I really wish Teen Titans had been an adult swim show.
Raven's eyes slowly opened as the annoying sunlight pounded her pale face from the windows. The empath had never really been a day person as she found summers in Jump City to be sweaty, stuffy, humid affairs and her leotard didn't exactly offer the best ventilation. Many nights would let to her peeling off her uniform like a second skin and curl up in bed, letting the gentle breeze of the night caress her bare skin.
Now night on the other hand, that was always her favorite time. Something about the pale light of the moon, the cool nocturnal air, the almost deathly stillness of Jump City, the twinkling of the stars...it offered itself the Azarathian a peace and solitude she could only find in Nevermore. But, at least on the roof top of Titans Tower, she wouldn't have to be bothered by any persistent emotions.
But as much as she'd love to embrace the solitude of the night, for now, she had to deal with the bright and cheery sunshine of another Jump City morning. Raven swore she could hear birds chirping outside her window happily, only adding to the pale empath's irritation at being woken up in such a manner.
"Since when did Starfire control the weather?" she grumbled to no one in particular, sliding her body up as she back leaned against her ornately carved head board. Stretching her slender arms into the morning sunlight, she yawned softly to herself as she looked forward to a nice shower and some herbal tea for breakfast. .
The violet haired Titan rolled over to greet her green beau with a good morning kiss, but instead of the peacefully sleeping prankster, she gasped at the brutal mauling he seemed to have endured. His bare green chest was decorated with deep red furrows, bite marks and dried, hardened candle wax. His neck had several gashes on it, as if someone had torn the flesh away with their teeth. His wrists and ankles were raw and red, as if something had been tied around them in restraint.
"Garfield..." she said quietly.
Knowing exactly what she had to do, the Azarathian rested her hands on her boyfriend's bare skin, letting her powers flow through her soul as she healed the wounds on his body, the dried candle wax seemingly disappearing into nothingness. Feeling her rather cool hands on his warm, sweaty chest, Beast Boy began to stir from his sleep. As he opened his eyes, his foggy vision began to sharpen into focus till the first thing he saw was Raven's deep amethyst eyes making contact with his own.
"Good morning, Gar." she said softly.
Beast Boy opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. His throat became dry and parched as if he had swallowed a yard of sand paper. His eyes shot open in complete, razor sharp focus, every cell on his body completely alert and aware of his surroundings.
"RAVEN!" he practically shouted. Raven looked back at him with a cocked, curious eyebrow.
"Gar, what happened to you? Were you sleeping walking again?" she asked, concerned over his nocturnal safety. Beast Boy's only response was to sit up in bed, his face plastered with wide eyed terror as if he were staring down the incoming advances of a Mac truck.
"S-stay away!" he said, his fingers positioned to a form a cross, holding it up to Raven as some sort of shield between the two.
"Garfield, what are you talking about? Why do you want me to stay away?" she asked, her voice slightly hurt. Realizing his poor choice of words, Beast Boy shot up out of bed, completely naked and took a cautious step backwards.
"I mean...I...uhh...have bad breath...yeah, that's it. Bad morning breath. So, I, um...need to brush my teeth, ok?"
Raven sat up in bed and pulled up her bed sheet to cover her. She was naked, which was odd, because as far as she remembered, she fell asleep in her PJs.
"Okay..." she said, somewhat confused. "I'll meet you in the kitchen for breakfast."
"No! I mean...thanks for the offer, but dude, I think I'm just gonna hang out at the comic book shop today...ok?"
This only confused Raven further as he clutched her blue satin sheet to her, a curious eyebrow her only sign of outward emotion.
"So...you're not having breakfast with me this morning? Maybe we could meet for lunch?"
"Uhh...I think I'm just gonna order a pizza from the comic store, Rae...see you later!" he said in a frantic hurry, as his words mashed together into one huge breathless rush. He quickly slipped on a pair of his NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD boxer shorts and morphed into a kangaroo, hopping at a breakneck speed to go change in the bathroom.
Raven rested her head back on her pillow and stared up at her ceiling and took a deep sigh all to herself. Something was not right, she could sense it, and for once it wasn't due to her empathic abilities. No, rather than feeling it due to her powers, this time she felt it in her heart. Something was not right between her and Beast Boy and she had no idea what and it scared her.
Being in a relationship was completely new territory for her. Sure, she had made friends with the Titans, but a boyfriend was a huge step above and beyond anything else she'd ever done before. Mediation could help put her mind at ease, but it wouldn't solve the problem of Beast Boy's odd behavior and, judging by his actions, the green changeling wasn't going to fess up anytime soon.
