A/N: In the meantime as I work on bigger updates, have a small bit of fluff to tide you over!
"I can tell it's getting to you."
Victor Stone. Resident biotic. Champion of technology, and most recently, self-proclaimed best player of Mega Monkeys Mach 3 — although, not if the changeling's personal high score had anything to say about it.
Good thing Garfield wasn't in the mood to argue. Instead, he dropped the controller in his lap and sighed. "As if. Best two out of three." Despite his words, his attitude was half-hearted.
Victor was doing that thing where he grinned to the point his eyes twinkled because he knew something Beast Boy didn't know, and he was about to gloat about it. Or maybe he just wanted to rub in the fact he'd kicked his butt for the fifth time in a row.
"First of all, you said that several matches ago, and second of all, you damn well know I wasn't talking about the game."
Garfield cast him a sidelong look. "Oh yeah?" he feigned interest.
"Yeah."
A brief pause as Garfield contemplated this recent development and made a small mental addendum; Cyborg, the psychic.
"You do know she only calls you that because she likes you, right?"
The green shapeshifter groaned audibly and rolled his eyes almost to the back of his skull. "I didn't realize we were still in grade school. If she had pigtails, I'd pull them."
Cyborg chuckled. "That's if you liked her back."
Beast Boy felt the tips of his ears go hot despite himself. "Don't be a smartass," he scoffed, trying to ignore the heat blooming in his face. "Let's play another match already!"
"You have to understand, B. Rae's got the emotional spectrum of a preteen at best," Cyborg pressed, blatantly ignoring the changeling's request.
"I'm telling her you said that." Even the threat he made was empty. Beast Boy smashed the buttons on his controller in a vain effort to prompt Victor to join him in the next match.
It didn't work, obviously.
"When are you gonna just admit it?"
"Are we still talking about this?"
"What are we talking about?" A third voice then entered the fray — very notably female, and very void of actual emotion. Beast Boy, for some inexplicable reason he couldn't care to explore, felt the fine hairs on his neck suddenly stand on end. He was frozen in place, like he'd been caught saying something he shouldn't have. His eyes were wide and his jaw clenched, but he didn't dare move a muscle.
Raven had finished preparing her tea in the kitchen and was just now rejoining them in the common room, a book tucked beneath the crook of her arm as she meandered over to her usual spot on the sofa. She took a tentative sip at the steaming beverage in her ceramic mug before placing it gingerly on the coffee table.
"We were talkin' about how bad Beast Boy is at videogames," Cyborg replied with a snigger. He seemed to have caught Garfield sputtering for a response and spoke up before the empath could grow suspicious.
Raven then raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Salad head is pretty bad at a lot of things," she noted, eyeing the shapeshifter with a small smirk.
That earned her a scathing glare from Beast Boy, his head snapping immediately in her direction. The atmosphere had changed, as had his recently temperamental mood. He appraised her intensely, a low growl emanating from his throat. The sound was like a steady hum, slowly growing in resonance and volume. Raven didn't seem to pick up on any of this initially, having promptly tucked her legs beneath her, and cracking open her worn-in novel.
"Why the hell do you keep calling me that?!" Beast Boy finally snapped.
His outburst was unexpected by both his teammates, and the higher pitch of his voice seemed to catch them off guard. Cyborg grimaced while Raven relented and gave Beast Boy her attention, although her expression remained a blank slate.
"What? Salad head?" She smirked. "I would think it was pretty self explanatory."
Beast Boy clenched his teeth and glowered at her, but Raven was only amused by his annoyance. She tapped her chin in thought, a slender and pale finger resting on the sharp point. "Your hair looks like a bowl of lettuce, and you're also a vegetarian. It's extremely fitting."
Cyborg had to stifle a laugh and thus earned himself a sneer from Beast Boy. After the other male Titan muffled the sound and tried to appear complacent, Garfield returned his attention to the oblivious empath. "I don't need you to break it down for me, Rae! Everyone gets it! Ha ha! So funny! Why don't you have clever nicknames for anyone else, though, huh?"
"I do," Raven answered nonchalantly. "Boy blunder is a personal favourite, but Robin doesn't get as worked up about it as you do."
Garfield gnashed his teeth together in frustration and tried not to scream. "I do not get worked up! It's just annoying every time you say it! It's a stupid name, and my hair so does not look like lettuce!"
