapter 1: Calm Before the Storm

Author's Note: This is my very first chaptered story here, so hopefully you get some entertainment out of it. I wrote this back in April when I heard that Justice League Dark: Apokolips War was coming out and I had planned on uploading a chapter every week until the release of the movie. That didn't end up happening, as you can tell. I ended up still being in the process of writing this when the movie did come out and let's just say that the ending shattered my Damirae heart into a million, tiny, little pieces. I don't want to spoil the ending for you if you haven't seen it, but if you have, think of this as a storyline that could've been if not for Darkseid invading the planet. Also if you've seen the original Teen Titans series you'll probably recognize some of the elements from "Birthmark" and "The End Parts 1 - 3". I took a lot of inspiration from those episodes. Anyways I hope you enjoy reading the first chapter!

Raven knew that today was going to be interesting, to say the least. Despite her usually tainted mood, she was particularly excited for what was going to ensue tonight, or what she hoped would ensue. She never knew what might happen between now and later, but she decided to hope for the best, and not dwell on the fact that nothing extremely bad had happened to them for a few months, along with the fact that something bad was bound to happen. She just hoped it didn't happen tonight.

Raven sat on the couch in the living room of Titan's Tower, reading a book that she had already finished five times over in the past three weeks, but she had nothing else to do at the moment so she figured that reading the book for the sixth time would have to suffice.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Jaime and Garfield walk into the room both racing for the remote to the tv at the same time, they barreled over each other, landing on the floor by the coffee table, both of them scrambling to get the remote before the other could.

Jaime suddenly bolted up from the ground, holding the remote victoriously into the air, with a smug smirk plastered across his face.

"Come on man, that's not fair! You got to choose what we watched last time." Garfield complained.

"Too bad, next time you should be a little quicker." Jaime laughed.

A scowl came over Gar's face, right before he launched himself at Jaime, making them both collapse to the floor.

Raven rolled her eyes.

Boys.

Suddenly Damian sauntered into the room, briefly looking at Jaime and Gar, before quickly deciding not to engage in whatever was going on, instead opting to come and sit next to Raven on the couch.

"What are they fighting about this time?" he asked flatly.

"The remote," she replied, her eyes still trained on the book.

"Big shock," Damian said sarcastically.

A slight smile came across Raven's face, making her set down the book, which to be honest she wasn't paying that much attention to.

It had been three years since the whole Brother Blood incident and since then Raven and Damian had grown increasingly close. Five years ago, when they first met, she would never have put that book down for anyone, even if she was paying little attention to it. But she found that she could be open with Damian. It made her feel almost excited to have normal conversations with him. Excited.

The thought made her question her sanity sometimes.

Why am I excited about talking to someone? Get a grip.

Jaime's voice cut through her thoughts.

"Just let go of the remote, Gar! It doesn't have to be this difficult!"

Raven looked to the two teenagers, to see Jaime standing over Gar, pulling back on the remote, which was currently in Garfield's hands, the same Gar who was on the floor trying to keep a good grip on the remote.

"You're not getting it this time!" Gar stated.

Raven cast a side glance at Damian who was uninterestedly watching the squabble, he quirked an eyebrow at her. She decided to get up and walk over to Gar and Jaime, easily grabbing the remote from both of their hands, and calmly walking away from the scene back to Damian, leaving the boys in a state of mock shock.

"What just happened man?" Jaime asked.

"She-she just took it."

Damian smirked and caught Raven's eyes as she went to hand him the remote. Which didn't end up fully happening, because the next thing that everyone knew the alarm signaling that they're needed somewhere, sounds, everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed to their rooms to gather whatever they needed. As Raven walked out of the living area, she spotted Donna Troy, already exiting her room.

Donna was always the most enthusiastic whenever there was a new mission, so Raven wasn't surprised that she was already ready to go.

Three years ago, Donna joined the team. Everyone seemed to make fast friends with her, well, everyone except for Damian, of course. It had always taken him longer to warm up to everyone. But despite his original misgivings he eventually concluded that she was likable enough, and about six months after Donna originally joined, life went back to normal if you can even call being a superhero normal.

Everyone grew accustomed to having a new team member, which entailed having a new friend, and with an apparent shortage of teen superheroes, it felt nice to have someone who understood what their life was like.

