Author's Note: Dear Readers, I'd like to take a moment to welcome to the story a favorite character of mine: Jason Todd. Enjoy.
"Just got off the plane," Damian texted Raven as he walked through the airport. He had a baseball cap low on his forehead and sunglasses to conceal his identity. Damian Wayne was not a safe person to live as in many settings, least of all Gotham where he was well known as Bruce Wayne's only biological son. Pocketing his phone again, he hoped that the notification wouldn't wake Raven.
Damian's heart was light throughout the plane ride after his farewell to Raven. The kiss that she had returned had lingered on his lips and kept him practically smiling the whole way, if he wasn't sleeping. Luckily, he had a plane full of like-minded passengers this time around who were content to stay quiet and sleep during the red-eye as well.
His phone buzzed in his pocket as he weaved through the airport, still busy at any time. Somewhere in the back of his mind was remorse for waking Raven up, but as he quickly reached back in his pocket, all he could feel was excitement.
Until he saw who it was from.
"Better not keep me waiting out here," the text from Jason Todd read. Damian hadn't expected Alfred to pick him up, but knew he would arrange transportation. He just didn't think it would be a family member, let alone Todd.
He saw the Wayne town car in the pickup area and went to the trunk first to put his suitcase in and made a point to slam it closed, hard. He did much the same when he got into the passenger seat.
"A little grumpy this morning, huh?" Jason smirked at him before signaling to depart the pickup lane.
"Just drive, Todd."
"So how did we get so lucky to have the Damian Wayne grace us with his presence?"
Damian looked over at his brother incredulously, who looked back at him with an antagonizing smile.
"Are you planning on sharing why you are in town? And why you're picking me up, no less?"
"Oh, you want to turn the interrogation on me, now? Love that move. Okay, I'll play," Jason laughed in amusement before continuing, "I'm on a little break from the Outlaws for some R and R. Bruce says I can't be on the streets while I'm convalescing, but he didn't say I couldn't drive. So, when I heard you needed a ride, it seemed about the only way I'd get out of that damned house."
"What, were you injured or something?" Damian probed.
Jason shrugged, "You know how the life goes."
"Right," Damian nodded in understanding.
"Your turn," Jason sang.
"I'm here to work on a case," Damian stated plainly.
"Oh? Care to share with the class?"
"Bite me, Todd."
"My god, you really are a teenager."
Damian chose not to respond and the two sat in silence for as long as Jason would allow, which wasn't long.
"You know, if you ever want someone who isn't in Big Bat's pocket to help you out, I'm available."
"What's in it for you?" Damian asked skeptically.
Jason shrugged again, "Entertainment," he offered.
Damian tisked.
"Not that I of all people don't understand, but what's your beef with Bruce anyway? Just hormones?"
"Hormones would hardly affect my decision making," Damian defended.
"Sure, sure. So…what is it, then?"
There wasn't one event Damian could really pinpoint, just observations over time that led to reservations. He knew his father to be unfathomably calculated and controlling. Someone that would do something behind someone's back in a heartbeat if he believed it was for the greater good. The Justice League was just lucky Batman was on their side. A man of Bruce Wayne's intelligence and means would make a formidable foe for anyone. For Damian, he felt the greater distance he kept his father at, the less he could interfere. The less he could interfere, the less chance that the trust between them would be broken. Damian revered his father, but he saw the way each of his children would end up emotionally scarred by him at some point. He sought to avoid being the next.
"That bad, huh?" Jason said, interpreting Damian's silence.
"Father has done nothing to earn my ire."
"That's what they all say, at first."
It was around 6:30 in the morning when Jason and Damian pulled up to the house. The rest of the ride had been more civil, with Jason filling Damian in on what various family members had been up to. Bruce, Dick, Barbara, Cassandra, and Duke were helping GCPD take down a drug cartel, which had been taking longer than the group hoped. Luke was working solo outside of Gotham for some time. And Tim and Stephanie were away apparently working a case together.
The mansion was still quiet when they walked through the grand doors as even Alfred would hardly get up this early with a house full of night owls to tend to. Damian took a moment to look around and appreciate the craftsmanship, as he always did, wondering if a day would come when he wouldn't.
"Still an architecture nerd, huh?" Jason said as carelessly tossed the car keys on a marble-topped accent table. Damian tisked in disapproval.
"Thank you for the ride. You won't mind if I retire?" Damian asked tightly, but cordially.
Jason bowed dramatically to him.
"Of course not, my liege."
Damian imagined that Jason didn't have half the vocabulary he did now before their meeting. He scoffed at his theatrics and headed up the stairs. To Damian's surprise, Jason did not follow and instead headed towards the Batcave. Probably taking the rare opportunity to use the computer down there unbothered. Damian would have to take a page out of Jason's book during his stay.
The door to Damian's room was slightly ajar when he got there, and immediately upon entering the culprit was clear. Alfred the Cat lay in a perfect circle on Damian's bed by the pillows. The heat in the room had clearly been on long enough to make it comfortable in there. Damian knew he had Alfred the human to thank for that.
Setting down his bag, Damian unpacked a few things before tiredness set in to his bones, in the way only travel does to someone. Unwilling to disturb his cat, Damian curled around him on top of the covers and covered himself with a throw blanket laid at the foot of the bed. He took his phone out to send one more text to Raven before falling asleep.
