Author's Note: Hey people! Miss me? No probably not…
Anyway, so I've decided that what I really needed to get me out of my writers block was a romantic comedy. Lost in Thought (hey – anybody remember that?) has been put on hiatus, but YES, I DO plan to get back to it at some point. I'm planning a seven-part series, and I plan to have the installment by next Sunday (I'm going on a trip). Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this, 'cause I know I enjoyed writing it.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans
Melting the Tower
Chapter one:
Cold
Freezing didn't even begin to describe what Jump City was calling its coldest winter on record. Twice Cyborg had been forced to defrost the outside of the Tower, both times he had remarked that he would rather be in hell, both times Raven had glared at him.
Oh well.
So here was Robin, sitting on the couch while drinking his morning coffee, and gazing out the window with an unmistakable look of disinterest on his face. The snow had just recently started up again, and the endless flurries seemed almost a lullaby to a sleep-deprived Robin. He had trouble remembering the last time he had had more than three hours of sleep a night…
Looking for Slade was a time-consuming task.
Anyway, Robin was drinking his coffee and tiredly keeping his eyes open when one of the greatest injustices in the history of the world took place.
The heat went off.
"BEAST BOYYYY!" the shout could be heard throughout the tower. And it made the little green changeling shiver. He hadn't meant to break the heater. But trying to make a new form of Stankball had risks… Yeah, like the others would accept that. As pounding could be heard in the stairwell of Titian's Tower, the shape-shifter decided it might be hazardous to his health for him to stay where he was.
SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange
An angry group of teenage Titans – who were already beginning to feel the effects of the cold – was gathered in the main living room of the Tower. Disgruntled and upset, it took Robin a few tries to get them all to stop mumbling under their breath.
"Alright Everyone, Beast Boy has gone into hiding, and despite our mutual desire to hunt him down – we have other things to deal with. So, Cyborg – what's the heater's status?"
Feet shuffled below Cyborg as he gave his answer to Robin's query, "Wellll… some of the parts are broken and need to be ordered… and it could take up to a week for those parts to get here…"
A massed groan could be heard from the assembled Titans. Several colorful words could be heard in the uproar, along with an aggrieved 'this is most unfortunate!' Robin in particular was upset, as it would fall on him to coordinate the operation of keeping the other Titans from freezing to death, aptly named the 'Keep Warm' operation. He sighed as the clamor ceased and then proceeded with assigning tasks to the other Titans.
"Ok, Cyborg – I want you to find Beast Boy," Cyborg grinned mischievously. "And DON'T hurt him!" Cyborg's grin faded. "Starfire – I want you to go get the all the blankets in the closet," Starfire bobbed her head up and down with gusto, having clearly forgotten her anger over the prospect of helping her friends. "Raven," she moved her eyes from the falling snow to Robin, "I want you to help me try to insulate the roof and windows."
Raven dead-paned while Cyborg and Starfire balked. Trying not to ruffle the feathers of his clearly irritated leader, Cyborg softly pointed out to his friend, "Uh… Robin man, that's like… well – totally impossible…" He got nothing but a glare from the boy wonder.
"Well, Raven and I are going to try anyway. NOW MOVE!" The others flinched and quickly complied with their aggravated leader's directive.
But while Robin was passionate and even at times naive with his goals, he was no fool, and while he trudged up the stairs to the hallway with Raven in tow he thought on the real reason he had chosen this assignment for Raven and himself.
The last week had been a painful one for the resident boy wonder; Raven had become more and more withdrawn, and things had begun to explode in the Tower at an irregularly high rate. Raven was clearly agitated over something – the three broken televisions in the trash attested to that fact. It was left to Robin to deal with it.
Like always…
So it was at this time that Robin chose to begin his interrogation of the mysterious empath. "So… how's it going Raven?" Oh yeah – he was smooth…
Raven gazed at him with a pained expression on her face before replying, "Fine." Now some lesser men might have been daunted at the prospect of having to deal with this fire-breathing goddess of death – but then – Robin wasn't some men… boys… whatever…
As they walked down the hall to the elevator Robin came up with an idea, "Uh, well I was just wondering if there was anything you might have wanted to talk to me about?"
