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Promises
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Nightwing sat in his office – well, Evidence Room – trying to finish off the next pile of paperwork. What people didn't realize was that a hero's work isn't all fighting and bashing criminals. What would he give if that were really all there was to it…
He grit his teeth, suppressing the urge to throw the whole six piles of twenty pages each off the desk and across the room. He could see that Raven had tried to do some of it (no one could mistake that neat handwriting) but from what he had read in the crime log and the papers, the Titans had had their hands full.
Anyway, none of the other Titans had experience in this area, as he was usually the one filling these papers out. No one had forced him to do so, but as the leader, he felt this was his duty to the team. They had a hard enough time fighting supervillains; they shouldn't have to do such mundane and tedious work.
He smothered the tiny voice that said, what about you?
He also suspected that he didn't exactly trust them to do a thorough job with this, when a small mistake might lead to an irritating legal problem. Funny, he trusted them with his life, but not with something as trivial as this.
He heard the door open behind him.
"I still have a whole lot to do, Star," he said without looking up. But it was a different voice that met his ears.
"It's Raven, Nightwing."
He spun around in his seat, and sure enough, the cloaked figure of his teammate was outlined at the door.
"Raven? What are you doing here?" he said with a considerable amount of surprise. She didn't say anything, just approached his overflowing desk and stood beside him.
"Go back to your work, you can hear me talk while you do."
Nightwing laid down his pen. "Nope. When my sister's trying to tell me something, it's usually important, so I think the papers can wait."
Raven crossed her arms, and Nightwing suddenly felt the pen wedge itself between his fingers. He looked down at his right hand and saw the pen encased in Raven's dark energy.
"If that's the attitude you have, it's going to take a few years to finish all that, instead of a few hours," she said smugly. "Now hurry up and start, so I can start talking."
Nightwing shrugged his shoulders in defeat, and flashing her a smile, he leaned over the papers again. There was a long period of silence, the scratching of the pen the only sound that could be heard. Nightwing wondered what Raven wanted to say to him, but he waited in silence, knowing there was no hurrying her.
When he had finished the third pile, (Thank goodness, he thought,) Raven slightly shifted her feet, the rustling of her cloak a sudden sound in the quiet.
"I'm guessing that you already finished reading the crime log," she said, her voice abrupt.
"Yes," Nightwing replied, pulling another piece of paper towards him.
"Have you read all the newspaper articles yet?"
"No, not yet."
Nightwing couldn't see where this conversation was going, but he didn't voice his thoughts.
What Raven said next was as unexpected as anything.
"I'm sorry."
The pen made a slight detour, squeaking in protest at the pressure of his hand.
"I messed up a lot of things."
Nightwing replaced the cap on the pen and laid it on his desk before facing her.
"What are you talking about? You did just fine."
Raven's voice was bitter. "So fine in fact, that the crime rate skyrocketed for two months before dying back down, and that was just because we brought Bumblebee in."
"Now that you mention it, what do you think about making her a permanent addition to the team?"
"Don't change the subject."
Nightwing sighed. "Look," he said, "Everyone makes mistakes. I've made more mistakes than anyone else in the team, and serious ones too, but you guys have always forgiven me. Besides, your 'mistakes' weren't really mistakes. I bet when the villains realized that both Starfire and me were gone, they would have had a ball. It's happened more times than I can count back in Gotham."
Raven still looked guilty. Nightwing stood up and placed both hands on her shoulders. "We're both so much alike, aren't we? Always blaming things on ourselves." He led her to the door and opened it. "Come on, let's get out of here. The papers can rot for all I care."
Raven tried to backtrack. "But –" she started, digging her heels into the floor.
"Starfire'll be mad at me if I stay in here much longer anyway," Nightwing cut in. "C'mon, Raven, let me have some fun!"
Dumbfounded, Raven's hold on the floor loosened and Nightwing began to escort her to the Ops Room.
"Now, if that was Beastboy talking it would make sense," Raven muttered, "But Nightwing? Our obsessive leader?"
As they entered the Ops Room, his hold on her loosened, and she saw his black hair stream slightly behind him as he ran into the open arms of Starfire, who looked delightedly surprised. He held her up in his arms and placed a large kiss on her lips.
"Admiring the scenery, Rae?" came a sly voice in her ear. She turned around to see Beastboy leaning on the doorframe behind her.
She spun back towards the room, just in time to see Nightwing and Starfire lean even closer into each other in a full make out session. She spun right back around and found herself literally nose to nose with a green face.
