Garfield
Garfield waits until the other boys in his room are asleep before turning into a chimpanzee. He's already stashed a bag of clothes in the closet under the stairs. Once he enters the hall, he turns into a mouse and waits. It's boring and he nearly falls asleep, but then Richard finally comes out of his room. He has a backpack. Garfield hates being right. He was hoping he would wait here like an idiot and that Richard would still be here the next day. Maybe this will still all be for nothing. Maybe he isn't running away. Maybe he's just planning on being out longer than usual... yeah, right.
He waits until Richard reaches the top of the stairs before going to Raven's room. He turns into a chimpanzee again, so he can open the door and then into a cat. As he slinks into the room Raven sits up. She was waiting for him. She's wearing her jacket and even has her shoes on. Garfield leads her out into the hall and down the stairs. He stops at the closet and paws at it. Thankfully she gets the idea and opens it. She grabs his bag of clothes and he leads her to the back door in the kitchen. She opens it and he leads her out to the yard, turning into a dog, but it's really not necessary. He doesn't have to use his scent because Richard left his footprints.
They follow them to the wall on the side of the house and Garfield turns into a gorilla. He holds his hands out for her to step on, so he can give her a boost, but she looks confused. Garfield sighs. She's probably never hopped a wall before. They'll lose Richard if they don't hurry, so he grabs her around the waist and hoists her onto the wall. She's surprised, but thankfully she doesn't scream or anything that might wake the house up. He jumps up on the wall and then down before giving her a hand.
Richard's footprints give him away again, but Garfield still turns into a dog and tracks him. Now that they're outside the wall, there are more foot prints and he doesn't want to lose Richard by following the wrong ones. It only takes a few minutes for them to catchup. He's heading down to the main road and walking fast. Garfield can keep up easily as a dog, but Raven is slow. She's wearing sneakers, not snow boots and Garfield can see her struggling not to slip on the icy sidewalk. He turns into a pigeon and tries to keep an eye on both of them.
Richard turns his head to look back and he can't get out of the way fast enough. He spots Garfield and starts running. Garfield flies as fast as he can after him, but his pigeon wings aren't cutting it. The fastest bird he can think of is a falcon, so he transforms into that next and soon catches up. He darts in and out of Richard's face, but he still doesn't stop. He runs across the street and they both almost gets hit by a car. The driver honks his horn loudly and it blares into the cold night.
"Hey!" He hears Raven yell. Richard still doesn't stop. Garfield lands on his head and starts pecking at him.
"Stop it!" Richard has to stop now. He tries to push him off, but Garfield digs his claws into Richard's scalp, drawing blood.
"Richard! Garfield!" Shit. Garfield forgot about Raven while he was trying to catchup to Richard. He gets off his head and flies back. Raven is about half a block. "Richard!" He hears her and even though he wouldn't stop for Garfield, he does stop for Raven. Garfield would be lying if he said that didn't piss him off just a little. Garfield sits on her shoulder.
"What are you doing out here?" He glares at both of them.
"Were you really going to leave us behind?" She counters.
"Go home." He closes the distance between them and points in the direction of the house.
"I thought we were friends." She ignores him. Garfield wishes he wasn't a bird, so he could say something too.
"We are friends, that's why I don't want you guys involved in this. Go home." Richard crosses his arms over his chest and gives them a hard stare, but Raven isn't budging and neither does Garfield.
"We're going wherever you're going." Garfield notices a few cars start to slow down as they pass the kids. It's late. Kids are not supposed to be out this late. Richard follows his gaze and frowns.
"Fine." He starts walking and they follow. Richard stops in an alleyway and takes Garfield's bag of clothes from Raven. She waits with her back turned and they go behind a dumpster so he can change. The cold air didn't bother him that much when he was in bird form, but now that he's naked and human, Garfield shivers. Every part of his skin prickles with the cold.
"Are you stupid?" Richard asks, now that he's human. He has his back turned to him, but Garfield can hear the anger in his voice.
"Are you?" Garfield says. "You'll get kicked out and we'll never see you again."
"It doesn't matter. I wasn't going to be able to go back there anyway." Richard says. "But the Dayton's aren't going to want a kid who takes off. You should go back." Richard isn't wrong. Adults don't like kids who can't follow rules. Everyone knows that. As happy as he would be to have a family again, it would be meaningless without Richard and Raven in his life. Making friends wouldn't be any easier outside of Sunny Oaks. They're irreplaceable.
"We want to stay together." Garfield says. "Wherever you're going, we'll go to."
"I'm going to kill someone." Garfield doesn't know what to say about that, so he doesn't say anything for a minute.
"We're still coming." He can't see Richard's face as he zips up his jacket, but it's Richard, so he knows he's rolling his eyes.
