Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Fifty-Five

"SCHOOL?!", Damian's voice reverberated off the walls and the fire in the hearth quaked.

Raven shook her head relentlessly, shoulders shrugging and arms folded, "No. Don't even fucking-no...no no no. Just...no- what...what the fuck no. No way. No. no.", she spitefully laughed, "Never in the seven shades of Hell. No. I'm-I'm-Im done with this bullshit."

Besides Raven (who continued muttering in denial) and Damian (whose enraged yells and cusses in Arabic featuring- but not exclusive to- 'Isho hay el khara?!' 'Khasbon ala' abook!' and 'Uqsimo billahilaliyulazeem enta wajul khara!') Jaime stood, his eyebrows saying all. Connecting eyes with Dick, whose weary eyes indicated he'd expected such a reaction, Jaime threw his hands up.

"Really ese, what did you think would happen? On a good day that shit wouldn't work!", disappointment sat in Jamie's eyes: even after so long, Dick still didn't get it, and Kori didn't either.

As the adults attempted to coax Damian and Raven in to peace -with the aid of Jaime, who was too done with this shit to be angry- Jonathan and Donna were left in quite the sticky situation. Wondergirl and Superboy, in the awkwardness of the moment, met each other's eyes, conveying the tension of the atmosphere through the shuffling of their hands and fidgety feet.

Pulling her long, dark curtain of hair over one shoulder- and pulling herself together with harsh mental chastisement about how feeble she was becoming just for a boy- Donna suggested, "Ought we- sorry- shouldn't we help?"

In an attempt to normalise their interaction (whilst the commotion spun out a few metres away) Jon laughed with the surety of a baby bird leaping from a nest in to thin air, "Aha, which side are we gonna be on? 'Cus I don't really want to make those two", he jerked his head in Damian and Raven's direction, "angry. But I'm also kinda fine with school...you know?", naturally, he never could let a good thing be, so ended his speech with, "Um, not that you should know, just kinda the phrase...like yeah, um-"

Unable to stop herself, Donna chuckled a little too enthusiastically, "Yes, I do understand! Completely! They can be intimidating, and I too do not truly mind going to school. I have oft wondered- sorry- often wondered of how the experience would be.", realising that this was Jonathan she was speaking too, Donna hurried, "We should stop the argument, should we not?"

Dipping his head- his brain couldn't find a verbal reply that wouldn't make him look like an imbecile- Jon entered the chaos taking place besides them. Like Jaime, the youngest Titans attempted to soothe the tempers of the part-demons...to no avail. In all seriousness, when has someone saying 'calm down' ever actually made the person calm the fuck down?- Never.

"Just calm down,", Nightwing appeased.

"Calm down?", Damian's fury knew no bounds,"Calm down!- walek enta tees lil clown! Isho ya'nee calm down?!"

The fact that at least three people were telling him that they had no idea what he was saying flew over Damian's ears. In his mind, all throughs circulate around one main idea, control. Did he not have control over his own fucking life?! Why did father and Grayson feel the need to keep such strong grips over his actions. Nothing in his life was his choice!- not his parentage, or his upbringing, or going to the Titans, or being the heir to the League, or moving back to the Manor! Now this! At least here he'd had freedom over what he did with his days- training, reading, drinking tea and going to the animal centre on a few weekdays.

What in the fury of Hades could he benefit from going to school? From having to deal with barely literate boys guided by their mediocre muscles and pathetic bouts of lust? From suffering hoards of gold-digging harlots with as much sense as a boiled cabbage but plastic for miles? Truth be told, not every single creature within would be despicable, but the ratio of disgusting to acceptable was likely 100:1 .