Click, Clack, Swish: A Christmas Romance
A/N: This little one-shot came to me while my mother was teaching me how to knit the other day. It's a really fluffy story, and I'm afraid that Raven might be a little out of character, so give me your honest criticism and opinion, please!
Dedicated to all of the BB/Rae shippers out there. Merry Christmas and other holidays too!
Restlessness is a terrible thing, especially during on Christmas Eve. Even more so when you have finished everything that needs to be done. And Raven knew everything was done. Starfire had made sure of that. Carols had been sung. Money and other donations had been given to charity. All the presents were under the tree, safe and sound. The stockings had been hung by the chimney with care. A chimney had been built by Cyborg after he was hounded to do so by Starfire. And now there was nothing to do.
Normally, Raven wouldn't have a problem with just reading or meditating. Quiet was what she complained there wasn't enough of at Titan Tower. And now that she had it, it seemed too quiet.
The typical contradictory human nature. I finally have quiet and now I can't stand it. Though I suppose I'm not completely human, but it still applies, Raven thought, silently. Because all she could do was do things silently. There wasn't any noise to make. No one to make the noise for her, anyway. Raven didn't make noise. It wasn't her style. It was more like Beast Boy's style. Speaking of which...
Cyborg was out buying himself a Christmas gift. She suspected it was a new game controller for the Gamestation, to replace the one he had broken in a fit of Clown Zombies 2: The Revenge of Bonkers. Starfire had dragged Robin to the mall to see Santa Claus. She was going to be confused when she saw about ten other Santas on the way there. Raven was almost regretful she had missed Starfire's reaction, but upon thinking about her many questions that would follow, the half-demon decided she was glad she had missed it.
But she didn't recall Beast Boy making any plans, so he must have still been in the Tower. Well, he should have been. There was no racket to prove it... Maybe she just had to listen carefully. She was in her room and Beast Boy could be anywhere.
Click. Clack. Swish.
What could that be? Raven got off of her bed, and out the door, walking down the hallway as the sound drifted towards her, getting louder and louder.
Click. Clack. Swish.
She saw his emerald hair and green elf ears poking up from the couch and slowly approached. "Beast Boy..."
Although her tone wasn't angry, Beast Boy flinched visibly before he turned around. "Aw, geeze Rae! What did I do now?"
Inside, Raven smiled. They had been getting into so many spats lately, he had just assumed that she was mad. It might have been just the tension of the holidays, but every time they saw each other lately they seemed to be on edge and unsettled. It was mostly his fault, making stupid jokes when she wanted to be left alone, although it might have been her fault too, for wanting to be left alone so often. He's such an idiot, Raven thought fondly, tugging on the folds of her cloak.
"I was just wondering what you were doing. No need to be hostile," she said, walking around the arm of the sofa. When she did, she saw what activity he had been so enthralled with for the last few hours. But it seemed so out of character for him she had to check again, as if her own eyesight was failing her. "What are you doing?"
Beast Boy lifted an eyebrow, looking at the needles and mess of yarn his right arm was tangled in. "Uh, knitting. Duh."
"Well, I know that!" She snapped. The question was pretty stupid, but he didn't need to act as though she was. She calmed herself. "What I meant, Beast Boy, is why are you... Knitting?"
He grinned lopsidedly, seeing the reason for her confusion. "It's sort of a long story..." He trailed off, looking at her, inviting her to be drawn in to his tale if she dared. And she did.
Raven shrugged. "I have nothing else to do right now." Beast Boy patted the seat next to him, moving the white threads off the couch cushion, and she settled herself in. He waited until she had finished getting into a comfortable position before starting into the yarn. Get it? Heh. Yarn.
He seemed hesitant to start, and once he did it was apparent why. "Do you remember about six days ago when I put that plastic bug in your tea, and you blew up that candle holder...?"
"Well, I don't know. You've been getting on my nerves so frequently, it's hard to pick out a certain moment." He looked up startled, but Raven reassured him, "It's a joke. I remember the candle holder. Continue."
He gave an uneasy smile and resumed his story. "Well, you stormed off to your room, and I was going to apologize. I really was. Heh, it seems I'm always apologizing to you for something... And then Robin pulled me outside and started taking me somewhere in the T-Car with Cyborg. I guess they were both in on it. Well, maybe Cyborg was just the driver. Hey, what's that big word for "driver"again?"
Raven said "Chauffeur?" and gave Beast Boy a look that clearly said "Don't-get-hung-up-on-something-stupid-or-I'll-hurt-you."
"Yeah. Chauffeur. Well, Robin started talking about how I was really bugging you lately, and that I should calm down and be quiet more often. I dunno, I sort of tuned out for some of it. But he was really serious and said that if it continued I would damage the team or something. And then, next thing I knew we were outside of a retirement home."