They go back to Raven, and Richard leads the way. He walks with the confidence of someone who was born and raised in Gotham. Garfield has no idea where they are after a few blocks. Richard keeps his chin up and eyes ahead, like he's walked these roads a thousand times, but Garfield knows he hasn't.
It's dark and the street is littered with empty to-go cups, empty chip bags and candy wrappers. They step over a few used syringes and pass all kinds of people on the street. A man with a cartoonish trench coat selling "real" Wayne watches and homeless people curled up in balls of clothes, leaning against buildings fast asleep. A few of them look like they might not even still be alive, but Garfield knows they're not in any position to help, so he doesn't make Richard stop. They're technically homeless now too... Because if they go back home Richard will probably get sent away since this is the umpteenth time he's run off and maybe Garfield too since he's hard to place. If Raven's paperwork is really lost, he doesn't know what would happen to her. Maybe they won't be able to send her somewhere else, but he's not sure.
It's almost morning when they stop in front of an abandoned warehouse. By now his hands are almost numb with cold and he can barely feel his toes. He wishes he'd brought two pairs of socks. Richard and Garfield pull away a broken piece of plywood and then there's enough room for them all to climb in. It's dark inside, and still cold. Richard pulls a flashlight out of his bag and they move farther into the building. He leads them to the second floor. Farther back Garfield can see big pieces of cardboard duck taped into walls that go up to the ceiling. As they get closer, he sees it's a little fort. Richard walks to the side and pulls open a piece of cardboard and slips inside, holding it open for the other two. They follow him and he puts the flashlight down. A second later there are strings of fairy lights along the walls illuminating the fort.
"Is this where you've been disappearing to?" Garfield asks. Richard just shrugs and sits down. Raven follows suit, so Garfield sits too. The fort is big enough for the three of them to sit cross Legg'd comfortably. Garfield counts at least ten springs of battery powered fairy lights taped to the walls. There's a rug on the ground. It's dirty, but it's warmer than the hard cement under it.
"So why did you run away?" Raven asks. As usual, she's quick to get to the point.
"..." Richard doesn't answer.
"He said he's going to kill someone," Garfield says. Raven looks at him and frowns.
"Why?" Garfield's first question is the other "W" word, who. Her question might be better though. Maybe it doesn't matter who, if they find out why, maybe they can talk him out of it.
"Because he killed my parents." There's definitely no way they can talk him out of it.
"When?" If that's what Richard is doing, Garfield can understand that. If he could find the people who killed his parents and give them what should be coming for them if karma is really a thing, he would.
"Tomorrow night," Richard pulls the necklace Garfield had helped him steal out from under his shirt. He rubs the metal bird between his thumb and middle finger. "I've been trying to track him down for a long time, but he moves around a lot and is good at keeping his whereabouts a secret. He'll be in Gotham tomorrow to make a deal with some thugs."
"And then?" Raven asks. Richard looks up.
"And then, I don't know." Richard lets go of the necklace and puts his hands on his knees. Garfield can almost see him thinking. "You guys weren't supposed to come."
"What if we hadn't come, then what were you going to do?" Garfield asks.
"Stay on the run until I aged out. Then find a job, get my GED, live life." Richard shrugs.
"You were going to abandon us." Garfield doesn't like that.
"You were going to get adopted by the Dayton's. I could have tracked you down and you'd probably end up becoming a superhero." Garfield feels a little relieved about that. Maybe Richard would have tried to find them...
"You still shouldn't have left without talking to us." Raven isn't going to forgive him so easily. He expects her to argue about the superhero part, but she doesn't. Garfield thinks she'd be a good superhero too, but since she doesn't want anyone to know about her powers maybe not.
"It's not safe out here and if you get involved... I don't want you guys to get in trouble." Richard says. "This is my mission."
"It's not safe there either." She argues. "We don't know why Mr. West is watching us and that Slade person said he was coming back for us."
"And there are people looking for you and you won't tell us why." Richard argues. Raven stiffens at his words. 'Why are you afraid of the Justice League?"
"..."
"Don't complain about me keeping secrets when you have so many." Richard snaps.
"...If I tell you, you'll hate me and you'll leave me, like everyone else did." Is everyone else her parents? Garfield puts a hand on her shoulder. "I don't ever want to tell you." He expects Richard to get mad again, but he doesn't. He sighs.
"I'm sorry..." Richard says.
"Let's make a promise to stay together." Garfield sticks out his hand and spits in it.
"Gross." Richard says.
"It's spit or blood," Garfield shrugs. "This hurts less." Raven sticks out her hand and spits in it next.
"Water is stronger than blood." Richard puts his hand out and spits it too. They hold their hands up and press them all together as best they can, but the high-five-like gesture is awkward with three people.
"We'll stay friends forever and together forever," Garfield says. "Do you promise?"
"It's a promise," Raven says.
"It's a promise." Richard repeats.