ILLUSION || Jason Todd

❝THIS IS THE END❞

TEDY, IT'S OVER NOW

Having been living in Titans Tower for one week straight, Lorelei had decided it was much nicer than being on the road. As with Bruce's safehouses, the Tower was dressed in lavish furniture and the best training equipment. It was also just generally better to have her routines back.

While she still hadn't found her perfect running route in the large park San Francisco offers, it was a working progress to normalcy as a vigilante in training. So far, in her opinion, she was settling in nicely.

Not to mention Bruce had sent a surprise package to the Tower with personal belongings for Jason and Lorelei. It wasn't much and it certainly wasn't everything but the young mage was grateful for the markers and colouring spreads he included for Lorelei while opting for Jason's books. Slowly, she was getting her hobbies - her life - back.

It was the ending of a cycle.

For the first time in perhaps her entire life, Lorelei wasn't isolated. Instead, she was thrust into the life of rarely having alone time. With her friends constantly around, dinner tables always becoming filled, the young mage was living a shell of what her life once was.

As she sat at the table, sitting comfortably on the chair as her friends - her team - rested on their own chairs, the young mage stifled back a yawn. It was currently one of those rare moments where nobody was training and they were all gathered together.

Okay, so that wasn't completely true.

They were gathered around the table after Dick had cancelled their training schedules for the day. Apparently, he wanted to do some bonding exercises instead. So far the exercise in question was spent listening to Dick ramble on about how important it was to build bonds with your team. It was boring.

"When you're working in a team you aren't necessarily relying on orders. You have to understand your teammates' thought processes, to know what they're thinking before they know it. To do that, you need to understand them as a person." The former Robin continued.

"So, what? You want us to sit around a campfire singing songs and telling ghost stories?" Jason piped, his sarcasm landing him a not-so-painful backhanded slap to the bicep from Lorelei.

The young mage was sitting beside the young Robin. It wasn't an uncommon practice, Jason had almost always found a way to sit next to Lorelei. He was always saving her a seat or making sure there was always a 'claim' on the seat next to the one Lorelei gravitated towards.

She wasn't ungrateful for it, the sentiment that he wanted to sit beside her was nice. But it was awkward, fully on Lorelei's side and absolutely because of the alternate universe Trigon served her. The ice blonde mage was still working out how to not address the fact his lips touched hers and she was engaged to him while also being his friend without thinking of it.

So far, she was not working out much.

It didn't help that the boy would flirt a lot, moreso for Lorelei than anyone else. Not to mention she felt his lips on hers whenever she looked at him.

"He wants us to get to know each other properly." Lorelei sighed. "Arguably worse, in my opinion." Because who wanted to explain their horrid life story? Not her.

Though perhaps that is where the issue laid. Lorelei's opening up wouldn't be filled with happiness and warm walks on the beach despite the rose-coloured glasses she wore for the majority of her life. Even during those years, she didn't have anything interesting to share and if she considered, the young mage didn't have a 'best moment of my life' or 'happiest memory' to share.