Wow, I really should be working on Smile for the Camera. I'm behind as it is. Still, this idea came to me earlier this summer – in Spain of all places. I'm not sure what the connection is. Oh, well…
Hopefully, I'll be getting back to Smile in a bit. It shouldn't be too much longer. After all, this is meant to be a one-shot, though it has infinite possibilities for continuation. If responses demand it, I may consider it. As it is, the piece can stand alone. Or not. Depends. Still, Smile first.
But most of you don't know my previous and current works or me. Well, allow me to rectify at least half of that – the rest will be up to you.
Okay. Hello, my name is Balkoth, and welcome to my little story. Before we get too far or you guys get too comfortable, I'd like to share with you the prattling of a bored person:
Terra is a mixed bag, a wild card, with the fan-fiction community, and not without good reason. Now, countless stories have been told by now about Terra. Her experience with Slade, alternate endings, getting free from her stone prison, and most recently, the after-math of "Things Change." What is missing, or so I feel, is more on what it was like for Terra while she was undercover in the Titans. I haven't seen much of that; and being the person I am, I've written something along those lines. It takes place directly after "Titan Rising." Have fun.
Settling
Terra smiled as she walked down the spacious hallways of Titan's Tower. She had a home now. She had a family. Friends. It felt good, and Terra couldn't stop the grin that stretched across her face. The geokinetic girl followed the gentle waft of waffles as she hurried to catch up with her new team – her new friends. It was late; the sun had cast its last desperate rays across the bay nearly an hour ago. But the waffles smelt so good, it would be a crime to delay eating them because they were prepared at an inappropriate time.
Terra stepped into the living room and choked on her laughter. Beast Boy and Cyborg were wearing matching chef's outfits, working together in the kitchen for the first time in recorded history. Unbeknownst to Beast Boy, the non-dairy waffles the two boys were slapping onto an overburdened plate weren't as non-dairy as the green boy thought. Terra rolled her eyes at the milk carton sticking out of the trashcan and made a mental note to keep Beast Boy from eating any of the offensive food.
Raven was sitting cross-legged on the couch in the place that Terra and Beast Boy had secretly dubbed the empath's reading spot. She was the only person who ever sat there. Ever. There was a book cracked open on the dark girl's inner thigh and a tiny hint of a smile in her eyes that made it clear to Terra that she wasn't paying complete attention to the large text before her. Raven was waiting for Beast Boy to notice the empty milk carton. Robin was standing before the mainframe terminal, finishing up a report or adding something to a file. Terra realized with a small jolt that she probably had clearance for the Titan's mainframe now.
"Friend Terra!" Terra jumped and snapped her head around. She abruptly stopped when she came face to uncomfortably close face with Starfire. Terra took a hurried step backward and suppressed a startled yelp.
"Hey, Star. You scared me," Terra said, trying to explain why she'd backed up. Starfire had been nothing but nice to her, and Terra didn't want the sensitive girl to think she'd done something wrong. All the bubbly alien ever did wrong was care too much and hug too hard. And trust her. Terra frowned at the unbidden thought and stuffed it into the back of her mind to join all the other self-loathing barbs that had been floating through her head of late. It wasn't a bad thing for the Titans to trust her. Terra had gone to Slade for help with her powers, sure, but the maniacal villain didn't have any real sway over her actions. Besides, Terra didn't need him anymore – she had friends. For now.
Terra slapped the thought away to occupy a secluded part of her mind that seemed to be filling far too quickly.
"Oh, many apologies. It was not my intention to alarm you. I simply wished to inquire if you would like to journey with me tomorrow to the gaming arcade." Starfire looked so hopeful when she finished extending the invitation, Terra would have needed to be completely heartless to say no to that look.
"Sounds good to me," Terra chirped happily. She had friends. Terra latched onto Starfire's arm and dragged the Tamaranian into the living room. The reason was simple: Cyborg had just slammed a plate buried in still steaming waffles into the middle of the table. Beast Boy was busy rooting through the overhead cabinets in a vain scavenger hunt for dishes that weren't in desperate need of a long bath in soapy water. It was waffle time.
