Note: Named after a song of the same name by Tame Impala.
A/N: Still thinking of another Beast Boy/Raven fic and I'm working out the plot of a looooooooong-overdue RobStar fic, so enjoy this in the meantime!
Black and purple.
After two years of being a Teen Titan, Garfield was still adorned in black and purple. He was an imposter. He might as well have been a Doom Patrol member masquerading as a Titan.
...But wasn't he, though?
He still donned their colors, wearing their uniform from the day Mento and Elasti-Girl made him a part of their team to his first encounter with the Titans to the present day.
Nothing's changed except for him being a part of a different roster (and losing the squeakiness of his voice).
WIth this uniform came the overbearing nature of Mento, the undead sarcasm of Negative Man, the brute force of Robot Man, and the admirable determination of Elasti-Girl.
With this uniform came the nervousness of Beast Boy—or, rather, scrawny Garfield Logan pretending he knew how to be a hero. He was prepubescent and fumbling with the use of his powers and lost in a world without his parents. Lost in a world where his legal guardian tried to kill him. Lost in a world where the Doom Patrol saved his life and took a chance on him.
He didn't know what they saw in him, if he was being honest with himself. He considered himself a team mascot, a sorry excuse for a hero (especially when recounting the tough love that Mento showed him). Even when Elasti-Girl consoled him, hushing his cries when he didn't consider himself to be "good enough," the uncomfortable thought still lingered with him. It tugged at him during every mission.
If he couldn't even do the simple justice of saving his parents' lives, was he truly meant to be a hero?
The answer remained no until one mission.
Mento ordered him to prevent Madame Rouge from getting away with a magnetic-field destabilizer—despite Monsieur Mallah holding the inventor of the destabilizer and her family hostage. Mallah raised his ginormous fists in the air, threatening to eradicate them since the Brotherhood of Evil had obtained what they wanted. Beast Boy morphed into a rhino and charged into Mallah, preventing the deranged gorilla from killing that family.
No matter how much Mento berated him for disobeying direct orders, he never once regretted it. That day, he learned that, while some heroes longed to stop the villain from executing their plans, others longed to prevent the loss of innocent lives. Garfield had never felt more useful than when he helped spare that family. When he saw the fear of death exit the eyes of that inventor's young daughter, it made defying Mento's command worth his while.
That was when Garfield discovered he was meant to be a hero. That's when he figured out the kind of hero he was made to be.
Unfortunately, that was also when Mento had enough of him "screwing up" missions.
However, it instilled Garfield with the wisdom to know that any team okay with the senseless loss of lives for the sake of fulfilling a goal was a team that he no longer wanted to be on. He was tired of being treated like Mento's way was the only way. He was tired of being relegated to sidekick status—that his say didn't really count (at least, as far as Mento was concerned).
Thus, despite his age and shaky experience in heroics, Garfield thought it was best to part ways with the Doom Patrol. Though he loved how Elasti-Girl filled the empty maternal role in his life, how Negative Man and Robot Man were like uncles to him, and even how Mento could be an endearing father figure at times, he had to leave. The drawbacks of staying on the team far outweighed the benefits.
So he left, stumbling upon the Titans within a day of leaving.
Lately, with all the changes the Titans had undergone—dropping the word teen from their name, Robin becoming Nightwing, Cyborg updating the tower, and Starfire and Raven altering their uniforms—Garfield deduced that he needed a change, too.
He decided to cast away the black and purple uniform that belonged to the Doom Patrol, putting it in the same place as his old team mask: out of sight and out of mind. The uniform didn't hold memories that were all bad, but it did hold the memories of being Beast Boy. Beast Boy was a part of Garfield that he didn't find relevant to his personal identity anymore. He didn't find Beast Boy applicable to his current stage in life.
Garfield was beyond learning how to become a hero, something he did as Beast Boy. Now, he was a hero.
Thus, he would assume the identity of Changeling. (Despite how cool the name Animal Man sounded to him, Raven said she would break up with him if he seriously considered taking on such a moniker.)
Becoming Changeling would sever all ties to the Doom Patrol. Becoming Changeling would redefine him as a Titan.
As Changeling, Garfield wouldn't need a black and purple uniform to dictate who he was.
No.
That's why he opted for white and red.