Dreams
She didn't just want him.
She needed him.
Those glances that he gave her with those emerald eyes made her heart sputter and expand in her chest. Whenever he touched her, and a blush rose to her cheeks, she was glad she had her hood on.
He probably thought nothing of it. Raven didn't blame him. How could sweet, oblivious Beast Boy realize how much he was loved? Even if he did, he most certainly wouldn't expect it to come from her, the goth that always made snide comments about him.
Her favorite memory. That time, in Nevermore, when she found out Beast Boy did like her, to an extent. His hand came to rest on her shoulder, and he gazed into her amethyst eyes. In that moment, something inside her clicked, and time froze. Though she wouldn't admit it for a while to come, she had come to adore the little green nuisance.
Which stirs a distant memory. The time she shared Starfire's powers. At the first thought of 'unbridled joy', she had seriously doubted her ability to feel joy. But at the overenthusiastic alien's encouragement, she summoned the memory Nevermore to the forefront of her mind.
'Surely,' she thought, 'if I have a joyous memory, than this is it.'
And it was. As she remembered his warm hand on her shoulder, and his gentle green gaze, her heart lifted. As her eyes snapped open, she realized her heart was lifting with it!
Afterwards, as Starfire questioned her, she panicked. If this got out, she'd never hear the end of it! Raven's mind went into overdrive, fabricating a response that would merit no questions. She could tell that Starfire was hurt at her answer, but much to the her relief, she didn't question any further.
The night she embraced that memory was the first night she dreamt of him.
In Raven's mind, they were in the common room. They were talking of mundane things, when Beast Boy suddenly asked, "Do you like me, Rae?"
She hesitated, unsure if she would be rejected or not. He noticed her hesitation, and added in a much softer voice, "You don't have to pretend to like me."
Blushing, she whispered back, "But I'm not pretending."
After that, she wasn't sure what happened. All she knew was that Beast Boy had her in a strong hug and was stroking her hair and murmuring in her ear. "Raven, Raven, Rae…"
Then she woke up, feeling more protected and loved than she had in years.
No one really noticed that day when she wasn't able to make eye contact with Beast Boy.
The dreams continued, and she was always sad that the dreams had to end. Sometimes she cried at the loss of a particular vision.
One night, however, she drifted into something completely different.
Raven came to in a library that was all too familiar. Shaking her head in confusion as to why she was here, she went towards the center of the library. She knew that the yellow-cloaked Knowledge would be there. Since she was in control of all her memories and she knew just about everything there was to know, perhaps Raven could finally get some answers.
She found Knowledge. Of course she did. However, knowing her luck, she was greeted by a long, rectangular table that contained Happy, Timid, Brave, Affection, Vulgar, Wisdom, and the sheepish looking Knowledge. What's worse, there was an empty seat before her where she was apparently supposed to sit.
She fixed the yellow-cloaked emotion with a glare. "What is the meaning of this?"
"W-well, um-" Knowledge stuttered.
"Aw, chill, Rae-Rae!" Happy piped up. Ignoring the leer from Raven that would have anyone else cowering in their seat, she continued. "We all just know you're acting PMS-ish because we're standing in your way of another romantic evening with your little green obsession! I mean, we have to watch you and Beast Boy make out every night in your dreams! Cut us some slack."
"Happy, shut it." Wisdom said sternly. Smart of Happy to shut up before Raven ripped her head off. The calm emotion added in a much softer voice, "Please sit, Raven."
Raven sat. She knew that if she would be calm, perhaps she would get answers. After a quick glance around the table, she saw that Vulgar was snoring on the table, Affection was staring into space with a dreamy smile, and Knowledge was cleaning her glasses to avoid Raven's gaze. Happy was happily waving to Raven, and Wisdom was looking calmly at her. The only odd thing was that Bravery was glaring angrily at Timid, who studied the table very carefully with sad, red eyes.
A few minutes passed, and Raven couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Well?" she queried in a cold voice. "Why am I here?"
Knowledge spoke up for the first time since she arrived. "You have noticed the strange behavior of your powers as of late, correct?"
Now Raven's gaze towards Knowledge was laden with curiosity. "Yes, I have." Things had been exploding more often in the present time.
