Here is chapter 10.
"Goodbye friend Aqualad! Please have a safe trip home."
Changeling heard the splash that Aqualad made as the aquamarine leapt from the top of the Titan Tower and into the ocean below, but he didn't focus on that. He stood beside Nightwing, listening as he and Arsenal talked about the duration of the mission.
"You sure you got everything planned?
"Don't sweat it. Rae and I should be back in two weeks, no later than three. Everything should be fine and we'll return home safely."
Nightwing was fully prepared to continue the conversation when Cyborg's hand slammed on his back and knocked the wind from him.
"Relax, man. He said they have a plan, so everything should go smoothly"
Changeling felt like that would be the perfect time for him to jump into the conversation.
"Yea and Rae-Rae is the toughest person I know so, you know, they should have no problem with the baddies."
"I appreciate your confidence in my ability, Changeling. That will get me through this tough mission."
Changeling nearly had a heart attack as Raven phased onto the roof. He wasn't ready to converse with her aside from the mandatory goodbye so as to not raise any suspicions. He was having enough trouble just looking at her without feeling empty. His hands were getting clammy and his nerves were acting up.
Why was he so scared? There was no reason to be nervous around her.
And somewhere in his miniature freak-out, he missed out on the final goodbye and the last he saw of Arsenal and Raven was her cloak disappearing through her portal.
That would have been eight days ago and he was still regretting not saying goodbye. He still manages to put on a happy face with the rest of the team and he certainly wasn't a liability. Just the other day he was the sole reason the team was able to take down their television watching villain, Control Freak. Well, he and Cyborg were the main reason but the only reason Cyborg knew that CO2 fire extinguishers were the Blob's weakness was solely because he had forced the cyborg to watch both the 1958 and the 1988 movie versions of "The Blob." There was no doubt that if Control Freak had used that movie three years ago, Changeling would have been the sole hero.
He made sure he laughed with the rest of the team, played video games against Cyborg and continued their daily meat versus vegetable argument when Cyborg went overboard on the meat for whatever dining. He complained when the bad guys woke him up at nine in the morning and when Nightwing ordered a surprise seven in the morning workout the very next day. He watched the documentary of bugs, specifically moth larva, with Starfire and he practices his jokes on her as they normally did. He was completely normal…
Until he got in his room. Somewhere in those days he's managed to completely destroyed his room. That isn't to say that his room was clean in the first place. The cleanliness of his room before was mediocre at best. Now, his room was a total chaotic mess with the walls being clawed at, his clothes ripped, and most of his solid possessions smashed. He wanted to blame it on the Beast, but after he released whatever was pent up in his system, the Beast has been eerie quiet to the point where it was almost forgotten.
It was scary and uncomfortable.
The tower gave off the same uncomfortable feeling and while the Beast was inescapable, he was free the leave the tower when he pleased. That's how he found himself sitting in the same bookstore he often met Raven at with a cup of her favorite tea. He didn't drink it, but allowed it's aromas to invade his senses and comfort him as he wasted his time.
"Mind if I sit with you?"
Ears twitching at the familiar voice, he looked up and watched as Tara took the other chair at his table.
"Why are you here?"
His eyes widen as he realized he might have said that too harshly and he tried to fix his wording.
"I didn't mean to say it like that. I was just asking why are you here, but not why are you here in the bookstore because that should be obvious. I mean, you're here to buy a book right, because that's why most people are in a bookstore, but what I meant was why are you sitting here with me? Not that I mind you sitting with me, it's just-"
He was interrupted by Tara laughing and waving off his explanation.
"Jeez, calm down. You'd thought I would bite your head off at that simple question."
He coughed a little as he rubbed the back of his neck. His cheeks were getting warm as he replied, "Sorry about that."
There was a long silence before Tara broke it as she asked him, "Are you okay?"
He met her hard gaze as she stared in his eyes. It was like she was reading him and he wanted to play it off with a laugh.
"Why would you ask that?"
"I don't know, Changeling. You just seem like a different person from the last time we met. You seem…I don't know. You seem sad."
