Author's Note:
i haven't been posting on here for long and have now realised that whilst i can reply to reviews from other users via private message (and have been), i can't do the same for guest reviews. and you all have such nice words that i still wanted to reply, so i'm doing the usual thing authors do and will start putting my replies in the opening notes! ^^
eris: thank you for yet another kind review! you always have such interesting thoughts. i personally don't believe gar is ABLE to 'talk' with his inner beast. i've always seen it as more of an abstract thing, like he would know how to communicate with other animal species but this is one that doesn't even exist beyond himself and adonis, so it's still very much an enigma to him and there's that divide so he's never been able to fully 'communicate' with it, yknow? i think that's partly what scares him about it.
that's interesting what you said about bb being able to shield his emotions from empaths due to training from mento. is that comic canon? (i've never been a comic reader so i wouldn't know!) i've never seen raven's empathy being a case of 'reading minds' so much as literally just being able to feel the energy coming off of people, even though they might not show it. so for me, those have always been two different things. either way, as i stated in my notes, empath raven is just not a thing for me i'm afraid.
unfortunately the whole story is already planned out so whilst your ideas are great i'm gonna be sticking to my plan! ^^
guest (LW): i love receiving reviews like this! so happy you're enjoying the story and thank you so much for the feedback. i have a history of writing TOO much detail because i want the reader to see the scene playing out exactly as i envision it, but i'm trying to hold back with that these days cos as a reader you deserve more credit. so i'm glad you don't think i'm giving too much away.
anyway, fun fact: i was on a celebratory night out with friends when i was notified to this review and it made my entire night, i couldn't stop smiling. i'm all about the subtle build-up with my ships and especially with bbrae (it's all about the PINING and the TENSION), so i'm glad that's being appreciated! it's taking all of my will power to keep this slow and steady and stick to my plot cos really i just want them to make out. :') but i'm so happy with my overall plan, so i'm excited for what's to come. our patience will pay off eventually. thanks again for taking the time to review. 3
CHAPTER NINE
FUSCHIA
It only hit him by the time he'd chucked his joggers to the ground and had his uniform trousers halfway up his legs.
Raven had been wearing civvies (with that low-hanging neck baring her collarbones and the band of those shorts hugging her hips like Dream Gar's hands had—)
He chided himself like a child in need of some time on the naughty step. An entire week on a naughty staircase.
Beast Boy dropped his pants and stepped out of them, searching semi-naked for his communicator. He spotted it, hanging up with his belt from the hook by his door, and made a grab for it with mounting panic.
- Home screen
- Notes
- Hero Tings
- Training Schedule
Click.
Jade eyes darted over the screen: a spreadsheet (colour-coded, because Robin), then it was there, highlighted in yellow - much too happy a hue for the terrible news it disclosed.
Sunday: 09:00 Start. Hand-to-Hand Combat. Powers Prohibited. Uniform Optional.
Okay then. So he had stepped out of a dream and straight into a nightmare. So he was being punished for the way he'd brazenly violated his friend's mouth in his mind without a trace of her knowledge or permission. For the way he'd relished every second of it. For the way he would definitely do it again.
The Titan leader had thought some days ago that he was doing Beast Boy a favour in assigning a powerless session for their first slot in his updated programme.
The changeling loved the spotlight. They'd sparred together on the beach and Robin had been quite impressed by how much he'd improved, only advancing further once he took on board his meticulous advice. He was powerful like a bison but agile like a cat, all without transforming once, and it swelled the martial artist in his leader with pride.
Therefore, this session would be the perfect chance to show it all off to his fellow teammates. It was a benevolent gesture on Robin's part. A kind deed.
Wrong.
The thing with hand-to-hand training was that it always went about in a certain way. And it went about in this way because it kind of had to.
Robin would take on the role of mentor. His purpose was to lead the battles; to hang back and hawk-eye every dodge and attack, catch where his comrades slipped up, analyse their form and spot where they could improve to secure those wins in the future.
It just made sense for it to go like that. He didn't need any close-range practice; the guy was raised by Batman, for Christ's sake. So hand-to-hand was essentially a day off for the Boy Wonder (or it would be, if he didn't stick around for a solo workout afterwards).
