*Art Not Mine- All Rights To The Original Creator*

After an half-an-hour-or-so of conversation, Kori declared it time to leave: as the 'mother' of the Titans, her word was pretty much final, regardless of the fact that Bruce, Diana and Clarke were present. With the assurances of meeting soon, the Teen Titans and Batfamily departed, heading back to Wayne Manor. And Adyn trailed along because...what else could he do?

Upon arrival, they were greeted by a not-so-pleased Alfred.

"Just what time do you call this, Master Bruce?", the billionaire (who had somehow, with the rest of the batkids, managed to change back in to civilian clothes) looked at the Alfred slightly ashamed, "It's seventy-two minutes past dinner!", he sighed, turning to the others, "Please do enter. I have prepared fresh clothes for you in your individual suites, if you would change and make your way to the dining hall."

The butler held the door open until everyone except Bruce had walked inside, opting to nearly slam the door in his face. Prim and proper though he might have been, Alfred was the definition of savage. Shaking his head in defeat, Bruce stepped over the threshold, acknowledging that he'd have to work hard to get on Alfred's good side again.

Meanwhile, in the main corridor, the Titans were struggling to figure out which staircase led up to their rooms. Until Damian helpfully pointed out that he knew the house back to front, earning him a look from Raven projecting 'are you damn serious?'.

Making their way up the stairs, the empath sensed a severe emotional shift from a certain green-eyed demon. She shot him a look of concern, one which he refused to heed. Raven could hardly blame Damian for ignoring her, it wasn't like she didn't do the same. They had sat through half-an-hour of tension. Tension that the others had failed to notice. A tension created by the expulsion of pent-up not-secrets. Not-secrets that they didn't want to accept because then they would have to accept that...you can't run from your past. No matter how fast you are.

The emotion Damian was experiencing, Raven knew it well -even if her experience with emotions was severely marred. There wasn't a specific word for it. A feeling of...comfort, regret and anticipation. It was eating him up like a parasite.

Feeling bolder than usual, Raven nudged Damian with her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him. He looked at her, startled, before recognising that there was no imminent threat. Raven noted the change in his mood as he shrugged at her, as if to say 'Life is terrible but that's old news.' There was an unusual edge to his eyes, like that which you would find on a person laughing bitterly.

"Turn left.", Damian said in a deadpan tone.

They rounded the corner, entering a long corridor with three oak doors on each side. It came to a dead-end at a large window, revealing a picturesque scene of the Manor grounds at night. Damian couldn't count the number of times he had slipped through that open pane of glass, disappearing for hours at a time and returning to harsh reprimands. It was hardly a surprise that his father had gotten decorative metal instalments placed on the outside. Beautiful to look at, useful in keeping Damian in.

Of course, he had just used the other windows.

"Damian,", he cleared his head as Kori spoke to him, "There is no room for myself. The sixth one does appear to be prepared for Adyn. Dick and I discussed that we would be staying with Bruce not at our apartment so...", her voice trailed off.

Not unkindly, Damian replied, "You'll be staying in Grayson's room in that case.", he crinkled his nose a little. "Inform Alfred if that is an issue."

Unabashed, Kori answered that it wasn't, giving Damian a wide smile before bounding back round the corner and down the stairs. Realising that he was the last one left in the corridor, the rest having entered quite a while ago, Damian opened the door to his old room: whilst it might have baffled some that his bedroom was so isolated, Damian had chosen it for that reason alone - it meant that he didn't have to face making conversation at ridiculous times in the morning.

The nostalgia hit him hard.

Observing the ever-immaculate, cream bed sheets and mahogany wardrobe, Damian couldn't help the immediate pleasure that the familiarity brought. The security of his own space.

Catching sight of the black turtleneck on the dresser, Damian's lips inclined upwards of their own free will.

***An***Hour***Later***

Suffice to say, dinner was a loud affair.

