Birds without wings

The Mission

Raven awoke to what sounded like someone at her door. The few barks that came afterwards confirmed that it was no person.

Raven went and opened her door to be greeted by a very excited black Dane. She begun to scratch the puppy's head and realised that Damian must've already returned. She decided to look for him, he surprisingly wasn't training but, was in fact on the roof. She noticed that Damian was holding something in his arms, it wouldn't surprise Raven if it was another animal as Damian had many pets back at Wayne Manor.

"Hey, Damian."

"Hey."

"Who's that?"

"This is Alfred."

"I thought you said Alfred is your father's butler and friend." Raven was very confused, she didn't know if it was a separate creature or if Alfred had been turned into a cat.

"Alfred, the cat. The old man is his namesake." Damian could sense the confusion in her and to be honest he found it amusing. He couldn't help but grin at her confusion.

"Oh. What are you grinning for?" Raven could feel it in their link, he found her confusion to be amusing. Honestly she didn't mind but at the same time she felt somewhat stupid for not suspecting Alfred was the cat's namesake.
"Don't answer actually I already know!"

Damian put the cat down knowing it likely wouldn't jump off the roof.

"Damian, I need to talk to you about..."

Before she could finish an alert had gone off and the Titans were needed.

As they all arrived at the meeting room, everyone welcomed Damian back, who actually protested as he was thinking of the mission.

"Ok Titans, as much as we are happy that Robin is back we have a job to do." Kori sounded like she hadn't been sleeping and there was a reason for that. She had bags underneath her eyes and they were very red. She had been crying...

"Kori are you ok?" Donna being the sister of Wonder Woman was obviously concerned. She loved Kori, everyone saw her as a mother figure, sometimes maybe a bit of an annoying mother trying too hard but that didn't change anything.

"Dick... he... he's been... he's been kidnapped.."

Damian felt sick, Dick is his brother, adopted or not he loves him despite being an irritant. His fists clenched he was furious but also scared of what might happen to him.

Raven could feel the emotions radiating off of Damian. She knew he needed to calm down but she also knew what Nightwing meant to Damian.

While everyone was crowded around Kori, making sure she was ok, Raven followed Damian who had left the room.

"Damian where are you going?"

"Why do you care?"

"Damian you know why. You know that I care. Please let me help!"

Damian knew better than to stand up to Raven. She always seemed determined to help him when he's not feeling right.

"Fine."

"This is about Dick isn't it?"

"I can't just stand around while Starfire tries to do a meeting. I need to find him. In fact I already have." He said with a little hint of a smirk.

"What how?"

"Tracker. Same sort of one I used on the team when I first arrived."

Raven wasn't surprised about this. She half expected him to pull something out of his sleeves.

"Something else is bothering you though." Raven could sense his troubled aura, she figured this would be something to do with last night. She also knew he would shut it down immediately but if it reminded him to talk to her about it, it was worth it.

"Not the time Raven. I know you care but we need to focus... if it'll calm you down and settle this we can talk about it later."

Raven was honestly surprised he would even suggest talking about it at all. Damian was always more open around Raven but this was a few steps further than usual.

"Ok. Come on let's get the team ready."

Upon returning they both saw Kori crying, they knew that this news could really cheer her up and they could get Dick back.

"Star.. Kori I have Grayson's location."

Everyone just realised what Kori hadn't. He used her first name... her actual name. They all though that couldn't be Damian. Angry, stoic Damian was now using her actual name. Everyone was shocked... except Raven. Raven felt pride in how far he'd come, she wasn't entirely sure why but she was.

"Oh Damian thank you! Thank you so much! Alright Titans let's go save Nightwing!"

Damian looked back at Raven, he knew she felt pride and simply smiled at her. She smiled back. Their conversation about Damian's overwhelming emotions as of recently though, would have to wait. Time to save Nightwing!