AN: This is the fastest I've ever written anything, especially considering that I typed it on my phone while waiting to go see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It may be rough, but the idea wouldn't let me sleep until I had gotten it out.
Disclaimer: The only thing related to DC Comics or the Teen Titans that I own is a Robin tank top. I don't make any money off of this, but the tank top gets me decent tips at the bar sometimes.
Schadenfreude- Aesthetic Perfection
Raven was the Tower's resident enigma, and she liked it that way. Over the years, the other Titans had come up with their own explanations for many of Raven's quirks, and she was unlikely to ever correct them.
So it was with her constant belittling of Beast Boy.
Robin saw it as a way to keep balance in the team's morale; it was a textbook psychological projection for their leader, boring and plain as the Boy Wonder himself.
Cyborg believed it was a squabble between older sister and younger brother. Again, predictable for the young man who had lost everything and was desperate to play house with his teammates in order to achieve some semblance of normalcy.
Starfire insisted it was a precursor to romance, as she had seen in so many saccharine films and novels. The alien princess saw the brightest hopes in the darkest of places; it was almost cute in its childlike naivete.
Oddly enough, Beast Boy himself had never voiced an opinion on the matter.
Reality, however, was as simple as addiction.
The swirl of Beast Boy's emotions in reaction to an insult formed an empathic ambrosia for Raven— keen, raw, and exquisite. And unlike the others, he always bounced back, ready to have his emotions harvested once more. Time and time again, the green boy would lie down and take the beating; it was what he did best.
He was Raven's golden goose of pain and humiliation.
If the truth were ever exposed, she would be quick to fault her demonic half. So simple, really, and the others would readily accept the excuse. The truth of it, though, was far more terrible.
Nothing Raven ever did or felt would be more human than her addiction to watching another's suffering.