Raven couldn't count the amount of times she had seen Tim nearly choked to death as Dick and Jason both reached for the salt, or elbowed on the face when Cass was loading her plate with potato wedges, or nearly fall of his chair for no apparent reason. Karma must have hated poor Timothy.

Despite the many injuries, Raven had to admit, Alfred could cook. It was miraculous! (A.N:hehehe, you know I had to!). Adyn particularly appeared to love the food, gorging himself on every dish, yet still keeping his refined manners (essentially, eating lots but in a nice way). Everyone left the table content that night, calling out half-hearted goodnights between yawns. Of course, they knew that Tim would be awake till the next morning, doing some 'detective shit' as Jason would call it.

Inside her room, Raven took out the pyjamas from her duffel bag -one of those that Damian had prepared in hindsight- silently praising him for his clothing choice: a loose fitting, black shirt and baggy, three-quarters length trousers. Despite first appearances, Damian evidently cared about the wishes and opinions of others, something Raven truly couldn't fault him on.

Supressing a shiver at the cold draft leaking in through the window, at the far back of the room, the empath hastily ran to the adjoining bathroom. After changing her clothes and brushing her teeth, Raven slipped beneath the covers. Sniffling once, her last thought before she drifted of was that she would most likely have a cold the next day.

Oh well.

***

Before dawn, Damian was awake.

It was hardly unusual for him. What did come as a momentary shock, was that he awoke in Wayne Manor as opposed to in the Titans Tower. Then he remembered. He remembered the fight and the rubble. He remembered Logan leaving. He remembered...the explanations.

Never one to show how events affected him, Damian assumed his usual morning routine: an hour of conditioning followed by two hours of combat practice (consisting of repeating martial arts formations and refining sword techniques), which he was able to do in the copious amount of space that his room provided. Once finished, Damian stretched out his muscles, embracing the satisfaction that was brought form the pain of high intensity training.

Placing his katana securely on the mental rungs on the wall, Damian grabbed the towel that was folded in one of his cupboards. Content with his morning exercise, the current Robin walked in to the bathroom, giving himself the liberty of only five minutes in the shower before exiting.

Having finished changing in to his clothes -a black turtleneck and harem trousers- Damian left his room, hair still slightly damp and mussed, with the intention of securing breakfast. He may have trained his body to fit harsh circumstances, but Damian would never deny the blessing that was a solid, healthy breakfast at seven am.

What he did find odd, as he entered the kitchen (which happened to also have a small breakfast table in it) was that Raven wasn't present. Usually by that time, she had finished her meditation and exercise and would be drinking tea. 'Dark with no sugar', Damian noted, suppressing a smile. And she would greet him every single morning with a raised eyebrow before resuming whatever book she was reading -it varied from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice or perhaps a Percy Jackson book. The tranquillity of being in a room with someone who understand the meaning of the word 'quiet' was a godsend.

Yet upon walking through the kitchen door, he was met only by...Father.

Damian honestly didn't know what to think. It was, to put it simply, awkward. After having barely any contact with his father for over a year, Damian was now living in the same house as him. Try as though he might, the son of Batman couldn't help that wind of resentment that swept through his mind every time he saw Bruce.

Over a year.

How was Damian supposed to take it? Was he meant to act like his father hadn't dumped him on the titans without a second thought? Clarke had taken Jon to the Titans to benefit his training, yet he still visited often. Loath though he was to admit it, Damian was hurt by the fact that his father seemingly didn't care.

"Good morning Damian.", Bruce said, sipping his coffee.

Instantaneously pulling up a mask of indifference, Damian responded, "Father.", with a slight nod of his head.

Being brought up in an assassins guild, he had learnt to read people's body expressions, hence, it wasn't impossible to notice the wince on his father's face at his curt answer. Brushing it off, Damian made his way over to the kitchen appliances, preparing him usual morning tea, shaking off the eyes he knew were trained on him.

Pulling out a stool, he sat around the kitchen island rather than at the table. Nursing his tea in one hand, Damian distracted himself by contemplating the reasons why Raven wouldn't be downstairs. It could be that she had just wanted to spend longer meditating, or something along those lines. However, he couldn't halt the prevalent thought that she wasn't coming because of yesterday. Because of how he had acted.