That left a significant problem for Gar though, because there were four remaining Titans, and powerless sparring almost always entailed pairing off.
Guess which two members wouldn't stand a chance against the girl who could balance a bus on one finger and the guy who sometimes cooled down by benching two tonnes?
Robin didn't know it, but hand-to-hand had long since become something of a personal Hell for Beast Boy. A sometimes two-hour struggle wherein he was forced to grant all his attention to the sorceress, typically showing more skin than he was used to, with only the occasional break where his leader might intervene to demonstrate how a move should be performed.
In truth, with the way his animal proclivity was acting up, a part of Gar felt terrified that he might let slip a growl the instant he saw another man's hands on her - never mind the fact said man had literally no interest at all.
God, why did he have to be a stupid male with stupid bestial powers and a stupid, staggering crush? He could give even Raven a run for her money with how well he managed to tame his emotions during these sessions.
If anyone deserved an award for Best At Pushing Their Feelings Down, it was him, dammit, not her.
A quick glance to his clock told him it was now 9:22am, and he cursed, sensing Robin's growing agitation even from three floors down. Gar threw open his closet and rifled until he reached a baggy Tee and a pair of black, mesh gym shorts.
That'll work.
In less than a minute, he was dressed, and in the following two he'd managed to brush his teeth, splash cold water onto his face, and ruffle his hair in a listless attempt to comb it through. Next thing he was sprinting for the training room, thinking that if he were in his uniform, he could shift into something with much faster feet.
The gym doors swung open on his arrival and he stepped inside, a little out of breath. Consider it a warm-up, he thought.
"Sorry I'm late!" he threw out to the room. Four faces turned to him and he distinctly avoided one in particular.
"Well, it's about time, little man!" Cyborg called back.
"I got, uh, side-tracked…" Beast Boy returned, walking across the hardwood floor with one hand at the back of his neck. Robin stepped forward to greet him.
"You mean, you slept in," he said with a knowing look.
Just say yes.
"... Yes."
His leader nodded before tossing a water bottle his way. He caught it with ease.
"We're rounding up stretching. You've got three minutes," Robin told him with a roll of his shoulders before sauntering off to the back wall, likely to prepare his notepad for jotting down any constructive criticism.
Beast Boy took a sharp breath in through his nose, out through his mouth, then paced to the corner where they kept the mats, all the while oblivious to the violet gaze that followed him. Across the room, with one arm stretched over her chest and the other bent to pull it in, Raven blinked out of a trance, shaking away the memory of him standing topless in the archway of his door.
Focus, the sibyl thought, pressing her lips together to better subdue that unwelcome spark. When her muscles began to strain, she let her arms fall loose before switching them around to stretch again.
If there was ever a time to reflect on her teammate's broad shoulders and subtle hint of abs, now was not it.
But it was fine, because she wasn't even thinking about that... nor about the way his joggers had hung a little too low on his hips, or how his unruly, post-sleep hair could be considered something close to cute.
Two dark brows drew together as she looked down to her feet, just a little mortified with herself.
At the room's other end, Gar took a large swig from his water bottle before tossing it aside, then brought his right leg up behind him, holding it in place with a hand wrapped tightly around the ankle.
Do not look left, the boy repeated over and over in his head. Because he knew that if he did, he'd just be met with the sight of long, porcelain legs leaning low into a stretch, and if he was particularly unlucky, there would also be a teasing glimpse of stomach where her top rode up from the reach of her arms.
Ugh. Nope.
He squeezed his eyes shut, determined to not become hard again in the middle of the training room. Instead, he powered through the most hurried full-body stretch of his life with his eyes never once leaving the tiny crack on the wall ahead.
"Everyone ready?" Gar heard from behind him. They all swivelled to Robin, but only a redhead and a robot threw back a cheery 'Ready!' in return. It wasn't like the shifter to be quiet, but he supposed if anyone noticed, it would be put down to the assumption that he was still half-asleep.
Which he definitely wasn't.
"Great. So, Starfire and Cyborg, you're on the right mat." Here it comes. "Beast Boy and Raven, the left." There it is.
He inhaled what was left of his sanity - one great big breath - then walked willingly to his guaranteed demise.
