-Chapter 12-

~Raven's POV~

I nodded, thankful he wouldn't argue back. A fight was the last thing I needed right now, and he seemed to sense this. But as I silently watched his lowering expression, I realized maybe I should have handled this more delicately. A flood of emotions washed over me. I hated having to leave him. I liked him so, so much it was almost too painful to bear. Anger was pointed toward Slade. Understanding was pointed toward facts of life. Worry was for the rest of the world.

"Beast Boy, you know this is literally where we part paths. You can never see me again, and if I ever get free, promise me you'll run." I said sadly.

The changeling had no desire to answer me. His heart was too busy shattering at the thought of losing someone held in such high regard. It was pitiful just to watch, but this kind of pain would be nothing compared to the pain he would feel if he were to see me after the child was taken. And then he wanted to be there with me. He wanted to stand by me, but now knowing he couldn't...was too much.

"I just want you to know that..." I took a deep breath to try and calm myself and quell my emotions, if only for a minute or two. "...that I never wanted this to happen. I was never counting on Slade to come early, but I was counting on you to help me. And now, seeing you like this..." I stopped, not bothering to continue. He knew how I felt. He knew it was hard.

He slowly shifted his gaze over to me. His foresty eyes met mine. We stayed locked in a trance, waiting for the other to act upon some unthinkable impulse. But neither of us moved. For once I wasn't tired, but psychologically distressed. His mental state was probably no different.

"...It's not there..." he whispered, almost inaudibly.

"What's not there, Beast Boy?" I asked, our eyes still locked together.

"It doesn't matter, anyway." he said.

Our fixed stare was broken when Beast Boy chose that exact time to lower his eyes, trying to hide the feelings he felt from me. Life suddenly wasn't important to him anymore. Survival didn't matter anymore. Only one thing took center stage in his mind, and that one thing was me. He summoned every last ounce of his courage, if any remained by this point. He lifted his eyes again, and I saw wet trails on his cheeks and neck, leading up to his hardened and determined eyes.

"Beast Boy-" I began, but was abruptly stopped.

"Raven, all this time I've been traveling with you. I've been helping you and hoping..." He blinked a few times before continuing, unable to register what he was about to say. "...hoping you would eventually see me for what I really wanted you to. When I was with you, I learned more about you than I ever had. I gained knowledge that there was a whole other side to you that had previously escaped me." His tone sounded completely unlike him, but he dismissed my puzzled look and kept going. "But all this time I've been scared to ask what you've thought of me. I couldn't help but wonder if you learned a little about me, too, or if you still saw me as the lame dork who told humorousless jokes. But now, seeing how you're explaining things to me so smoothly, as though you're talking to yourself, I'm not scared anymore." He took just four swift steps toward me, until he was face-to-face with me, until his eyes looked into mine and his head was not inches from my own. "I know your powers can amplify due to your emotions. So I've been very careful not to upset you or disrupt your feelings in any way. But since you won't be here for much longer, I don't even care if I die." He leaned a little closer to me, sending butterflies fluttering in my stomach. "I want you to know I've matured alot since I first came with you. I've stepped up when you were vulnerable. And in all that time I've spent with you, I developed what I first thought to be an unexplainable mystery feeling." He and I both blushed hotly. My powers started to grab things and lift them up threateningly. But this didn't stop him from getting his point across. He took hold of my wrist and pulled my into an embrace which I didn't resist. My skin tingled with electricity. "And then it hit me. This feeling was more powerful than it was with Terra. And it was directed at you, which only meant I could be feeling love."

That did it. My powers struck out and lashed at anything within its reach. The items that served as a warning blew into pieces. Trees were uprooted and flung miles away. Leaves were scattered all over the place. But I didn't notice any of the collateral damage I was causing. This might be partial to the fact that Beast Boy's lips had already been tenderly placed over mine. It was a passionate kiss, not one that could be found in movies, and I was too busy cherishing it to care about anything else going on.

The shapeshifting hero didn't care about my powers, either. He wanted this for a long time, and needed to let me know this kind of information, about how he felt toward me, especially since I was going to have to leave. He needed to make this moment special; something he was sure I would never forget. He, too, became lost in the little invisible bubble we'd formed together. Any thought he may have had was most definitely about me.

