Just One More Game, a teen titans fanfic

Alright, so here you are, my first fanfiction. I warn you, I have been working on this chapter on and off for nearly a year. Therefore, my updating schedule is entirely unpredictable. I know, I always hated authors who started a story and didn't update again for like, a year, but heck, I might be one of them. At times, it's just so difficult to find the time to work. I hope you all will be patient with me, as my schedule will be getting very busy, what with going off to boarding school next year. I don't know how quickly or slowly anything will get done. Also, please note that the beginning and end of this chapter were written almost a year apart. Forgive the possible change in writing style.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Teen Titans characters. I just own the plot. Also, I would like to credit this idea to a game of Tetris and a new age book called, "Teen Psychic" by Julie Tallard Johnson. A lot of my information comes from this book. Also, this title is a slight variation of an idea given to me by The Ubu. I suck at coming up with titles and he was nice enough to give me a few suggestions.

Italics indicate thought.

Hope you enjoy my story.

Chapter 1 – The Birth of an Addiction

It was night in Titans Tower. Around 10:30, to be exact. Each of the five Titans was immersed in their own evening activities. Robin, the only one not in the ops room, was in the work room filling out some criminal reports that the Jump City Police Department wanted the next day. While Robin worked, Cyborg and Beast Boy played. Videogames, that is. For that night, they had chosen Turbo Racers 6. Starfire sat on the left side of the semi-circular couch working on her latest hobby: cross-stitching. At that point, she was making… Well, none of the other four were quite sure what she was making. It all looked like a big jumble of colored thread. However, it seemed to make sense to the Tamaranian, so everyone else chose not to inquire. The last Titan, Raven, sat on the right end of the couch doing what she had done every night (and every day) since she became part of the Teen Titans: reading. Tonight's selection was The Lifeguard. It was a horror book, not surprisingly.

Though Raven had been reading each night for so many years, there was a time when she wouldn't have been reading in the ops room with three other Titans in the vicinity. No, there was a time when the empath kept to her room almost 24/7. Now, needless to say, she had warmed up to the rest of the Tower's residents sufficiently. She had even grown accustomed to the music from the videogames that she once detested so much, which was why she was at this time able to spend time in the room while the afore-mentioned games were being played.

Raven was thinking these same things as her eyes strayed from the page in front of her to the nearby window. Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice when the clock struck eleven o'clock until Cyborg dropped the Gamestation controller and stretched.

"Kicked your butt again," he said to Beast Boy, a victorious smirk on his face.

"Yeah, yeah," Beast Boy mumbled, leaning back on the sofa. "Rematch?" he offered.

'Hmm. Strange. He usually doesn't admit defeat so easily,' Raven thought curiously.

Cyborg shook his head to Beast Boy's request. "Nah, it's gettin' late. I'm goin' to bed."

This statement startled Raven slightly, as she had not realized the time. A quick glance at the clock told her what she wanted to know and she looked back down at the novel in her hand. She decided she may as well finish the chapter, as she only had about a page and a half remaining.

Cyborg left the room with the hiss of the electronic doors and before Raven had finished a paragraph, Starfire had gathered up her supplies to leave as well. She bade Beast Boy and Raven good night and disappeared through the double doors.

Minutes later, Beast Boy had put the videogame into one-player mode and was pressing buttons like there was no tomorrow. Raven, meanwhile, completed her chapter and dog-eared the page she left off on before closing her book. She stood to leave, but hesitated momentarily. This was not the first time Beast Boy had stayed up late playing videogames. In fact, he had been doing it quite often recently. This had caused Raven to grow a bit concerned. He scarcely stopped playing the games during the day either, apart from breaks for food, the bathroom, or when his duty as a Titan called, and though he stayed up later, he still woke up at his usual time, sometime between 9 and 10. That meant he was losing sleep.

These facts worried Raven slightly, but for now, she would just hope that it was a phase and that the changeling would get past it soon.

Still, she felt the need to say something. "You planning on sleeping anytime soon?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Beast Boy simply gave a shrug, his attention never leaving the screen. Raven allowed a small sigh to escape her lips as she walked through the electronic doors, locking the tower for the night.

Days continued to pass and Beast Boy's behavior did not improve; it only worsened. He was eating less, staying up later, and his participation in anything else, such as combat practice and fighting villains, was half-hearted. After a total of 3 weeks of this, Raven was becoming more than a little troubled. She had a feeling that Cyborg had started to take notice as well. He was now trying more often to lead Beast Boy away from videogames and toward things that could potentially hold his interest. Each attempt was to no avail.

