Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
This is NOT Robin/Raven. There is no Robin/Raven in this whatsoever. Prince V, don't worry. I can't say much without giving the story away, but don't worry.
Momomi, totally. That's the only thing I have trouble with. Words like those are not my forte. Of course I'll reread, but the human brain makes automatic corrections, so it's difficult to catch those kinds of mistakes. It would really help if I DID have spellcheck, though.
Inu-don't-love-kikio, I don't know what you mean. Raven said that just to imitate Robin, when she had said he seemed happy and he had replied by saying "Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day..."
Karsin, thanks. A lot, really. I decided to start with something small and try to make it significant. There's a little bit of personal experience too, but I wasn't thinking of that when I wrote this. You just now made me realize it, sort of.
Bogbrush, I don't know what's a big word to you or not. I use things as they come to me, though I can imagine coulrophobia was one of them. It just means fear of clowns.
I tried the links to the screenshots in my profile and they didn't wooorrrrkkkkk. SORRY. Okay, just go to It's in 'Nevermore', I believe.
Wind Lane, blame that on my addiction to Dean Koontz, then. Thanks for the tip. I loved your writing, so I will use them. :)
SpiderSquirrel, thank you. I appreciate all the compliments and words of encouragement I've gotten so far. You guys rock. Nice name, by the way. smile
Before you start to yell at me, THERE IS A REASON AS TO WHY BEAST BOY COOKS MEAT IN THIS. I DO NOT WANT ANY FLAMES ON THAT, SO JUST LEAVE IT ALONE FOR NOW. It seems pretty obvious to me, but if it doesn't to you, you'll find out later on in the story. It's part of the plot, so, NO FLAMES. At least... not on that.
I caught a little mistake that wasn't so obvious in the beggining of the last chapter. Instead of putting 'ceased', I put 'seized'. It's not a gramatical error like I expected it would be. I thought the correct way was to put 'ceased functioning' instead of 'ceased to function'. I can be used both ways, though.
Okay, preview: Robin postpones training. And that's all I'm saying. Let's just say someone takes advantage of the extra time... Sinciput just basically means forehead, just to let you know.
The door hissed open and the living room came into view. Down the stairs and to the left were the rest of the Titans, looking like they were about ready to attack the meals in front of them, or the person who wasn't sitting. All expulsed heavy sighs as their fellow Titaness came to join them. They all seemed happy to see her. Too happy.
"What's going on?" Wondered Raven. She turned her attention to Robin as he breathed a small 'finally' and was about to question the boy when Cyborg spoke for all.
"Well, it's about time!" He shouted, throwing glares in Beast Boy's direction. "Grass stain here wouldn't let us eat until you got here. He even kept slapping our hands away with his tentacles! You know, I don't know what..." Raven directed her gaze towards Beast Boy, who was leaning on the table on his right palm. He grinned stupidly at her and she gave a half smile back.
"Hungry?" He asked, holding out a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon to her. "Made it myself..." Raven almost rolled her eyes at Beast Boy's mock temptive voice and the way he wriggled her eyebrows at her.
"Thought I told you I don't eat fake meat," she responded coolly.
"It's not fake." Nearly laughing at the way Raven widened her eyes, Beast Boy waited to hear her verbal reaction. ¿Beast Boy? Cooking real meat?
"What's the occasion?" 'This I have to know,' she thought while looking over at Cyborg. He was stuffing his face with pork as if it was going to sprout legs and run away from him, just like Raven had suspected. He seemed to have forgotten all about the way he had been deprived of his precious food this morning, but his subconscious was with no dubiety already planning on getting the green changeling back some time in the near future.
"Just a thank you," he shot back kindly.
"For what?" She queried, now walking toward the matter of black and purple in front of her. She looked over at the other Titans, glad that they seemed oblivious to her little conversation with Beast Boy. Snapping her fingers, she watched as they all floated one inch off their seats only to touch back down one space to the right along with their food and beverages. Raven chuckled inwardly when they didn't notice. 'How observant.'
"For being you," said Beast Boy casually, now face to face with his teammate.
Raven raised a questioning eyebrow. "How so?"
"Last night. You didn't-" Even though they weren't paying attention, Raven really didn't find it necessary to risk the other Titans finding out about her and Beast Boy's midnight chat as she covered his mouth with black energy.
"Shh... lower." And she removed the bind.
"Right. Even though I'm me and you're you, you didn't shut yourself off like you usually do," he explained. "You didn't shut yourself off, and you did it all for me." He grinned. "For that I am truly thankful." And he killed it... bowing before her like an attendant to his queen. He looked up at her, keeping his back bent. "And honored. And delighted. And- What was that thing Starfire said we 'most were' when you told us all about-"
"Humbled." Raven really didn't want to hear that name again.