Speaking of their unique lifestyle, Raven decided that she needed to hurry up and stop wasting time dwelling on the past so that they could get on with the mission, and be that much closer to tonight.

2 hours later…

Damian Wayne let out an annoyed sigh, as he removed his mask. He was completely and entirely sick of fighting the menial thugs and thieves that littered the streets of Jump City. He wanted a real fight, he wanted something or someone that could challenge him, and lately, the city was relatively calm, calm for Jump City at least.

Brushing off the sense of longing, he changed out of his suit and ended up putting on a black t-shirt and a pair of joggers, along with his tennis shoes. Even though the team had just gotten back from a mission, he still had an itch to get out of the tower, so he decided to go on a run, for the sixth time in the last four days. Hoping that by doing so it would help clear his head, and ease the urge of wanting a difficult fight.

Damian quickly exited his room and started his usual walk to the front of Titans Tower, but of course, something always had to interrupt what he was doing.

Seeing that everyone was gathered in the living area, he tried to discreetly brush past without anyone noticing him, which would've been easy if Starfire's bright eyes didn't catch onto him, as soon as he took three steps.

"Damian! Come join us, Dick and I were just about to announce something." Kori's excited voice chimed out.

Fantastic. An announcement.

The Titan's attention quickly shifted to Damian, as he entered the room.

As Damian came to stand next to Raven, she took note of the fact that he was wearing his tennis shoes, which could only mean that he was going on yet another run.

How much endurance can one person possibly have?

Raven had almost offered to go with him a couple of times, firstly to see what the appeal of running was, and secondly to check if he was alright. He usually wasn't this restless.

"This better be good," Damian whispered to her.

"Yeah, hopefully."

Despite her response, Raven knew exactly what Kori was going to announce, and she also knew that Damian was going to be resistant to it, which besides Dick needing Raven's opinion on the ring, was probably the reason why he told her.

"Okay, everyone listen up!" Dick said, "Tonight we're all going out to dinner."

Most of everyone's faces lit up.

Donna gasped in excitement, "Like at an actual restaurant?"

"Yes, at an actual restaurant."

Damian's face changed to one of annoyance, signaling that he didn't want to go.

"Well, you guys have fun with that. I'll be here." Damian announced.

"Don't even think about not coming, Damian, attendance is mandatory." Dick chided.

"Spare me."

Damian tried to flee the living room.

There is no way I'm going to dinner, let alone with every single person on the team. They'll have to drag my dead body there before I'll go.

Raven saw that he was trying to leave, and upon seeing him making his way out of the room, looked across to Dick, his eyes meeting hers, signaling that she needed to do something. She nodded, a silent gesture assuring him that she'd convince him to go.

Raven swiftly followed Damian out of the living room, catching up to him.

"Damian, wait!" Raven called.

He slowed his pace, still not facing her.

"I'm about to go on a run. What do you want?" his voice came off harsher than he meant it to.

To compensate he turned around to face her.

She glanced over his face, noting his annoyed expression.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, why?"

"You just seem… a little on edge lately."

"I'm always on edge," he stated.

"Well, it might help if you came to dinner. Loosen up, just for tonight."

"Says the girl who barely talks to anyone."

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

Damian didn't exactly know how to respond to that comment, so, he settled on partly changing the subject.

"Why is this dinner so important that all of us have to be there?" he took a step closer to her.

Raven paused, choosing her next words wisely, so as not to give away the real reason.

"…I don't know, but it seems important to Dick that we're all there."

He let out a slight laugh, "Everything's important to Dick."

Raven sighed, wondering why on earth he had to be so stubborn all the time, not that she had room to talk, she was just as headstrong as he was.

"Fine, Damian, if you're not going to do it for him… do it for me."

She looked up at him. Up at him.

He's taller than me. And not just by a few centimeters, more like by several inches. When did that happen? I know it's been five years since we met, but a year or two ago he was still shorter than me.

She snapped herself out of her thoughts, returning to the conversation at hand.

Damian's eyes traveled across her face, landing on her eyes, searching the deep depths of purple, he concluded that she was probably up to something, but besides the fact that he was sick of being bored, and needed something interesting to happen in his life, he liked the fact that she had asked him to come to the dinner for her. It made his heart race in a way that he couldn't quite comprehend, making him even more uneasy.

"Okay."