One particular night, Raven found herself unable to sleep. Restlessly, she rolled over to look at her clock. The numbers "1:17" glared back at her. "Azar, did someone slip caffeine in my tea?" she grumbled, nearly falling out of bed. The empathy hastily threw her cloak over her shoulders and made her way down the dark hallway toward the ops room.

When Raven reached said room, she found that she wasn't the only sleepless one in the tower. Beast Boy, predictably, remained sitting on the sofa, firing away at another one of his videogames. Cyborg sat in the kitchen area of the room, a glass of milk in hand. Raven made her way over to that general vicinity and began fixing a cup of herbal tea.

"Hey Raven," Cyborg said in a voice that one wouldn't exactly call cheerful.

"Cyborg," Raven replied with a nod, placing the kettle on the stove. She turned to boil and found that Cyborg's expression matched his voice. "What's eating you?" she inquired.

The half-robot took a sip of his milk and sighed. "BB's not himself. I mean, he always loved videogames, I did too. But it's getting a little out of hand. He's practically a zombie, you know? And it's been at least a week…" Cyborg trailed off and took another sip from the glass in his hand.

"More like 3," Raven replied curtly.

Cyborg turned to face her direction, the diameter of his human eye suggesting that he was a bit taken aback. "Has it been that long?" he asked incredulously.

Raven shrugged one shoulder as removed the now boiling water from the burner and poured an adequate amount into her teacup on top of the tea leaves that she had already dumped inside.

Cyborg sighed, his head tilting downwards. "Either way," he spoke in a low voice, "Something needs to be done about it, and I think Robin should be let know. He can call a meeting with us and Star and maybe we can all figure out how we can help BB. I've been trying to get him away, but nothing seems to work."

Raven nodded in response as she sat on the stool next to Cyborg's tea cup in hand. After a slow sip, she spoke, "I'll talk to Robin." She was unsure of why she volunteered; it would have been much easier for her to get involved in this as little as possible. However, she had said that she would do it, so she would have to follow through.

After a few moments of sitting in silence, Raven stood to take her tea back to her room. Before stepping into the hallway however, she turned to look at Beast Boy, who remained in the same spot he had been all night. It seemed that he had not once noticed Cyborg's or her presence.

The next morning – well, technically later that same morning – Raven arose at her normal time of 7:30 AM, despite her lost hours of sleep the previous night. She thought about this as she sat on the edge of her bed shortly after waking, but shrugged it off deciding that she would turn in early in the coming night to make up for it. Donning her signature navy cloak, she stepped from her room greeted by the silence of the early morning. She entered the ops room, releasing a breath she didn't know she had been holding when she found that a certain green titan no longer occupied the couch. So at least he had given up on the videogames at some point in the wee hours of the morning. The room currently held only the Titans' leader, who was sitting at the computer, typing as if his life depended on it. Paperwork of some sort, no doubt, or possibly trying to track a villain.

Raven strode to the kitchen area and went about her timeworn ritual of preparing her herbal tea. When she finished, she took a seat on the couch and took a long sip from the hot cup in her hand. She then placed the cup on the coffee table in front of her. Robin remained in the same state he had been in when the half-demon entered the room. Raven supposed that it was now or never; she didn't know when the tower's other 3 residents would appear, so it was best to fulfill her promised to Cyborg while she had the chance. She cleared her throat, then broke the silence, "Robin, I need to talk to you." Raven was slightly surprised to find that her voice sounded more monotonous than usual. That seemed to be happening quite often lately.

Robin nodded curtly in response to Raven's statement, then continued typing, presumably finishing a sentence or something of the sort. He then swiveled in his chair to face the other Titan. "Shoot," he said simply.

Raven released a heavy sigh. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately as well. Without further hesitation, she began, "It's about Beast Boy."

Robin nodded, seemingly in understanding. "His videogame problem?"

Raven also nodded. "So you've noticed too?"

"Yeah," Robin replied, "I didn't realize just how much it was affecting him until the incident with the H.I.V.E. Five the other day."

Raven winced. She remembered all too well. Upon later investigation of the team's failure to thwart the group of teenage villains, it was discovered that the fight would have most likely been considerably different, but Beast Boy had been distracted, to say the least. It was evident that he hadn't been into the idea of fighting that day.

To save Raven from being forced to comment on the subject, Robin continued, "It's definitely an issue. And we need to find a solution for it soon."

