"What's going on, Dick?"
"It's Nightwing, tonight, Valkyrie." The man smiled. He was dressed in his full costume, masked and ready for action. Behind him stood Beast Boy, Blue Beatle and Starfire, also dressed for combat.
"What-"
"You are going to...
Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
Damian's research had yielded nothing except the revelation that Valerie's mother had essentially implied that Ragnarok was coming- which meant a war bigger than anything anyone could comprehend. While this information was certainly terrifying, it wasn't particularly helpful.
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Valerie absolutely knew that Damian had been eavesdropping, but she had decided that she was going to let the little brat suffer in his own stupidity. If he hadn't had the guts to ask her what any of it meant, then that meant that he was trying to figure it all out on his own, which, Valerie had to admit, he was probably capable of, given that he was the son of Batman.
"Miss Wayne, would you be so kind as to pay attention during my lesson?" Herr Schultz, Valerie's German teacher, snapped at her.
"Sorry sir." She responded quietly and began dutifully to copy the notes on relative pronouns off of the board. Before she could finish, however, Herr Schultz erased the notes and began to write some more. Valerie let out a frustrated groan. Audon, who had taken to sitting next to Valerie in the two classes they shared, rolled his eyes and handed her his notes without looking at her.
The two had seemed to come to a mutual agreement in the past week that Valerie had been made aware of his existence. They never really spoke to one another unless absolutely necessary, but they had started hanging out in the same places. At lunch, for example, Audon hid behind an old oak tree at the far end of one of the school's courtyards. He'd shared his refuge from the rest of the students with Valerie, and in return she brought him a packed lunch courtesy of Alfred every day.
"It's got to have fish in it, Alfred. I don't care how." She'd explained to the family butler. "He uses magic, which means he needs as much omega 3 and 6 as he can get."
Valerie would have almost called what she had with Audon a friendship, if she hadn't seen the way the Titans interacted with one another. They were so at ease with each other and Valerie found it entirely unfair that she didn't have friends like that.
"Hey, Robin, you're totally zoning out on us, dude." Beast Boy shook Damian out of his reverie. Almost a week later, he still hadn't found anything. He was beyond frustrated, and his friends were beginning to sense that he knew more than he'd let on.
"I apologize, Garfield. My mind is focused on other things." He handed the game controller to Raven, who looked slightly confused as to what to do with the thing, and made his way towards his own bedroom.
"Hey, Damian," Kori called from the yoga mat she was currently hovering over. "If you need to talk about anything-"
"You would be my first choice, Korriand'r." He assured the Tamaranian, who nodded in satisfaction, and went back to her complex exercises.