No, for this, Raven was going to have to get a source closer to Beast Boy, that source being a certain cybernetic Titan and hopefully, he could shed some light on the situation. After all, next to Raven, no one spent more time with the changeling than Cyborg.
Raven pulled the covers over her head as she was dreading this, yet at the same time, knew it was her only option. No one in the Tower knew about her sex life with Beast Boy and she was not looking forward to breaking it to Cyborg. Still, at this point she had no other choice. Even her empathic abilities seem to be stunted in picking up his emotions, yet she could vaguely sense fear...a powerful, nerve shattering fear.
"Why...would he be afraid of me?" she asked to no one in particular, following it up with a sigh as a fresh cloak and leotard came floating out of her closet with a mere wave of her hand.
Beast Boy's heart felt so low that he was willing to bet it had taken up residence somewhere near his ankles, as he poured himself a glass of soy milk in the Titans' kitchen. His hand was shaky and some of the milk splashed outside of the glass on the counter top. He took a deep breath inward to calm himself and closing his eyes, took slow, gasps outward. It was a technique Raven had taught him to help control his emotions if ever found himself to be emotionally unstable, like he was feeling at this very moment.
As Raven stepped closer to the garage, she could feel the bass from Cyborg's ridiculous speaker system thumping music to ear splitting levels. Cyborg was going to be featured on a super hero episode of Cribs and was eager to show off the full capabilities of the T-Car. Taking her own deep breath inward to calm herself, Raven gently knocked on Cyborg's door.
"YO, WHO IS IT?" he hollered at the top of his lungs. Raven exasperated a defeatedly and shouted back her reply.
"RAVEN!"
"WHO!"
"RAVEN!"
"YO, SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YA!"
Raven clenched her fists and grit her teeth, the light bulb over her head going black and shattering into tiny shards. Pulling her hood up to hide her irritation, she phased through Cyborg's door and instantly cast a black orb over the T-Car, the telekinetic shield muffling out the sound to barely a whisper.
"Oh, hey Rae!" Cyborg said cheerfully. "Why didn't you just say you were there?"
Raven rolled her eyes, before using her free hand to massage her temple.
"Cyborg, I need to talk to you so would you please shut this ear cancer off?" she finally managed to say, not being able to hide her irritation at all.
Not wanting to cross an irritated Azarathian empath, the cybernetic Titan quickly reached for his speaker remote control, shutting off the deluxe sound system. Raven finally relaxed a bit and cast down her shield, pulling her hood down in the process.
"So wassup?" Cyborg said, as he sat down on stool near his work bench and motioned for Raven to sit in the nearby office chair that he would use when ordering parts. Raven gave a slight nod and sat down in the faded leather, crossing her legs as she tried to relax and skip over how awkward she felt about all of this.
"It's...about Gar. We're having difficulties."
Cyborg nodded knowingly, taking a sip from his nearby can of Red Bull.
"Yeah, grass stain can be a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes. What's the problem? Dude keeping you up at night with his snoring?" he asked with a chuckle. Raven smiled faintly, realizing it was now or never and she had been just got it over with.
"Not exactly, Cy. The problems started when Garfield and I started...sleeping together."
Cyborg took another swig of his Red Bull, finishing off the can. Crushing it quickly in his gleaming metal hand, he threw it across the room with perfect precision, the can landing in the trash with a swish of the bag .
"You guys must have been having trouble for awhile then, 'cause he's been sleeping in your room ever since you two started dating." he said, not grasping right off the bat what Raven meant by "sleeping together." It wasn't so much as Cyborg wasn't familiar with the term, it was more along the lines that he never would have figured Beast Boy as the kind to actually try something like sex.
Raven winced like she just had taken a swig of sour milk, realizing she would have to try and use more blunt terms, since Cyborg wasn't quite grasping what she was trying to say.
"Not exactly what I meant, Cy. I mean, we're sleeping together."
Cyborg just stared at her blankly, his face a curious blend of puzzlement and doubt.
"Wait, hold up, slow down...you mean you and grass stain...?"
Raven nodded.
"Yes. Though it's only been once, on my birthday." she said matter-of-factly. Cyborg swallowed his spit hard, not prepared for the bombshell the Azarathian dropped on him.
"Wow...grass stain got lucky? Man, have pigs started flying now too?" he said in disbelief. Raven cleared her throat, the arched eyebrow on her face clearly indicating she was none to pleased over the tender moment her and Beast Boy shared as "getting lucky." Feeling chills down his spine just from the cold stare, Cyborg spun himself into damage control.. "Heh..what I meant to say was, I'm happy for you guys."
