A/N: This is just an idea that popped into my head after seeing last weeks Episode "The Beast Within" After Aftershock Part 2 Terra basically disappears from the show, but we know Beast Boy was horrible affected by it. This combines both Beast Boy's insecurities about the death of Terra and his budding relationship with Terra.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, and I never will, even though is an amazing television show.
This is dedicated to my best friend who helped me tie up some loose ends with the story and still leave room for a sequel. Yay for sequels!
Emerald
Here to Care. Here to Talk.
Stone. Everything was stone. She was stone. Her beautiful blonde hair, bright blue eyes and trim body were all stone. Her powers had turned her into the one thing she was supposed to be able to control and now she was forever stuck that way.
Beast Boy sighed and sat down in front of Terra's statue, fiddling with his hands as he stared at the plaque they had made her, which was also stone. Stone. Everything was stone. Her hands, her feet, and the old battered tennis-shoes she was so fond of, all stone.
Her face pointed towards the sky, her eyes beseeching the heavens for mercy and her arms open wide as her mouth formed a silent scream and she was stone.
Beast Boy hated stone. Hated what it stood for, what it had always stood for and what it would always stand for. The death of Terra, the only girl who had ever turned a pleasant smile his way in a more than friendly manner. The demise of one so brilliant and so cursed that you couldn't help but love her and want to be with her even when she appeared to want you dead.
Terra, Cyborg's favorite little Rock 'N' Roll-er, Starfire's "New friend" and the girl who had almost given Beast Boy his first kiss was gone. She had attempted to annihilate them all, before having her plan thrown back in her face and realizing just how bad the man she had fallen into cohorts with was. And after all that, after all her trails and tribulations, she was stone.
"Beast Boy?" Beast Boy whipped his head around, searching for the origin of the female voice and finding none. He then looked up at the statue, expecting to see stone and finding a blonde-haired, blue-eyed former Titan staring down at him.
"Terra?" Beast Boy wondered out loud; hope rising in his chest as he stood and reached out to touch her, his jaw dropping slightly, "Is that really you?" Terra nodded and stepped down from her elevated height, allowing Beast Boy's hand to rest on her cheek. She felt warm, and alive, like blood and oxygen were coursing through her veins, like she was alive and well and hadn't been a stone statue for the past few months. Beast Boy embraced her, pulling her close and allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder.
"How...?" He began to ask, but words failed him. He didn't care how, he was just glad she was back.
Terra pulled away from him and slipped her hand into his own, "Let's go back to Titan's Tower." She offered, beginning to walk away only to have her footsteps faltered.
"Terra?" He asked, now concerned, as her knees buckled and she sunk to the ground, "Terra are you okay?"
Her hand dropped from his own to brace against the ground and her hair fell in front of her face. Then, starting at her feet, stone began to creep up her legs.
"Terra, what's happening?" Beast Boy yelled as the blonde haired girl was completely converted back to stone, all except for her face which stared at him, begging him to help her.
"I guess...whatever happened..." Her breath was coming in short gasps now, making it hard to speak, "Whatever happened...was only...temporar-"
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Beast Boy sat up in bed, breathing heavily with his eyes wide open. Terra. Stone. And then...not stone. And now she was...stone. He slumped backwards onto the bed, now staring at the ceiling and sighed. Was their no respite? Would he ever be free of Terra's memory? Of the desire to see her in real life again? Or would his mind always torment him with images of her and feelings brought on by her?
Sitting up, Beast Boy ran a hand through his green hair and turned to the clock: four o'clock in the morning, no one would be up, therefore no one would know she had haunted his dreams again. He could get something to eat, maybe play a video game or two without having to worry about Cyborg or Robin or Starfire wishing to know what was wrong.
Yes, that's what he'd do. A mug of hot chocolate soy milk and maybe something tofu related was just what he needed to calm his shaking nerves and cleanse his memory of Terra for the day.
Standing up, Beast Boy stretched and padded across the room and out the door, ignoring the fact that he was only in his boxers since no one was likely to be awake. He walked past Robin's room and past Star's noting that Starfire's door was open and coming to the conclusion that she had gone to visit Robin. He passed Cyborg's room, hearing the methodic beeping of the animatron's machines and then walked past Raven's room which was completely quiet; she must have been asleep.
Finally he reached the common area, walking through a stopping short when a violet head looked up from her book with a questioning look in her eye. Raven.
"Umm..." Beast Boy faltered, "Hi."
