The Next Generation

Rose had to admit, coming home to her friends and family throwing a welcome home party for them... it made her smile. A lot. Who would have ever thought that she, of all people, would have ever had this many people caring as much as they did for her? Six years ago, she would have thought such a thing to be preposterous. Now, it just seemed normal. She took a few moments to say her greetings to everyone, then held her own arm around her husband as she wandered them over to the snack food. She was hungry, after all.

"So, how was the honeymoon?" Beast Boy asked, leaning against the counter with a smirk. He wanted all the gossip, apparently.

"Oh, you know, pretty good," Rose responded, trying to act modest as she munched on some potato chips. "Did some gambling, did some drinking, relaxed around the resort... spent a lot of time in our room. And the beach was great, too." She was thinking back of all the times she and Neal had snuck out onto the resort's beach after hours at night to have sex in the sand... and that one hotel security had caught them right as they were finishing up. It had certainly been exciting anyway!

"Glad you guys had fun," Cyborg replied, with a nod. "But now it's back to work. Don't think we're gonna let you guys slack now just because you're married."

Rose merely smirked. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

As Beast Boy and Rose spoke, Neal couldn't help but poor himself some soda and quickly grabbing some pretzels. Mexico had been nice, and the foreign food was certainly good, but it just wasn't the same as some classic snacking foods. They stayed in a resort after all and their food had been prepared by amazing chefs, but after a while Neal had to admit that he just wanted to get back to his roots and enjoy some normal food.

As Rose mentioned that amount of time that they were in their room, Neal only glanced back and threw a wink in Beast Boy's direction. Neal had a feeling he got the message, but there was no harm in making sure right?

As Cyborg mentioned that it was time to get back to work, Neal swallowed the pretzels that were in his mouth before looking towards Cyborg. "Wouldn't dream of getting lazy now, how else will I keep up my amazing physique?" he asked jokingly. "I have to admit though, I'm looking forward to getting back out there in the action and showing some villains that Ravager and Fade are back to take some names," Neal said with a large smile.

"Well that's good," Cyborg said, giving them both a nod. Always good to see that their fellow heroes were still ready to kick some bad guy ass. "In the meantime, I hope you still have your tux, Neal, because you're going to need it."

Rose lifted an eyebrow. "Why's he going to be needing his tux again?"

"Here," Raven said, passing her a card with writing on it. "We got this in the mail last week."

Taking the card, Rose lifted it to her face and began to read. " Let's see... 'you are hereby invited to the... wedding of Dick Grayson and Jessie Linwood?' What?!" She didn't even bother reading any further, she had the information she needed, and holy shit, was she surprised. Of course, she also couldn't help but let out a good bit of laughter. "No way! Seriously? Is this for real?"

"Believe it or not," Cyborg said, nodding affirmatively. "Our little Nightwing is all grown up and getting married."

Neal just gave a nod as Cyborg mentioned that it was good to hear that they were ready. Before Neal could get some more snacks though, he stopped as he heard something strange. "What are you talking about?" he asked before looking at the card that Rose had been given by Raven.

Needless to say, Neal was just as surprised as Rose was. He didn't scream it out like she did, but he found himself just staring at the card in shock. He glanced up and over at Cyborg. "So he's getting married? I knew that things were serious but I didn't realize they were that far along," he admitted before giving a small smile. "Glad to hear that he's happy"

A sudden thought crossed Neal's mind. "Wait a moment, does this girl know who exactly Dick is?"

"Well, I think she'd have to if someone like me and Gar are showing up to the wedding," Cyborg said, with a small laugh. "Would be kind of hard to explain the half-robot and the green goblin without coming clean. But yeah, I'm pretty sure he told her a long time ago."

Rose just smirked, flipping the card back over to Raven. "Well, who would have thought, Dick Grayson living a normal life and getting married? Guess I lost the pool on that one."

"The wedding is next month," Raven added, placing the card back on the counter. "You have plenty of time to get ready and pick out... a dress."

Rose flinched. "Right, sure... we'll see."

"In the meantime, let's get you two back up to the combat room!" Beast Boy said, excitedly. "Bet you guys are pretty rusty after all that sunshine and relaxation."

"You wish," Rose remarked, with a grin. "I can still whip your animal ass all over the place."

"Yeah that's what I was curious about, for a minute I was worried he was going to ask me to make an illusion around you guys," Neal said with a laugh. So this girl knew all about Dick's past and his time as Nightwing and still loved him enough to get married. Dick was a lucky guy. Not as lucky as Neal of course, but perhaps a close second or third.

