Damian's eyes snapped open, and he immediately jumped up out of his bed, making his way to his door. The entire Tower was shaking. Stumbling into the hall, he made eye contact with Jaime, Raven, and Garfield as they all left their rooms as well. Raven floated in the air along with Jaime, while Garfield had changed into a bird. Damian kept one hand against the wall as they all rushed through the Tower, making their way downstairs to Terra's room.
"Terra!" Everyone shouted as soon as they burst into her room. A collection of 'wake up!' and 'you're having a bad dream!' and 'it's alright!' came from the four of them, and Garfield placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to hold her still as she thrashed about in her bed, hands glowing yellow and a silent scream escaping her. "Terra, you're safe!" Garfield's voice was raised to just shy of a shout. "Wake up, please!" He kept his hands on her shoulders, gripping her tightly.
Her eyes snapped open and Terra quickly sat up, pushing back into the headboard of her bed, pushing her blankets away with her feet. She was breathing heavily, and she raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow. "Get out of my room." She said quietly after looking up at everyone and saw that they were all staring at her. When no one moved, she clenched her fists and stood up. "I said get out of my room!" She shouted and the Tower shook again, just for two seconds.
Everyone tensed, then they all turned and left without another word. Garfield stayed behind for a second longer than the rest before he left and rejoined the others in the hall. When they closed Terra's door, they saw that Kori was running down the hall to meet them. "It happened again?" She asked, receiving a nod from the group. "How is she now?"
"She doesn't want to talk. Like usual." Raven filled her in.
Kori sighed. "Great… You four go on, I'm gonna try to talk to her anyways." She turned and knocked on the door, gently calling out to Terra.
Since none of the other four were keen on being the cause of another earthquake, they all turned and headed back upstairs. But when they all got to their respective doors, they all looked at each other and then in unison started down the hall to the common room. Jaime shook his head and snorted. "You missed the first two, Damian. How was it?"
"I'm glad I was out on patrol for the first two." Damian took a deep breath and sighed. "Annoying. She had better get over whatever trauma she has, because if she brings down Titans Tower because of a bad dream…" He flicked on the lights to the common room, and was met with a frown from the other three. "What?"
"You shouldn't talk about her like that. You don't know what's she's been through." Garfield said defensively.
"No, I don't. However I do know that we've ALL been through some tough times, but unlike Terra we don't have the power to cause tsunamis and earthquakes just because we're emotional." Damian shot back. "If she loses control of her powers, then she needs to be taken somewhere where losing control won't cause a hundred million in damages and pose a threat to an entire city."
"Can we not argue? Please?" Raven asked with a sigh, stepping between the two and raising her hands, cutting off Garfield's response. "Let's just watch TV or put on a movie or something. I'll make us some tea." She continued on to the small kitchen, grabbing the teapot and filling it with water. Setting it on the stove to boil, she crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. She looked at the ceiling and closer her eyes, letting out a sigh. But when she felt someone watching her she opened her eyes and looked back down. "What?"
"I want to know what you think." Damian asked, his voice quiet and his hands in his pockets.
She took a moment to think before she responded. "She hasn't lost control of her powers while she's been awake." Raven said slowly. "And this is far from a common occurrence."
"You saw the way she was." Damian pointed out. "Even I could tell it that it wasn't just a nightmare, it was like she was reliving some painful memory. Common occurrence or not, it has happened before and it'll happen again."
"What's your point?" Raven asked sharply. "We're not gonna kick her out."
"She won't talk to us." Damian replied.
"So?"
"So if she won't talk to us, and she can't control herself, what are we supposed to do?" He asked.
"Nothing. We can't make her talk to us about her past. We can't send her off somewhere every night out of fear. All we can do is be there for her. Well, we'll be." She gestured to herself and pointed past Damian, into the other room where Jaime and Garfield could be heard discussing what they should watch. "You're barely around anymore, so I don't see how what goes on with Terra concerns you."
"Because I'm still a part of this team, that's why." Damian crossed his arms over his chest. "Why don't you read her mind, and figure out what's wrong with her? As long as you close your mind off so she can't see into yours-"
"I'm not going to do that." Raven cut him off. "If Terra doesn't want help, then why don't you go and not talk about your problems together?" She muttered.
"I-...What?" Damian asked as he looked at her in confusion.
"I don't know. I'm tired. I don't want to argue this early in the morning." Raven said quietly. "You don't want to talk, she doesn't want to talk…" Raven shook her head, and looked down at the ground. When Kori had said to give Damian his distance, Raven had tried, but she hadn't expected it to be so difficult. Of course, whenever she was around Damian, he'd be curt and… distant from her. She didn't know why she cared so much, but now she was starting to understand what Kori had meant when she said it was better to focus on herself.
