Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it. Since I am writing said fanfiction, I obviously don't own the show.
Note: I do apologize for the week between updates. However, this chapter is somewhat longer than the others, so hopefully that will make up for it... (I tried to post this chapter up last night, but wouldn't let me even login, so I apologize for the extra delay.) Also, this is the one where things begin to get moving. The next chapter will be a bit faster paced. In addition, I am also doing something that I have yet to do, and that is request three reviews before I update again. I am doing this because reviews serve to help me in two ways: tell me what I should continue to do, and what I should work to improve. Even if you don't think a "good job" helps me, it honestly does! Thank you!
Chapter 7: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
It had been a long while since things looked relatively normal around the tower. Yet, there were rare moments when everything seemed to be as it should be. This was one of those moments. Beast Boy rested against the back of the plush couch, slouched in a comfortable position with the remote in hand. The large screen in front of him switched channels every few seconds as he pressed the button.
Behind him, the doors moved apart and footsteps could be heard entering the room. There were two pairs, considering that one set veered off in the direction of the kitchen area while the other moved to stand right behind the couch.
"So," Cyborg's voice broke through the changeling's daze, causing him to jump a little, "this is something I haven't seen in awhile."
"What is?", came the response as the smaller Titan continued to flip through stations.
"You in front of the T.V. Raven not around to catch you?", the other asked, a smirk blatant on his features and in his teasing tone.
"Since when do I need her permission to do anything?", Beast Boy questioned, turning a mild glare toward his friend.
"Since you started doing everything she tells you to do," he replied, smirk still very much present on his face. "... you never used to listen to her..."
"I only do what she says will help me," the shape-shifter countered, eyes still rather narrowed. "Something wrong with that?"
"No, not at all," Cyborg responded, waving a hand in the air slowly, "That is, if you -were- only listening because she was helping you..."
"I said I was," the other Titan retorted, deciding at that moment to press the mute button on the remote. By doing that, he showed his friend how he was giving the conversation his full attention.
"I know you did," the larger of the two replied with a slight lilt in his voice.
"Alright, dude, what're you getting at?", the green male demanded, seemingly impatient already.
"Oh, nothing," the partially mechanical one answered in the same tone as before, obviously implying that he was lying.
"I so don't believe you," Beast Boy stated with frustration in his voice.
"Good," the other responded, smirk having never left his features, "you shouldn't."
"Dude, just tell me what you're trying to say," the changeling said, gritting his teeth together in aggravation. He was not angry by any means, more like annoyed.
"Calm down, man," Cyborg responded, "I'm just trying to tell you that we know."
"Know what?", his green friend asked with a single eyebrow raised.
"Ya know, how you feel about Raven," came the matter-of-fact answer from the partly-robotic Titan. Even as his tone changed, his mischievous expression never did.
As the words came out of his friend's mouth, Beast Boy's eyes widened as much as they could and his mouth fell agape. "Uh... uh...wh... uh...," he stuttered rather intelligently, taking a moment to pull himself back together. "W-what?", he finally asked, although his tone was still a bit shaky.
"You know what I said," the larger Titan replied, arms crossed in front of his chest. "Although, I never did say what those feelings were, but based on your reaction, I think it's rather obvious that we were right."
Shaking his head as if to regain his composure, the changeling said a single word, "We?"
"We," the Boy Wonder spoke up from where he was standing in the kitchen area, currently facing the other two. He, too, wore a smirk across his features.
"It's useless to deny it," Cyborg remarked in a teasing tone.
"Deny what?", the shape-shifter huffed with a slight frown tugging down the corners of his lips.
"That you like Raven," came the tall one's brief and straight forward answer, "Like like her."
Despite his attempts to hide his reaction, the green male could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as he fumbled around in his mind for a sufficient answer. "So... what if I do?", he eventually muttered out, sighing inwardly at giving in so easily. "It's not like it's much different from Robin and Starfire," Beast Boy pointed toward the masked Titan who had recently turned his back to the other two.
