***

I sat in front of my vanity mirror braiding my dark hair. It was getting longer than I normally wore it and with the constant training it was almost impossible to have it down as I regularly did.

"I'm going to go get coffee with Rachel. Do you want anything?" Dick questioned as he stepped out of the bathroom and began to slip his shoes on. I watched him from the mirror, noticing his stiff movements that were unusual for him. He had been unusually stressed since last weeks incident with Shimmer and Mammoth, but this behavior seemed different than his usual uncertainty.  

"No. We have perfectly good coffee here." I said not seeing the point of buying morning coffee when the building was always stocked with coffee. Considering that everyone on the team seemed to have coffee running through their veins, they all made sure every grocery run included coffee.

"Right." Dick replied slowly as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "You're okay with..."

"Yes, I'll get the boys started with their training." I replied already knowing what he was going to ask. There wasn't one day that everyone didn't train, Dick wasn't lenient on anything related to training. it was something that was clearly taking a toll on Rachel and Gar who were not disciplined in the way that Dick, Jason and I are. 

Dick nodded as he placed a quick kiss on my cheek. "Well, you're the only one who can get through to Jason anyway."

I had noticed the tensions between Jason and Dick, but I hadn't realized how Jason's indifference was affecting Dick. I had assumed that he didn't care much about Jason and Dick tended to focus more on helping Gar and Rachel. "You're just going around it the wrong way."

"How?"

"Jason was trained by Bruce. He was Batman's partner."   I explained knowing that Dick needed to connect with Jason in someway. He was the only one that Jason would be able to look up to and follow now that Bruce wasn't in the picture and the two of them had much more in common that Dick would probably like to admit. "Now he's being forced into a team with two teenagers who don't have the same level of training. Not only does he feel like its a downgrade but he feels like Bruce gave up on him. Probably like all the other people in his life."

Dick seemed deep in thought as he nodded slowly. "I hadn't though about it that way."

"And don't forget that he's a Robin. You and Jason may be polar opposites but it seems like having large egos is universal for all Robins."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He questioned as crossed his arms across his chest, clearly offended by my words.  Maybe Dick didn't remember it but in his early days as Robin he was irritatingly cocky, on occasion he still could be. Jason had that same arrogance and overconfidence, the only difference was that Jason carried a lot more anger than Dick ever did. 

"It means that if you want to get through to Jason you need to speak to his ego."  I explained as I stood and faced him, he still didn't seem to understand what I was suggesting which only further proved my point. "Just tell him that you need him and the others look up to him. That he's someone that you rely because of his experience. Just tell him things that you would want to hear."                                             

"That's not not going to work." Dick replied firmly before seeming to reconsider my words. "Will it?"

I raised my eyebrows looking at him pointedly. "What do you think?"

"I think that you're always right." He said as he wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me closer. We had now been living at Titans Tower for over five months now, and I still couldn't seem to believe that I was here. Not just here with Dick but also here helping teenagers become superheroes, something that I never was.

***

I leaned against one of the metal beams watching Gar and Jason get ready for their daily sparring session. Gar had improved tremendously since he first started and with him now being able to control his abilities to a proficient extent he was on track to being a concern for any criminal. 

I had been working with Gar extensively on understanding his abilities, time I had also spent with Rachel. Whoever, her abilities were beyond even by understanding and were something that we were still working on. Unfortunately, I could see how discouraged Rachel was becoming with every passing day that she had not mastered her powers that way Gar had.

"When I give the word, come at me, and don't hold back." Jason instructed as he pulled the blindfold over his eyes.  Gar nodded in response as he grabbed a staff from the wall. "Did you just nod?"

"Yeah, got it." Gar replied awkwardly. 

"Just don't hold back." He instructed getting ready in what was now his signature fighting stance. 

"Just go." I ordered, crossing my hands over my chest knowing that if I let this go on much longer they were likely to get into some petty fight. 

Immediately they began sparring, surprisingly Gar seemed to be taking this session seriously considering that he seemed to be refraining himself from any jokes. Maybe he seemed to understand that Jason was clearly in no mood to be dealing with his usual jokes.

For a moment Jason became disoriented and lost his sense of direction because of the blindfold, a moment that Gar took advantage of as he lightly hit the back of Jason's head with his bo staff. An action that caused me to flinch as I could already imagine what was about to happen next. 

"Fuck, man!" Jason exclaimed as he pulled off his blindfold, the anger in his eyes was almost concerning as he took a sudden step towards Gar who still seemed to be in a state of shock from Jasons reaction.  He clearly meant for it to be a joke, but Jason had not taken it lightly,

"You said don't hold back!"

Jason momentarily met my eyes expecting me defend him in some way, but the truth was the he was being irrational. I knew that his anger didn't stem from Gar hitting him with the staff. It came from his building frustration of being sent away by Bruce. "What were you doing? I was fucking blindfolded."

"You said, 'Don't hold back'." Gar replied, lower his voice in an effort to imitate Jason. Something that clearly did not sit well with Jason as he threw his staff down on the floor. 

"Alright you two. Enough." I said deciding that it was time to interfere as things were clearly only going to escalate from here. Jason wasn't one to hold back and there was no knowing how Gar would react if Jason found the right buttons to press. As good natured as Gar was he still possessed an animalistic nature within him as well. 

