No Excuses 2 - Aftermath

Well after a little badgering from people, I though it might be worth adding to this little story... maybe even keep going. See where it takes me I suppose.

Starfire was hiding in her room. She knew that, eventually, Beast Boy would start asking questions and, frankly, she didn't trust herself not to spill every detail. That was just who she was, deceit was very unnatural for her. So she hid, hoping the others would sort everything out. She supposed it wasn't as cataclysmic as she feared... but her instincts told her this situation would snowball into something larger, good or bad. She jumped when there was a knock at the door. She floated toward it, better to hear who her visitor was.

"Who is it?" she asked through the door.

"It's Raven," came softly from the other side. Starfire quickly opened the door, dragged Raven inside and slammed it shut again. Normally, such behaviour would have Raven staring, perhaps firing off the odd acerbic comment... but now she paced around Starfire's room, arms crossed across her chest and staring blindly at the ground. After starting to feel a little dizzy watching her friend go round in circles, Starfire darted in front of her, gently grasping her shoulders and bringing her to a halt. Raven started as if she'd forgotten Starfire was even there.

"Will you not sit, Raven?" Starfire said, gesturing toward her bed. Raven sat but didn't unfold her arms. She was quiet for a long time. Finally she stared into Starfire's eyes again.

"Starfire... what should I do?" asked the sorceress, panic colouring her voice. Starfire winced inwardly. Hadn't she already resolved to stay out of it? No... no this was Raven and she needed help. She needed Starfire.

"Let us summarise the situation. We have learned by the accident that friend Beast Boy harbours romantic feelings for you and... and that's it. There are only two questions that you must answer." Raven was lost in thought. She had a million questions flying around her head, how had Starfire narrowed them all down to two?!

"W-which questions, Starfire?" Raven asked, nervously. Starfire took a deep breath.

"First, you must decide if we are to tell Beast Boy what happened and second... you must ascertain what your own feelings are on the matter. Your feelings for Beast Boy." Raven was practically convulsing, she was so tense, her mouth working soundlessly.

"T-tell him? TELL HIM?! No... Nooooo no no no no no no no. I won't be doing that. There are other options after all... we could travel back in time to stop it from happening! I could erase my memory - all of it, just to be sure. I wasn't using those childhood memories anyway. Or we could kill everyone in the whole world, then no one will find out!" Raven's 'plans' continued to tumble out of her mouth, making Starfire fear more and more for her friend's sanity... finally, Raven ceased and, finally un-crossing her arms, dropped her head into her hands. "I don't know what to do with this, Star... I... we have all learned one of Beast Boy's most closely guarded secrets. I'm guessing, from their reactions, he hadn't even told Robin or Cyborg. I just... I don't know what to do," Raven finished, her voice shrinking to a whine.

"Raven," Starfire started. "There is still the other question. You can only know how to deal with Beast Boy when you know how you feel about it... are you angry? Are you sad? Are you happy? Are you flattered?" Raven seemed to think on her words. "Are you... interested?" Starfire added, Raven's head whipping up to face her.

"W-what? No! Of course not!" Raven shrieked.

"Then, if you are not romantically interested in Beast Boy, you must approach this as his friend. If we, your friends, kept a secret like this from you, how would you feel?" Starfire asked.

"Ugh..." Raven winced. "I would not want to hear something like that about me... but I would want my friends to keep such a secret even less. I will tell Beast Boy what happened. But I need time to... prepare myself." Starfire nodded, walking with Raven as she exited her bedroom but staying on her side of the threshold. As Raven turned back to speak again, they both heard what sounded a lot like Beast Boy. Screaming.

The following is roughly the same period of time from Beast Boy's point of view.

Beast Boy wasn't generally suspicious. He was suspicious right now. After his friends had finished laughing at him for some mysterious reason - which they then refused to explain - he had naturally asked them to describe the fight with Mad Mod. They had done so, including the part where they had brought him home, unable to rouse him. Then he had asked how they had finally woken him up... and they were very quiet. And still. The animals in him screamed at their suspect body language: they were hiding something. Eventually, they just told him he had snapped out of it on his own, but had spent a good half-hour speaking in a poor english accent and behaving like a bad stereotype. They thought they were in luck: Beast Boy's false assumption about 'acting British' had done half their work in coming up with a convincing lie. They knew Raven wouldn't want them talking about it so they did their best to weave the story into a convincing account. It might have worked... but Beast Boy knew there hiding something. And when Beast Boy is not supposed to know something, he will do everything in his power to know it! He went to get a soda, ostensibly to rinse out the taste of the tea but really, he wanted to provide Robin and Cyborg a chance to speak privately. In theory. If he stayed at the right distance and angled himself correctly, his unique ears would let him listen in on their whispered discussion. Sure enough, the two boys quickly engaged in hushed conversation.