"Next month huh? Well I have plenty of time to practice my congratulation speech for him than," Neal said with a laugh before hearing about how Rose was going to have to go out and find another dress. "You just seem to have the worst luck with things like this don't you?" he asked with a smile on his face.

As Beast Boy said they needed to get to the combat room, Neal could only smile in his direction. "Yeah, what she said," Neal added as he cracked his knuckles. "My brain doesn't forget, I'll thrash you this time Beast boy"

"I cannot believe you talked me into wearing this... ridiculous thing," Rose muttered, staring down at the modest blue dress, with a slit running up one side from foot to hip, so as to expose her leg each time she took a step. It was flattering, for sure, but it was still a dress. And she hated dresses. "Please tell me I can change into some jeans at the reception, because I swear I'm going to go insane if I have to spend much longer in this thing."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad," Beast Boy assured. "I think you look great."

Raven slowly turned to stare at him.

"Uh... heheh, but not nearly as great as you do, Raven," he said quickly, trying to recover. Raven, too, was dressed in a blue dress, though a more conservative one, and of a much darker shade.

"Now, now," Cyborg said, straightening the tie on his tuxedo. "Let's all behave, this is a happy day. Dick's getting married, after all, as much as I never thought I'd see the day. Everyone remember their parts?"

"Well duh," Beast Boy said. "We're the groomsmen. We stand up there next to the groom and look dashing in our tuxedos. That's about all there is to it."

Neal glanced over as Rose was complaining about the dress. He knew that it wasn't really her thing. After all, on their wedding night Rose did probably even more tearing of that dress than Neal did. She made it very clear that she didn't like them and most likely never would. "Don't worry Rose you'll be able to change soon enough," Neal said simply as he continued to stand straight at attention.

As Beast Boy made his comment, Raven wasn't the only one that turned and stared right at him with a less than unhappy look. That was Neal's wife after all. Raven had probably a better reason for giving a glare, but it didn't mean that she was the only one annoyed.

Before saying anything Cyborg quickly cut it, reminding everyone to behave and not cause a scene at Dick's wedding. "Yeah, Beast Boy pretty much summarized exactly what we do," Neal admitted with the tiniest of shrugs. "Had to admit, other than being the groom I've never had anything to do with a wedding. I've never been asked to participate in one before"

"Well, now you get to be front and center," Cyborg said, patting Neal on the back. "Well, uh, almost front and center. Not quite as much as when you were the groom, but... oh you know what I mean."

"Right, well, time for the ladies to go grab a good seat," Rose said, "while you guys go get ready or whatever it is you do before things start. Oh, and Kory?"

"Yes?" Starfire responded, shifting Lori into a better position in her arms.

"I do hope you remembered to feed her before we left," she said, with a small sigh. "This is a wedding, we can't have you popping your breast out in the middle of things if Lori starts getting fussy."

Starfire blinked. "Oh, yes, of course I fed her before we left. I may be a very open person, but even I would not ruin Dick's wedding day like that."

"Good to hear..." Rose said, with a small laugh. She shook her head and sighed again, then started leading both Starfire and Raven farther inside to get a good seat.

"Alright, gang, let's go see how the groom is doing," Cyborg suggested, heading off in the other direction. "He'll need us to stop him from running for the door. Poor guy's probably got cold feet."

Neal just raised an eyebrow as Cyborg said that Neal would be front and center. Because he wasn't when he had been saying the whole "I do" thing and all? He just smiled as he understood what it was that Cyborg had meant. "It'll be good, I'm glad that we could all come and support Dick. We all owe him far more than that after all," Neal remarked to the group.

Neal began to follow Cyborg as they went to go and meet Dick. "Do you really think he is? I mean I was a bit nervous but I wouldn't say I got cold feet ya know?" Neal asked as they kept moving forward. "Besides, the man faced people like Blood and Raa's Al Ghul, you think that a wedding is going to scare him?"

"I'm sure he's fine," Beast Boy said, with a small wave of the hand. "Though really, it wouldn't surprise me if, even after everything he's done, getting married is the one thing that makes him run the other way. That kind of commitment tends to have that effect on people."

Cyborg glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow. "You mean like you? If I recall correctly, you and Raven have been together longer than either of the two couples going through marriage right now. So when are you planning it, hm?"

Beast Boy flinched. "I, uh... no, you see, we just... not ready for that kind of... it's a work in progress, really." Obviously, marriage was not a subject that he dealt well with. It just seemed so... final.

