The Saltwater Room
Summary: Just a little BBxRae fluff inspired by the song by Owl City. I amicably suggest you learn the words first and listen to it while you read so you can at least see where I'm coming from. It's one of my favorite songs of all time!
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There is nothing. Nothing but the peaceful darkness on the inside of his eyelids when he closes his eyes and leaves this world. Nothing but the sweet tingling sensation on his fingertips as he strums and moves his hands across his instrument. Nothing but the melodious euphoria flowing into his ears and resounding throughout the room. Nothing but the calm of the early morning before dawn as he sits cross-legged on his bunk bed playing his acoustic guitar with a serene smile resting on his face; and, just as he believse he's transcended, a disturbance comes along in the form of some shadow passing by his open window and disrupting his moonlight glow.
"What was that?" the Tower's resident shape-shifted asked himself aloud. He moves to his window and pokes his head out, guitar still in hand, and all he sees is a billowing cloth that almost just turned the corner. Intruigued, he forgets he's still carrying his instrument and jumps out the window. About halfway through his descent, he changes into a pterodactyl and his feet catch his guitar. He flies around to the side of the tower he saw the shadow and quickly changes back and ducks behind some rocks, spotting whoever this black silhouette was staring at the stars that had vanished long ago. A hand appeared from the darkness of the cloak and became encased in a familiar black glow.
"Raven?" Beast Boy stood and the figure jumped. The hood fell and revealed a pale complection and two wide violet eyes.
"Beast Boy? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing!" he returned her questioning stare.
"I asked you first!" he sensed her getting defensive.
"Alright, fair enough. I was following this shadow I saw outsde my window, which turned out to be you. Which leads us back to my question."
"What were you doing awake?"
"Hey! Answer my question first!"
She sighed. "Fine. I come out here almost every morning."
"Why?"
"I can hardly see how that's any of your business." she replied coldly. He seemed slightly taken aback- hurt even, and she immeditely regretted it.
"Sorry..." she didn't want to hurt him. She never did. He was annoying, but sweet- though she hated to admit it.
"It's ok. I understand." he picked up his guitar again and turned to leave.
"Wait! What's that?" she gestures to his hand- rather, what was in it.
"Uhh a guitar."
"Yes, but why do you have it?" 'curious...' she thought.
"Well, it's mine. I play it. You know: I strum, sound comes out, all that stuff."
"I know that. I just didn't know that you did..." 'very curious...'
"Heh. Well, uhh, now you do." He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. They stood there without saying anything for a little while as Beast Boy smiled at Raven who stared in astonishment.
"Umm..." he cleared his throat, "I guess I'll go then. Night Rae." Before he could finish turning around, he felt a hand gently pull on his shoulder.
"Wait!" She turned him around "I want you to come with me somewhere."
"Really?" the wide-eyed boy held a fascinating secret. This girl, holding his hand and dragging him across the shore of the bay in the early autumn chill, held a special place in his heart. A misunderstood girl and a misunderstood boy; he knew, more than anyone else, she deserved to be loved. And, somewhere along the way of trying to get her to come out of her shell and into the world to find someone to be with, he began to picture himself as that someone, and he didn't mind that idea at all.
A wind blew when they came to a tide pool on the side of the island facing the watery horizon. If you looked straight out at it you wouldn't be able to see the Tower, the bridge or the city even out of the corners of your eyes.
"It's like were in the middle of nowhere over here..." Raven released his hand and he stepped to the edge of the pool.
"That's why I like it here. The rest of the world just disappears." she watched him as he stood there taking it all in.
"This is cool." he turned his head back to her and smiled the special smile he reserves just for her.
"This isn't all. I said I wanted you to come with me. Would you?"
"I thought this--" she shook her head and cut him off.
"There's more. Hold on to your guitar." she stepped into the tide pool and picked up a shell. She closed her eyes as she held it to her ear. He put the strap of his guitar on and stood next to her, waiting for what she would do next. He watched as she brought the shell down to waist level but kept her eyes shut. Still anxiously waiting, he stood quietly as she took in a few deep breaths and turned to face him.
"Do you trust me?" she held her hand out to him.
Despite the questioning expression, he answered as if it as the easiest thing to do in the world.
"Yes." and as soon as his hand was in hers, the world around them began to swirl (yes, literally) and change.
Once his head stopped spinning he found himself in one of the subway sations under Jump City. People passed the pair with hardly a glance and Beast Boy became even more puzzled.
"What are we doing here?" he asked Raven, who was looking around, satisfied everything was perfect and just how she had left it. Her gaze rested on him and she inwardly laughed at his confusion.
"Just follow me, and don't get lost."