On the opposite side of the mat, Raven's hands were busy tying her hair back into a low ponytail. Once the elastic was securely in place, those two stray locks slipped out to daintily frame her face. She raised her head to him, their eyes locked, and with great effort, Gar had to swat away the image of his fist holding her hair back instead.
He let her step up onto the mat first, then followed a moment after.
"Care to dance?" said a voice that sounded a lot like his. But no, he couldn't have said that.
Except that he was already testing her stare with a wolfish smirk, already donning his signature mask as naturally as one would throw on a coat.
Except that he could, and he did.
He saw her brows drop on her head before she lifted her arms and settled into battle stance. Without thought, Beast Boy mirrored her, bending at the knees and leaning forward a touch.
It felt far too much like a lion waiting to pounce.
"I'll lead," Raven challenged.
And if that wasn't the hottest thing ever, Gar had no idea what was.
At the far wall, Robin kept his stare drawn to his timer with one arm up, preparing to count both pairs down.
"Three…"
"I should warn you, I've been practising," Beast Boy said, feeling his fingers twitch with that pre-battle buzz.
"Two…"
"Noted," Raven said.
And in that last second before the final call, when he caught something glint in the blue of her eye, he had to wonder: did she get that buzz too?
"One."
Robin dropped his arm.
"Begin!"
Gar was first to move. Predictable. It was almost like that gloved hand plunging down flicked a switch in his brain.
An animal reaction, some might call it.
He felt himself take off, lurching forward to close the metres between them. When he neared, his right arm moved out to take the first swing, knowing full well it wouldn't land this early in the game.
Sure enough, Raven adopted her typical defensive style, jerking a step back and raising her forearm to the side of her head to block against his hit. He drove on with another swing of his opposite arm, advancing as she stepped back again, just out of reach of his knuckles.
It always went like this in the beginning.
Unlike their friends on the adjacent mat, who clashed like missiles at that opening cry, Raven and Beast Boy always seemed to prefer a paced start, as if they enjoyed easing into the action.
Enjoyed drawing it out, until the moment someone decided to turn the tables.
Raven would parry and dodge most of his strikes, refusing to go on the offensive until she deemed the time to be right. Gar wasn't sure why she did this; maybe because, knowing she had less stamina than her opponent, she aimed to drain a portion of their energy in the first few minutes in order to later gain the upper hand.
Robin had once taught them all that blindly attacking was a futile endeavour. The best approach in battle was unique to each individual, and curated by knowing your strengths and weaknesses, then steering the fight in whichever way would better favour yourself whilst impairing your rival.
But as with his powers, Gar's strength was his adaptability, and whatever technique Raven was going for wasn't going to work. He purposefully pulled his punches in the beginning, reserving that power for when it was needed most. The real aim wasn't to hit her, but to keep her moving so her balance would eventually shake and an opening would make itself known.
One of them had to pin the other to secure a win, and neither was going to make it easy.
He spotted that she was nearing the edge of the mat and knew this would mean she'd soon need to switch tactics. After all, any foot to the linoleum floor also meant an automatic loss.
He was proven right when her gait began to slow and weight tipped left. Then she was widening her stance to swing her leg out from beneath her and catch him off guard by the side of his ankles.
He anticipated this, and when Raven went to move, Beast Boy leapt high, avoiding what would have been a hard fall to his tailbone. In the empty space he'd made of his jump, Raven abandoned the hit and instead seized the chance to forward-roll back into the centre of the mat, putting distance between them again.
Gar touched down and swivelled to the sight of Raven rising from her crouch.
"What happened to leading?" he hollered through a grin, head set at a provoking tilt. But Raven hadn't spent eighteen years of life preserving control just to be baited by the changeling now.
Instead of reply, the mystic decided they'd been too slow for too long.
Time to turn the tables.
He came at her again and she planted the soles of her feet into the mat. This time, when a kick plunged her way, leaning deep and aiming high, she ducked and caught it mid-flight by the calf. With a pale hand wrapped around his leg, Beast Boy had but a millisecond to widen his eyes before he was being thrown heavily to the floor.
The shifter's cheek smacked into the mat, and he felt the brunt of the fall at the tender base of his ribs.