"We're gonna have to distract him," Cyborg whispered. "If he keeps asking questions, one of us is gonna slip up!"

"Okay... we need to get some distance," Robin suggested. "We might as well destroy the security camera footage while we're at it - Raven will want no loose ends. We'll say we've got more of Mad Mod's gear to examine." Beast Boy frowned. What did Raven have to do with all this? They seemed to be... deferring to her. He gulped down his soda and, when his friends explained they had more work to do, he grinned and claimed he would make the most of his alone time with the TV... then, the moment they stepped through the door, he morphed into a tiny fly and darted through after them. As they had planned, they headed to the camera room rather than the evidence room. Beast Boy slipped in with them and perched on the wall, trying to get a good view. In the end, he found a space on a shelf and shifted into a small bird - far easier to see with these eyes. He watched the footage as his friends tried to wake him up, all to no avail. There was only video, no sound, so he couldn't tell what was being said. Then, much to his chagrin, he watched as friends took advantage of him. He had to admit, he would have played the same prank on Cyborg or Robin in their situation... but that didn't make it any easier to watch. The two boys, oblivious to their companion, couldn't resist watching the whole thing again, giggling as they did so. They held their breath as it grew closer. Beast Boy returned from his room. You couldn't tell from the video but Raven commanded him to act on his greatest desire... then he marched up to Raven and kissed her. Robin opened his mouth to laugh but cried out instead as a green boy appeared next to him, screaming his lungs out!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he screamed. Robin and Cyborg both held their hands to their ears. His already loud voice rang painfully in the small room.

"Beast Boy, stay cal-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he screamed again.

"BB! BB, stop yelli-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he screamed yet again. Robin finally wrapped his hand around Beast Boy's mouth, silencing him, though he still attempted to scream. Shortly after, the door flew open and Raven and Starfire appeared, ready to fight. Then they saw Beast Boy being manhandled by Robin. Then... they saw what was on the screen. Beast Boy stopped screaming and stared at Raven like she was an oncoming car. Raven herself blushed to the roots of her hair. Starfire, wisely, decided she was not needed and floated back to her room. Robin and Cyborg continued to stand, dumbly. Raven's shy expression gave way to a glare.

"Get out. Now," she ordered. She was obeyed. She glanced around, distastefully at the small security office. "Let's go somewhere more... relaxed." Raven walked out the door, Beast Boy following and cringing like a kicked dog. Raven quickly disregarded Beast Boy's bedroom. It smelled. Plus she wanted the home advantage in this conversation... her room it was. She ushered him in and closed the door... he was shaking so badly he almost tripped. She sat him down on her bed but he quickly jumped back to his feet.

"R-Raven! Don't be mad at me! Cy tricked me, right? He pranked me, told me to kuhhh... to kiiirr... to k...ki...ki...ki...k-"

"Kiss me!" Raven finished, her impatience momentarily outweighing her embarrassment. Beast Boy's eyes almost shot out of his skull.

"Um... yeah. You know what I'm like with those hypno-things, I can't help-"

"It wasn't Cyborg," Raven uttered. Beast Boy was silenced immediately. "It was me... sort of."

"Um... sort of? I'm freaking out here, Rae... wha-" Raven silenced him with a look. But not a glare... it was a look he had never seen on her before. There was warmth there. Forgiveness (for which he was extremely grateful), pity and... regret.

