Things Change… And It's Not Always Bad…
By Shadow in the Rain
Chapter 2: Talk About Your Psycho Ex Night
The burning energy that had propelled him to the main room seemed to evaporate by the time he got there, which might have had something to do with the sheer amount of meat that was being consumed in the room.
Cyborg, of course, was having a midnight snack that probably included a few herds of cattle, at least. Beast Boy slid into the booth across from him, after checking the fridge and finding it bare of anything vegetarian-friendly.
"Yo, BB, whassup?" Cy's voice was rather muffled due to his sandwich.
"Ehhm…" Beast Boy was swinging his feet back and forth underneath the table in a rather childish manner, trying to think of a good way to phrase the question that wouldn't make him sound like a desperate, heartbroken loser.
Taking a deep breath, he plunged into his question: "So let's say this um… friend of mine, named, uh, say, Char—yeah, that's it, Char. So Char really really liked this girl… Lara. Like, he really liked her. More than he'd ever really liked anybody else, y'know??
There was a few seconds of silence after BB finished his speech, in which Cy just stared at him, a smile twitching at his lips.
Then he laughed. And laughed. And laughed some—
"DUDE IT'S NOT FUNNY!!"
"Ahh, sorry BB," Cyborg said, "Well, if you need help getting over Terra—"
Beast Boy cleared his throat and glared at Cyborg.
"Ahem, I mean, if Char needs help getting over Lara, then he would probably do best if he well… saw other people and just stopped thinking about her."
"Uh-huh…"
"Uh-huh," Cy said, in a sort of final way. He got up and strolled out of the room, pausing just before the door to say, "Well, you be sure to pass that advice on to Char so that he can, uh, get on with his life and just let it go."
After the doors had hissed shut, Beast Boy's head flopped to the table. He whispered, "But what if Char can't let it go?"
Just as the first rays of sunlight were about to appear on the horizon, Raven entered the OPs.
She stood over the teakettle, letting the warmth of the stove wash over her, relaxing. After a few moments (before the kettle whistled), she poured the water into a mug, and drifted over to the table, a tea bag floating behind her, seemingly of its own accord.
She settled into her seat, taking note of Beast Boy, slumped over across the table from her, asleep. His face was hidden, buried in arms that were crossed upon the table.
She took a sip of her tea, and then set it down on the table…the steam rising from it felt nice…
"Raven…"
She jumped a little. Maybe BB wasn't so asleep after all.
He lifted his head a little bit so that she could see just his eyes, but the rest remained hidden by his crossed arms on the table.
Raven recovered quickly from her surprise at his consciousness, nothing if not capable of resetting her face to neutral. She cocked an eyebrow at him.
"What did you do… to… to get over it?"
"Oh, because clearly there's only been one thing in my life I've ever had to get over…" she replied dryly, now tracing a slender finger around the edge of the teacup, its contents still too hot to drink.
"Him."
She resisted the urge to use her mind to flick the steaming hot teabag at his face for continuing to be so vague—again, there had been more than one him that she had had difficult dealings with in the past—and why did he look so sad—oh.
She had sensed the continued restlessness and sadness in him—the restlessness was more apparent, the sadness was quieter, soft notes hidden behind the cacophony of can't sit still gotta move gotta move that had clung to him more strongly than usual. She had grown (somewhat) use to dealing with his rather topsy-turvy mind as a constant, often uncomfortable close presence—all of the warring instincts, the constant shifting focus, and the sheer intensity of many of the human emotions that did break through the sound barrier of the animal desires warring within him. Her head hurt for the first few weeks, and she had been, on some level, terrified that the loudness of the animal kingdom that he carried with him everywhere would blot out the small, weak, human voice that was almost an afterthought.
Wait, no, no getting lost in thoughts, he had asked her something—right. Apparently it was going to be Talk About Your Psycho Ex Night. She wasn't quite sure if she was up for that just now. (And that had absolutely nothing to do with that little lurching pull she was starting to, inexplicably, bafflingly feel for him. Nothing. Really.)
"Malchior?"
He nodded.
She sighed almost imperceptibly, except perhaps to his sharp ears.
"I moved on because I had to." Because you can't just stand there with a broken heart in your hands and dumb expression on your face forever.
"But… how?"
She sighed again, looked back down at her tea. Wondered how many laps her fingers had made around the lip of teacup. How many laps would it take to worry the thing away to dust?
Slowly, she said, "You just try not to think about it as much as possible." And try not to drown in it in the meantime.
AN: Alrighty, I actually wrote another chapter. I know, I'm shocked too. I kind of forgot this story existed, and if it weren't for the pokings and proddings of a few reviewers (namely the lovely ravengal) this chapter wouldn't exist. I actually wrote like… half of it probably a year ago. If you can see where I picked up again this year, you get a cookie. I think the change in style is pretty drastic, but I could be perceiving things wrong. Also, I wrote the whole second half of this in one go and it's about three in the morning and I'm listening to Pink Floyd and insomnia is a bitch.
So. Let me know what you guys think (BECAUSE I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE READING THIS. AHAHAHAHAHA.) because I feel like I might have totally lost the feel of the characters after such a long time away from them. Raven especially, but then again, she was kind of the only character I really had to write in this bit.
That's all! Thanks so much to everybody who reads and reviews, it means a lot to me!