Birds of a Feather

19

There was a crack in the distance that was surely either a computer monitor or a lightbulb. I took a look around and noticed that no one had looked twice as Red Hood, or Jason Todd, walked into the common room. Even Wonder Woman and Flash had resumed their conversation without me.

This is one of the few times in my life I can genuinely say I was surprised. I was always rather good at sensing presences but for some reason his was one I was never able to track. A million thoughts and emotions ran through me that I couldn't decide which to act on.

I could blast him into another dimension. But seeing as how Batman's young son was currently standing right next to him, I figured that wouldn't be a smart decision.

I could run but that would be weak. The same could be said for just phasing out of the room. I wasn't one to back down to a challenge and he most certainly was challenging me by strolling into my home like this.

I could scream and yell or shout profanities till I passed out, but I knew it would do no good. If there's one thing that my guests didn't need to see was my demon side which I had so carefully meditated for to keep at bay. I also knew Jason, and I knew that when I got angry, he was not intimidated he found it rather attractive.

So I settled for the exact opposite of angry and went with unbearably sweet. So much so that someone who overheard would have thought that Starfire was speaking and not me.

"Please make yourself at home. Cyborg and Nightwing are making dinner and the refreshments are over there. Feel free to introduce Damian to Teether and Timmy, they would be glad to have another playmate." I gave a smile as I turned and walked towards Nightwing. I didn't bother to look over my shoulder to see if he had continued to look at me through his mask.

I reached the kitchen after what felt like a lifetime, despite only being a few feet away. I sat down on one of the barstools at the end of the island. Nightwing was standing beside me slicing tomatoes and putting them on plates to be later added to the burgers.

"Nope Raven can't be in the kitchen, she'll burn it down." Cyborg laughed. I wasn't entirely in the mood to continue with his joking personality but I didn't want to ruin this. I smirked and figured that would be a satisfactory response as I watched them flip tofu-burgers for Beast Boy.

"Nightwing have you noticed our newest guest." I said quietly enough that he could hear me but Cyborg couldn't. Nightwing slowly raised his head as if he were looking at me, but I knew his masked eyes were searching the room. That was one thing I had always admired about him; he was great at detective work. When we were still a team, we would often do stealth drills to get better at sneak attacks. Cyborg and Starfire had never been good at them, they were just too loud for their own good. Beast Boy could be fairly stealthy depending on the animal he had transformed to, but his human form was almost like bringing an air horn into battle. I was always the best and if Robin had the ability to levitate I would bet we would be on equal grounds.

I could see the minute his eyes landed on the Red mask and watched as his shoulders tensed. He went back to slicing tomatoes, albeit more aggressively than before.

"Cy, did you invite Jason?" Nightwing said casually, as if nothing was wrong.

"Uhm, I think Bruce did. Said something about Tim and Babs staying in Gotham while Jason brought Damian. Why?"

I saw Nightwing's hands stutter as he gripped the knife harder as if he intended to kill it.

"No reason. I just wasn't aware he was invited." He said in an attempt to recover smoothly.