Chapter 2

Nightstar's POV:

After my early morning training session with my brother Darkstar, I started making my morning rounds. I fly around the tower each day to make sure everything is as it should be. Plus I usually have to wake up the lazy members of my team. Today I had to be extra vigilant, because of the arrival of the mighty Titans, or as I like to call them, our parents. Although, out of all of them I'm more worried about my dad, Nightwing. Getting him to admit I'm doing a good job, and to see that I'm not a little girl anymore is about as hard as getting anyone (but Changeling) to get Raven to smile. My mom, on the other hand, thinks EVERYTHING I do is perfect. The only thing similar about my parents is that both see me as a five-year-old girl, instead of being a seventeen-year-old teenager.

Once I got to the sleeping quarters I went into every bedroom for a quick inspection. First is my room, and having cleaned it already this morning, all I had to do was double check that everything was perfect. I guess one could call me OCD, but I get it honestly. Next is Darkstar's room. He told me he took care of it this morning, but I know my brother enough to know that his clean is NOT my clean. Normally I would knock first, but since I already know that he's in the kitchen eating breakfast and not in his room, I just let myself in. As predicted his trash bin by his desk was over flowing with trash and his bed was poorly made. *Sign* "Well at least he put some effort, unlike some people I know." I muttered as I quickly made some finishing touches to his room and once I was satisfied I continued down the hall to Stinger's and now Sparrow's room. Even through the closed door I could hear them running around in there trying (and probably failing) to make their room and themselves presentable. Hesitantly, I knock on their door. The room went dead silent. After a minute went by I tried to knock again when suddenly the door slid open to reveal two, shockingly, very clean teen girls.

Sparrow had her purple hair in a ponytail with a hair band on top of her head. The hair band was green with a bird sticking out of it. The rest of her outfit was her normal uniform which was much like her dad's old uniform. Stinger had her hair up too, but in a braid. The rest of her was dressed exactly like her mom's uniform. She also had a special bracelet that she and her dad designed together. It does lots of useful things for her, but I don't know all the details. Though I'm sure if I asked she would spend the whole day trying to explain it to me. She could talk all day about either technology or insects. Never of which interest me.

"Howdy Boss! Can we help you?" Asked Sparrow. Always the sarcastic jokester.

"Hey guys! Just going around the tower to do a thorough inspection on all the rooms. Gotta get everything ready before our important guests arrive." Stinger nodes knowingly while Sparrow just rolls her eyes. She always has something to say and it usually contradicts me.

"You know Boss, you're our leader, not our babysitter. We don't need you to tell us how to clean OUR room!" She said while gesturing towards Stinger.

"Well sometimes you guys make me feel like both! With the way you two slack off all the time I'm surprised you guys even remembered they were coming today!" Seeing both their faces go pail made me realize that they did in fact forget. I rolled my eyes at their reaction and then asked if I could come in. Reluctantly, they agreed and I was greeted with yet another non-perfect mess. This one though, lacked any effort. Clothes, books, and who knows what else were scattered all over the room. If I'm not a babysitter than I'm a maid. I started to get to work cleaning up the room, when I was suddenly interrupted by a gloved hand grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around so that I faced the hands owner. "Ahh! Sparrow! What are you doing?" I shouted.

"I should be asking you that!"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm helping you guys clean up this mess before one of our parents sees it and kills us!"

"First of all, it's our room," Sparrow again gestured to Stinger and herself, "not yours. And second, it's no one's business on how our room looks. It's our room, not yours, and definitely not our parents. We are old enough to keep our room however we like it. And I would be happy to tell any of our parents the same thing." Sparrow ended her rant with her arms crossed and a confident smirk.

"Fine, whatever. Do what you want. I'm too busy to argue today. But if any of your mess steps foot out of this room-

"It won't." Interrupted Sparrow. I sent her a glare and pointed at her, which she returned with a glare of her own.

"It better not." And with that I left the room and hurried to the last bedroom to check.

When I approached the door I immediately froze. A shiver went down my back as I felt the temperature dropping from being so far away from the heater. The teammate that lived here preferred being as far away as possible from the main room. I held myself as another shiver was sent through me. "How can he stand being so cold?" I mumbled to myself. Suddenly the door slid open and a monotone voice followed. "My blood is naturally warmer than most. Plus I can always morph into a winter animal if it gets cold enough." In front of me stood the owner of that voice.

