Three years had passed since that day. The tower was rebuilt, and the city restored. It was 7:00 in the morning. The entire tower and its occupants were fast asleep, all except one green individual. The sounds of angry noises and the stirring of objects being thrashed about could be heard coming from Beastboys room for a better portion of the night. Making Raven, who was located directly down the hall from him slightly unsettled, and bringing her to the verge of stomping down the hall and biding her love a smack on the head. She had finally fallen asleep, or rather passed out not long after 1:00.
Beastboy tossed and turned about in his bed, growling out of frustration at his futile attempts to catch a second of shuteye. He had been awake the entire night, and probably would have fallen asleep had he not been occupied with cursing and chanting obscenities for not being asleep in the first place. "Goddamnit! Why can't I sleep?" His thoughts wandered about aimlessly in his head, stirring up even more thoughts in the process and bringing him to even more of an unrest. "Just stop thinking Beastboy… This should be easy for you." Indeed forcing himself to cease to think would be easy, or so he thought. "Hmmm… Why does Cyborg's car look like a minivan? And why did he put that crappy little import muffler on it? It sounds like a weedwacker!" Beastboy quickly realized his mistake and tried to shut it out of his head instantly. Only to raise the thought "Why am I thinking about these things? Their completely and utterly pointless!" Closing his eyes he turned over and brought his gaze to the ceiling. "Whoa I'm starting to sound like Raven…Then again, we have been together for quite some time…" His mind began to flash back to all of the times that she had exploded on him, yelled at him, and things of the such. He began to recall how many times she had scoffed at Cyborg and he for fighting over who lost the remote to the TV, chuckling at how she had said "It's a pointless argument over a pointless device!" every single time. Despite the fact that Rae and BB had been going out for the last three years, she was still pretty unmerciful when annoyed." She's kinda cute when that temple in her forehead's flaring" he thought with a slight smile. Beastboy let out a final groan before he arose from his bed and decided that sleep was out of the question. Rolling over onto his side he reached out and hit the stereo that resided next to his bed, causing the CD player to halt its never-ending onslaught of skipping that had begun around three in the morning and jump to the next song. He didn't know what CD was playing, but soon found out when he heard the beginning chords of "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC. He half sat up, and half rolled off of the bed, ending up toppled over on the floor with his feet in the air and his ass firmly planted against the wooden frame of the bed. It almost looked as if he were sitting with his back to the floor, gazing mindlessly into the ceiling. He sat there for a second with his mouth agape and a steady stream of drool running down the length of his face and settling into the carpet. Beastboy began to hum silently to AC/DC as his eyes began to close so slowly that he had not taken notice. He was almost asleep when he felt a sharp pain in his back. " Ow… Fuck!" he shouted as he bolted upright and reached around to see what the problem on his shoulder blade was. He ran his fingers along the surface of his skin for a moment before his fingers detected a curious abnormality. Whatever it was it felt rough and cold. He gripped the object, and with a quick yank he pulled it free of the skin in which it was embedded. He brought his hand around to his face to reveal a jagged, bloody piece of plastic in his fingers. It had dug into his shoulder, and was at least two inches into the skin before he expelled it. "Nasty little fucker aren't we?" He said turning the piece over again and again in his hand, examining it thoroughly. "Wonder where it came from?". Turning his head he cast a weary eye upon the remains of his alarm clock, which he had smashed the previous morning instead of simply hitting the snooze button. The shard was most likely a piece that had been sent flying when he brought his fist down upon the device, and he was the one lucky enough to fall on it. He had worn nothing more than shorts to bed, so his back was now a bloody mess that had left a stain in the carpet. He contemplated wiping it up and soon after said, "Fuck it…" waving his hand at the spot on the floor as if to dismiss it from his thoughts. He picked himself up and slowly ventured over to his computer and decided to check his mail, seeing as he had nothing better to do so early in the morning. He pushed in the button and switched on the monitor, only to greet the screen with a slightly confused look. He was staring at an open word document. It was a poem that he had written in the late hours of the night. When he really thought about it he could only vaguely remember typing it up. He enlarged the window and looked at the entire poem, it said
Is this place real? Are these my dreams?
Or nightmares come to rape me of my peace?
I felt the earth beneath my feet
And I felt your heart cease to beat
Your heartbeat pounding in my head
Your heartbeat left me, left you dead
Deaths puppet are you forevermore
To hold and caress you nevermore
A certain strangeness had come about him the last year or two. He was becoming… Different. It wasn't only physical, but psychological too. He had been doing allot of hard thinking lately, mostly about random things in general such as, outlooks on life, society, people, and things like that. He had grown a rather dark sense of humor along with his attraction to dead baby jokes. He thought it was just Raven rubbing off on him, but it was something bigger than that. The attributes of his new demon heart were taking effect on his mind, mentality, and soul. It was filling him with the doubts and deceit similar to that of Ravens, in the sense that it was mandatory that he question everything and always assume the worst. He simply shrugged after a fragment of these thoughts registered in his mind and yawned quietly as he switched off the monitor, deciding that he wasn't quite so interested in checking his mail anymore. A strange noise came from his abdominal area and he decided that he was hungry. Stepping out into the hall he silently ventured down the stairs. In the kitchen he poked about in the refrigerator, coming across a rather large ham. He poked it, and seeing as it was still raw he guessed that they'd be cooking it for dinner the next night. He simply took a few slices and pulled a stool up to the bar counter in the middle of the kitchen and sat down. He had been forced to give up vegetarianism about a year back during an incident with a child molester. Long story short he caught the guy in the act and lost his temper. The demonic attributes that he had come to posses brought something primal out in him. A 10-inch razor sharp claw had extended from each fingertip, his eyes had turned a dark pink, and his fangs grew by a good few inches. He simply chased the man down and took a bite out of his neck, swallowing what he had bitten off in the process. Ever since that happened he would damn near go into withdrawals without meat. This was the last thing Beastboy remembered thinking about before he fell asleep at the table.
