I think this is a shorter chapter, but whatever. I don't have the next chapter written out, but it's in my noggin'. Anyways, I'll update this whenever the next chapter is done...(I'll probably write it during Psychology class. :P)
-This is a line thingy-
It was a rainy afternoon. The alarms had not gone off yet that day, and the titans each collectively did their own thing. It was under a ring at the doorbell that got them attentive.
"Someone visiting?" Beast Boy asked.
"Don't know." Cyborg shrugged. "Let's go check it out."
The two teens walked down to the lobby. A curious Raven and Starfire following. Normally a guest wouldn't be that big of a deal, but since they lived on a island…it was a different matter. Cyborg opened the door to see a waterlogged punk. His black hair molded to his head and plastered to his face. His crescent smile still shone on his pale face.
"Howdy ho! You know, it's quite a swim out here."
"Black! Man, what are you doing here?!"
"Dude, you SWAM here?"
"Well, I was going to walk, but I'm not as gutsy as Peter."
"Peter?"
"You know...walked on the water to meet Jesus, then started sinking when he saw the storm...?" Black elaborated. "Well, I guess you guys never went to Sunday school!"
"And you did?" Raven questioned, as he came in the tower.
"Psh, psh...psh." He flipped his hand. "What's a memory anyway?"
"So to what do we owe this reception?" Star asked.
"Well," he put his fists on his hips. "I leave for a few hours to do stuff, and come home to find my hat gone!"
"You're hat gone?" Cyborg asked.
"Oh, sorry. Let me rephrase that in a dialect you can understand." The boy violently shook his head, sending water drops everywhere. "Yo home dog, for real, my crib was tot's up in smoke, man."
Cyborg raised his human eyebrow. "You should be glad I'm not easily offended."
"I hope the readers aren't either." He blanched. "Anyways, the ginger here," he pointed to Star, "said I could come to you guys if I needed anything. I think the constitutes as needing something."
"But you didn't need to swim out here, we could have met you somewhere!"
"And how would I contact you? Rob a bank?" He shrugged.
Raven spoke up. "You're soaked."
"Excellent observation, Sherlock!" He promptly sneezed. "Oh great googly-moogly! My brain just blew up!"
"Let us get you into some dry clothes. You are becoming sick."
"Now darling," he laughed. "I am already sick."
They led him to the common room. "Huh, fancy-shmancy." He acknowledged.
"Beast Boy, get some clothes for our guest. He looks about your size."
The green teen gave a thumbs up and ran down the hall.
"Whoa!" Black exclaimed as he ran to the window. "You can see everything!" He pressed his hands and face against the glass.
"It was Robin's idea." Star proudly stated. "When the Gordanian ship crashed here, Cyborg thought it would most beneficial to convert it to a home. Robin conceptualized the design and the window overlooking the town."
There it was again. The unexplained anger over this simple name. Granted, there wasn't much that Black could explain in his head anyways. But this bothered him.
"Who's Robin?" He tilted his head.
The team simultaneously fell sad. "He was our leader." Cyborg stated.
"Our teacher, mentor, and coach." Raven added.
"And our dear friend." Star finished.
Black was puzzled still. Robin didn't sound like such a bad guy, what made him so angry? "I saw y'all talking' 'bout 'im on the flash box."
"The what?"
"Flash box. You know, it's a box in a window that shows things on it, usually really depressing things that you don't want to see. Like commercials."
"Oh, you mean the television!" Starfire translated. She swiped the remote from the couch and flipped on one of the channels. The window sprang to life with a cooking show.
Black stared in awe. "THAT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFULEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" He attempted to hug it, but ended up sprawled out on the glass.
The team smiled to themselves.
"Alright Dude, I got some civvies you can borrow. It just took a little while to find some that didn't smell funny."
Black's attention was immediately away from the giant TV. "Excellent!" He walked over, taking off his jacket and his shirt. "Gimme." He reached out his hands and snapped them like crab claws.
"Black man, what happened to your arm?"
The strange boy looked at his arms. One was covered in watches, the other in cuts and blood. "Oh. I punched a window out because I was angry." He spoke nonchalantly.
"You better let us patch it up." Raven spoke up. "It could get infected."
He looked at his arm. "I already licked it. That's what I usually do when I get hurt."
Beast Boy shook his head. "Animals are known to have lysosomes in their saliva, which aids the healing of wounds. Humans, however carry bacteria in their mouths that could infect the body."
Raven looked surprised. "One of your rare moments of knowledge."
"When it comes to animals, I gots the knowledge."
