TerraRox: Glad you liked the chapter! Hopefully this one will be as good.
Kayasuri-n: Nope, not quite three months. Slade is a slippery guy though, so you never know.
Mattchew: I updated sooner. A lot of people don't like Slade, and Rose is starting to seem a bit more like Terra, so who knows what happens if she fights him?
CalliopeMused: Firstly, thanks again for betareading chapter seven. However, we've spoken about your review already, so there you go.
A/N: A rare quick update. This chapter is somewhat low on action, but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless. The next chapter is looking to be a bit more exciting. Enjoy!
Slade looked down at the mask for a moment, then back to Rose. Rose felt her hands ball into fists, and she could see her father's muscles tense as well. He seemed to think for a moment, and then spoke.
"What do you intend to do, child?"
Rose frowned. "That doesn't matter. You lied to me! Why did you lie to me? You aren't my father! You're some supervillain or something!"
Slade's eyebrows furrowed, and Rose felt a chill move through her. His voice was calm and collected as always. "What would you have preferred? Waking up alone and amnesiac in a dark cave, with no powers and no food?"
"The Titans would have checked! They knew I was down there! They would have come in eventually!" Rose was shouting. She was certain that their neighbors could hear, but didn't care.
The calm voice continued. "They didn't. Beastboy hasn't been to that cave since you awoke, excepting one trip after he saw you recently. You would have died of starvation and thirst, alone and terrified."
Rose looked at the floor, furious at his calmness in the face of her realization.
"Besides, child, what would you have done if they had found you? They would have forced you to become Terra again. Do you really want your entire life to be spent fighting other metahumans?"
"No! But I... I mean, you kidnapped me! What kind of a freak takes a girl he barely knows and makes her into his daughter?" Rose was trying to keep herself angry, but she couldn't deny the logic behind Slade's responses.
Slade stood with his hands behind his back, staring at Rose with what seemed like pity and derision at once. "Have I not done as a father should? I didn't mold you into a weapon. I provided you with food, shelter, clothing, education, and everything else you needed. I helped you with your schoolwork. What have I done that was so evil?"
"You used me! You took me and lied to me and made me believe you! I hate you!" Rose felt her control over her powers slip, but she allowed it for the moment. She wanted Slade to know how angry she was.
Slade's expression didn't change, as the floor shook slightly under them.
"Damn it, Daddy! Do something! Tell me why!" Rose felt her control slipping more, and she could feel the floor moving, and heard some of her books falling from the shelves in her room.
Slade simply spoke a number. "Three hundred and fifty."
Rose looked up at Slade, not understanding. "What? What are you--"
"It's eleven thirty. Most people are at work, or at school, or shopping. Taking a quarter of the population of this building leaves us at three hundred and fifty people."
Rose frowned. "What are you telling me thi-"
"In an earthquake powerful enough to destroy this building, eighty percent of them will die. That's two hundred and eighty people you will be killing if you attack me here. Men, women, and children."
Rose's eyes widened. No... no, she couldn't do that. No matter how angry she was as her fath... at Slade. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to reign in her powers. She spoke under her breath as she did so. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos... Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos..."
Her powers slowly calmed, and the earthquake subsided. She opened her eyes slowly, looking at her hands, which no longer glowed, then up at Slade, still standing in the same pose.
Slade spoke quietly. "Interesting."
Rose sighed, looking at her mess of a room, most of her possessions having fallen out of place during the earthquake. "Daddy..."
He simply stayed silent, looking at her.
"Go away."
Slade nodded once, and immediately turned away from her, closing the door behind him. Rose listened to his heavy footsteps leave the apartment. Rose felt her knees buckle, and she fell, sitting on her knees, looking at the closed door. He was gone.
Rose stared at the ceiling of her living room. She was laying on the couch, trying to think her way through this. After Slade had left, she'd spent a long time walking around the apartment in a daze, trying to figure out what to do next. Everything was muddled and confused, and eventually fell asleep on the couch. She'd woken up a few minutes ago, and everything was still muddled and confused.
Forcing herself to try to think logically and work out some way to at least start to fix her life, Rose went back over the plans she'd thought of.
She could join the Titans. Get trained to fight the monsters and the villains they fight. Of course, she couldn't really picture herself fighting in life or death situations for the rest of her life, so that didn't seem like a good idea.
She could try to find her fath-- try to find Slade, and see what he wanted with her. Maybe he would some idea of what to do. Rose scowled. Not yet. Maybe someday, but not yet.
