Seeing Reality

The twinkling twilight sky looked down at the tower on the bay of Steel City with a radiant grin. Well, if it had had a mouth it would have. As it were, the stars simply looked down from their places in space, forcing their gentle light through layers of purple and blue and pink. Steel City itself was, like the tower, as quiet as it could be. Cars were making their ay to and from work, men and women alike yawning behind the wheels. Once rowdy teenagers walked tiredly down the sidewalks back to their homes or busstops, intent on another fine summer's day of sleep and fun. The tranquil tides came in and out at the beach, splashing against the shore with a gentle sort of furiousity.

The beach was not crowded like it had been hours before. There were not countless couples and partying groups gathered around beach towels and coolers. There were no volley-ball nets and shovels and pails covering every few feet of sand. There were no shrieking girls being carried into the ocean by their boyfriends, while their friends laughed and giggled with glee. There were no todlers running around with squirtguns or whining for icecream.

There were just two boys enjoying the silence, being watched over from the giant expanse of windows their home provided. A younger pair of boys, twins, watched from the living room as one of the boys below stopped in his tracks to look calmly out at the water. They couldn't make out his expression but they knew he would be smiling, as he did every morning. The other boy was a little ways off, throwing a pebble up into the air and catching it as it came down. They couldn't see his face, but they knew he would have a more serious expression there.

The training room also has a large window, not as big as the living room, but still so. This view was a little closer up and provided a different angle. Not only on the boy's physical stances, but their emotional standpoints as well. The only girl in the tower could see things that none of the others could. She could see the way the tension fled from the longer-haired one. She could see the way his head tilted just that little bit, and she could easily imagine his eyes half-lided as he smiled blissfully out at the ocean. She saw the way the other, masked in more ways than one, always cast anything-but-subtle-to-her glances at him. She could easily see him walking over and wrapping his arms around the other's shoulders. She could see so much for them, but they saw so little.

On the beach - the almost empty beach where early morning joggers, with their dogs and their partners would come soon; where there were no rowdy teens, whining kids and sun-seeking adults, for the time being - two boys watched the sunrise. They watched it in an unmatched serenity, their spirits calming before their days training would begin. It was a miracle that none of the other three in the tower saw what happened on their way back in. When they would join hands and just kind of smile at one another. When what the others saw became a reality.

A/N: Written for the usual livejournal community. Written in fifteen minutes, give or take anywhere from a single second to a minute.
Disclaimer: Steel City and Titans East are the property of DC comics and WB productions. No profit was made for this fanfic, other than my own personal enjoyment of writing it.