Raven's gaze softened as it melted back into the worried brow she had when she first came in.
"He's avoiding me and I don't understand why. Has he said anything to you?" she asked. Cyborg just shook his head.
"Nope. Grass station ain't said much to me about anything lately. You said all this happened on your birthday, though?"
Raven nodded and sighed again, and proceeded to spell out the whole ordeal to Cyborg, starting with that fateful night on her birthday..
Beast Boy sat on the roof of Titans Tower, admiring the sun and the cool ocean breeze. He had a large plate of vegan-friendly cookies and a big pitcher of soy milk. Next to this, was a huge stack of Iron Lantern comics he brought from his collection to help keep himself entertained as he raced his brain in order to figure out what he should do next. He half-heartedly read about his favorite super hero colliding with the evil Dark Claw, but none of those could raise his heart from the murky depths it currently dwelled in.
The shaken Titan poured his attention over his comics, trying to force himself to get lost in it's colorful ink pages, yet in this middle of his task, he failed to notice Starfire happily soaring back towards the Tower, returning from a day of shopping at the mall. The crimson haired beauty had two handfuls of large shopping bags in each hand, cheerfully humming a native folk song to herself. Now Starfire possessed many great skills as a proud warrior princess and Teen Titan, but besides her star bolts and amazing strength and gift of flight, she also had the keen ability to sense when one of her friends was down and in need of cheering up.
"Greetings friend Beast Boy!" she chirped, floating down next to the heartbroken changeling with her bags now resting comfortably next to her. "You seem to be feeling most sad, yes?"
Beast Boy gave a weak little nod and closed his comic book shut, sighing loudly to himself.
"Star..you're a girl, right?" he asked. Starfire just stared at him, her large emerald eyes blinking slightly confused by such an obvious questions.
"I do believe I meet the necessary requirements." she said, curious where her skinny green friend was going with this.
"And, so like, you know what girls think and stuff?" Beast Boy said. Again, Starfire just blinked in confusion.
"Many of your earth ways are still very confusing to me, but I am attempting to learn as much as possible." she said. Beast Boy nodded and swung his legs back up from the edge of the Tower and eagerly turned towards Starfire, ready to spill his guts.
"Awesome Star! I knew you'd understand, okay...so like, I've been having girl problems lately...well, Raven problems..." he said, his voice becoming more and more dejected with each passing word. Starfire gasped and covered her mouth in shock, the sweet girl completely stunned.
"Oh friend Beast Boy!" she lamented and lurched forward to encompass the changeling in a bone crunching, sympathy hug. Beast Boy eeked in surprise and morphed into a fly, buzzing around a bit before changing back into himself on the other side of the alien princess.
"Uh, thanks for the hug and all Star, but right now, I just need someone to talk to..."
Starfire nodded, smiling brightly at her friend. "Please share." she said "I am composed entirely of ears."
Beast Boy grinned, his little fang poking up again like it does from time to time.
"No Star, it's 'I'm all ears'" he said. "That's how people say it."
Starfire nodded, deep in thought, making a mental note to pronounce the phrase the proper earthen way. "Please," she said softly. "What seems to be so troublesome?"
"It's Raven...she's been acting kinda weird lately and I, like...have no clue why, dude." he said as his feet dangled over the edge of the Tower. "It's like she's a completely different person."
Starfire nodded, listening intently to her friend's problems.
"I understand. But friend Raven has seemed to be her normal likeness when I communicate with her." she said. Beast Boy sighed again and blushed, knowing that he was going to have to tell Star about his love life.
"Well Star, that's the weird thing. She's only weird at nighttime, in our room...and the whole thing started when we did it for the first time."
"Did what?" Starfire asked, completely oblivious.
"You know...'it'."
"I am afraid I did not know what 'it' consists of."
Beast Boy slapped his face and slowly drug his fingers down from his eyes, down past his chin. This was proving harder than he thought.
'Okay...' he thought 'Let's try this again...'
"Okay, Star...remember when you and Raven went to the mall? Right after that creepy puppet dude made you switch bodies?" he said. Starfire nodded in response.
"Indeed. I do remember."
"And remember the dude who wanted to like, do all sorts of nasty stuff with you? I think his name was Dick?" Beast Boy said. Starfire giggled a bit at Beast Boy getting the name wrong.
"I do believe his name was Rick." she said politely.
