All traces of an unaffected countenance slipped from Damian's face. It screwed with barely bridled fury as he turned to Superboy, who was dusting himself off.

"What do you think you're playing at?" he demanded, eyes narrowed to slits.

Conner looked at him like a deer caught in headlights. He turned to look behind himself, then back at Damian, and pointed his finger at his chest. "Who? Me?"

"TT. Yes you-"

Now, before his entry to the Teen Titans, the Justice League had endured the worst of Robin's temperament. His bold...curt nature was no new news (say that three times fast) to them; it was certainly startling to poor Conner. These few days- in which Raven, Koriand'r and Dick had forced him to be 'nice'- had given an indication of his volatile nature. Kon might now experience the real deal.

Oooooor not...not if Kori had anything to say about it.

"Robin, that's enough!" She shouted, standing at the midpoint between the two. Starfire, the peacemaker, tried in an easier tone, "There's no need for this now."

"Oh?" Damian's brow creased with frustration. "I think now is the perfect time."

"Dude- what?"

Superboy was calmed by Wonderwoman's firm grip on his shoulder, "Starfire is right. Not here, not now." She nodded her head at Robin. "But Robin's indignation is just."

"His what?" Conner frowned at the Amazon.

"It means how angry he is.", Cyborg explained, looking at him with something alike sympathy. "Little man's got a point."

Resenting the name, Damian glared at Vic, but made no move for verbal combat: Cyborg had sided with him against Kon, as far as Damian was concerned.

Batman, who had been sweeping the area to ensure all Yarm aliens were incapacitated, rejoined the gathered heroes in the former battleground. His judgement was targeted on Superboy, the scowl chilling Conner's bones. "That was a foolish move that could have jeopardised all our efforts."

Again, Starfire asserted herself, repeating, "This conversation may continue afterwards, perhaps if we return to the Hall of Justice?"

With no voiced opposition to the proposal, they did indeed continue the conversation in the Hall of Justice.

"Irresponsible and irrational-"

"The exact reason you need to stay with the Titans-"

"Incentivised by glory-"

The list of chastisements went on and on.

In the Justice League meeting room- wherein also sat the Teen Titans- Superboy was on trial. As hotheaded and mouthy as he often was, Conner seemed to recognise this as a time to keep one's temper in check. He leant against the wall, unable to break out of Batman's steely glare.

Finally, Superman spoke up, breaking Batman's accusations, "Conner, what you need from this is to be more careful in future." His attempt at a soothing voice was unsuccessful, Kon found, because of the cold hint to his words.

The two of them were on unsteady grounds to say in the least. Conner was half of Superman's DNA- just like a biological son- but lab-grown. An experiment. A successful experiment. But that was something to think about another time.

"Let's hope the Titans will teach you to heed that Superboy." Batman's ominous words rang through the meeting room.

If Cyborg felt pity for the teenager beforehand, he certainly did now. The Flash and Jessica shared those sentiments: they knew firsthand how intimidating Batman was when he was pissed at you. The general culture of wary fear of Batman existed in the hero, antihero and villain communities (respectively). Donna, Jaime and Gar were definitely feeling it.

Attempting to lighten the situation after Superboy's grilling, the Flash digressed, "Well, I think that besides the incident the whole situation was well handled."

Cyborg appraised, "Limited civilian casualties, minimal damage to the city-" he smiled at the Titans, "we did good- you guys did good."

"And", Superman jumped in, fixing his attention of two of the teenagers, warmth in his eyes, "credit where credit is due. Raven and Robin deal with the situation very efficiently."

Slightly balking under the attention, Raven fought the urge to retreat in to her safe space in the shadows behind her hood. She chanced a glance at Damian, finding his eyes trained on Batman. The usual gratification that she usually felt from him upon being praised was there, but suppressed. Like he was after something else, something more.

"Yeah, kudos kids, that's was really well handled. I know I couldn't have shut it down that fast." Jessica confessed, sitting in the space usually occupied by Hal. The stand-in Green Lantern hadn't yet accustomed to the formalities of the Justice League; she was learning so the whole 'hero' thing would surely get easier.

"We certainly would not have been able to subdue the general without Raven's input." Wonderwoman added. She looked at the witch with a scrutinising but appraising eye, "Your powers are strong, Raven. Stronger than last I saw. And no doubt growing in strength."

