Raven tried to shift her book further up in her line of sight, more effectively blocking Traci pacing along the other side of the table and Lori watching her pacing as the siphon herself sat backwards in a desk chair.

“A vampire that’s been around for so long would have a lot of money,” Traci started, “And probably property and more than enough wealth accumulated to continue expanding it-”

“That doesn’t explain why Batman would-”

“I’m getting there,” Traci interrupted Lori before she could get the sentence in, “He’s all gadgets and tech, sure, but have you seen the stats and stories about how many times he must have been shot-?”

“No,” Raven said.

It wasn’t an answer, but a means to stop the urban magician, part-time detective from digging any deeper into her conspiracy.

“Well I have,” she smiled impishly, ignoring Raven’s tone completely, “No human person could survive that kinda shit. And even if he was human, let me tell you, he’s probably not gonna be doing this for much longer-”

“Is that a threat, promise, or a prediction?” Lori snickered.

“Azar, grant me patience,” Raven prayed under her breath as Traci made a show of thinking on her answer. 

“Because any way you slice that, it doesn’t mean anything unless you’re willing to put money on it,” Lori continued, “Tell me I’m right, Rae.”

“I feel like I’ve been dragged into a conversation I didn’t want to be in,” Raven groaned, “Kicking and screaming and most certainly against my will-”

Just as she began to stand up in preparation to leave, Traci rushed around the table to block her exit, barely containing her laughter as she pointed accusingly.

“You sit back down and face facts! Batman’s a vampire!”

“He’s not! You’re-!” Raven let out a frustrated, strangled noise, before closing her eyes and taking in the longest breath she could stand to draw.

“Whoa, okay, I really felt that one,” Lori laughed nervously, “We might need to dial it back, Baker’s Dozen.” 

As the siphon stood from her own chair, she reached out to hold the Titan’s hand, rubbing a quick, light circle with her thumb.

“You know we’re joking, right babe?”

Raven let out a sigh, and with it as many of her frustrations as she could manage.

“I know. It’s just… a lot when you two keep… hyping each other up about nonsense like this. Words and feelings and beliefs all contradicting one another and its just-”

“A lot?” Lori repeated, smiling. Raven could only nod.

“Well, you can relax then, fearless leader,” Traci shrugged, taking one of the empty chairs and turning it around to sit backwards in, as Lori had done before, “The likely truth is a tad more boring... but possibly far more sinister.”

The prick of curiosity in the air was palpable, even if Raven had not been an empath. She couldn’t help the laugh that escaped at the sudden, yet far more predictable, shift in mood.

“And what, pray tell, is that truth?” she asked, rolling her eyes as she let a soft scoff loose.

“Your eyes will pop out of your head if you stare too long, y’know,” he scoffed, pressing past the group to the kitchen just beyond them.

“I don’t know much about eyes,” Klarion chuckled, “But even I’m sure that that’s not true.”

“What started this anyways?” Zach asked as he pulled a soda from the fridge, tossing one over to Eddie.

“Traci found ‘em like this, and she texted everyone-”

“Not me-”

“Yeah, my bad. Uh-”

“I thought you used the group chat,” Klarion asked innocently and Traci gave him an exasperated look.

Lori’s eyes began squinting together, biting her lip to hold back a smile.

“Hey, I think Alice is about to crack, guys!” Eddie laughed, pointing excitedly.

“If you start laughing, you lose automatically-” Traci reminded them.

“Shh, shut up,” Amy shushed, “I think I saw her snicker!”

“Wait, since when is that a rule?” Zach demanded.

“It’s been a rule,” Traci said, rolling her eyes, “You can Waynet it, Bee Boy.”

“That’s not how me and Zee played it-”

“Probably because she wanted to go easy on you-”

“Ooooh-”

“God, will all of you stop! I’m gonna lose!” Lori yelled, hand waving blindly behind her as if to grab one of her teammates by their collar. She ended up hitting Eddie against his chest. Once on accident, the second time with more force.

“Ow! Hey!”

And just then, Raven’s face split into a grin.

“You already lost,” she sighed, finally closing her eyes and collapsing back onto the chair behind her. “Finally.”

Lori’s temper flared up once more, and she turned again on the teens around them, pointing at each of them individually.

“This is your fault, and your fault, and your fault, and your fault. And especially your fucking fault,” she shouted, ending at Zach. “And you all better sleep with one eye wide-fucking-open tonight!”

A ghostly claw made of pure shadow pulled the teen away from the crowd, bringing her over to the chair Raven occupied. Once she was close enough, Raven tugged her into the seat with her.

“Your efforts were admirable, love,” she smiled, hand brushing at the hair hanging in Lori’s face. “We’ll do a rematch later… Maybe without so many distractions.”

“So, do you two need the room, then, or-”

“Eat my ass, Baker’s Dozen-”

“Is that what you dream about, Zechlin? Weird flex-”

“Oh, I’m gonna make-”

“Alice.”

The tone in Raven’s voice gave everyone pause, a chill sweeping through the room. It was a calming force, but a force nonetheless. And it would see a great reckoning if it was resisted.

That didn’t stop Lori from glaring down at the empath under her, her stubbornness once again getting the better of her and meeting in fiery passion against that cool calming aura.

The other teens began to excuse themselves, muttering about plans interrupted or work to be done elsewhere. Until only the Titan and the siphon remained.

“You need to stop that,” Lori sneered. “It’s never gonna work anyways.”