When the guys made it into the groom's room, Dick was already there putting the finishing touches on his tuxedo. Also present was Tim Drake, the best man, and Bruce Wayne, father figure extraordinaire. Dick turned around as they entered and gave them a welcoming smile, then extended his hand for each of them to shake.

"Glad to see you guys could make it," he said, with a grin.

"Please, we wouldn't miss this for the world, man," Cyborg replied.

Neal just let out his own laugh as Cyborg threw Beast Boy's words back at him. It was something that Neal had never considered before. What was Beast Boy waiting for exactly? They had been together way before Neal and Rose were together after all, or at least that was Neal's assumption. He had been traveling all the way around the world at the time, so he wasn't quite sure when their relationship began, but he assumed that it had been some time ago. He and Rose had been together for........quite some time now after all.

As they entered in to Dick's room, Neal took note of everyone else that was there. Tim Drake and Bruce Wayne, probably the closest people to family that Dick really had. Well, besides the Titans of course. He probably was thankful that everyone else was here.

Neal extended his hand and took Dick's in a strong grip. "Well, maybe for the world. Nothing less though," Neal said with a laugh as he let the handshake go.

"Can't actually believe this really happening," Dick said, letting out a long breath as he stared back at himself in the mirror. "I mean, me, of all people, settling down in a normal life and getting married to the most amazing woman in the world. Hardly seems real."

"If there's anyone that deserves it, it's you," Tim said, giving his friend a nod. "Just, you know, don't go screwing it up."

Dick let out a small laugh. "Right, I'll give it my best shot. Wish I could go see Jessie before the big moment, but everyone keeps telling me what bad luck it is."

"As well they should!" Beast Boy replied quickly. "Dude, it's totally bad luck to see the bride before the wedding. I'm talking fire raining from the skies kind of bad luck! Well... maybe not that bad, but close enough. You have to respect the tradition, just stay in here until the wedding is ready for you. You'll see her soon enough."

"Hate to say it, but Gar's right," Cyborg commented, with an affirmative nod. "I'm not one for superstition, but this is something you don't mess with. There's not telling what kind of crazy stuff might go on if you see her before the wedding. It might break the very fabric of the time space continuum!"

"Actually, the only thing that could do that is-" Bruce started to say. He stopped himself, though, as everyone stared at him. "Never mind. Just keep getting ready, Dick. I'm going to check on things out there." And with that, he was gone.

"Believe me, when it happened to me I couldn't believe it either. You guys saw me coming downstairs, but you should have seen my face when Rose actually said yes," Neal admitted with a chuckle. "All the same though, you're going to make this girl so happy Dick. Don't feel pressured, she loves you for you after all. That's all the two of you will ever need,"

As talk about the bad luck of seeing the bride popped up, Neal had to add in his two cents. "Hey, believe me when I say that you should listen. After all, on a day when everything else is going so well you don't want one little jinx up do ya? No harm in playing it safe," he pointed out with a small laugh.

As Bruce ended up leaving, Neal watched before turning back to Dick. "If you really want to see her though I could illusion up something for ya. I know it won't compare to the real thing, but why not offer right?"

"Thanks, but I think I'll stick to tradition," Dick responded with a small nod. "Appreciate the offer, though."

The crew remained in that room for the next hour or so, waiting for the event to begin. After a while, Dick started pacing back and forth nervously. Sure, he was excited for the big day, but it was still a huge step in his life, and that was cause for a few butterflies. He took in deep breaths and let them out slowly, though that did little to calm himself. He likely wouldn't be calm again until he was up on that altar with Jessie standing across from him.

"Alright," Cyborg said, watching the clock. "It's about that time. Places everyone!"

And so the group headed out of the room and into the main area of the church, where the wedding was being held. The men took their places at the groom's side, while everyone sat in the audience, waiting expectantly for things to begin. Before long, the music began to play, and the wedding was underway.

"Long as you're sure," Neal said as he shrugged his shoulders. He didn't seriously think that Dick was going to accept, but why not offer it out? "You'll do fine, I'm sure that she's just as anxious to see you as well," he added.

A while later, Cyborg shot them all a reminder that it was about time for them to get in their places. That meant it was time for them to take their place at Dick's side. As they lined up, Neal watched as everyone took their own spots. Neal looked in the direction that the Bride was to come in, as all eyes were to be on her soon anyways. As he scanned the area though, he allowed his eyes to meet Rose's for a moment. He merely smiled and nodded in her direction, still happy as ever to see her smiling and happy face looking back at him.

After that, Neal stood with his hands held together and waiting patiently for what would come next.

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