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The Domioes Fall
~~~

That conversation couldn't have gone any worse. Why did I...why would I say that out loud?! Why did I think she wasn't going to ask about it? I don't know if the fact that Raven knew what I was talking about makes it better or worse.

He looks at his phone. He's gotten three calls from Raven and a text from an unknown number.

I'll see you again. It said.

In hindsight, running away may not have been the best course of action, but the conversation was basically over anyway. Domino had asked enough questions.

He was about to message back the unknown number when Raven called a fourth time. This time he decided to pick up.

"Gar?! Why weren't you picking up?? Are you ok??" She frantically throws questions at him through the phone.

"I'm fine Raven." He says blankly.

"Why'd you suddenly run off? I would've made Domino leave if you weren't comfortable. I was gonna make he leave anyways." She says the last sentence matter-of-factly.

"She...got me thinking too much." There is no way in hell she's going to know.

"Was it when she started asking about our past together?"

"I guess." His voice was blank, emotionless, and a little dark. He started to plunge his mind into those negative thoughts. Except this time he didn't try to look any kind of way since it was only over the phone. He focused more on his voice this time.

Ino is right though. I shouldn't just cling onto my past habits. Raven doesn't give a crap about fighting. She'll do it if she has to. Protecting her is the last thing I need to do. Not that I could even do that anyway. Every time I get reminded of it–

"Gar!"

"Wha??"

"You got quiet for little there. Are you ok?"

"Oh. Yep! I'm fine!" He changes his voice like a switch was flipped.

"Ok. You sound better." That's the point dumbass. The mean and negative thoughts kept overwhelming his mind. And he did it all on purpose. To himself. "Where are you now?"

"I drove downtown. I figured I needed a walk. I'm ok, don't worry about me ok?" He lied. She's gonna come looking for me. This is none of her damn business.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow Gar. And...you know you can talk to me, right?" She asks lovingly. Almost like a mother.

"..." He hesitated. "Yeah...Bye Rave."

"Bye." He hung up first.

"I never thought that I'd lie to her like that. But it had to happen eventually." He puts his phone on the median and focuses on the road.

"No...freaking...way..." and go figure, Domino is at his door.

He started to get really angry. How did she get here before he did? Especially when he drove!

He gets out of the car and as he walks down his walkway he resists his urges to punch her. Instead, he walks past her to open the door with his key.

"Ignoring me won't work." She says. He doesn't reply and futzes around with the keys again and unconsciously grabs his necklace under his shirt. Once he finds the right key he puts it in. As he turns the key he feels a gentle but foreboding touch of a feminine hand on his shoulder. Gar could hear everything go in slow motion, all of the tumblers, levers, and latches inside the lock, and the deadbolt on the other side turning, as he moved.

As if stuck in a slowed version of his own world, he turned around as the deadbolt was turning to the unlocked position. And as the door was fully unlocked and ready for entry, he backhanded Domino. Hard. To the point where it left a red mark.

He had released the necklace.

Breaking out of his slow bubble he finally was able to function like a normal human. He, however, did not seem as remorseful and one would think. As a matter of fact, his face showed no guilt whatsoever. He was so serious, almost as if Raven and her manerisms had taken over his mind.

Did I just...hit a girl? Yeah...I did. It was almost like he wasn't himself.

Domino chuckles while holding her cheek.

"So impulsive. I'm genuinely surprised. Who knew such a happy little prick like you could pack such a punch." She says. Gar stands tall, his gaze irate. Little did Domino know he'd never felt this angry in his entire life. "What's the matter Gar. Something wrong?" She taunted him, asking for whatever was coming to her already.

"Yeah. You. You need to leave. NOW!" He shouts. She flinches, clearly not expecting him to yell. They hear footsteps behind the door and Rita comes out. Gar clenched his fists tightly.

"Gar? Why are you yelling? And who's this?" He snaps his head around and give Rita a taste of his anger.

"I'm Dom–"

"She's leaving." Gar steps down and pushes her away, claiming his territory. Domino steps forward and puts her hand to his chin. "You're very promising, now."

But Gar isn't having any of it. He snatches up her wrist and pulls her closer to him, and leans down to whisper in her ear, not wanting Rita to hear him.

His words are slow and methodical. There's a punch behind every single word. He sounded like a disappointed or an angry parent, only it was much much worse. Gar had power and leverage over this girl, and he wasn't about to put it to waste.

"Listen you little h**," The word stung. "I'm warning you, stay away from me, and stay away from Raven, or else I will hurt you. Badly. I don't know what you have out for me, but it ends. Today." He pushes her back again. "Now get the f*** away from my house." That Rita heard.

"Gar!" Rita yells scoldingly. Domino says nothing, and glares at him as she turns to leave. She runs across the street, cuts through a yard, and is gone.

His face softens as his anger dissipates. And he stands confused.

Did I do that to myself? No. I don't even believe that. Maybe it's another one? But...then why would it just be happening now? I don't remember the last time I got that upset. Or if I ever got upset like that at all... Where did all that even come from? He didn't even know what he planned to do to her.

"Gar! How dare you talk to her like that! Who was she? And what did you say to her??" Rita asked as she rushed out to him.

Gar didn't turn around. He just kept looking at where Domino had went. Then he looked over at Raven's house down the street, and said finally, "She's someone I definitely need to avoid."