Upon hearing the words leave his friend's mouth, the pan the leader of the Titans was holding suddenly slipped from his grip and fell to the floor with a loud clatter. "It's not... she's not... I'm not...," he stumbled verbally for the next few seconds, not turning around to face his friends due to the rising blush on his cheeks.
"We've known that for a long time and who knows when they'll ever admit it, but with you and Raven...," Cyborg trailed off, leaving the changeling to infer what he meant. It did not seem to bother him in the least that he had said the first part of his sentence in front of Robin. He said it like it was common knowledge, which it did seem to be... except for the two involved in it.
"'But' nothing," the green Titan jumped in almost immediately after the other finished speaking. It also seemed like he paid no heed to the masked leader, who still stood stammering in the kitchen. "... and even if I did like her that way, what's the point of saying anything? She's made it obvious that she doesn't feel the same way." As he continued to talk, his voice gradually lowered itself in volume until it was just above a whisper.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, man," the partially-robotic Titan answered, a mischievous looking grin still on his lips. "I mean, she has been spending a lot of time with you... willingly."
"So, she's my friend," Beast Boy countered defensively, arms crossed in front of himself as he glared at his friend who stood behind the couch.
"Yeah, but she's also Raven," Cyborg pointed out the obvious, "and since when does Raven go out of her way to help every day?"
"Since a few weeks ago," the green male replied, half-turned so that he could face the other.
"Yeah, but that's just for you, BB," the taller of the two remarked, unfolding his arms in order to rest one hand on the top of the couch. "Explain that."
"It hasn't been just for me," he retorted rather firmly, although his hard tone was softening. "She's been working on the case, too."
"But that's her job. She's always done her job," Cyborg responded easily, his face set in a challenging expression, as if daring the other to try and make up some other excuse.
"... it still doesn't matter," Beast Boy said, relenting and turning back toward the large television screen.
"Man, she's got you training -and- researching, so you must have it bad," his partly-mechanical teammate stated as he started to walk toward the kitchen area. "Maybe even as bad as Robin," he added as an afterthought, noticing the speechless leader.
Hearing what his friend had said, the masked Titan suddenly went rigid, blush coming back full force (since it had faded over the past few minutes). Forcing himself to regain his composure, he tried to reply to his friend's remark, "I'm not –..."
The Boy Wonder had been cut off by the double doors parting and the two female Titans walking into the room. "We have returned from the mall of shopping," the redhead announced joyfully as she entered through the doors and made her way over toward the kitchen. "What are you preparing for the dinner meal, Robin?", she questioned, leaning slightly over the counter.
The aforementioned Titan had stiffly returned to cutting a vegetable in order to put it into a pot of boiling water when he had heard the girls walk in. So, he had his back to the Tamaranean when she approached and spoke with him. As she did, the conversation that had occurred in the room a few minutes ago flashed through his mind, causing his fading blush to once again grow redder. Since he did not trust himself with words at that moment, he remained silent and noticeably tense.
"Robin?", the alien girl asked with concern laden in her voice, "Are you not alright?"
Continuing with what he was doing, he took a large breath and forced himself to loosen up a little. "I'm fine, Starfire," he finally answered after several moments, although he never turned around.
Raven had walked in a few feet behind her friend and had come to a halt when she reached the middle of the room, looking a bit warily between all three of her male teammates. She had sensed a mild air of tension with them.
First, she glanced toward Beast Boy, who in turn shifted just enough to look back at her out of the corner of his eye before quickly returning to watching television. He seemed unusually nervous about something.
She then cast her vision toward Cyborg, who had been watching both scenes with interest. Within the next view moments, he turned to look at her, a noticeable hint of a smirk across his features. "What?", she asked rather tersely, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Nothin'," he replied, drawing out the word without his expression changing.
Giving him an unbelieving look, the cloaked Titan turned to walk wordlessly toward the kitchen area.