"A retirement home," Raven intoned.
"Uh-huh." Beast Boy looked down at his lap and remembered his forgotten handiwork. He wrapped a string of snowy yarn and wrapped it about his right hand. He picked up the needles, and ended a stitch. Click. Then he started a new one. Clack, went the needles. Swish, he was wrapping the yarn around the needle in back and ended the stitch with a "Click." The rhythmic sounds moved together as he became absorbed in the continuos flow of endless loops upon loops. Raven forgot herself in the sounds for a moment. They calmed her in the way that her most often three chanted words did. Click. Clack. Swish. Click. Clack. Swish. Click, clack, swish.
The sounds slowly sped up as Beast Boy became more comfortable with the pattern, easily maneuvering the yarn around the pointy, but unsharpened needles. When Raven opened her eyes again, she saw him smiling at her, ever so slightly. No, not smiling. Grinning at her. Watching her take in a few relaxed breaths in his presence wasn't something he had seen lately, and it was good to see the old Raven back. Something of their old friendship that hadn't surfaced in a while. Sure, there had never been many of these quiet moments in the past, but they had occurred. When they did, they remembered why they were friends, a quiet understanding of two betrayed hearts accepting each other.
As she pondered this, Raven became more uncomfortable with the warmness and the familiarity of his gaze. Something was there that wasn't part of their old friendship, something new and unknown. Something Raven wanted to avoid.
She broke eye contact and waited for him to pick up where he left off in the story. As the snug silence faded to discomfiting, it became clear through his little grin that he was waiting for her to ask. For her to show some interest in him. She sighed and decided to satisfy his childish desire. "And then what happened?"
She couldn't see it, but she could tell his grin had widened, and he was beaming with barely concealed happiness and smugness that his little ploy worked. She wasn't an empath for nothing. "Well, since you're so concerned, I'll tell you. When we reached the retirement home, Robin said I was supposed to do some community service as punishment for bothering you so much lately. Your rage is punishment enough in my opinion, but Robin doesn't think so." He wrinkled his nose on distaste at the mention of their leader. "So I was supposed to spend time with seniors. Most of them didn't want to spend time with me, though..."
I wonder why, thought an amused Raven.
" I think they thought it was funny I was green. I don't think they've even heard of us! Can you imagine, Rae? People in Jump City not knowing of the Teen Titans!
"Anyway, one of the staff people guided me over to the little old lady. She was really little. Frail. And bent over like a shrimp!" Raven looked wide-eyed at his rudeness, and Beast Boy tried to ease this by saying, "Oh, don't worry. I didn't say so to her. Her name was Estelle. And even though she was really tiny and wrinkled, she was really nice.
"We started talking and I told her a few jokes. Somehow the conversation rolled around to what kind of things she did around there, and we came to this." He gestured down to his new activity, needles still weaving the yarn into something long and soft. "She started showing me how to knit, and apparently I'm a natural."He added, proudly.
Raven nodded and looked at the clock on the wall. Well, she had wasted a few minutes. She got up to leave, thinking of various monotonous activities she could do until the others got home, when Beast Boy's voice broke into her thoughts. "Wait! I could show you, you know. How to knit. I have some extra needles and yarn, if you're looking for something to do."
"How did you know I was looking for something to do?" she asked. Usually the green boy wasn't very attentive.
He shrugged. "You don't come looking for me unless I'm a last resort."
Normally Raven would have walked off, made some tea, done some meditating, read a book. He was right. She usually didn't spend time with him unless he was her last choice. Lately, she had been avoiding him more than usual, for reasons unknown. They clashed, and didn't go well together. They didn't have similar interests, she was serious and he was nonsensical. But something in his voice seemed to acknowledge it, and make sense of why she was his friend in the first place. So, she sat down again and allowed him to teach her how to knit.
She let him tie a starting knot with blue yarn around her needle, and was warned that since the needles were thick starting needles her first creation would have large holes and be see-through. When she made a mistake she allowed him to correct it, and she was praised when she completed her first row without incident. "You're really good at this," he commented. She tucked some hair behind her ear and shook her head.
"You're better."
He snorted, "Yeah. But that's because I got a whole six days practice ahead of you. And I'm a natural."
And quite some time passed in this way, the only sounds heard were occasional short conversations and the rhythmic sounds of click, clack, swish.
Until Raven made a rather big mistake.
"How did you do that?" Beast Boy asked, amazed. He didn't sound angry, or even chiding. His voice was full of wonder, bordering on almost approval of her blunder. There was a spacious hole below the row she was currently working on, and she had 23 stitches in that row instead of the original 20 she had started with. Raven was frustrated, but wouldn't allow him to see her futility.
