The More Things Change
Charlie Drolshagen
Housewarming
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Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or any of the associated characters or plot-lines. They are the property of DC-Comics and licensed to Cartoon Network for the animated series. I also do not own any other characters in the DC Universe who happen to show up in this little fanfiction, so back off!
A/N: I'm not sure where this came from but it seems to be developing into my chaptered project for the Teen Titans fandom. I have some idea of where this is going but for the most part I will be content to just let this one write itself. I don't know when I'll work on it or if I'll ever post it to ff.net, so just be patient with me. This story is set in a sort of hybrid world between the comics and the cartoon series, so the continuity is probably all shot to crap. Don't worry about it though and just enjoy it. Thanks!
Richard Grayson groaned as he became aware of the enticing aroma of a fresh pot of dark Colombian coffee. As he groggily awoke he looked at his alarm clock and saw that it was nearly 9AM—four hours past his normal waking time.
‘Okay…so something is definitely off kilter here. I haven’t woken this late in the last three and a half years.’ He contemplated this strange deviation from his routine as he continued to enjoy the wonderful smell of that coffee…‘Wait a minute—who’s brewing the coffee?’
Now things were starting to make sense, and as he pulled on his sweat pants and a t-shirt he pieced together the puzzle. He followed his nose out to the kitchen/living room of his small apartment. The sight that greeted him brought a quiet but supremely satisfied smile to his face.
Covering his sofa was a set of sheets and a pillow, and piled next to his washer/dryer unit was a set of soaking wet clothes, all of this among the cityscape-like towers of unopened boxes. Standing in the bare kitchenette next to his freshly unpacked coffee machine silently sipping her own cup of tea was a young violet-haired woman wearing what appeared to be a set of his boxer shorts and one of his “wifebeater” undershirts. Though her eyes were closed she seemed to know he had woken and joined her in the main room.
“Up bright and early as usual I see.”
“Yeah, except I’m usually a little earlier and brighter than this.”
She nodded silently, “Yes, you usually are—at least from what I can recall.”
They enjoyed a few moments of silence in which Raven continued to sip her tea quite comfortably and Richard simply grinned in her general direction. Finally, the smell of the fresh coffee became too much and he moved towards the countertop where an empty mug awaited him.
“You have no idea how glad I am that I didn’t dream that you showed up in the middle of the night.” Richard started to pour coffee into the mug Raven had retrieved from his packed belongings—ironically (as he was sure was the intent) it was his National Audubon Society mug. “By the way, I really like your new outfit.”
Raven finished swallowing her tea before she grinned slightly. “Well, I’m just glad that you weren’t as dead at 2AM as you were a little while ago. As for my new outfit, I thought you would like it—you did help pick it out after all.”
At this Richard nearly dropped his coffee, so he decided to put it down before he really did, as it seemed this was going to be an interesting conversation. “When exactly did I do this?”
“About an hour ago I woke up and realized that I would need some dry clothes, since mine were obviously very rain soaked from last night’s trip over here, and all the possible substitutes still being in boxes I did the only logical thing—I asked you where you had packed your clothes. These are what your fairly comatose response led me to.”
Richard nodded slowly. “I see my fashion sense has not been diminished by my time abroad—even when picking out someone else’s clothes.”
She scoffed. “This coming from the boy who was a traffic light for much of his adolescent life,” she shared a short laugh with him.
He looked her over, covertly appreciating how she looked in his clothes—“comfortable” was the best word for it he concluded. “Am I to assume that this is how you found the coffee maker and mugs as well?”
“No those were considerably easier to find.” She pointed at the opened box on the floor that was indeed clearly labeled in large black letters: COFFEE STUFF – UNPACK FIRST!. “At least we know what your priorities are.”
“That’s never been a secret. Coffee’s always been my first priority in the morning. I don’t remember actually having any coffee grounds in that box, though, so where did the actual coffee come from?”
“Oh, right—wait one second.” Raven turned away from Richard and fiddled with something before turning back to him with the something in her hands. “Happy housewarming!” Raven smiled a brilliant smile (which for her meant actually showing some teeth) at him and held out the recently opened bag of Colombian Dark Roast coffee grounds sporting a small red gift bow.