–
The temperature had dropped several degrees when the sun had gone down, which was especially noticeable at the wharf due to the breeze coming off of the waters. Beast Boy had been sent with Raven for patrol duties that night, and he had the feeling that Robin had paired them up on purpose. He had to remember to get him back for that later, maybe the next day... although he would probably take it better after the case was solved.
Regardless of how it had happened, he found himself walking beside the empath along a row of deserted pier warehouses. Arms behind his head, he kept pace with her as they searched the area. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. There had been a few people working on a pier that they had passed awhile back, but that had been a scheduled late night shipment. He knew that this was necessary to do, but after coming up with nothing night after night, patrolling was beginning to look less and less appealing.
"What happened this afternoon?", the cloaked female questioned, breaking the comfortable silence.
Startled slightly by what she had asked, it took the changeling a moment before coming up with an answer. "What do you mean?", he responded. "Oh yeah, that was brilliant..."
"Before dinner," she answered calmly, eyes still looking straight ahead.
"Oh... uh... nothing," came his reply, redirecting his gaze away from her.
"I doubt that," Raven responded as she pulled her cloak closer to her form, as if a bit chilled.
"Well, ya know, it was just Cyborg," he elaborated slightly, aiming to take it a step at a time. Still, he doubted he would ever get up enough courage to tell her exactly what the conversation had been about.
"So I noticed," came her reply, eyes still looking nowhere but ahead of her and the occasional side street that they passed. "Why do I even care? I don't normally pry into others' lives... So why now?", she questioned herself inwardly, a slight frown across her facial features.
Beast Boy saw the subtle change in her expression when he turned to look toward her. Tilting his head to the side, he asked, "You okay?"
Upon hearing his question, she blinked to bring herself out of her thoughts and chanced a glance his way. Having only heard his voice and not the exact words, she needed him to repeat himself. "What?", her tone was much less harsh than when she had been talking to Cyborg earlier that day.
"I asked if you were okay. You just looked upset," he responded simply enough, eyes never leaving her face.
"I'm fine," Raven answered crisply, returning her gaze to the streets ahead. However, she still felt his eyes watching her as they walked, causing a blush to begin spreading across her pale skin. Quickly, she pulled her hood up over her head in order to hide her reaction, as well as reprimand herself mentally. "What's wrong with me? I can't be blushing because of him..." As this happened, she felt a strand of power leak out from her grasp, followed by the cracking of a nearby window.
Deciding not to push any further, the shape-shifter looked away from her, only to look back up when he heard a cracking sound. Seeing that his teammate did not look at all concerned about it, he once again shifted his gaze away from her. Someday, he knew, he would have to get up enough courage to tell her...
–
He watched calmly as they passed by the building in which he sat, looking through a dusty window. They would not have been able to see him unless they intentionally stopped and peered inside, which was unlikely, seeing as how they were conversing with each other as they passed.
Several minutes of silence followed as he stared out of the window, waiting for them to be far enough along so that he could slip out unseen. In his hand, there was a crumpled piece of paper that looked as if it had been unfolded and refolded countless times. Glancing down at it, a smirk slowly tugged at the corners of his lips. The pieces were finally falling into place.
It had been awhile since this had all begun, but that was more than alright with him. He could be as patient as the situation called for him to be. In the end, his patience would only serve to benefit himself. Like this time, for instance. The past few weeks he had purposely kept from harming a more than a few people, just to see how the Teen Titans would react. He figured they would try and find the connection between all of his victims, but it was not something that was outstanding. They would have to do a bit of research for some of them. It certainly seemed that they were playing right into his hands.
Patrolling the streets at night provided him with a good opportunity to play his final card, so to speak. It did not matter that he had needed to watch for over a week to uncover who went where. He had seen the green one travel with a few of the others, but besides him, the other four Titans searched the same area every night. That was definitely useful information...
He had come a long way in the past month, and hopefully, it would all be over within the next few days. That in mind, he turned and moved noiselessly toward the exit. So far, all was going perfectly, and soon, it would all end perfectly.
–
There really should have been a hole in the floor of his room by now, he decided. After all, he had been pacing back and forth for many hours. In the process, he had managed to create a definite path, void of any of his usual mess.
