A/N: Dude! You jerks are freakin' awesome! That was like, what, I think 19 reviews for 1 chapter in a matter of 5 days! I have the urge to strut. But I won't cuz I gotta give y'all the next chapter. And see how FAST this update was? Last one was a week ago! Well, fast for me... Just think of it as a reward for all the yummy reviews. And feel good knowing I'm feeding off of your reviews rather than your blood and/or souls. But don't tell mommy I said that...
So yeah... here's "Upon Arrival," chapter seven of this little story I like to call "Oh, My Pretty Kitty."
... Actually... should I change the title? If so, gimme some suggestions.
Beast Boy batted his eyelids several times before opening them fully. The thick, knotty branches of Starfire's Rutt tree caressed his bedroom's window in the morning breeze, and the sunbeams danced through the limbs, casting erratic shadows onto his bedspread. He yawned widely and stretched out his arms. Upon doing so, a familiar and warm scent reached his nostrils. It was the soft scent of chamomile with undertones of lavender and patchouli. Recognition slapped him and he sat bolt upright. It was Raven's distinct scent, and that freaked him out. Cautiously, he leaned over the side of the bunk and peered beneath him.
A small form was curled underneath his lumpy black blanket. Her purple hair fell on top of her shoulders and spilled unto Beast Boy's equally lumpy pillow. Her form rose and fell with each breath. He watched her for a moment, and gasped suddenly upon realizing he had forgotten to breathe. His shock faded slowly as he remembered the past night's events, but then slowly returned upon realizing his current situation. Technically, there was a very pretty girl peacefully sleeping in his bed. He gracefully hopped off the top bunk and onto the floor. Staring at her once more, the boy contemplated upon what to do next. Rather, what he SHOULD do next.
Beast Boy stroked his chin thoughtfully. He decided it would be best to leave her be, for fear of her wrath. Honestly, it surprised him that she had accepted his offer. He was still rather skeptical that she was being completely truthful about her dreams; she seemed so peaceful. But then he felt awful for thinking of Raven being dishonest. She was not one to lie.
He crawled over several feet to her nightgown. She had thrown it off in her haste and left it in a crumpled heap on the floor. It had now dried, he noted, as he lifted it gingerly with two fingers. A small bead of sweat rolled down his neck caused by the sensation of the silky material on his skin.
'Raven wears this in bed...?' he thought thickly.
Clumsily, he folded the garment and placed it on the ground relatively close to her. With that, he left the volatile girl to sleep.
Following his nose, Beast Boy arrived in the kitchen to see Robin working skillfully over the stove. The Boy Wonder flipped a pancake in the air and caught it back in the pan with a slight chuckle.
"Hey, Rob. Whatcha cookin' there?" the changeling inquired.
"Nothing you'll have a problem eating," he responded jovially and wiped his brow.
"Yeah, why's that?" the green one stepped over to the steaming stove.
"Because," Robin grinned. "These flapjacks came out of the box! All you do is add water. You think I could make pancakes from scratch?"
Beast Boy nodded in agreement. "Pass some my way, Fearless."
Robin finished up the last of the silver dollars and dumped some onto Beast Boy's plate and a plate of his own. The two sat down at the table and scarfed in silence. Robin was grateful for a meal without fighting, and Beast Boy was grateful for a meal without meat.
"Ahhh... I'm still kind of sleepy..." Beast Boy yawned and pushed aside his plate.
"Well you know what wakes ME up better than anything else?" Robin grinned slyly.
Beast Boy cringed; he knew what was coming next.
"A nice long, rigorous workout!" Batman's protégé exclaimed, tossed the dirty dishes into the sink and grabbed the morph's wrist.
He dragged him through the kitchen and swung a left past the garage and headed hastily towards the gym. Had they stayed but a moment longer, they would a been greeted by another companion.
