Disclaimer: Come on, if I owned the Teen Titans, would I really be sitting here writing fan fiction?
Rating: K
A Haven for the Mind
"Beast Boy?" she asked once she was positive he was aware of her presence.
"Yeah?" he responded tepidly.
"I've seen you come down here a lot recently. What are you up to?"
"Thinking," he said ambiguously. Beast Boy didn't seem all that interested in conversation.
"Because you have so much trouble doing that everywhere else?" she badgered in her expressionless voice.
"Raven, I'm not in the mood," he grumbled at her.
"Well, be sure to tell me when you are."
Beast Boy looked over his shoulder and shot a glare at the cloaked girl standing on the small portion of sandy beach behind him.
"Okay, sorry," she apologized when she saw the way his eyes focused on her.
Raven carefully padded onto the rock on the shore where Beast Boy sat. She sat down next to him, slipped off her blue boots and set them aside. The dark, grey rock felt coarse and cold on the bottom of her delicate feet. She swung her legs over the side and let her toes dip into the cool seawater that splashed against the rocks in calm waves. The salty, oceanic scent of the water brought in by a sudden sea breeze surrounded Raven and tickled her nose. In the crisp night sky, the full moon shined brightly, giving the light it borrowed from the sun to the sea. The water was illuminated with a sparkling white luminescence. Scattered glows of yellows, blues, and whites pierced through the darkness from the thousands of windows in the city not too far away. Coming to the water's edge was something Raven did not do commonly, and the stark change in atmosphere after being cooped up inside the tower always managed to pleasantly surprise her.
"What makes this spot so special?" she finally inquired after a moment's stillness.
Looking out into the open water, Beast Boy sighed. "I'm dunno," he said. "Maybe 'cause of what happened here. Since then, whenever I have something on my mind, I kinda retrace my steps back to here."
She had no recollection of anything significant happening on this old, grey rock. "What happened here, may I ask?"
His gaze broke off from the sea as he tilted his head down and sighed once more. "This is where I saw Terra the last time before she ran off… before she turned to him and betrayed us."
"Oh," Raven said softly. She never wanted to broach anything involving Terra with Beast Boy, but she unfortunately stumbled upon it anyway. No more than half a year had passed since the ordeal with the earth shifter, so it was understandable that this place made an impression in Beast Boy's mind. If this was something that was perturbing him, she wasn't going to pry. She hated it when it was done to her, so why be a hypocrite?
"It can be easier to think at places that hold significance to us," she submitted.
"I guess," Beast Boy muttered unhelpfully.
The water flowed effortlessly between Raven's toes, creating miniature eddies that swirled into the smooth vertical face of the rock. She enjoyed the refreshing coolness encompassing her feet.
"You said you come here when you have things on your mind. What kinds of things do you think about?" Raven asked, trying to redirect the conversation.
"It's not important," he stated evasively.
Raven closed her eyes, a pensive expression on her face. "To someone else, that probably would have been the most unhelpful answer you could give," she remarked.
Beast Boy looked at her, intrigued by her response.
She then looked right back at him to meet his eyes. "But I know what you mean because I would have said the same thing. You come here to think about past mistakes, memories, things you lost, anything that will cling to you despite your efforts to let go."
"I don't suppose that was a lucky guess?" he asked, attempting to be his usual self, but not managing to shake the downcast tone from his voice.
Raven shook her head as she unconsciously swung her legs in lazy circles, churning the streaming water.
"You're right," Beast Boy admitted. "I guess that's what you do when you go hide in your room?"
"No, well, not all the time," she admitted. "I actually find myself going to the roof of the tower when I need time to think."
"Why do you go there?"
"It's relaxing. Quiet. No one around to bother me. I'd imagine it's the same reason why you come here."
Beast Boy stared out into the distance as he took fresh air into his lungs. It surprised him to hear Raven willfully offer information about herself, as minimal as it was. He began to realize that she wasn't going to press him for any specifics.
"Yeah," he confirmed her assertion. "Even though this place doesn't hold the best memories, I love it here; the view of the ocean past the bay, the feel of this rock, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, the seclusion of it all."
Raven noted how in tune Beast Boy was with his surroundings when he had the chance to be.
"Sometimes things just sorta resurface in my head," he continued, "and I have to find a way to escape and think. I could go anywhere I want. Become a falcon and fly into the mountains. Turn into a wolf and run through the woods. But no matter what's on my mind, I like being close to home."
For the first time since Raven found him on the rock, Beast Boy smiled. It was faint and lacked his usual spark of enthusiasm, but it was enough to get Raven to smile back faintly.
"If I left here, I wouldn't have anyone to talk to about this stuff," he added warm-heartedly.
This pleased Raven and it made her think about her relationship with Beast Boy. "I know we have our differences and we argue a lot," she said softy, "but we really do have some things in common, don't we?"
He nodded in agreement. She was right, as always. In spite of everything that practically denoted them as polar opposites, at their cores, they could find connections.
"Hey, Raven?"
"Yes?" she responded, lifting her soaking feet from the cold water.
"Thanks for the company."
He was now smiling fully and it made Raven content to hear him be so gracious and kind to her. Knowing fully well what it was like to have a troubled mind, she respected his decision to keep exactly what was bothering him to himself. Moments like this occurred between them once in a blue moon. She hoped they would become more frequent than that.
"You're welcome," she said kindly in return.
She ran her hands over her feet, attempting to rid them of any water or salt that insisted on clinging to them. Grabbing a hold of her boots, she pointed her toes and slid first her left foot and then her right foot back into their warm shelters.
"Promise to be around if I need your help again?" Beast Boy asked hopefully.
She looked like she was having difficulty deciding her answer, but then she gave him a smile that said she wouldn't think twice about it.
"We'll see how things go," she said in her usual serious articulation.
He smiled again. "Thanks."
Another breeze picked up and ruffled Raven's cloak. Her violet hair cascaded in front of her face as the sudden wind slowly dissipated.
"It's getting a little chilly. I'm going to go inside," she told him, standing up.
"Okay, I'll be in soon. I just need a second," he said and reclined onto his back, laying his hands on his stomach.
Not another word was heard from Raven. She stealthily walked away to leave Beast Boy to his ruminations.
Beast Boy gazed upon the starry sky, thinking about how each star looked like a little hole in a dark blanket, revealing the light of the heavens beyond them. The wind had started to pick up and it rushed past his pointed ears. He could hear nothing but the waves and the air that flowed along his body and weaved through his fine, green hair. The rock beneath him was cold on his back. Erosion had eliminated any sharp or jagged edges that would have made it uncomfortable to lie on. He removed the gloves from his hands to feel the course surface of the rock. Grazing his fingers along it, Beast Boy found his haven; the one place where he could always reach solace.
A/N's:
This came to me at like three or four in the morning (late night and/or early morning are my creative hours) after some inspiration of another story that takes place in the same spot: Plain Vanilla. Thanks, ntmnky!