Disclaimer:
Let's try this disclaimer
Thing one more time
I don't own the Titans
And this needs to rhyme
It was two in the afternoon. On most summer days Raven would be sitting quietly in her room reading a good book. With the idea looming over her that school would be starting soon, she was lamenting the idea that her last few days of solitude would be spent sharing a tent with a guy she could barely tolerate. With the car backed into the camping space, Raven stood off to the side watching her mother's boyfriend, Mike, start unloading the trunk.
"James, can you give us a hand here?"
Arella sauntered over to her daughter as the two men started unpacking the first tent.
"You know Raven, you could be of more help."
"Considering how much I want to be here, Arella? I'm helping out just enough."
"Just help get the rest of the stuff out of the trunk."
Raven rolled her eyes, but she figured she'd got her point across and made her way over to the vehicle where the two men were dragging a cooler off of the other tent. She cleared her throat as she walked up to the van, bumping roughly into James as the two men looked up. Mike moved out of the way, but James just shot her a dirty look. "I'll take it from here," she said, as she started moving items from the back of the trunk. Most of the belongings in the trunk became engulfed in a dark energy, even the cooler, which James was still holding on to. He shuddered as the energy touched his fingers and let go instantly.
Mike and Arella started to set up the first of the two tents while Raven was moving everything else out of the trunk, but James just stood there with his arms crossed. He wasn't glaring at her, in fact he was staring pointedly at the ground a few feet away from her, but she knew what he was thinking. She knew because she was thinking the same thing. They had to share a tent, and neither of them was particularly interested in the idea.
"This isn't my idea of a relaxing vacation either, so I would appreciate it if you would quit staring at the ground and start setting up the tent," Raven said. "I'm doing my part."
James grunted, but didn't say anything as he picked the tent bag up off the ground and started pulling out the pegs and poles. Raven simply rolled her eyes and levitated the last of the bags out of the car. When she sauntered over to help James with the tent, Raven decided not to use her powers. She'd had enough of that dirty look he'd been giving her.
Soon enough the two tents were set up and their bags stashed away inside. The four campers sat around an empty fire pit as they gathered their breath, each with a soda from the cooler in their weary hands. Well, most of them were gathering their breath. Raven was used to far more strenuous activities when she was working with the Titans. Robin insisted on hand to hand combat training every day they were at the tower. But she played the part of the good little daughter and sat quietly while everyone else collected themselves.
Raven had to admit that she liked the idea of spending some time out in the middle of nature. There were probably a million beautiful places where she could meditate peacefully, and she was looking forward to finding them. The campsite itself, however, could be crossed right off the list. With children running from site to site, the constant chatter of other campers as they collected firewood, or gathered their friends for a walk to the lake, not to mention the occasional car driving along the path as it carried in a whole new set of noisy campers to set up somewhere nearby. There were too many people, too many voices, and too many emotions to make Raven comfortable.
The young empath was watching a family of five, three campsites away from them as they struggled to erect a large, multi-room tent. The youngest of the group, a small girl with unruly brown hair and a bright yellow shirt that rivalled the brilliance of the sun, kept wandering away from her family and into the dirt road, apparently enthralled by some bug or another. Raven watched with vague amusement as the family's father had to continually drop the pole he was holding up in order to retrieve her and pull her back to the campsite. The two older boys would proceed to laugh and pick on her, before she would wander off again.
After watching this circle of behaviour for a few minutes, Raven heard rustling coming from Mike's chair. She turned to see the older man rummaging around in his pockets. Arella was watching him quietly, while James looked up briefly from the videogame Raven had only just now noticed he was playing.
"I think," Mike said, as he pulled a crumpled up piece of paper from the pocket on the left leg of his cargo shorts, his soda can sat discarded in the chair's cup holder. "We've had enough time to regain our strength. I have a list here of activities I would like for us to partake in while we're here." Of course he had a list. Mike was a very organised man, and he was always making lists. She didn't blame him anyway. If it were up to her, none of them would be doing anything together.
"I think the best thing for us to do now, is to go for a walk, orient ourselves with the campsite, and maybe find a hiking trail. What do you think."
"Sure," James said. He didn't sound too enthused, but he was putting away his game.
Raven just shrugged while her mother voiced her agreement. As they got up, James shoved roughly past her so that she had to grab her chair's armrest to stop herself from falling over. Oh how she longed to send him to another dimension.
The campsite was fairly large and family oriented. They were on a large loop on the outer side of the campsite, closer to the small beach attached to the lake. The trails were on the other side of the campsite, just past the welcome centre. They walked around for a bit first, finding the location of the bathrooms, garbage, and firewood, before picking a trail that would allow them to get back to their site before dinner.
Mike had initially tried to engage the entire group in conversation, but when Raven remained silent, and James' responses proved to be monosyllabic, Raven eventually found herself walking silently next to the other teen while their parents were about ten feet ahead of them, engaged in conversation.
After a while Raven noticed her mother shooting her vaguely annoyed looks. She sighed. "So, James... What have you been doing this summer?"
The boy looked at her, surprised. After a couple confused blinks, he responded with a shrug.
Raven grunted. "Whatever. It's not like I was that interested anyway."
James sent her a full on glare this time. "No," he said. "Of course not. Because why would my summer be more interesting than yours? How many super villains did you capture?"
"Personally? None. I don't work alone."
James snorted and glared at the path in front of them. "Whatever," he said. "Let's just go back to not talking. I liked it better that way.
Raven liked it better that way as well.
After their short hike, the group returned to their campsite to a dinner of hotdogs and potato salad. Mike insisted they make s'mores afterwards while the coals were still hot, and while Raven wasn't too keen on the idea of filling her body up with more unhealthy foods, the look of contentment on her mother's face convinced her to indulge. James ate five of them and Raven could only imagine what that was going to do to him. She wasn't looking forward to sharing the tent with him that night.
After dinner, James pulled out his video games again. Raven wondered what he was going to do when the battery ran out, but she frankly didn't care. She retreated to the tent for a bit of meditating.
That night the two of them argued over who was going to sleep on what side of the tent. "You think you can just get your way because you're special. Just let me have this." Raven was positive he only wanted to sleep there because she had tried to set up her sleeping bag there first. She had no reason to prefer to sleep there than the other side of the tent, but James' insistence was very annoying. She glared at him profusely, but in the end let him have the spot. She curled up into her own sleeping bag and drifter off into an uneasy sleep.
Maybe it was the junk food, and maybe it was the countless arguments throughout the day with James, but that night Raven dreamed of her father.
She found herself engulfed in fire, standing on ancient demonic symbols while glowing red eyes peered at her from the shadows. She couldn't see his face, but his voice echoed deeply in her head.
"YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'RE SPECIAL, BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING."
Raven awoke sweating and breathing heavily with his laugh still echoing in her ears. She couldn't do this. She couldn't stay this close to James' for as long as her mother wanted her to. She heard the boy roll over in his sleep and turned her head just in time to see his eyes open groggily.
"Wha-" he began. But Raven had already thrown off her sleeping bag and crawled urgently out of the tent.