Rose sighed. There weren't many options. She couldn't just go back to school, and she couldn't try to live by herself with no high school diploma and no real job skills. She couldn't be "Rose Wilson" anymore, because she'd just be arrested. Rose had no idea how to make a new identity for herself, so it wasn't like she could just be someone else.
Idly picking up the television remote, Rose pressed the power button. The screen brightened quickly, showing the evening news. Shrugging, Rose decided to just go ahead and watch it, if for no other reason than to have something else to focus on.
"-just saying that Jump City needs to take these threats more seriously. Though no one has been killed so far, there's no telling how long this--"
Two people were debating, though it was much closer to arguing, about some topic or another. Rose didn't recognize either participant, and apparently the debate had been going on long enough that the names were no longer being displayed.
"Whatever she is, she don't seem to be the type to wantonly take lives. Rose Wilson has done nothing but run away from the police. She's not dangerous, she's terrified."
Rose sat up straight on the couch. They were talking about her. They were talking about her, by name.
"They aren't mutually exclusive. She's already caused thousands of dollars in damages, to both buildings and people's personal possessions. The earthquake at the mall alone--"
"Helped to stop the Hive from whatever their objective was, as the Titans have already publicly stated. The Titans have done an admirable job protecting this city, despite their youth, and I value their statement that she isn't a criminal."
Rose felt strange. Something about this broadcast was disturbing to her, and it wasn't just that they were talking about her like a criminal.
"The Titans wouldn't answer any questions about her though, and I think it's because they couldn't. For that matter, no one seems to know anything about this girl, other than a few photos from bystanders and her old school, she seems to have no history at all. Some of the students at her school has confirmed that she was an amnesiac."
"What are you suggesting? That's she's a clo--"
Rose turned off the television, squinting her eyes as her head pounded with pain again. The images were clearer this time, and she could hear voices. She saw Slade meditating, heard his voice telling her how. She saw an angry mob of people, from above, as if she was flying, throwing stones at her and shouting, calling her a murderer. She saw Slade again, dismantling what looked like a Titans communicator. She saw Beastboy again, hanging desperately to the edge of a chasm. "Terra... You can't..."
Rose screamed, silencing the images in her mind and hearing the window shatter from her powers. She pulled a stone up from the ground below once more, ignoring the panicked screams of the people on the street. She jumped out of her window, onto the floating chunk of sidewalk and asphalt, gripping what used to be the street curb tightly, and jetting away from her apartment.
She flew quickly, towards the large T-shaped tower on the horizon. Rose frowned. She didn't relish becoming a superhero, or a villain, but she couldn't stay Rose Wilson for very long. She couldn't go to prison, and she refused to go to her father. Besides, she was beginning to feel like... like she hadn't always been anything near "Rose Wilson", and that she had to accept it.
She could see the flashes of black and green that signified combat, just outside Titans' tower. However, Rose assumed it was just training, as she saw only five figures on the island anyway. She aimed her stone slightly to the side of them.
Though the stone was crumbling as she flew, it thankfully lasted long enough for Rose to make a somewhat dignified landing on the island, instead of crashing into the water again. She jumped from the stone as she came close to the ground, allowing it to land by itself, crashing into the dirt. The Titans, having noticed her from a distance, had stopped training, and now approached her with a friendly look, if a bit cautious.
Robin spoke first. "Nice to have you back. What happened back at the mall?"
Rose brushed herself off, and tried to smile. "Um, I'm not sure. I think I might have remembered something. I saw things. I think they were Terra's memories."
Beastboy's grin was full of happiness, but Rose still couldn't stop herself from being irritated at him anyway. "You remembered? That's great! Are you going to move back in now?"
"No. I mean, maybe. But not as Terra. Look, I just need a place to stay. I can't stay at home, I'm having... family troubles."
Beastboy raised an eyebrow, looking a bit comical on his face. "Family troubles? What family? Aren't you parents dea-ow!"
Beastboy rubbed his side where Raven had elbowed him. Raven's voice was tinted with what sounded like concealed anger, but Rose didn't know her well enough to be certain. "What did you remember, exactly?"
Rose thought back, trying to remember exactly what she'd seen. "I... I'm not sure. It's all just blurry pictures. I remember flying on stones, and I remember Slade..." Rose shuddered a moment here, and caught a strange look from Raven. "Anyway, also I think... Terra might have killed people... I do remember seeing Beastboy fall into a pit, and he was telling me... Telling Terra that she couldn't do that."