"Home."
Raven awoke with a start around 3am as an earthquake shook the whole Tower awake.
Running out her door into the hallway in her pajamas, Raven locked eyes with Kori who emerged in the hallway in similar fashion. Nodding at each other in understanding, the two Titan women took flight towards the door to Tara's room. The other Titans emerged from their respective rooms in a collective panic to watch as Kori frantically typed a passcode in to the control panel to unlock Tara's door.
"It's Tara again?!" Garfield shouted to them over the rumbling.
The door slid open and the team was granted full view to Tara, who lay in bed asleep in the throes of a nightmare. Her head thrashed back and forth as her body contorted under the sheets and the rumbling intensified.
Kori flew to her and grabbed her by the shoulders to try to wake her.
"Tara, wake up! You're having a nightmare."
The tremors of the tower intensified again and the other teens watching braced themselves as they looked on helpless.
"Tara!" Kori shook her again.
"Here," Raven started, moving to sit on the bed, "let me try to soothe her."
Raven placed her hands on either side of Tara's head and closed her eyes as she said her mantra, "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."
Raven's mind flashed with images of violence. A childhood lost to abuse from people who feared her power. She let the images fly past her as she concentrated her own emotions of peace and tranquility to give to Tara. The images from Tara's mind began to slow down in response. Raven, through Tara, saw different images fly by. Of her moving earth as she gained control, a vast desert canyon of red rock, Titans Tower, Beast Boy holding out his hand to help her up, a man in an orange and black mask…
"Get off me!" Tara screamed, whacking Raven's hands off her face as if they were akin to an annoying insect.
"How fucking dare you!" she continued to seethe, balling up her fists on the bedspread and leaning forwards towards Raven who still sat calmly on the bed in front of her.
Raven leaned away slightly and narrowed her eyes at the distraught girl.
"Tara," Kori defended, "Raven was trying to help you!"
"Yeah, you were about to bring down the Tower!" Jaime added to aide in Raven's defense.
"And that gives her the right to invade my mind?!" Tara directed her venomous stare to Jaime.
"So, I should just let you bury us all under rubble next time? Or maybe you'd prefer it if we left you to bury yourself," Raven said with no humor in her voice.
"Raven…" Kori started, clearly displeased with how the situation was being escalated.
"I don't care what the fuck you do, just leave me the hell alone! All of you, get out!"
Jaime, Connor, and Donna all glanced once more at Tara with emotions ranging from pity to anger. Raven didn't bother storming off with the others and simply teleported away. Kori looked at Tara with concern but decided it was best to walk away for now. Garfield lingered at the door and waited for Kori to pass him, as he mustered up the courage to speak.
"Tara, I just want you to know…" he began.
"Get. Out." The anger remained in her voice, but the venom slipped away just a touch.
Garfield deflated and turned away from Tara. He let the door slide closed behind him and once he heard it seal, he looked back forlornly at the door, and finished, "…I'm here for you."
Raven felt an inch away from fury as she arrived back to her room. To have her intentions be misunderstood was one thing. To have her teammates, her family, be treated with such disrespect when all they did was show concern for Tara was another. And when Raven really thought of it, she was angry her good intentions were met with such anger and distrust. Did Tara think it was fun for Raven to take a walk down Tara's memory lane of childhood trauma? Did she think Raven lacked trauma of her own?
Crossing her legs for some much-needed meditation, Raven was still too weighed down by negative emotion to float. She let herself feel her emotions, let the negative thoughts pass through, so she could try to get back to a place of balance.
Let me help you take revenge.
Raven's eyes shot open as her father's voice rang through her head. She sighed heavily, feeling the anger leave her body, as hearing her father try to take advantage of her emotional state ironically shook her out of it.
Glancing over at her phone face down on her nightstand, Raven reached for it to check the time. When the screen lit up, she saw the two unread texts from Damian and smiled. True to his word, he texted her when he landed and when he arrived home, which was only a few minutes ago. Figuring he would be trying to get more sleep after travelling overnight, she didn't want to disturb him, but she didn't want to leave him on read either. Thinking back to the kiss they shared just last night, his lips soft and unsure and their breaths uneven, her heart began to hammer lightly in her chest.
Her fingers hovered over the letters of her keyboard as she debated what she wanted to say.
"Glad you made it safely," She typed before changing her mind and holding the backspace key.
"I miss you already," she typed before deciding it was too cringy and backspaced again.
She repeated this action a few more times before falling back on her bed in defeat.
Maybe flirting wasn't her arena, especially not over text.
Raven got back under the covers, hoping the rest of her night would pass by undisturbed. Rolling to her side she looked back at her text thread with Damian and settled on a response.
"You better send cat pics this time."
Satisfied, Raven closed her eyes and began to let the sleep creep back into her being.
Ding
Her eyes popped open, and she gleefully opened the notification.
In a rare selfie moment, Damian took a picture of himself with his cat curled by his face. He smiled lightly with his eyes closed, feigning sleep. Immediately giving it a heart reaction, Raven decided that this was undoubtedly the cutest thing she ever saw. Refusing to take her eyes off the picture, her mind worked on committing every line and color to memory. She fell blissfully back asleep before her screen timed out and went black.