"How did you..."

"Animal hearing, remember?" He replied while wiggling his pointed ears. Both his sister and himself look like their dad except for the purple hair and eyes. Sparrow has her mother's body shape, but other than that you can definitely tell these two were Changeling's twins. The boy standing in front of me was Crow. He wore a similar suit to his sister's, but he also sported a dark green cloak that resembled is mother's.

"Oh, right. Well, all knowing one, care to let me in for a moment?"

"That depends. Care to tell me why you are in such a foul mood?"

"Ugh! Can I at least come in first?"

Crow smiled and step away, inviting me into his room. Although, he was more like his mother than Sparrow, he still had his fathers' good-natured spirit. Crow's room was lit up by the morning sun that came through a medium sized window. He still had his twin size bed from when he shared his room with his twin sister. It occupied the far left corner of the room. The whole room was painted a forest green, but only the left side had pictures of family and friends taped to the wall much like Sparrow's half of her new room. On the right side of Crow's room was another twin sized bed, but it was normally stripped bare. It's been a year now since the twins finally separated, but it seemed that Crow was still prepared for her to move back in whenever she felt like it. Though part of me pitied him for being so alone, I also felt admiration for him being such a kind and loving brother. I looked back at the now move-in ready extra bed and I couldn't help, but ask why he had made another bed.

"Oh, that's just for one of my sisters when the family gets here. You know one of them will be sleeping here since they obviously can't share a room." Crow explained. I just nodded in understanding. Crow and Sparrow have a younger sister named Arella. She's only 6 and tends to get on Sparrow's bad side. And everyone knows that both sisters share their mother's temper. So the two sisters sharing a room was not a possibility. Only Crow would think so far ahead.

"So you're in here, now tell me what's bothering you."

*Sigh* "Well you know how things are when our parents visit." Crow just nodded his head, waiting for me to continue. "Everything has to be perfect or they'll spend the week complaining again. About how we're either too young or too immature to be on our own for so long." Crow nodded his head again and looked to be in deep thought. "So I just want this visit to go smoothly and your irrational, arrogant sister always has to mess things up somehow, someway!" That seemed to snap him back to reality.

"I think I get what's going on now." Crow started. "You're worried about what our parents will think when they see Sparrow's lack of cleaning habits. But I think you're more worried about getting your dad's approval. And so you are trying to do the impossible, by making everything perfect by you and your dad's standards." As always Crow is able to read me like a book. He gets that from his mom or so I'm told. I simply bow my head in shame as I await his inedible advice. Yet he just smiles at me, a small yet filled with care kind of smile, which only he could give.

"Well?" I questioned.

"Oh you want my advice?" His smile turned to a fake surprised look and his eyes started to show amusement.

"Ha...Ha... very funny, but can I please have at least one other serious person on this team, besides myself?"

"Haha... ok as you wish oh serious leader!" He taunted. Earning him one of my famous eye rolls. "My advice is... don't worry. Sparrow is Sparrow, if you tell her to do anything she'll refuse. You have to make her think it was her idea. And as far as keeping her room clean, trust me she would never be dumb enough to let mother see her room the way she normally has it. Stop trying so hard to strive for an impossible goal. You're a great leader and from the way the reports look, you're just about as great as Nightwing was when he was still Robin. At the very least that's what it looks like on paper. Just enjoy seeing our families for a change. After all this whole week is about us and your amazing leadership." Crow was referring to the whole reason for our parents visit. This week marks my teams two year anniversary and my dad is going to be throwing a big Titan party in my teams honor. And I'm supposed to just sit back and relax. This time I mentally roll my eyes.

"Thanks Crow. I'll keep the whole Sparrow thing in mind. And I promise to at least try and relax."

"That's all we could ever ask of you. And by we I mean the team and I." I just nodded my head and left the room at that. I started flying towards the kitchen to see what my brother has cooked for breakfast. I checked my communicator for the time. 8:00 a.m. Our parents will be here in two hours. Just glorious!