"I will see you soon, yes?"
"Sure, Koriand'r- Soon."
"I will stop into the store of books to see you, friend!"
"Yes, yes... I'll see you then."
If she'd been anyone else, Raven would've chuckled to herself at the other girl's vitality, but instead she just shook her head and continued walking back down the road.
About an hour after the other girl started helping, the park was clean.
Koriand'r was fast, she'd give her that much.
Raven made it about half a block before stopping short- panic; overwhelming and so strong she could almost taste it- the same feeling from the night in the alley.
"That was pretty risky of you."
She put a hand to her chest, trying to center, trying, desperately, to keep her heart from giving out on her.
"You.."
"You remember me! And just from the sound of my voice! I'm honored, truly."
"What do you want?" She tried to sound more confident than she was, but she knew it wasn't fooling him. She knew, without a doubt, that the man speaking to her could, without any effort, rip her to shreds.
The sick part was, he knew it too. And he enjoyed it.
"Well, girly, I just stopped by to say 'hi', see how you were." His movement registered in her peripheral vision, skittering off to the distant right until finally coming into focus to her side. "The thing is- your friends there, they think you're a coward. But they don't know the half of it, do they, Raven? Did you tell them what you're running from? Did you tell them why you can't possibly be a hero?"
She shook her head mutely, hand still clutched to her chest, eyes staring forward, never even flickering to look at him.
"I didn't think so. You might want to consider cutting ties with them- you know, in the end, you'll be the one they're hunting." He glanced at his watch and made a surprised face, which Raven, even through her own terror, could tell was faked, "Oops. Would you look at the time; I've got to run! You have a good night. Oh, and Raven? I wouldn't leave the house tonight."
And he was gone.
Even hours after locking her door and curling up in bed she couldn't sleep. The frantic pounding in her chest wouldn't let her.
~X~
"Raven, my dear! Welcome!"
For the first time since yesterday afternoon, Raven felt something other than fear.
"Alice, how are you?"
"I'm fine, just fine. I'm so happy to have you working here! I think I might have gone a little overboard.." She pulled back the curtain separating the employee area from the main store front and Raven gasped with surprise- A banner hung cheerfully from the wall, "Welcome Raven!", the table was covered in confetti and had that largest cake Raven had ever seen before sitting on top of it. There were balloons scattered throughout- Raven nearly started crying. She thought, somewhat wryly, that this woman seemed to have that effect on her.
"Alice, this is beautiful but I'm sorry to have put you through the trouble.."
"Hush now, Raven. This is nothing. Besides, my granddaughter made the cake." She looked around conspiratorially, then stage whispered, "it's from a box." Raven laughed in spite of herself, before glancing worriedly at the book that slid off the coffee table. If Alice noticed, she paid it no mind and ushered Raven further into the room.
"I know it's ten in the morning, but it's never too early for cake, am I right?" She smiled brightly and Raven's heart skipped a beat. This woman was exactly what she had always imagined a grandmother to be like. She bit down melancholy and smiled a little in response.
"I've heard that's the case. I don't eat cake very often, so it's pretty exciting."
This time, Alice was the one to laugh, "I should eat cake less often. Hopefully with you here I won't feel obligated to finish the whole thing." She made her way towards the confection and cut Raven a slice large enough to make up her total calorie count for the week. She then cut herself a slab and brought them to the table, where a pitcher of milk and some glasses were already waiting for them. Raven sat and waited for Alice to start eating her slice before taking a bite of her own.
"Goddess, that is good."
"I know- my Sarah has a knack for baking. I'll tell her you approve."
Raven quickly downed the slice she'd been given and two glasses of milk. Upon a polite but firm reminder from Alice, she cut herself a second slice. It was gone only slightly slower.
"You wouldn't think it from looking at you, but you have a sweet tooth."
"I never really knew. I don't have the money to spend on sweets and I never had the opportunity to try them when I was young."
"We'll fix that. I'm always buying snacks for the store. I tell myself it's for the customers, but of course it never makes it that far." Raven smiled indulgently, but secretly wondered about the other woman's sugar intake.
"Do you know how to use a cash register?"
"The basics, yes."
"And of course you know the alphabet. I'll show you how to place orders later, but the store mostly runs itself."
Raven nodded, scooping the remaining crumbs off the plate onto her fork and into her mouth. Box or not, that was the best meal Raven could ever remember having.
"You get a forty percent discount, anything in the store. And don't be shy about ordering books you think will sell."
A crashing sound could be heard from outside and Raven instinctively jumped, dropping her paper plate in the process. An end table suddenly decided to give up on life, and toppled to it's side. Alice looked in the general direction that the noise came from, a sad look on her face.
"This used to be such a nice area.. Now, crime is everywhere in this city. It's becoming as bad as Gotham used to be."
Raven remained silent, bending forward slightly to pick up her plate and place it on the coffee table.
"It's a shame there isn't a way to fight back."
Raven stood and righted the end table- it hadn't been damaged in her negligence, just knocked aside.
"Maybe one day we'll be able to reclaim this city, eh, Raven?"
Staring at the wall that the crash had been behind, Raven nodded once. "Maybe."
~X~
"Maybe you should apologize to her."
"Me? Apologize? She's the one in the wrong."
"If you want to lead a group, you have to realize that everyone has different abilities. This Raven of yours might have never fought before in her life. But more than that, everyone has different emotional needs. If she's half as stubborn and prideful as you, you're going to need to grovel a bit to get her back.""Then I'll find someone else."
"Robin. Don't be arrogant. To lead means, occasionally, to give in for the benefit of the group. This is one of those times."
"Fine." Dick answered and cut the video feed sharply.
If that's what it took, then he'd be the most apologetic guy on the planet. But he sure as hell wasn't going to like it.