Raven giggled behind her hand, and it nearly sent Beast Boy into shock. It was a brief glimmer at the girl behind the mask, but the laughter seemed to light up the amethyst undertones of her eyes, making them sparkle in the light. There was a faint rosy tint to her pale cheeks, and for yet another reason Beast Boy didn't care to think on, his face felt hot and his heart thumped in his chest.
'You do know she only calls you that because she likes you, right?' Cyborg's words echoed in his mind, and Garfield tried to shoo them away with a shake of his head.
Victor Stone...matchmaker?
"It kind of does," Raven commented, eyeing his mop of unruly emerald waves, and drawing him away from a more dangerous line of thinking. "Isn't that right, Cyborg?"
Victor shook his head and raised his hands in defense. "Nuh-uh, no way I'm getting dragged into this. You two gotta work it out yourselves."
"There isn't anything to work out," Raven informed him with a shrug.
"Yes, there is!" argued Beast Boy. "How would you like being called a name?!"
"Like what?" she challenged back, folding her arms over her chest. Raven pursed her bottom lip, and there was a new hardness to her expression that indicated she'd like to see him try.
Her invitation caught Garfield off guard, and he blinked a few times in surprise while he quickly rummaged his head for an adequate response. Naturally, he was always bad at thinking fast while being put on the spot. "Like...like, uh...like...grape head!" He nodded once, proud of himself. "Yeah, you're a grape head, Rae. A big, mean, purple grape!"
There was a tense moment of awkward silence in conversation, where the only thing heard was the faint background music of the videogame on pause. Cyborg's jaw had dropped, and he stared between the two of his teammates like he was unsure of what was going to happen next. Raven remained passive, staring at Beast Boy like she was still in the process of deciphering what he'd said, while Garfield stared her down fearlessly, a smug look on his face. It was anyone's guess what the empath's reaction would be to the situation, and Cyborg wasn't prepared for any of it. Would her feelings be hurt? Would she run away, upset, and lock herself in her room? Would she take out her anger on Beast Boy? Or would she come up with a worse insult for the changeling? Either way, Garfield himself didn't look all too bothered; in his mind, it was a victory to finally have the one-up on his female teammate.
Until Raven snorted.
His smile fell immediately, all the while Raven laughed aloud, clutching her stomach from the fit of hysteria that had uncharacteristically consumed her. Beast Boy's ears drooped, while Cyborg studied her for any signs of possible possession or other strange phenomena the demoness was notorious for. The sound of her laughter, rich and lovely, seemed to echo throughout the room, and it went on for at least a full minute. By the time she was able to stabilize her emotions, her eyes were shiny with tears.
"That was...horrible, even for you," she told Beast Boy with a cheeky smile, once she'd recovered enough from her fit.
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "You...you thought that was funny?" He leaned in to examine her, suspicious. "Are your emoticlones out of whack again, Rae?"
"No." She flicked his nose with her finger lightly, tucking her chin away into her cloak when she deemed him too close for comfort. She was also avoiding his eyes. Beast Boy blinked and rubbed at the tip of his nose, now itchy from her attack. "Hey! What's your problem, grape head?" This time, he couldn't help the half-smile that betrayed him; it was a pretty silly insult. "Get it?" He nudged Cyborg. "It's because her hair is purple, and she likes grapes."
She cleared her throat, regaining her familiar, passive composure after her outburst. "First of all, it's violet, so if anything, it'd be blueberry head,and blue is my favourite color. Second of all, who doesn't like grapes?" Raven informed him casually.
Cyborg sighed deeply, rubbing his temples with his mechanical digits. "You two are such a lost cause."
"People like salad, too!" Beast Boy ignored his best friend.
Raven rolled her eyes. "No one likes salad, Beast Boy."
He pouted. "Are you saying...no one likes me?"
"Grapes are pretty good in a fruit salad, you know, and everyone likes fruit salad." Raven changed the subject, returning to her opened book in her lap. Her hair fell forward like a violet curtain, obscuring most of her face, save for the tip of her sloped nose, the curve of her pale cheek, and the pucker of her lips.
"Wait...what?" Beast Boy sputtered, confused. "That...doesn't answer my question. Rae?!"
"That's grape head to you, salad boy," Raven corrected him without glancing up from the text. "Although, if you're going to insult me, do better next time."
Cyborg chuckled, shaking his head. He then leaned in and whispered into a dazed Beast Boy's ear, "Told you she likes you."
~FIN