"Yeah, right." He stood up straight and started walking with her plate around the table to his seat when her hand slipped into his free right one and tugged slightly. He turned to look at her expectantly.
"Hey Beast Boy, what goes on in midnight, stays at midnight." She smiled slightly, quickly taking her hand from his. 'That was a little unnecessary.'
He retributed her affections with a toothy grin of his own. "Only at midnight, huh? Alright, I can work with that," he stated, watching as her smile actually became observable. "At least it's not once in a blue moon like it used to be." Encouraged by her bright eyes, he continued. "I mean, I've only hugged you like, what, three times before? And two out of three I either caught you by surprised or forced you." She went on ahead of him, surpressing a giggle. It didn't matter though, because she new he'd gotten the picture.
"I'm me and you're you?" Raven said as they sat down to eat, watching as Beast Boy stared dully at his fried tofu and smart bacon.
He looked at her in a confused manner. "It seemed like a nice way to sum it up in one sentence." Raven felt her stomach fluster as she caught sight of the little fang and she directed her attention to the food on her plate, keeping him from seeing her blush. Cautiously, she raised a strip of bacon to her lips. After all, this could still be smart bacon. She just had to eat it, though; Beast Boy had spent time on this. As if reading her thoughts, Beast Boy said, "It's real."
Raven gave the smallest smile Beast Boy had ever seen and continued. Indeed, it was true bacon. Okay, this was getting a little too creepy. First the outburst, then the confession, and now the bacon. Sure... Everything was normal.
"So that is the true meaning of the term 'PMSing'?" Asked Starfire innocently.
"Yes," said a very sweaty Robin. "But I suggest you go to Raven if you want more information. She's the one who actually has to go through it." Starfire's expression went from enlightened to confused.
"But I had already asked Raven and she said to come to you." Robin looked with a glare towards Raven, who was listening intently to whatever Beast Boy was saying. His eyes widened when she smiled and said something in response. Weird. Anyways, he'd get her back later. Maybe he would make her do the grocery shopping today instead of Cyborg. He grinned evily at the thought as his mind started working on a cruel list of groceries and other items.
The Titans continued talking about random things for the next couple of minutes, each enjoying each other's company in peace. All the while, Beast Boy popped up with punch lines and Raven just supressed the urge to roll her eyes. She took a look at her tea, which she had not yet taken even the smallest sip from, and wondered if it would be more sugar than the actual tea. Preparing herself, she lifted the mug in her hands. 'Here goes...'
Her eyes widened before she looked over at Beast Boy. "Lemon Zinger, my favorite. How'd you know?"
"It's always on the grocery list."
"There's the exact amount of sugar I prefer, though."
"Yeah," Beast Boy blushed. "I've noticed you only put a teaspoon and a half when you make your tea in the morning." Shocking...
"Hm... I didn't know you were that observant," Raven admitted.
"Me neither. I guess you never realize you realize things until you pay attention. It makes you realize." Raven bit back the urge to slap him. Why did he always have to start out good, then kill it? How annoying.
"Ey, B. Did you know that Wicked Scary 2.5 is coming out on DVD and video in the next two weeks or so?"
"Totally, dude. I can't wait. They say it's the best one yet. Too bad we couldn't go while it was in theatres... Sometimes I hate my job. Why is it called two and a half and not three?" Cyborg snickered.
"Probably because- Hey, Rae, why are you sitting all the way over there?"
"Starfire is in my seat."
"Whatever." Cyborg resumed his snickering. "Anyways, that's probably because throughout most the movie, there are only half humans running around." Raven shuddered as Beast Boy breathed 'nice one' in between guffaws. They were half human and not in her way either. Ugh...
As Cyborg and Beast Boy continued their little conversation, Raven grabbed her meditation book from her stack near the couch and began to read.
'It has to be here somewhere...' It had been ten minutes and Raven was getting frustrasted. She pointed to the book again and watched the pages carefully as the passed by. Raven never paid any attention to her other chakras, mainly because her powers revolved around the brow. Another rationale was the irritable fact that the other chakras dealed with her... emotions... Letting out a soft gasp as she finally spotted what she had been searching for, she quickly motioned for the book to flip back it's pages. There. An outline of a person filled the page, seven colorful dots trailing from the top of the dome to the base of the spinal cord. Sighing with both relief and disgruntlement at not having found what she had been looking for earlier, she began to read the next page, matching the spots to their descriptions. 'Let's see, the crown chakra... brow... throat... chakra...'