"Touché," Gar huffed, winded. But then he was hurling himself out of the way, just in time to dodge the heel of a boot thrusting down to that spot where his head had been moments prior.
"Do you talk this much on the field?" Raven remarked just as her teammate was scrambling to his feet and shaking off his blunder.
"Only when there's someone worth talkin' to," he smiled back, finding his balance again, and the girl felt her eyes narrow against that low pull in her chest.
She wasn't going to let him distract her. This was her job, and her leader was watching.
Unbeknownst to Raven, her opponent's train of thought was traversing a similar path, with Beast Boy employing his usual method of telling himself that, right now, the girl was a villain. A very attractive villain - one who he could still have a little fun with - but ultimately one who would cause real harm to real people if he didn't succeed in taking her down.
In the past, this had been a very effective strategy, so he clutched onto it, even as she watched him from across the mat with darkened eyes and lowered chin, looking very much like she could slice him in half.
And she could. And he knew. And he was so gone that his ghost would likely thank her for it.
Once again, Beast Boy was tuning into that attack mode, advancing upon her with a fist drawn back. Raven ducked her head behind the cross she'd made of her arms, thwarting the hit, but she still staggered back on the mat from its force. It was with the second rapid punch that her balance finally broke, bringing the sorceress toppling from her feet and falling to her side.
Raven caught herself on her elbow, but still grit her teeth against the sting of impact. For the second she was down, instead of lunging, Beast Boy watched her.
Watched her stretched out in one long curve; two small hands pressed into the vinyl-lined foam, a slight trace of waist, like a sunken dip just above that jutting hipbone. Then legs, the outer slightly bent in towards the mat, long and lustrous and perfect.
If they weren't in a fight, it'd be an incredibly suggestive position. And the time he took to muse on this was a big mistake. He might've won right then and there, but now he'd never know, because Raven had pushed up onto her hands, drawn one of those slender legs in, then kicked it out - right into his stomach.
Gar hurled back, a yelp flying from him and arms wrapping around his torso as he hunched. But he didn't fall. He took root, clenched his jaw and huffed loud, right before looking up to see Raven throwing a punch his way.
Where was the mercy?
Confident that she was about to make up for her fall, Raven squeezed her fist tight and aimed precisely. Of course he had to go and move.
Gar dipped to one side so that her hit missed by an inch, and before Raven could blink, he was snatching her by the wrist, pulling it into him and forcing her to turn in place. It was a move he'd used the last time. There she stood with her back to his front and her arm twisted at her shoulder blades, held in place by his firm grasp.
An image flashed in her mind, of that same hand gripping her by the wrist at the fair last night. Though the circumstances differed, the butterflies still came to her all the same.
Last time, Raven had struggled to get out of this trap. She'd had to resort to kicking backwards, with an unsteady aim. He was ready for that to come again, but not for what followed instead.
This time, she used it all against him - his hold, his build, his weight. She tipped herself forward with vigour, effectively throwing him head-first over her shoulder. Naturally, she felt the release on her wrist in the same moment she heard the stunned shout from her rival.
His only saving grace was that he was quick and nimble, so instead of landing right on his spine, Garfield used the momentum of this throw to turn it into a flip. His hands pressed into the mat and he landed back on his feet, satisfied to see a rather irritated face once his head jerked up.
Raven's bones shook with the need to summon obsidian power, fingers flicking out, but she quickly drew them back into fists at her sides.
Her breathing was heavier now - the first tell that she would often be off meditating while everyone else was doing cardio. He watched her frown then blow a stray lock of hair out of her face.
Cute, Beast Boy thought about the deadly girl opposite. That is, until she was advancing again with an oncoming kick. Then he just thought panic, because when Raven brought out the kicks, that was a very appropriate response.
Unlike her punches, these jolts could be killer.
He had no choice but to leap back as far as he'd go, letting out a 'Gah!' when he felt the speed of that first swipe tousle his hair. Very quickly, he'd become quite cornered, forced to keep backing up to the edge of the mat, as Raven had been before.
If he didn't think fast, she was going to have him.
To his relief, instead of a fourth kick, the sibyl followed with another swing of the arm - one that he just barely managed to duck beneath. While low, he sent out his own punch to her exposed side. She braced against the pain, but blocked his second hit again with a cross of the arms in front of her face.
