@bbraeweek2026 Day 3 - Trauma/Let Me Heal Your Wounds
"I Can Take Away Your Pain"
by @fastestmanalive333 (me)
(Song to Go with Fic Below highly recommend listening while reading)
Garfield stands by the Titans Compound in New York City thinking about days long gone, it is silent all the other titans have left off to their various lives, and him.. why is he still here, not like he has anything better to do, Matt and Bette were all the way in san francisco and he didnt feel like flying all the way over here He wears a leather jacket over his suit, the breeze brushing on his face, a dark cloud appears behind him, as a slender figure appears walking towards him. “Garfield?” she calls to him as Gar turns.
“Rave? what are you doing out here? I thought you were upstairs.” he feels a sense of warmth around her as she takes his hand looking at the breeze "I was.. i was just checking to see how you were doing.. you have been out here for hours.. you missed dinner" she sits down with gar as she sees a tear shedding down his face as he sits down by the ocean, the empire state building glistening in the distance..
"i just.. needed a breath of fresh air thats all" gar said to her not turning to her..
Raven slowly sat next to him as they stop and stare at the view of the city as the empath leans in.. as gar began to finally speak “you know.. before you first brought us all together.. I was so lost, my mom was dead, I was left to run a company as my dad went insane.. He spent hours and days crying when he disappeared and I never heard back from him. I thought I lost him too, I've been alone all my life.. I hid it under this whole playboy persona but I was really just a broken kid who wanted to belong, the titans: Dick, Victor, Kori, Donna….. You.. you all gave me a purpose to live again.. And even though you were always so closed off.. And didnt wanna admit it even though we called you the spooky witch girl… the titans they wouldn’t exist anymore without you.. You brought us back.. “ raven takes a long pause as she thinks of the right words to say she only stops with a short whisper “garfield..I” she stops she did not expect that from him she never thought of herself as important, even when the new teen titans formed she was scared to get too close to any of them, she always felt alone everywhere, she hated every aspect of herself she hated her face in the mirror, as her face slowly began to sink, as her hairline slowly began to recede, as she began to become like him. The mere thought of hurting everyone horrified her, all she wanted to do was try and live. Yet each time she tried to live her life her evil side would rise and take over and she hurt people she grew to care about every time she got close.
"You know what's funny," Gar said, "is that I spent so long being the guy who makes it not heavy. Like, the team's going through something awful, Gar's gonna crack a joke, lighten the mood, give everybody somewhere to look that isn't the wound."
"I noticed," she said, with just enough dryness to be fond.
"And I convinced myself that was just who I was, y'know? The funny one. The light one." He picked at a thread on his jacket. "Except one day I realized I didn't know how to be anything else around people, and I didn't actually know if the real version of me the not performing version was someone anyone would want to be around.. I always thought the real me.. Was just a joke..."
Raven was quiet for a moment
"The real you." She reached up and put her hand gently through his hair. "Every shape. Every detail. You've been through so much, Garfield. You just can't find the beauty in it yet."
He stopped. Looked away, jaw working like he was trying to find something to say and coming up empty. When he turned back his eyes were too bright the kind of bright that meant he was losing the fight against it. One tear slipped down, then another, and he didn't wipe them away fast enough. He looked almost surprised by his own face.
"Sorry," he said trying not to break out into a sob.. "That's.. I'm fine, I'm not-"
He let out a breath that was almost a laugh and almost wasn't. He looked at her really looked, the way he only did when he'd run out of deflections and for a moment he was completely unguarded, everything right there on the surface.
"I know what it is," she said softly, "to look in the mirror and not recognize what's looking back."
The wind blew against her face the smell of the salt water almost sweet.. As the sun began to completely set
"There was a time I could see my father's features starting to appear in mine." Her voice stayed level but her eyes went somewhere far away. "I would stand in the bathroom and watch myself and I couldn't stop it. I just had to live inside it. Smile at people. Pretend I wasn't disappearing.. After we defeated my father.. I thought things would get better. I tried to be more open. I met someone." She looked down at their hands. "I thought he loved me. He knew exactly what I needed to hear, and exactly when I had nothing to compare it to when I had never been allowed to feel anything, and suddenly I could." A tear moved slowly down her cheek. "It took me a long time to stop blaming myself for not seeing it."
Gar's jaw tightened. He reached over slowly and covered her hand with his. She let him.
"You were allowed to believe someone," he said quietly. "That's not a failure."
She looked at him, the vulnerability open in her face.
"No," she said. "It isn't. Neither is loving someone who was performing the whole time." She held his gaze. "That's why being around you having something real for the first time has terrified me so much."
"It scared me too." He exhaled slowly. "Tara knew everything about me. Every weak point, every fear. She knew exactly how to make me feel like I finally had somewhere to belong. And the whole time she was just.." He stopped. "I keep thinking I can shapeshift into anything. Anything and I still couldn't see what was right in front of me."
"Because you weren't looking for it," Raven said. "Because you trusted her. That's not blindness, Garfield. That's just being someone who loves people."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"We were both just kids who wanted someone to stay," he said finally.
"Yes," she said. "We were."
The city moved around them, indifferent and glittering. A boat passed slowly through the dark water. The Empire State Building held its light steadily against the sky.
Gar looked at her. He brushed his hand along her arm and caressed her back gently, and Raven leaned into him.
"I don't know either. But we can try."
His hand moved slowly against her back. There was a time when this kind of closeness would have made them both retreat made them run. They stayed. Their breathing unsteady, just slightly.
"Rae," he said whispering her name softly.. as if just to check if she was still here.
"I know," she said... quietly staring at his green eyes that shined brightly in the night... "I'm here."
His forehead came to rest against hers, slow and gently, she felt his breath catch, just slightly. His hand stilled... her fingers found the front of his jacket without her quite deciding they would, curling into the fabric.
"Tell me if-" he started.
"I will," she said. "Tell me too."
"Yeah," he breathed. "Okay."
When they finally closed the distance it was soft achingly soft, and so careful.. she felt the ghosts trying to crowd in, the cold memory of what closeness had once cost her, and she felt his hands trembling slightly at her back and knew his were there too. And then slowly all of it faded into the moonlight... and for once, all their fears and all the pain began to fall away.
Raven touched his cheek ever so softly “let me heal your wounds”
She pressed her face into the curve of his neck and felt his chin come down to rest on top of her head, and neither of them said anything for a long time. The city glittered across the water.. The Empire State Building held its light. Somewhere in the distance a siren rose and faded, and the world kept moving the way it always did.. And suddenly all the noise began to fade..
It was difficult. It was the most difficult thing either of them had done in a long time harder than any mission, harder than any enemy, harder than all the years of running. Because this required something neither of them had been sure they had left.
But his arms were around her, and she was still here.
For tonight, that was enough..
Fin
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