Beastboy frowned and looked away, but Raven simply looked at Rose's eyes. Rose felt kind of strange, like she was being judged again. Starfire broke the weirdness, however, by flying up in front of Rose and putting her hands on Rose's shoulders. "You are welcome here for as long as you need. I am certain that Robin will agree."
Robin nodded. "Of course. Just... try to keep your powers under control."
"Ok, I'll try. It's just when things get too crazy that they go off. Plus, I can do that thing Raven taught me and calm down anyway." Rose smiled at Raven, but Raven simply nodded back.
Cyborg looked around. "Well, it's getting dark. Let's go back in. We'll pick up training tomorrow."
The Titans nodded, walking back towards the tower, and Rose followed. Beastboy started walking slower, and then matched her pace when he was beside her. "So, you remember beating me, huh? 'Terra, you can't', that part, right?"
The green teenager sounded strangely serious, and Rose felt like she should at least be cordial. The other Titans were walking ahead of them, and talking amongst themselves, planning dinner apparently. Rose couldn't help but feel like they were specifically giving her and Beastboy time to talk. "I... I think I remember it. I'm sorry for doing it, I would never try to hurt you guys."
Beastboy smiled, but his eyes were a bit sad. "Yeah, but you aren't really Terra. Raven said that you might have been before, but you... well, she said your mind was different."
Rose nodded. "Yeah, I think... I don't know. I might have been Terra. I just don't know."
Beastboy typed in a code for the door, which had closed behind the other Titans. The door opened quickly, and Rose repeated the code a few times in her head, in case she ever needed it. "What kind of family problems are you having? I mean, Terra's parents were dead."
Rose sighed. "My... well, I guess he's still sort of my dad... anyway, he's... not who I thought he was." Rose didn't want to reveal that her father was the Titans' arch enemy just yet. Raven didn't really seem to trust her at the moment anyway, and besides, if the Titans kicked her out because of it, she'd have nowhere to stay but Terra's old cave.
"Yeah, I've had some bad foster parents too." Beastboy looked at the floor a moment, but then smiled at Rose again. "But the Titans are the best family you could have!"
Rose and Beastboy came to the other Titans, who had been waiting at the elevator at the back of the large entry hall. Cyborg grinned at them. "You two ready to go now?"
Everyone walked into the elevator, though it was a bit crowded. It didn't really seem as if the elevator had even been designed for all the Titans to use. Rose assumed they normally just flew up to the roof and went down one floor, instead of taking the elevator.
"Please friend, tell me. What would you like for dinner? It is Robin's turn to cook, and he is good at most things, and he is not terrible at cooking." Starfire was smiling brightly, and Rose couldn't help but smile back.
"Um, whatever you guys want is fine. I'm just a guest, you don't have to ask me."
Robin smiled. "I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll just order pizza."
"Dude! Don't try to get out of your turn to cook!"
Rose smiled as the Titans mock argued like old friends. The elevator doors opened, and they all started walking towards the kitchen area. Rose noticed Raven walk out of the room during the commotion, but no one else seemed to think anything of it. "Hey, I'm going to go take a look at my room, ok? I'll be back in a bit."
Robin nodded at her. "We'll be here. Beastboy told us you're allergic to anchovies, so we'll order our normal pizza, and you can take whatever you like."
Rose nodded. "Sure, ok."
If anyone noticed Rose going into the wrong hallway, following Raven instead of going to her room, they didn't say anything. Rose walked down the quiet corridor, the sound from the kitchen having been entirely blocked by the metal door closing behind her. It was a bit dark in the hallway; and coupled with the unfamiliar place, it set Rose a little on edge. She passed a few doors before coming to the one labeled "Raven". Unsure of what else to do, Rose knocked lightly.
It was few seconds before the door opened slightly, revealing Raven's face, though Rose couldn't see much of her room behind her. Raven seemed a bit surprised to see Rose there alone, but her voice was somewhat cold and irritated. "What?"
"I... uh... Well, you looked at me kinda weird back there, and then walked off by yourself. Are you ok?" Rose felt strange talking to Raven through the door frame, but didn't feel like she could just barge into her room.
Raven nodded. "Yes. It's beginning to look like you are Terra."
Rose sighed. "You didn't like her."
"No, I didn't." Raven was acting very cold towards her, and Rose didn't like that she was losing whatever ties they'd formed over the past few days.
"Look, can I come in or something? I mean, I don't like talking through the door like this, and I feel stupid standing out in the hallway."