"Okay, what?"

"I'll come, but… only because I'm intrigued."

He gave her a smirk before turning on his heel and walking away to start his much-needed run.

"Make sure you're back by eight!" Raven called.

"Okay, mom!" he replied sarcastically.

Raven rolled her eyes, watching him walk off.

Well, at least he's coming.

The same day, 7:45 p.m.

Damian adjusted the collar of his white button-up shirt. Why they all needed to dress up, he couldn't understand. All he knew was what was told to him, which wasn't much. He scolded himself for even agreeing to go, but Raven had asked him, and for some odd reason he couldn't bring himself to tell her no.

His run was good though, and that's something. It had temporarily distracted him from the rest of the world and all its ongoings.

Finished getting ready, Damian grabbed his coat off of his bed, and left his room, closing the door behind him. He walked out into the hallway to see Raven, Donna, Garfield, and Jaime, all talking to each other.

"Gosh, this is so exciting!" Donna exclaimed.

He joined the group, standing next to Jaime.

"We're just going to dinner," Damian stated.

"Yeah, but we never go to dinner, this is a like a once a year type of thing," Donna replied.

"I'm surprised you even decided to come." Jaime jabbed, "After the whole argument between you and Dick, I thought you'd be staying here."

"Well, I changed my mind."

"You. Changed your mind?" Garfield questioned.

"Yes, is that so hard to believe?"

"Considering the fact that you never change your mind, I'd go with yes." the green teen chided.

Damian shut his mouth, for once, deciding not to further the conversation.

"Where even are Kori and Dick, aren't they the ones who planned this dinner?" Jaime reasoned.

"The last time I saw them, they were still getting ready." Raven chimed in.

"What the hell are they doing that's taking them so long?"

Raven shook her head, signaling that she didn't know.

Meanwhile, Donna pulled out her phone.

"I'll text Kori," she stated, tapping away.

Damian's eyes scanned over the group, which was lingering in thoughtful silence at this point. Seeing his teammates so dressed up was a rare sight, usually, they were all in their suits or casual wear. He stopped when he got to Raven, his gaze traveling across her body, and the dress that she was wearing. He didn't know if he had ever seen her in a dress before.

The dress was made of a dark purple satin material, that draped over her effortlessly, forming a tight wrap dress. The length of it stopped a couple of inches above her knees, the rest of her legs were bare, leaving her pale skin exposed. The dress also had a "v" neckline, that was just low enough.

He looked up at her face, anyone who had eyes could tell how stunning she looked tonight, with her dark black hair hanging just above her shoulders, and her gleaming amethyst eyes sparkling with hidden excitement, anyone was bound to fantasize about her.

Damian found himself staring, and had to force himself to focus on something else.

What the hell was that?

He reprimanded himself for even entertaining the thought of glancing over at her again. It didn't work. His emerald eyes seemed to be working on their own accord.

Raven caught Damian's eyes, giving him a slight smile, not quite sure as to why he was looking at her.

The simple interaction between the two didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group, Jaime gave Donna a knowing look, she returned the gesture. Garfield wasn't as perceptive as to why Damian had his eyes fixed on the empath, but he knew something unbeknownst to him was going on.

The rest of the Titans watched as Damian and Raven coyly stepped away from the group, starting their own conversation out of earshot from everyone else.

"Why do you think that Damian changed his mind?" Garfield asked.

"Beats me, everything that he does is a mystery," Donna stated.

The answer to Gar's question dawned on Jaime, as he was watching the two black haired teens.

"Someone probably convinced him." Jaime nodded his head towards Damian and Raven.

Both Garfield and Donna's eyes widened with realization and as they stood around waiting, the fact that the reason the son of Batman would be at dinner tonight was because of a certain purple-eyed girl, was evident to everyone.

The same day, 8:22 p.m.

It only took them an hour and a half, but they all ended up making it to the restaurant, albeit, a little late, but at least they had gotten there. The ride over was uncomfortable, to say the least, everyone was crammed into one car, which slightly reminded everyone, but Dick, about their trip to the carnival.

Besides them not being on time, everyone made it peacefully into the restaurant, where the hostess kindly escorted them to their table.