Every single person in the room dropped what they were doing and swarmed to the table in a fantastic display of organized chaos. Beast Boy came over with plates, glasses, and forks teetering back and forth in his scrawny arms. The changeling was quickly relieved of his burden as plates were jerked from his grip and quickly drowned in waffles, syrup, molten margarine, fresh fruit (in Raven's case) and mustard. Terra shuddered as Starfire poured a few congealed globs of spicy mustard onto her waffle tower. That was going to take some getting used to. Beast Boy caught Terra's eyes and smirked reassuringly, as if he'd just read her thoughts.
Then the moment was broken as Beast Boy grabbed a chair next to Terra and threw himself into it. With agile fingers and a sparkling spork, Beast Boy speared three waffles in one swift jab and transferred them to his plate. Then he moved his attention back to the quickly dwindling supply of waffles for his second grab. Terra quickly slid her plate in front of the changeling and took his for her own. Terra saw Cyborg frown at her interference and she smiled back cheekily.
"Hey! Somebody ate all of my waffles," Beast Boy cried when he turned back to what he thought to be his plate. Terra took advantage of the boy's confusion to snatch the waffle hanging over the plate and place it on top of her own stack. Beast Boy didn't seem to notice. Terra helped herself to the last of the margarine as Beast Boy finally took a look at his spork. There was nothing there.
"Dudes," Beast Boy said solemnly, "there's something stealing all of my waffles." Terra stuffed a mouthful of waffle into her mouth and tried to stop herself from laughing. The tone of Beast Boy's voice made it seem like World War III had just been fought and lost. It was amazing how he could treat such a small thing like something much larger. Of course, with teenage boys, it was hard to tell where the line was when it came to messing with their food. While Terra was able to contain her giggles, Cyborg and Starfire were less successful.
Beast Boy's eyes shot up and narrowed dangerously as Cyborg chuckled around a gulp of milk. "Cy! You ate my waffles!" The accusation was so baseless that a collective explosion of laughter clumsily disguised as coughs started up.
"No, I didn't," Cyborg chided with a toothy grin plastered on his face. Beast Boy narrowed his eyes and watched Cyborg in silence for a while. Then, abruptly, Beast Boy abandoned his analysis of Cyborg and started glaring at his spork, as if it had a secret compartment somewhere that had robbed him of his food. Terra continued to shovel the stolen breakfast items into her mouth faster than was probably smart – it was the only way she could think of to keep herself from laughing.
Beast Boy eventually turned to Terra. She swallowed self-consciously and cocked her head to the side, waiting for him to say something. There was something in Beast Boy's demeanor that told Terra he knew who'd taken the waffles. Now he was just waiting to see if she'd admit it without having the information dragged out of her. The geokinetic teen shifted uncomfortably and jerked her head toward the trashcan apologetically.
Beast Boy followed the motion. The changeling spotted the empty milk carton and turned back to Cyborg. A few of the more scraggly looking waffles were still sitting in the middle of the table, but Beast Boy kept his gaze fastened on Cyborg. It looked like he was plotting a very unpleasant prank for revenge. Cyborg continued to inhale waffles as Beast Boy watched him with slitted eyes.
The spectacularly late breakfast went smoothly from that point onward. Beast Boy doused his annoyance and began resorting to knock knock jokes as everyone else ate. Or maybe he started telling knock knock jokes because he was annoyed – it was difficult to say. Terra had to admit, some of them were pretty bad, and if the other Titan's reactions were any indication, they were all regular jokes that the green boy had never gotten tired of. A couple of the jokes were funny – Terra thought so, at any rate – but the real amusement, the real reason Terra couldn't help but enjoy the jokes, regardless of quality, was how hard Beast Boy was trying and how much fun he seemed to be having. It was infectious.