Raven seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then stepped aside, sighing. Rose walked through the door, and looked around in the dim light. Shelves lined with books, strange arcane statues, and odd, swooping black shapes on the walls all made Rose question Raven's decorative sense. Rose looked back towards Raven, who had closed the door and was now leaning back against it. She seemed like she was waiting for Rose to say something.
"Raven, look, I know we don't know each other that well, but you're the closest thing I have to a friend right now. Don't start hating me just because I might have been Terra."
Raven's face changed slightly, and Rose thought it might even be a look of guilt. "I don't... hate you. I didn't even hate Terra. I've told you things that she didn't know. I even let you in here. I don't want to be betrayed again."
Rose smiled. "Hey, I understand, seriously. Look, I'm not Terra, and I'm not going to go crazy and attack you guys, ok? I could barely even fight Jinx earlier."
"But you are hiding something." Raven's face darkened, her eyebrows furrowed. "I can't tell what it is, and I'm not going to just take the information, but you are hiding something."
Rose blanched, seeing Raven angry wasn't something she liked. She knew the girl was powerful, and something about her made Rose uneasy in general. "Look, I wasn't... I mean, I just don't want to talk about it yet."
Raven looked at Rose for a few moments, and Rose tried not to flinch and look away. The silence hung in the room heavily, but then Raven let out a quiet sigh. "Fine. I don't sense any malice from you, and to be honest, you aren't a fighter. At least not anymore."
Raven looked around her room, seemingly just to look at something besides Rose. "However, don't assume you have anyone fooled. Robin is observant, and knows you are hiding something. Starfire and Cyborg also can tell, but they would never ask about it. Beastboy is still somewhat overwhelmed that you are back at all; I don't think that he's concerned or even thinking about betrayal."
Taking the liberty to sit down on Raven's bed, Rose sighed. "Look, if I tell you, you won't tell the others, right?"
Raven nodded silently.
"Well, it's about my father. Well, adoptive father, I guess." Rose pulled her legs up, hugging them to her chest. She felt very uncomfortable about this. "He's... well, I just sort of found out that he's... um... Slade."
Raven's eyes widened. "What?"
Rose couldn't help but be amused by Raven's sudden lack of emotional control, but didn't let her face show it. "Yeah, I know. I don't know what to do about it. I feel like none of you guys will trust me if you knew, but I felt like I could tell you. I mean, I don't know why, but I feel like I know you better than the others. You didn't freak out about me as much, anyway."
"You didn't see it as much, and it wasn't for the same reasons." Raven's voice was back to normal, and her face was again emotionless.
"I guess I couldn't really have wished for a worse dad though."
Raven made a sound that might have been a dark chuckle if anyone else had done it. "There are worse fathers to have. At least he's not your biological father."
Rose nodded. "I wonder who mine was. Do you know? Who Terra's biological parents were, anyway?"
"No." Raven shook her head slowly. "Terra and I didn't talk that much. If anyone knew, it was Beastboy. Possibly Slade."
Rose looked at the floor. "You aren't... going to judge me based on my dad, right? I mean, all the time I can remember, I've been with him, but... I'm not like that."
Raven stayed silent for a long time, and Rose wasn't sure how to interpret that. When she spoke, her voice was sad, but carefully guarded. "No, I won't. I can understand that. If I had told the others who my father was when they first met me..." Raven sighed heavily. "I wouldn't be a Titan."
"Why not?"
Raven sat on a chair, near the bed. She looked across the room, and Rose thought her eyes rested a moment on her vanity mirror on the desk. "You remember that I said I wasn't metahuman. That I'm... demonic."
Rose nodded, then realized what she was saying. "Your father? He was a... demon?"
"Trigon the Terrible. The name probably doesn't mean anything to you." Raven sighed. "He's the very incarnation of evil. Several major religions on Earth have other names for him, but he's always the great evil of the world. I was supposed to be his... portal. He was to come to Earth through me."
Rose, with no idea what to say, just watched Raven.
"It doesn't matter where you came from, or who your father is." Raven stood, and Rose took it as signifying the end of the conversation. "I won't tell the others. You should though, before Robin finds out on his own."
Rose nodded, standing as well. "Raven, thanks for talking to me. I really don't know what to do about my dad."
Raven looked a Rose for a moment. "I don't know either. No one can make that decision but you. However..." Raven hesitated. "I don't know what kind of a father Slade was to you, but he's a manipulative and evil man. Don't trust him and don't believe anything he has ever told you. Be careful around him."
