Hi everyone! Here is another Teen Titans fic. Enjoy! ~Orin
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
"Speaking" 'Thoughts' (Sounds)
"Ah!" Beast Boy's voice carried over the sounds of battle as he flew through the air after being hit by Cinderblock's fist. The enemy had been trying to rid himself of the constant bombardment of different animals landing on him from above and scored a lucky hit. Bracing for impact Beast Boy was pleasantly surprised to feel a familiar power surround him, plucking him safely from his downward desent. After landing safely on the ground, Beast Boy called thanks to his benefactor before racing back into the fight with Cinderblock.
After about ten more minutes of fighting, the Titans managed to subdue Cinderblock with a combination of Starfire's strength and Raven's powers. Robin was talking to the police about how to better deal with the behemouth in captivity, when Beast Boy began to consider something that occured to him admist the fighting.
'I wonder if Raven has noticed that her power doesn't feel cold anymore,' Beast Boy mused to himself as he settled in his usual seat in the T-car to wait for the others to get done with the police. 'I remember the first time she used it on me. It was cold and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Of course, a lot of people thought that morphing into animals was pretty creepy too, in a gross kind of way. I mean all of the muscles and bones stretching to form something different looked very strange when you saw it happen.'
With a mental shrug, Beast Boy let that go. Everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but he still pitied them sometimes. They would never feel the freedom of being any animal imaginable. Flying as a hawk, running as a cheetah, and all the other experiences he's had as an animal they would never experience. He could be his favorite animal when others just dreamed of it, so what if some people are creeped out by the process.
Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven joined him as he thought, occupying their seats without a word, as if not wanting to disturb whatever was silencing the green teen's usual banter. Robin joined them shortly after, irritated as he usually was after dealing with the press and the police, he opted for continuing the silence that the rest of the team had fallen into rather than vent in the confines of the T-car. He crossed his arms with an annoyed sigh, as Cyborg cranked his baby up and turned them towards home.
Beast Boy examined Raven discretely out of the corner of his eye as they drove away from their most recent battlefield, taking in her profile as she leaned tiredly against the door of the car. He turned his gaze to the front of the vehicle and stared out of the front window without really seeing what was there while he considered his teammate.
Sometimes he thought that Raven had it harder than any other super hero that he knew. Okay, so Robin had it tough having to be on the same level as meta-humans, aliens, and the like because he was a normal-ish human, but he was accepted by everyone everywhere he went. Raven, more often than not, was shied away from if not outright avoided. That's one of the reasons Beast Boy was so determined to be her friend and to help her have some fun, even if the rest of the world outside of their tower shunned her for her parentage and general creepiness. Now Beast Boy would agree with them on the creepiness part, even before he saw her room or went in her mind, but she was so much more than that.
She was smart and had a caring heart. She was strong and brave in most every situation. She was born to destroy the world, but instead she saved it. She saved the world and all of its' people who shunned her as an evil thing that they only trusted because Robin trusted her.
Sometimes stuff like that rubbed him the wrong way. How Robin was trusted so much more than any other hero he knew by the general public made him question sometimes what the rest of them were doing so wrong. Everyone he knew had saved the world at some point or another. Heck, even he had contributed a few times.
But Beast Boy knew that it wasn't entirely Robin they trusted. No, it was Batman's Robin that they trusted. Batman's protégé was to be held in high esteem after all. Not many could train under the Dark Knight and then go on and create a crime fighting team that periodically saved the city and every once in a while the world and/or universe. Beast Boy was not entirely upset for that, it often served to keep everyone off of their backs. The press never came out to the tower, paparazzi were few and far between, and the government had only bothered them once about Raven and Starfire not being American citizens. A week after that both girls had their green cards, not that anyone ever asked for them again. So Robin's influence had its high points, but Raven still deserved more than a hesitant acceptance just because Robin had chose her to be on his team.
"Beast Boy? What are you doing, sleepin' with your eyes open? Get out we're home."
Startled out of his train of thought, Beast Boy looked up at Cyborg who had opened his door for him and was waiting for the changeling to vacate his 'baby'. The rest of the team had already headed up the stairs that lead to the rest of the tower.
"Sorry," Beast Boy laughed a little. "I was thinking about something."
"Anything I need to know about," Cyborg asked easily as he leaned against the side of the T-car while Beast Boy climbed out. "You're not thinking of trying to put hair dye in Robin's shampoo again are you? 'Cause if you are I want no part of it."
"No, though seeing Robin with fire engine red hair was so worth the laps I had to do," Beast Boy smiled at the image he had stored away in his memory carefully. He wanted to remember that image for a long time. He still had the pictures hidden in his room. Blackmail was so useful to have around sometimes.
"So if it's not a prank what has you thinkin' so hard?" Cyborg peered down at his green-skinned friend.
"Raven," Beast Boy replied his expression becoming thoughtful. "Have you noticed that her powers aren't as cold as the used to be? Like when she teleports us or picks us up with them."
"Now that you've mentioned it, yeah, they don't feel as dark as they used to either." Cyborg rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "They haven't been uncomfortable to my human skin in a while."
"Why do you think that is?" Beast Boy queried. "I have been thinking about it, but I kept getting off track in my head."
"Why does that not surprise me?" Cyborg chuckled at Beast Boy's petulant glare. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but Raven's changed a lot since we all met. She doesn't have to be as cold as she used to because she has us now. Ever since Trigon she has been showing more emotion than ever before, and I for one am glad she is becoming more open with us."
