A beautiful mess

Oh, right. The trip. The trip for Raven, the trip chosen especially for Raven,

Raven's trip. That trip?

~~~

"Did you take the-"
"Yes."
"And the-"
"Yes."
"Are you sure you-"
"Yes. Both of them."
"You don't even know what I'm asking."
"You have been repeating the same questions over and over again for the past hour. Whatever item you're gonna list, I'm positive it's in my bag already."
"Ok ok. I get it. I'll lay off for now. I'm just looking out for you."
Raven just sighed and smiled inwardly.
As strange as it could sound, Zatanna was actually a mother hen.
At least to her.
Since she had taken her in, the sorceress had done nothing but provide her with everything she needed, going so far as going full mother-bear mode (she never wanted to see that again. She still had nightmares.) on her, and as much as she could claim she hated it (she was a strong independent woman), the corvid-child felt her heart swell everytime.
The amount of love and affection she was showered with daily was the best thing that ever happened to her.

"I know, and I appreciate it. I'll be fine though, so you don't need to worry so much."
"I'm still going to."
"That I know."
"You girls done?"
Dick popped his head in, reminding them in that nice nonverbal way of his (Raven was surrounded by nice people. Loving, scary, nice people. She didn't feel particularly charmed by the mountain boi™, but at least he was normal. For her standars at least. Which meant he didn't look and speak like he grew up in Candyland munching on rainbows.), that she was supposed to get in the car, and that they couldn't do much standing around.
"Yeah, I'm coming."

~~~

"You'll call me right? The moment you get there? Or if you have any problems?"
"Of course."
The oldest bird of the family was putting her bags in the car, while Zatanna made sure her little raven was not gonna disappear from her life.
"This would be so much easier if you simply used your powers to teleport."
Raven felt herself frown. It's not like she was happy with the situation either.
The warning tone came out on its own.
"Zee..."
"Yeah yeah I know. Don't get all death-prophet on me."
The shortest rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Besides, you can teleport just fine. You can come visit anytime."
"I don't want to embarass you with your friends."
If Raven had a dime for everytime she absolutely did not believe that statement, she'd have a dime, but that should make you understand just how little she believed her.
"-too much."

A little ways over, the boys were observing the pair.
"Do you think she'll be ok?"
"What do you mean Kon?"
"I don't know. It's just..."
The youngest of the group fidgeted a little with his hands, while his water comrade waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts.
Superboy was the group's younger brother, the cinnamon roll of the bunch, while Aqualad was notoriously the oldest, also known as the keeper of the braincell and the only one stopping them from ending up in jail or in the hospital (or both) most times.
Wally was pretty much on the same level as Kon, but while the latter was soft and pure and needed to be protected, he was hyper and always energized and needed to be restrained.
This is not a metaphor.
The other two were like middle children, the "this is not a phase" emo brat with anger issues, and the "I'm too hot- HOT DAMN" gonna-steal-your-girl (and boy, and everything else) fucker.
I'm sure you can guess which is which.
They somehow kept each other in check (most of the times. Sometimes Nightwing had to swoop in and stop Kal from splitting his head open or ditching the team to go back to the whales.) and they somehow worked as a family (even if someone kept insisting the opposite) and that was enough for them, even if everything wasn't perfect 24/7.
Besides, they had to like each other.
All of them.
They lived together for Green Lantern's sake. If bird boi #2 really couldn't stand them they would've been dead already.
It's not like it would've been hard.