He had tried to get some much needed rest, but his mind just did not seem to want to let him. It kept reminding him of the conversation he had with Cyborg and Robin, and then his later patrolling with Raven. The other two male Titans, or at least one, had oh-so-subtly hinted that the empath returned his feelings, and said female had acted rather odd that night. She seemed to have been bothered by him looking at her. "And who can blame her," Beast Boy thought disappointedly, "I would be annoyed if I kept staring at me..."
Wait, had she been annoyed? What else could it have been? She looked more... flustered than annoyed, and there was that cracking window... Maybe, just maybe, Cyborg had been right... "Nah... he couldn't be... but why else would he have said all that?" His train of thought seemed rather jumpy, probably due to his lack of sleep and nourishment. "... It can't be true... but what if...?"
The changeling stopped suddenly in his tracks, standing up quite straight at the same time. He took a few deep breaths and then glanced at the clock. "Seven o'clock? Dude, I really have been up all night... Guess I should get somethin' to eat..." With that thought in his mind, he exited his room in order to head toward the kitchen. However, that was not the only thing on his mind... He had something else that he wanted to do.
–
She had awoken early that morning, for whatever reason. It was probably due to the fact that she was having trouble handling her emotions and thoughts. After her conversation with Starfire, things had been bad enough, but then Robin had sent her on patrol with the person in question. She felt as though she was losing control of her powers left and right. Sure, it was only a little bit at a time, but who knew how long that would last for. Things could escalate soon... She hoped she would have enough time to meditate for awhile. It was much needed right then.
There was also something else going on, which she had failed to mention to anyone as of yet. In her search for the "new" emotion in her mind, she was experiencing what she felt was a decline in her powers. It felt like they had started to fall further and further out of her grasp, but she dared not say anything before she was sure. It felt similar to the time when she had refused to admit that she was afraid and her powers had decided to manifest themselves in other ways. That had been sudden, but this was gradual. This emotion was certainly causing a her a great deal of difficulty.
Holding a warm cup of tea in her hands, she did not even turn as the doors to the common room swished open. That is, until she heard his voice...
"Morning, Raven," Beast Boy greeted, voice tired from lack of sleep. When she did not turn around or respond, he stopped a few feet behind her. He could not see her face; maybe she had fallen asleep. That was highly unlikely, however. "Raven?"
"Morning," she finally replied, although her voice sounded less than pleased.
Raising an eyebrow at her tone, he made his way over to the kitchen in order to make himself something to eat. He did not want to say anything to get her more upset than she already seemed to be.
She thought it unusual for him to be up so early, especially when he did not have to be. Having caught a glimpse of him as he had walked past the counter, she had noticed the circles under his eyes. Why was he so tired? Gently setting the cup down, she followed him with her eyes for a few moments before speaking up, "You're up earlier than usual."
"Couldn't sleep," came his simple response, not turning around to look toward her. "I had a lot on my mind."
"Ah," was all she said before taking another sip of her tea, although she was still watching him. Holding the cup lightly against her lips, she allowed herself to slowly inhale the steam in order to try and settle her nerves. Exhaling with a sigh, she diverted her gaze to the settling liquid in the small cup.
Evidently her sigh had been loud enough to hear, seeing as how Beast Boy turned his head slightly to look back at her. "You okay?", he asked, green eyes observing her carefully.
"Just fine," she answered, not looking up right away. Feeling his eyes still directed toward her, she shifted her gaze up to meet his. "What?"
"Nothin'... You just looked as if somethin' was up," he replied, turning back to what he had been doing a few moments previous.
"No, I just...," Raven paused, changing her line of vision so that she was looking out the window. "... have something on my mind," she finished quietly.
"Heh... know the feeling," the changeling laughed nervously, one arm bent behind his head. Stopping when she did not respond, he uneasily started searching for something to eat again. However, his movements had begun to get a little shaky, as though sincerely concerned about whatever it was that was on his mind.