"I don't know," she admitted truthfully. She waited for him to take the ruined piece from her hands to fix it, as he had done before, but he only looked on with amusement in his expression. Then his eyes lit up with an idea.
"You know, Raven..." He trailed off, letting his idea fully take shape in his mind. "You should really start learning how to fix a mistake that you've made. I'll teach you if you want."
Raven immediately sensed a trap of some sort. His sly demeanor clearly showed that he was about to do something. But what? Her expression was guarded, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what he was thinking of. "Alright..." she said, warily.
In a sudden move, his arms were around her, pulling her to his side in an awkward hug. A hiss escaped her lips with a sharp intake of breath which quickly escaped her as she demanded, "Beast Boy, tell me what you're doing this instant!"
"Relax, Rae," his voice came whispered, but easily heard as his lips were right next to her ear. It sent unwanted shivers down her spine. "Chill. I'm just showing you how to fix your mistake..."
She turned to look at him, questions in her violet eyes as they met his green ones. The jungle eyes didn't answer her questions, but let her know everything would be fine. Their faces were too close and moved closer still when his arms shifted around her shoulders to grab her hands. Then he leaned in and Raven's eyelids unconsciously lowered. All thought stopped.
And then thought was brought back by the unceremonious noises of click, clack, swish.
It was though she had woken with a start, surprised and... Was that a bit of disappointment? No, it's not, came Raven's irritated thought. Beast Boy was fixing her mistake, guiding her hands with his to show her what she had done wrong. As it turned out, she had just taken some loops from the row beneath and added them to the top.
She realized how stiff and upright she was and leaned back into Beast Boy's chest which was now behind her, his head on her shoulder. He was exceptionally warm, and she allowed herself a slight smile acknowledging this and the foolish mistake she had made. Of course he wouldn't kiss me. He wouldn't dare.
She could have laughed with relief. She felt slightly dizzy, giddy even, and disconnected from herself. Not her usual disconnection with her emotions, but a warmer sense that occurred naturally without any meditation or concentration. She calmed her thudding heart. She hoped he couldn't hear it, or he'd laugh at her for ages. It had sounded so loud she thought it might even overpower the click, clack, swish of her knitting. No, not her knitting. Their knitting.
Together, she and Beast Boy had worked through the foul-up and were knitting, his hands on hers. She was about to tell him she had gotten the hang of it, when he asked, "Can you do it by yourself now?"
"Mmm-hmm," came her eloquent reply. She mentally cursed herself for sounded so distracted, and tried to amend by making conversation. "Your hands are pretty big." Well, that sounded stupid too. Great going. Try to make a point."And your feet, as well. That means you're probably going to grow more." Well, it's better than before.
"I know. Won't be long before I'm a lot taller." She could feel his smile push at the apples of his cheeks against the side of her neck and realized his arms were still around her. "Beast Boy. I can knit by myself now."
"Mmm-hmm," came the intelligent response. Well, it wasn't bad for Beast Boy.
She became agitated at the warmth that had wrapped itself around her, and could feel from his impish grin that he was doing it on purpose. Black energy wrapped itself around his torso, and he was thrown against the arm of the chair away from her. "Ow." He had landed on his abandoned knitting needles. Hands raised in place of a white flag acceding defeat. "I surrender!" A grin graced his lips as he got up with his supplies to leave the room. As he walked around the couch, he remembered something and exclaimed, "Oh! I forgot!"
What is it now? Raven felt annoyed as she turned around to look at him. He was snipping off a stray piece of yarn with his teeth, on the end of a white scarf he had knitted. He tied a knot at the end and turned to her grinning the way he did when he had an idea. He grabbed both ends of the scarf and held it out for her inspection. "This is for you." He stepped forward and proceeded to wrap the long article of yarn around her neck.
"Why white?" she asked as his hands twined the scarf around her neck, disturbing her hood. Even wrapped twice around her throat, both ends reached to the end of her rib cage. His fingers lingered on the ends, setting them straight before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into him as he leaned toward her, over the couch.
She could feel his warm breath against her ear as she heard his words, and forced the shivers threatening to climb up her spine to cease as he said, "Because you look beautiful in white."
He abruptly kissed her cheek, not caring that no permission was granted and walked off, his mission completed. He swallowed his excitement as he heard the remote control of the TV explode as he left.
A/N: So, what did you think? I was going to leave it here... But then I decided that I'm going to write another chapter, just one more, if people like this. And if you don't mind a Christmas Eve story being updated on the 30th of December.
So review and I'll give you another chapter!