Her hand dropped out of his and he became sad, but did as told and followed her, pushing through the crowds of people. They stopped at what appeared to be a utility closet and Raven pulled a key from somewhere in her cloak. The door was opened and the light switch flicked upwards, revealing a well-kept keyboard and it's stand, gingerly leaning against the left wall. Beast Boy stepped to the side so Raven could carry out the stand and, being always the gentleman, he carefully carried out the keyboard for her, guitar still on his back.
The poor changeling had so many questions, but let her be mysterious as long as she wished. They sauntered over to a spacious and surprisingly empty corner of the station where dozens of people just continued by as the two teens set up their instruments. Raven took her place behind the small electrical piano and gave a small smile to the shifter sitting on the floor next to her with his acoustic on his lap.
"Now what?" he asked, basically aware of the answer.
"Play something." she watched expectantly.
"Umm... Alright? Like what?"
"Like what you've been playin in your room every dawn."
"You could hear?" 'Oh, geez, how embarrassing!'
"You're not the only insomniac you know. And the Tower has unusually thin walls." Beast Boy pouted slightly--
"Of course I thought it was the radio or something, it was so good."
--and then he brightened back up. (bipolar much, BB?)
"Really?" she smiled and nodded, and he knew she was being honest. He began to strum again, and caught a few people's attention. After a few seconds, Raven joined in with a high pitched, but beautiful accompanyment. A small crowd began to gather while they played the sweet melody.
They just improvised a while, but it sounded so natural for them to be a duet. Their harmony just was, period. It happened because of some deeper connection, and they were not fools; they sensed it.
At around five in the morning, they decided to call it a day. They packed up and flew home to their respective beds for an expected 3 hours of unconciousness.
A glorious surprise met them in the morning, however, when no monsters felt like threatening the city.
They both rose once the sun was highest in the clear blue sky.
They proceeded with each of their morning rituals and greeted their teammates in the kitchen.
Hours passed and the sun continued to creep toward the horizon and Raven and Beast Boy found themselves alone in the common room.
"So..." it's obvious who broke the silence. "Last night was--"
"Fun." The supposedly meditating sorceress interrupted.
"You had fun too? With me? Miss 'leave me alone, I don't do fun' had a good time, with me!" he beamed.
"Come on, I'm not that bad, am I?" thought she showed no emotion in the question, he could tell she was genuinely concerned about the answer, and was aware he had to reply honestly.
"Never." he saw the corner of her mouth threaten to curl up and felt some sense of pride.
"Well, I don't see why we can't do that again sometime."
"Great! In that case, we should work on our music."
"Sounds good. I'll get my keyboard."
"And I'll go get Savannah!"
They had both stood before Raven realized what he said. "Savannah?"
He grinned. "That's her name."
A contemplative pause..."It suits you both."
He nodded briefly and dashes off to his bedroom to return with his 'baby.'
Minutes later, they were both set up neatly by the huge window in the common room staring thoughtfully at their instruments.
"Umm... Do you remember what we did yesterday?" Beast Boy asked sheepishly.
"Honestly, I don't..." she brought her slender fingers up to rest on the keys, willing the music back to her memory.
She heard a few chords being strung next to her and looked at Beast Boy's concentrated face. He tried chord after chord searching for something he thought sounded like the masterpiece they had almost created the night before.
"Wait!" he jumped at the sudden sound of Raven's voice but collected himself and looked up at her questioningly.
"Play that last one again."
He obliged and strummed softly.
"No, no. Before that."
His fingers glided smoothly up the neck and he played again.
"Yes, that one. Now play each note one at a time."
He wasn't sure where she was going, but trusted that she had started to remember.
*pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck!*
A range of ascending notes rang from the acoustic, and suddenly, he remembered!
He lowered his hand to where he thought the next sequence was and played another soft string of notes.
*pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck!*
"That's it!" they cried in unison.
Raven reset herself on her keyboard and waited to cue in. Three notes, repeat, repeat, and a neat little rift at the end.
They smiled at each other.
"Do you have any sheet music?"
"Oh, yeah!" Beast Boy sprang up and grabbed his book of blank scored sheets from off the coffee table.
"Quick, write this down!" her voice was excited even though there was a mere Mona Lisa smile on her lips.
A/N: Well, there's part one! I realize you'll probably have listened to Saltwater room about twenty times before you finished reading that, but hey,
Who says that's a bad thing? :D
Anywayyy… I hope you liked it, and Ill try and put up the next part soon!
Oh yeah, you know what'll make me post up EVEN FASTER?
REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS! I LOVE THEM AND THEY INSPIRE ME TO WRITE MORE! DOOOOOO IT!
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…
Please? :]