I'm dedicating this story to ominous, who so nicely drew the cover of my story Dies Irae. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this!
Before you start reading, there's something I have to say: this story is based-off an idea from ominous, so I wrote it, but the original idea was hers.
I have nothing else to say. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans (though I wish I owned Silkie... but I couldn't since my cat would probably eat him).
Green is not my color
It was a cold January day in Jump City. Wind blew endlessly, bringing a chill that penetrated the bones of those foolhardy enough to step outside, which, on a Sunday night, consisted of some workers with night shift, criminals, villains... and the Teen Titans.
This time, it was Mumbo Jumbo. He was running fast with a plastic bag full of money, shaking his wand and turning alive traffic lights, making ATM machines spit money that the villain swiftly collected, throwing the trashcans' contents into our poor heroes' faces, turning post boxes into professional wrestlers... This distracted the heroes, but in the end it didn't stop them. With the accuracy of a professional sniper, Starfire threw one of her starbolts right at Mumbo's wand, immediately destroying it and making the whole city, including the old villain, go back to normal.
It was a quick victory, and soon Mumbo was handed to the police. Robin couldn't help but wonder when they would be facing him again. Even low-tier villains like him were too much for the Jump City police to handle. But then again, once he escaped, he'd have the Titans against him once more. It was some sort of urban circle of life: villains committed crimes, heroes fought and defeated them, then handed them to the police who took the cities' foes to jail so they could escape and start it all, all over again.
The Boy Wonder's thoughts were interrumpted by Cyborg's shouting about how cold it was and how he wanted to go back to the tower. He immediately got to the T- car (the situation didn't require his motorcycle) and after a short routine patrol they got home.
"Guys!" Beast Boy enthusiastically exclaimed as soon as they got into the tower. "Tomorrow I'm painting my room's walls! Who wants to be nice and help?"
Silence ensued. The remaining four stared into each other, as if passing an invisible time bomb. No one really wanted to enter the changeling's room, due to five years of green laziness that resulted in an ocean of dirt. Then, Starfire eyed Robin and discretely pointed to his right with her head. Her boyfriend did the same with Cyborg, who nodded.
"Raven will do that" they said in unison.
"What-" she mumbled in her monotone.
"Good night guys!" the three cheaters said while hurriedly heading to their respective rooms.
The Azarathean couldn't believe her eyes. Her own friends had betrayed her and sold her to the person she despised the most! Well... technically that wasn't true. That was the official thing. She had a reputation to keep, she couldn't let people see the fluff within her, that would be unbearable! Plus, she didn't want to be fooled and deceived again... not that he'd do that to her, but in the impossible case that they started dating he'd soon realize that they weren't meant to be, and he'd dump her. So it was easier to pretend she disliked his childish and bubbly manners and that there was nothing she hated more than having to spend a whole day with him.
"This is so sweet! Thanks, Rae, I owe you one!"
She slowly turned, ready for a bitter remark, when he quickly reached her and pecked her cheek.
The poor girl could barely sleep that night.
The next day, everything was normal. Robin read the newspaper, Starfire prepared some Tamaranean breakfast and fed Silkie with the remains, Cyborg and Beast Boy played video games, and Raven quietly drank her herbal tea. She looked calm on the outside, as usual, but her mind was a battlefield.
"He kissed us! Raven, this is our chance! I'm sure Beast Boy loves us back"
"No! What if he doesn't like us? He'd hate us forever for even trying!"
"Have you seen how tall and muscular he has gotten? He looks so hot!"
"*Burp*"
"What if we focus on how to paint the walls in a proper way? Happy says she wants to make dinosaur drawings"
"Hey! What's your problem with dinosaur drawings?"
"I say we skip the painting and go directly to making out with him! We could always wrestle our way to him if he's reticent!"
"RAGE SHALL CONSUME YOU!"
"SHUT UP!"
Suddenly, all eyes were on Raven, not that she could blame her friends; she had screamed like a psychopath. She quickly went on escape mode and mumbled that she'd be meditating in her room. One of the Titans groaned in response.