"I was talking to Cyborg about it last night," Raven replied, "We were thinking that we all need to talk about it together in order to figure out how to fix it. It seems like it'll take more than just finding something more interesting for him."

The boy wonder rubbed is chin in thought. "I can call a meeting with the rest of the team later today. Sound good?"

"Fine." At this point, the conversation ended, so the empathy drained her teacup, placed it in the sink, and retreated to her room for her daily meditation and reading, plus a possible nap.

Knock, knock

Raven opened her eyes, then promptly shut them tightly against the light shining through her window. 'I thought I shut the curtains…' she thought as she rolled over and pressed a pillow on top of her head. Her visitor could wait. She needed just five more minutes of sleep…

Knock, knock

It was louder this time. Groaning, Raven rolled out of bed and pulled up her hood to hide her tangled hair; she had fallen asleep in her cloak. She shuffled over to her door and pulled it open halfway. "What?" she said, a little more harshly than she meant to.

Starfire stood before her, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Oh! Good morning, Raven. Um, have I interrupted something?"

"Just sleeping. What is it?"

"I simply wished to inform you that Robin has requested that we meet at 12 o'clock noon today, in the gym," she paused, "I was also wondering, would you happen to know what this meeting is about? It seems strange, because Robin also requested that we not inform Beast Boy."

"No idea. I'll see you at noon, Starfire."

"Oh. Bye then…" Starfire replied, slightly puzzled.

Raven closed her door and sighed, rubbing her temples. The only reason she hadn't told Starfire what the meeting was for was that she wasn't up to going over it with her. She glanced at her digital clock. 11:32. For the next 28 minutes, Raven was going to push this issue as far from her thoughts as possible…

A while later, Raven stood before the mirror in the hallway bathroom, running a brush through her damp hair. When she was through, she placed her hairbrush inside the medicine cabinet on her designated shelf. There were six shelves in the cabinet: five were assigned to each of the Titans and the extra was for anything that everyone used, such as painkillers and disinfectants. Needless to say, each shelf accommodated very different objects. The economy-sized tub of hair gel that occupied most of Robin's shelf contrasted greatly with the various scented sprays lotions just below it on Starfire's shelf. But that was just how the Titans were. They were all very different people.

She closed the cabinet and walked down the hall to her quarters. When she stepped through the door, Raven's clock promptly showed her that it was 12:05. It seemed that her quick shower wasn't quite as quick as she thought. She stepped back into the hallway and started towards the gym.

On her way to the room where the informal meeting was to be held, Raven ended up bumping into Beast Boy – literally. He had just been exiting his room as she passed, resulting in an inevitable collision. "Sorry," Raven said almost automatically after lifting herself to her feet once again.

"It's okay," the green teen replied as he also rose from the floor.

Raven blinked, startled at how the stoniness that Beast Boy's voice now contained rivaled her own. "Um…Where are you headed?"

"Ops room," Beast Boy replied shortly, stepping around Raven to continue down the hallway.

Raven opened her mouth to say more, then closed it and turned to resume her walk to the training room. It was now evident to her, more than before, that Beast Boy's behavior was quite irregular. Never before had his mind been so focused on any one thing.

Raven entered the gym, seeing that Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg were already there, as she thought they would be. "Sorry," she muttered, leaning against the wall near the door.

Robin stood near the center of the room, ready to lead the little meeting, while Cyborg sat on a bench press, and Starfire sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning back on her hands. "Okay," Robin began, "First of all, does everyone know why we're here?"

Starfire looked back and forth between Raven and Cyborg, neither of whom responded. She looked back at Robin and timidly raised her hand.

Robin sighed, but spoke patiently, "Okay, Star. We're here because it seems like Beast Boy has a problem-"

"Oh!" Starfire cut him off, her eyes brightening in understanding, "Do you mean his recent increased playing of the videogames?"

Robin nodded. "So you do know?"

"Yes," Starfire replied, "Um, it seems that he has been playing them quite often."

"He has," Robin stated, "And it's a bit of a problem. Together, we need to help him out of it."

"But how is what I wanna know," Cyborg piped up.

"That's what we're here to talk about," Robin replied, "Any suggestions?"

"Well, I've been trying for awhile…" Cyborg said, "Nothin' seems to catch his interest anymore."

"Oh! I might show Beast Boy the wonders of cross-stitching!"

"Um, that doesn't exactly seem like a Beast Boy thing, Starfire," Raven said.

"Oh," the red-head replied, her voice a bit quieter, "I suppose you are correct."