"You really think it's because we are friends with her that her powers aren't sub-zero anymore?" Beast Boy asked incredulously. "It's really that simple?"
"Well think about it BB," Cyborg turned away from Beast Boy to close the door of the T-car that Beast Boy had left open. "Before us she was basically told emotions were to be controlled absolutely and that she was evil and meant only to destroy the world. Now she has saved the world, has friends, and is basically able to relax a little around people she knows aren't going to shun her because of her dad or because she's a little creepy. Wouldn't you feel a bit warmer? Especially towards the ones that accept you for what you are despite the fact that you couldn't show those people how much you care because you might blow up the house."
"You have a good point except for one thing Cy," Beast Boy said matter-of-factly. "She does show that she cares. Every time she protects us in battle and those little smiles she gets on her face when we argue over meat or tofu, when she allows Starfire to drag her to the mall, and when she was willing to face whatever Robin was when she did that mind-melding trick to see what he was seeing. I guess maybe her powers are reflection of her emotions, she does say that her powers are fueled by them, so when she uses them on us maybe she's showing us a bit of the stuff that she can't express on her own. That would explain why the powers have gotten warmer. Cause she cares about us, but I bet it's still just as cold on the bad guys!"
Cyborg chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right B, who knew you were such a deep thinker?"
"Well, what did you think my brain was for?" Beast Boy smirked.
"I think that the brain in question is still up for debate," Cyborg shot over his shoulder as he headed for the stairs leading up to the tower. "You comin'?"
"Hey, not cool, I so have a brain," Beast Boy retorted following his half robot friend up the stairs.
Then Cyborg stopped suddenly causing Beast Boy to crash into his back.
"Dude, why'd you stop?" Beast Boy asked annoyed at the sudden lack of motion.
Cyborg shifted to the side so that Beast Boy could see around him, and Beast Boy froze. Raven was sitting there, head bowed so that the shadow of her hood completely covered her face, on the step ahead of Cyborg. Beast Boy hoped she hadn't heard their discussion. The embarrassment would be absolutely unbearable.
"Uh," Beast Boy started out intelligently. "Hi Rae, whatcha doin' down here? I thought that you had gone up with the others."
Raven looked up at them calmly. "I came back down to get you two. You've been down here a while."
"We have? Well, we are coming now," Beast Boy tried to lighten the mood. "Didn't know you cared so much Rae, to worry about us after only a few minutes."
"Yes, you do," Raven responded as she smirked up at them. "I heard your discussion."
Beast Boy and Cyborg both flustered. Embarrassment coloring their faces. No one talked about Raven's powers. It was a kind of unspoken rule, so being caught just made this utterly nerve wracking.
"We didn't mean anything by it! Please don't be angry."
"We were just making an observation! Nothing bad honest!"
Both guys said at the same time.
Raven's smirk softened into a small smile. "I know, you don't have to freak out. I have realized that I've changed and it is, for the most part, thanks to being a member of this team and having all of you as friends. Thank you."
Raven looked up into the darkness behind her. "You too, Robin and Starfire. You can stop sneaking around now."
A sheepish looking Starfire and a smirking Robin emerged from the darkness.
"Raven how did you know we were there?" Starfire asked inquisitively.
"Starfire," Raven said with a small amount of warmth coloring her tone. "You use joy to fly, even if you, or Robin, never place a foot on the ground, I can still feel you hovering there."
"Oh! Of course," Starfire laughing as she blushed slightly. "How silly of me to forget your powers of empathy."
"Were you up there the whole time, too?" Beast Boy wailed throwing up his hands in frustrated embarrassment. "There is nothing sacred in this Tower!"
"Beast Boy," Raven stood and drew her cape around herself. "You live in a Tower with four other teenagers, but I have to say that you are the one who makes sure that nothing here is 'sacred', as you put it."
With a slightly evil smirk Raven continued. "By the way, if you ever touch my hair care products I will send you to another dimension, one with cannibalistic cows and carnivorous plants that are twice your size. I don't care what color you want to see my hair be."
With that, Raven created a portal and disappeared from view.
Beast Boy cowered behind Cyborg as the other three Titans laughed at his discomfort.
"Hey BB," Cyborg managed to choke out between laughs. "Can you feel the love now?"
Beast Boy looked around at his teammates, and pictured Raven smirking at him as she disappeared into her portal. There had been a teasing light in her eyes that belied her threat, not that Beast Boy was going to call her on it, but she had not been hateful in her teasing. Beast Boy smiled.
"Yep, I sure can."
Leaving his confused, still chuckling friends, in the stairwell, Beast Boy changed into a green raven and flew up the rest of the way.
She might never be publically accepted like Robin, or as easy going as Starfire or Cyborg, but she was Raven and that was more than enough. Even if she thought that threatening him life and limb was funny. Of course, it seemed the rest of his best friends seemed to agree with her, so maybe it was him, for once, that didn't get the joke.
Beast Boy transformed into himself again and walked into his room shrugging his shoulders at the thought.
'Oh well, I don't have to get it, as long as it makes Raven happy. Happy needs to get out more after all…'
How was it? By the way the last thing about "Happy", I am referring to Raven's 'Happy' persona in the episode "Nevermore", for those who didn't understand. Constructive Criticism is always welcome. Thanks for your time! ~Orin