Hello again! Once again, this is merely a transplanted oneshot, not new, so sorry :S This was actually my first Fanfiction I posted, and a prologue of sorts to my other story, The Fishing Trip. It takes place about a month or so after Trouble in Tokyo, that movie spin off of the TV show. So yeah, if you haven't read already, go on, I have edited this one a bit, so it is a little different than the original, which by now is long gone.
Disclaimer: The Hairy Wampa does not own or seek ownership of any copyrighted material within this story, including DC and its characters. The following story is purely for entertainment purposes and no profit is being made. So don't kill me, copyright demons.
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Aches and Gratitude
Synopsis: After a botched mission, Beast Boy has trouble sleeping. Raven helps him out, much to her chagrin.
Beast Boy slumped over in his chair, mumbling incoherently. The fight hadn't gone well, despite their victory, as Starfire put it, being 'most glorious!' Ding Dong Daddy, perhaps one of the more absurd villains the Titans faced, wasn't really a challenge. Unfortunately for the green animorph, he also had a meta-human neutralizer, and happened to have pointed it right at Beast Boy.
The fight had gone well despite his being incapacitated, for the others anyway. As the others chased down Ding Dong's car, Beast Boy was left in the street. A street soon crawling with Ding Dong's gremlin creatures.
Out of some latent sense of nobility or maybe pride, Beast Boy hadn't called the others. After all, he was a super hero, and these little guys were just a bunch of over grown boogers. It turns out though that even boogers pack some heat.
Not only was his butt kicked by a bunch of hairless Ewoks, but the humiliation of it being Cyborg that found him…Beast Boy preferred the wedgie he'd received to the big man's laughter.
So now, close to midnight, he was sitting uncomfortably in his computer chair, cramped muscles refusing to let him sleep or even lie down. It wasn't like the others didn't care; he just kept the extent of his injuries on the down low. No sense in magnifying his humiliation.
A soft tapping brought him out of his moping. At first he thought it was a branch on the window, only to remember that there were no trees on Titan's Island, and he was twenty stories up anyways. The tapping came again and now he realised it came from his door. Who would be up at this hour? And want to talk to him?
After some grumbling and painful moving about Beast Boy pressed the release button next to his door, and stood straighter as it slid open. The person on the other side though was just about the last person he expected to see.
Raven was cloak-less, her eyes slightly puffy from sleep deprivation. Her leotard, apparently also her nightclothes, were wrinkled and Beast Boy could smell irritation on her, but her expression, and her scent, were surprisingly concerned; a very, very rare vibe from the girl.
Suddenly wishing he slept in more than his Ninja Turtle boxers, Beast Boy put on a fake smile "What's up Rae?" The other just frowned, crossing her arms. They had roles to fill, after all. "First of all, my name is Raven, two syllables. And you can drop the act; I know you're in pain."
"Oh," his hand unconsciously rubbed the back of his neck, only to have him wince as his back muscles denied the action. "So, why are you…ya know, here?" Raven rolled her amethyst eyes and pushed Beast Boy back into his room, stopping at the threshold to smell the air for anything caustic. Satisfied that she would suffocate in his pig sty of a room, she stepped in after him, the door shutting automatically behind her.
"Because you're keeping me up, come here and let me heal you so we can both sleep." The first bit she said in a rush, hoping the green boy wouldn't question her. No such luck. "Keeping you up? And I thought my hearing was good…" She crossed her arms, "I can feel you, your emotions, remember? Now come on, I'm tired."
Beast Boy did remember, and he also remembered very specifically that Raven could only feel emotions up close. But he didn't comment on the fact, her healing thingy did feel nice, and he really wanted to sleep. "It's my back mostly, they got me in some kind of stretching machine…"
Raven repressed the urge to say she knew, she also noticed the oddity in feeling Beast Boy's emotions from the other side of the tower, and how specific said empathetic feeling were. She motioned for him to sit, and he did, backwards in his desk chair. The knots on the green boy's back were visible, and Raven flinched slightly as she approached. If she didn't help him he could be bed ridden for days.
Would that be such a bad thing? She might finally get some quiet…no, so long as her empathy was activity the little goof's pain would be fed directly into her head. Raven summoned the blue aura of her healing powers, bracing herself for the backlash, only to have Beast Boy interrupt her.