"What is it now? She was supposed to help me paint the walls in my room!"
"Relax, Beast Boy. She probably needs to meditate, so you shouldn't bother her right now" Robin replied. Then he paused for a moment. "Cyborg can help you with the painting" he finished with the tiniest of smirks.
"SAY WHAT?"
Meanwhile, in Nevermore...
"Great! Just great! You couldn't just dialogue like civilized emotions, nooo, you had to burst out and bark at each other to make me freak everyone out! I really hope you're happy, because that everyone includes Beast Boy!"
All of Raven's emotions were listening to her speech. Even Rage was a bit intimidated by the sorceress' temper. The only one who stood her ground was Brave.
"What's with you, Raven? If we're behaving this way it's because of you! That kiss got you so nervous that you skipped your morning meditation!" She stared at her master defiantly before continuing. "Have you forgotten that meditating keeps us calm? My, of course you have, you only meditate to suppress us! You do it so you don't have to hear us!"
The rest of the emotions cheered Brave's intervention. Rude even booed Raven.
"So we won't behave anymore! We'll keep on bugging you and making you meditate non-stop until you're true to us!"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Raven asked, her hand on her forehead and a look of defeat on her face. Brave was right, suppressing them only made things worse; she wouldn't be able to control them that way.
"We want you to be more open about us and let us express ourselves" the green clad emotion explained. "In exchange, we..." she went up to Rage, who immediately started to growl at her, to no avail, since she made some judo hold and immobilized her. "...keep Ragey under control. Deal?"
"Can you even do that?" Raven inquired, starting to feel exhasperated.
The pink emotion stepped foreward.
"Brave is so strong because you're always brave. Rage is so terrible because you get mad too easily"
Love went to Happy's side and nodded.
"And if you tell Beast Boy about your true feelings for him, you will always be happy... and both of us will be invincible"
"You have to be kidding me!" Raven shouted. "How is that supposed to work? He doesn't even like me!"
"I used to think that way..."
All emotions moved to the sides to reveal Timid.
"I won't lie to you, Raven. This scares me as much as it scares you. But not being with him, losing him to some other girl... it scares me even more"
"So you all agree that I should tell him how I feel?"
Everyone in Nevermore nodded their hooded heads.
"And I didn't even have to intimidate her... too much!" Brave exclaimed, cheering Timid.
Raven sighed in defeat.
"Fine... I guess I'm helping him paint the walls, after all..." she answered. "Look, there is no guarantee that this is going to work. I'm just doing it to keep you under control, alright?"
"Whatever, Missie" Love giggled.
As she went back to her room, she could hear Happy shouting something about green dinosaurs.
Once she was back, Raven started meditating, just to calm herself down for what was to come.
In Beast Boy's room...
Beast Boy sighed, laying on the top bunk of his bed. He had discretely gotten out of the common room while Robin and Cyborg argued over who would stuck with helping him paint the walls of his room. He didn't mind that much that they didn't dare stepping into his Chaos Realm. No, that wasn't the reason why he was feeling down.
It was Raven.
It wasn't new. He was used to being sad because of her. He never seemed to do anything right; he'd always end up putting his foot on his mouth, making her angry. This time he didn't even have time to blow it, and she was already locked up inside her room. The worst thing was to be worried about her, but not being able to help her. As the Boy Wonder had pointed out, she'd be even madder if he dared making a move to get her out of her dark bunker.
The changeling turned so he was facing the wall. He didn't feel like doing anything, so he tried to sleep. Maybe he'd feel better after a nap.
Then he heard the knocks on the door.
"Sorry, guys, no painting today. I'm feeling lazy" he half-heartedly said.
"So you ask for help in doing something useful only to dump it and procrastinate?" a feminine voice replied from behind the door, sarcasm filling her voice.
As soon as the voice's owner said this, Beast Boy jolted up of his bed and cranked his door open, only a little, so his face would be the only thing his visitant could see.
"Rae! I thought you weren't coming out of your room!" he exclaimed, not bothering to hide the excitement in his voice.