"You know you want to," he said, his breath smelling remarkably like the sweet scent of freshly cut grass in the summer evening. So strong, so overpowering… Suddenly she noticed how long and thick his eyelashes were. Inside her mind, Happy shrieked happily, and Love gasped, her eyes wide and shining. Go on, go ahead!
Oh, what the heck, thought Raven, and pulled Beastboy's head towards her, locking him in a strong kiss. Beastboy only looked surprised for a moment, before lifting her up in his arms and exiting the room, lips still in contact. The door swished closed behind them.
No one noticed anything.
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Nightwing stood in front of the whole team assembled in the Ops Room.
"We're going to go to Gotham this weekend…if that's okay with all of you."
No one said anything for a moment.
"Just a question, but do we have any choice in this in the first place?" Bumblebee asked.
"About going, no. About when to go, yes." Nightwing replied.
Beastboy jumped up from his seat next to Raven on the sofa. "Well then, everything's settled! Gotham, here we come!"
Raven pulled him back down by the sleeve. "Wait just a moment, Beastboy. Nightwing, are we going to leave the city totally unprotected while we go on a pleasure trip?"
Nightwing shook his head and gave out a short bark of laughter. "Of course not! I've asked the Justice League to cover for us."
Everyone looked round-eyed at him.
"Oh, come on," Nightwing said, exasperated. "They're not that great and mighty, and anyway, we came up with the team idea first."
The rest of the team still looked awestruck.
Nightwing rolled his eyes (which, very luckily, could not be seen under his mask) and said, "Well, if everything is in order, I'll tell Batman to be expecting us."
When he had left, the Titans began to chatter excitedly.
"The Justice League is covering for us. The Justice League!!" Beastboy said, his eyes practically shining. "What an honor!"
Raven pulled up her hood. "Actually, I don't see what's so great about them filling our post for us."
"I agree with Raven," Starfire said. "The Justice League is merely another team of heroes, like ourselves. Friend Flash is a founding member, do you not recall?"
"Yeah, I remember. Lucky duck."
"C'mon BB," Cyborg said, "Don't tell me you're jealous?"
Beastboy crossed his arms. "A'course not! Why would I be?"
Bumblebee rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, you wouldn't be jealous of a trivial thing like that."
Beastboy gawked at her. "Whaddaya mean, trivial? I mean, they're the greatest group of heroes in this century! Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl…"
"And Flash." Raven cut in. "If you're going to hero-worship them, don't do it here. We're all heroes, and I for one, consider myself on the same level as they are."
She stood up and left the room with a swish of her cloak, Starfire close behind her.
Beastboy casually leaned back on the sofa with his hands behind his head, eyes closed. "Ah, she's jealous."
Cyborg poked Beastboy in the side, which made him jump up and open his eyes with a yelp. "You wish," Cyborg said with a grin, making Bumblebee laugh. "Though I do think it's a big deal, them helping us. Whatever Nightwing might say, almost everyone there's been fighting crime way longer than us."
"Yeah, I've heard so many stories about Superman, I want to see for myself how much is real and how much is fiction." Bumblebee added.
Cyborg nudged Beastboy with a certain gleam in his eyes. "Yo, BB, want to do some vidgames before we have to go meet the Bat?"
Beastboy answered with a similar gleam in his own eyes. "Oh, you're on! The right side controller's mine!"
"Oh, no you don't!" Cyborg cried, trying to tackle Beastboy American football style, but Beastboy morphed into a crow and flew up, the controller safely clutched in his claws.
"Ha!" he cried out in triumph.
"I'll just be going then," Bumblebee said over their loud scuffles, but no one noticed. "Great," she muttered to herself, then let herself out the door.
"Did she say something?" Cyborg asked Beastboy after losing to their battle for the controller. Beastboy shrugged his shoulders with an undistinguishable sound issuing from his mouth.
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"Whoa."
Beastboy, or should we say, Garfield Logan, nearly dropped his suitcase from his lap onto his feet, staring up at the large building on top of the high hill that was Wayne Manor. The wind through the open car window gently ruffled his hologrammed blond hair as the rest of the Titans stared up at the mansion as well. It wasn't overly extravagant, but it was quite large.
Starfire had been here several times before, and thus wasn't fazed at all. "I cannot wait to see Tim and k'norfka Bruce and Alfred again," she said excitedly.
"I can't wait either," Dick smiled. He called out to the driver, "Hey, Victor, you probably have to steer a little to the right to get there."
"Will do," Victor Stone said. "Yo, Karen, what do you think of Dick's childhood home?"
Karen's eyes were glued to the windows. "It's quite a mansion," she replied. "Wish I had a home as great as this."
Rachel was impressed too, but her blank face didn't show it at all. She just pulled at her black hair from deep under the navy blue hoodie she was wearing.
