Realisation
Kawaii Kabu
A/N: Hey guys, my bad for the epic wait. I had laptop problems, then coursework and uni application deadlines. THEN I didn't feel like writing for a while due to some family issues. Everything I sort of cleared up now, my Godfather even got me a new laptop for when I go to Uni (HELLS YEAH)... although I'm pretty sure I'll spend most of my time on the Sims 3 instead of schoolwork... Again. Sorry for lateness. I'm midway through chapter 7 as it is. So expect the rest up soon.
Melvin had finally received news on Raven's whereabouts. Yesterday Bumblebee called her into the conference room and informed her that Raven was back in the tower. The only female member of Titans East didn't get to continue the debriefing and the pre-teen psychic had rushed out of the room in order to pack her bags. She was going to Jump city.
Right now she was on the train with Bobby. No one sat near her, they could probably tell something was weird when a shady looking character tried to talk to her he was mysteriously hit over the head- Bobby was a protector after all.
Morning entered Raven's room at 6 AM. Normally the empath would have been woken by the sun- it was a natural alarm clock. However, the placement of Beastboy's room meant he didn't get any sunlight until around midday. When the empath woke up she was squashed to the wall, Beastboy liked to spread out on his bed. Jade was still sleeping serenely on his chest; both changeling and infant seemed to be ignoring the light that poured into the blue room from the bare window.
Raven sat up, bumping her head on the bottom of the top bunk. She cursed quietly and someone chuckled.
"He, you just hit your head." Beastboy said lazily. He opened one eye to look at Raven and grinned. "That's why I'm on this side of the bed, you don't hit the bottom here." he boasted.
"What's the time?" Raven asked, there was no clock- at least a visible one.
"Probably midday... maybe... I think..." Beastboy answered with a yawn. He closed his eye and once started to snore lightly. Raven crawled over him, careful not to disturb Jade who had a late night and needed extra sleep and walked out of the room in order to shower and continue her morning routine.
The big T was finally in sight. A few civilians had recognised the pink-clad blonde girl as the superhero trainee but no one dared approach her in fear of the giant teddy bear who was following her around the city.
"Look Bobby! We're here!" Melvin said excitedly to her best imaginary friend. The bear nodded its head. He picked up Melvin and placed her on his head- he then walked down the special road route to Titan Tower built especially for Cyborg's T-car.
Raven stepped out of her shower to find a pink superhero on her bed.
"Melv-"
"RAVEN!" the little girl yelled before pouncing on the closest thing to her mother. The little girl did not seem to want to let go. Raven felt some of the emotions Melvin was going through- relief, happiness, and warmth- and hugged the little girl back.
"I hear you're a trainee-Titan." she said. Melvin blushed with pride.
"Yeah... Bumblebee's nice but Nightwing said I really needed to see you about controlling psychic powers."
"He has a point there. Well, you go wait in the front room- I'll get dressed and we'll start lesson number one."
"Ok!" the blonde chirped. She skipped down the hallway leaving Raven to change into uniform.
Raven sighed as she combed the tangles out of her hair. The dye was washing out- not that it mattered now that she was a Titan again. Not leaving the Tower except for visits to Terra had made her skin paler. She was looking as she did before- yet at the same time she looked like a different person. She slipped into Kida's design and walked out of her room to teach her pupil.
"Awww- she's so cute!" she heard Melvin say. "She's like a little girl-Teether." It seemed that Beastboy and Jade had finally left their room.
"I know right?" Beastboy boasted, "Takes after her old man." Melvin giggled.
"You're not old!" she protested.
"Yeah but I am cute. Have you seen 'The Face'?" When Melvin shook her head no Beastboy transformed into a kitten and leapt onto the couch purring and giving off cute kitten vibes. Jade loved- no she loves cats. She loved pulling their tails, she loved patting-no hitting their heads and she liked to stroke them so much that the pressure caused them to be pinned to the floor. Beastboy had never turned into a cat in front of Jade before... the second she grabbed onto his green kitten tail and pulled him towards her he learnt that until she was old enough to treat a cat properly... he wouldn't use the form that had won over so many arguments. Melvin laughed at Beastboy's howl and even Raven cracked a smile- well, it was more of a twitch of the sides of her mouth.
