Why is Ella Balinska so pretty?
I make all my aesthetics

Val POV

They say every girl's dream is to become a ballerina, watching them gracefully dance across the floor in their tutus and their hair all nice in a bun with sparkles. Or those movies or shows about girls dancing, making it look easy and it is all focused on the drama. Or that barbie swan lake movie, her beautiful dress. Every move is precise, on point, perfect. That dream is soon crushed when you realise all the blood on your toes, how they stand on their toes is by wooden blocks at the bottom of the shoe. And now we know that ballet really is the hardest type of dance.

The Black room had a curriculum of girls doing ballet and playing the piano. Ballet brought grace, elegance to our fighting making it easier to dodge. Piano helped us with have nimble fingers for any situation. We were taught to look fragile as a doll, swift like the wind, quick as thunder, and hard as diamonds. I remember watching the older girls doing ballet in their black tutus. When I learnt ballet I felt graceful, for I did not feel any pain. You think we would do swan lake, the 'goodie-two-shoes' where the heroes win.

Wrong.

For the girls who advanced in this learnt the black swan pas de Deux. It was a beautiful dance, really. It truly was.

It was the first of October, another month of Autumn/Fall. Most people are captivated by the leaves beauty. How the leaves' colours are mixed perfectly, blended, ombre. When really they were just dying.

I guess there really is beauty in death. I open a smooth black box with silk ribbons and a bow on top. It revealed black ballet shoes, they were beautiful.

A small quick flash of me lining up hits me.

I drop the shoes quickly in fear, I put my face on my hands in fear.

Deep breaths.

Breathe in

Breathe out.

Jamie was out at the centre with his new and official girlfriend Traci. Gar was out doing some publicity thing. Donna was training along with Rachel and Damian was reading. I lie on the floor looking at my ceiling, then look at the shoes. There was another room that people could train in, that was usually empty and only had a punching bags there. Why not.

I walk to the room where it like I described was empty with windows from top to bottom in front of me, a mirror wall on the left and punching bags on the right. I sit down and put on my black ballet shoes taking a quick glance at myself in the mirror who was wearing a tight long-sleeved shirt that hugged my body shorts with grey stockings underneath.

I play Rose Adage from sleeping beauty from my phone. I needed something light and happy to calm my mind.

I put myself in the third position with constant reminders of my posture from Madame Malus.

The music, I take a step forward elegantly flow with the music. From leaping to pirouettes I still dance with grace, moving my hands and the toes to the rhythm. I close my eyes as the melody flow through me. Quick little flashbacks of me dancing in the Black room fill my head but I manage to stay calm with me dancing.

I leap and take two small steps forward and do four pirouettes in a row. As I slow down on my last one I see a figure leaning against the wall behind me. I get down on my feet putting my arms down and turn around to see Damian smiling.

"Please don't stop," he says

"What are you doing here?" I say and walk to my phone and stop the music.

"Well I heard wonderful music and was drawn here only to find my beloved dancing beautifully," he says. "I didn't know you could dance,"

"There's a lot you don't know," I say

"Beloved, if there's anything you know you can talk to-,"

"I know Dami, I will. I just had some stuff on my mind and wanted to escape it," I say holding his hands and look up at him.

He just looks deep into my eyes and rubs his thumb down my cheek. I get on my tippy toes and give him a quick peck on the lips which makes him chuckle a little.

"You know Grayson would go crazy if he found out you were one," Damian said

"Speaking of which, how is he? And Kori, she's one month pregnant isn't she?" I say

"We can video call them now actually," he says

"Yay," I say

We head to the lounge room and Damian opened the laptop and video called his brother. It loads and he then picks up looking a little tired in a navy blue shirt and a black sweat pants.

"Hey!" I say excitingly

"Hey V! Hey little D, what's up?" he says

"We wanted to check on you guys, how's Kori, Oh! Have you got any names yet?!"

"Uh, Kori and I want it to be a Tamaraian name, but also a little down to earth one as well," he says "Kori and the baby are good as well, which is good. I've been going full father mode," he manages to give a small smile.

"How's the team going?" he asks

"Good, a few drug gangs and illegal shipping but everything seems good so far," Damian informs him.

"Ok, call if you need any help,"

"I doubt if D, your priority is with Kori and Nightwing, you've already got your hands full," I say

"Val is right Grayson, you focus on what's important," Damian says

"Ok, thanks. I've got an incoming call from Bruce," he says

"See you," I wave

"Bye," it then shuts off

We then hear an alarm go off from the computer room. We look at each other and run to the room. I check the footage to see five people or more teenagers causing havoc on st. Wintersheild.

"No," Damian says in shock.

"What is it?" I ask Damain concerningly.

"Call the team now!" He says sternly. I won't complain and just do.

"Let's go," he says and we suit up.

----

The rest came as we saw the destruction this group caused.

"Who did this?" Blue said landing

"Us," said a voice, a team of five figures emerged from the smoke.

In the middle, a girl with a demon's mask and dark brown and red hair, a guy with white hair and his face wrapped in red fabric, a girl with pale skin and snow hair, a guy with brown hair seemed to be floating on some sort of wind, a big bulky guy that seemed to be made out of stone or rock and a girl with ring swords.

"Who the hell are you guys?" Blue said with a cannon taking shape.

