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“So what did you think of it?”
He was patiently waiting for her to answer, but if she was being honest, she didn’t really have an opinion on it.
Yeah, sure she had a few comments here and there , like how he mentioned they have been dating and soon to be married eight times in the 10 minutes long video, or how he used the word maim wrong. But other than that, it was fine.
It was his video so he should know what his future-younger-self (or whatever Garfield has been calling it) would want to hear, and that’s all that matters.
Ever since his accident he’s been paranoid about one of the team losing their memory and panic about the situation. He proposed to Robin the idea of making short videos for Titans who have been victims of amnesia, made by said Titans, in a way to calm their nerves since the news would be presented by themselves.
Robin, of course, agreed on it but didn’t make it an obligation. A decision that Garfield wasn’t very pleased with.
Starfire was the first one to make her video, she was too excited to wait and accidentally made a one hour long video. Cyborg was only able to edit it into 20 minutes.
Cyborg’s video was mostly about his accident, he recalled waking up from the surgery feeling horrified by his new body and he didn’t want to experience that again in case his memory loss was as far as before his bodysuit.
Robin decided a letter filled with codes that only he could understand was pretty much enough.
The idea was very well received through the hero community that it became very popular in a short period, some people praised it, and others thought it was pointless. Sadly, Raven was one of them.
She didn’t understand why it was a big deal, Garfield received the news of his memory loss pretty well. Yes, he was confused at the beginning, but once Raven explained to him the situation he calmed down and trusted them to take care of him, and it turned out to be a temporary loss, so he gained all of his memory back the next day. She knew Garfield’s concerns weren’t about titans losing their memories and panicking about it, it was something else that worried him.
“It’s good,” Raven finally spoke, “you used a lot of pictures at the end, I think only one picture is enough to show that we are actually engaged.”
“We looked great in all of them, babe, I couldn’t pick just one,” he argued, “besides it doesn’t hurt to show off my fiancée.”
“So it was just to brag,” she arched a brow.
“You’d understand when you have a beautiful girlfriend,” he said smirking.
He moved closer and set next to her, she could feel the nerves coming off of his body and she knew what was coming, but there was no way to run from it now, it was a trap.
He inhaled before finally asking the question, “so, did you make yours yet?”
“No,” she answered hoping it would end here, but she knew it wouldn’t.
“I can help you write down the stuff you want to say to make it more organized, 10 minutes feels too short, but if you prepare well it would be more than enough, trust me.”
“I’m not making one, Gar,” she finally let it out, there was no going back now.
“But… if something happens-“
“Then you would tell me everything I need to know, just like I did to you,” she didn’t think she needed to explain herself, but here she was.
He stayed quiet instead of arguing, which meant he already thought of this longer than she would’ve liked.
“You might not believe me.”
“You believed me.” Before they were lovers, they were teammates, it was simple.
“It’s different to me than it is to you.” He was avoiding her gaze, that was another bad sign.
“And why is that?”
“Because!” he looked back at her frustrated, like she should’ve known instead of making him spelling it out for her, “waking up to dating you was like a dream come true, I’ve had a crush since the moment we met.”
She waited patiently for what came next, “I don’t think it would be the same for you.”
Raven just stared, if she said something immediately it would turn into an argument which she doesn’t really understand its main issue.
Apparently that gave Garfield the time to sort his thoughts out better, “I’m worried future-past-you might not like the reality she wakes up to. And I don’t know how to handle that.”
“it’s not my fault I didn’t fall for you sooner,” she thought they were past this, past his insecurities and his fear of losing her, yet it always finds a way back to his mind.
“I’m not upset about that, I’m just saying if things were different than how we were then maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal, which’s entirely my fault really because of how immature I was but-“
“Gar you were 14,” she didn’t know how the conversation switched to that, she always hated when he talked about himself like that.
“Yes, I know, I’m just saying if the situation was different-“ he started again before she cut him, again.
“Gar, we can’t change the past,” she couldn’t think of something that could make him feel better, ease his worries away.
“Yes, but we can prepare for the future,” he put the camera in front of her, she didn’t know he expected her to take it or just stare at it.
“Gar, you know how I feel about being pushed to do things I don’t want to do,” she tried to sound as calm as she could, but this was a sensitive topic for both of them.
They were both stubborn people, so they learned to not push each other further than they can reach. She wanted to help him but not at her expense.
She knew she didn’t have to remind of all of this, they’ve been dating for 4 years now and friends for way longer, a lot of things should go unsaid, yet they still repeat the same fights, same insecurities, same boundaries, but she signed up for it.
They often found themselves in this position, an issue that only bothered one of them with a solution that was rejected by the other. At first these fights scared her, these unresolved issues seemed like they would be the cause of their separation one day, but time after time it turned out it made their relationship stronger. They reminded her of the storms they once faced on a mission they had in south Africa, the longer your house survived them, the stronger it was, so she was patient, waiting for this one to be over.
