B'shert

Life Takes A lot But...

The sun streams through the gap in the curtains of Ravens window and pries her away from a blissfully peaceful sleep. Her eyes blink into focus. She's on her bed, without the covers on, in the same cloths that she'd been wearing when she'd come back to the tower from Jinx's and Damians arms are wrapped around her and her head is on his chest. Last night had been exhausting. For both of them. It was like getting used to a livewire bond again if not quite that intense. Finding and piecing together Damians memories was hard, and the process was still incomplete, there were still gaps in his memories, some could be repaired later and some would forever remain lost. But it didn't matter because over all, the damage had been repaired.

She flicks her eyes over to the clock and see's that it's 10.00am. They were really off schedule, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Raven knows that she won't fall back asleep, but she closes her eyes anyway, content to just lay here with the man she loves.

And when Damian wakes up he kisses the top of her head because he knows she's awake. She smiles at him, small and gentle. Her smile makes him happy, he makes her happy. Before when he'd first found the ring, it had felt right. The thought that he'd want to be with Raven for the rest of his life had felt right but he hadn't understood WHY (yeah okay so having no recollection of their relationship didn't help but-) he couldn't understand what would make him want to make a commitment like that. Because the Damian of the past had been oh so scared of caring, because if your cared and loved something you could lose it. Yes he'd learnt that having and losing was better than never having at all over the years but marriage was- different. But now he understood (or rather, remembered.) This feeling, of completeness, of love of HOME was worth anything.

*****

Everything is quiet. Which isn't unusual seeing as it was the middle of the day and the others were probably out doing their own thing. Raven goes into the kitchen and starts making a late breakfast for her and Damian. She's cooking the eggs, focusing on the sizzling sound. She's not really thinking of anything, she doesn't particularly want to either. I mean, there are definitely something's she should be thinking about but it had been a tiring few days full of revelations and she just wanted to breath. The whole month that she'd been walking on egg shells around Damian had been like not being allowed to breath. Like surviving on minimum oxygen. It had been oppressive and awful and now that the whole problem was sorted she just felt so FREE. She smiles to herself when she feels arms wrap around her waist from behind, and lips press a kiss to the top of her head.

'Move.' She orders, turning off the stove and putting the eggs onto a plate before keeping the saucepan in the sink. Damian watches her while she works, eyes watching her every move. There's some sort of tension, a nervous atmosphere that surrounds them both. Both are aware of its existence if not WHY it exists for both of them.

After she's done cleaning up Raven joins Damian near the counter. They look at each other in silence, both verbal and mental. "Well, I'm waiting," Raven says finally, breaking the quiet that had settles over that part of the tower. Damian rolls his eyes but concedes. He turns to face her fully and his green gaze meets hers. He'd been thinking about this for months. Because this was one time he just COULDN'T let his horrible self expression ruin the moment. He'd been planning on exactly how to ask, down to the very last word. He remembered it too, in fact opening his mouth to speak Damian Wayne fully belevd that he could give Raven the proper romantic proposal she deserved. But of course shit doesn't go as planned, because he ends up blurting out-

"I think we should become official,"

Which is...not very accurate. Because Ravens his girlfriend and that's pretty official. The dark haired sorceress raises an eyebrow but remains quiet, motioning for Damian to elaborate. And Damian really hates himself right now, but he might as well just roll with this. He'd never been one to beat around the bush so he might as well just ASK. He takes a small sense of satisfaction in seeing his girlfriends eyes widen just a fraction in surprise when he gets down on one knew, and pulls out that box that he'd found in his room.

(Honestly, he owed the box a lot.)

"When I went to stay in Gotham for a while after Tye and Nikita left I found this in my room, I didn't understand WHY then-" And he knows she knows he means that he didn't understand why he'd give himself such a 'weakness', he knew that she knew that he didn't mean 'Why Raven'- " But now I do. Having you in my life has made me realize that attachment and love are only a weakness if I let them be, that it's actually strength. I can't tell you how much you mean to me Raven, not in words, so I hope that you'll let me show you for the rest of our live-Umf!" Damian barely manages, okay so he doesn't manage at all to stop himself from falling backwards as Raven crashes her lips onto his. (Its actually more teeth that lip and horrible for the level of experience they have but they both think its perfect.) Her hands cup her face and one of his rests on the base of her neck. When they finally move away they don't move far, Ravens nose brushes his and he can count each of her individual eyelashes. "Are you asking me to marry you birdboy?" She asks, her voice breathy. "I'd have thought the ring made my intentions clear," Damian says, his voice deadpan. The dark haired woman laughs. "Is this a yes?" he asks, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles, she smiles at him. "Yeah," and Damian takes a few seconds to slip the sparkling gold ring onto her finger before pulling his fiancé into another kiss.

The kiss is sweet and long and it's just them in the world and Damian thinks that if his mother and grandfather could see him they'd be rolling over in their graves- but screw them.

Then there's a familiar high pitched squeal that forces them to break apart. They turn towards the doorway to see Kori, Dick, Gar, Jamie, Kon and Cassie all holding grocery bags and staring at them. To Damians complete and utter desolation, none of them wear the expression of one who had not suspected a thing. Instead they looked like people who expected a certain thing to happen but were just surprised to actually SEE it.

"Hey guys," Raven says, blushing red and giving the gang a small wave as she gets up, helping Damian up as she did so. Cassandra squeals (shrieks?) again. "Cass must you-"

"OH GREAT HERA YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!???" The dark haired girl exclaims happily, pointing towards Ravens hand. Everyone else follows her gaze and see's the white gold ring that now adorns Ravens finger. NOW they looked surprised, so Damian was happy because he hated not surprising people. A round of congratulations and hugs (which Damian vehemently tries, and fails to avoid) follows before everyone starts talking about wedding details. And Damian will just stay out of it for now and drink his green tea and make fun of Raven through their mental link while she struggles to keep up with Wondergirls string of never ending questions.

"What date did you say it was again? Kori! We need to plan Rae's bachelorette party! I was thinking we'd book a room in that club Velocity-" And Raven glances and Damian. "Cass, I JUST got engaged and the wedding won't be for a while so don't worry too much about a surprise bachelorette party, also nothing too wild Cass," she says. "Define wild?" Cassie asks, "Well no alcohol for me for starters," Raven says, sitting on the stool besides Damians. Damian takes another sip of his tea and gives her an inquiring look. While Raven wasn't really a fan of alcohol, she DID drink it occasionally. His fiance doesn't bother to explain.

'Fiancé' Damian can definitely get used to that.