~~~

Only two days in and Gar was already seeing bad things happen from this. After that interaction with Domino, he was spacy all week. He'd see Domino once or twice and he refused to give her a second glace for fear that whatever he had threatened to do to her would come prematurely. And in public.

Obviously everyone noticed his spacing, though by the end of the 10th day he's been doing it they basically got used to it.

But he finally broke out of it when he invited them all to his house to hang out on Saturday. The last weekend in April. During which Rita and Steve were going to be out. They knew Raven would be there though, so they were ok with it.

And the week never flew by so fast for them.

All four of them decided they would meet up at Raven's and then walk to Gar's. And not for any reason other than they wanted to talk about him whilst he wasn't around to poke his nosy nose into literally everything.

"Awe yeah! Finally get to see Gar's sweet new house!" Vic exclaims.

"Yes, I am quite excited to see the place where he is living!"

"How big do you think his set up is?" Wally asks.

"How are we supposed to know? He's rich." Vic states.

"Knowing Gar he probably decided against spending all his money in one place." Dick says.

"Well Gar hasn't been himself lately so who knows what he will do." Terra brings it to attention.

"Gar's not a loose cannon Ter. He's not that unpredictable." Dick defends his opinion.

"Anyone have any idea why he's been on another planet the past 2 weeks?" Jinx asks.

"Domino showed up at my house the other day and she kind of got in his head." Raven reveals.

"That'll do it." Vic says plainly. "Why'd she all of a sudden try talking to you again anyway?"

"You think I'd know? The girl is psychotic just like her brother. Nobody's a human to them. Just pawns for another one of their sick games."

"True. Do you think he's scouting again?" Dick questions.

"I have seen Ike acting quite suspiciously during school." Kori adds.

"Dear God I hope not. That's never a good sign."

They get to Gar's and he's outside washing his car.

"Hey Gar!!" Jinx shouts and Gar jumps and recoils, knocking into the bucket of water on the ground, tripping over it, and then letting the hose fall in his lap, soaking him. All of them laugh at him and his clumsiness.

"I'm waiting for you to disprove my claim Gar!" Vic yells.

"Shut up!" He yells and grumbles. Gar stands up and shakes like a dog. It did literally nothing to dry him off. "You guys can go inside. The door's unlocked. I have to go through the back to dry off." He gives them a salty side eye and walks to the back of the house.

"I can't tell if he's actually mad at us or just joking around." Jinx says.

"Me neither." They go into his house and sit in the living room. They fiddle around with the TV until three bags of chips come flying in from the kitchen onto the couch, scaring all of them.

"What the hell?!" Wally screams. Gar walks out of the kitchen laughing hysterically.

"Revenge is sweet! Haha! You guys got scared by a bag of chips!"

"You threw them in here like we were supposed to catch them!" Vic protested. Usually Raven and Terra would be annoyed if not angry at this, but they were slightly distracted. Gar was wearing his undershirt and a different pair of shorts. The thin, white undershirt was still damp, and therefore, clung to his skin.

"Did you have anything else to wear Gar?" Raven asks desperately hiding a blush.

"Some of my clothes got lost in the move, and it's laundry day. So the answer to your question is a no!" He replies. At least he seemed to be acting a bit more normal.

"How do you not have any clean shirts?" Terra questions, also trying to hide a blush. Gar replies with a shrug.

"A lot of stuff is in the basement."

"By 'a lot of stuff' do you mean all the crap that you don't feel like unpacking?" Dick accuses.

"Ok! Enough with that conversation!" He promptly and abruptly ends the conversation right there.

Eventually, after some bickering, they agree to watch a movie. It was a detective movie, based in a dystopian future were pretty much everything is lasers and doesn't work.

It was fun to watch...to a point. And at that point lots of them reached sleep mode. Including Gar, Raven, Kori, Dick.

Kori and Dick had fallen asleep on eachother, and Raven had fallen asleep on Gar.

Wally, Jinx, Vic, and Terra were all snickering at the two. It was normal for Dick and Kori to be like that because they were dating, but these two...

They debated on whether to wake them up or just let them sleep like that, blissfully unaware.

But Kori woke up and chose for them.

"Oh look at Raven and Gar!" She practically shouted, causing not only Dick to wake up in shock but Gar and Raven to wake up in a panic.

"What?! What's happening?!?" Gar asks frantically.

"Raven was sleeping on your shoulder! It was quite adorable!" She replies.

"What? I was not." She denies.

"Yeah I didn't feel anything." Gar adds.

"Yes you were!" Kori says gleefully.

"You don't have proof." Raven says defensively.

"Dammit, the one time we don't take a photo." Wally says aloud.

"Hey!" Raven whips her head around getting a face full of Gar's chest, and she seamlessly moved her head to the right to give Wally the death stare. It was hard to tell if someone even noticed where she first landed. 

Well, everyone except for Gar, who clearly noticed.

He raised a cheeky eyebrow at Raven, and she blushed again.

She's cute when she's trying to ignore me.

Whyyyy?? She groaned in her head. She was acting aloof on the outside but on the inside, Why does he have to look so damn good?!

Word Count: 2191