“Remember when we talked about soulmates and fate,” he eyes were looking through the window, “and you said you didn’t believe in them, that we could choose our fate, our partners, our destiny, and in every dimension we chose something different.”
She recalled the conversation vaguely, she didn’t know it’d be something they would be talking about again.
“It feels just like that, if you forget everything that happened between us and we go back to where we started, there could be no us, you might not choose me again. Just like how we’re not an item in every universe.”
She knew when she started this conversation that she had to treat it delicately, it wasn’t easy, not for him, and neither for her. But he couldn’t see how hurt it made her.
“Our choices aren’t just our partners, in another universe I didn’t live past the age of 16, In another one I defeated my dad and became something worse, and in others I was never born a half demon I was normal,” she tried her best to stay calm but she couldn’t control how irritated she was, “if your worst fear is not to be loved by me, my 14 years old me wakes up today her first question isn’t who am I dating, it would be about the prophecy that haunted me my whole life and I’m sorry for not wanting to make a 10 minutes video chatting about it.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond, she left the room before he could say anything else.
It has been an hour since they talked, and Garfield wasn’t in her room yet.
It would be wrong to go to him first, unless 24 hours have passed and he didn’t come to her, those were the rules of dating when you get mad at your boyfriend.
But she wasn’t really mad, and he was her fiancé , so maybe she could accidentally bump into him in the hallway.
Raven didn’t like to speak of her prophecy because it always left her feeling on edge, she didn’t like to think of it too much. Sometimes she worried the opposite would happen, and that she would wake up in the past instead of the future and her father would still be waiting for her, and the hope of living would be shuttered for ever.
She wondered if her boyfriend forgot about it, since they never really spoke of it, she knew he hated the topic just as much as she did, maybe he resented it to the point it didn’t exist in his head anymore, like it wasn’t something they need to worry about ever. She wished she could do that.
She heard a knock on her door immediately knew it was him, she used her powers to open the door, she was too tired to get off bed so she waited for him to join her. A moment passed before he was laying on bed with her.
“I’m sorry I upset you.”
“I’m not upset.”
His hand reached for hers and she let him hold it.
Raven liked this, the stage they were in their relationship, where conflicts would just end with two words and them holding hands in her bed. They grew so much over the past years and learned each other inside out, even though they still argued, they knew where the other person was coming from. He didn’t need to explain why he said what he said, and neither did she, but they still needed to read in between the lines, Raven’s prophecy might’ve ended 7 years ago, but Garfield’s insecurities were something that followed him to every corner.
“When I said our fate changes from a universe to another, it’s not just based on our choices, other people’s choices matter too,” she could see the surprise on his face, he probably thought she would just drop the subject and pretend it never happened, but she wanted to tell him. “I made my choices because the people I met here showed me that I can be good even with all of ugliness in my past, and that I can be selfish and fight for what I want, and I would’ve never done that without all of you. Gar, falling for you was never my choice, you did that for me, and I know even if I lost every memory of yours, I’ll always be in awe of you when I learn them again.”
His hand moved to brush the tear she didn’t even know was falling, “I don’t care about the other Raven’s, I just know I’m the luckiest one.”
Tears were dropped from his eyes too, and he whipped them while fighting a smile “god, it’s contagious.”
She laughed at his awful joke, like the good fiancée she was before she closed the space between. He kissed her back instantly like he’d been waiting for her to get close.
She loved when he kissed her like this, like it was the last chance he’d get to taste her lips, it gave her a funny feeling in her stomach, even after 4 years some things could never change.
She pulled away to look at him and he was still smiling at her, and she knew they survived another storm unharmed, lying in each other’s arms.
She knew it was here somewhere, Cyborg never deleted anything from his laptop, she just had to find it.
The way he liked to organize his folders was a bit confusing, but that only made her more determine to find it on her own.
Raven’s birthdays
Click
17th
18th
19th
20th
21st
22nd
23rd
Click
To her surprise her teammates had taken more pictures than she remembered, but only one video, which was what she came for.
She clicked on the clip and wore her headphones, it has been some time since she has last seen it.
“Happy birthday, babe! You’re 23!! Can you believe that.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Raven had to laugh, the smile she had on the video was a clear indication that she didn’t mind him calling her that at all, which was probably why he never stopped.
It was ridiculous really, how much he changed her in those 3 years alone to a different person, every photo of her had that stupid smile that she knew he was the cause of.
Once she realized what was happening to her she tried to control it, she had a reputation to protect after all, but even now, when he wasn’t near her she found herself smiling to the thought of him, the thought of the life she now has, the future she worked so hard for.
The video was just one minutes and 7 seconds, it was just her blowing the candles and her friends cheering after that.
If she could show her younger self one thing, she would show her this, just herself smiling.
She might think it was cringe, how she was willingly looking at a camera without throwing it out of the building, and celebrating her birthday above that!
But she wanted her to know, that after everything she went through, she was happy.
Copy video
Close folder
Memory loss clips
Click
Past