Blink 🌀 Jason Todd 🌀 ( TITANS )

( NINE )

It had been a few weeks since everyone moved into the tower; their limits were starting to break, so Emric being Emric wanted to try and keep the peace between everyone.

Early in the morning, Emric untangles himself from Jason and gets dressed. He slides his wallet into his back pocket and then heads out of their shared room, shutting the door behind him quietly so he wouldn't wake up his sleeping boyfriend. Moving towards the elevator, Dick's presence in the kitchen causes the boy to jump. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Where are you headed?"

"Out." Emric replies with a goofy grin, "It's a surprise."

"Okay, well, be careful." Dick tells him, "If you need us, call."

Emric nods and then hastily turns around and gets in the elevator. His mind was wandering to Jason's the whole ride down. When the doors open, he couldn't get out fast enough. Rushing out of the building, he makes his journey out on to the streets of San Francisco, a massive smile on his face.

Traveling downtown, he starts to take everything in. After living his life in a cage for so long, he liked feeling free. He loved walking with Jason, but this time he could go and explore on his own. He wasn't tied down by Jason's worries for him. Walking into the first antique shop he comes across, he takes in all the different old-timey things his mother would have loved. After a good twenty minutes, he exits the store and heads down to the square.

In the square, he finds a mime doing weird mime things, and there were a bunch of different things going on all at the same time. People were dancing, someone was singing, and others were painting. Everything around fascinated him.

Then he remembered what he was here for.

Heading into the first shop, he began to look at all the Xbox games and saw the new game Garfield had been talking nonstop for the past few weeks about. Picking it up, he takes it to the clerk and hands him the exact amount. The transaction was silent and effortless. He grabs the bag and then walks out, heading back out into the square.

Walking around, he finds the perfect place for Rachel. It was an Earthbound store, and he ended up buying her a necklace that matched the gem on her head. He thought that maybe it would help associate the gem with something good if the jewelry came from a friend. Picking up the last necklace on the rack, he takes it to the clerk, "Ah, this is a special one. It's supposed to bring the wearer "good vibes" as the kids call it nowadays."

Emric smiles, hands the man the money, and then takes the sack before he signs thank you to the clerk. He walks outside and out into the square again.

Back at the tower, Jason fully wakes up and finds an empty spot next to him. Thinking nothing of it, he climbs out of bed and heads into the kitchen and grabs himself a cup of coffee, and when he doesn't feel Emric's presence in his head, he starts to freak out a little. Turning to the people in the living room, he asks worriedly, "Has anyone seen Emric?"

"Jason." Dick says, getting his attention, "Don't worry. He just went out." Jason doesn't say anything; he just gets his breakfast.

Emric, on the other hand, was having the time of his life; he'd gotten stuff for everyone at the tower, including himself, and was feeling ecstatic. Leaving the square, he starts his short walk back to the tower. Today was a good day for him, so natural something just had to go wrong.

As he was walking down the street, a small group of guys grabbed him and pulled him into the alley nearby. Dropping his bags, he's slammed up against the hard brick wall. Putting his hands up, he watches the teen's lips. "Well, look what we have here, boys..."

The leader gets his knife out and flashes it around before putting it near Emric's neck. The other guys were going through all of his bags. He wasn't going to be the victim here. Turning the situation, Emric grabs ahold of the blade, move it away from his neck and head buts the leader. The rest of the gang takes one look at his bloody hand, and their facial expressions change.