"I mean, we all know each other, while she doesn't, and she'll be leaving her home and family behind to help us, and I just feel guily because maybe she doesn't even want this and is only doing this to help us and maybe she'll be homesick and sad and she won't like us and think we're annoying and-"
"Kon, breath."
Superman's son had a tendency to overthink, and Kal's logical approach was usually just the thing he needed.
One of the many reasons the younger relied on the other so much.
"Sorry."
"It's ok. You were simply spiraling. Just try to keep your mind in the present, we don't know what is going to happen yet, and we've had too few interactions with Raven to judge her character. We'll do everything we can to make her feel welcome and at ease, and we'll see how it goes. Does that sound good?"
Kon beamed at him.
"Of course!"

~~~

The squad had been in the car for a few hours now, and everything was going smoothly.
By that, I mean that no one was plotting any murders yet, which was an expressive feat considering the former Robin's taste in music.
They were also cramped in a small car, so that wasn't helping anyone's spirit.
Apart from Kon's, the boy was a ball of sunshine and was too excited about getting a new teammate to be bothered by anything else (they could've gotten any means of trasportation they could've ever wanted, but how could Richard refuse to let the the others have a feel of the true roadtrip experience? Exactly.)
Said golden retriever was currently striking up conversation with Raven, who wasn't the most social, but simply couldn't say no to happiness made person.
It also helped that there was a fellow introvert with her, who interjected with his own comments every once in a while or reminded the younger to slow down so that she could take a break.
Even without being an empath, being around people was tiring.
At least she knew she would get along with two of her teammates.

Archery-boy was busy on his phone, taking selfies and writing captions, putting in his own word when he felt like it.
He had tried flirting with the girl, but after being rejected three times he gave up.
A man must pick his battles.
Did that mean he was going to drop the flirty behavior and casanova attitude?
Absolutely not.
But he would act with her as with every other teammate of his who he knew wasn't attracted to him.
Flirt a ton, make suggestive comments, but never mean anything by it.
There were plenty of people ready to be wooed by him (even if they didn't know it yet), and it wouldn't have been very smart to anger his new captain anyways.
And Roy was foolish, idiotic and insufferable, but he was not stupid.
And he also could take a hint and not be an asshole when someone wasn't interested.
Molesting people isn't cool kids.
Their local speedster was vibrating in his seat (literally, Raven wad terrified. He looked like a hummingbird on heroine.), and drinking in every word they said.
The others were also pretty sure he contributed to the conversation, but it was too fast for them to catch, and the wide eyes staring back at them compelled them to ignore that.
Seriously, did he even bat his eyelashes?
It's not like he was bothered, his mind was the same speed as his body (since the latter didn't have an outlet for his pent up energy), and was jumping from one train of  thought to the other at enormous velocity.
Chances were if they asked him to repeat himself, he wouldn't even have remembered his own words.
Damian was moping in his seat after having called shotgun ("I am not moping Grayson, start the damn car already."), looking out the window.
They really had to give it to him, the whole time he hadn't made a single comment on his brother's music or singing, and that was a great effort on his part.
To the untrained eye he might've seemed lost in thought, but the other Young Justice members knew he was listening in on the conversation and filing away every single piece of information in that big brain of his.
Oh they knew.
Dick was simply enjoying himself.
He was just happy to be there.

Double K™ is the ultimate brotp.
No I do not take constructive criticism.
I don't know if everyone is acting OC and I don't care, you can pry himbo™ Dick and bi™ Roy respectful-of-people's-boundaries-and able-to-take-a-hint Harper from my cold dead hands.
I am a racoon and this is my garbage.
I'm also so sorry for the long wait, this chapter is actually the first half of the trip and I swear I'll get the other half out before you want to put my head on a pitchfork again.
As always, thank you so much for the support and the comments and votes.
I also saw that a lot of you folks added this to your reading lists and I'm in love.
For any new people, hi, I'm a mess (but a beautiful one ;) ok I'll walk myself out-) and this story IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED.
Eventually.
Sorry.
And that's it, votes are always appreciated and feel free to drop a comment if you want to correct my grammar, roast me, tell me what you thought of the chapter or insult me for my poor organization skills.
:D
I'll also try to use the conversation feature on my page to let you know how the chapters are coming along and letting you know that I'm still alive, so like,, if you wanna follow me or smth hahaha.
Ok, self-promo done, that was cringy.
Anyways, happy holidays and happy new year everyone!
Stay safe and get a snack, take a nap and take care of yourselves.
And let's just hope this isn't the start of 2020: the sequel.
Alias out!

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Alias290