"What's going on?" Dick questioned as he and Rachel entered the room.

Rachel simply seemed amused as she attempted to take in the scene in front of her. Dick had an unreadable expression on his face as he stepped farther into the room looking at Jason, Gar and I for an explanation. 

Jason stepped forward his frustration clear on his expression. "We did what you said, the blindfold thing, then he went nuts on me." 

"He said, 'Don't hold back'." Gar defended once again deepening his voice. It was another attempt to lighten the mood, and although his intentions were good he wasn't helping ease the situation.

"Then why do we even learn to fight like this, man? Hey, it's idiotic." Jason continued. "We have eyes."

"In battle, anything can be taken from you. Your hands. Your feet and your eyes. No matter what is taken, you must be able to keep fighting. And win." Dick lectured, it was a speech that I had heard Bruce give before. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at the fact that Dick was borrowing more from Bruce than he would have liked to admit. "All right, get changed."

*** 

The five of us sat to eat our breakfast in silence. The tension between Gar and Jason was visible by Gar's occasional glance in Jason's direction. Though They weren't the only two that seemed off. 

Dick also seemed to be uncharacteristically nervous as he began to move his knee up and down. I placed my hand on his knee giving him a questioning look which he chose to ignore as he return his attention back to his food. 

"Sorry." He muttered as he took a large bite from his toast.

"When are we actually going to go out in the field?" Jason suddenly questioned irritation clear in his voice. As much as I wanted to pretend that I was comfortable here, there was no denying that a part of me felt some irritation too. After so many years being free on the streets of Gotham, having to remain all day in Titan's Tower was not easy.

"Soon." Dick replied simply. 

"We need a team name first. You, Hank, Dawn, and Donna were the Titans. So, what are we?" Gar asked seeming equally as frustrated as Jason. This was a conversation that Gar brought up often, and one the Dick heavily avoided. I saw no problem in simply letting them choose a name for themselves, but Dick was stubbornly reluctant to allow them to do so. I knew there was a deeper story as to why Dick seemed to reluctant to allow them to go out in the field or choose a name, but it was a story that he seemed not ready to tell. "Titans 2.0?" 

"Titans Next Generation?" Rachel suggested.

"The New Teen Titans?" I offered earning an irritated glance from Dick who clearly didn't appreciate me participating in their little discussion.

"You're not helping." Dick told me before returning his attention back to Rachel, Gar and Jason. "Look, it doesn't matter what you're called. It matters what you do. We're training for whatever's next. There's never a shortage of people out there who wanna screw things up for the rest of us. You know what they say, All it takes for evil to succeed..."

"Is for good men and women to do nothing." The three of them said in unison.

Dick nodded seeming pleased with himself that his words has stuck, but he repeated them enough times that I would be concerned if Rachel, Gar and Jason didn't already have them memorized. "That's Titans. Good men and women not doing nothing." 

"You could put that on a T-shirt, Dirk." Rachel said a small smile tugging on her lips. 

"Dirk?" I questioned as I looked between Dick and Rachel. 

"You had to be there." Dick replied with a sigh of defeat as he took another long sip from his coffee.

I turned my attention to Dick who seemed unable to meet my eyes as he brought his mug back up to his lips. "Didn't you and Rachel go pick up coffee?"

Dick looked down at his mug and then back at me wide eyed and at a loss of words. 

"We did but it was just so good that we finished them at the shop." Rachel replied quickly and although she was keeping a better control the situation than Dick.

Nodding I turned my attention back to my own cup of coffee. "Okay."

"Okay?" He repeated sounding shocked that I didn't press the subject. 

"Yeah I mean whatever you two are lying about couldn't possibly be interesting or worth her time." Jason commented through a mouthful of food. 

"We're not lying." Dick assured me but I only rolled my eyes in response. 

"Oh you're lying. But Jason's right I just don't care." I replied as I took a sip of my coffee.

I couldn't deny that I was irritated by whatever Dick and Rachel seemed to be hiding. I was done with Dick secrets. After all secrets and lies where what separated us in the first place, I would have thought that he learned his lesson. There were only so many secrets that I could ignore before I had enough.

"When Chey leaves you I'm going with her." Jason told Dick as he leaned back against his chair, earning a look of disbelief from Dick. "Just saying."

A small smile touched my lips as I realized why Jason and I seemed to get along the best. The truth was that we were more alike than I had originally realized. We simply didn't fit in with the heroes. 

Maybe we never would. But we were both good at pretending that we could be entirely good. 

***

A/N: Now we are on track for the plot of this season. Like I said I will be changing some of the elements that I did not like about the show. We are now at the half way point of the story as I have 40 chapters outlined for this story. I didn't expect to write so much before the actual plot of the show but I felt that we needed more interactions between the Dick, Gar, Jason and Rachel in the show which is why I added a couple of extra scenes for them to bond over. It really felt like the show was lacking characters moments. Hope you are all still enjoying!

P.S I know many of you have been messaging about updating which I appreciate the enthusiasm but the truth is that the best way for you all to show me you want me to update more frequently is by voting and commenting. The lack of comments and votes is discouraging and doesn't motivate me to write which is why focus more on other stories that do get more attention. So vote and comment!