"We are the demon's fist," the girl with the demon mask said "it seems like we've finally got your attention. Ah, hello... cousin,"

We all looked to Damian

"Cousin? Dude how many secret relatives do you have?" Gar said forming into a tiger.

"Mara, what do you want? The league-," Damian was then cut off.

"The league was secretly reforming, growing stronger under Deathstroke rule. Thanks to you he's out of the way, and the league is back," Mara said

"But who's-"

"Your mother actually, al Ghul always find a way to get back to the pit," she spat getting her two swords out.

"Ah, mother?" Gar said

"But we are here on our own terms, to fulfil my-, I mean our destiny," Mara says

Mara then attacks and the rest of her group follows. They've already chosen targets like it was already planned. Wondergirl gets the stone guy, Raven gets the pale girl, Beastboy gets the guy wrapped in fabric, Robin gets Mara, Blue gets the guy with the wind and I get the girl with ring swords.

The girl strikes at me she is good but I'm better. I easily dodged it and then she threw her rings at me just bent my back and when I got up I sensed they would be coming back by the sound and by the way they were crafted. I just turned around and grabbed them my fingers. She then growled in annoyance and I threw them to the side and ran at her. I dodge her kick and punches. I grab his wrist and quickly swing around above her waist lifting my leg up twisting it around the neck then the shoulder then quickly placing a taser on her than making him tumble to the ground.

I then roll onto the ground pressing a button that tasers her to the ground. She slowly gets up and they regroup to one side and us on the other, Gar seems to be hurting the most and we look at each other.

"You've had a team," Mara said to Robin, it seemed they talked during their fight.

"What are they talking about?" I asked Robin

"He thought he was too good for us and him left us, still rotting at the bottom of the ladder," Mara went on and she understood something and she just laughed. "Oh, I see. You haven't told them yet? Have you!"

She then took off her mask to reveal her tanned face and scared eye and the other green eye that clearly resembled Damian.

"Your Robin was one of us! The demon's fist was his team to lead as appointed by his grandfather Ra al Ghul!"

"What," Blue said, beaten up

"The," Gar says

"Crap," Robin mumbles.

Mara then holds a bomb that could wipe the entire section we were in, including us. Thankfully the people evacuated immediately getting the message.

"Run," she just says

"Go!" Robin says and we run back.

Behind us, it explodes, smoke and heat overtake the atmosphere. We slowly get up and look behind us and they were gone. We all look at Robin who was pissed.

What was he hiding?

----

A part of me wanted to hate him, that he had a team before us and didn't tell me. But worse he just left them in the dust, waiting to rot and didn't care; making me afraid that he would leave us.

Would leave me.

The other part of me felt only wanting to comfort him, cause I would fill guilty if I ever got mad of him cause I had my secrets too. My past, who I am, hid perfectly by my smile. Why should I be mad of him if I had my own?

Damian was annoyed, the team kept shouting at him for hiding this. I just stood there, silent. Like there was a line drawn right in the middle, and me deciding which side to take. Damian just stormed out to either his room or the top of the tower.

Jamie and Gar just looked at me.

"Val!" They said and I finally looked to them with tears in my eyes. I was shaking a little, I didn't have the comfort of Titus cause he was sleeping in my room.

"Yes," I finally manage to say.

"Well? Why are you still even with him?!" Jamie said. "Break up with him!"

"W-, why would I do that?" I say shaking

"The brat just hid something from us! His mother is Talia al Ghul. AL GHUL! League of assassins. Grandfather is Ra al Ghul. Al Ghul! Didn't you hear? He left them, and he's just going to leave us the same way!" Jamie says

"But don't we all have our pasts? Our secrets? Why do you even bother to trust me?" I start to cry. "You know nothing about me," I look down.

"I don't want to choose a side. We were brought together by our problems. Yes, I'm scared, that he'll leave us. But why can't we all just come together and push that aside," I say sniffing and wiping away my tears.

"She has a point," Rachels says. "I'm the daughter of Trigon and no one had a problem with that, I mean Terra-"

"Don't you fu**ing bring up Terra into this!" Gar says

"Yeah but that's different-" Jamie was cut off by Donna

"But by Zeus what happens if he leaves us in the dust? Leaves you?" Donna looked at me.

"I don't know? If it happens," I breathe in and out "It happens,"

"We all have our battles, we all have our pasts. And they always catch up to us at some point," I say.

We all fall silent, I start to walk to Damian's room but it was empty. So I went up to the top to see him near the edge. I sit next to him wiping away my tears.

"I don't need another-oh Beloved," he says looking at me. "Don't cry," he then wipes away my tears with his thumb.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

I just hide in his neck hugging him.

"You don't have to be with me if you don't want too," he says sadly

I just look up at him and shake my head. "No, no. I told you, I love you. I'm just, I just don't want to choose sides in this," I look down

"What do you mean?" he says

"Well the one part of me is that I would feel guilty to hate you if I hide secrets myself, that why should I hate you if I have my own? And the other side, I-" I break into tears

Damian cradles me with his arms.

"And the other part is scared if you leave us. Leave me," I say

"What? No, no, no. I would never do that. I love you too much. You're perfect," Damian says kissing me on the head.

I reposition myself I sit in between Damian's legs and his arms around me. I close my eyes, almost falling asleep.

What now?