I do not own Teen Titans or any of the characters.

Problems

A low, pained groan dragged its way lethargically out of his mouth, falling flat as soon as it left his lips just as surely as he was sure he would if he tried to stand. he felt the bed shift beneath him as someone moved on it, and a moment later, a soft hand slipped into his left one, lacing its fingers with his. He managed a weak smile, but didn't risk trying to speak. The groan had been painful enough that he had thought he might have split his throat open making even that tiny amount of noise. However, after a few moments, the pain faded, a warm sensation spreading through him slowly, the aches, pains, stabs, and burns of various degrees and types of pain through his body all fading one after another. They didn't all disappear entirely, but they were muted slightly, suppressed. He slowly along his eyelids to creep open like a pair of corroded, rust-covered hinges, neither one getting open enough for his eyelashes to get out of the way, only just enough for a tiny slit of blurry vision as he rolled his head to the side. He could make out Raven's face beside his, and he could see a pair of red blurs near her eyes, which meant she was either blushing, or she'd been crying.

"Hey," he croaked.

"Good morning," Raven said, voice frail, barely more than a whisper. "I'm sorry I haven't healed you all the way."

He shook his head slowly. "Damian tired me out too. Whenever you can."

He could just barely make out Raven's smile as she nodded before she leaned down, kissing him gently. He smiled, kissing her back, and for a few seconds, it was fine. Until he inhaled. He gasped harshly and hurled himself away from her, crashing to the floor and shouting in pain, clutching at his head and curling into the fetal position, swallowing a growl that tried to force its way out of his throat.

"Gar-"

"Stay there!" Beast Boy said, more harshly than he had intended, but he needed her to stay away from him for the moment.

He could feel her nudging at his mind through the link he still had blocked off from his end, but he kept his end resolutely sealed off. he couldn't let her feel this. He couldn't let her see the images flashing behind his eyes. Slowly, the images subsided, his pain slowly filtering back into his head. He swallowed hard, and once he was completely under control again, he pushed himself up, taking a slow breath and sitting against the wall, eyes closed. He felt weak and jittery. He imagined he must be pale, and he could feel beads of sweat on his face. Raven must be terrified.

He focused, channeling energy into healing his body. It wasn't a fast process, but after a few minutes, he was able to open his eyes, lifting his head off the wall behind him and dropping his eyes from the ceiling to Raven. He was right. She was terrified. He could see the worry and fear for his safety shining from her eyes. He looked down at his body. His neck was still burned, there were still burn trails wrapping down each arm, around his shoulders around the base of each arm, diagonally from his left shoulder to his right side, and his right hand was still horribly burned from sticking it into the blob. He focused on his hand first, restoring the damage fairly quickly, then shifted to his neck, then his torso. Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of Raven watching him in silence, he sensed her anxiety beginning to boil over even without opening his senses. He looked up at her, seeing tears about ready to spill over as well. He exhaled slowly before taking a breath.

"I met Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn again while I was fighting the blob," Beast Boy said. "They were in the middle of having sex, and she had a lot more pheromone dust in the air than when she had captured me."

"I know," Raven said. "I could sense it affecting you. But if felt like you were controlling it, until you suddenly shut down our connection."

"The Beast took over," Beast Boy said. "I shut the connection down so that his...personality wouldn't affect you, in case I wasn't the only one fighting you. During the fight, the Beast lost and got knocked out. I thought he would be out for a while, I hoped, but apparently I was wrong."

"So...he's trying to get out?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy nodded slowly.

"I might be able to calm him down if-" she began to move toward him again and his eyes flew wide open.

"Stay back!" Beast Boy snapped, Raven recoiling as though he had slapped her. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He's not angry. That's not why he's trying to get out. He's...He was affected by Poison Ivy's pheromone dust more than I was. Since he's all primal, primitive instinct, there's no higher thinking, or inhibitions, or anything like that to help ignore the effects. It...He's...in heat."

