The Sixth Titan | Teen Titans

Chapter Seventy-Two - Epilogue

𝙵𝙸𝙵𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽 𝚈𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚂 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚁

    The fire crackles as the two children sit in front of their presents with childlike excitement. The girl's hands are clasped together and she rubs them in anticipation, and the boy's knee doesn't stop bouncing, no matter how much it must be aching by now. Both of them keep their eyes locked on the wrapped goods in front of them, pupils dilated from an entire year of waiting for this one, special day.

    From beside me, my husband's arm has snaked around my waist. He subtly pulls me closer, bit by bit, and every time I turn to look at him with amusement. In response, his grip on me tightens and the cool gold of his wedding ring hits my skin, even though I'm wearing a shirt—his shirt.

    How do I know it's his? Because a shirt this big couldn't possibly be mine.

    "Mummy! Mummy!" the small girl cries, catching my attention.

    I smile down at her. "Yeah?"

    As my gaze locks with my daughter's, I'm instantly reminded that she really is the splitting image of her father. On her, his jet black hair is in soft, natural curls that reach just below her shoulders. The only difference is her eyes. Rather than his two striking blue ones, she inherited my heterochromia; one of her irises is a light brown instead.

    I was never fond of my eyes, but on my daughter they're perfect. She's perfect.

    "Can we open our presents now?"

    I grin as my eyes flick down to my phone. The team was supposed to arrive half an hour ago, and I'm done waiting. Gar can open his presents at a different time to the kids this year. "Sure."

    "YAY!! "

    Wrapping paper flies everywhere as our kids get started. Slowly, I sink into my husband's body and close my eyes, shutting out the chaos for a few moments. Dick's scent calms me, and I bask in it for as long as I can as I grab onto his shirt tiredly and ball it in my fist.

    Suddenly the doorbell rings, accompanied by relentless rapping on the door. My eyes snap open as it's made clear that whoever's there won't stop until one of us answers. Looking down, it doesn't seem like my kids have noticed at all; their noses are still buried in the presents.

    "I thought we gave them a spare set of keys," my husband muses from beside me.

    "We did," I reply, "and not only that, but we gave them a set each." I sigh; it's not like this is the first time this has happened. I push myself off the man behind me and begin to stand. "I'll get it."

    "Wait!"

    I almost trip over my own feet as Dick's hand remains glued to mine. He pulls me back down for a quick kiss—his never fail to give me butterflies in the best way possible.

    "There," he mumbles against my lips, voice lower than usual due to the early morning, before letting me go.

    As I stand up, I can already see the four familiar faces of my best friends in the whole world, and my step quickens with pure happiness. It doesn't matter that I saw them yesterday; every time I leave them, I can't help but think about the next time I get to catch up with them. 

    My hand finds the door handle and I push down on it, only to almost be knocked over by the swinging door and trampled by Gar. Vic grabs my hand just in time to stop my fall, and he pulls me into a tight hug as the shapeshifter pushes by us.