Richard couldn’t help but laugh as he took the small bag from her hands. “Wow, thanks! Things could’ve gotten pretty ugly this morning if I’d had to go out and buyt some myself.” He took a drink and kept talking, “Thanks for brewing it too—you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find a place that sells just plain coffee. It seems like no matter where in the world I went everyone had converted to Starbucks-style coffee.” A shudder overtook them both. “Seriously though, I really appreciate the gift,” Richard held up his mug in salute and took a long pull of the hot drink.
They finished their respective drinks slowly and when both had finished Raven spoke first. “Well, shall we finish getting you unpacked?”
As he looked around the main room at the large piles of boxes Richard was never so glad in his life to have such a wonderful friend.
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The greatest part about having a friend with telekinesis was that a lot of moving could be done with a minimal amount of sweating.
They started by putting her wet clothes in the dryer and starting that running. Then Richard decided he wanted to get his furniture arranged correctly before unpacking the boxes—this was one of those things that Raven helped a lot with, because even though Richard may have been strong enough to lift some of the furniture pieces himself, there was a limit to how far his arms would stretch. So Richard mostly wound up directing the placement while Raven had another cup of tea and moved his furniture around.
Once all of the heavy things were in place Richard started opening boxes and sorting them between the kitchen and the living room (which were basically the same anyway), the bathroom, and his bedroom. Then they both unpacked the boxes and put everything away. The clothes took the longest because they hadn’t been folded before they were packed (which Raven pointed out numerous times would have made putting them away much easier) and were generally just mixed up and in no sort of order at all.
By one o’clock everything was unpacked and Richard was coming back from dumping all of the empty boxes in the recycling bin outside his building. As he re-entered his apartment he could hear Raven making a comment from inside his bedroom.
“For a guy with such a well ordered mind he sure doesn’t know how to keep his belongings organized…”
“Well after spending nearly three years traveling around the world and moving six or more times a year those habits kind of get lost.” Raven stilled as he spoke, the closest he’d ever been able to get her to jumping.
When she turned to him though she was completely composed and looking at him with a wry smile. She didn’t expect him to be moving toward her though and before she could react he had wrapped her in a tight hug. “It’s so good to see you again, Raven. It’s been way too long since was home.”
Raven recovered and returned his hug, smiling softly. It was good to have him back safe and sound. “So I guess this means you’re staying for a while?”
Richard didn’t speak, he only nodded once and inhaled the familiar smell of Raven’s lavender shampoo. Coming home was feeling better than he had thought it would.
Releasing her from his bear-like hug he made an observation. “You’ve decided you like my clothes better than the ones that actually belong to you?”
Raven looked down at her borrowed outfit and fought back a slight blush of embarrassment. “Well, they are comfortable and we’ve been busy, so I didn’t think to take time out to change?”
He led her out to the main room where they sat down on the couch. Raven (as was seeming to become her habit) spoke first. “Well since you’re back for good that must mean that you accomplished what you left in order to do.”
Richard—once known as Robin but now feared as Nightwing—nodded grimly. “Slade won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. He made sure of that himself…” Richard turned and smiled at Raven, forgetting his grim mood, “But that’s a story for another time. I want to hear all about what’s been happening while I was gone. How is everyone? How is everything at the Tower?”
Raven stared out the window away from Richard for a moment before she answered. “Well, to be honest I’m really the only one left.” Sensing his surprise she continued and answered his unasked questions. “When you left and Slade followed you virtually all of the other major problems in this city left with you. So eventually the city no longer needed us. Kori went home when Galfor became ill and she’s now the Empress of Tamaran—though she comes back to visit occasionally. She still asks if you’ve come home every time she visits, you know.” Raven eyed Richard for a moment before continuing. “After that we all started to go our separate ways. Victor wanted to try having a normal life for a while—especially after he and Bumble Bee started dating seriously. They moved up to Silicon Valley after Cyborg—sorry—Victor patented some new groundbreaking technology for computers and he’s got his own business now.