Damian shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He knew what Raven was talking about; ever since that conversation during lunch he'd pretty much been living outside of the Tower for the past couple of months, only returning when he was ordered to or when he needed sleep or a change of clothes, or in the rare event he needed medical attention. He'd meant what he said about not letting anyone choose who he was for him, and the easiest way to insure that was for him to be alone. So he'd continued following up on the crime ring he'd been chasing after and stopping random criminals he'd come across. But unfortunately all this time alone and he didn't feel any closer to figuring it out.
"There's not really anything to talk about, is there? You know where I go and what I do." Damian said quietly, glancing over at her.
Raven's eyes lifted to meet his. "I don't know where you go other than 'the city', which really narrows it down by the way, because you don't talk to us. And that's not the point."
"Then what is the point?" Damian asked.
Raven shook her head. Kori's advice from before went ignored as she said, "The point is for you to be here, as a friend and a teammate. Maybe Batman didn't send you here to make friends, but he did send you here to help you learn how to get along with others. You can't do that if you're alone, can you?" Raven turned the burner off as the water started boiling. "Maybe you don't realize this, but the easiest way out of here is for you to get along with us so Batman comes and takes you back." Regret filled her as she looked away from Damian. She walked over to the cabinet and pulled out three mugs and set them out on the counter.
Damian shook his head, muttering something under his breath.
"What was that?" She asked as she spun around to face him.
"Nothing." Damian looked down and saw that there were only three mugs, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm going out." He turned and went back to his room, grabbing some fresh clothes so he could shower. As the hot water rained down on him, he felt himself waking up and blamed his earlier comment on fatigue. "I don't want to go back to Batman." He'd said it without hesitation and in complete honesty, and he didn't regret the statement at all. Damian knew that if he went back to Gotham things might be less difficult between himself and his father for a little while, but deep down he knew that they'd inevitably end up fighting again. And he was tired of fighting everyone around him every step of the way.
Fighting with Batman about his role in their partnership didn't interest him. He didn't have any interest in going back to Gotham only to be told during and after every single fight what to do and how to act, and then where he was allowed to go and then how to behave when he wasn't being Robin.
He hadn't thought of Batman, either as his father or his partner, in a long time, not since a short time after defeating Trigon and saving the Justice League and the world. Shutting off the water, he sighed as he realized his dad hadn't sent so much as a single text message after the ordeal. Drying himself off and quickly returning back to his room, he put on his Robin uniform and went to the elevator, heading down to the garage and getting on Dick's bike. At the very least, he was appreciative of the fact that Dick had given his explicit permission that as long as Damian didn't destroy the bike, he was allowed to use it to go out on patrol, but not for leisure since he still didn't have a license of any kind.
Since he didn't go anywhere for leisure, that last bit didn't concern him, so he didn't know what Dick was thinking when he said that.
"Yo Damian, wait up man!" He was halfway across the bridge into Jump City before he heard Jaime calling out to him. Damian slowed to a stop, looking up to see Jaime flying down to meet him, still in a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. "Come back to the tower dude, it's freezing out." He was already shivering, and he crossed his arms across his chest and folded his hands against his sides.
"That's not gonna stop the criminals out there. Besides, the cold doesn't bother me." Damian responded with a shrug.
Jaime let out a loud sigh. "Look, I know we're more like... acquaintances than friends, and it's not my place to tell you your business, but…" He looked behind Damian back up to the Tower. "Raven does think of you as a friend, and whatever is going on between you two has got her upset."
"Nothing's going on between us." Damian cut in quickly.
"Well something happened. You've been gone way more than usual lately, and whenever you're around Raven it's like there's a weird tension between you two." Electronic beeping cut in. "The bug thinks so too."
"Nothing's. Happened." Damian said again. "Just because I refused Raven's help…"
"Hey, I'm not going to make you have a heart to heart with me. But I've been around Raven long enough to know when she's upset. And honestly, Raven isn't the kind of person to get upset. You know her; she'd much rather try and find a solution quickly instead of letting things get worse over time. I mean sometimes it doesn't always work out, like when she first imprisoned Trigon…" Jaime shook his head, "...But it's not that easy when there's people involved. Spending all that time in Hell didn't really help her build social skills, you know?" Jaime paused. "And you're not exactly easy to get along with." He felt the need to point it out since Damian still didn't seem aware of that fact. "Man, regardless of what we are, I want Raven to be happy. You guys are my family, and family should get along."