"Right, Rick. So like...what he wanted to do to you? Well...Raven and I have been doing that..."
There was a moment or two of silence as Starfire let this sink in, trying to piece together what Beast Boy was too embarrassed to say. Then slowly, her sparkling emerald eyes opened as her brain had finally filled in the missing pieces in her friend's story.
"You and Raven have engaged in the act of copulation!" she said happily. "How wonderful that you shared a moment of intimacy!" she added, hugging the changeling tightly in her slender arms. Beast Boy gagged and coughed, turning into a fly again to avoid her grasp, causing Starfire to blush, forgetting her own strength once more.
"Please, continue on. How has the act of sexual intimacy caused such a change in friend Raven?" she asked curiously. Beast Boy just shrugged out of desperation.
"Dude, your guess is as good as mine. It's like during the day, she's cool and all, but at night, she just likes to hurt me and stuff. I never thought I'd say this, but...doing it with Raven scares me!"
Initially, Starfire didn't respond, but rather bit her bottom lip deep in thought, as a slender finger stroked her delicate chin.
"I recall a time when you and friend Cyborg accidentally ventured into friend Raven's mind? Could you not do this again? Perhaps it may shed light on this most perplexing of dilemmas."
Beast Boy's expressive eyes lit up as he made the motion to hug Starfire, the alien princess giggling delightfully to see that her idea was so well received.
"How joyous that you approve of my idea!" she said with a large smile. "But quickly you must make
your way or else friend Raven may do the busting of the heads, as friend Cyborg would say, if she were to catch you." she said. Beast Boy nodded and stood up, as he rubbed his gloved hands together, excited to finally get an answer as to what caused his beloved's sudden and drastic mood change.
"Approve? Star, you're idea is totally awesome!" he said. "Now if you excuse me, I got some major spy stuff to do..."
The hallway outside Beast Boy and Raven's bedroom was eerily quiet at this time of the day, even more so than usual. Starfire had returned to her room to show Robin her many, many outfits she had acquired at the mall, and with a quick check on his communicator, Beast Boy could see Raven was in the garage with Cyborg, judging by homing in on their signal locations.
'Awesome! Total stealth like...' he thought as he buzzed under the crack of the door to sneak in. Their room seemed quieter than usual, with the many bookcases and statues acting as silent witnesses to Beast Boy's plan of action.
Morphing back to himself, he quickly scanned the room till he found Raven's chest she kept next to her side of the bed. Quickly opening it, the changeling rummaged through the book Malchior had been trapped in, Miss Sally and even the very first love note Beast Boy had ever written her once they started dating. But at the bottom of said chest was what he was looking for, that being the mirror that allowed entrance into Nevermore. Holding the mirror in front of his face, Beast Boy scratched his head as he tried to recall how he operated the mystical device last time.
"Maybe I just need to say some magic words or something?" he thought. Scratching his chin, he tried to recall some magic phrases he knew himself...maybe they might work?
"Klaatu Veratu Niktu!"
Nothing happened.
"Mecca Lecca Hi, Mecca Hiney Ho!"
Again, nothing happened.
"SHAZAM!"
The mirror stood still.
"Dude, this sucks." he bemoaned. "I'm no good at this magic stuff. If Raven were here, she'd know what to do. She'd probably just go all 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos' or whatever..."
Before Beast Boy could even finish his sentence, a large, dark talon of black energy reached from the mirror and wrapped itself around his skinny, lanky frame. He barely had any time to say anything at all, as he was quickly drug through it's glass exterior and into Nevermore.
What followed next was what felt like tumbling over and over again through a bottomless, endless void. He could hear, see and feel nothing but a deafening silence, and the solid, lifeless black. Though it wasn't long till a familiar cool gentle breeze brushed against his skin and his very next sensation was that of earth underneath his head. Once this was realized, it dawned on him that he was laying on his back.
Slowly, his eyes opened revealing the black void of the main part of Nevermore. He could hear the wind rustling through the dead, withered trees and a giggle which sounded all too like Raven. As his vision synchronized into focus, he saw standing over him the very spitting image of his beloved Azarthain goddess, but instead of her normal blue cloak and leotard, she was instead wearing a light shade of bright pink.
"Hey silly!" she giggled. "I'm soooo happy to meet you. You look way hotter in person!" she cooed, offering a hand for Beast Boy to stand up.
"So, which one are you?" he asked as he dusted off his Doom Patrol uniform.
"Me? I'm Love and I know exactly why you're here, hun. But we gotta lot to talk about..."