"Hearing You"
Written by Zarius
Disclaimer: Teen Titans, and all related characters, are trademarked by Kids WB and DC Comics, no profit shall be made from this venture.
Raven looked through the magazine, snarled, and threw the magazine to the floor. Each time she did, she would pick it up, look through it, snarl, and throw it down again and continued this pattern until a hand stopped her own from throwing it, breaking the cycle.
"What is the matter with you? It's reading time for Moiré now." Beast Boy's voice uttered through Raven's ears, before his furry hand grabbed the magazine from her right hand. Raven crossed her arms and muttered "fine" as Beast Boy grinned and began browsing, before placing it back into Raven's hand and pseudo-yawning.
"You interrupted my moment of Kurt Cobain-style thrashing for THAT?" she responded, as Beast Boy made his way to the Fridge.
"Hey, you were wasting the issue before it was gonna hit the garbage truck tomorrow, I got to get my funnies before I start my junkin" he replied, taking out several hot dogs and sticking them in a micro-wave, making a sandwich as the minuets ticked away on the device.
"There are NO funnies in this magazine, this is a fashion special" Raven angrily responded.
Beast Boy reached out to take out his popcorn, fresh and cooking from the micro-wave, when he froze. And within moments, Beast Boy morphed into a leopard and raced towards Raven, snatching the magazine back from her, turning back to human form, and began to look through it again.
"Didn't you just finish with that?"
"Yeah but I didn't look at it, I figure with any magazine YOU read, it's gonna be nothing but "All Apologies" and Nickleback lyrics back and fourth."
Raven was confused, Beast boy had just looked through it for the funnies, yet there were none, and now he was browsing through the fusion special, a type of magazine he hardly touches unless there's a bathing suit special. She wanted some questions asked, she knew the answers to them, but wanted to extract them from Beast Boy herself, it would be more gratifying to hear him say it himself, and especially whilst suffocating under her cape.
It always works when Cyborg suffocates him with the sofa seat Raven snuck up on Beast Boy and threw her cape over his head, tightening its grip on his delicate skull,calmly Raven spoke to Beast Boy his sin
"You know about the centre-spread don't you?" she said, praying that he'll keep denying it so she can strangle him completely.
"Who wouldn't have noticed?" Beast Boy managed to say without croaking, Raven released her grip, a little bit annoyed, Beast Boy transformed into a fish and panted for breath.
"Water, water" he shouted, Raven, knowing he was only doing this to make her feel guilty, placed him into a small can of cola sitting next to the coach.
She sniggered, but her little scheme backfired when the can exploded as Beast Boy restored himself to his normal form, drenched in the concoction, and ruining the coach as the cola rapidly dripped off of him.
"Well, that was refreshing, and the great part is I don't need to shower now" he said, sounding satisfied on tow fronts, he thwarted Raven's efforts for revenge and his concern for his personal hygiene could continue unchecked.
Raven said nothing; she just stood there, her hair wet, dripping cola from the exploded can, holding up the centre-spread of the magazine to Beast Boy's face.
"I don't want the guys seeing this, do you hear me?" she ordered, pointing to the picture, a very detailed replica of her cape, worn by a completely different person, strutting down a catwalk being showed on by cameras and googly-eyed reporters.
"Come on Raven; don't be so sensitive, your cape looks beautiful on anyone" Beast Boy complimented
"It's offensive to me, to think that noone asked my permission to even copy my cape and put it on this-this-unworthy woman, what has she done? What lives has she spared or saved? None!"
Beast Boy was close to laughing, Raven was soaked, complaining about being a fashion victim, he had to let it out.
"Oh you think this is funny do you? That's the problems with you and the others, you assume you listen but you never REALLY LISTEN" she suddenly shouted, deliberately clapping her hands together so fiercely she created a loud bang that shook the room, but caused nothing to topple.
Beast Boy continued laughing, until he suddenly stopped, and trembled.
Raven dusted her hands, thinking her barrage of noise had silenced her friend, but then she noticed Beast Boy turning his head left and right, sweat dripping down his brow.
"Beast Boy, what's wrong?" Raven asked, but Beats Boy, no matter how hard he could, couldn't make her out.
He couldn't hear a tap drip.
He couldn't hear the popcorn exploding out of the micro-wave.
He couldn't hear one thing.
Raven approached him, trying to clam him down, but he forced her away, and quickly transformed into a cat, running straight out of the lounge and out of the door in a panic, leaving Raven shocked.
Robin and Starfire darted through the entrance door, having heard the commotion.
