"Sixteen...seventeen...eighteen...nineteen...twenty!"
Raven and Damian high-fived one more time before un-twining their legs and flipping off from the bar. They fell to the floor in unison with barely a sound, smirking.
"We win!", they announced to the two other teams on the bars besides them.
Adyn and Jaime were to their left, knees together on the horizontal pole, legs locked together to stop themselves from falling as they lowered themselves up and down on either side of the bar. Jon and Donna were in a similar situation, completing their 'extreme' sit-ups with red faces: not due to exertion of course.
Damian didn't see what was so hard, it was a mere exercise (and to do only twenty was almost scandalous). Naturally, he and Raven had finished first, acting in faultless synchronisation- and finding the technique of high-fiving at every full crunch to be useful. Though, Jaime and Adyn weren't far behind, landing next to them within a few seconds.
"Oh, we came second!", Adyn commented, surprisingly pleased.
"Yeah we did.", Jaime laughed, holding out his hand for a fist-bump.
Adyn stared at the hand in confusion, tilting his head like a dog. Jaime chuckled at him, changing the position of Adyn's fingers so that they matched Jaime's.
"Like this, see?", he bumped his fist in to the pastel demon's.
Adyn being Adyn, he laughed like a small child, somehow managing to find the entire thing highly amusing.
Smiling at the scene before her, Raven diverted her attention to the last pair, who had just finished. Donna and Jon had somehow managed to get themselves stuck on the metal bar, suspended helplessly eight feet off the ground. Raven barely counted to five in her head before the two youngest titans were on the ground, having fallen on their arses.
Lips lifted to one corner, she shared an amused smirk with her partner, straining to avoid acknowledging the way his hair was slightly mussed from the exercise, or that his plain black shirt clung to his lean frame with sweat or- Azar!- where did that come from?!
The mentally distraught half-demon turned away form her friend, pinching the bridge of her nose. Making her way to ten in her head, Raven quieted her emotions, returning them from an inferno to a safety flame. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the group.
"Right, well, team Damirae won the first round."
"Damirae?", they raised a brow in unison.
"Yeah,", Jaime smiled cunningly, "A mix of your names. Damian and Raven makes Damirae. Jon and Donna makes Jonna. Adyn and Jaime makes...meh, that doesn't work"
They all to a moment to just...process.
"My name isn't 'Rae'", she scrunched her nose in distaste, "It's Raven."
Jaime shrugged her off, "So what? It sounds good." Ignoring an indignant Raven and an irritated Damian, Jaime continued, "Why don't we do press-ups next?"
***
Donna's P.O.V
"Um, okay, do you wanna start?", the boy in front of me asked, meeting my gaze for a second before dropping it.
I thought about it for a second, taking the chance to occupy my mind with something else gratefully. Looking up, I was drawn in for a moment, by eyes that would surely be bluer than that of any offspring of Poseidon.
"Ah,", I froze forgetting what I was about to say, caught up in those pools of cobalt, "Yeah, okay."
Jon nodded, fidgeting with the corner of his shirt -God's grant mercy upon me-: we hadn't changed in to our 'hero' getups, not even Damian, who used to wear his suit 24/7 -he and Raven wore similar, plain harem trousers and black shirts.
Hades, those two need to step in to the light.
Laughing inside my head, I once more turned to my partner (workout partner, not anything else!) only to find him already in press-up position. Besides him, Raven and Jaime were doing the same, with Damian and Adyn also in press-up position in front of them.
"Donna, we're waiting.", Damian chided, tilting his head to stare at me.
Sighing, I assumed the pose on the floor, opposite to Jonathan. He looked in to my eyes and holy Hera he smiled at me! Not the usual off-hand, shy smiles he would sometimes do, but a full ear-to-ear beam. What had brought this on? Probably the fact that Raven had been muttering about 'Azar's sake grow up' or something like that, from the corner of her mouth- and Damian had been nodding his head as though pointing at me. How odd.
Jaime counted down to one and I completed a press-up, then brought my knees in and jumped up, high-fiving Jon (who had done the same). On our left, Damian and Raven had already done their second one, with Adyn and Jaime not far behind. Jumping up , I put more effort in to the exercise- I didn't want to be last again.