Raven's eyes widened before her cheeks flushed, her voice clipped and barely more than a squeak when she spoke. "Oh." She cleared her throat. "Well...how long will it...how long will it last?"

"I don't know," Beast Boy said. "It's...never happened before. none of my animal forms have ever gone into heat before. Even when I went through puberty, it was just a normal human's. This is...hard. Especially since its him."

"And...being around me...makes it worse?" Raven asked, face still slowly growing darker as the gravity, and implications, of the situation set in more and more.

Beast Boy's face darkened a bit. "He...mostly feels the same as I do. So...he...uh...he sees you as his...um...mate."

Both of their faces darkened considerably at the admission.

"When I smell you...and he smells you...he tries to get out," Beast Boy said. "But...it'll only be you that...sets him off. I'm not sure how I know, but I can...sort of feel it."

Raven nodded. "Can you control him? If we're careful?"

"I don't know," Beast Boy said. "Even now, I can feel him. He's fighting desperately to get away, and you're all the way over there. Earlier, when you kissed me, I almost completely lost it before I could even realize he was trying to get out. And if he does...I won't be able to stop him. Neither would you. He'd..."

Raven blushed furiously, but nodded, expression serious.

"And he'd hurt you," Beast Boy said. "Normally, he wouldn't, but this time...he would definitely hurt you."

"Because he'd attack me?" Raven asked. "Or..."

Beast Boy's darkening face gave her the answer. He wouldn't hurt her by attacking her. He'd hurt her by acting like a wild animal in heat, most of which involved the male maiming the female by being too rough. At least, based on some of the books Raven had read a very, very long time ago, when she'd first started developing feelings for Beast Boy. Not that she'd considered being with him in his animal forms.

"So what do we do?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Hope it goes away soon. In the mean time...I need you to stay away from me, for your own safety. And I have to keep our connection shut down. Also for your sake."

Raven nodded. "Alright. I'll go see if there's another room I can stay in."

Beast Boy nodded. "I'm sorry Rae. I wish I could control it."

Raven smiled. "It's alright. I love you. I'll do whatever it takes to make this work. Even if that means avoiding you once a month when your man period starts."

Beast Boy laughed and Raven's own melodic, hypnotically beautiful laugh joined his. Then, she smiled, forming dark energy into a silhouette replica of herself in front of him to give him a kiss safely for her before she walked out of the room. Beast Boy sighed heavily, pushing himself up and walking back to the bed, dropping onto it and trying to force the images out of his brain. They were the Beast's thoughts as much as his own, and he refused to allow them to be anything more than hopefully temporary inconveniences, because the Beast was absolutely not taking no for an answer if he escaped.

Beast Boy sighed, sipping at his coffee, staring at his arms. The burns had scarred on his arms. Spiraling discolorations, like a slightly darker tattoo, except a little smoother than his undamaged skin. A reminder of the Beast failing. Of Beast Boy failing. Not that he needed a reminder. The images, thoughts, and urges constantly swirling through his head were bad enough. He could feel the Beast snarling and ramming against the cage Beast Boy kept him in, fighting to break free and claim Raven as his.

"Are you alright?" Nightwing asked, staring at Beast Boy, who had been scowling at his coffee for several minutes.

"Yeah," Beast Boy said, face only barely brightening any as he took a drink.

He set his cup down and swallowed just as the door opened and Raven stepped into the room. Everyone froze instantly as Beast Boy's coffee cup skidded across the table, a loud snarl ripping out of him as his hands clenched on the table, his claws driving themselves halfway into the wood, his whole body clenching and trembling with the effort of fighting the Beast back. Raven recovered from her surprise first and "eeped", darting back out of the room as Beast Boy forced himself to sit back in his seat, his claws tearing gouges into the table as his hands refused to relax for several seconds before finally retracting his claws and pulling his hands back to clutch at his sides, folding forward as a second snarl ripped out of him, angrier this time from the Beast being denied a second time. The snarl echoed through the silent kitchen, even as Beast Boy trembled, tears falling to the floor.