"I just forgot to meditate this morning... you already know them, if I'm not careful they'll cause mayhem"
"Yeah, I can actually imagine that" he chuckled softly. "If you excuse me, I'll get everything ready in a minute!"
The boy then closed the door. Raven could hear him rummaging through his room, doing something she couldn't quite tell. Then he suddenly opened the door and ran away with a giant ball of dirt. The empath shuddered from the stink. He quickly came back with a bottle of febreze and entered his room again. After a while, he finally opened up.
"Come on in!"
Raven gasped.
She had never seen Beast Boy's room that tidy before. Actually, she had never seen his room anything near tidy. And clean. He had even sprayed some perfume so the former stink wasn't noticeable. All the furniture in his room had been moved to the center of the place, so it would be easier for them to paint the walls. He took one paint can and opened it, then, he gave Raven one paintbrush and he took the other one.
The violet-colored teen dampened the brush in the paint, noticing its color.
"Why is it not green?" she asked.
"Why should it?"
"I always figured it was your favorite color, taking how much you brag about chicks digging the ears and the color..." she sarcastically replied.
"Well, my ego's not so big... and you can be a real jerk sometimes" he retorted.
"Sorry... that was uncalled for, I guess" she whispered. "I... didn't mean it"
Beast Boy was dumbfounded.
"Wait... you're not answering back?" He then went up to her and put his hand on her forehead, as if checking her temperature. "Are you ill or something?"
She huffed and put his hand aside. Then she paused for a moment. Could that be her chance?
"Do you remember what happened earlier with my emotions?" He nodded and she continued. "Well, they... kind of rebelled against me. They said that suppressing them would do me no good, and that they won't behave until I'm true to them"
"So that's why you apologized?" Beast Boy asked. Suddenly, his face lit. "Are you also going to start laughing at my jokes?"
Raven chuckled.
"Fat chance" she replied in her monotone. "But I'll try to show my feelings more often"
"Come on, Raven, say it already!"
"Beast Boy?" she whispered.
"Yes?"
The Azarathean paused and gulped.
"So... if green's not your favorite color, then which is it?"
The teen drenched his brush in the paint and drew a line in the wall.
"Red" he finally answered, staring into the crimson line that he had made. He was smiling warmly.
"Because it was Terra's favorite, maybe?" Raven inquired, trying her best to hide any hints of sadness from her face.
"Come on, I have more personality than that!" He jokingly replied.
"Then why?"
He looked at the line one more time before continuing. Then he took his paintbrush and resumed the painting as he answered.
"Red is the color of emotion. Raw emotion, you know? The strongest you can get to feel. I like that. It can also represent bravery and strength, that's why so many superheroes, like Speedy or Superman, wear it on their uniforms. But it's also the color of passion..." he turned and pierced Raven's eyes with his own. "...the color of love" he finished, in nothing but a whisper.
"Uh, Rae, are you okay?"
The half-demon couldn't hold his stare and her gaze was wandering through the room. Her cheeks were flushed and she was nervously fidgeting with a strand of violet hair. Beast Boy could also tell that her breathing was altered.
"I... uh... I think I should help you out with that"
"That would be nice" he replied, mocking her sarcastic tone.
"But first, there's something I'd like to tell you. It's about... red"
That's all, folks!
I hope you enjoyed this story. I especially hope ominous likes it. Also, I have something to announce: I will be restarting Crossroads as a single story. It has too many plot holes that I'm afraid I can't solve without ruining the story. So I'll be restarting it, with some changes:
- First of all, the most important thing you should know is that ALL YOUR OCS YOU SENT ME WILL BE APPEARING ON THIS STORY. I'll still take some OCs, until the new first chapter of Crossroads is published, that is. PM me to know more.
- Second, it'll be just one story. So Dies Iraewill also get restarted and Crossroads' sequel, which was going to be called Distant Worlds,will be featured in the original story and not as a sequel itself. This will mean some minor changes in respect of what I had plan, but it won't be anything too dramatic.
I think that's all for now. I will now restart Crossroads and keep up with In The Blue Dark. Be good!
Avandra.
