"Illicit"

Disclaimer: The future DC Universe and its characters depicted in this story do not belong to me. They belong to DC Comics, which is owned by Time Warner. The only thing I can consider remotely mine is the plot.

Author's note: Reading a whole bunch of good Slade/Dick and Rose/Tim fics made me think of my longstanding fascination with Rose/Mar'i. For those of you who never read Kingdom Come or The Kingdom, Mar'i is the daughter of Dick and Starfire. In the canon of the Kingdom Universe, she's involved with Bruce Wayne's son Ibn al Xu'ffasch, which is pseudo-incestuous because of her father's own non-biological but just as familial ties to Bruce. However, I have chosen to throw that canon out the window. For the purposes of this story, I choose not to recognize that canon.

When Rose had first found herself babysitting for Mar'i Grayson as a teen, she had had a hard time keeping up with the half-alien toddler. The little girl was constantly moving and much of that moving was done in the air. Now, Rose could jump higher than the average person and she didn't suck as a gymnast, but she did not have the natural ability of her charge's father. As if that wasn't enough, Mar'i insisted on making Rose chase her down every chance she got. At the end of her first babysitting session with Mar'i, Rose had concluded that Mar'i was going to be even more of a handful when she got older.

Years later, Rose found herself mentoring a new set of Teen Titans, consisting of Roy's daughter Lian, Wally's daughter Iris, Garth's son Cerdian, Superman's adoptive son Chris, Batman's son Damien, and . . . Mar'i. On that first day, she found herself observing the new Teen Titans, who reminded her of their parents in ways both good and bad. Lian was quick with her bow and with a flirtatious remark, usually directed at Cerdian, but sometimes at Chris or Damien. Iris could never seem to stop talking or stop moving, vibrating if she had to keep still for too long. Cerdian was quiet and reserved, almost to the point of timidity, particularly where Lian's flirtations were concerned. Chris was a Boy Scout but was highly inquisitive, almost to the point of annoyingness. Damien was cold and irritatingly assured of his own skills, to the point where he tried to boss the other Titans around. And Mar'i . . .

Mar'i had definitely blossomed since Rose had seen her last, and she clearly wasn't ashamed of it. Her uniform was a black leotard with a plunging neckline accented by a translucent purple wing symbol and knee-high black boots accented with translucent purple and translucent purple bracers. The leotard clung tightly to Mar'i's body, accentuating every luscious curve. Long, wavy black hair cascaded down the half-alien girl's back and all-green eyes peered out from a delicate-featured and highly expressive face. All in all, she had grown up to be an almost-exact mirror image of her late mother.

At the moment, Mar'i was scolding Damien for his arrogance. Rose had to bite back a smile; the brat was getting what was coming to him. She could see now why Tim had sent him to the Titans; he was hoping that Damien would learn some humility. Of course, it didn't seem to be working; the brat was just scowling at Mar'i as though she were unfit to even shine his boots. Rose clenched her fists, resisting the urge to go over there and beat some sense into Damien.

Chris stepped between Damien and Mar'i before things could escalate. He looked at Damien with a stare of sharp warning. Damien simply looked at Chris with a glare of harsh contempt. The two young men held their respective positions for what seemed like forever, until Rose spoke up.

"That's enough," she said. "Training's over. Hit the showers . . . and Lian, don't think about trying to get into the boys' side. Chris, no X-ray vision to peep on the girls."

As the new Titans made their way to the showers, Rose chanced a look at Mar'i and found herself thinking two things. The first was, Damn, the view's fine from here. The second was, Why am I perving on a girl I've known since she was a toddler?

The Ravager sighed to herself and went to the swimming pool, hoping to clear her head. After all, it was not exactly a sign of clear thinking to ogle a teenaged girl. Then again, as a teenage girl, she'd chased after the affections of one Dick Grayson, and he was certainly a fine specimen of a human male, then and now. As she thought about it, she remarked to herself that Mar'i had her father's leadership skills, with the way the other Titans – sans Damien – seemed to rally around her. She idly wondered what other traits she'd inherited from Dick, but madness waited down that path.

End Notes: Pretty short, but I've decided to make this a series of ficlets, so it won't be that short. I know it's kind of slow-moving, but I'm setting up the foundation for Rose and Mar'i to get together. The next chapter will be told from Mar'i's perspective.