Black was still looking at his arm. "I don't want to lose my arm," he pouted to Cyborg. "Fix my boo-boo."
The cybernetic teen laughed. "Okay, follow me to the medical lab."
As Black went towards the door, Starfire's eyes strayed to his back were she noticed something. Identifying it mere seconds later, she gave a shriek and then clapped her hands over her mouth.
"What is it Star?" Cyborg asked, startled.
She shook her head in disbelief and pointed at Black.
"Dude!" Beast Boy exclaimed when he saw it.
"Oh no…" Raven followed.
Cyborg turned Black around to look at his back. "No way…"
"What? What is it? Is it a spider?! Get it off!"
Upon the teens flesh was a tattoo. Not any normal tattoo either, but of a big black 'S' with sharp curves.
"Black, where did you get this tattoo?"
"Tattoo?" The boy asked, trying in vain to see his back. "I have no tattoo."
Raven spoke up. "I bet he got it before he lost his memory."
"And I believe Slade made him lose it."
Black whipped around and looked a Starfire. "Say that name again."
"Slade?"
He nodded. "I know him, well, not personally, and not physically, and definitely not intimately. But I know him."
"How?"
"I…" the boy looked to the floor. "I think he's my dentist."
"Let's get you fixed up. We have a lot of questions for you."
In the medical lab, Black sat like a good little boy on the table, gently swinging his legs. Cyborg had a cotton ball and was disinfecting the multiple cuts.
"Well, nothing too deep. It doesn't look like you'll need stitches."
"One alien is enough trouble." Black mumbled to himself.
"So." Raven stared at the boy. "When did you lose your memory?"
He scratched his head with his good arm. "Well, I didn't really, lose it…I just…misplaced it. I think I've been memory-less for a few weeks."
"Only a few weeks?" Cyborg raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Or maybe it was few years, I'm not sure. But in all honesty, I have some fuzzy stuff from before then and I have dreams of what I think was my past life."
"What are the dreams like?"
"I would rather not talk about them…they make me not happy."
"What is the first memory you have?" Starfire asked.
He put a finger to his lips. "There are little things, dark and bloody and scary things…but I remember clearly waking up in a closet. Alone and NUDE."
"So you still don't know where the tat came from?" asked BB.
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
"Here," Starfire took a piece a paper and drew the 'S' on it. "This is present on your back. It takes up the majority of it."
"It's Slade's mark." Raven elaborated.
"Like a curse?!" Black jumped from the table, wiped his hands frantically on his pants, spun around in a circle and spat on the floor.
"I'm afraid it is much worse then a curse." Raven spoke gravelly. "No doubt he's the reason you can't remember anything."
Black scrunched his nose. "I guess I owe him a thank you."
"What?" Cyborg squawked.
"Whomever I was in said past, is not this present person. And said present person is more pleasant to exist as then person in past."
"What?" They asked unanimously.
"Me good now, no good before. Si?"
Raven's eyes narrowed as she looked over the strange boy. "Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, Black?"
"What do you want to know?" He finally calmed down enough for Cyborg to finish wrapping his wounds.
"Just about you. Likes, dislikes, stuff like that."
"Well," he scratched his chin. "I like to pee in the rain."
They all simultaneously blinked.
"Don't judge until you try." He wagged his finger. "I also enjoy fishing for golfballs, watching buildings burn, censoring offensive graffiti, and having happy thoughts while listening to sad music."
"Hobbies?"
"I like looking at old photographs at the library and trying to figure them out. Like, why was that man wearing a coat on such a nice day? Or, is that girl walking with her father? Or is she being kidnapped? Unanswered questions that only my fragmented mind can solve."
"There." Cyborg said, taping off the last bandage. "All done. Would you like something to eat?"
The boy looked up at the robot with wide, bright eyes. He clenched his fists and nodded excitedly.
In the kitchen, the team watched as plateful after plateful was scarfed down by this puny little boy. He did look incredibly skinny to the four, but as he was homeless, they didn't think much about it.
"More Grutchlog?" Starfire smiled hopefully.
He nodded only.
"Don't you want to know what you're eating?" Beast Boy asked, looking queazy.
"Why? It'll make a turd." He shoved a spoonful of black fuzzy goop into his mouth.
After his meal, Raven threw out some bedding for him. "Here, you can sleep on the couch for now."
Black walked over to the round furniture, and ran his hand over it, marveling in it's softness. He took the bedding and draped it over, smoothing out the wrinkles. "It's like a cloud." He whispered to himself.
"Why don't you get some sleep? Don't worry about the morning, just sleep as long as you need to." With that, the Titans left their new friend alone.