Garfield dropped his bag near the door.
"Hey, Rae, Kori's here to see you," he shouted as he headed towards the fridge.
Kori examined the room while they waited. Nice television, nowhere near the home theater at Wayne Manor but bigger than the one at their apartment. Bland walls with white blinds and a few pictures. Kori ran their fingers along one frame. A skinny, shirtless, soaking-wet boy holding a turtle up to the camera.
"This is you?" they asked as Garfield returned.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," he said. "I think I was, like, six? Five? I dunno. Somewhere in there."
He stirred his hummus with a carrot. Kori grinned.
"It is a good picture."
"Yeah, Dad took all the good ones."
Kori frowned. "You really do not miss him?"
Garfield shrugged and chomped on his snack. Kori's frown deepened.
"I miss mine."
Garfield only stared at them, chewing slowly. They sighed and plopped onto the couch.
"Apologies. I know I am… odd."
"Woah, not the same," said Garfield. "Like, not even in the same time zone. My dad left. Yours died. Besides, I've had a lot more time to grieve. You've had, what? A year, tops?"
"Seven months," Kori replied. "I have not been able to speak to my siblings, either."
"That sucks, bro. Even Rae gets to talk to her family if she wants to."
"Not that I want to."
Kori and Garfield both snapped to Raven's voice. A black tee shirt and soft pajama pants replaced her normal skin-tight attire, and a soft blue towel wrapped around her head, tucking away her hair. Red scratches peeked through pink skin, and her eyes sported black shadows that made them seem darker than usual. Kori smiled gently back.
"I brought your homework," they said. "We have a group project in history, so I suggested you be with me."
"Just us?"
"Oh. No, Richie is on our team, too."
Raven tipped her head. "The QBD kid?"
"Yes."
Garfield swallowed his snack and asked, "What's that?"
"Quiet but deadly," Raven said. "You know, the kind of kid that looks like he's waiting for the right day to bring a bomb to school."
"Wait, serously?"
Rae rolled her eyes and said, "Well… no. It's just the vibe he gives off."
Garfield shook his head. "He's actually really cool. Or he used to be, in middle school."
"You know him?" Kori asked, genuine curiosity evident in their tone.
"Yeah, we were in spec-."
Garfield's phone buzzed urgently. With a squeak, he fumbled to answer and walked away, thoroughly distracted.
"Hey, babe," the pair heard him say as he left. "I thought you had practice today. No, not complaining. I love our little…"
Rae rubbed her arms as Kori snickered. Puppy love, they heard others call it. Then they refocused their attention on Raven.
"We are supposed to report on a lesser known war," they explained. "I was thinking-."
"Can I… talk to you?" Raven asked suddenly. "A-about… some things?"
Kori dropped to sit on the couch. They pat the seat next to them, an invitation Raven took, still running her fingers up and down her arms.
"Rae, you are always allowed to talk to me. About anything. What is bothering you?"
"Quinzel said some… weird things today," she said. "I guess she… heard about me? From the news and Robin. Well. 'A client,' she said but, I mean… Robin. She asked if I was letting people help me through things, and I was all, 'Yeah, duh, I let my friends help with all kinds of bullshit. They distract me from a lot of the trauma.' And she goes 'But are you letting them?'
"She started talking about religious trauma or some shit and… I didn't know that was a thing! I mean, my father did kind of drill into me, into all of us, that we should always give more than we take from others with a smile. Be humble and don't complain… I guess she was worried that I might be too stubborn to really let people in and- Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I felt like she was looking right through me and at something I'd been trying to hide, but now I'm just dumping this on you so maybe she's right and I'm not really letting anyone do anything and-!"
Kori put a hand on Raven's, squeezing it as their friend crumpled into a fit of hysterical sobbing. With a sigh, they pulled her to their shoulder in a gentle embrace.
"What do you need, my friend?" They asked softly.
"I need- can you check in with me? If I start… acting weird and pulling back… just make sure I take a moment?"
Kori tilted their head in consideration.
"You do not want space?" They asked.
Raven pulled away and shrugged, saying, "I like my privacy and all, but… If someone doesn't tell me to take care of myself, I won't. Dr. Quinzel wants me to try this… mantra thing or whatever. I'm supposed to remind myself 'it's okay to not be okay.' Wants me to meditate to self-assess or something."
"'It is okay to not be okay…' I… think I understand," Kori said slowly. "Pretending things are fine can make them worse, yes?"
"Yeah. I mean, I don't think I was trying to hide anything-."
"You did."
Raven stared at Kori for a long moment, then tilted her head with a frown.
"I did?"
Kori took her hands in their own and said, "My friend, you have suffered a horrible crime. Yet you act as though you can just keep moving until you break. Tell me, what do you really feel?"
Raven sighed.
"So much. Grateful, of course, that you guys helped me. Betrayed. Relieved. Angry. Guilty."
"Guilty?"
"I got the boys taken away. Mom is all alone now. That's my fault."
"No. Raven, you did not make him do anything. And you did not make her-."
"I wasn't planned," Raven choked. "They only got married because of me. I was an accident."
Kori paused, mulling this new detail over. Then they shook their head.
"That is no reason to hurt you. Raven, nothing you have done deserves this as punishment," they assured her, stroking her dyed hair. "I'm sure there is…"
They dropped the sentence there, unable to say it. Some plan, some… reason only Allah knew. Indeed He is the best of planners.
"This is a shit plan," they muttered.
"What?"
Kori shook their head, saying, "I cannot- Why would Allah- why would anyone let something so… wrong happen to you? You have done nothing to deserve this…"
Raven grabbed their arms, stilling them. They hadn't even noticed the tremors running through their body until the pressure soothed them.
"Hey, I…. I didn't mean to give you a crisis of faith or anything," she whispered. "I know how rough that can be."
"You do?"
"Oh, yeah. About the time I realized I was the only one doing chores, I started asking questions. Everything was 'God's will,' according to Father. Once I figured out that His will was Father's…" Raven sighed and said, "It's like learning magic isn't real."
"If this was all planned… what for?"
Raven scoffed. "Look, if there is some almighty deity out there… I honestly think it's fucking with us. We're just toys on a cosmic stage here to entertain people, or let someone vent. If we're lucky, we're a god's coping mechanism. Best case scenario."
"That is…," Kori paused to find the right words, "fucked up."
"It's not ideal." Raven sighed and sank into the couch. "But it gets better, right? It has to. When I lost faith… I had agency. Things sucked, but I had secrets. I knew no one was in my head but me. I was safe there, if nowhere else."
"You are safe with us, too," said Kori.
A tiny smile lit across Raven's face.
"We're safe together."