Starfire stepped happily into the kitchen. Every morning on Earth seemed more beautiful than the last. The beautiful colors of the morning sun always made her happy to be on the glorious planet. One glance to the sink told her that at least two other of her teammates were already awake and had eaten breakfast. Her search for leftovers was for not, and Starfire simply decided to fend for herself. She pulled up a seat at the breakfast nook and reached into the fruit bowl. Coming upon an orange, she grabbed it and examined it close to her face. With a small smile, she bit in. Though Robin had told her on many occasions that the correct way to eat an orange was to peel it and then eat the segments inside, the alien girl never listened. She much preferred to eat it in the same fashion as an apple. Her foreign taste buds craved the tangy and bitter rind. She chewed slowly and thoughtfully, thoroughly enjoying the sweet juice from the center combined with the chewy rind.
The doorbell rang, disturbing her thoughtless daze.
"I shall answer it!" he hopped from her seat and spoke to no one in particular.
She raced to the door and pushed several buttons. A flat television screen attached to a security camera outside came through the wall.
"Hello, and welcome to Titan's Tower!" she held onto either side of the screen and beamed brightly. "This is Starfire, may I assist you?"
A boy of small stature stood on the front step. His shaggy brown hair fell into his lemon colored eyes. He grinned broadly at the camera.
"Kory! Long time, no see!"
Raven sat upright. After a second or two, she remembered where she was. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around for the green one.
"Beast Boy?"
No response. She called again, but again was met with silence. Wondering as to where he had gone without telling her, Raven kicked off the blankets and made for the door. She quietly walked through the halls, vigilantly looking for some clue as to his whereabouts. Something caught her attention as she approached the training room. It was the sound of the radio blasting guitar riffs and Robin shouting out commands followed by animalistic grunts and hisses. Finally having found her teammates, she made her way to the room. As she came closer, the voices became clearer. She stood in the open doorway for a moment and watched the two boys attacking the training dummies.
"Tiger style attack!" Robin cried.
"ROOAA-AAA-AAR!" a green tiger lunged forward.
"And now a cobra style strike!" he jabbed at the dummies face.
"Hisssssss..." the tiger transformed into a snake and aimed for the jugular.
"Frog style kick!" he commanded and kicked with both legs, showing off his acrobatic skills as well as his skills as a martial artist.
"Ribbit!"
"And finish him with a crane style-"
"Dude!" Beast Boy interrupted, still caught up on the last maneuver. "How is a FROG supposed to be helpful in battle?"
"Uh..." Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, I just wanted to do that kick..."
The two stopped all arguing when the blaring sound of wailing guitars randomly cut out.
"What the...? Oh! Good morning Raven!" Robin greeted her. "Hey... aren't those Beast Boy's pajamas?"
The green one flushed violently. "I don't know what you're talking about! No!"
"I asked his if I could borrow them," she said casually, proving that she was the best actress in the world.
"Wait..." Beast Boy stopped all other thoughts and sniffed the air deeply. "I smell him, guys! He's here!"
With that, he bounded off towards the front door with his companions close between. Upon arrival, Starfire had already recruited Cyborg and was eagerly opening the front door to greet their guest.
"Friends, glorious news! Our dear friend Bart has surprised us with a visit to our home!" she unlatched the final lock and opened the door.
"I just wanna know one thing," Cyborg raised a finger in question. "How'd you know where to find us?"
"Dude! You live in a giant 'T'. It's pretty hard to miss," Bart laughed.
It was then that Beast Boy lunged on Bart, "Bart, my man! How's the weather down there?"
Bart ducked away from a certain hair ruffling and graciously took the blow to his short stature. "Heh, still the same lame sense of humor, huh Gar?"
"Hello, Bart," Robin greeted him formally with a handshake, but was cut off with one of Starfire's infamous bone-crushing hugs.
"Ack! Kory! Oxygen!" the boy yelped.
"Welcome to our home, Bartholomew," Raven gave him a mere nod.
"Thanks, Raven. And it's Bart, 'kay?"
Several moments of mindless banter continued, but then Bart spoke up.
"Well, you've welcomed me into your home, now let me welcome you to mine," he began to walk outside.