“Hmm, given the fact that your anger has gone from boiling over, down to a light simmer… I’d beg to differ.”

“Then beg,” she huffed, turning her face away from the empath, and taking a deep breath. “... I’m still mad.”

Raven rolled her eyes.

“It’s a game.”

“A game that I was going to win-”

“We can’t all account for our teammates’ distracting quips and comments,” she paused, hand running through Lori’s hair mindlessly. She chuckled to herself before admitting, “But I do have a tad more experience with those kinds of teammates.”

“Oh please tell me that you’ve got plans D through Z all accounted for too.”

Lori clicked her tongue, “I got bored around N so I never made it all the way through.”

The pair shared a light chuckle, before Raven turned back to her work.

The mage checked her phone as her girlfriend continued, full steam ahead, before giving a sigh of defeat.

“Zach’s show isn’t until seven anyways… And it’d probably have a better effect if he comes back to his dressing room after-”

Giving a noncommittal hum, the Titan began to push the cart forward, wheeling it around to the next row of shelves. This forced Lori off of her place from the cart. Not to be deterred, she followed closely behind the empath. She began fidgeting with one of the lighter books, twirling it in her hands or fanning the pages back and forth.

“But there is… something else I could be doing in the meantime…”

“Studying,” Raven suggested, her voice firm, but not unkind, “Your math scores are still horrendous, Alice.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, rubbing at her neck with one hand as she closed her eyes for a moment, “... I need your help.”

“With math? Alice-”

“Yeah, I know. But I… don’t trust anyone else. All of the nerds at my school are so condescending. And the teachers suck even more-”

“Math wasn’t exactly a priority in my formative years.”

“Please, Raven. I don’t have anyone else to turn to-” She set the book down, a genuine plea in her expression.

The empath rolled her eyes. “Traci offered to let you join her study group-”

“Traci is a nerd-”

“A nerd who wants to help,” Raven countered.

“A nerd is a nerd,” Lori said, waving a dismissive hand.

“Hmm, and what does that make me? If I decide to help you?”

“A… really, really cool girlfriend?” she guessed, a hopeful note in her voice.

“C’mon, Zechlin, you can do better than that.” As Raven laughed, she pushed the cart forward again, only to be stopped by the mage putting her foot on its bottom shelf.

They locked eyes. A question in the Titan’s, a plea still in the mage’s.

“Ugh, okay! Fine!” she relented, “But if you bomb the math section again, you better not blame me.”

“No promises!” Lori laughed, snatching the empath’s hand and leading her to a table she used as her own personal study space.

Imagine her relief, naturally, when she awoke in her own room, with nothing seemingly amiss or alarming.

She could smell Thomas making eggs as always downstairs. Kani’s violin could be heard softly playing somewhere in the house, a few sour notes and mumbled curses as she continued practice, and as Strix gave occasional rounds of applause for encouragement. Lori thought for a moment that she could even sense the familiar auras of Scandal, Jeanette, Kay and Liana in the living room with the Dibny’s. But those thoughts were quickly lost as she felt an electric, familiar touch at her shoulder.

“Hey… you’re awake!” Raven gasped, before taking the newly roused teen by the shoulders and giving her a rough shake. “What the fuck were you thinking!?”

“Uh, first thoughts were something like, ‘wow, this is really fucking cool. I’m Fate.’ And then it devolved into, ‘Ms. Zatara, I don’t feel so good.’ And now we’re here,” she rolled her eyes before closing them, the room spinning around her now. She took a breath and tried to hold back onto the empath for some stability.

Raven flinched back from the touch slightly before relaxing into it again. A small moment of give and take passing as Lori’s hands gripped tightly against Raven’s arms. As Raven reached up to brush her hair aside to feel the temperature of Lori’s forehead, she shivered slightly.

“Sorry,” Lori murmured, eyes diverting as she let go of the Titan’s arms.

Taking and taking and taking from each other, even when they didn’t want to be. The teen knew it was dangerous, Raven had told her that excessive contact always left her emotionally drained with normal people. With a self-proclaimed power siphon like Black Alice? It was a physical and psychic drain to boot. And it never boded well when she was in desperate need of a recharge.

But as she pulled away, Raven reached for one of her hands, clasping it gently between her own.

“No, you’re-” The Titan’s ears began to redden as she bit her lip in thought before continuing, “You’re going to need to recover. Let me take your pains, at least?”

“All we know is taking,” she chuckled, “So... you’re always welcome to try.”

Raven nodded before closing her own eyes in concentration, muttering soft prayers in what Lori could only guess were Azarathian tongues.

When she’d finished, it was Raven’s turn now to lie down in the bed and wait for the room to stop spinning. She rested with an arm draped over her eyes to block out the light, still holding Lori’s hand in the other.

The teens lay there on the bed, silence filling the space between the soft drone of conversation drifting up from downstairs, and the erratic rhythm of a violinist out of practice.

“I’m sorry,” Lori apologized again, her voice thick with an emotion she was trying her best not to name, to keep in check, “I know I’m a dumbass. And I rush in too quick and-”

“You’re my dumbass now,” Raven shrugged, “Let’s not push our luck so hard next time. For both our sakes, please?”

The teen thought it over a moment before nodding, squeezing the empath’s hand so she could feel the truth of her words. “Won’t make a promise. But I can try.”

Raven squeezed it back before saying, “That’s all I’ll ever ask, love.”