Raven thought a moment. "I can look at some of my books, but I can't promise anything. Videogame addiction isn't exactly something they cover."

"Well," Robin said, "That's all I can ask of any of you is to try and draw Beast Boy away from the games. However," he took on a slightly darker expression, "if this goes on for too much longer, we're going to need to find professional help for him."

Upon hearing this, Raven immediately stiffened, and she could see that her teammates were a bit discomforted by this idea as well. If there was one thing that she knew Beast Boy hated as much as animal cruelty, if not more, it was shrinks. The topic had in someway or another come up in conversation once before, and though Beast Boy had tried to mask it, Raven's empathy had helped her see through the façade and sense that he was unnerved. She didn't know where this feeling came from, but she did know that seeking professional help would probably hurt him more than help him, but she kept quiet for the time being.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Robin dismissed everyone, adding that there would be combat practice at 4:00, outside.

As she exited the gym, Raven was pulled aside by Starfire, who claimed to have an idea for her.

"Raven, might I suggest that you do the research in the book I presented to you for this past Christmas? The worker at the store of books where I purchased your gift said that it explained ways to help with slightly more…" she paused as she searched for the word, "modern problems."

"Okay, Starfire. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." Truth be told, she had completely forgotten about that book. It was basically about spiritual healing through meditation, and it was designed to reach out to modern-day teenagers. She hadn't really needed it, but maybe she could take a look at it, just to see if there was anything that could help Beast Boy. She turned and started to walk back to her room, but Starfire stopped her once again.

"Oh, Raven? Would you perhaps enjoy accompanying me to the mall of shopping?"

Raven was about to turn her offer down, as she often did, but then thought, 'Well, it has been awhile since I did something with her…' She turned back to face her friend and replied, "Okay, but how about a bit later? Maybe around 1?"

Starfire's face lit up. "Oh, wonderful! We will visit the store of sweets and buy many delicious treats, and we will try on many different shoes of high heels… Oh I cannot wait!"

Raven smiled internally. "Alright, Star, I'll see you then." Finally, she returned to her room, closing her door behind her. "Okay, now let's get this done…" she said aloud as she headed over to her bookshelves. She pulled a stack of about 5 books from the shelves, including the one Starfire had reminded her of, and brought them over to her bed.

The first three books she studied ranged from 80 to 300 years old, and offered nothing that she could relate to Beast Boy's situation. Shaking her head, she put them aside. Next came the book she had received from Starfire. This particular book had an index, so she flipped to the back of the volume and ran a slender finger down the page in a column of keywords beginning with the letter 'V'. She did indeed find the word 'videogames' in the listing, along with two page numbers. Curiously, she turned to the first page that videogames were mentioned on. On the page was a simple table, listing the seven chakras in the first column and addictions related to the chakras in the second. Videogames was listed next to the fifth chakra, the Vishuddha chakra. Raven's heart skipped a beat. She knew from memory that this particular center of power dealt with communication. An imbalance could result from a few things, fear to speak one's mind being one of them. Could that really be the root of Beast Boy's problem? Typically, he was pretty outspoken, but maybe that was just the way it seemed?

She quickly flipped to the next page that had been listed in the index. This one was an in-depth explanation of the fifth chakra, along with a couple of simple balancing methods. This book would never have quite done it for Raven, as she was already accustomed to more complicated meditations and procedures, but could it work for Beast Boy? Maybe.

She honestly had no idea if any of these methods would work. Beast Boy would first have to be convinced that he had a problem and that he needed help, because an unwilling party would not benefit in the least from meditation or otherwise.

For the time, Raven chose to keep the information she had found to herself. If none of her teammates found anything else in a couple of days and Beast Boy's behavior did not change, she would inform them of her discovery and find out what they thought of it.

Pushing the subject out of her mind for the time, Raven crossed her legs for some meditation before she was to journey to the mall with Starfire. 'No use worrying,' she thought. 'For right now, it's out of my hands.'

Forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes. It shouldn't be too bad, as I'm usually pretty good about that, but I'm sure there's a couple. Thank you for taking the time to read.

About flames: I do not tolerate them if they simply say, "Your story sucks." However, if you give me some constructive criticism along with it, like, "I don't like your story. Everyone is out of character," it is perfectly fine. I'm always willing to improve.

To my knowledge, review responses are still banned (correct me if I'm wrong) but I will acknowledge anyone who does review in the next chapter and if I have a special response for you, I will use email.

Oh, can someone tell me how to do page breaks?

I think I'm done now.