Silent Nights

Maybe he was in love. Perhaps, somehow, that wonderful feeling had snuck into his heart; somehow Cupid had aimed an angry arrow to drive dangerously into his chest. Direct hit. Love. Perfect. But no, it was dreadful.

Beast Boy was part of a team of five; the Teen Titans as they were commonly known. He'd been with them for years and, discluding the whole save-the-city thing, life was pretty simple. But Beast Boy was missing something. He'd never experienced true love. No, not true love. That is, not until she came along. Her name was Terra and he loved her like she owned his heart. But how wrong he'd been about her...She wound up being a spy; the evil apprentice of a psychotic mastermind. They didn't last. Terra had eventually died and Beast Boy was devastated, but now, that feeling that he'd had, what seemed like so long ago, had now returned. Something was there. Pulling at his insides, twisting his stomach, and drumming; drumming a steady, persistent beat on his heart.

"I'll pass." Cyborg said angrily, shoving aside a plate of eggs; tofu eggs.

Beast Boy snorted. "Last time I'm making breakfast for you..."

"Good!"

"Hey, couldn't you at least try 'em!"

Cyborg stood up and leaned over the table so that he was practically in Beast Boy's face. "Not when you're the chef!" he yelled.

Beast Boy shouted something back that was to muffled and loud to understand, but Cyborg's eyes grew wide and he immediately sat back down, indicating that he might have understood what his friend's smart remark was.

"Whoa, Titans!" Robin said, before Beast Boy was able to add anything to that. "Calm down. It's not worth fighting over."

Raven rolled her eyes and Beast Boy wrinkled his nose at her. She almost smirked, but held that in. Beast Boy left the table, taking the plate of eggs with him. On his way out of the room, he dropped it, food and all into the sink. I t landed with a loud, echoing clank. He walked toward his own room.

He dropped to the bed with a grunt. For some reason, he'd been very frustrated lately. Maybe it had something to do with Terra. He'd often thought of her. He loved her. Staring up at the ceiling, he used his hand to fish something out from under the bed. He moved aside all sorts of things until he finally found it. He began to pull it out. But that was when he felt it. Something sharp and strong as it clamped on to his hand. The pain remained in his hand for a few moments before streaming up his entire arm, forcing him to drop the object and bring his aching arm up to his chest. He squeezed his hand in pain. Beast Boy did not dare to look under the bed, he just sat there, legs tucked underneath him, his face drained of almost all color, shocked and scared, until he finally gathered up the courage to take of his glove. He readied himself to slip off the glove, noticing the four small blood stains, each accompanied by their own holes for seeping out, but he soon turned back into the original coward again. Cautiously, he used all the strength in his right arm to climb to the top bunk where he sat for a while, staring out at nothing. But he knew he had to take the glove off. Sooner or later.

Later, he thought to himself, but he couldn't. He slipped off his glove, half expecting to see his hand a bloody, mutilated mess, barely recognizable as a hand. The blood stains were expanding. But he was just overreacting, right? He hoped. But it was nothing like that. No, perhaps that's what made it worse. He tossed the glove onto his pillow and closely studied his hand. Four small, bloody punctures, similar to the look of his glove. They were lined up almost exactly, leading a five point trail to right in between his ring and middle fingers. He turned his hand over to find, almost surprisingly, but not quite, another, larger, perfectly rounded puncture in his palm. It was also distinctively deeper than the others, and for its size, it oozed a great deal of blood.

"Beast Boy."

"Starfire!" Beast Boy suddenly grabbed his hand again as he saw Starfire in the doorway. Slowly approaching him. She looked in a sort of worried, caring state. She knew something was wrong, and that's what got to Beast Boy. He didn't want her to worry. She reached his bed and looked into his eyes. He looked into hers. They were a beautiful shade of green that seemed to grab at you; to pull you in and Beast Boy stared into them, wishing they would. They sparkled in the dim light. And suddenly, Beast Boy found that his heart had begun to thump wildly inside him. He smiled without meaning to, and the thought of Starfire standing, worrying about him, in his own bedroom arose to his mind and he came awfully close to blushing.

