Hotline Bling
Summary: Beast Boy's been away from the city for awhile, but he's home now and in for some big changes. He left on bad terms with someone on team, is there any way he can fix it? Or has too much changed in the time he was away? BBxRae Cute, pointless one-shot. Inspired by the song title.
Hello world! This is my very first story, so please be gentle. The idea's been stuck in my head for awhile and I just had to get it out! The end result is meh, but I'm ok with it. I do not own the song title that the story was inspired from (Loosely inspired) or the TT's obviously, otherwise I would not be here. Constructive criticism welcome!
Raven is really OOC, but deal with it. I also switch back and forth between actual names and their superhero title. Happy reading!
Beast boy took a deep breath as he walked across the last portion of the bridge to the island. He had missed the sight of his gleaming T shaped home immensely, he had been gone for too long. Waking up in his cozy bed to a sunrise over the sparkling bay out front seemed unimaginable to him, after spending months on hard dirt floors and cold abandoned buildings. He was looking forward to being back home in Jump, after traveling the globe for six months on an undercover mission with the Doom Patrol. He pulled his communicator from his pocket out of habit, checking for any signs of missed calls. Screen blank, he put it back, sighing and picked his bag up from the pavement. He had missed his family greatly, and couldn't wait to be back. However, he left on some bad terms with a certain teammate, and he missed her more than any of the comforts he'd left behind in the tower.
He and Raven had been a couple for a little over a year when he had been called away to assist the doom patrol. After some late nights and his incessant flirting, they had got together right around Raven's 21st birthday, where all the Titans had gone out on the town and got smashed beyond belief. Luckily, they had used holographic rings to disguise themselves, as not to draw attention to the fact they were supposed to be upstanding citizens of the city.
Flashback
"Come on Rae! It's your 21st birthday and your a Titan, we need to pop this champagne!" BB yelled into her ear, over the loud thumping of the club music, bottle of expensive champagne in hand. He had tan skin and dirty blond hair, his disguise courtesy of Cyborg's holo-rings. They were both sitting at the bar, their friends spread throughout the club. With Robin's connections through The Bat, they had the privilege of renting out the entire top floor of the bar to the Titans and their extended friends for the weekend. Roy and Richard were already on the dance floor, each with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a drink in the other, while dancing with Kori and Argent. Garth was grabbing shots, trying to avoid a very pretty waitress who seemed overly fond of him, trying not to notice that she was giving him the fullest shot glass to take. All the heroes were completely toasted. They went all out for a "family" milestone. Raven's 21st being a big one, as she was one of the youngest Titans, and she had finally started coming out and joining the rest of the team for celebrations.
"Champagne is disgusting. It's the sugar that makes you sick and gives you a hangover" Raven said flatly, sipping through her straw on her captain and diet coke, eyes on Bumblebee and Cyborg, or Victor and Karen, as they were under their civilian alias'. Cyborg also no longer appeared to resemble a tin can, as Beast Boy so fondly referred to him as. They were both across the room climbing onto the bar to dance on each other.
"You sounds sober, champagne time!" Beast Boy said enthusiastically, moving closer to her. "Then we can continue what we started in your room back at the tower" he moved her dark ebony hair away from her shoulder, and leaned in to kiss her neck.
Raven sat up straight, eyes wide looking around wildly "Gar! Every Titan is here, and we haven't told anyone we're together yet are you crazy?!" She exclaimed, pulling away from him and scooting her chair down closer to the other end of the bar.
"They're all wasted, and it's dark in here, no ones gonna see us" Garfield protested, moving closer to her
Raven hesitated slightly, then leaned into him.
With her distracted, Beast Boy took the champagne and slid it in front of her.
"But first, champagne!"
Raven opened her eyes and glared at the bottle, as if it had personally offended her. She glanced behind the bar, until her eyes rested on a bottle. She smirked.
"Make it shots of Fireball, and let's go" She challenged him, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms.
Beast boy grimaced visibly. He did not do well with shots. Swallowing hard, he quickly put his game face on.
"Then let's go, birthday girl! Whoo! Barkeep, over here!" he yelled putting his arm up to signal to the bar tender.
End Flashback
Once they got back to the tower, they soon drunkenly came out to the rest of the team that they were a couple, and had been together ever since. That proceeded to be a night they both would never forget, ending with Raven nursing Beast Boy back to life from a wicked hangover the next day.