Raven ended up being seated at the end of the right side of the table next to Donna. Ideally, she would have wanted to sit next to Damian to keep him from causing a scene in the case that he didn't agree with what was about to happen, but per usual, the ideal situation never actually happened. Damian sat across from her, seated between Jaime and Garfield. Kori and Dick were sat beside Donna, conversing about something, but Raven wasn't paying enough attention to make out what they were saying to each other.

"What should I get?" Donna asked, shoving her menu in front of Raven.

"Uh, I don't know, what are you in the mood for?"

She sighed, "On one hand, I want a burger, but then I'm like no, I want something Italian. And I can't decide."

"Go with the burger, Italian food is so pretentious," Gar said.

"You think that anything other than pizza, and fast food is pretentious," Damian said.

"What can I say, I have very distinct taste in food."

"Distinct is definitely the word for it." Jaime laughed.

"Ugh, you guys are no help," Donna complained, pulling her menu back towards her.

Raven shook her head, focusing her attention back on her menu. She made up her mind pretty quickly, not wanting to fixate on having to decide for too long, she was much too nervous to spend more than a few seconds on the task.

This is it. This is really it.

The fact that everyone had practically been waiting for three years for Dick to finally work up the courage to do this, made this night even more special. Raven knew that she wasn't the one that had to do the real work, but knowing that this could backfire, gave her anxiety. She just hoped Star didn't say no.

Raven found herself fidgeting with her hands, the anticipation of the situation making her feel restless.

He's not even doing it until after dinner. Just calm down.

She released a pent-up breath, trying to still her frantic heart.

Soon after everyone made up their mind about what they wanted; the waiter came to take orders. Raven barely paid attention to everyone else's orders, let alone her own, the entire exchange was a complete blur to her.

Her eyes were trained to a wall, completely and irrevocably lost in her thoughts, that's why she didn't notice Donna throwing questions and statements at her left and right.

"Rae, Raven, Raven, are you even listening to me?" Donna nudged her, dragging Raven out of her stupor.

"Oh, uh, sorry. I zoned out. What did you ask?"

"I said, that I've been thinking about dying my hair. What do you think?"

Raven wondered how Donna even got onto that topic, considering the last thing she heard was about a boy band that she liked.

"It's your hair you can do what you want with it."

"That was the most basic response to anything I've ever heard. You do realize that, right?"

"I'm sorry, okay, I'm just not in the talking mood."

"You were talking to Damian." Donna chided.

"That was half an hour ago."

"…Whatever."

Donna rolled her eyes, and turned away from Raven, quickly starting a conversation with Starfire.

About an hour later, everyone was finished with their meals, and waiting for dessert to come.

Dick looked nervous. And Raven's heart was hammering in her chest, the anticipation was killing her.

She tried to occupy herself by listening to Jaime and Damian's ongoing conversation.

"I think I'm gonna ask her out," Jaime said.

Donna instantly pulled out her phone at his words, once again rolling her eyes, and focused on the brightly lit screen.

"Why?" Damian asked.

"Because I like her, that's why. That's what normal people who feel a connection to someone do."

"It's about time, you've only known Traci for like three years," Gar stated.

"Three years isn't that long…"

"Riigghht."

Even though the conversation was mainly going on between Gar and Jaime, Raven noticed she was still focusing her attention on Damian.

Lately, she's found herself looking at him for extended amounts of time, and she had no idea why. She figured maybe it's just because they're so close, but even she questioned how true that thought was.

He looks good tonight.

Maybe it's because of the way his hair was perfectly ruffled, or maybe it was the way the button at the top of his collar was open. She knew Damian was attractive, she always had. From the first day she had met him, she could tell that he was going to mature into a way above average looking guy, but she didn't quite foresee that she would find herself physically attracted to him.

Raven thought that it was odd that her thoughts had led her to this. She also felt like she shouldn't see him in that way, but just because she thinks someone's attractive doesn't mean she feels anything else romantically towards them, and definitely not towards Damian. Can you imagine how much drama that would cause? The son of Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman, with the daughter of a devil who once tried to take Earth for his own.

It was no secret that a good majority of the Justice League didn't necessarily trust Raven, Batman being one of those people. She was surprised that Bruce hadn't taken Damian out of the Titans after the whole Trigon fiasco.

She wished they lived in a world, without crazy stuff happening all the time. She wished that she could be honest with herself about what she truly felt. It was a nice dream.