What would mother Hippolyta say at my unimproved skills?
Pushing that thought away, I continued the exercise, happy to see that Jon had increased his pace too. We were ahead of Jaime and Adyn by one rep, at fifteen. When Jonathan and I had reached seventeen, Raven and Damian clasped hands, shouting their victory again.
Completing our twenty Jon and I stood up. He was breathing quite heavily, I was a bit concerned so I put my hand on his shoulder in concern.
"Jonathan, are you-", halfway through and I realised what I had done- now he was going to think that I was clingy!- so I withdrew my hand quickly, "are you-ah- okay?"
He bobbed his head, seeming...conflicted that I removed my hand.
Still, he enthused a second later, "We came second!"
"Yes!", I shouted, having forgotten about it before.
Doing a little happy dance, I spun around, laughing.
The others all just made similar gestures echoing 'are they serious?'.
(A.N: heh, 'why so serious?' heh, um ehem. I'll leave now. Please continue.)
"Well, that's two to team Damirae,", Jaime diverted, narrowing his eyes playfully at Damian and Raven, "what's next?"
***
End P.O.V
***
The group made their way through several more exercises (featuring planking, skipping, sprints etc.) with Damian and Raven having won five out of seven rounds- the two were taken by Jaime and Adyn. Team Jonna needed to step up their game considerably.
"How about one last round?", Adyn said, positively vibrating on the spot in contrast to the worn out postures of others.
Damian nodded, slightly disappointed that it was all coming to an end. This session had been...fun- a stark contrast to his usual gruelling routine, though not as thorough. Perhaps he ought to participate in pair work more often, Raven was an impeccable workout partner, matching him in timing and effort. It hadn't come to Damian as a surprise that Raven's fitness was this good (he knew she exercised like him every morning before breakfast) but it was pleasant nonetheless.
Eyes meeting those of his partner , and heart skipping a beat for some reason -he ought to get that checked out- Damian brought a signature smirk to his lips. One that would usually signal to the others to RUN.
"Let's spar for this last round. ", the smirk grew at their intrigued expressions. "The victors receive six points- so Donna and Jon still stand a chance."
He snickered at the youngest pair. They had been doing alright, but it was clear that they still weren't awfully comfortable with physical contact. At least they had made some improvement: blushes didn't erupt at every touch and glance and they were actually carrying out a little conversation. Jaime, Damian and Raven couldn't help but feel a little proud at the minute progress.
At that moment, who would stroll through the training from door but Jason dumb-ass Todd himself, whistling idly. He paused halfway to the dumbbells, staring at the six of them in confusion.
He blinked twice , "Huh, what's going on little shit?"
Damian growled under his breath as Raven held back a fit of laughter, biting her knuckles.
"We are to begin sparring. Todd.", his eyes shot daggers in to his 'brother'.
Jason raised an eyebrow before shaking his head and preparing to lift, successfully ignoring the titans plus Adyn.
Damian was about to launch in to an explanation of the fight's layout before the doors were thrown open once more. In strolled Tim and Stephanie -the former clutching a mug of toxically strong coffee; the latter still scoffing down a stack of waffles. Stephanie may or may not have had a slight obsession with waffles.
"Waf goi' om hew?", she said through mouthfuls of waffle.
Tim translated, "What's going on here.", after living with his girlfriend for years, Tim had managed fluency in the language of I-have-a-mouth-full-of-food.
Damian dragged a hand down his face, contemplating the effects of throwing himself out of the window. Looking to Jaime, Damian stared imploringly , indicating that he should just deal with it.
Taking the hint, Jaime inclined his head, "We're just training.", he said, offhand.
"What, all of you?", Stephanie said, having finished her waffles in record breaking time.
Receiving only nods, the current Batgirl dusted off her hand, putting them on her hips.
"I'm gonna join.", there was no room for argument in her tone.
As if that would ever deter Damian.
"Well you can't."
Raven decided to step in before another conflict began, "Because, ", she explained, "we'd be at an odd number. It wouldn't work."
Grabbing her boyfriend's arm so that he almost spilt his coffee, Steph pulled Tim along to them with her, "See, not an odd number anymore. "
She smiled bitchily at Damian, mentally flipping him the bird.