Terra had finished her waffles a while ago, everyone had, but only Cyborg and Beast Boy had moved from their seats. Raven, however, had produced a couple of earplugs after the fifteenth joke. She was missing quite a show. Beast Boy was so animated and into the stories, waving his hands emphatically, pacing across the floor, changing the inflection of his voice to represent different characters, and grinning ear to pointy ear so that even the worst jokes seemed worthy of attention. Even if it was only to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
"Right, so there's this salesman, right? He goes around door to door on the same route for fifteen years selling the little bags that go inside vacuums. Well, there's this one person who knows the guy's just a salesman and doesn't have anything interesting." Beast Boy paused to make sure that his audience had followed him. Terra brushed a strand of hair out of her face, wishing that her butterfly clip would do its job properly, and waited patiently. She was the only one. The regular rise and fall of Robin's chest, along with the bizarre and undoubtedly uncomfortable angle of his neck, made it clear that the masked acrobat had fallen asleep in his chair. Raven had a book open in front of her, the dull pallor of her earplugs sticking out just enough to give away the fact that she couldn't hear anything. Starfire was playing idly with the fringes of Robin's cape, encased in her own world, and Cyborg had started cleaning the dishes as loudly as possible, hoping to drown out Beast Boy's attempts at humor.
"Right," Beast Boy picked up again after his pause, apparently happy that at least one person was engaged. "So this salesman gets really fed up one day with the other guy –'cause for fifteen years the salesman's gone to the front door, rung the doorbell, and never gotten an answer. One day, the salesman got really ticked off and marched up to the door and pressed the doorbell. A lot. He stood there pressing the doorbell for about fifteen minutes and there still wasn't an answer. The guy was inside, though." As he recounted the tale, Beast Boy pantomimed marching up to an invisible door with a huff and depressing the doorbell rapidly.
"Now, the guy inside is getting really ticked at the salesman, because he's been out there pressing the doorbell for so long, you know? Well, eventually the doorbell stops going off, and the guy thinks the salesman finally gave up." Beast Boy acted like he had a headache, clutching his head as he spoke, and finally heaved a huge silent sigh of relief.
"Thing is," Beast Boy continued with a fire burning in his eyes that made the different shades of green clash together and spark like heated iron struck with a hammer, "the salesman didn't go away. He didn't give up. See… the salesman stopped pressing the doorbell and started hammering on the door with his knuckles. And we're talking seriously loud noise and it just wouldn't stop." Beast Boy paused for emphasis as he acted out the latest part of his tale.
"Eventually, the guy gets off from the couch and marches over to the door. And he's mad now, seriously PO'd. He throws open the door and scowls at the salesman, but before he can give the guy a piece of his mind, the salesman just smiles sweetly and says knock knock." Beast Boy grinned wickedly, something Terra noticed he did when they were nearing a punch line.
"The guy's really taken by surprise and he responds who's there?, 'cause he's feeling like his legs have just been severed at the knees. The salesman replies Eva and the guy's really confused now: he's talking to a guy who just introduced himself as Eva. Still feeling a little out of it, the guy asks Eva who? And the salesman," Beast Boy paused to pull in a soft peel of laughter, "the salesman just says, Eva you're deaf or your doorbell isn't working."
Beast Boy collapsed as he finished the story and just laughed, a high-pitched mirthful sound that echoed around the room. Terra was so caught up in the story, in the atmosphere… in Beast Boy… that she couldn't contain her own laugher as she played the anticlimactic scene over and over in her head. It was funny. In a sad sort of way.
"Are you seriously still telling knock knock jokes, man?" Cyborg asked with a sigh as he finished the dishes and turned off the sink, leaving himself open to Beast Boy's jokes. The robust automaton walked out of the kitchen alcove and crossed his arms across his chest-plate. Terra and Beast Boy continued to laugh, oblivious to his presence. Well, as long as Beast Boy wasn't actually telling a joke…
The laughter died slowly and was replaced by fragmented chortling and desperate gasps for air. Terra wiped a stray tear from her face and smiled broadly at Beast Boy, who had just pulled himself into a sitting position, sucking in a rattling breath. Beast Boy caught the look Terra was giving him and returned the warm gesture.