"Raven, what in god's name happened? Where's Beast Boy?" Robin asked
"Robin, I think she's in shock, let me talk to her" Starfire said, walking up to Raven, she put her hand in her friend's, tightening it as she spoke to her
"Raven, what happened?" she asked.
"He-he-he irritated me, I created a sonic blast designed to shut him up, it looked like it did more than that, it deafened him, I'm sure of it"
"My god" Starfire whispered.
"What did he do?" Robin asked.
"He said my cape looked beautiful on anyone" Raven responded, tears swelling in her eyes, finally, she turned and ran into her room, ignoring Robin and Starfire's pleas to help her.
Refusing to hear them.
In the city itself, Beast Boy was having the same trouble, except his body, not his mind, was refusing to hear the traffic nearly running him over, Beast Boy was forced to return to human form to avoid being crushed under wheels as he darted across roads, looking for solitude, a place where the chaos would stop, his efforts caused one car to swerve and hit another, a pile-up ensued.
But whilst traffic had stock-piled, Beast Boy finally found a quite little alleyway to sink himself into, he wanted to cry, but didn't see the point, so he cradled himself in a corner, refusing to open his eyes for fear that if he saw something, ANYTHING, in danger, he would not be able to fight.
How fitting that Fate would test him, as a tall brunette and a young, blond child would come into his view as he was about to close it, they were cornered by a posse of five knife-wielding thugs.
Beast Boy wiped his tears away, and knew what he had to do.
"Disability or without, the titans will answer a call" he said to himself, and, like the hero he was, morphed into a gorilla and threw himself into the gang, giving the woman and child a chance to escape.
The battle was fierce, but very damaging to Beast Boy's opponents, two of the five thugs found them being lifted by Beast Boy's powerful hands and thrown to the ground, knocking them out instantly, another member found himself being gripped by Beast Boy in a gorilla hold, struggling to break free, but received a passing out for his efforts.
But Beast Boy's hearing disability finally caught up to him, as one thug sneaked up on him and stabbed a knife into his arm, Beast Boy screamed and collapsed to the floor, the reaming gang members surrounded him, each wanting a piece of meat.
The Woman and her child watched this scene from a distance, the child struggling to break from the woman's hold, wanting to help, eventually, he tore free from her grip and threw himself into the air, coming down on one of the gang members with a powerful kick which sent him reeling far further than anything Beast Boy had ever thrown.
Infuriated, the last remaining member charged the child with his knife, but the child artfully dodged each of the criminal's attempts to stab him, and low-blowed the thug in the jewels, before jumping down and crushing the criminal's back with a powerful elbow drop.
Beast Boy morphed back to his usual self, in great pain, he turned his head to warn the child to stay back, but gasped as he saw his responsibility standing over the vanquished vermin around him.
"Did I miss something?" Beast Boy said, before fainting from the pain.
When he recovered, he found that his arm had been bandaged up, the young boy staring at him in wonder.
"You're lucky I was carrying a first aid kit" the Brunette spoke, pulling her young charge from Beast Boy when he began prodding his injured arm.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to drop the speech bubbles lady, my hearing doesn't work" Beast Boy said.
"Oh" the woman replied, sounding more startled than saddened, "I'm sorry"
Beast Boy chuckled, "Don't worry, it's nothing we heroes don't work around"
"It seems you proved me right on that one, still it's nothing, the little guy poking your arm can't hear either"
Beast Boy was able to read her lips very carefully, something which required hard concentration, and could only work a few times, but was able to make her words out, after hearing this news, he fainted again/
The irony of saving two people, one of whom was deaf, whilst being deaf himself, and then being saved by the same deaf victim, was far too much.
After recovering AGAIN, Beast Boy wasn't sure how to thank the young child, it was like being blind except you could see clearly around you and no one could guide you with words rather than hands.
Luckily, the child was able to help his saviour; he grabbed Beast Boy's hands and pointed to them, and then to himself
"You want me to deliver my hands to you?" Beast Boy said, confused.
The woman giggled, "He wants you to follow his lead" she said for the child, Beast Boy nodded, reading her lips carefully again.
For several minutes, Beast Boy learned how to speak with sign language, how to greet, how to say "yes", how to say "no", how to say "Love" how to spell "Hate".
Silently, he thanked Raven for this, as bad as her mistake was, he earned a great deal because of it.
Raven.
He knew she felt pretty guilty when he ran out of the tower earlier, he had to see her.
"I have to go" he said to the child, the woman shook his hand in recognition of his heroism
"Thank you for saving me and little Jericho" she said, the young boy grinned and simply waved his hand.
"Jericho Huh? Very biblical, let's hope God spares me the wrath of a certain bird, lord knows he's helped me today" Beast Boy joked, and before the woman and little Jericho's eyes, he transformed into an eagle and flew off into the sky.
