Outtakes: Take Four
A/N: Yes, Don't Hurt the Windows actually happened. So did Mugger. This version of CM didn't. Well - the camera wasn't crushed with a frisbee, precisely. It was more like a schoolbag. A very heavy schoolbag. It caused physical pain, also. Very painful, it was.
Disclaimer:Nuppy. Guppy. Puppy. Pappy. Happy. So technically, no owning TT makes me happy. ...I guess.
'Mugger'
"Robin is hurt, Raven, please heal him!"
This was after she had carried him in, late at night when the lights had gone on a long while ago, nursing his heavily mangled foot. Robin, being the stoic boy that Batman had raised, had barely said a word, looking down at the ground in what looked like embarassment.
As Robin and Starfire had been away for a very long time (far longer than they should have been, even on 'patrol') Beast Boy and Cyborg were both there. Noticing (actually, trying not to look at) the shreds of tough spandex that hung stubbornly on Robin's limb, they worriedly asked Robin what had happened.
Robin didn't say anything.
Instead, Starfire stepped into the breach, eyes glowing in wonder. "He took on a mugger for me, friends! A mugger!"
Robin grunted.
"It was dark, and we had," she blushed, "decided to walk back rather than fly. We were talking, innocently of course-"
Raven raised an eyebrow.
"-and we stepped past a dark alley, where a dark figure was waiting. Slowly, it followed us. I think that heroic Robin noticed it at the time-"
Cyborg snorted.
"-but he did not say anything. We walked up under the cover of a broken lamplight in the East District, and then! The figure drew a knife, and jumped upon us!"
Beast Boy gasped.
"Robin spun, and lashed out with a kick. I confess," Starfire looked at them innocently out through her lashes, "that I was too shocked to respond-"
Raven's eyebrow went even higher.
Cyborg coughed.
"-But Robin saved me! ...Except, somehow the knife went through his boot and into his foot, and he was...injured." Peering at Raven out of the corner of her eye, Starfire ended with a little plea: "Please heal him, Raven, he requires it."
"Alright, fine." Raven moved over to Robin and a blue glow formed around her hands.
Starfire's face seemed to light up. "Thank you, friend Raven!"
Without turning, Raven said, deadpan, "But next time, skip the story. Robin, what did you actually do to yourself?"
Robin grunted. "I cut my foot open on a rock. On the beach. When we were climbing up to the Tower."
'Don't Hurt The Windows'
Her door hissed open.
"Hey, Raven."
Startled, Raven looked up from where she was comtemplating the ceiling, trying to take comfort and peace of mind from its bland colour.
Beast Boy had never sounded so...bitter before. His normally hopeful voice held nothing of its usual squeak; instead, he sounded almost sarcastic.
"I was wondering if..." He lowered his eyes, not looking her in the eye, and she flinched involuntarily, awaiting some fairly bad news. Why else would he enter her room, if not for some emergency? After their fights, after the again-awakening of the Beast, Beast Boy had rarely entered her room again. It was a shame - she'd missed those nights when they were closer. Even if he still infuriated her.
Well, he was an adolescent. And from what she read, adolescents were collectively the most perverted and narcissistic cultural group on the planet.
She didn't know what to think of that.
She'd also read that it was frankly impossible for a male and a female to be friends their whole life without getting...emotionally involved.
She didn't know what to think of that either.
She hadn't thought of Beast Boy that way; not before, during, or after Terra. She'd felt for him, of course (what else could she do? She was empathic, for Azar's sake) and tried to comfort him, if only for her own peace of mind. Yet...Beast Boy could very well have taken it the wrong way.
"I...was wanting to ask you whether...would you go with me to the zoo tomorrow night?" His last words came out in a little rush, the tone nervous even if his face twisted into a little wry smile, as if he expected to be rejected.
He was right.
"YOU WOKE ME UP FOR THIS?!"
The splintering of a bed caused a passing Robin, on his way to Starfire's room for a little rest and relaxation, to stop and backtrack. Going down the little side path that led to Raven's door, he was treated to the sight of Beast Boy being pinned against the wall with one tendril while another was whipping him around the head.
Raven floated in her dented doorway (the door itself, thick metal though it was, lay some few metres away, a large metal lump curving up through the center), her cloak billowing though there was no wind, her hands negative with black brilliance.
Robin acted fast.
"Raven, stop this at once. Do not, and this is an order, do not blow up Beast Boy."
She looked at him, her hood thrown back, and Robin almost felt his heart stop. Raven didn't look angry, or furious, or even irritated. There was an expression of cruel amusement there, and it scared him. Then she spoke and it scared him even more.
"But Robin-" gods, she sounded like Kitten, all sugary sweet and venomous when she didn't get her way - in a monotone - "I wanna blow something up. Can I blow something up?"
Robin swallowed and looked to his side out of the corner of his eye. Beast Boy was swallowing too, although he looked far more uncomfortable, with that one tendril around his waist, squeezing. The other had stopped and retracted.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zin-"
"Alright already!" Giving in, Robin just looked at her. "What has gotten into you, Raven?"
"Can I blow-"
Robin buried his head into his hands, wishing he could just wake up.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but someone apparently had a horrible sense of humor. The designs for the new kitchen are very 50ish. It's hideous. There're workmen in there now. Go destroy it. Blow it up. Whatever."
Her lips curled into a smile, and Beast Boy slumped onto the ground limply as she released him.
As she turned to walk (not float, Robin sighed in relief) out from her little alcove, Robin started, startled.
From behind her (yes, apparently Robin could and would do whatever she wanted him to do, apparently), Robin's voice came echoing.
"Don't blow anyone up, Raven!" To be honest, he sounded more desperate than firm.
She spun around, smirk twisting her lips. "Ooh, but can I splatter them against the wall and watch them bleed?"
The silence was faintly freaked. "No."
"Can I hit them with a baseball bat and watch their brains ooze out?"
The silence...gave up. "Yeah, sure."
"So I can burst their skins and watch their bodily fluids paint the walls red and white and sickly yellow?"
The silence was pregnantly sickened. "Um...okay, fine. Look, I just want to get back to St-"
"And blast a hole in their stomachs until I can watch their food being digested?"
The silence vanished and Robin walked up to her. "Look. Do whatever you want. I don't care anymore."
As he walked away, she said, "What about the doors?"
He got further away. "Whatever."
"What about the windows?"
He stopped, and turned around. "Don't hurt the windows."
Er...
"So I can splatter people against the wall, but I can't hurt the windows?"
He breathed in. Out. In. Out. "Yes. You can hurt people, and blow up the doors, but don't hurt the windows."
He walked away.
She glided towards the kitchen, gathering in her powers.
Beast Boy got up from that disturbing conversation, turned into moose, and took a different path.
'Camera Moment: Interlude'
"Hey, Cy, Rob's..."
Zzzt-ssst!
"Oh man, that's the third arm today! Star, Raven, Robin, ease up!"
"Cyborg, camera please. We need to keep a surveillance on the suspect."
"I can't. You guys busted up my last lenses, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Uh...I'll get a replacement."
Later...
"Robin and Star are kissing, Cy, I think you should take a-"
Ka-chunk.
Crunch.
"Whoops, Cy, sorry for crushing your camera with a frisbee. I guess I misjudged my strength."
"You're paying for this one too, Rob."
Scribere jussit amor.
--KorelC--
