Disclaimer: If I owned them, Spellbound would have gone down differently. I have this slight issue with not being able to differentiate between 'good' dragons and 'evil' dragons. No, I just kind go 'ooh! dragon!' and then I'm gone. I know...three people who I would probably not ditch for a dragon. Probably.

Whitewater

Quality Time

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021. Speechless

Anytime

Sometimes Beast Boy has trouble stringing words together, and it's for that reason that he actually doesn't speak to Robin much. Cyborg has never commented nor seemed to care and Starfire often has the same problem, though with more reason.

He was uneasy speaking to Raven for a long time, too, but he tried anyway even if sometimes she scoffed when his mind blanked and he found himself struggling for the words he knew he had a moment ago. After the Beast incident he didn't mind so much, and she was the one who came down to talk to him when he was out at 'his' rock, because she could feel the new fear and wariness whenever his train of thought derailed so spectacularly.

And when he trails off and goes silent for a bit, she doesn't say a word.

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022. War Games

During Season Five

She watched him from across the fire, huddled in her spare cloak and still shivering with his eyes closed. If he moved any closer to the fire he was likely to fall in.

"Raven," he said, and she looked up quickly because he'd said it very, very quietly and he never said anything quietly.

"Yes?"

He kept his eyes closed as he answered her. "Are you ever afraid that when we split up like this we won't see the others again?"

She was silent. She didn't know how to answer.

"Or that when we finally get back home it won't be home anymore? Like, I dunno, it's been empty so long that it just doesn't feel like home. I bet there's a layer of dust over everything by now." His voice was sad, wistful…and young.

And she still didn't know how to answer him.

And for some reason, watching the firelight play against his skin and the shadows of his borrowed cloak, she thought of wars. She thought of how she hoped he'd never be in a war, because although she or Cyborg or Robin could handle it if they really had to, and Starfire is descended from a warrior race, she thinks a part of him would not survive killing another living being. He won't even eat meat. And he still hasn't recovered from Terra's death; she can feel his distress whenever something triggered the memory.

But unfortunately, they are in a war, now. The Brotherhood of Evil is targeting them and people like them all over the world. She's afraid that somehow, someway, one of them will die. And if it was Robin, or Starfire, or Cyborg, or Beast Boy himself…she's not sure she would survive that blow, and she's almost positive he won't.

He was still waiting for her answer.

She stood up slowly and crossed to his side of the fire. For the past week the two of them have camped together on a chain of islands, looking for someone whose name she can't remember but that lives in the coral reefs nearby; and for the past week they've slept on opposite sides of camp. She changes that now, bringing their two parts of the T-ship together in a giant lean-to with a flicker of dark energy and resettling herself across from him in the ship's shade. He curled further into the cloak and shifted toward the rock that now formed a back wall, finding much more comfort in the sudden makeshift cave than the open fire. She knows none of his animal instincts like to be that exposed and wonders why she hasn't done this before now.

A bittersweet memory flooded her mind, of what might have been the one time Starfire got anything like 'girl talk.'

Terra played with a lock of hair. "Yeah, I know it's unlikely. But still…what if it were to happen? What if the boys were to get drafted?"

'Can we even be drafted?' Raven wondered silently. 'Is that allowed for orphaned superheroes? Once we're all past eighteen, anyway?" And that led to her spoken response, "They can't be, they're not old enough."

"I know, but what about when they are? What then?"

That was when Star had spoken up, her eyes glowing fiercely. "Your army cannot have them. They are our boys."

Raven sighed deeply. She and Starfire had remained protective of the male Titans and each other, true, but Terra…well. That was well in the past now.

Another memory came unbidden, a brief flash of Beast Boy shivering as he tried to explain, their first night on the islands, what a sandstorm in the desert is like- the way it can strip flesh from bones in seconds and how if he wasn't a shifter his first sandstorm would have been his last. She's not quite sure what that has to do with anything, except that both memories involve losing him. She almost missed his quiet whisper.

"I even miss Star's hugs."

So she moved across the empty space between them and hugged him, and unlike the last time he hugged her back, tightly. It wasn't a Tamaranean deathgrip but it would do.

And she finally replied to his question, in a near-silent whisper.

"Terrified."

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GuardianSaiyoko: Uh, yeah, sorry my humor is missing here. Word of advice- when you're in the medical field, coming home from a full day of classes and then watching the final episode of MASH? Not a good idea.

So, enjoy ShinobiCyrus's additions to the Beast Boy list:

Beast Boy is not allowed under ANY circumstances to be on the furniture in ANY animal form.

Convincing Starfire she needs to marry Robin to avoid deportation is deceitfully cruel, no matter how funny it is.

To avoid another catnip incident, BB is not allowed ANYWHERE in the vicinity of any Pet's Mart or pet-care aisle of the neighborhood grocery store.

For the sake of our viewers, BB is not permitted to dress as a smurf, Master Yoda, the Green Goblin, or the Green Lantern for Halloween.

Reenacting 'Snakes on a Plane' aboard the T-Ship is forbidden.

Any copy of Austin Power's movies are not allowed on Titan's Tower's premises.

While they may share the 'green' attribute, Beast Boy is not- in any way, shape, form, or 'bad-assity'- related to Halo's Master Chief'.

Last but not least: "Beast Boy is NOT too sexy for his shirt"

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Also, I would like to add that a variation of that last one is an actual rule at my house, due to a very interesting camping trip and my twin brother's sleep deprivation during said trip.

Saiyoko