"Family, huh?" Damian let out a quiet 'hmph' and looked away. "I wouldn't know anything about that... But I don't want to have a falling out with Raven." He admitted to himself, letting his shoulders slump. "I know that she's been through enough and she shouldn't have to go through that because of me." Damian reached up and pulled his mask off. "Go on back. I'll be there in a few minutes." He gestured to the Tower.
"Alright." Jaime nodded. "Don't need to tell me twice." He gave Damian a short wave and then flew away, heading back to the warmth of the Tower.
Turning the bike around, Damian wondered what he was going to say when he saw Raven. Sorry was definitely a start. Sorry for… putting space between them and avoiding her. Sorry for being a bad friend, and for being insufferable and being on his own all the time. Parking the bike and getting in the elevator, he shook his head. Those were things she wanted to hear and he knew it. And he hated it when people told him what he wanted to hear without meaning what they said, so he might as well treat Raven the way he wanted to be treated. Unfortunately, he made it all the way back up to the common room and still had no idea what he was going to tell her. And so, walking past the couch where he saw Jaime, Garfield, and Raven, he pointed to the kitchen and asked, "Is there still water for the tea?" Because it was the first thing to come to mind.
Raven turned around and nodded once before looking back to the TV.
Heading into the kitchen, he grabbed a clean mug from the cabinet and went over to the stove, pouring some water into his cup and preparing his tea.
"There should be some brown sugar in the cabinet above the stove."
Damian turned around to see that Raven had followed him into the kitchen. "I know that." He paused. "But thanks."
"You're welcome." Raven grabbed a spoon and handed it to him. Before they could lapse into a silence she felt the need to ask, "What did Jaime say to you?" She'd tried getting him to stay behind and let Damian do his own thing, but apparently Jaime had been just as fed up as she was with Damian's constant absence… which was weird, because she hadn't thought that Jaime cared about Damian all that much. And in all honesty, she expected him to make things worse, not better, yet here Damian was.
"He said that we're his family, and that we should get along." Damian told her. "And that he thinks we should put whatever is going on with us, behind us."
Raven remained quiet while Damian stared into his drink. "Well, that's mostly up to you, isn't it?" She took a step forward and kept her voice low, aware that Jaime and Gar were in the other room.
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. You know…" He frowned at his drink, keeping his gaze low. "I like the freedom I have here. It was something I never had back in Gotham. Father never let me go out during the day, and I was never allowed to go out on patrol on my own." He exhaled, closing his eyes. "I'd rather stay here than go back." He admitted. "And without the- the... whatever happened with you and me, I don't think I would've realized that. So thank you." He didn't want to say they'd had a fight, because really, they hadn't. A disagreement maybe, but not a fight. But even that didn't feel totally accurate, either.
"You're welcome." Raven said. She took another step forward and leaned against the counter beside him. "Anything else? About yourself, I mean."
Damian shook his head and took a sip from his mug. "No. But I didn't think I'd figure it all out in a couple of months, anyways." He looked up so he could meet her eye and said, "Sorry for giving you the cold shoulder treatment lately. You didn't deserve it."
"You're forgiven." She said with a nod. Raven hesitated, but thought to herself, "I should've known trying to help him so overtly would've backfired… But I guess it did end up helping him either way." As a silence settled over them, Raven glanced down and then snorted lightly.
"What?" Damian looked down as well, not sure what she was looking at.
"You're in your uniform. I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say you sleep in it." Raven informed him.
He shrugged. "Sometimes. Just depends." He knew that Raven had been trying to get him to wear casual clothes more often, but it still wasn't easy for him when he just felt more comfortable like this than he did with normal clothes.
Raven smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well, go put on something else and come sit with us. We're watching Wall-E."
"What's that?" Damian asked as he lifted his mug to take another sip.
"Oh my god. Go, get some normal clothes on." She lightly shoved him out of the kitchen. "I can't believe you don't know what Wall-E is." She mumbled.
"It's not my fault!" He tried to reason with her.
"It doesn't matter whose fault it is! You're gonna watch it now!" She said with a final playful shove towards the hallway.
Damian quickened his pace as he headed to his room. After throwing his uniform off and putting on a pair of shorts and a gray shirt, he made his way back to the common room and sat down next to Raven. He gave Jaime a quick nod; the realization was only dawning on him now, but if Jaime hadn't said anything to him earlier things might still be tense between him and the rest of the team. He made a mental note to find some subtle way to thank him later.
"We don't really have to start the movie over, do we?" Garfield asked as Raven picked up the DVD remote.
Raven nodded without looking at the changeling. "Damian's never seen this before, so…"
"Oh, what?"
"Are you for real?"
Frowning at the others, he shrugged. "What's the big deal?"
"You're about to find out!" Garfield exclaimed. "This is a great movie!"