"I... I really don't think he'd hurt me. I mean, he was sort of a normal dad." Rose walked behind Raven as Raven opened her door and stepped into the hallway.
"He hurt Terra. Don't talk about this now, though. Starfire is probably back with the pizza by now. Let's go eat." Raven's voice left no room for dissent, and Rose walked alongside her silently, back towards the kitchen.
Rose and Raven met Beastboy on the way back to the kitchen, and he grinned as he saw them. "Hey Rose. We weren't sure where you were when you weren't in your room. Star is back with the pizza."
Smiling at the green boy, Rose tried to dispel the weirdness of confessing her father's identity to Raven by acting normal. "What kinds did she get?"
Raven continued walking, a step ahead of Rose and Beastboy. She seemed uninterested in conversing with Beastboy at all. Beastboy didn't seem to mind though, still grinning. "The normal thing. Supreme for Robin, Meat Lovers for Cyborg," Beastboy made a face of disgust. "Eugh. Anyway, cheese for Raven, and cheeseless tofu for me. Uh, I forget what Star got. Something with limes, I think."
"Limes? Who puts limes on pizza?"
Beastboy shrugged. "Star is weird with food. You had the glorg yesterday."
Rose laughed, and felt like she hadn't done it in too long. She noticed that Beastboy seemed to perk up immediately at her laugh. She wondered just how close he and Terra had been, but didn't want to ask such a weird question right now. "I'll probably just have some of everyone's. They don't mind, right?"
"'Course not." The three teenagers passed through the doorway, back into the operations room, to see the other Titans laughing and eating from their respective pizzas.
"Wonderful! You have decided to join us! Please, you must try this!" Rose stepped back slightly as the cheery alien girl swooped over, holding a piece of strange-looking pizza.
Rose took it cautiously. "Uh, thanks, Starfire. What is this? Lime and... kiwi?"
Starfire nodded, smiling. "Yes, with sausage. It is very interesting!"
Rose didn't really feel like she should just refuse to taste it, and so she took a tentative bite. 'Interesting' was putting it mildly, but it wasn't good at all. Rose forced herself to swallow, but couldn't help making a face. "Geaghh! Uh, it was very... unique?"
Starfire giggled warmly. "To be truthful, you are the first one who is not me to have tried it. The others refused. I thank you. You may have that piece!"
Rose allowed Starfire to take her by the hand and gently pull her across the room, to the table, seating her in a new, sixth seat. "We have found this extra seating in the basement. Since you may be here for some time, it is good to have, yes?"
Rose nodded, looking around for a place to set the somewhat disgusting slice of pizza down. She eventually just laid it in an empty spot in Starfire's pizza box. She instead took some of Robin's, looking to him for confirmation that it was ok.
"Go ahead, eat as much as you want. You probably had a tiring day." Robin seemed friendly enough, if slightly overwhelming in his loud confidence. "Sorry your first mission with us wasn't exactly perfect."
"It was ok for the most part. I've never really seen you all fighting like that before. It was amazing." Rose tried to avoid the topic of her accidental power use during the battle.
Beastboy passed Rose a piece of tofu pizza, which she took politely, unsure if she really wanted to try it. "You can fight like that too! Well, once you train with us a while, anyway. Then you can show Jinx who's boss!"
"Isn't she in jail now?"
Cyborg laughed. "Yeah, but we all know how long that's gonna last. We fight the Hive Five about every other week."
The tofu pizza wasn't bad. Not as much flavor as Robin's, but not as bad as Starfire's. "What do you guys do besides train and fight? I mean, there has to be other stuff to being a superhero, right?"
"Depends who you ask. Try this; it's good." Cyborg handed Rose a piece of his pizza as well. "BB and I play video games, Robin doesn't do much of anything besides train and study. Starfire does all kinds of stuff. Raven mostly reads. I also mess around with my car down in the garage pretty often."
"That is reminding me! We must go to the mall of shopping sometime! I have not been in quite a while, as Raven no longer will come with me." Starfire looked excited at the prospect.
Rose smiled. "Sure, Starfire. I'd be happy to go. Uh, assuming the cops won't be there, and they have it repaired."
Robin waved his hand dismissively. "The police won't bother you. At least, not much. Metahumans in general tend to make law enforcement nervous, but the most they'll do is follow you around. They wouldn't arrest anyone traveling with a Titan."
"You're being kinda quiet, Rae. What's up?"