Hearing some rather jittery movements, the empath looked back over at where her teammate was trying to grasp unsteadily at a few pans. Somehow, she sensed that she had something to do with his current behavior. Perhaps it was that little voice in the back of her head that kept trying to tell her how she really felt about her friend... Maybe it was trying to tell her that he felt the same way. She shook her head suddenly, driving the very notion from her thoughts. He was only a friend...
"Raven," the shape-shifter began, voice noticeably uneasy, "... I... I..." He tried to get the words out of his mouth, but they just did not seem to want to come.
His voice had called her back out of her thoughts, and his tone caused her to tense slightly. A nervous lump formed in her throat and she had to clasp her hands together in order to keep them from shaking. For whatever reason, she felt as though she knew what he was going to say and that voice in her head was practically screaming for her to listen to him. However, she kept telling herself that she could not accept it right then and that she never could, even if... "No... it's impossible..."
Meanwhile, Beast Boy was still struggling over the right words to say, not to mention actually getting himself to speak them aloud. "... I... just wanted... to...tell you... that...," he stammered, as if the air kept catching in his throat.
Rising abruptly from her seat, she pulled her cloak around her form and her hood up over her head. In some part of her mind, she noticed that she had effectively cut him short. "I can't," she informed, voice void of all emotion.
"... Huh?", he questioned, voice softer than usual. He turned fully toward her, only to notice that she had moved to stand in front of the large window with her back facing him.
"I know what you're going to say," she began, her body completely cloaked from sight, "and you know how I must answer." Her voice may have seemed unwavering, but she could feel herself starting to tremble at what she was saying. She forced herself to hide this from him, however. This was what she had to do, and she had to let him know that her decision was unchangeable.
"... but... Raven... you didn't even...," he started again, taking a small step in her direction. His whole form had began to quake slightly, trying to understand what was going on. Sure, he had not expected her to welcome his feelings with open arms, but to reject them so coldly... He thought that they had gotten past that.
She held firm, although she found it painful to be following through with her decision. However, was not her reason for choosing this path to avoid heartbreak? No, that was not an option. It could not happen, nor would she choose to admit that it was even a possibility. Either outlook seemed bleak, but perhaps to take the one which held less risk... but did it really? Where were all of these questions even coming from?
"It doesn't matter. I can't," she replied in the same tone as before, pulling the cloak a bit tighter around her form.
Beast Boy stood silent for several moments, eyes holding a complex mixture of emotions. Frustration, disbelief, rejection, irritation, and maybe even depression. He took a step back, and then another. A few seconds later, he turned and left the room without saying another word, only stopping to leave his communicator on the table. It appeared to be his way of saying that he did not wish to be bothered right then... as if this was something he needed to deal with on his own, at least for now.
Raven made no move to follow him, or to even watch as he walked out the doors. Nonetheless, through the window, she took notice of the form of her green teammate exiting the tower, and even then she was motionless.
–
Note: Well, what did you all think of that chapter? I really tried my best for the last scene... I wanted to handle it with special care. How do you all think I did?
Tammy Tamborine - Aww, thank you! I myself get impatient when it comes to a good story, and I hope this chapter was to your liking. Thanks so much for the review!
Water and Fire - Don't worry; your review did not come across in either of those ways. I'm glad to hear that you like the way I portray the characters, as I've tried my best with that aspect of the story. Thank you for the review!
WickedWitchoftheSE - I agree, two days at the beach can do wonders... maybe that is an idea I can sneak in for the epilogue or as part of a possible sequel? Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for your review!
Titanwolf - I'm glad to see that you like the fic so much, makes it worth my time to know that there are those out there who are enjoying in it. Also, since you asked, I did put in an extra (unplanned) scene between BB and Rae, short as it may be... More are to come, I assure you. Thanks so much for the review!
TDG3RD - Yeah, they really were both in denial. Now, BB may have come to grips with it a bit, but Raven is still struggling... Thanks, again, for all of your reviews!
Note: Please R&R!