The yellow-cloaked emotion cleared her throat nervously. "To put it bluntly, since the incident, Happy has been annoyingly over cheerful, Affection has been spacing out and daydreaming, and to top it all of, Bravery and Timid have been arguing."
"Timid?" she glanced at the now shaking grey emotion. "Huh. Didn't know she had it in her."
"Nor did we." Wisdom's voice was deeply amused. "And I do admit, she has been holding her own quite nicely."
Timid eeped and sunk down into her chair, clearly hoping to avoid questioning stares.
"Anyway," Wisdom continued. "This incident is the cause of discord in Nevermore, and until you fix it, your emotions will begin to splinter, and so will your powers."
"And what is this 'incident'?" Raven questioned coldly.
This time, Knowledge answered. "The moment Beast Boy journeyed into Nevermore was pulled into a different perspective. A romantic perspective."
Raven didn't comprehend.
Happy sighed impatiently. "Look Rae, I'll dumb it down. You fell in love with Beast Boy, you think he's totally adorable, and you want to jump his bones."
The pink-cloaked emotion continued above Raven's stuttering protests. "And if you don't tell him you totally love him, you'll go insane and have to go in the fluffy room in the straight jacket." Happy shuddered. "Knowledge made me do that once, and trust me, it wasn't-"
"HAPPY, SHUT UP!" Wisdom roared as she glanced worriedly at Raven. Ever since "you'll go insane", Raven had frozen and stopped breathing.
"Oops. Too blunt?"
"Ah, I'll get 'er." Vulgar had woken up. She walked over to unmoving empath and slapped her, hard, across the face. The noise rebounded and Raven abruptly awoke. "COME ON, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" she shouted ferociously, rubbing the red handprint appearing on her cheek.
"My work here is done," Vulgar muttered, drifting back to sleep.
Raven turned to Wisdom, possibly the only sane one in the room. "Is that true?" Raven was badly concealing her rage.
Wisdom sighed at Happy's obliviousness. "Yes, although I wasn't going to tell you so bluntly."
Ok. This explained the dreams and the issues of Happy and Love. That left Timid and Brave.
"So what's so serious that would make Timid start arguing?"
Wisdom smiled in spite of herself. "Ah, that one has a fairly simple answer. Bravery wants to tell him, Timid is afraid of rejection. Timid doesn't want him to know, and without an unanimous vote, we can't. So, there you go."
Raven calmed, counting to ten. When she had finished, she asked, "What now?"
"I'd like him to know." A dreamy voice interrupted whatever Knowledge was going to say.
Love had finally focused her distant gaze on the issue on hand. "If you could tell him, that would be nice."
Bravery slapped Love's back hard, earning a wince. "Hell, yeah! See, SHE agrees with me Timid. In fact, you're the only one who doesn't."
Timid's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "B-but what if he doesn't like us?"
"Then we'll suck it up and live with it," said Knowledge grimly. "But until we do this, our powers will be out of control." All the emotions nodded, even Timid, no matter how hesitant and shaky the movement was.
Wisdom turned to face Raven. "It is decided then."
The empath sighed. "So it is."
A gentle voice spoke up, seeming to emanate from all of them. "Close your eyes, Raven. You must return to the waking world, and deal with the task at hand.
Lethargy struck Raven like a blow, and she was swept away into blackness.
She found herself blinking awake awhile later.
How to do this? Raven gathered herself mentally, and got dressed for the day.
Beast Boy and Cyborg were battling fiercely on the GameStation when she descended to the common room. The difficulty of her task caught up to her when she saw the cute little fang poking up over his lip. Red quickly covered her cheeks, and she hastily pulled her hood up.
Herbal tea. That always helps.
As she poured her tea, she noticed Starfire making some strange Tamaranian dish. This in itself was odd, seeing as no one ate this food, and Starfire "wishes to partake in all of these strange earthly cuisines".
"Starfire?"
"Yes, friend Raven?" Starfire asked eagerly, appearing to milk some kind of fungus into a bowl.
"…who are you making that for?"
The alien girl nodded happily. "Yes, friend Raven, this is for Silkie!" She gestured towards the adorable little worm, which was happily waiting on the floor.