"I recommend learning things about Jade." Raven said as she scooped up the infant. "Has she had something to eat yet?" Beastboy returned to his original form.
"No..." he replied. Melvin sat up straight and looked puzzled.
"Raven... is that /your/ baby?" she asked.
"Yes." Raven replied.
"Then how come she looks so much like that other girl? You know the one who I sang Karaoke with." Raven froze. Did her own daughter really not look like her at all?
"I don't know." Raven said slowly... like the words were foreign to her. "Maybe we should start with meditation?" Raven suggested putting Jade into Beastboy's lap. There was a slight strain in Raven's voice but Beastboy was the only one to notice it- he didn't have super-hearing for nothing. While Melvin got into position Beastboy approached Raven.
"You ok?" he asked.
"Fine." she said crisply. "Why?"
"Y'know... it just seemed like what Melvin said affected you a bit."
"Everything is fine." the empath insisted through gritted teeth.
"That means everything /isn't/ fine." Beastboy sang but he quickly fled in order not to feel her wrath.
It was a /really/ good thing that she was helping with meditation first.
Terra stretched her aching muscles. Whatever her psychotherapist was doing it was working. She had finally found some kind of peace since the accident. It wasn't causing her nightmares anymore. Soon she'd be back kicking bad guy butt on the streets with her boyfriend and teammates.
"I wonder what he's doing right now." she mused.
"Well, so long as Rae knows you're taking Jade out."
After five minutes of arguing the point that it was unsafe to ride with Jade on a moped Beastboy had scored the T-car keys off of Cyborg. The mechanical man had warned him that if his 'baby' or Jade was hurt in that Beastboy would in fact 'enter a world of pain on a whole different plane' while he and Raven would 'open up a can of whoop-ass' on the changeling.
Beastboy was /finally/ going to visit his girlfriend. He'd have to explain everything and he was pretty sure that Terra was clueless about Jade- so him walking in with a baby would be a surprise on its own. While in the garage he noticed that A) there was no baby seat and B) He would have to go up to Raven's room for the Car seat/carrier and that meant trespassing on Raven and getting blasted to another dimension for not asking her permission to take Jade outside the Tower. He couldn't leave Jade in the car while he 'poofed' there like Nightcrawler from X-men (he'd really just transform into a fly or another insect- he didn't possess Nightcrawler's ability of transportation). There was only one thing to do.
"St~ar?" Beastboy sang, "Do you think you could get Jade's car seat from Raven's room for me?" The alien princess was the only one on the team who Raven wouldn't purposely hurt- she was a far too innocent, naive, cheerful, orange blur for anyone to get angry at, accept of course for villains and henchmen- but they tasted star bolt and green alien laser anyway.
"Oh! Of course. You must be doing the 'father-daughter' bonding rituals. I shall be back momentarily." and with that the alien princess floated away. She was so innocent Beastboy almost felt guilty for using her to save his own skin... then he remembered what Raven would do to him if she caught him in her room /or/ taking Jade out.
He thought she'd definitely kill him if he took Jade to see Terra... so he hoped Raven would never find out.
"Miss Terra looks like you have a couple of visitors." one of the nurses chirped. Terra looked up from the magazine she was reading... A visitor? At this time of the week? It couldn't be the Titans... they always came on Sunday without fail. Well, the majority of the Titans. Terra looked towards the door to see who the mysterious visitor and hoped to God that it wasn't some reporter.
The blonde was shocked and overjoyed when Beastboy poked his head into a corner. Overjoyed because hey- finally her boyfriend had come to visit. Shocked because he walked in with a baby on his arm.
"Gar... Why do you have that little girl-Melvin's brother with you?" Terra asked suspiciously. Beastboy chuckled nervously.
"Uh... Terra... this is Jade- not Teether."