"I asked you," Raven started slowly. "*Ahem*... I asked you to do the one thing - the one,singular thing! - you wanted to do most. And you chose to kiss me." Raven said nothing more, leaving her words to do their work. Beast Boy looked as if he'd been stabbed in the gut, grimacing and clutching his stomach. He was caught. He was exposed. In front of everyone. Now he knew why they had tried to keep it a secret, at least for now. To Raven's dismay, he began to cry. "Beast Boy... Garfield. Don't be upset, you... you don't have to be embarrassed. We can-"

"I'm not embarrassed, Rae. Well... not embarrassed to tears anyway." His voice was quiet and empty, like he had used himself up. His eyes found hers, the tears still spilling. "There's no point denying it, is there? Yeah, I wanted to kiss you. I still want to. More then I can remember wanting anything..." Raven coloured again at his intensity.

"Then why are you crying?" Raven asked as his eyes continued to bore into hers.

"Imagine you had got the thing you wanted most, Raven. Imagine you had watched it happen... and now imagine you couldn't remember it. Imagine it was like watching a stranger wearing your face, living your life and kissing the girl you..." he stopped himself there, his voice rising in volume. He sat on the floor, heavily, weeping again. "I kissed you, Rae... I wanted it forever and it happened. But I wasn't there. It finally happened and I wasn't there." Raven finally understood his pain. His secret wish had been granted and stolen from him all at once, in full view of his friends. She was overwhelmingly glad they had brought him home, away from the prying eyes of the Jump City citizens. She sat next to him, both of them with their backs against her bed... his distress was so great, Raven could feel it seeping into her own feelings, causing tears to sting her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Beast Boy... " she said, unsure of what to say next. He gulped and spoke in her place.

"That was, um... my first kiss, too..." Now he was embarrassed, though Raven didn't fully understand why. Some male, teenage posturing thing, she supposed. "It was my first kiss, and I wasn't even me." The added cruelty encouraged more tears from Raven's eyes - she had inadvertently stolen the boy's first kiss. It didn't occur to her that it had been hers as well.

"Beast Boy... I know it hurts but I have to tell you... I don't feel that way about you. You're my friend... I love you but I'm not in love with you." Beast Boy nodded, wiping his eyes. He had known all along, which was why the kiss was a secret fantasy. It would never happen. Then it did and, by some cruel fate, he had missed it.

"It's okay Rae, I knew that, I think. Maybe allowed myself to hope, sometimes but never really believed it..." His head sank down again, his heart crushed. Raven still didn't know what to do... then it hit her. It seemed absurd but the more she thought on it, the more it seemed the right action. Her decision made, Raven steeled her resolve and shuffled closer to Beast Boy.

"Garfield... I can't give that kiss back to you. But I can give you this," Raven said, mysteriously. When Beast Boy looked up from the floor to face her, he found his lips captured by Raven's in a chaste kiss. It didn't last long but for a moment, Beast Boy forgot to breathe and was fairly sure his heart had stopped beating. For a long moment all he could see was her face, blushing slightly and with those eyes watching him. Finally, like the Sun at dawn, his smile reappeared beneath his watery eyes. He didn't think she would ever know what this gesture meant to him. The lost first kiss would always haunt him, he suspected... but Raven had given him a new one to replace it. And it had been bliss! He moved towards her and Raven was momentarily afraid he had the wrong idea... then his head fell on her shoulder and he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Thank you... Thank you, Raven," he sobbed. She returned the embrace gently, patting him on the back and stroking his hair... Hm. It was smoother than she had expected. They parted and helped each other to their feet. Raven magnanimously allowed him to wash his face in her bathroom before he left. When he exited, he cast another grateful smile her way but said nothing. Then he was gone. Raven sat back down and let out a long breath. The clock read ten o'clock... late enough to turn in. She noted, with a little flutter in her nervous stomach, that she could now taste some sort of soft drink on her lips - turnabout is fair play after all - before she brushed her teeth and washed her face. She dressed for bed and curled up under the sheets, her fingers subconsciously moving to her lips. When she did fall into deep sleep, Raven hugged a pillow to her chest. This wasn't particularly unusual. What was unusual was the way her sleeping self held it, the way her hands clumsily moved across it. If it had been humanoid or a stuffed toy, the movements would have made much more sense.

She would have been patting its back and gently stroking its hair.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I took this funny little story and got really, really intense! Like, properly intense! Crazy. Let me know what you think in reviews cos I really like them. I would like to express my gratitude to my supporters as 'Harmless Question' is my first story to break fifty reviews. You guys rock!

Read. Enjoy. Review.

-Jack