"Right, so there's this crazy old woman who lives alone in the country with her cats…" Terra frowned as Cyborg broke into the story, preventing Beast Boy from completing it. That had sounded like an interesting one. Raven glanced over the top of her book, took in what everyone was doing and carefully removed her earplugs, knowing that the worst of it was over.
"B, why don't you give it a rest?" Cyborg suggested slowly. Terra could see her metallic teammate, her new friend, struggling to come up with a valid reason for Beast Boy to stop, and she decided that this could be just as entertaining as Beast Boy's stories. Beast Boy cocked his head to the side, his features still contorted to resemble a crazy old cat lady.
"I have a suggestion," Starfire spoke up and saved Cyborg from his verbal grave digging. "It would be most enjoyable if we were all to partake in a stay-home movie night." Beast Boy perked up immediately.
"Definitely!" Beast Boy cried as he jumped onto the back of the couch and miraculously kept the furniture he was perched on from toppling over. Terra was briefly forced to wonder if Cyborg had bolted the couch to the floor. It was either that or Beast Boy could defy gravity. "We so need a movie night – it's been weeks since the last one."
"Seven weeks and three days," Raven supplied tonelessly. Terra couldn't tell if Raven was just being helpful or if the empath dreaded the events so much that she kept track of them. It was probably just the first. Even Raven couldn't dislike bonding over a movie.
"Right…" Beast Boy chuckled nervously. Terra lifted an eyebrow at the changeling but he shook his head quickly. She was going to need to ask him about it later. Obviously, something had happened during the Titan's last movie night. "Well, horror is out – anybody else have a suggestion?" Terra wondered briefly why horror would be out before chiming in for a comedy. Beast Boy seconded. Robin, still a little asleep, threw out a vote for action, which Raven seconded. Starfire was alone in requesting a romance, and Cyborg was similarly alone in a request for sci-fi.
"Alright," Cyborg declared once the votes had all been cast. "We have a tie between comedy and action. Now, everybody, vote again." Terra, Beast Boy, Robin, and Raven all kept their previous votes. Starfire switched hers to whatever Robin had voted for (something not entirely unexpected) and Cyborg went with action as well. The end result was comedy two and action four.
"Okay," Beast Boy said, a little deflated but recovering quickly. "We have Ninja Showdown VII, Jump, Brood War, and Apollo's Master." The youngest Titan pulled open a drawer under the television and plucked the movies out of a large selection of videos. Small labels written in Starfire's calligraphic handwriting were stuck in the drawer, dividing the movies by genre.
"What about all of those?" Raven asked dryly as she sunk into her reading spot, gesturing at the rest of the sizable action section.
"Boring," Beast Boy responded airily, sliding the drawer back into place and throwing himself at the couch, nestling into the cushion.
Terra noticed everyone else sitting down on the couch and quickly discovered why – there was enough room on the couch for five people if everybody was squeezed in. With six Titans in the room, somebody was going to be out a seat. Terra moved too slowly. Beast Boy glanced at Terra, standing awkwardly off to the side, and then he looked down the couch, seeing all his friends squeezed in tightly. He shoved into Cyborg, trying to make room. Cyborg simply shoved back, crushing Beast Boy against the couch's arm.
Beast Boy extracted himself, waving his whole arm grandly at the vacated seat. Terra looked at him, a silent question in her eyes. Apparently, she got her answer, because Terra slipped into the vacated seat, leaving Beast Boy standing. If the seating arrangement bothered him, Beast Boy ignored it.
"Okay. So, what'll it be?" Beast Boy spread the movies out on the floor, arranging them like something at a grand exhibit on opening day.