Garfield leaned over to whisper into her ear. "It's pretty as it is, Rae."
"Raven," she corrected immediately. "Well, Rachel for the majority of this trip." She stared at her teammate's hologrammed face. It felt so foreign every time he used it…at least he didn't change his eyes. He cocked his head slightly, a questioning expression on his face. She quickly looked away, a slight blush adamantly creeping onto her cheeks.
The moment they properly parked their car (actually, rented car) on the lawn, Starfire hopped out, and rang the bell with enthusiasm. The rest of the Titans slowly straggled out as she positively fizzled with glee. The door finally opened, and Tim barreled out, straight into Starfire's strong arms.
"Nice to see you too, Kori," he managed to say, encircling his arms around her too. She held him out at arm's length.
"You have grown to become quite a young man," she commented with a smile.
"It would be nice if he acted like one," came a slightly amused voice from the door.
"Bruce!" Kori cried, bestowing a strong hug on him as well. "Finally, I have acquired the chance to give to you a proper hello."
Bruce chuckled. "Well, I suppose you have," he said.
Dick arrived at the scene, heaving a suitcase along with him. "Hi, Bruce," he said.
"Well, let us have the pleasantries inside." Alfred said. Gesturing at the door, he added, "Shall we?"
Garfield, Rachel, Victor and Karen all trooped in, dragging suitcases of their own.
"Please, leave your bags at the door," Bruce said, "I'll take them to your rooms later."
Dick did set his suitcase down, but he crossed his arms stubbornly. "Bruce, I used to live here. We're not just guests…well, my friends are, but I'm not. They're as much my guests as yours. I'm going to be the one to take the bags up."
Bruce shrugged lightly. "Fine with me."
"Master Bruce, why don't we show our guests the dining room?" Alfred cut in.
Soon everyone was seated around the long table. Garfield's eyes were still darting around everywhere, trying to see everything at once. Only when Rachel elbowed him in the side did he stop pivoting his head around and pay attention to the company gathered.
"So," Dick began, "I guess we should introduce everyone first. Bruce, this is Rachel, Garfield, Victor and Karen," he said, gesturing to Raven, Beastboy, Cyborg and Bumblebee in turn. "I think you've met everyone before, except Karen. Everyone, this is Bruce Wayne, my father, and Alfred, our butler."
"Hi," the Titans all chorused.
Alfred set seven cups of tea on the table. "Thank you, Alfred," Kori said warmly, looking up at him.
"You are most welcome, Miss Anders." Alfred replied with a little bow, heading towards the kitchen again.
"Now that we're all here," Bruce said, "Let's talk. Dick, what do you plan to do?"
Dick looked dumbfounded. "Uh, plan to do?"
"About yourself." Bruce's intense blue gaze seemed to bore into his face. "About your Dick Grayson self that you've neglected for the past, oh, eight years."
Dick looked slightly insulted. "I haven't neglected it!" he complained. "I've done my SATs, I finished college…"
"Fine," Bruce said, "But what about your marriage?"
"What about it?"
All the Titan's eyes switched towards Bruce.
"You and Kori are already known as a couple," he said, with an air of explaining the obvious. "Nightwing and Starfire are married, though I've noticed no one knows yet, not even the superhero community."
Dick didn't say anything, so Bruce plowed on.
"What I'm saying is, what are you going to do with yourselves? When are you going to get married as Dick and Kori?"
There was a collective silence. Everyone was looking at Dick, who looked genuinely surprised.
"You…you're going to let us get married? Just like that?" he stammered incredulously.
Bruce grinned. "Yes, just like that."
"But I thought you would…well…"
A raised eyebrow.
"Well?"
"Throw a fuss and refuse to let me get married."
Bruce's smile widened. "I was planning to. But, considering the fact that you've been already married for a year, and the fact that the marriage is essentially unknown to the public, I think it'll be safe for you to do so."
Kori flew over to Bruce and did what Dick wanted to do, but could not. She almost knocked him off his chair with a sound hug.
"You're welcome," Bruce chuckled.
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Fireflyoflight457's comment made me realize that this chapter, especially the last bit, would be somewhat confusing.
Well, the reason there's going to be a second marriage is because Dick Grayson's persona isn't married just yet. As he still needs his civilian face, he's going to have to marry Kori as Dick. Especially since Dick and Kori aren't "legally" married in the US yet.
The thing is, Dick thought Bruce would force him to keep up his "playboy" image for a while before marriage so people won't suspect that Dick might be Nightwing, but it seems Bruce will go easy on him this time.
So, as always, your opinion matters! Reviews are the perfect way to tell me what you think of this…