FAULT LINES ━━ titans [REWRITING]

TWENTY FIVE.

But hurtling through Gotham's cold night air wasn't the best time for her to think about that.

The tree trunk was getting closer at a quickening rate, the branch within reach. She was falling and it didn't seem like she was going to reach the branch. Her hands shot out instinctively, her smooth palms scraping roughly against the bark and bumps of the branch, and her fingers gripped tightly to it.

A loud whoop erupted behind her, cut off quickly by a hand. Abby spared a quick look to see Donna offering a pair of enthusiastic thumbs up with Nora's hand clamped over her mouth, mortification clear on her face. Dick was watching her, jaw set and his expression unimpressed but eyes glinting with what, in the faint light of the moon, she could've mistaken for pride.

Abby hung from the branch for a second, before mustering her strength again and heaving herself up, elbows bending slowly until she could swing a leg over. Within a few seconds, she was stood up, making her way quickly to the trunk. Moments later, she felt the tree shake and wobble, her grip on the trunk tightening in panic, she looked up to see Dick now balancing in front of her. Credit where credit was due... he certainly didn't stick the landing.

The dark-haired boy made his way forwards, easily overtaking her. He dropped down to the branches below with agile ease, the kind honed from years of experience, and weaved between the leaves.

She cautiously glanced back to the window in time to see Donna jump, landing on the ground effortlessly, barely affected. Nora was next, eyes suddenly a burning, brilliant white as her body became encased in dazzling light and she rose into the air. She looked like a falling star as she descended to the ground, and Abby couldn't help the look of awe it left on her face.

By the time she glanced back to Dick, he was practically at the bottom. She frowned and hurried up, dropping down two, three branches, hurriedly trying to catch up. But she felt a branch snap beneath her foot and even as her hand grabbed a new one, she felt her mind slip back to when she fell from the roof and she knew she was falling again.

Her chest seized up, eyes squeezing shut, and she froze.

But she wasn't falling.

She'd felt the branch snap, felt her footing giveaway and her grip on the other branch slip as she relapsed but she was not falling. She felt pressure on her wrists.

Slowly, Abigail opened her eyes. Hazel eyes met dark brown and she saw the strained face of Dick Grayson staring down at her. His hands had a tight hold encompassing her forearms, his legs wrapped around the tree branch he'd previously been stood on like it was a trapeze.

The look in his eyes was pained. Not from holding her, or the position, but like ghosts were dancing behind his gaze, taunting him. She remembered then that it was tragedy that also tied the four of them together. Loss.

Parents, childhoods, their normalcy.

The two held one another's gaze for a moment, and then his grip slowly slipped from hers, and she dropped the rest of the way to the ground. She landed swiftly with a thud, knees bent in a crouch. He swung down next to her, landing perfectly.

She averted her gaze. "Thanks."

He nodded silently in response, the two occasionally glancing to one another as four then made their way out of Wayne Manor grounds and towards the neon city nightlife.

THE CARNIVAL WAS ELECTRIC, alive, brimming with tangible energy. Abby could taste it, touch it, feel it all around her. An hour in and they'd already made their way through most of the rides, taking on the carousel, the bumper cars (Abby had annihilated them), the bounce house and the array of miniature roller coasters.