“Beast Boy—he goes by Changeling now when he’s in costume, but mostly he’s just Gar—he never told us, but we knew he spent a lot of time down in Terra’s cave, mostly working things out for himself, trying to figure out what he was going to do next, now that the Titans, his third family, were pretty much over. He spent a lot of time with ‘Tara,’ convinced that he could make her remember, and somewhere along the way they actually became interested in each other and started going out. She’s in school at Berkeley and that gave Beast Boy an excuse to move up there and spend some time with Cyborg. Eventually he talked Cyborg into going into business with him doing—of all things—video game design. So they’re still close and they visit every once in a while too, but I’m the only one who’s still here. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Richard turned a sympathetic face on her and reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. It hasn’t been that bad—like I said things have been pretty quiet since you left. I even managed to convince those monks to let me watch over the Maulers during the summer.” She laughed. “It’s strange really—I’ve never had even a semblance of an adult relationship and somehow I’ve wound up with a custody arrangement.”
Richard laughed with her. “Yeah, I’d call that putting the cart before the horse. So if you’re the only one still living in the Tower I guess that means you’re the only one who got my message.”
Raven nodded. “I got you’re message as soon as I got in last night—” Richard raised his eyebrows, “—oh stop it, I only went out for groceries…and a couple of other necessities—like books. Anyway, I settled in to read and listen for trouble in the city and by the time I checked messages it was 2AM, so I decided you were probably awake anyway and came over.”
“In the middle of a thunderstorm and pouring rain?”
Raven fidgeted ever so slightly—if it had been anyone but Richard they would not have noticed. “Well, I wanted to see if you needed anything—besides coffee, anyway.”
Richard nodded and spoke softly, “So you weren’t curious at all as to why I wouldn’t be coming back to the Tower?”
Raven was silent for a moment, but when she answered she matched his tone. “Yes, actually I was wondering about that. I figured that you probably had a good reason, hence why I helped you unpack this morning.”
“Thanks again, by the way. I thought it would be a whole day before I got this place figured out. You’re right though, I do have a good reason.” He got up off his couch and moved to the small window, looking down at the street.
Raven waited expectantly for him to continue. “Richard Grayson needs to start having a life,” he said simply. He waited a moment before continuing, “Bruce had me fill in as Batman for about six months while he sorted himself out. Did you know he was paraplegic for almost a year? I was sure when he finally got everything figured out he’d be more balanced. He’s always been more Batman than Bruce, but he did the exact opposite of what I thought and now Bruce seems to have retreated completely. He only goes in to work when there’s a major public announcement, the real management is in the hands of a new chairman—who I don’t think much of.
“It scared me, Rae. It made me wonder if that was what my future was going to be. Would I only live in the shadows, behind my mask? I made a decision Rae. I’m putting Richard first before he ceases to exist at all. Nightwing will still do his duty, but he’ll only show his face when absolutely necessary.” He turned to Raven and quirked a smile. “But, Nightwing can’t operate out of a one-bedroom apartment. What do you say? Would you mind having a part-time roommate?”
Raven looked slightly relieved (which in Raven-speak indicated a significant amount of relief) when she responded, “Only if you promise to clean up your own messes and lock up when you leave. I’ve got the Maulers trained—no way you’re getting the run of the place without following my rules.” She grinned towards him. “So, when does Nightwing get here?”
Richard moved back towards the couch. “Well I figured I’d give Richard a while to get used to his new digs, find a job, maybe a girlfriend—”
“A girlfriend?”
“Yeah, a girlfriend. Why, you know someone?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah, okay. Anyway, give Richard some time to form his life here, maybe a month, and then Nightwing can start figuring out how he fits into the equation.”
Raven seemed satisfied with that answer. She got up off the couch and moved towards the dryer to retrieve her real clothes—recognizable now as a pair of khakis and a blue hoodie. “Well, I noticed your refrigerator and pantry are empty. You’re going to need to eat if you plan to start a life for yourself Richard.” She went to the bathroom and changed, coming out in less than thirty seconds.
Richard watched her move around his apartment like she lived there. “You’re point being…”
Raven threw a look over her shoulder at the young man who was obviously enjoying being difficult. “My point being, we’re going shopping,” Raven replied in a playfully terse tone as she threw Richard’s keys at him.
“Shopping with Raven? This ought to be interesting,” Richard said loud enough for his friend to hear as he grabbed his jacket off a chair and followed her out the door.
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