When Beast Boy had first left, Raven had called him everyday, even at 4 am her time when he was working crazy hours in different countries. They had always talked about everything, but they had disagreed over his final task the Doom Patrol had appointed for him, Raven insisting it was unnecessarily dangerous, and just payback for him leaving them and actually finding his own way in the world without their help. Beast Boy, quickly falling back into old customs of the Doom Patrol, didn't question his orders and dove in head first. Beast Boy had gotten pissed that Raven seemed to imply that he couldn't handle himself, or that he was incompetent to complete the mission. Raven, being Raven, would not back down. Now Beast boy had to admit that she had been right.
He grimaced in pain and looked down to his left arm, as it twinged at the movement of picking up his duffel bag. It was in a makeshift splint, as he had rushed home, eager to put the event behind him. Walking into the tower, he awkwardly hauled his oversized duffel bag using his good arm, trying not to topple over from the weight of it. Making his way slowly, he hit the button to go up to the common room. He leaned up against the cold metal of the elevator wall, putting his duffel bag on the floor and his good hand in his jean pocket. It's been a month since Raven had last called him, where they had gotten into an argument that the Doom Patrol was going to get Beast boy hurt, or worse, dead, and they didn't even care. He was expendable to them. After Beast Boy had gotten injured, he was captured by the enemy, and his so called family did nothing to help him. After 3 days, he had finally made his escape, going to the Doom Patrol's safe house, and gave Mento a piece of his mind, specifically mentioning not to contact him again when they needed help, as they had done nothing to help rescue him.
With a ding, the elevator reached the common room. Beast boy sighed, and walked out, ready to see the familiar faces of his family. The only person present, however, was Cyborg, playing game station intently. B.B. walked over to the couch, dropping his bag to the floor plopping down on the couch next to him, and grabbed a controller. Cy hadn't even acknowledged there was someone else in the room.
"Hey Cy, hows it going?"
"B.B.!" Cy looked up in surprise " You didn't tell us you were on your way back! Jeez what happened to you man? You look like you've been through hell" Cy took in his disheveled appearance and gestured to his arm, looking concerned.
"The Doom patrol happened, thats what" BB said bitterly. "I don't really want to get into it Cy, it's been a long couple months" He glared angrily at the TV as the memories of the last few months resurfaced. Beast Boy looked around the common room, taken aback by the silence, "Where is everybody?"
"Rich and Kori are downtown, at some conference. They should be back later tonight"
"Oh." Said Beast boy, looking down. That wasn't who he was really interested in seeing, not that he didn't miss them.
"Where's, uh,-"
Cyborg sighed and put down the game station controller "Yeeah how about we go get some food BB?" He said, glancing quickly at the main entrance, as if waiting for something. BB raised an eyebrow as he watched his actions, Cyborg was acting very weird..
"Wanna see if Rich and Kori wanna meet for-"
The common room doors slid open, and in walked Raven. BB nearly fell to the floor at the sight of her.
She was wearing black platform strappy sandals, with a 4 inch heel, a skintight black miniskirt that hugged her curves and left little to the imagination, and a light purple flowy hi-low top that showed the creamy skin of her midriff. Her face was in full makeup, and her shoulder length black hair was curled and fell around her face. She went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, as if it was business as usual, and she wasn't about to make all the guys in the room lose it at the sight of her.
"Hey Cy, I'm going out with Kat and Jen-Oh" She stopped talking abruptly, staring at Beast Boy, eyes wide in shock.
Beast Boy needed a minute to catch his breath, and try to mentally think of sad and depressing thoughts to calm the automatic bodily reaction he had to seeing Raven little to nothing.
"Hey Rae! I-uh—wow-uh" Beast Boy stuttered out unintelligibly.
Raven's initial look of shock at Beast Boy's sudden arrival was quickly replaced, turning to look at Cyborg blankly, ignoring Beast Boys stuttering.
"Yeah, I'm going out" she said flatly " Don't wait up" she turned on her heel, without looking back headed to the elevator for the main floor.
Beast Boy stared in awe as she walked out. He sat in silence for a few minutes before turning to Cyborg, looking for an explanation.
"What the- Cy-"
Cyborg glanced at Beast Boy "Yeah" he started slowly "I didn't wanna have you find out like this..." Cyborg started slowly.
"She's been like a different person since you've been gone. Hanging out with some girls from that college she was taking classes with, I don't even know what she's doing when she goes out, man" Cyborg glanced up at him to see his reaction
Beast boy stared at where Raven had been standing not two minutes before, as if frozen. After a few minutes, the elevator dinged. Beast boy's ears perked up, hoping that it was Raven coming back, changing her mind and coming to hang with them in the common room.
Instead, out walked Robin and Starfire, smiling broadly and holding hands, Robin carrying takeout. Upon spying Beast boy, Starfire gasped and stopped in her tracks abruptly, dropping the boy wonders hand.