***
Damian and Raven faced Jon and Donna, several feet apart, though the copious stimulation room offered far more space. One loosely gripping a katana, the other allowing violet strands to dance across her fingertips, Damian and Raven began circling the younger pair, forcing them to do the same.
The assassin's stance was low, seamlessly slithering, an jade-eyed serpent, hunting. Similarly circled the half-demon, form tight yet agile, so poised and unaffected. They were an intimidating pair, stepping in synchronisation, faces rendered stoic by something so much stronger than a mask. Something deeper. Something...carnal.
Donna made the first move.
She struck sharp as Lord Zeus' master thunderbolts, leaving Jon helplessly unaware. Within a second, she was behind Raven, knees bent in fighting stance. Raven had swiftly missed the head-section side kick aimed at her, squatting quickly. Not wasting any time, all four launched in to combat: Damian and Raven against Jon and Donna.
Jon used his strength to his advantage, managing to land a punch or so in to the mix, however, he and Donna were on the defensive. Raven and Damian barred them with a flurry of calculated strikes, mostly hand-to hand (though the cloaked titan would summon energy at times to distract as Damian delivered blow after blow).
Their grace didn't go unmissed on anyone present. The sophistication of their movements and the effective mastery of their technique was silencing. They acted as a parts of a single unit springing backwards and forwards as beautifully as ballerinas.
Team Jonna didn't stand a chance.
Damian's katana was poised a hair's breath away from Donna's neck, begging to travel that millimetre further. Jon was in a similar situation, caught in a unbreakable chokehold by Raven- whose combat skills were evidently as advanced, if not more, that those of her magic. From a bench at the side of the door, the rest of the group (Jason included) counted down from five.
"Three...two...one! Team Damirae win this round!", Jaime announced, signalling that Raven could stop almost killing poor Jon.
Releasing the younger ones, Damian and Raven walked over to one another, widening eyes as they enthusiastically high-fived. Damian and Raven. High-fived.
"Did the little shit just...?"
"Yeah,", Jaime said, standing next to the Redhood, "They're good friends, though it might not seem like it at first."
He smirked secretly, confusing Jason besides him.
From the other side of Jaime, Stephanie (who had somehow managed to procure more waffles) tied up her hair in to a blonde waterfall, saying, "Well, I don't really know much about Raven's skills before, but damn,", she whistled lowly, "Dami has improved."
From a few meters away, Damian turned his head in her direction, hands fisted, "MY NAME IS NOT 'DAMI'! GET IT RIGHT!"
Raven chuckled at him, earning a playful glare from her partner.
"Oh, hush.", Damian rolled his eyes, smiling momentarily afterwards.
Back where Jaime stood, many eyebrows inclined upwards. They had lived with Damian for two years before he went to the titans, in that time, he hadn't so much a lifted the corner of his lips in actual happiness, only ever smirking deviously. This Damian was not all that different in character: he was still antisocial with trust issues and an aptitude for grievous bodily harm; yet Damian's manners towards others...well, he would show gratefulness and sympathy where it was due. Staying with the titans, perhaps, had changed him for the better.
At least, those were Stephanie's thoughts at that point in time. They still had barely scratched the surface of who he was. They didn't know all the pain he had been subject to. All the hurt.
That was a different issue for a different time.
The priority for Damian, Raven, Tim and Stephanie, was preparing to fight against one another.
The two titans circled in the same manner as before, meeting each other's eyes for a fleeting moment, sharing a look of significance. Without so much as a word, Raven's leg muscles tightened and the two leaped in to action.
A.N
Guess who's back?!
I am here people, with another chapter for you lovely people- FINALLY!!! It has been to long since I last updated. Anyway, this chapter was longer than usual as compensation for my missed update- again, please forgive me! But I hope you enjoyed it all the same!
....WE'VE PAST 5.7k views!!!!!! I just can't even....WHAT THE HELL?! Thank you guys so much!
Alsoooooooo PANIC AT THE DISCO'S NEW ALBUM IS COMING OUT ON FRIDAY 22ND JUNE!!!!! I was hyperventilating with my other yeemo friends all day- anyone watch crankthatfrank?!. The anticipation is real.
Anywho, thank you!
-Bats :D