Raven looked at Cyborg quickly, as if she hadn't expected to be addressed. "I'm just... thinking about something. It's not important."
Rose finished the piece of meat lovers, then held up her hand, refusing another piece of tofu. "Uh, no thanks. I'm kinda full. I can't eat that much. Actually, I'm kinda tired."
Robin nodded. "Go get some sleep. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? You need to be rested."
Standing, Rose smiled. "Thanks for the food, guys, and... you know, letting me stay here."
Beastboy grinned. "No problem! What are friends for, right?"
Rose smiled and walked away from the table, towards her room. She waved as the metal door closed behind her, and then sighed heavily. No matter how nice they were, being around the Titans was exhausting. They seemed to need to fill every second with talking and movement, and Rose couldn't help but wonder if they ever actually relaxed. She shook the thoughts out of her head, and started walking down the hallway.
Even if it was exhausting, living with the Titans was certainly better than living alone, or trying to stay with her father again. Rose scolded herself. She had to stop thinking of Slade as her father. He was a criminal, and apparently a pretty violent one, by Raven's descriptions and demeanor when talking about him.
Rose reached Terra's room without incident, and pressed the button on the wall panel to open the door. Stepping inside, she closed it again, unsure exactly how to lock it. The Tower made her feel like she was in some science-fiction television show.
She walked across the room, then turned and let herself fall backwards onto the bed, staring at the starry ceiling once again. Terra's room was really odd. Rose's apartment had always been very sparsely decorated, and coming from that into this room with a mural covering all of the walls and extending to the stars painted on the ceiling was disorienting.
Rose sat up, looking around the room again. Despite the wall decorations, there wasn't really much in the room as far as entertainment. It seemed like Terra either didn't really spend any time here, or all of her things had been removed by the Titans between then and now. A glint of metal caught Rose's eye, and she stood, walking over to the small table with the mirrored box on it.
Picking up the heart-shaped box, and opening it, she looked at herself again in the small mirror inside. Rose smiled, not sure why she found herself almost surprised that she looked no different now than a few days ago, when she was just a normal girl. Well, besides the lack of makeup. The box still made her feel strange. She set it down gently, closing it as she did so.
There had definitely been something more than friendship between Terra and Beastboy, and Rose couldn't shake the somewhat disturbing idea that Beastboy expected that it would turn out that way again. Rose really hadn't had to deal with male admirers that often before, as it seemed that every time a guy seemed to be getting close to asking her out, he'd suddenly start acting as if he wasn't allowed to talk to her. Rose frowned. Now that she thought about it, her 'father' might have had something to do with that.
Rose sighed, and walked over to the window, looking out over the bay, to the lights of the city on the distant shore. It was a pretty view, and it was a calming feeling to stand there and stare into the night. Rose suddenly felt exhausted, another long day finally ending. She walked over to the bed, and lay down, trying to get comfortable despite the knowledge that the door wasn't locked.
Closing her eyes, Rose fell almost immediately into a dreamless sleep. She woke up almost before she even realized she'd slept, but the stiffness in her joints and the dry taste in her mouth reminded her that she must have slept for hours, even before she noticed the light streaming in from outside. Rose sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and trying to find her bedside clock for a few moments, before remembering that she wasn't at home. The empty nightstand next to her bed reminded her that she no longer had a set time to wake up in the morning, since she no longer had school.
She stretched widely, smiling as she did so, and getting out of bed shortly after. The bed cover was still relatively unused, since she hadn't really felt comfortable sleeping underneath the covers of what still felt like someone else's bed. Rose staggered over to the bathroom, finding that Starfire's shampoo was still in there, as well as her dirty clothes from the day before. She kicked her clothes into the corner, not really in the mood to pick them up at the moment.
A quick shower later, Rose found herself again wishing she'd thought to bring extra clothes with her. She dressed fully in Terra's old clothing now, piling her old clothes in the corner until she thought of something else to do with them. Suddenly, something on the nightstand caught her attention.
The small table had been empty before her shower, she knew it, because she'd been looking for her clock there. Rose walked over to the nightstand slowly, looking around to make certain she was alone. The room was empty, and there was no indication that anyone had been there.
Rose reached out, but stopped short of picking up the small, butterfly shaped hairpiece laying directly in the center of the table.
A/N: I'm glad to get this update out so quickly, but don't expect the next chapter next week, because it's not likely. In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, actionless and dialogue-heavy though it was. Please review, and see you in chapter eight.