"Ok..."
"She's my daughter." Terra laughed and patted his shoulders.
"That's funny Gar. I knew you'd cheer me up in this hospital." she moved in to hug him, expecting him to have his signature cat-like grin plastered across his face but he looked dead serious.
"T. I'm serious. I'm a dad."
"Then why isn't she /green/?"
"I guess she takes after her mom like that..." Beastboy shrugged. "But she's got my eyes and my hair was blond before I went all green."
"So who's her mom? I can't be me-duh... you haven't been cheating on me have you?"
"Terra, you heard about Raven since you came here right?"
"Nope... not really, I know she's back on the team. That's about it. Oh- and she forgives me for something."
"Well, I'm not really sure how to tell you this but... Raven is Jade's mom." Terra's eyes grew as big as dinner plates.
"You are shitting me." She said. "You have /got/ to be shitting me." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "If the kid is one... Beastboy Raven was pregnant when she left!"
"Yeah I know... I'm not an idiot."
"Obviously you are. If you're going to break up with your girlfriend for someone else you /don't sleep with them and knock them up/!" Terra ranted.
"Hey I didn't know she was pregnant, ok."
"Yeah but still! It's like /common sense/! Oh God. She must think I am /such/ a bitch." Terra said to herself. "You know what Gar? You and I need a break. I think we should take one... right now."
"What for?"
"I need to think about things, and you have a daughter. Do the math." with that Beastboy and his offspring left the room.
"What the hell!" Beastboy cursed in the T-car. Jade stared at him curiously from her car seat. "Eh, don't worry Jade. Daddy's just a /freaking idiot/ who doesn't understand women." The ride home was quiet. Jade stared at the world outside as Beastboy moped over the sudden end of his relationship. Things just decided to get worse as he neared the road built especially for the T-car.
"When you get home Rae is gonna kick your ASS man. I thought you said she was cool with you taking Jade out!" Cyborg was on one of the many screens on the T-car's dashboard.
"Great..." Beastboy muttered. "Like this day keeps getting better and better."
He entered his room with Jade in arms and was greeted by a pissed Raven. The empath was sitting on the bottom bunk, staring holes through his body. He felt like a teenager getting caught by his parents after sneaking out of the house.
"Uhh... hi." He started lamely. Jade 'maaaa'd and kicked him a few times in the ribs leaning forward towards Raven. The young woman didn't look as though she was moving from her spot at all so Beastboy cautiously inched forwards arms outstretched with Jade. When he was close enough Raven took Jade from him, cuddled the infant and trapped him with a powers.
"Where did you take her?" She asked. Beastboy probably would have been less scared if she had shouted at him, but no, she was quiet, monotone... basically the Raven from the beginning of Teen Titans had come back.
"I went to visit- Terra?"
"Why did you take my daughter."
"She's mine too..." Beastboy argued. One look from Raven shut him up.
"I'm her mother. I /need/ to know where she is got it?" When Beastboy nodded in understanding she stood up and walked towards the door. "And don't take her out to see your girlfriend ever again." She spat. Damn. Looked like despite how 'well' everything appeared Raven still despised the both of them.
"She thinks I'm a douche." He said. Raven stopped for a moment. Raven nodded.
"Can't disagree with her there."
"And I'm sorry... you know... for being a douche to you."
"Whatever." Raven was just about to turn the corner when she was halted by a pair of green arms encircling her waist. "What are you doing?"
"I am sorry. I shouldn't have treated you like that." he whispered down her neck. The hot air sent electricity up and down Raven's spine. "I shouldn't have started two timing, I shouldn't have taken your virginity like that, I shouldn't have dumped you the time and place and way I did, and I shouldn't have let you think I didn't care about you enough for you to leave."
"I didn't leave because you didn't care for me." Raven scoffed. "I left because being a superhero and a mother does not mix well. I don't need your pity anyway. What's done is done and if you think that the past few weeks and that little speech you just gave is going to change- you are sadly mistaken. Don't take her out again. You only get one warning."