"Hi." Raven replied in a monotonely, "Is there a reason you are undressed?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked lightly as Beast Boy's cheeks darkened and he reached blindly for a shirt from the pile of freshly laundered clothes Starfire had washed before heading to bed earlier.
"I had a bad dream." He muttered, "And didn't expect anyone to be up. What's your excuse?"
"I'm not undressed." She replied, and Beast Boy noted that she looked just like she always looked, except for tired-er and she was missing her cloak. Did that count as undressed?
"No," He corrected himself, "Why are you not sleeping?" Deciding to act as casual as possible, Beast Boy moved to the kitchen and began to prepare a snack, all the while keeping one eye on the Azarathian girl.
"Because I had a bad dream also." She retorted and turned back to her book, unaware of just how much she had just entrance Beast Boy.
"You had a bad dream?" He asked in confusion, popping his drink into the microwave so it could warm, "What about?"
Raven glared at him, a hard cold glare that made Beast Boy want to draw back into his turtle shell, "That," She hissed, "Is none of your business."
Beast Boy nodded as a loud beeping issued from the microwave and he drew back to retrive his beverage. He didn't feel like arguing with Raven anymore, and after what had happened the week previously, he wasn't sure she wasn't scared of him.
During a fight last week in a chemical plant he had accidentally been drenched in something foul smelling and wet which then proceeded to screw with his biological components and morph him into something he didn't want to be. Beast Boy shuddered involuntarily and plopped down into a severely cushioned black chair, sipping from his drink.
After a few minutes of Beast Boy staring into space, he became vaguely aware of Raven's eyes on his form and craned his neck around to peer at her. She cleared her throat and closed her book leaning forward to speak to him.
"Beast Boy...about last week...I just wanted to say..." She faltered and redirected her gaze to the ground, "Thank you."
"Thank...me, for what?" He asked, thoroughly confused, setting his drink down and reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "I didn't do anything."
She continued to stare at the ground, and when she spoke her voice was laden with emotions Beast Boy had never heard Raven express, "You cared enough about my well-being to save me, even in a..." She searched for the right word, "Harmful form."
"I-I-II...um...er..." Beast Boy blushed, and cleared his throat, "Uh-hum...you're welcome, I guess."
Raven nodded and went back to her book, but a minute later she was staring at him again. Beast Boy could feel her gaze on the side of his face and it was making him uncomfortable. After a few moments, Raven cleared her throat and, with some trepidation asked, "Beast Boy, can I ask you something?"
Beast Boy was so tempted to reply with the customary, "You already did." But something in her voice made him stop and he rethought his reply. "Sure."
"Why...why did-do, you care?"
Beast Boy shrugged, unable to properly answer her question and stared out through the window over the harbor. When he had first joined the Teen Titans it had just been him, Robin, Raven and Starfire, Cyborg hadn't joined yet and he'd spend hours staring over the harbor from Titans Tower or sitting on a rock by the bay and just thinking.
Only once had he been joined by a person during those early days and that was Raven, after I particularly nasty fight they had had, she had come to apologize and he had noticed that she had the most...unusual eyes. Purple, dark deep rich purple with a lighter lilac near the pupils. They were pretty in a dastardly dark way, but Beast Boy had never told her so.
Why did he care? She was just Raven after all, just a Titan. Was it because she was a Titan? Was that why he cared? Raven had never given him much indication of friendship. Apart from that time inside her head and the time after than when she had hugged him she had never gone out of her way to be nice to him, and that was when Beast Boy had extended the hand of friendship first.
"Because you're a Titan, Rae." He finally answered, his voice lower than usual, as it registered that this wasn't the proper answer. So what if he didn't know what the real answer "Because you're a Titan" wasn't it. He frowned frustrated with himself, and added, "And because you deserve to have someone beside an evil dragon care for you."
"But, he was only pretending." Raven pointed out.
Beast Boy drained the rest of his chocolate soy milk and threw the cup into the sink, "You still deserve to have someone care for you." He pulled a pair of pants out of the pile of clean laundry and pulled them on. "I'm going for a walk." It vaguely occurred to him to ask her to come along before Beast Boy dismissed the idea; Raven wouldn't come.
He ran some water in the sink so the cup wouldn't mold and turned to go making it halfway out the door before Raven stopped him. "Beast Boy?"
He took a deep breath and turned around, afraid of what would next come out of Raven's mouth, "Yes?"
"If you ever need someone to talk about Terra with, or to just accompany you when you go to visit her, I'm always available."
"Thanks Raven, I'll remember that." He replied, and then left the tower.