When Gar saw her fall back, he was certain he'd won. But no hard thud came. Instead, she did something completely unexpected - purposely lunging back till her legs were in the air and she was performing a handspring like a fucking olympic gymnast...
Raven was back on her feet again, and Beast Boy's mouth was agape.
That was hot. Raven was hot. And wasn't that just the freakin' theme of the day?
But more to the point: since when the Hell had she been able to do a handspring?
He caught her glance to the back wall at their side, and in his shock, he took the second to follow, only to see Robin smiling with a thumbs-up. Blinking back, Raven was returning the smile.
So, what? Did Robin just teach everyone ninja moves in his spare time now? Did it make it more fun for him to watch the fights when they came around?!
Okay. You know what? Screw this. Time to step up.
The two took off toward the mat's centre at the same time and she was trying for the kicks again, no doubt to knock him to the floor and put an end to things. It was first a frontal kick, which he dodged. The same couldn't be said for the following spin-kick that then whipped out from behind her.
He took that right to the lung, winced hard, and it shook him, made him stumble, and when he saw the ending punch coming right for his jaw, he decided enough was enough.
Beast Boy secured one last dodge, Raven's knuckles skimming the point of his ear as he tilted off-kilter. And while her front was exposed, arm still stretched out in attack, he ducked heavily forward, locking one elbow about her neck and the other around her waist.
In the next second, he was tipping himself so that she would be taken with him.
The two toppled, Gar falling forward and Raven falling back. When they hit the ground, he persevered, ensuring that they rolled one last time so he would land on top with Raven flattened to her back.
Raven's eyes welded shut for the whole movement, her world spinning, before she came to a still and the back of her head thwacked down onto the cold press of the mat.
She felt pressure at her wrist again - no, both wrists - and they were pinned to the sides of her head and her legs were bent to accommodate the weight between them, and she opened her eyes and saw that familiar face grinning down at her, far too close, with a triumphant shine in the green of those eyes.
Her entire body rushed.
"Ha!" Beast Boy yelled, in the instant before he was propelled twenty feet across the room by a torpedo of black.
She heard him wail mid-flight, heard that sickening crack as he collided with the wall, and her stomach dropped through the floor. Raven pushed aside the remnant heat in her face to urgently sit up on her hands and witness the sight of her teammate slumped in one messy heap at the end of the room.
"Time!" Robin yelled. Mouth parted, she watched - watched her leader sprint to their friend with steps that echoed the racing of her heart. She scrambled from the floor to follow, almost tripping over her own feet, still dizzy with the image of him, with the heaviness of his body hovering inches above hers.
"Oooug." The changeling swayed a little before sitting up, a hand immediately finding his temple. Robin was already kneeling at his side, inspecting the quickly bruising area.
"Raven, what happened?" she heard him say, but she was delayed in answering, for her eyes held strong to Beast Boy.
"'S'okay," the boy was saying in her stead, and even as he rubbed at that sore spot on his head, he still let a smile begin to slither through the ache. "Was just a force of habit." Raven saw him look up to her. "Right?"
He was saving her. Why was he saving her? She'd just almost shattered his spine against the nearest wall. He might have a concussion.
The sibyl kneeled beside Robin, right in front of Garfield.
"Are you okay?" she asked, with puckered brows and large eyes betraying her guilt.
"Never better." He played it off, waving a hand leisurely, clearly oblivious to the slow swelling that was forming just below his hairline. "After all, I won."
… It was that smile again. That stupid, charming, cheeky smile.
Robin looked to Raven. Raven looked to Robin.
"... He did get the pin," he said.
And Beast Boy just smiled wider.
As the Boy Wonder manoeuvred his teammate's arm behind his neck, Raven backed off, rising to stand as Robin also helped Beast Boy to his feet.
"Maybe we should forgo another round."
"Gimme some credit, Rob. I can take a bit of magic blast," Gar drawled, shaking his arm free to prove that he could balance perfectly well on his own. To prove that his leader was entirely overreacting, and no harm had been done.
Knowing the changeling to be stubborn with such things, Robin looked once again to Raven instead. And she hated the look, because without words, it simply asked her: well?
She straightened before speaking.