Melvin's first day meditation went well as far as Raven was concerned. They'd been meditating for about two and a half hours before /and/ after lunch and Melvin hadn't fidgeted at all. She hadn't even noticed the sun starting to set- right now she was telling Melvin about Jade and asking about her two other 'children'.
"And Jimmy lost his first tooth last week and the tooth fairy gave him a /whole/ dollar. 'Course I'm the only one who noticed the tooth fairy was /actually/ Bumblebee." the blonde girl said.
"That's nice of her." Raven said with a slight smile. "I better go and take Jade from Beastboy, it's nap time- knowing him he'll have her up all day." She got up from the table and headed to Beastboy's room where she was certain the changeling and her daughter were.
Sure enough there were Beastboy and Jade. Raven was surprised because Jade was actually knocked out on the bed breathing heavily. A pillow was at her side to prevent her rolling off the edge of the bed... Maybe Beastboy did know about childcare. Sitting at the edge of the bed was Beastboy with his Walkman on- Raven was sure she heard the distinct guitar chords of the acoustic version of Heartless by Kris Allen. He looked mopey- like the time no one believed him about Terra coming back... only ten times worse. She picked up on his dark cloud immediately and the feeling of heartbreak she had nursed almost two years ago washed over her, only this time, she wasn't the one experiencing the emotion.
"What's wrong?" she asked, trying to be as neutral as possible- trying not to let him detect the hint of worry and empathy in her voice.
"Nuthin'." he replied.
"Ok." Raven said quietly, she began to leave Beastboy alone in his emo world when he stopped her. She was almost halfway out of the door when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back in. While she was confused he held her in an awkward bear-hug. "What are you doing?" she asked him.
"I think Terra broke up with me." he mumbled into her shoulder. "Just 'cuz I've got a kid." Raven didn't know whether he wanted to be comforted or if he was just informing her that he was now single. She didn't try to awkwardly pat or rub his back while he clung to her, she didn't even try to get away from his vice grip. She just stood there.
They stood like that for about three minutes. Not moving. Raven seemed to have held her breath throughout the whole ordeal and Beastboy was breathing heavily enough for the both of them. It had been a long time since someone had hugged her. The last hug she got was before- no. No. She wouldn't think about it, not if she didn't want to be reduced to tears and collapse taking all of the light bulbs in Titan Tower with her.
"Garfield... let go of me." she ordered. When he finally backed off she took a big breath, exhaled then walked into her room. No doubt for meditation. On the plus side- it looked like Beastboy had Jade for another night.
Beastboy sighed. What an eventful day. What was he expecting Raven to do anyway- welcome him back with open arms? If he was her he wouldn't want himself back either. That's probably why she was so awkward during their one-sided hug- she was stiffer than a board. Not wanting to disturb Jade he climbed to the top bunk and lay down staring at the ceiling. Yet again he sighed. Both girls he'd ever dated probably both hated him. Raven on account of him being a dick, Terra on account of being a dick to Raven. Why didn't girls and the 'rules' of dating come in a manual? It would have made things so much easier to understand. At the time of Jade's conception Raven was his current girlfriend- they loved each other... or were in love with each other because there was a difference between the two phrases.
Their anniversary was different... They had the tower to themselves; they had the regulation romantic meal and watched the sunset. Raven had blindfolded him and led him to her room, when she'd undone the blindfold primal instinct took over. What sane guy would turn down his girlfriend if she was straddling his lap in next to nothing planting kisses down his neck?
No sane man. That's who.
Then again... those men wouldn't have forgotten the most /basic rule/ of having sex- Unless you're planning a family use a freaking condom! Did he regret it though? A part of him did- a whole lot of drama would have been avoided if he'd used a condom. But then there was the bigger part of him that had already warmed to the idea of parenthood and had embraced it. He loved Jade. That he knew for sure- he was her father, how could he /not/ love her? She was half him. She looked like he had before he'd gotten bitten by that infected monkey. You could say a part of him loved Jade because she was what he used to be- a normal, happy child.