"Beast Boy...what the hell?" Nightwing asked.

"He's...misbehaving," Beast boy said through gritted teeth, slowly making progress at shoving the Beast back down into his cage, slamming and locking the door.

He finally sits up, the others staring at his tear-soaked face from where they're standing around the room, all of them ready to fight if necessary, though they all relax when they see he's under control.

"What happened?" Starfire asked. "Did Friend Raven do something to upset you?"

"No," Beast Boy said. "This isn't him angry. This is something else."

"Can you keep a handle on it?" Nightwing asked.

"I can try," Beast Boy said. "It...It should stop. Eventually."

"Will it?" Nightwing asked.

Beast Boy's gaze fell to the ground. "Yeah. Eventually."

Nightwing narrowed his eyes but nodded. "Get a handle on it, or we'll have to take measures to keep you under control."

Beast Boy nodded. "I will."

Nightwing nodded and left the room with the others. Ryuu sighed, cleaning up his spilled coffee before fixing Raven a cup of tea exactly the way she liked it. He carried it to the door to her room, then set it on the floor with a note apologizing for not being able to control himself before he knocked before walking away. After a moment, the door opened and Raven looked around before picking up both items and closing the door, wiping her eyes as she walked back to the bed and read the note, wiping the fresh tears it caused before sipping at her tea. She smiled. He remembered how she liked it. She was certain she'd never told him, or showed him, so she was impressed he made it so perfect.

Beast Boy landed heavily in the clearing. He had scanned it thoroughly, even despite his condition. He couldn't let anyone see. He couldn't let them know.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, a deafening roar erupted out of him, every other animal in earshot fleeing in terror. Understanding flooded Beast Boy's brain as the Beast roared.

"No I won't let you out!" Beast Boy snapped as soon as the Beast had finished roaring.

Wrong answer. The Beast didn't allow permission. He took control. Beast Boy's body grew instantly, though only changing partway. Instead of the behemoth the Beast usually was, it looked the same but half the size. And it went ballistic. Boy fighting Beast for control sent their shared body for control. It ripped and tore at the ground, it hurled boulders, it smashed trees. It lashed out at anything and everything it could get its claws into. Finally, however, Beast Boy had wrestled the Beast back into his cage again sealing it shut once again.

"This is my body!" Beast Boy snarled from where he was on his forearms and knees, sweat pouring off of him from fighting for control. "Raven is my girlfriend! I will never allow you to hurt her! I will never let you rape her! We will never do anything she doesn't want to do! So just shut the fuck up and take a nap!"

the right side of his face and his right arm both transformed into the Beast, the point where the two beings features met erupting into agony form both sides fighting to spread. The Beast's roar and the boy's scream, both born of that agony, rang through the trees as the Beast punched the ground, cracking it. Then, slowly, the Beast's control slipped again and he was forced back into his cage, more securely this time. Beast Boy gasped and panted for breath, collapsing onto his left side as he tried to regain his breath.

Beast Boy yawned as he began to stir. The Beast had been fighting tooth and nail the last couple of days, but currently, Beast Boy couldn't feel him fighting. Maybe he'd finally settled down. He opened his eyes and his gut dropped. He was in a cage, with black chains wrapped around it and a padlock on the door. Before him was a seventy-inch plasma screen TV with the camera aimed down a short green snout, and heading through the hallways of Wayne Manor. Beast Boy swore, lunging and grabbing the padlock, pulling hard. He looked back up at the screen just as the Beast shoved a claw into Raven's door's lock, picking it with a simple turn of his hand. higher thinking. Maybe the Beast wasn't just a Beast. But that didn't change what was about to happen. Beast Boy knew as soon as the Beast caught Raven's scent. Beast Boy roared in effort as he pulled on the lock with all his might. The Beast snarled, Raven sitting bolt upright, eyes wide with surprise as she saw his hulking form crouching by the door. Then, his legs kicked backward and he shot across the room in the world's furthest and fastest pounce.

Leave a review.