She wasn't sizing Raven up, the demoness understood. The line between friend and foe meant much to Diana and defined her analysis of individuals. For Batman it was not so. At the mention of Raven's growing powers, there was a shift in his aura. A distinctive move from a calmer, pensive aura to something actively critical. That, that, was sizing up.

Kori paced her hands on Raven's shoulders. Without seeing her face, the witch felt Starfire's pride and satisfaction. It softened Raven's heart (in instances such as this one) when Kori, who had no biological link to Raven, reached out to her like a mother would. Koriand'r cared. Always. Regardless.

That softness fled as soon as she felt a painful spike from the Boy Wonder near her. Raven saw Damian's face scrunch up for a moment before he gritted his teeth and pressed his lips together. Another, larger spike and he couldn't suppress a loud, sharp exhale.

"Damian- what is it?" Bruce demanded, calling out his son's discomfort immediately.

Face contorted in pain, Damian pressed a hand to the left side of his abdomen. "TT. It's nothing- old wounds. It'll pass." His discomfort was clear, and prompted an instinctive response from Raven.

"Are you sure? Would you like me to-?" she ignited a hand with her magic, purple dust-like particles glimmering at her fingertips.

"No-no," Damian said, "it's fine."

Bruce wouldn't have expected such a reaction from his son. Any attempt at offering him help would have been met with verbal threats and, more often than not, a shoe in the face.

"Well we're almost finished here," Superman said, "how's about you two head down to the infirmary?"

"TT. I don't need to-"

"Just to be on the safe side." Clark added.

Knowing that he couldn't take all the supers in the room to have his own way, Damian conceded that he'd have to go to the infirmary. That is what Damian would consider character development: he once would have pressed the issue further in to a shouting match wherein he'd have eventually tried to take on a Justice League member. With age comes wisdom, apparently.

***

There was something about having her eyes trained on him that made Damian's mouth dry and his palms sweat. The demoness roamed over the abundance of jagged strokes littered in abundance across his torso, her face set in a small frown. She dragged her eyes up to meet his.

There was an unmistakeable pause as they stared.

Raven finally asked, "Where's the pain?"

He touched the spot on his lower abdomen, on a distinctive scar. Distinctive, for it wasn't a pale sliver of silver -like so many other permanent marks Damian had-; it appeared like a deep slash in his side, indented, and about four inches long with a colour like dull red bricks.

"It's no cause for concern. Really." Damian quickly added. The strangely uneventful need to leave filled him and Damian reached for his uniform.

"No, maybe not," Raven said, sitting on the infirmary bed next to him, "but that is."

She lifted his arm by the elbow, raising an eyebrow. Fresh, red blood seeped from a wound in his forearm. The laceration dug deep in to his skin, with several layers of tissue laid bare.

Damian's eyes widened. Under his breath his whispered, "How did I miss that?"

Even as he said it, the stinging pain registered faintly in his arm, like a flickering bulb in its intensity. The kind of thing that passed off a part of the scenery, like background music.

"I'll heal it."

Raven realised how keen she'd sounded and amended, "If you want me to, that is."

Damian looked the witch in the eyes. For some inexplicable reason, words seemed to fail him. That ethereal bluish-purple colour, periwinkle perhaps, bordered by midnight blue that painted her irises might have been the singly most beautiful thing Damian had seen.

His throat bobbed and he had to blink twice for fear that his eyes would stay frozen open for the rest of his life. Opening them again, Damian found her eyes had left his and slipped lower down. A compulsion brought Damian's to her lips. A deeper instinct drew their heads closer together.

As if a wire had been snapped, the two sprang apart.

"I can manage on my own." Damian said, pulling his Robin tunic over his head. He ignored the stabbing pain in his arm and grabbed his cape and katana from the bed besides him, having to reach past the half-demoness to do so.

The words had left his mouth harsher than he'd intended.

Raven sat on the medical bed, almost in a daze.

Before Damian left the infirmary, he turned to her, speaking softer than she'd ever heard him. "Thank you, though."

A.N:

Ooooh look at our little birdies! I'd say that was our first real piece of fluff guys! I can already feel you lot 'aww'ing and seeking comfort in chocolate and crisps. I feel it. Big mood.

In other news, who's watching Doctor Who? I've watched the first episode of this season and I FUCKING CAN'T. I was rolling around the floor in shock during the episode. Oh good Lord have mercy. THE FUCKING MASTER GUYS! I'm screamingggg! I did not expect that.

This season's looking wayyy more promising than the last one. I have high hopes🙏

Anyway, thank you so much for reading my darlings :)

-Bats