Jade started to whine in her sleep, which meant she'd be waking up soon. If she couldn't see someone when her eyes opened she'd scream down the tower for someone to care for her. Babies needed company like that he'd concluded.
The moment she entered her room candles were lit. Melvin was sitting on her bed in lotus position, eyes closed, breathing slowly. If it were any other person Raven may have snapped at the invasion of her privacy. It seemed that the young psychic was in tune with Raven as she had lit the Rosemary and Thyme scented candles and had laid them in the four corners of the room. The strong scent filled her nostrils and almost immediately soothed her emotions, preventing them from bursting out as body-racking tears or as a fit of anger.
"Wanna talk about it?" Melvin questioned innocently.
"I wouldn't want to worry you or anything."
"Well when your mood changed from admiring to fear I was already worried for you." the girl said. "Besides, talking about things helps... haven't you ever watched Dr. Phil?" Raven cracked a smile at the child's wisdom.
"You're not going to give up until I tell you are you?"
"Nope." Raven sat down on the bed and held a cushion to her chest. She was still stuck living as 'Rachel'- other than meditating she hadn't really done anything Raven would normally do. Melvin stretched out on the bed as though Raven was going to tell her a bedtime story. "So... you wanna start?"
"It all started three and a half years ago. After my Father's banishment I was able to feel more freely, eventually I found something different about Garfield... he was- well he appeared to me... cute." Raven paused as if she was figuring out what really happened next. "And Terra was a statue... so Starfire convinced me to tell him... so I did... and we went on a test-date."
"And?"
"It sucked...paparazzi followed us everywhere, things were awkward, girls kept coming up to flirt with him and I was kind of ignored.
"So how'd you end up together if the test-date sucked?"
"He made up for it..." Raven said, her eyes were cloudy with nostalgia, "The next weekend he took me to a small island and we had a picnic. He actually got me to laugh- he'd tripped over a log into a muddy puddle that was bigger than we estimated- I laughed for about a minute and nothing exploded- then he pulled me in with him."
"EW!"
"We came back soaked... but from the second he heard me laugh- he just kept trying to make me laugh. Six months later he asked me to be his girlfriend."
"So you said yes."
"And we were happily dating for about a year."
"And then?"
"Terra came back and I wasn't the one he wanted anymore. After he left me I found out I was pregnant."
"So how come Jade's not green?"
"I'm clueless Melvin. I can't figure him out. When he hugged me today I wanted to hug him back but then I remembered how I was dumped like last week's paper."
"So do you still love him?"
"Of course I do. But I hate him at the same time. I'm not getting hurt again- so I'll just keep away from him."
"I don't think it works like that..." Melvin said. "I've read a lot of books and seen a lot of movies and that just complicates things. You guys need to talk- that always works in the movies."
"Yeah, but what do I say? 'Sorry for keeping your daughter a secret, indirectly being the cause for your break up and oh- by the way I still love you'?"
"You never know... that could work." Melvin argued. "Did you know that 'love' is actually your brain drugging you with hormones so you don't see the other person's flaws and relate the feeling of happiness with them?"
"No Melvin. I did not."
"Well, now you do."
In the end Raven never told Beastboy how she felt. When she wanted to see Jade she asked Melvin to go and pick her up from Beastboy's room... There was no way she would face the awkward tension between the two Titans. The pig-tailed girl waited at the door for Beastboy to stop tickling Jade. In between the giggles she got impatient.
"I'm Waiting here." she sang leaning against the door. Beastboy smirked and led Jade to Melvin. The toddler caught onto the bottom of her skirt and gurgled some sort of greeting. "Hi~ cutie pie!" Melvin chirped as she whirled up the little girl. Before she left she beckoned Beastboy to stoop down to her level. "She still likes you, you know. So be nice."
Probably wasn't worth the long wait. I'mma try and finish this before my 18th birthday comes up, because I've a shitload of revision to do to make sure I actually get a place at my top Uni. Peace out. Constructive crit. please