Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, Nickelback, or The Click Five. I made a few changes to the lyrics, which do not belong to me. Don't sue me, I don't own. Okay? Get it? Got it? Good.
Hey, guys. (I don't really know who that's addressed to…) Wow. Third time writing this… Heh, I guess I'm just too lazy to edit something worthwhile. Oh well. Yeah. First time wrote this, it was taken down, but I still had the document. Then, I rewrote it and gave a better disclaimer, which helped, I guess. And now I'm bored and going into a superhero year again (my obsessions come in bulk… I'm back into superheroes, which means Teen Titans, Go!) So I decided to rewrite this again while going through an uninventive phase in both the Teen Titan stories I've started to formulate. They're not ready for the public yet, unfortunately… So, instead… yeah. This.
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In Gotham City, Beast Boy sat on the floor of the master bedroom in his new flat, looking through an old scrap book. The apartment, it wasn't really the right size; as one person, he didn't need that much space, but ever since he had left the Tower, nothing felt big enough. The T-Tower was larger than life in so many ways.
The Titans had gone their separate ways years ago, and the changeling had lost all contact with his former teammates. He hadn't talked to any of Titans East, Titans West, any of the honorary members or alies… No, Beast Boy lived a separate life. He wasn't Beast Boy anymore, the green, pointy-eared jokester of the Teen Titans, but instead Garfield mark Logan, a normal-colored scientist with nothing all that interesting to offer. Not that he let on, anyway.
As Garfield, Beast Boy had friends. They were nice, they would support him through tough times, and they were good for laughs, but they could never compare to the Titans. Then again, who could? They had been superheroes, the untouchable, highest class of society, the most interesting, the role models, the best of the best. Beast Boy missed Robin's obsessive nature, Starfire's indiscriminate kindness and wide-eyes naivety, Cyborg's brotherly concern and video gaming expertise, Raven's… well, everything.
While Beast Boy could do without Robin's seriousness and Starfire's cooking and Cyborg's tofu-centered teasing, he wished everything about Raven was back in his life. Her quick-witted comebacks and constant insults, the way she seemed to ignore him on a daily basis, how she would stick him to the ceiling for a day and a half for just stepping foot into her dark room, they went just as missed as those private, quiet pep talks she sometimes gave him and those innocent, amethyst eyes that portrayed what was really going on inside her head.
Raven had done so much for him - of course, all the Titans had, but Raven's sentiment meant the most to Beast Boy. She had comforted him after he found his inner beast, consoled him after Terra and ripped his trusting heart into pieces. Raven had taught him when to be serious and how to deal with heartaches in life. She had shared moments with him that seemed to haunt his dreams; sweet memories that paled in comparison to what he had felt at exactly those moments. Raven had been a friend to him. A true, loyal best friend. He had only wished he had the guts to make it more than that. Beast Boy missed her. He would give anything to see her again…
Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Robin's head?
The changeling flipped the book open to the first page. Pasted on a colorful piece of construction paper, covered in little communicators and T-Towers, smiled a picture of him and all the other Titans… All of them. Little arrows had been drawn in to each of the superbly gifted teens, providing their superhero identities and real-world aliases. As if he needed a reminder… The original five stood in the front, including him, surrounded by all the others. Beast Boy had put an arm around Raven in an effort to make the girl smile, but the only thing that graced her lips was a microscopic frown. However, the camera had caught a certain glimmer in her eyes…
And this is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we'd ever went without
The twenty second floor is hard for sneaking out
He turned the page again, and a rather fuzzy picture laid in plain sight. It was of Beast Boy and Raven at a nightclub. The green teen was dancing, but Raven looked a little uncomfortable as she only swayed her hips to the beat. A smile graced the older Beast Boy's face as he remembered that Friday night he had coaxed Raven to go with him to Sinner's Circle. It was probably the name that had enticed her the most, but whatever it was, Cyborg's security system had been difficult to get around undetected. They had almost been caught, but somehow the two teens made the trip without ever being found out.
And this is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Record says I've saved the world twice
I must have done it half a dozen times
On the same page, under the picture of Beast Boy and Raven dancing, was a brochure of Jump University, where he and the other Titans had first stared college after they finally disbanded to get on with life. Their academic careers hadn't been intertwined long; Robin had been accepted by the University of San Francisco to major in criminal justice, much more impressive than measly Jump University. Cyborg had gotten into Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and immediately jumped on the opportunity. Raven left for Harvard, probably the most impressive of the group, and Starfire had graduated before Beast Boy. The last time they had seen each other was college, and it all seemed to long ago…
I wonder if it's too late
Should I go back and try to graduate
Life's better now than it was back then
If I was them I wouldn't let me in
Beast Boy had tried for a masters in psychology, but it just wasn't him, even if he wanted to be the smart, intellectual type. That had to be the kind of guy Raven wanted, right? So, instead he himself had switched from faithful old Jump University to the University of California to study biology, so he could work with animals.
Oh oh oh
Oh God I, I…
Every memory of looking out the back door
I have the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
Beast Boy knew it was time to let go of the past, of the Titans, of Raven, but he couldn't It seemed impossible to forget that time in his life, those glory years. Maybe, just maybe, he could see the others again, and maybe they could rekindle the Titans. Maybe they wouldn't have to stay in his past; maybe they would be his present, his future.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
But he had to let go, he needed to let go. Just one more look at the album, he said, just one more nostalgic moment and he would let go. He promised.
Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hanging out
They said somebody went and burned it down
Beast Boy flipped the page and, on the other side, was a picture of him and Cyborg at his favorite arcade by the boardwalk where he had won Raven the giant chicken plushie. It had been destroyed by the Hive Five, minus Jinx. There were actually five of them without her, and they were easy to defeat without her being the brains of the outfit. She had instead used her talents, her "bad" powers, for good. And, finally, she had hung up the dress that had so long been her trademark and washed the pink dye out of her hair, becoming Jessica Hex. Later, she would be Jessica West, wife of the new Flash.
We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we know
We said someday we'd find out how if feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel
Another picture was on the opposite page, this time featuring him trying to entice the other Titans into singing along with the radio. If he remembered correctly, it had been "Don't Stop Believing" that had been blaring over the speakers. Starfire had been the first to join in, but she didn't know the lyrics and sufficed for being the repetitive backup singer. Cyborg, on the other hand, was belting it, obviously the loudest in the car. Beast Boy had been trying to persuade raven to sing, but she locked her lips and instead settled for smiling at the green teen's feeble attempts. And in the passenger seat, Robin was making a face that was a mix of disgust and amusement, much like the one he made while watching Starfire made her Tamaranian dishes.
Terra's the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She's had a couple of kids since then
I haven't seen her since God knows when
A picture of Terra in a wedding dress was on the next page. She was smiling brightly, and Aqualad's arm was tight around her waist. The whole wedding entourage was behind the couple - Mas and Menos in their early teens as the ring bearers; Melvin in a pretty pink dress as the flower girl; Speedy, Robin, and Beast Boy as the groom's men, and Bee, Starfire, and a nameless, normal girl as the bridesmaids - but Terra seemed to outshine them all in the photo. She had been ecstatic to marry Aqualad, but Beast Boy had taken it hard. She didn't remember the green Titan at all and wouldn't even bother to look at him, and he had refused to tell the merman groom about his previous relationship with her. He didn't want to make them unhappy… They both deserved that much.
Oh oh oh
Oh God I
Every memory of looking out the back door
I have the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
Beast Boy was about to close the scrap book forever but one more group of pictures caught his eye.
I miss that town
I miss their faces
You can't erase it
You can't replace it
A portrait for each of his teammates adorned the last page, all alone. First came Cyborg, smiling his old, boundless smile. Each of his metallic body parts were shining their brightest, and he had struck a pose, flexing his impressive muscles with a wink of his bright blue human eye.
Next was Starfire's print. It was a close up, and her eyes were shining happily like two colossal Centauri Moon diamons, like they did whenever she looked at Robin. Her mouth was stretched from ear to ear in a wide, open-mouthed smile. There was a certain glow that radiated off her deep tan skin, and a playful giggle had obviously broken through as the photographer had taken her picture.
Then there was Robin's picture. He was letting out a small grin, the kind he often gave to reporters, and looked entirely serious. His mask was spotless, as always, and parallel to his jaw perfectly. His hair was spiked to a point that it seemed to defy gravity, just the way he liked it to. This Robin looked completely down to business, but it wasn't the Robin he knew. Still, the boy wonder had always been one to put on masks.
Last came Raven's portrait. It, unlike the others, was bordered by miniature hearts that Beast Boy had drawn in himself. Her hood was down, for once, and her violet hair was as straight as it always was, as neat as she always liked to present herself. Amethyst eyes shined in the light in a teasing manner, and her lips were curled into a smile, not as big as Starfire's of course, for she wore her heart on her sleeve, but still an impressive size for the empathic girl.
He really missed them all. Taking out a sharpie, he scrawled on the very bottom of the page two words in red. "The End." This was it… He was giving up on those memories. He was going to make new ones… Live his live… Forget…
I miss it nowI can't believe it
So hard to stay
So hard to leave it
Beast Boy's eyes became watery; that was so long ago, the life he dreamed of. His friends, his superhero days… The past was so untouchable, so far behind them. So… lost.
If I could I relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change
Every memory of looking out the back door
I have the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye goodbye
Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
Every time I do it makes me
With a sigh, Beast Boy got up from the wooden floor and slowly closed the album, putting it in the box in the back of his closet with the rest of his Teen Titan memorabilia. His old uniform, the standard communicator, a few action dolls, a Mumbo alarm clock, one of Raven's cloaks he had stolen from her room, the old television remote… Junk.
With a groan, the changeling picked up the cardboard box, all intending to deposit the junk on the curbside for trash pickup in the morning. But, even before he could make it out of the room, the phone rang, and, with another sigh, Beast Boy placed the box back down to answer the call.
"Garfield Logan talking," he muttered dryly, pausing for a moment to listen to the caller on the other line. "Oh, wow, Raven!? It's been so long, of course I missed you! A reunion, I can't wait! Don't worry, I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'll be there. Hell, I'll be on time! See you there!"
He hung up and leapt for joy, rushing over to the box again and pulling out the scrap book. With a grin, the scribbled over the depressing words he had written before. "The Beginning." This wasn't the end… Not at all.
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Sniffle…. That ending was so much more meaningful than the one before. Yay, new beginnings! Sigh, I'm going to be nostalgic like Beast Boy someday. That's gonna suck… Oh well. I think I might make a second chapter to this, maybe of the reunion. Tell me what you think. If I make the second half, I'd also make it a songfic... So give me ideas for the song, yeah? I don't think "Just the Girl" fits well enough... I don't own the song or the band or Teen Titans, once again. Review and you get cookies! Thanks for reading.