Raven was dragged out of her thoughts, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted Dick standing up from the table, directing Kori's attention to himself.

The whole table went silent at Dick's abrupt movement, the team watched in confusion. Well, everyone except Raven, whose heart was racing at an unnatural speed.

Dick swallowed the lump in his throat, gathering the courage to do what he should have done a long time ago.

"What are you doing, Dick?" Starfire asked.

"Um, I…"

He found himself at a loss for words and looked across the restaurant at the groups of people staring at him, until, he saw Raven giving him a nod of approval.

He took a deep breath continuing on, "Kori, I feel like I've loved since the day you kissed me on the street. You make me feel…normal. And, I've been meaning to do this for a while now, it was just never the right time, but, now that life has finally settled down, I figured I should take advantage of the peace."

Starfire's eyebrows were knit together in confusion, clearly not getting where he was going with this.

The rest of everyone at the table though was a different story. Beast Boy's mouth was hanging open. Donna's hands were on the sides of her face, with a huge smile plastered across it. Jaime looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And Damian's eyes were as big as the almost full moon hanging in the sky.

Dick got down on one knee, and there were sounds of shock and surprise. Kori finally seemed to understand what was happening and placed a hand over her mouth.

"Koriand'r, will you marry me?" he asked, pulling a ring out of his pocket.

The ring was white gold, with a diamond in the center, around the diamond were emeralds at each of the pointed edges.

"Dick, of course, I'll marry you!"

Kori jumped out of her seat and launched herself into Dick's arms, probably squeezing the life out of him.

After a few seconds, she pulled away from him, and he placed the engagement ring on her ring finger.

A smile adorned Star's face as she planted a kiss on Dick's lips.

Everyone in the restaurant cheered, except for Damian who was in a state of pure shock.

"It's about time!" Jaime exclaimed.

Everyone laughed.

12:04 a.m.

The team made it back home, safe and sound, no dilemmas in sight. Everything had gone according to plan. Everyone was ecstatic for Star and Dick, as far as Raven could tell. She hadn't talked to Damian after the proposal. Which is why she was walking the halls of the tower in search of him. She knew he was still awake, even though it was midnight, he usually was when he needed time to think, and she knew exactly where he would be.

Raven took the stairs leading to the roof of the "T" shaped building, and when she reached the top, she found Damian sitting near the edge, looking out at the city in the distance.

"You know it's getting late…" Raven trailed off, coming to sit next to him.

He turned his head to look at her.

"You knew about tonight, didn't you?" Damian asked.

"I did. And I'm sorry for coercing you into coming, I just thought you might-"

"It's alright, Raven. I'm glad I came."

"You are?"

He nodded.

"You didn't seem that excited at the restaurant, and I've barely seen you since."

"Yeah, well, I needed some time to process it all."

"It is pretty big news."

Raven's eyes glanced across the dark blue sky, her gaze catching onto the almost full moon hanging in the night sky.

She partly hated full moons, mostly because Trigon became more powerful during these monthly occurrences, making it more difficult for Raven to deal with him, but she didn't want to think about the impending bother right now.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Dick settled down," Damian stated.

Raven laughed, "It's weird how time changes people."

"It is. Kind of like me actually liking being on the team."

"I don't think you disliked it that much, originally."

"You made it more bearable."

"I somehow doubt that."

"You shouldn't."

Raven was at a loss for words, not quite sure about what to say in response to his statement. She didn't even get the chance to respond, though, because the sharp pain in her head was enough to make her release a little gasp of pain.

The time has almost arrived, ungrateful child.

Trigon's words echoed throughout her head, as the pulsating pain continued, Raven placed her hands over the sides of her head.

"Raven, are you okay?"

Damian rested a hand on her shoulder, his eyebrows knit together in worry.

He watched Raven close her eyes in pain, seemingly trying to block something, or rather someone out.

She opened her eyes, and slowly removed her hands from her face.

"I-I'm fine. It's nothing. It's late. I should probably get to bed." Raven abruptly got up from her seat on the roof, "Goodnight, Damian."

And with that, she fled from the top of the tower.

Damian was left staring at her, while she walked away from him hurriedly.

What was that?

Author's Note: That's the end of the first chapter! Tell me what you thought, and also please review it. All constructive criticism is welcome! The second chapter will be out next Monday unless something comes up, but right now that's the plan.