The woman smiled as Beast Boy flew back to the Titan's tower, she watched him until he became a dot in the horizon, then she guided Jericho into an alleyway, where a shadowy figure awaited them, slipping out of the darkness like a knife out of a stab wound, he approached the two.
"Excellent work Jericho, your approach in dispatching those agents was quite intriguing; the H.I.V.E academy will make good use of your talents"
"You would expect any less from your son Slade?" the woman asked her master.
Slade chuckled, "My son is not above my duties, he was tested like the others, and believe me, this will be nothing compared to what I have in store for him"
And with that, Slade stretched out his hand and offered it to Jericho, Jericho looked at it for only a few seconds before slapping it away and walking past his father, Slade slipping in a few words as he and the Woman followed.
"Ahh you have not changed Jericho, always thinking the life I lead is one that is only meant for ruination, but in time you WILL hear me, one way or another"
Jericho couldn't hear the words, and for once, he was glad for his disability.
For Beast Boy, signs of hope had come with the sign language he had learned from Jericho, it would take time, but as he spread his wings out further and flew free, he knew he had time, all the time ,to learn, to make people hear him, and in another way
Learning that would be no problem, besides, he could still smell the air, the burning of a roast, and he could hear other birds screeching, children laughing, crying, playing.
Then he realised he could hear again.
His hearing had returned.
HIS HEARING HAD RETURNED.
Beast Boy yelled in jubilation and hit the ground, transforming into a Lion, he roared the good news to the whatever nearly ran him over, before changing into an eagle once more to conclude his journey back to the Tower.
When he arrived, he leaped on the first person to come out of the tower's doors, he didn't care that it was as long as it was somebody.
Of course, Cyborg DID Care.
One small fist-related altercation later, a black-eyed Beast Boy returned to the pit that was the lounge room, he went straight to Raven's room, ignoring Robin and Starfire as he entered, Robin was about to go after him, when Starfire pulled him back.
"Let go Star, I've got to assert authority" Robin complained
"No, this is between Raven and Beast Boy, you will assert authoritah on our South Park DVD with me on the sofa" Starfire replied, and her grip on Robin meant she was serious.
In Raven's room, Beast Boy was a little bit annoyed, he had regained his hearing, but one sight was taken from him, the room was pitch black, after a bit of searching, he found the light switch.
What greeted him in the room with the lights on was something; the centre- piece of the fashion magazine was stretched across Raven's wall, with a picture of Raven pasted over the face of the fashion model who wore her cape.
Raven herself was lying in the bed in front of the poster, wearing a black night-dress, staring straight at Beast Boy with a sad look on her face.
"You've got your hearing back I see" she said.
"Yup" Beast Boy responded, "I guess I have to apologise, Raven, I'm sorry I ever laughed at you"
"No, I should be the one to apologise to you, my deafening spell doesn't last long, but it does enough to get someone hurt, I shouldn't have used in blind rage on you, you were only trying to cheer me up, I know that now, I hear you." Raven said, turning her head down in shame.
Beast Boy climbed onto her bed and held her chin up to his face.
"We make new mistakes, but we learn new things at the same time Raven, I found out how to do sign language today, thanks to you, in some way, I can connect with more people than I previously could, you somehow make things better every time when I'm around you"
This caused Raven to honestly blush, two compliments from Beast Boy in the same day was really making her day, she touched his hand and placed it back on his own lap, "Thankyou" she said.
Beast Boy grinned, and made the Love sign.
"What does that mean?" Raven asked.
"Errr, it means you're great hon" Beast Boy said, completely lying.
Raven smiled, as Beast Boy turned to leave, she got out of bed and tapped his shoulder, Beast Boy turned and was greeted by something which was harder than Raven's cape on his head, but didn't suffocate him, instead it drove him to tears.
A hug.
And the two remained like that for quite a long time, as day faded into night, one voice could be heard from the two.
"Raven, Raven, ok honey, you can let go now, Raven?" Beast Boy pleaded, for even though Raven was keeping her aggresive energies from slipping out with a spell she could perform only on rare occasions, he was still dreading the same fate would befall him as the last time she embraced him, and could barly last any longer. Raven relished the moment, even if the spell was about to fade, hearing Beast Boy plea, and inevitibly scream in pain was enough to satisfy her mischevous side as his words and encouragment had done for her emotionalside, either way, hearing him again and again in pain or pleasure, was one of the few times Raven could actually put aside the fact she was a titan, a responsibility, and become a freind.
Someone who cares
Someone who listens
Dedicated to the deaf: It's not the end if you are, and you'll make it if you try.