"Beast boy!" She exclaimed, launching herself at the green changling. She enveloped him into a bone crushing hug, "We have missed you so much! Oh you must tell us about your mission with the doom patrol! Were you successful?" She gushed excitedly, pulling away from Beast Boy and hopping up and down excitedly, not noticing him gasping for breath and massaging his ribs with his good hand.
"What happened to your arm, BB? Did the doom patrol finish their mission?" Robin said, putting the bag of takeout on the counter and opening it up.
"Uh-Doom Patrol is ancient history for me guys, I'm not messing with them anymore, this happened" he gestured at his arm "and we parted ways and I don't really feel like talking about it- I did just have a heart attack at the sight of Raven walking through here, though"
"Oh God Cy, you let him see Rave in her party mode?" Robin half-laughed looked at Cyborg as he was leaning on the counter of the kitchen eating a cold french fries out of the box "Did you tell him everything?"
"Not yet, I was trying to get him out of here before she showed up and tell him everything away from ground zero" Cyborg said sitting down at the table.
"Yes, we have been worried about Raven, and her new "friends"" Starfire spoke up "I went out with them once, and they are a lot for me to keep up with, and I have multiple stomachs" She sighed, grabbing the last of the French Fries. Robin glanced at her, an annoyed expression on his face. Starfire continued to eat the rest of the fries, oblivious to his frustration.
"Yeah, it's getting pretty ridiculous." Robin continued, eyes still eyeing the fries hungrily "It's almost nightly she coming home drunk. I mean she's able to keep up with trainings and missions, so I can't reprimand her officially, but I have tried talking to her. It fell on deaf ears obviously." Robin said, now rummaging through the fridge. "Not to mention the guys she's bringing home.."
"Wait what?!"Beast boy exclaimed "Guys-as in plural?"
"Dear, maybe you should have eased him into that part" Starfire looked at Robin worriedly "That was a bit blunt"
"He would have found out Star-"
Beast Boy looked at Cyborg expectedly, hands curled in fists by his sides.
"Guys?!" Beast boy repeated, fuming. Eyes darting back and forth, Beast Boy saw red. Mumbling something quickly about needing air, he darted out of the common room and took the emergency exit downstairs, needing to burn off energy before he punched something.
Reaching the bridge, he shook his head trying to clear the anger from his mind. Beast Boy needed to confront Raven, figure out just what the hell she thought she was doing. Yes, they had a fight, and they were currently not speaking. But to react like this? Guys!?
At record speed, Beast Boy made it downtown (he had morphed into an ostrich, as he currently couldn't fly) standing on the street of some of Jump's most prominent bars and dance clubs. He whipped out his communicator and hit the speed dial for Raven's number, not caring if she wanted to talk with him or not.
After calling 3 times with no answer, Beast Boy started up the GPS app, which as long as a titan had their communicator on, any other team member could find them.
Locking on Raven's location, Beast Boy quickly ran in human form to the GPS location, which informed him Raven was currently in a club called The Rapture, one of the newest clubs to open in Jump.
The bright lights and pounding music overloaded Beast Boy's sensitive senses once inside. On the dance floor was Raven, surrounded by group of college aged girls, drinks in hand. A thin, curly haired blond girl with pink tinted hair and brown eyes came up to her and dragged her by the hand to the bar. Raven laughed as she fell against her drunkenly, grabbing a shot from her hand, downed it, and slammed it down on the bar top.
"What am I seeing?" Thought Beast Boy to himself "Raven, with other girls, and giggling? Is it the apocalypse? Well, second apocalypse. We stopped the first"
He shook his head to make sure her wasn't seeing things, then marched up to the bar, not caring if he was still green and was getting multiple stares from random bar goers.
He stepped in front of the curly blond and stood right in front of Raven, green eyes on fire. She looked up at him, surprise written on her drunken features, her glassy eyes staring up at him in shock.
"Gar, wha-" she started, stumbling over her words, her drink sloshing against her and staining the front of her lilac shirt. "I don't wanna talk to you, why're y here?"
"What are you doing Raven?" Garfield sputtered out "Are we in the Twilight Zone or something? Our team just told me you've been out here partying almost nightly, and bringing home other guys?! Did what we have mean nothing to you?"
Raven slammed her drink down, forgetting her not wanting to talk to the green boy and leaned in Gars face, anger overcoming her features "Oh, our team told you that?" She slurred, stumbling forward slightly "Are you even still on our team? The last time I talked to you, Gar, you were off with your other team, your real family, because you care about them more than you care about how we feel, how I feel?!" Raven's voice started escalating to a higher pitch, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.
"That's not true! I've been calling you at least a dozen times a day! You refuse to talk to me!" Gar exclaimed, disbelief written all over his face. "What did I do to make you act like this?"