"Jump," Cyborg spoke up instantly. Raven shrugged once; she didn't care. When no one raised objections to the movie, Beast Boy slipped the tape into the VCR. The machine whirred to life sluggishly, and Robin brought the screen to life. The movie started in the middle. Robin stopped the tape and hit rewind, all the while giving Beast Boy a look halfway between exasperation and amusement.
"My bad," Beast Boy chuckled as the tape started to rewind. He'd forgotten that he hadn't rewound the last time he watched the movie. "Does anybody want anything?"
Every single head turned in Beast Boy's direction.
"Well, I'm already up, right?" Beast Boy supplied. Terra could tell that Beast Boy wasn't just being helpful. There was something else going on. "Popcorn? Soda? Mustard?" Beast Boy rattled off, as if maybe they hadn't been able to understand his offer.
"Thanks, Beast Boy," Robin said slowly. "If you could, I'd like a soda. It's just a little surprising, that's all."
"What's surprising?" Beast Boy asked casually as he headed for the refrigerator, pulling open the door and giving a marinating steak a wide berth.
"You've never offered before," Raven said. Terra was taken aback by the directness, the bluntness, the veiled rudeness, until she remembered that it was Raven. Raven was just like that. Beast Boy shrugged off the statement – really more of an accusation – as if Raven had done nothing more than comment on the weather. Terra decided that he needed to teach her how to do that.
"First time for everything," the changeling responded, almost cheekily. "Anyone else?" As he spoke, a can of soda flew over the couch. Robin caught it easily, waiting for the drink to settle before opening it.
"Soda, B, and make it snappy," Cyborg called. The next soda can bounced off the back of Cyborg's head. Beast Boy was unexpectedly helpful as the movie rewound. Popcorn, soda, candy, whatever it was they wanted, Beast Boy eagerly retrieved it. Terra grabbed a handful of microwave popcorn and settled into her seat.
The movie played for about an hour before Terra discovered the real motive behind Beast Boy's helpfulness. After going through multiple sodas, Cyborg excused himself to use the bathroom. Beast Boy stole the vacated spot as soon as the doors closed behind his friend. Terra couldn't help but giggle. When Cyborg returned, he glared at Beast Boy before deciding to wait for someone else to fall into the trap Beast Boy had set. It didn't take long for Robin to excuse himself.
The whole scene tickled Terra, though she was hard-pressed to really understand why. It just felt good, natural, fun. She had friends. That thought made Terra truly comfortable. For the first time in a long while, Terra knew she had a home and people whom she could count on. That made all the difference in the world to her. Terra could feel herself getting sleepy – she'd exerted herself keeping the tower from being destroyed and was only now feeling the effects.
The petite blond was already tired: the clock was closing quickly in on midnight. But there was another layer of exhaustion beneath the surface. Terra didn't feel tired so much as she felt thin, stretched, depleted. She felt like whatever energy she had, whatever reserves she kept, just in case, had been burned, and she was functioning purely from muscle memory, losing herself in a sea of indistinction and vagueness.
Without really thinking about it, Terra curled to her side, taking comfort from the warmth she was leaning into. Terra was beyond thought, beyond enjoying the blood and gore spilling onto the television screen. She was just glad that it was so warm. The geokinetic girl took comfort from the warmth near her, snuggling deep into it and allowing her head to fall forward.
Beast Boy sat, frozen. Terra had started by just leaning against him, but slowly, as the minutes passed, she had gotten closer and closer, taking up his personal space while making it impossible for him to care. After all, an attractive girl currently had her head on his arm, resting gently on his bicep, and her arms snaked around his waist. It would have been hard to complain.
Terra nestled fully into sleep, enjoying the warmth washing over her as it whispered promises of protection and happiness. Always giving promises – promises it couldn't keep. But it was impossible for Terra to tell that, impossible to tell that the promises would be broken. It felt right. She felt safe. She had friends.
For now...