"I'm sorry, Rae! We were just playing… hide and seek! Yeah, hide and seek, that's it."
Raven raised an eyebrow but handed our daughter to me all the same.
"Watch her more carefully, please?" She yawned, obviously desperate to trust him and get some sleep.
"Of course," I said with a smile, tickling Mia. I ran back down the stairs to Cyborg, who was watching Hannah and Chloe for me while I talked to Raven.
"You're an idiot, BB," he said with a grin as I put Mia down next to her sisters, "I can't believe you."
"What?" I asked, "You were watching them too, genius."
Cyborg shrugged. "Well, I'm not their daddy!"
I almost shrieked at that, as every mention of me being a father made it more real… which made me happy. I loved this feeling… it was like being in love, but a billion times better. Everything I'd done since I found out had been about Mia and now her sisters was about them; and I loved it that way. Cyborg seemed to see my excitement and patted me on the back.
"You know, a lot of kids out there would love to have a dad like you. You have 3 very lucky little girls, buddy."
I smiled at him and looked back down at the girls who had already fallen asleep. They were lying very close together, Hannah and Chloe cuddling Mia who was lying in the middle.
"They must've missed her!" Cyborg mused, "Isn't that just adorable?"
I nodded, laughing. "Help me pick them up and bring them to their bedroom."
I took Chloe and Cyborg took Hannah and Mia. We walked up the stairs carefully as not to wake them, looking for a door that showed a clue of being for babies. We saw one immediately. It was right beside the one I saw Raven go into and was labeled with the girls' names and their handprints.
"I think this is it, Cy."
"No way, BB."
I opened the door and smiled at the beautiful room Raven had taken the time to create. Knowing Raven, I knew that it wouldn't be pink. I was right, of course. It was themed in lavender, fitting for the mother. There was a rocking chair in the corner of the room right next to a basket of what I assumed to be burping cloths and a filled (with diapers, wipes, and the like) changing table. There were 3 cribs, each one with an embroidered pillow of the first initial of the owner and a nameplate on the wall with their full name. They each had their own dresser next to their crib which, upon inspection, were full of different outfits for every occasion.
"Nice room," Cyborg whispered as he put the girls in their cribs. I put Chloe in hers and we left the room. I looked to Cyborg, wondering if he was thinking the same thing as I. I was a very nosy person, after all, and this was the home of my former- well, present- love. I couldn't help but have the urge to poke around a bit! He nodded and we went exploring.
The first room we went in was an office. It had an awesome looking computer, complete with printer and scanner, a copier/fax machine, and tons and tons of books. This seemed to be where Raven had put her book collection from the tower. I smiled faintly as I ran my finger over the spine of the books. Cyborg, who apparently was getting bored, told me to hurry up. I don't know what enticed me so much about these books but it was hard to pull myself away. We walked to the next room, which was a gym. Cy looked surprised but I wasn't. I knew that when we were Titans Raven had gone to the gym every day to work out. She didn't stay so in shape by reading all day, of course!
The next room was a playroom. I was shocked at how many toys Raven had bought for the girls, especially considering how little they were. She already had three tricycles in there, for God's sake! I wasn't surprised though. I, knowing Raven the best, knew she was the type to spoil her children even if it didn't seem that way. At this thought, I realized how many thoughts I had been thinking about knowing Raven the best… and realized that they were all true! Smug with this, I headed downstairs; we had finished all of the upstairs rooms besides Raven's bedroom and a couple of guest bedrooms. The first room, besides the parlor where we had entered and the living room, was the kitchen. It was a cozy kitchen, with a cute counter seating area and all of the normal kitchen utensils. There was a big binder on the counter which I opened to find tons of order-in menus. I smiled, knowing that Raven had never been much of a cook. We passed through the dining room to find a huge library. Apparently I had been wrong about the books in Raven's office being her collection; there were enough in her to form a public library! I was hardly surprised, knowing her obsession with reading. The next room, the last of Raven's home, came as quite a surprise to me. The room was much like Robin's bedroom in the tower. It was filled with newspaper clippings and pictures which seemed to be put into sections. The first section I found was the triplets. There were tons of newspaper (and tabloid) clippings that I was surprised I had missed. "Premature Triplets born to Former Titan", "Who is the father of Raven's babies?", "Jump's First All-Girl Triplets born to Raven!" and "Triplets doubted to live reach 6 months" were just some of the headlines. There were also pictures of the girls' growth and development over time. Next to that was the Titan's section. It was pictures of Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin. Weirdly, though, there were no pictures of me or her. We both were cut out of all the group pictures (where we always seemed to be standing together, oddly enough). I frowned at this until I saw the next section, the biggest of all. It was all about me! Pictures of me, clippings from the newspaper of me, my entire official bio from the Titans files, and tons of unofficial bios from our fan websites. I was mesmerized, running my fingers over the pictures and wondering why Raven had taken the time to create this huge collage.
At this moment, Raven walked in.
"Why are you two walking around my house? You have no right to sneak around like that! And where the hell are my kids?"
I was a bit taken aback by her harshness until he realized… Raven had been worried we had left her!
"Our kids, Rae, and they're sleeping in their bedroom. Love what you did with it, by the way."
Raven rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the worry she had about being abandoned.