At this point, Raven's blond friend came back to her side, the faint smell of rum wafting off of her. "Hey! She said she doesn't wanna to talk to you!" Her voice sounding oddly familiar, but BB couldn't place where he'd heard it before. "Rae, let's go he's not worth it" She grabbed Raven's hand and started leading her back to the dance floor.
"Oh no you don't! Gar exclaimed, blocking the blond girls's path to the dance floor. A redheaded man sitting at the bar snapped his head around, looking to see what the commotion was between the group "Raven, you owe me an explanation. Something at least. What happened? Can you please just talk to me?" Beast Boy pleaded with her. "Please!?"
Raven visibly hesitated, then turned to her friend "I need to talk to him Jenny, I've been putting this off long enough" The blond girl lowered her hand from Raven's wrist and visibly relaxed. "Ok, but text me if you need me" She looked at Raven intently before heading back to the sea of girls on the dance floor. Raven touched Gar's hand and motioned with her head for him to follow her. She led him behind the bar adjacent from the kitchens, to a closed wooden door. The door opened to reveal a staircase, Beast Boy assumed lead to the roof. She started up and BB followed her, slowly, Raven stumbling a bit in her intoxicated state. Stairs were maybe not such a good idea, this is gonna be awful coming back down Beast Boy thought to himself.
Once on the roof, BB saw that chairs and tables were spread out, clearly designed for entertaining. Raven headed to the edge of the roof that overlooked the south side of the city. She put her arms up on the ledge , and leaned against the high wall, gazing across the vastness of the city that was their home. Tall corporate buildings, parking garages, hospitals, and twinkling towers seemed to go forever onward, without an end in sight. Their quiet view from above putting on a great facade of the busy-ness that lied below them.
Beast boy, quietly made his way next to where Raven was overlooking the city, studying her calm (and slightly drunk) features, waiting for her to say something.
"I didn't think you were coming back" She finally stuttered out, after what seemed like a lifetime to Beast Boy. He took his time to choose his words carful, hoping to not provoke her anger now that she seemed so calm.
"What do you mean? The Titans are my family, Raven, you are my family, I would never choose the Doom Patrol over-"
She cut him off, and turned towards him, tears starting to roll down her cheeks "No, I thought you were going to die Gar, and I couldn't even imagine that, and that scared me. The Doom patrol, they don't care about you like we do. I remember how it was working with them, I never felt any protectiveness or any sort of bond from them towards any of us like our team. You were expendable, someone that was replaceable to them." She looked down at her hands, and then brought them up to wipe the tears from her chin "I didn't think you were coming back, so I've been distracting myself and preparing for the worst"
"Rae, look at me" He took his hand under her chin and tilted it upward so her eyes would meet his, her violet eyes sparkling.
"I had to help them, I know you didn't want me too, and I know how they are. But I owed them. I learned my lesson-big time" Beast Boy gestured down to his arm. "And I'll be honest, it came close. But I had something to come back for- you. And our family. And I made a promise to you, that I would come back and I intended to keep it."
Raven closed the distance between them, and pressed her lips against his. Beast Boy leaned into her, deepening the kiss, tasting the saltiness of her tears and sweet cinnamon on her lips from the shot she took at the bar. He moved his hand up to comb his fingers through her hair and cradle the back of her head, head, pulling her closer to him. Raven broke the kiss and sniffled, wiping her eyes again with her hand, smudging her mascara on her face.
"To be honest, this is exhausting. I think I'm ready to take a break from the party life"
"So no more guys? Just me?" Beast Boy raised his eyebrows at her.
She rolled her eyes and looked at him "Robin needs to mind his own business, and some detective he is. It was one guy, and he would take me back to the tower, and leave as soon as he was sure I was in my room and somewhat coherent. He's actually taken. You know him, and so does he. He's been tinkering with Cyborg's holo-rings, experimenting with different looks and settings" Raven explained, and chuckled "He'll be happy to know he's successful enough to fool Robin"
"Who is he?" Beast Boy questioned, racking his brain trying to figure out who it could be.
"It's Wally. Jinx is down there too, well Jenny. The blond, with pink tinted hair? They come out here all the time." Raven sighed, and took Beast Boy by the hand "They love this new side of me, they'll be crushed to know I'm retiring for a while" She leaned her head against his shoulder.
"But- we could stay for one more drink? To welcome you home?"
Beast Boy grinned "I think our family will still be waiting for us back at the tower after it. I don't think they're going anywhere." He bent down and kissed her on her forehead, wrapping his good arm around her, truly feeling home at last.
Please Review! Thanks for reading, I got some other great ideas that I may get started on if I get enough feedback! :D