Chapter Six

Raven sighed. She avoided malls, department stores, and any other place where she could be of public interest. Being a superhero meant that people were interested in you, and she could never seem to spare a moment to even grab whatever she had come there for.

Today was worse. People were staring, pointing at one another in earnest, and more than one had a camera. She tried to hide her face from all of the attention, but Tyler did not have the same idea she did. More than once he had knocked her hood back, exposing her to bare-bulb flashes.

"Children do not appear to be good for shopping without being noticed," Starfire said, generally oblivious to all the media attention she and Raven drew on a regular basis. Raven gritted her teeth; she had nothing to say in response. Tyler giggled and waved at a woman holding up her camera, and Raven put one hand over his little arm, using the other to hold her hood down.

"That store sells the clothing of children!" Starfire announced, pointing ahead at the massive Sears Store that occupied a corner of the mall. Without another word, Raven quickened the pace of her steps, wrapping her arm around Tyler as she did so.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to protect him or herself.

Once in, she pulled her hood down and gently removed Tyler from the safe nest she had made with her cloak. He grinned at her, and Raven smiled back, unable to help but giggle at this little boy who had caused such a stir in her arms, dressed in a long t-shirt, standing in the middle of a department store.

"May I help you?" A nearby attendant asked.

"There's no help for us," Raven blurted out, and almost laughed at herself.

"I assume you are looking for clothes for the child?" The attendant pressed. She could see the eager look on his face, and knew that he knew who they were. Starfire had glided over to look at something, ignoring the situation.

"Yes," Raven said. "Could you do me a favor and attempt to keep the crowds at bay while we look for something for him?" Outside, the group of people peering in the windows had grown. Raven sighed; she felt trapped here, but they had to get Tyler what he needed and get him back outside.

"Of course," said the woman, and went over to the door to do crowd control. Raven picked up Tyler, who giggled, and went running over to Starfire.

"We need to find him some clothes!" Raven said in earnest. Suddenly she realized she was treating Tyler more like a mission, like something important, than as a nuance.

"Let us go, then!" Starfire said. If she had any memory or remaining bitterness from their altercation on the bus, it did not show. She walked quickly with a smile on her face, dripping water along the tile floor.

The two made their way into the children's department, where Raven set the kid on the floor and began to look around at the variety of cute clothing for children. "I propose that we put him in this outfit!" said Starfire.

Raven turned to see her holding up a frilly dress with a tiny panda on the front. She almost laughed, then bit her lip. "Let's stick with boy's clothes, okay?"

"Of course," Starfire said, and began to look around.

While the two dug through racks, they paid little to no attention to Tyler. At first, he simply tottered along behind Raven, laughing and looking up at all the different things she and Starfire were discussing. After a while, however, he became quiet.

"I think are finally having enough!" Starfire said to Raven. Raven found that she was holding well over thirty outfits across her arms, where Starfire had heaped them.

"He's not going to stay with us forever," Raven reminded Starfire. "Let's cut this down to three or four."

"But what if he does stay with us forever?" Starfire asked Raven, brushing her hair back. "He likes us. He is like a family member!"

"But Starfire…" Raven trailed off. A difficult emotion had stepped forward in her; she knew she was attached to this little boy. "He's probably not going to be ours to keep."

"I wish that he would be," Starfire said. "This is one of the only times I have seen you enjoy shopping. You have said that things 'are cute', which you will never say."

Raven blushed. "I am happy," she admitted. "But we can't let ourselves get too attached to things we might not always have."

Starfire was silent then, picking up several of the outfits and placing them on the front of the racks closest to them. Together, with little argument and more agreement than they usually had, the two managed to place the outfits that they did not need back. Raven took a step forward carrying the four outfits. "Come on, Tyler," she said, looking down around her ankles.

For the second time that day, panic clutched at her chest. "Where's Tyler?" She forced out.

"I…" Starfire spun in a circle, looking for the baby. "I do not see him."

Both women began to search for the baby. Raven ran up to the front desk and asked the man if anyone had been allowed in the store, and she was told that she and Starfire were not the only people in the store.

"Starfire… Have you found him?"

Just then, they both heard laughing. Bending down, Raven and Starfire discovered Tyler, safe under a clothing rack. "Found a house!" He said, and they could see behind him several varieties of make-up, toys, and other house ware.

"I am glad you are safe!" Starfire told him, sweeping him up in her arms. Both girls noticed that he was a mess again, the make-up he'd swiped from a display all over his face and Robin's night-shirt, but both were too happy to care.

The two women checked out quickly and without incident, Raven cursing herself for panicking and for caring so much. Outside of the store, the crowd was waiting for them, and Raven held Tyler loosely to her side, fighting through, ignoring the reporters who were beginning to ask a variety of questions on everything from the child's origins to her relationship with Starfire, which one reporter had heard had expanded to the pair of them adopting children together.

She cursed her fame in her head.

Suddenly someone tugged on Tyler, who began to scream. Raven felt him yanked from her arms and turned to look in time to see a man running through the crowd quickly, knocking people aside with what appeared to be a greater than average strength.

She was aware she was screaming, and then she was aware Starfire was screaming, and both of them ran in the direction of the man.

The headline that night was that the Titan Baby had been kidnapped, with a picture of Raven, her face twisted in motherly concern, holding Starfire's hand as they ran after Tyler.

A/n: I think I'm over my writer's block now, even if I'm not sure where this story's going. Please excuse the lack of humor in this chapter; its about to get better.