"Beast Boy..." She started, but cut herself off. "You are injured, Beast Boy, why are you harmed?"

Beast Boy saw that she noticed the blood from his hand, dripping slowly through his fingers. He took his hand away and looked at it. "Just a little blood, that's all." But as hard as he tried, he could not act brave. Because the truth of it was, he was afraid. But he couldn't scare Starfire. No, he wouldn't. Starfire took his hand in hers. His heart skipped. Then he smiled again. And this time, he did blush. Starfire carefully and closely studied his hand.

"Perhaps," she said. "I could be of some assistance."

Beast Boy thought for a moment. He didn't want to pull Starfire into this. But then again, she was here, with him, wanting to be with him, asking to be with him, holding his hand, and... and Beast Boy shook those ridiculous thoughts away. She wanted to help him with his hand, nothing more. But somehow, deep inside, he wondered. Maybe he wanted those thoughts to be true. He shook that too. He agreed though, to let her help him, and she did. Disappeared for a few moments and returned with a few supplies such as ointment, gauze, a cloth, and a long elastic bandage with large faded letters on the corners. She did all she could to treat his hand, but Beast Boy wondered if she even had any idea what she was doing. Perhaps she was just taking guesses. Guesses that turned out to seem right. Or maybe doctors on Tameran had treated her for similar injuries and she just used memory. But any way, she was done within a few minutes and satisfied, gave his bandaged hand a light squeeze that made Beast Boy wince. And that was when Beast Boy remembered. It was then that he realized how stupid he had been. It was then that it happened.

With a long, high-pitched scream, Starfire fell to the ground and began to disappear underneath the bed. Her eyes looked up at Beast Boy in fear and horror. Those magnificent emerald green eyes. And suddenly, they rolled up into their sockets and all that was left were the whites of her eyes to stare blankly and Beast Boy watched. Sat there and watched...

"No!" Beast Boy lunged at her, jumping from the top of the bed down to her, half hidden in the shadow's of the bed. He landed hard against the floor and grabbed her. He held on to her with all his strength, unsure whether to pull her back or not. It could save her, bringing her out from beneath the bed, but also, it could kill her. Whatever was down there had claws. He knew that. It could rip her to pieces if it wanted to. It could've done the same to himself. And that's all he could think of as he lay on the floor, pressing her against the carpet. He looked under the bed, hoping to get a glimpse of what was there, but that was the last thing he remembered doing before completely blacking out. That, and he remembered falling away from Starfire. Reluctantly letting her slip from the firm hold he'd had. But then, he'd known nothing, and he'd fallen silently into something's deep, dark slumber...

"Starfire? Starfire!" Beast Boy woke up staring at his ceiling. He was lying on his floor and the first thing he thought of: Starfire.

"She was afraid."

Beast Boy sat up quickly and looked toward the doorway. Robin stood there, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "I found her in here, on your floor. Said she had a nightmare. She was crying." Robin must have been glaring at him coldly from beneath that mask. Beast Boy could hear the anger in his voice. "And she was frightened..."

Frightened. Beast Boy could only imagine the scene: Starfire lying there on the floor, his floor, screaming between stifled cries, one foot badly mangled. And Robin had then walked in, and there she was, a few feet away from Beast Boy, who lay asleep as if all was perfectly fine, in the middle of day. Conclusions could be drawn...And Beast Boy wasn't sure whether to feel guilty or frightened himself. Robin had left then, turned out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Beast Boy was almost relieved, but not completely, for now he sat alone on the floor of his room, beside the bed. He got up and looked around. Maybe it had all been a dream. But no. The bandage was real. It was still there neatly wrapped around his hand. And the glove. It still lay on the pillow on the top bunk.

He left the room in a hurry.