Silkie! A light bulb went on in Raven's head. That, or Knowledge fired it into her head.
"Here, Silkie, Silkie" she whispered. The hyperactive worm turned to face her, wiggling happily, when she remembered the last time she called to a mutant animal.
"Oh shi-"
WHAM.
Raven fell to the ground under siege of a very excited mutant worm.
"Stupid worm," she muttered, tucking Silkie under her arm and quietly exiting the room.
A few moments later, she fastened a note on a string under Silkie's neck.
"Go find Beast Boy," Raven whispered. The worm wiggled excitedly, and Raven suddenly wondered if he knew what she was saying. However, Silkie squirmed out the door before she chose a course of action. I sure hope that worm is smarter than it looks…
"BOO-YAH!"
Beast Boy grumbled quietly at Cyborg's seventh exclamation of victory. He stood up.
"Ok, I've had my butt kicked enough times for today. Time for a break."
Cyborg didn't buy it. "Aw, it's ok, grass stain. We all know that you're just afraid to lose."
A vein throbbed in Beast Boy's temple. He turned around slowly, growling as he went.
Cyborg thought this opportunity was too good to pass up. Snapping his fingers in a Z-formation, he shouted in a high-pitched girly voice, "I went there!"
Beast Boy faced the ground, shoulders quivering. After his knees buckled and gave way, Cyborg began to worry that something was wrong. "Beast Boy? You imploding or somethin'?"
Next thing either of them knew, Beast Boy was laughing hysterically on the floor. Cyborg stared in shock.
"Oh my god, there IS something wrong with him! HE'S GOING INSANE!"
Beast Boy was rolling around, tears rolling down his face, laughing like a hyena on steroids.
Finally, after a long time, the hysterical laughs subsided into giggles, and finally, a semi-sane Beast Boy sat on the ground, breathing heavily. Cyborg didn't move. The slightest movement might set him off.
In a flash, Beast Boy was standing in front of him, glaring, and despite the height difference, Cyborg cowered.
"Rematch. After lunch. Be there, tin man." With that, he turned and stalked off.
Shaking his head in wonder at Beast Boy's mood swings, Cyborg wondered if it was his time of month.
Upon entering the kitchen, he went straight for the fridge. He scrutinized the contents, removed a mold-free carton of soymilk, and poured a tall glass of it.
A high-pitched squeak sounded by his feet, and he recognized Silkie's excited voice. Beast Boy bent down to pat him on the head and he noticed the note. "Hey, buddy. Whatcha got there?"
Tightly tied, the note was a challenge to remove. When he finally did, he opened it, smoothed it out, and read:
Dear Beast Boy,
I'm going to do this without mush, embarrassment, and no gushy speech.
I love you.
Love, Raven
Raven was meditating. "Azarath, metrion, zynthos…."
As soon as she said those words, there was a flurry of voices in her head.
Way to go, girl! Bravery cheered.
Yay! Happy squealed.
Good job. Knowledge sounded pleased at her chagrin-free idea.
Maybe Lust'll get some action now. Raven ignored Vulgar's snide comment.
No matter what, I'll love him… Wasn't too hard to recognize the voice.
Are you sure he'll like us? Timid was being insecure. Figures.
It will be fine, Timid. Now that the truth has been revealed, our powers are under control. We'll deal with what happens. The powerful voice of Wisdom stood out from the rest.
Knock, knock. A noise invaded her buzzing mind.
Raven drifted out of the lotus position, and she opened the door. She managed to catch a glimpse of Beast Boy before a pair of lips descended upon hers, and warm arms encircled her body. Then all conscious thought was wiped from her head.
All too soon, the moment ended. Beast Boy stepped back, watching the shock fade in her indigo eyes. She didn't speak. Her train of thought was completely empty, and all of her emotions, even Wisdom, were in a stunned silence.
Beast Boy turned to leave when she didn't move. He wondered if she actually meant it, or if it was an elaborate prank, when Raven came to her senses and practically tackled her from behind. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and he could feel her blush through his suit.
Chuckling quietly, he turned around and put his arms around her torso. He leaned in and whispered in her ear,
"Love you, too."
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A/N- Done. This is my first Teen Titans fic. 7 pages! Wow. Sorry for any OOCness.
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