In her room Raven was resting silently on her bed. She was lying on her side, and the sheets lay around her in a jumbled heap, one leg under them and the other resting on top. Beastboy had once seen her sleeping in this manner and referred to it as a thing of beauty when she awoke. She didn't know if he was being serious or sarcastic, so she simply blushed and dismissed the thought from her mind, then scorned him shortly after. Suddenly she stirred and rolled onto her back. Ravens eyes fluttered open, her eyelashes batting gently as they let in the new morning light. She sat up and stretched noisily, releasing a silent yawn as she extended her arms. "A decent nights sleep…Save for the constant annoyance of Beastboys' insomnia," she thought as she planted her cold feet on the floor. As she stood beside her bed she looked about the room, deciding that she was growing tired of the way it currently looked she told herself to remember to buy some posters the next time she was out. Some Nightwish and Evanesance posters would most likely do the trick. She started to head out the doorway when she stepped on the shattered remains of the newest Avril Lavigne CD that Starfire had been trying to force on her. " Ow!" she yelled. Raven was wandering about barefoot so she received a pretty nasty poke from the object. After a few seconds of thinking though she was glad she had stepped on the CD. Upon looking down at the floor she also realized that she wasn't wearing anything. Do to the hot summer nights she had grown accustomed to sleeping in the nude. " Walk out into the kitchen naked… That would have been a great way to start the day Raven… If I had a choice I probably would, It sure would be allot more comfortable and convenient, but people would most likely gawk, don't really want that kind of attention…Unless… It were coming from Beastboy…" she thought aloud with a half smile. He had really taught her to enjoy life over the last few years. He had taken her to several concerts, and they were currently forming something close to a band. It was only her and Beastboy right now. He wrote the songs, and she picked it out on an acoustic guitar; but two friends of theirs were expected to be joining soon. The one they simply called Goth (That one kid that was hitting on Raven at the dance club in "Sisters") and Elly, which was short for Eleanor. She ventured over to her dresser and retrieved a pair of boxers and a Cradle of Filth tee-shirt. It was still warm in the tower, so she decided that wearing anything else less revealing would be torture. She made her way down the stairs, rubbing her eyes groggily as she descended. She turned the corner into the kitchen only to be greeted by the sight of Beastboy facedown on the counter sitting on a barstool. She could hear him snoring and concluded that he was asleep. Spotting the slice of ham in front of him she cocked an eyebrow. Seeing him eat meat after being a vegetarian for so long was fairly odd, but seeing as meat had now become a necessity for him she guessed she'd have to get used to it. Raven simply passed him by and went on into the kitchen. As she passed she raised a hand into the air. Her eyes went black momentarily as one of the cupboards opened and a teakettle and an ivory box floated out, setting them down on the counter gently. Wandering over to the counter she summoned a spoon from one of the drawers. She cocked her head in the direction of the sink and without even thinking about it flipped up the faucet handle and brought the flow of water. She concentrated slightly and the water emitting from the sink turned to a glowing black and white color. She raised a hand and pointed it at the teakettle. On command the blob of water picked itself up from the sink and slowly levitated over to the teakettle. Once over the opening of the lid it lost its glow and dropped inside. Raven had learned this and many other tricks over the last few months or so. With the crime rate at an all time low she had plenty of time to meditate, and learned many new things in the process, such as how to control liquids, gases, and people telekinetically. Turning to the ivory box she opened it and retrieved a teabag labeled peppermint-ginseng and lowered it into the water as it began to boil. She wandered back out of the kitchen and sat down next to Beastboy, placing an elbow on the table, and her face in her hand, and just continued to stare at him, not really having anything better to do. "Hmmm. He's kind of cute when he's not increasingly insane and unstable." She thought. The fact that this was coming from her would easily make it a compliment.Her thoughts began to wander just as the teakettle went off, emitting a high pitched whistle. She got up quickly and pulled it off the stove, so as not to wake him. She was in the kitchen for about 15 minutes. After finally emerging once again she sat down next to Beastboy, who was now wide-awake. "Mornin babe" He said in a half cheerful, half sleep deprived tone as he kissed her on the cheek. Raven blushed slightly as she usually did and kissed him back, gracing his cheek with the softness of her lips.