RH- Stupid plot bunnies! DIEEEEE!
Readers- (Twitch)
Plot bunny- Ransomed Heart doesn't own Teen Titans (is smashed by angry authoress)

Phoenix Ashes by Ransomed Heart

"He has not come out for three days," Starfire noted, casting yet another glance down the corridor that led to the room of Beastboy. "Perhaps we should approach his door and see if he wishes to speak of his troubles?"

"You mean see if he wants to talk about it?" Robin shook his head. "I don't think so, Star. Let's leave Beastboy alone for a little while longer. He'll come out when he's ready."

"The little dude's nursing a broken heart. Even we can't heal that," Cyborg added from behind them where he and Raven were walking.

"Surely we could try," insisted the Tamaranian girl stubbornly. "Could we not simply glue the heart back together again?"

"All the King's horses and all the King's men," Robin murmured. "It's just not that simple, Starfire. When your heart gets broken, only time can fix it. And you have to want it to be fixed. If you can't help yourself then you will never get better."

He and Cyborg pushed Starfire off down the hallway. Raven lagged behind, staring down into the darkened hall towards the closed door that concealed Beastboy. Her violet eyes took on a determined look, and she speed-walked back to her own room to retrieve a well-worn book from one of her shelves before returning to the door of her broken-hearted comrade.

Raising a steady arm, Raven rapped softly on the door.

"Go away," came the muffled reply from within.

"I want to speak with you," she said in an even voice.

"I don't want to talk about it!"

"You're going to have to eventually."

There was a momentary pause, and then the door slid open.

"You don't look so good," she noted wryly.

Beastboy's hair was awry, and his eyes were red and puffy with large dark circles under them. Her comment procured a slight smirk from the green boy's face.

"Yeah, I guess I don't," he said sheepishly, scratching behind his head with one hand.

"We're all worried about you." Raven stressed the world all.

Beastboy hung his head. "I'm not really the one we should be worried about, am I?" The question was rhetorical, and Raven didn't answer.

Beastboy stepped aside to let Raven in. She stepped over a pile of clothes on the floor and took a seat on his semi-cleared-off bed, patting the space next to her as an indication that he should do likewise. Beastboy obliged with no verbal objections, but Raven could only imagine that sitting in such close proximity to her made him substantially more uncomfortable.

"What am I doing," he asked her, putting his face in his hands. "How can I be so selfish? How can I sit her and mope about while Terra is...."

"We're doing everything we can to find a cure for her," Raven reassured him.

"That's just it! You're all helping, and I'm too busy crying to do anything!"

"Well you certainly can't do anything like this," Raven snapped back. "We don't need your help if all you can do is cry!"

Beastboy didn't respond, and the dark maid realized how cruel that had sounded. She sighed and tried again. "Look, I didn't mean that the way it-"

"Yes you did," Beastboy interrupted. "I needed to hear it though."

Raven stared at him through calculating eyes. "Maybe you did, but it still didn't come out how I wanted it to. I came here to help you, not make you feel worse."

Raven opened the book and flipped through it until she found what she was looking for. She placed the book in Beastboy's lap.

"I brought this for you to read," she said as gently as she could.

He blinked through tear-blurred eyes at the page. "The legend of the Phoenix?"

Raven nodded. "Yes. A phoenix is a mythical bird that dies by fire but is reborn out of the ashes."

Beastboy met her gaze, puzzled. "I don't understand...."

"The phoenix raises itself up from the ashes of it's former self. Through it's darkest hour comes it's greatest strength, the strength to live again. Can you do the same? Can you lift yourself up off of the floor and live again after your darkest hour? Through betrayal and tragedy, can you be reborn from the ashes?"

Raven sighed. "I don't expect you to understand now. Just...think about it."

She rose and went to the door. It glided open for her, but Raven paused in the doorway.

"If you ever need to talk, you can always come to me," she said slowly. "We all just want you to be okay again. It's not the same without you around making a mess of things all the time."

She wasn't facing him to see it, but Beastboy smiled at her back, his first smile in days. "I'll....I'll be down for dinner, okay? Tell Cyborg to make some tofu for me?"

Raven nodded. "Of course. I'll see you at dinner."

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Well, so dies another plot bunny. Those things have got to be an endangered species by now...