He let her words run through him as he gripped the still hot tea cup and felt as the warmth ran through his body. He needed someone to talk to, anyone, really. He didn't want to talk to his teammates because they would either immediately know something was up between him and Raven or they would bug him until they found out. He didn't want people too close to them to know about the situation. He knew his friends mean well, but he didn't want to involve them until he knew exactly what was going on himself. He could call other people, but the thing of the matter was the conversation he wanted to have didn't seem like a conversation you could just have over the phone or on the computer. This was something he had to talk face to face with another person and Tara seemed as good a person to talk to.
"I'm not sure myself. I feel…lost."
He paused to think of the right words but Tara seemed to think he was hesitating.
"I can't help you if you won't tell me your problem and I want to help. A sad Changeling makes for a sad day."
He watched his finger that drummed on the cup he was still gripping before he sighed and continued.
"See, there's this girl and she's fun to hang out with and can be easy to talk to and-"
"Hold it."
Changeling looked up at the hard face she was giving him, one of her hands up in the universal 'stop' signal.
"This girl isn't me, is it?"
"No!" There he goes, answering too fast again. "I mean, not that you aren't fun and-"
"It's okay, man," she waved him off again as she shook her head. "I just had to make sure you don't, I don't know, ask me out at the end of this conversation. Not that you aren't cute, but I'm too busy with school to be in a relationship. Anyway, carry on."
"Uh, right, so for the past weeks or so our friendship has been on the rocky side and it's totally my fault. I've been missing out on our meeting times and having lame excuses like I was caught up in a game with Cyborg. Like last week when I was at the arcade with you, I was supposed to meet up with her and I ended up arriving four hour late."
He watched as Tara's face scrunched up at him with a look he would describe as either shocked or disappointed. It was probably both.
"Changeling," she started but he interrupted her by shaking his head and continuing where he left off.
"And now she seems, I don't know, like she's distancing herself from me and for some reason my chest hurts. Then this…guy comes and he's a totally cool guy. We could be best friends if he didn't live so far away and Cyborg wasn't already filling in that position. Anyway, he seemed to have gotten close to her, like they're in on some inside joke and it just makes me so angry."
His grip on the porcelain cup tightened and he could feel his claws digging through the gloss.
"Like, he would get close to her and they seem like they would share some secret smile, or he would call her Rae. That's my nickname for her. I mean, you know, Cyborg and Nightwing and Starfire call her that as well sometimes, but when he says it I get the most violent thoughts and I don't understand why-"
"You're jealous."
His grip on the cup immediately slackened as her confusing words played through his mind.
"I'm what?"
She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head, smiling as she repeated herself.
"I said, you're jealous."
"Why would I be jealous?"
"Jeez Changeling!" She threw her arms in the air as she shook her head at him. "It's really obvious why you're jealous. You like her. That's why your chest is hurting and why you're so angry at the other guy. You see him getting close to the girl you like and it makes you angry. It's pretty obvious."
The words, 'You like her,' continued to float through his mind as he shook his head at the accusation.
"That can't be the reason. I never thought about Rae like that!"
"Well apparently a part of you seems to beg to differ because you wouldn't be acting this way if you just wanted to just be friends."
She looked down at the watch on her wrist before getting up from the table and pushing her chair back in.
"I would have loved to continue this conversation, but unfortunately I have a class to get to and like I said before, school is important. We should continue this if we see each other again."
She said that as she began walking away from him, but he was too preoccupied with his internal thoughts.
That couldn't have been the reason. He wasn't jealous of Arsenal, right? Because in order to be jealous, he would have to have a reason for it, like Arsenal and Raven getting along so well after they saw each other at the café one time. But he didn't like Raven. Well, yea, he liked her, but not in the sense that Tara was talking about…
Right?
It didn't matter that he enjoyed her witty comments or the way she smelled. He had bought the cup of tea he was holding simply because the smell seemed to sooth him and no other reason. Of course she was attractive, like very attractive, but he didn't think about that a lot. Sure, on occasion, the sun would hit her just right and there would be a glow about her that would cause him to stare at her, but that didn't matter. And when they were in a conversation, it didn't matter that he felt warm whenever she would continue a conversation with him, no matter how pointless. It definitely didn't matter that he loved to make her smile and whenever he was graced with that rare sight, his heart would skip a beat and he would want to lean in and make that smile his and only for him.
That last thought froze his mind and his eyes widen with realization.
"I like Raven."
And that's the end of Chapter 10. I hope you enjoyed.