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It’d been a couple of months since Mia moved from Star City to San Francisco to work with the Teen Titans.
She’d offered to team up with Wonder Girl tonight. While Cassie was busy searching the skies, Mia took the low ground, carefully maneuvering from rooftop to rooftop, keeping an eye on alleyways, dark corners, and anywhere else a potential criminal could be.
There had been a big murder the week prior, 4 dead, the killer escaped, and the Titans were bulking up their patrols in response, determined to find the culprit. Robin was out with Superboy on the other side of the city as Starfire checked the outskirts.
Below her, a loud bang erupted as a trash can was thrown to the ground. She peered carefully over the edge of the rooftop, trying to find the source of the noise.
A young girl was sitting on the ground, holding her head like she’d been hit. Blood dripped slowly between her fingers.
Mia jumped down from the rooftop. Wonder Girl would be able to handle the assaulter on her own, but Mia needed to focus on helping the victim.
Mia crouched down to the girl's height, gently touching her wrist. “Ma’am? You're gonna be okay. Is it okay if I take a look?”
She slowly lowered her hand to reveal a cut in her forehead, likely from the metal of the trash can. It wasn't life-threatening, but she’d need stitches. The girl mumbled something under her breath as Mia placed a cotton ball from her belt against the wound, soaking up some of the blood.
“What was that?” Mia asked, unsure of what she'd said.
“Sir, not ma’am.”
Mia glanced confusedly at the boy, shrugging as she turned away and continued to try and clean the blood. “Sorry about that Sir. I’m gonna have my partner call you an ambulance, alright? Can you tell me what happened?”
“Some jerk from school tried to fight me. Guess he realized it was a dumb idea and ran off.”
Mia hummed in acknowledgment. She knew firsthand how cruel others could be. “Has he tried to do something like this before?” she asked, trying to make conversation until the ambulance arrived.
“Not to me. He used to pick on another trans kid but they moved to Palmera last summer. Guess I’ve been his target since then.”
Cassie floated down behind her. “Caught the attacker. A guy named Wade McKinney. Ambulance is on its way as well.”
“Thanks, Wonder Girl.” She turned back towards the victim. “What’s your name?”
“Oliver.”
Mia smiled to herself. “That’s a good name. I might be a little bit biased though. It’s my dad’s name.” Maybe that was compromising information she shouldn't be sharing, but somehow she doubted this kid would end up being some kind of supervillain.
“You’re Speedy, right?” the boy asked, drawing in his legs to sit criss-cross.
“One and only! That’s Wonder Girl behind me!”
“Don't you work in Star?”
“I did. Still do, sometimes. I moved out here to do work with the Titans. Green Arrow insisted they give me a chance so…here I am!”
“Is it fun? Being a hero and saving people?”
“Hmm,” Mia pondered, cartoonishly placing a hand on her chin. “I wouldn’t call it fun. Fulfilling for sure, but dangerous. A lot can go wrong y’know? Injuries are pretty common but lucky for you that means I have supplies on me!”
Sirens blared behind them as the ambulance pulled up. Mia stepped out of the way and allowed the paramedics to examine Oliver. “You need any help, you call the Titans right away.”
“Ready to keep going?” Cassie asked, hovering slightly above the ground. Mia nodded and made her way back up onto the rooftops.
/////
Her phone buzzed loudly, startling her as she finished signing a note. Connor’s name glowed brightly on the screen next to a silly 0.5 photo she’d coaxed him into letting her take. She smiled and swiped the bar, setting it to speaker mode.
“Titans Tower, superhero fiends for your superhero needs! This is Speedy. How can I help ‘ya?”
She heard Connor laugh on the other side of the line. “Hey, Mia. Just checkin’ in. It’s been a while since you’ve been back to Star.”
“I know, I know. Got all this Titan business to attend to now! How ‘bout you? How’s the Justice League treatin’ ‘ya?”
“Not too bad. Saved Kyle from having to spend watch duty with Wally earlier. Those two fight like crazy, nothing like what I’ve heard about the old Green Lantern and Flash.”
Neither of them ever had a chance to meet the old Green Lantern and Flash before they died, but they’d heard stories. The old Green Lantern had been one of Ollie’s best friends and Hal had gotten along pretty well with the old Flash as well.
“What about you? What’s all this ‘Titan business’ keeping you from visiting?”
“Had some pretty bad cases in recent weeks. We had to buff up patrols. Actually, I was out patrolling with Wonder Girl earlier and helped her catch a guy.”
“Do tell.”
“If you insist. Pretty normal patrol at the start but then there was this super loud crashing noise underneath me, so I went to check it out, right?”
“Right, yeah.”
“And there was this boy down there. He’d gotten hit by this guy from his school ‘cause he was trans. His name was Oliver, actually.”
“You think it was after Ollie?” Connor asked jokingly.
Mia giggled lightly. “Actually…this sounds kinda weird? I know Ollie’s like…gay marriage was literally his first act in office and as his daughter I should probably know these kinds of things but I didn't realize you could just…change your gender? It makes sense thinking about it, I guess. Like yeah, why not, what does it matter? But I guess I never realized that people just…did that. It’s cool.”
“Mia…” Connor started, sounding like she’d said something she shouldn’t have.
“What? Is that not how that works? I’m pretty sure that’s how that works, but what do I know? I just figured this stuff out a couple of hours ago-”
“Mia, you know I’m trans, right?”
She sat there contemplating for a moment. Connor was trans? It wasn’t that she minded, she didn’t. At all. Connor was free to do whatever he felt like and if being a boy made him happy then being a boy made him happy. He’d just never mentioned it before.
“Mia?” Connor asked hesitantly, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“Shit! Yeah. No, no I didn’t know that. You’ve never mentioned that.”
“Oh. Well…” He paused for a moment, piecing together what to say. “I guess I just…thought you knew? I should have told you, feels like something family should know.”
“Hey! Don’t sweat it! It’s not like I’ve told you every little detail of my life. I think I’d die if I had to do that. We’d be here for hours. To be fair, I kinda did the same thing? I’ve been sorta assuming you all know I’m a lesbian and not ever really actually saying it so…guess we’re in the same boat here.”
“You’re a lesbian?”
“Yup.”
“Huh. I can’t say I’m surprised.”
They sat in comfortable silence, both processing their newfound knowledge about the other. She glanced at the clock, realizing how late it was getting. “Shit! I gotta get going. Got something to drop off for that Oliver kid. Please don’t tell Ollie about the whole lesbian thing unless he already knows in which case go for it. Next time maybe we don’t keep massive secrets from each other under the assumption that the other already knows, yeah? Family’s gotta stick together and all that, right?”
“Right. Family. I won’t tell Ollie anything, or Roy and Dinah for that matter. Good luck. Visit soon please, it’s empty in Star without you.”
“Will do! Love you, bye!”