"But Bart, Raven and I still are wearing our sleeping attire," Starfire began to protest. "We cannot leave."
"Don't worry about it, we're not going anywhere," he waved it off.
"What do you mean?" Robin began to curiously trail after him.
"You'll see..."
They moved down the steps just off the side of the island to the underground tunnel which allowed cars to pass from the island to the mainland. Just at the bottom was an enormous RV.
"Welcome," Bart greeted them, "to my humble abode!"
"A home on wheels, how glorious!" Starfire clasped her hands together and twirled in the air.
"A mobile home, cool," Raven commented.
"Aw, yeah! What kind of transmission does she use?" Cyborg's organic eye lit up enthusiastically.
"An RV? I didn't think you were old enough to have your driver's liscense, Bart," Robin quirked an eyebrow.
"I'm not."
"Then how...?"
"I'm not the one who drives it. Come on in and meet the band, guys!" Bart opened the door.
Inside, there were two guys sitting on the couch. The one on the left stood up when the six teens stepped in and ran a hand through his messy black hair.
"Y'all must be the Titans!" he smiled genuinely, his bright white teeth clashing against his brown skin.
"Guys, this is our drummer, Davis Gomez," Bart introduced the boy.
"And this," he gestured to the other boy who remained on the couch, " is Chaz Munier. He plays guitar."
The boys glassy eyes darted around as he used his hand to feel around next to him on the couch.
"Dave, can you see my cane?" the boy inquired.
"To your right... yeah, right there," Davis helped him out.
"Ah, thanks," he smiled and picked up his aid.
Feeling the floor with his cane in front of him, Chaz moved towards the sound of the voices.
"Pleasure to meet ya, Titans. We've heard so much about you."
Rather than a tactful "Nice to meet you," or "Hello, how are you?" Beast Boy's mouth flapped out, "Dude, you're BLIND?!"
Being closest to him, Raven smacked him upside the head.
To this, Chaz merely chuckled, "Heh, yup."
"And you play guitar?!" the green one's face was laced with awe. "How can you see the chords?"
"I do see them, just not the same way you do," he smiled, though he did not directly look at Beast Boy.
"What's going on in here?" a female voice resounded.
All heads turned and all eyes rested on a slim girl with long blonde hair. She wore tight fitting black jeans tucked into a pair of red cowboy boots and a white top with a comical pelican on it.
"What's going on?" she repeated curiously, tipping her matching red cowboy hat back slightly to get a better view of the guests.
"It's the Titans!" Bart explained.
"Oh, great! I finally get to meet you guys!" the look of confusion on her face was replaced with one of joy.
"Guys, this is Rose Wilson, our bass," Bart said proudly.
"Wilson?" demanded Robin. "As in SLADE Wilson?"
A/N: Heh, cliffie. For two reasons! One, this is getting two long and must end somewhere, and two, I just don't feel like explaining this all right now. Haha, suckers.
I REALLY hate new characters, but you might like these two guys. If not, then it doesn't matter cuz they're only gonna be around for another chapter or two. As for Rose, I am BLATANTLY taking liberties with her. I don't know too much about her, but not much is known about her anyways. So I know little of what little is known. Get it? Right... anyways, I DO, however, know A LOT about Bart, and I know that Bart has a thing for Rose (hehehe...) so I'm crafting her into a character that I think Bart would like, follow? Good.
I've also learned that you jerkbags don't like to be called jerkbags and will review to defend yourselves when I insult you. It's a beautiful thing. But y'all know I'm just kidding, and I seriously get excited about writing when you review. So let's do a repeat of last chapter, shall we? Please? (Jerks)
Yeah, and sorry this wasn't a horribly eventful or fluffy chapter. It was mainly just to introduce "the band" as it were. I promise there won't be anymore "introductory" chapters. And this IS NOT one of my empty promises. Exact dates on my updates are empty. But you guys know that.
REVIEW!
And if you don't... well... then you guys are smelly.
Slan, Kelly