Through the Years

Chapter Two

My favorite time of day just happens to be morning. Very early in the morning. Early enough so that I, and occasionally Azura, are the only ones awake. Gar could sleep through anything, and it seemed that my other two children inherited that trait from him. I usually enjoy my few hours of peace and silence watching the sun rise above our tiny neighborhood, or catching up on some much needed reading. On the mornings Azura got up with me we might go out for breakfast without telling the others or meditate together. Meditation was surprisingly easy to teach my daughter. At five years old Azura was better at meditating than a sixteen year old Starfire was. After all, she was turning out more and more like me everyday.

This particular morning Azura was sleeping in, so I was free to let my mind wander as I sipped my tea. I had already showered and dressed myself, throwing on some old ripped jeans and a plain dark blue v-neck. You see, the crime level in Jump City just wasn't what it used to be, so Nightwing had told us that if we wanted to, we could leave the Titans Tower. At that point in our lives Gar and I were already married. Quite frankly, we were ecstatic to go find a place of our own. We moved out within a couple of months, as did Cyborg to go move in with Bee. Nightwing and Starfire decided to stay in the tower, where they started their own family and continued to watch over the city.

Sometimes I missed the way things used to be. I missed cleaning the T-Car with Cyborg or training with Robin or even painting my nails with Starfire. The Titans were the only family I had and I missed them dearly, but we had gone our separate ways and I had my own family to take care of now.

"MOM!" Speak of the devil. I was so deep in my thoughts I couldn't even decipher which demon had just called me. After a while, they all started to sound the same to me. At least, when they called me they did.

I let out a long sigh at the sound that signaled the start of my day. I waited a second hoping that maybe, just maybe, Gar would handle whatever was going on.

"MOM."

Of course not.

I took one last sip of my tea before setting my large mug down and floating towards the sound. By now I had realized it was Asher who needed me. Why didn't they ever call their father? They know that there's two of us right?

"This better be important." I muttered to myself as I entered my son's messy room. There was Asher, clad in dark sweatpants and his favorite green hoodie. He was sitting on his bed running a hand through his hair. He looked a lot like Gar whenever he did that.

"What is it?" I asked, trying very hard not to sound annoyed. I wasn't annoyed of course, but at times that's just how my voice came off to other people. I can't help it.

"Well, I can't get inside Azura's head." Asher sighed, looking down sadly.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I took a seat on the side of my son's bed.

Asher hesitated for a moment. "What I mean is that Azura and I share everything and she's always been an open book, since day one. But now, she like, has a wall up and I don't know why. I can't feel what she's feeling anymore. And we can't communicate telepathically anymore. She's pulling away from me Mom."

"How long has this been going on?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure. It's been a gradual thing you know? Sometimes Azura has her bad days and I ignore it, but it just feels like everyday has been a bad day lately."

This news did shock me. Azura and Asher had been best friends since the womb, why was she not letting her brother in all of a sudden? Come to think of it, I've felt less emotion from my daughter as well. She was beginning to act too much like the teenage me before I had learned to trust my Titan family. This saddened me because, well, she didn't have to.