Hello! I've literally been lurking here for over 15 years, religiously reading Teen Titans fanfiction. Am I too late? Is anyone still here? This is my first time putting myself out there and honestly, it sucks. I wanted to fluff this piece out a lot, but I figured this is my very first story so baby steps, right? Also for a quick reference, in my mind Trouble in Tokyo takes place between seasons 4 and 5, so RobStar is already established in this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Poke
The first time she felt it was so sudden. It was like a ghost reached its ghastly hand through her chest, hastily and forcibly jabbing her heart. Every other organ momentarily halted its processes as the breath was knocked out of her lungs. The demoness had been controlling her emotions her entire life and didn't think she was even capable of feeling this much, let alone in such a miniscule amount of time.
"You think you're alone, Raven, but you're not."
*poke*
The feeling was so foreign, that she acted on it without a thought, throwing her arms around the confused changeling in front of her.
"Uhhhhh…" He just stared back at her…and she began to quickly recite her mantra in her head.
"Whoo-hoooo! Stank ball!"
Thank Azar for Cyborg… She thought. What even just happened?
The sorceress barely left her room for days after the encounter, scourging her entire library for an answer to the curious and unwelcome sensation. Unfortunately, "weird pokey feeling" wasn't in her collection.
"This is ridiculous." She said to herself, throwing a book across her dark room. "Clearly, I must have had some type of momentary heart arrythmia. Maybe I should just have Cy take a quick scan."
As she bit her lip, the demoness realized how painfully awkward it would be to explain the situation to her metal friend. Taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet for the first time in hours and took in the horrendous mess of books she made her room into. Maybe it was best to just let it go.
It had been a couple of months into the war with the Brotherhood of Evil, and thankfully she spent many of the missions far from the changeling. She felt horrible for feeling that way, he was her friend after all, but the demoness needed the time away to regain her emotional composure. On the rare occasion that the entire team was together on a mission, it would happen again…
"Aaggghh! God dammit, how do they keep getting away from us?!" The changeling roared as he morphed into a gorilla, launching the closest piece of heavy debris across the abandoned Brazilian warehouse.
"Take it easy, B! There ain't no way we can beat these guys if you take US out first!" Cyborg barked back at his best friend.
"Everywhere we go, they're one step ahead of us! Look at this place, it's trashed! Going off the remnants of their scents, they must have packed up and left about what, an hour ago?! They KNEW we would be here. They know everything about us, everything we think, every plan we make-"
"Beast Boy, that is enough." Interrupted their masked leader. "This may be the biggest threat we have faced, but we will prevail. We will defeat them. But we can't take them down if we are too busy fighting with ourselves." For a moment, Raven swore she saw Starfire's eyes sparkle with pride as she saw just how much her boyfriend had grown as a leader since Tokyo.
"Robin is correct." Added the half-demon. "We need to keep it together." Fuck, she thought. That came out kind of harsh.
"You guys don't get it…" Beast boy bent down with his hands on his knees. "I've been fighting the Brotherhood most of my life. They're ruthless. I've seen them take out whole villages…I can't lose anyone else. I can't lose you." He shot a quick glance up at the empath, so quick that no one else noticed but her.
*poke* There it was again…
"You will not." Starfire bent down beside the changeling, placing her hand on his shoulder, as Raven lowered herself to the ground and discreetly placed her hand over her chest. "We will be victorious, together."
Raven lay in her bed, fascinated by the beginnings of small cracks in her ceiling. They just got home from the Brotherhood of Evil fight, she should have been happy, but she was horrified.
Four times. She felt it four different times during the final battle alone.
"Titans, together!"
And then she saw him, bolting through the middle of the explosive battle between good and evil. She knew that he was always a better fighter than he let off, but she had never seen him fight so ferociously in their years together as a team.
*poke*
She wasn't sure when exactly it happened, the first time she saw that there was something going on beneath his green skin. He was always so high-spirited, but occasionally, you would catch a glimpse of something in his eyes. A glimpse of pain or anger that hinted he was holding on to something dark. Whatever was going on, there was a lot more to him than she realized the first few years as a team. Was he still a moronic nuisance? Absolutely. But she was starting to think that maybe he could be, more…
"I must have felt this way, at least subconsciously since the beast incident. Or maybe before that?" She told herself as she rubbed her temples. "Maybe there was something changing in our dynamic before then, and that is how the beast knew to protect me at all costs."
Whatever it was, dwelling on it was giving her a raging headache and it would have to wait. The team had plans to meet back up in the common room in five minutes, they were heading downtown to reunite with the city they all missed so much the past six months.
She found him that night, on the roof of the tower with his feet dangling over the side. The sun was setting over the Jump City bay, reflecting off the surface in tantalizing mixtures of pink and orange. The demoness had no idea what she was going to say, but she had to be the one to talk to him. No one forced her into it, in fact, they were all shocked when she insisted to be the one to confront him. But she felt it again. She felt it when she found out he left them to fight the white monster without him, because he was once again chasing her. This time, though, it was different and there was no denying what it was. True, she withheld her emotions, but she was finally able to recognize the sting of jealousy.
"Beast boy." She spoke, somehow keeping her monotone though her heart was quivering.
"What do you want Raven." He quipped back, slouching his shoulders down even further.
*poke*
There it was again, but once again it wasn't pleasant…What is this, why does this hurt? She thought.
"I don't want to see you like this." He spun around and instantly his demeanor changed. His contorted face turned a mix of green, red and brown.
"Well, I'm not like you Raven! I can't just turn off how I'm feeling! What do you expect me to do?!"
"I WANT you to realize that you are too good for her, whether that girl is Terra or not! I didn't spend six months watching you grow into an amazing leader and the best friend, and man you've ever been just to throw it all away for her!"
*poke*
His face instantly softened, and his mouth dropped open. Did Raven just compliment me? In her own scary way? He thought. And why did it feel like someone just punched my chest like they were trying to restart an old GameStation
"This was a waste of time…" She quietly scoffed at his lack of response and turned to walk inside.
"WAIT." He lunged at the sorceress and softly grabbed her hand, spinning her around. "Raven…I'm sorry, that just caught me off guard…Is something else going on?"
This is it. She thought and took a deep breath.
"It's recently come to my attention…" She began slowly, "that I may harbor some feelings towards you that are more than the average teammate relationship."
He just gaped at her.
"I like you, you idiot."
"You?! Raven?! Me..huh?!" He may as well have morphed into an octopus; his arms were flailing around so fast it looked like he had eight of them.
"Oh for Azar's sake!" Raven quickly hovered over and closed the space between them. As she took his face in her hands, she felt an entirely new sensation.
It was similar to that damn poking feeling, but softer, much softer…Instead of feeling the wind knocked out of her, she felt a warmth spread quickly from her chest to the rest of her body until it was tingling at her lips. He squeaked of surprise when she first pressed her lips against his, until he slowly closed his eyes and placed his hands over hers.
As they pulled back, Raven allowed herself a small smile as they gazed into each other's pink tinged faces. He let out a relieved sigh.
"I think you're right" He started. "Yeah, things have DEFINITELY changed…" He gestured between the two of them "but I think it's going to be better than ever."
*poke*