:"No," was Raven's only reply, as they both entered the elevator and Robin poked the button that would bring them to the garage.
Robin knew that his next question was taking him onto thin ice, but he really needed to get to the bottom of the whole "blowing things up" issue as soon as possible.
"You haven't had any nightmares about your father lately?" he said with as much casualness as he could muster.
"Nope," Raven replied the same way as Robin had asked.
…That was… unexpected…
Ok, so Robin had tried most of the nice ways that he could get her talking, now he would just come out directly and say it. "Raven… I've uh… noticed that our power-outages are getting more frequent…"
Alright, alright! So it wasn't that direct, but come on! He didn't want her to kill him!
At this point they had arrived at their destination and were beginning to collect the insulation foam; so it took a minute for Raven to get the foam she was carrying out of her face enough to speak clearly.
"So? Are you asking my permission to call the electrician?" she asked with a scowl marring her features.
Taken aback by her quick answer to what he thought was a relatively fool-proof question, it took Robin a moment to respond.
Before he could say anything however, Raven was already walking toward the elevator with a seemingly space-age wheelbarrow full of foam.
Running to catch-up with the empath, Robin tried again, "No, that's not what I meant. I was asking if you had anything to do with it."
As the two Titans reentered the elevator Raven abandoned her nonchalance for annoyance. "Look Boy Blunder, I'm in no mood to be interrogated with twenty questions. I suggest you just drop whatever it is you're failing miserably to allude to.
Blunt.
Shot down for the moment, Robin could only think about how difficult his teammate was being…
And how freakin' cold it is!
…Yes, that too.
NextSceneChangeNextSceneChangeNextSceneChangeNextSceneChange
A few hours later and the roof had been insulated, along with a few other important spots. Robin had had little time to speak to Raven after they had started, and by the time Robin had called it quits night was fast approaching.
Now with the rest of his team in the main room (including Beast Boy who had managed to evade Cyborg – and later Starfire – for several hours until he had been corned in the left-most side of the top-of-the-tower), Robin was going over the changes each Titan would have to make in their routine for the next few days.
"Starfire, you're going to have to keep the windows closed (yes, Robin also thought it silly that he would have to say this). I know you like your… 'Snow Room' – but we have to conserve what heat we have left." Starfire's solemn nod assured Robin that his directive would be followed.
"Now Cyborg has informed me that he can get the heater to work in the next few days, BUT, this is really stretching our budget! Therefore I'm going to need you guys," he said this while looking pointedly at Beast Boy, "to lay off the Stankball – we just can't afford to have the Tower further damaged."
Robin glanced at the various faces of his friends; each seemed to at least be paying some attention…
"Cyborg, no T-car upgrades for awhile. We can't afford it, and you need to keep your attention focused on the heater." A scowl and muttering awarded Robin's efforts.
…Hmm… How should he put this next one? 'Say Raven, I need you to calm down and stop blowing things up – you're costing me a fortune!'
Righttt…
Ok guys, dismissed," Robin announced to the assembly. All but Raven seemed a little miffed that he had said nothing to her. Raven just walked out of the room without a second-glance.
He would put off the conversation for now, maybe he would bring it up tomorrow when they were all rested…
LastSceneChangeLastSceneChangeLastSceneChangeLastSceneChange
Robin tossed-and-turned in his frigid bed, but sleep seemed to be a far-way off. He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.
Tomorrow he would speak to Raven and get that figured out, maybe he would pick up some more deodorant, calling the bank was a priority, and he also needed to have a long, serious talk with Beast Boy about responsibility… (Fine! I was more likely to be a lecture!)…
But as Robin finally began to lose consciousness, he couldn't help but wonder why he had to deal with so many problems – not knowing that they were just beginning.