Everything in the world just got further and further from me. I didn't dare make a movement, lest the trance be broken and all my problems would come back to me, not unlike a boomerang. Instead, I paid close attention to the way his heart pounded in his chest, causing my emotions to roil in my belly. I inhaled his scent that was his and his alone. No one else had been that intoxicating. Not even Malchior had accomplished the feat Beast Boy had just now. He was truly something else.

In return, the green former hero made no movement either. He was far too busy lavishing the moment to ruin this special occasion. He would let nothing interfere with this kiss. Not after it had taken him so long to get this far with me. He needed me, and he would make sure I knew it. Nothing but me could snap him out of his reverie.

Though I didn't care much, I felt my cheeks turn puce with my now-rocketing blood pressure. The background of the landscape utterly ceased to exist. It seemed the more I prolonged this kiss, the more objects were led from my focus. Everything now seemed ethereal in my mind. It felt like my mind was the only thing working at this point. Everything else was void of limberness and activity. Meanwhile, the both of us were in a shadow of nothing.

Finally, Beast Boy pulled away with much reluctance. "You know, they say the rarest flowers only bloom at night because people aren't watching; they want to be mysterious." he said, brushing aside some of my stray hair strands as he did.

"You want me to stay." I registered, not out of my rouse yet.

"I bet if I pluck just the right flower, she'll bloom for me even in sunlight." he continued.

"I'm the flower?" I asked, still dazed from what had just occurred.

"Yeah." he replied.

I had no idea what else to say. I wasn't familiar with this romantic stuff. And although I still had the same emotions as someone in love, I didn't know how to show it. How did one go about this? I was always the person you asked about borrowing a book or how meditation worked. But romance? Those scenarios were beyond me. Though I'd felt what Beast Boy had wanted me to feel, I had no way of telling him it worked, and that I'd felt the same way about him. I mentally cursed myself for being so emotionally repressed. Inside, I was as happy as the sun in a baby's cartoon. But on the outside, I was expressionless.

Beast Boy was completely unable to read me. It was clear he was at a loss. Had I gotten what he was trying to say? Or had I been so dense I hadn't realized it yet? For all he knew, either of these could have been the truth. I had always been hard to understand, but this was insanity! Perhaps a rose could seal the deal...but there weren't any rose gardens or floral shops around here.

New emotions overwhelmed me in one massive wave. These feelings were new to me; I'd never felt them before. I desperately needed to clarify some things, namely the new sensations, but I had no means of doing so. I didn't know what to do with these emotions. I didn't know if they were good or bad. I didn't know whether I should discard them or keep them. The fact of Beast Boy's feelings towards me was flattering, unnerving, frustrating, and terrifying all at the same time.

The nerve-wracking silence grew heavier between the two of us. Though I could easily just tell him how I felt, for some reason I couldn't. My voice failed me, and I couldn't talk at all. This only served to deepen the nervous atmosphere.

Then a bitter-sweet moment happened. Pools of energy whirled around me, and I was lifted a few feet above the ground. I knew I had to tell Beast Boy what was happening, but my voice still failed me. The nervous atmosphere grew denser upon adding worry to the situation. In mere seconds I was filled with fatigue, and my vision blurred before I went into complete unconsciousness. The energy spanned around me and hardened, encasing me in a black cocoon. No one could see inside, nor could I see out. Jenka had arrived.

An emotional cocktail filled the nervously worrying changeling. He didn't know how to direct this situation, but he remembered my words to him. "Jenka. Jenka is the dormant state every pregnant Azuran woman must got through in order to conserve energy and thereby gain weight." "You'll know when it happens because I'll be surrounded by a cocoon made of pure energy." I wasn't kidding, as Beast Boy just now realized. I meant every word of it. The cocoon was harder than even diamond. It wouldn't be easily broken. I had the necessary protection, but the hero felt it wasn't enough.

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he transformed into a pterodactyl and plucked my cocoon gently off the land with his dinosaur beak, using his teeth to grip the smooth, slippery substance he was holding. But after he was done with his 'dramatic' scene, he didn't know what to do. That is, until he saw blue and red lights flashing and heard sirens screaming. Naturally he flew off with just a swift beat of his wings. Time to run.