"It won't happen again." That meant: let's keep going. That meant: don't ask any more questions. He still eyed her, but ultimately decided he was outvoted.
"Okay… Then, from the top, I guess."
For the next hour, both teams went another two rounds. They grappled, tussled, vied for the upper hand, and it didn't happen again.
But a lot of something else did.
A lot of what had made it happen to begin with.
As the session drew to an end, Robin gathered the four to relay his notes, generously missing out Raven's incident, though it really should've been addressed. She was soon to find out that it would be.
They swept up their bottles of water and took some chugs whilst dispersing toward the exit. Raven caught Beast Boy halfway down the room.
"Sorry, about that…" she murmured quietly. And God help her, he was still smiling. This time, it came with a blithe shrug.
"Hey, it happens."
No it didn't. Maybe a small handful of times, years ago. Starfire might have thrown out a starbolt instead of a punch, and Raven might have disappeared into the ground instead of dodged. That had been out of habit. Now, he must've known as well as she did that this wasn't the case.
It didn't 'happen'.
Before she could reply, Raven was halting in place at the call of a familiar voice, still situated at the back of the gym.
"Raven, can you hang back a sec?"
She breathed in deep. Beast Boy gently touched a hand to her forearm, a silent comfort, and she shunned the little shudder in her veins.
Then he was gone, and she was turning on her heel, pacing towards a figure placing a clipboard down onto the nearest table. For a moment she felt like a kid about to be given detention by a school teacher.
As Raven approached, Robin decided he was going to leave out what Starfire had told him last night - that she had snapped yesterday in the park. But now her powers were acting up too?...
"It's not like you to be distracted," Robin said.
"I wasn't."
"So, I don't need to worry that you blasted your teammate during combat?"
He didn't need to worry, but that didn't mean it wasn't a problem. It was just much more of a problem for her than it was anyone else…
"No," Raven replied, resolute. "It was a mistake."
Lie. It was a reaction.
A phrase came to Robin's mind - 'best to let sleeping dogs lie'. But this was Raven, and like him, she was a creature of habit and control. It didn't add up that she would make such a mistake, and why today, of all days?
In the way his shoulders relaxed and arms fell from his chest to his sides, Raven observed how leader effortlessly faded back to friend.
"Hey. It's just me," he told her, with that voice of concern that she both hated and appreciated, depending on the situation. "You know you can talk to me, right?"
Raven loved Robin. He was her brother. And that was exactly why she would never, ever tell him she'd just lost a fight because she was distracted by how uncomfortably attractive her opponent looked crouched over her with her wrists pinned.
She forced herself not to gulp down the nerves, because then he would see that little movement in her throat, and he would immediately know more than he should.
"I know," Raven answered, even managing to summon a weak smile. This at least wasn't a lie. Of course she could talk to him. But if he knew, he would certainly regret ever offering an ear to this particular scenario.
So as Robin would do for her, because they loved each other, she spared him.
There were a few moments of silence, followed by a brief nod from her leader; a gesture of understanding.
"Well… your pacing has gotten better. You did well." His hand found her shoulder. "Just remember to anticipate the dodges."
And not use your powers in a hand-to-hand session, it went unsaid.
The magus nodded, felt her whole body breathe when his hand fell back to his side. Then once again she was turning, becoming suddenly aware of the drying sweat lining her skin. The static threads of violet hair at the corners of her vision. The still rapid thumping of her heart, though sparring had ceased over fifteen minutes ago.
Through the gym's large double doors, Raven left, carrying her emotions, cast into disarray, in a great unseen net behind her.
Author's Note:
did somebody say 'obligatory sexual tension training chapter'?...
apologies for the longer wait on this one. i've been ill this past month (not with covid so don't worry, but i did get a pretty bad flu-type thing)
i also hate thinking about the technicalities of fight scenes and it's even harder when no weapons or powers are involved, so i was dreading this chapter a lil bit. i feel like it could be better, but it's been a rough month, so for now it is as it is.
anyway the good news is chapter 10 is already posted, as i actually finished that one before this one and it's more of a half-chapter, i guess? thought you deserved a double update considering the wait!
and pssst, chapter 11 is the most excited i've been to write a chapter so far, so… take that info however you will. :3