It was childish, he admitted to himself, acting in such a cold way the night before. And he could hardly blame her for deigning to refuse his company in the morning. But after being so used to and comforted by the solidarity of her always being across from him, drinking earl grey tea with a book in hand, this difference was alarming.

Shaking his head at such mundane, useless thoughts, Damian looked up, seeing Dick and Kori walk in to the room. Checking the clock on the wall, his eyes widened slightly as he observed that he had been sat down for nearly fifteen minutes. Bruce had already left for work without him noticing.

"Good morning Damian!", Kori beamed whilst her boyfriend poured milk in to his bowl of cheerios.

Half asleep, Dick ended up splashing it on the front of his shirt. Swearing, he grabbed a few tissues to clear up the mess, knowing that he -as an officer- would be sanctioned for bad presentation. Amused, Damian watched his adoptive brother frantically scarf down his cereal, grab his jacket, accept a quick kiss from Koriand'r, and run out of the front door.

The always present smile widened on Kori's mouth. Anyone who met the two could obviously tell, they were hopelessly and irrevocably in love. Damian was just waiting for the day his idiot-of-a-brother would pick up the guts to propose! The anticipation was ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as imagining Damian being the uncle of a tiny Grayson. One was enough!

At that moment, Donna came jumping down the stairs, closely followed by Steph, Jon, Adyn and Jaime: Tim would be sprawled out over a keyboard; Cass had probably left on some covert mission last night; Babs stayed and left as she pleased; Raven was a mystery; and Jason just couldn't give two shits about life.

After a few minutes, Raven still hadn't come downstairs and Damian's concern had begun to grow. Evidently he wasn't the only one.

"Damian, could you please check up on Raven?", Kori asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Mutely, he nodded, leaving his seat and making his journey upstairs.

At her door, Damian knocked twice with his knuckles. Waiting for a moment, he heard a the soft patter of footsteps growing ever so slightly louder as they neared the door.

On the other side, Raven was staggering slightly on her feet, massaging her temples. She could hardly think straight so was unable to formulate a coherent response when she saw that it was Damian at the door. Leaning on the door frame for support, she entirely missed the question he asked.

"S-sorry, what?", she mumbled, nearly falling over.

"Raven,", he quickly steadied her with a hand on her shoulder, being sure to retract it quickly, "I asked if you were okay."

Sniffling - due to an obviously severe cold- she blinked slowly, processing his words before nodding at him.

"I'm f-fine. Just a...a little tired. I'll be b-better soon...", the empath swayed on her feet, hair falling in to her face.

Steadying her yet again, Damian asserted," Clearly not. Raven, you need to rest- go back to sleep."

Weakly, she attempted to protest, trying to make her way through the doorway: which Damian was blocking. After a while she simply gave up, allowing him to steer her in the direction of the mattress. As soon as she reached the bed, Raven was fast asleep, still shivering.

Brow furrowed in concern, Damian pulled the blanket over her and, noticing that she was still cold, pulled out another one form the cupboard, draping it over her. Only once the shivering had stopped, did he leave the room.

A.N

Okay, that was kind of cute! I thought I'd make this chapter nice and light for you guys -just a little fluff to make us gush :D

Again, thank you for all the comments, votes and reads! We've already gone past 1.3k reads and 50 votes! Not to mention over 80 comments!!! It is great hearing your feedback and I always love being happy on a Friday morning, just reading and answering the comments! Also, as I said in my last update (I think :s) I really would like some ideas for fluff because I want you guys to see the relationship progressing with your ideas because in this beautiful little community, I think it is important to listen to the ideas and thoughts of the readers -(clients know what they want!!!)

Thank you :D

-Bats :

Be my friend, hold me
Wrap me up, unfold me
I am small, I'm needy
Warm me up and breathe me

-Sia -Breathe Me