"So, how come the sudden long distance feels?" Raven pulled up short and stared at the mop of green hair in front of her. "I don't know exactly, Starfire is usually the only one with enough emotion to affect over distanced. You are obviously in a lot of pain." She pressed her hands against his shoulder blades, noting that even with their proximity in height they still looked tiny on the young man's back.
"Gee Rae, didn't know you cared…" this snide comment was followed by a jab from the empath, and he chuckled, "sorry." How he had managed this extent of injuries from a pack of midgets floored Raven, but she knit him back together. It was slow going, her own powers had taken a partial blast from the neutralizer, and Beast Boy's chaotic cell structure took a while to sort through.
Mercifully, Beast Boy was quiet for the rest of the process, his head eventually flopping forward as the tension was released. Raven felt his discomfort fade, and she was miffed as to why it did bother her so much. Her hands moved up and down his back, pressing lightly into the skin, and soon she was finished.
Just as she unknotted his last muscle, down near his tailbone and as low as she was going to go anyway, a low rumbling filled the air. She stopped and looked around, expecting one of the piles of laundry to suddenly stand up and devour her. But the rest of the room was quiet, and with confusion she looked back down to the green boy.
She had been so absorbed in fixing him she failed to notice his drifting off to sleep. But it wasn't snoring she heard, it sounded almost like…purring? With only slight hesitation she leaned over the sleeping boy, her ear close to his face. Sure enough the low rumbling was coming from him, Beast Boy was purring.
Raven cocked a brow, not overly surprised but pleasantly…surprised? It was almost cute, no it was undeniably cute, she just never thought she'd use that adjective, let alone with Beast Boy. Absent mindedly she lifted a hand to his face, and brushed it through his hair. The purring intensified, and he shifted in his sleep.
She froze, what if he woke up? What was she even doing here? But Beast Boy simply purred on, eyes tightly shut and his breath even. Raven contemplated the boy for a bit, her rational, sane mind saying to simply leave while her…girly side just wanted to stroke his hair. Damb emotions; sometimes she missed Trigon's repressing of her emotions. It certainly made life simpler.
Rolling her eyes she sighed in exasperation, cursing her pink clad emotion likely going haywire in her mindscape. Just a few scratches; just to satisfy her inner cutesy and make Happy shut up. She scratched behind his ear, briefly wondering the ethical implications of this awkward situation. The purring intensified and Beast Boy sighed in contentment.
There, she told herself, now let`s go, I am tired after all. However as she began pulling away Beast Boy`s gloved hand shot up and pulled her back. She got ready to smack him, only to realise the action had been unconscious; her ice queen demeanour was intact. She wondered why his hands were still gloved, and why she had never noticed that she had never seen him without them.
Unconsciously her own hand began rubbing his cheek, and her thoughts shifted to its texture, soft, warm, and slightly fuzzy, like the down on a baby bird. Raven snapped back to herself and jerked her hand away, causing Beast Boy to shift his own to support his head. No, I was not just thinking that…She reassured herself, chalking it up to sleep deprivation. It was definitely time to go.
She approached the door and glanced back, noting how uncomfortable Beast Boy looked in the chair. Cursing certain pink and purple clad emotions she walked back over to the animorph and lifted him by the arms, struggling only slightly with his weight; Starfire wasn`t the only one stronger than she looked.
Raven dragged\carried Beast Boy back to his bunk, why a fifteen year old needed a bunk bed was anyone's guess. She lay his torso down then lifted his feet into bed. If asked why, she honestly wouldn't have an answer. She drew his deep violet blanket over him and the purring slowed, finally coming to a stop as he rolled over, cuddling into his blanket.
She stopped for a moment looking down at the boy, and wondered why she did care. He was annoying and clumsy, dirty, hyper, and smelly, and all manner of irritating to Raven. But as she looked down at his sleeping form, she realized she really didn't mind. It was flattering really, that he would try so hard to bring her out of her shell…
Raven smacked herself, shouting enough as loudly in her own mind as she could. With a final glance at the green boy, she teleported away; but not before a smile, thin and barely noticeable, graced her pale lips. The kind of smile Beast Boy lived for.
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Well there you are, another oneshot, I hope you liked it, I know I did, and so review and stuff... sorry, I'm getting tired.
Thanks a lot for your support, it makes me feel at least a little worthwhile!
The Harry Wompa