"Hey, Raven." She clenched her teeth. Just because last night occured didn't mean his voice at times like these was not completely vexatious. "Watcha readin'?"
"Book," replied Raven curtly.
"On what...?" Asked Beast Boy, egging her on.
Raven almost growled. "Meditation."
Seeing the expression on her face, Beast Boy's mood darkened. So, he was still annoying? It would still be the same between them, even after all that had come about? He gave Raven a black look. "Wow. Very informative." The girl gave him a glare that sent chills down his spine and, feeling guilty, Beast Boy hurriedly rummaged his mind for a cover up. "So... um... why meditation? I mean, I thought you were a pro at that kind of stuff."
Raven's gaze shifted back to her book as she continued searching for the right chakra. Why couldn't these things just be written in paragraphs or different colors? No, there had to be pages and pages with nothing at all but words. Same font, size, style, etc. "I just needed to learn more about my other chakras." Feeling the blank look the changeling gave her, she turned to face him. "You know..." she said, tapping the gem on her forehead lightly.
"So there's more than one ashbma sharba?" Beast Boy asked, desperately hoping he had gotten it right. Raven would be totally impressed.
Judging by the smirk on her face, he hadn't. "It's just chakra, Beast Boy." Raven flipped back to the page with the outlined figure, indicating a purple stud at the center of it's forehead. "The ashna chakra, more commonly known as the brow chakra, is only one of the chakras in my body. Another name for it is the Third Eye, everything beyond physical existence. Beyond the five senses, your mind. It is characterized mostly with intuition and insight." She glanced at Beast Boy to see him mouth an 'oh' before proceeding. "The crown chakra is your sense of being in the world." She pointed to the uppermost mark on the figure, which was hued a light fuchsia, and began reading on the next page. "'This Chakra is associated directly with dealings of the mind and spirit. It is also is deeply tied to the exploration of one's consciousness and place in space and time.'"-And right now, you're not doing a very good job with that.- "It's where you believe your place in the world is. You know how some days you just feel taller?"
"That's a little hard for me, but I see what you mean." Out of the corner of her I, Raven observed as Beast Boy seemed to hesitate. Then, after a moment's consideration, he slowly lifted himself with his hands so he could look at the top of Raven's head, obviously searching for a jewel.
"The chakra isn't the gem, Beast Boy," said Raven so suddenly it made the boy drop to his sitting position unintentionaly. "I don't have these things all over my body. Don't you think you would've seen them already? They're points of energy that exist in every person's body. I have them, as do you. Close your eyes."
Doing as directed, Beast Boy shut his lids and waited for something to happen. Soon he felt Raven's thumb press gently against his forehead. A strange and uncomfortable feeling shot through his sinciput nerves, making his eyebrows furrow and causing all of his concentration to move to the spot Raven was messaging. He reopened his eyes as he felt her remove her hand from him slowly. Pressing his lower palm against his chakra, he aggressively attempted to rub the creepy feeling away.
"Aaaaahhhhgg... Wonder what it feels like to feel like this everyday."
"I had expected that would be your reaction. You get used to it; all it does is make me concentrate better. If I would have done it longer, you might have enjoyed it."
"Oh." Beast Boy studied the picture until his eyes fell on the mark at the figure's lower abdomen and he pointed to it. "What's that one, then? I felt something weird there... um... when we were..."
Raven looked over at him, his eyes meeting hers. Why did he make it sound like they'd been having sex? Suddenly a thought popped into her head. 'This is going to be fun.' "Uh... sexuality."
Beast Boy's eyes widened and a sick feeling crept into his stomach. His face paled and he placed a hand on the table to steady himself. Regaining some of his senses didn't help, and at the time, he would rather have fainted. It felt and looked like someone had implanted a red light beneath the skin of his cheeks, giving him the famous Christmas look.
"Don't worry; I felt it too. This chakra is the chakra of giving and receiving. You feel it during moments of harmony, so it must have just been the way our bodies were connected." She pointed to a place on one of the next pages. "See? Read." Beast Boy took the book in his hands and did as he was told.
The naval chakra is located in the lower abdomen. This chakra is associated with the acts of giving and receiving, and is tied into the more physical feelings of love, passion, and sexuality. The feeling of pleasure is also linked with this chakra, so one may feel focus and feedback in this chakra during moments of harmony, generosity, group creativity and selflessness. Color: Orange; Gems: Amber, Coral.
Beast Boy seemed relieved as his shoulders slumped visibly. "Oh! Ok... so... why did you- I mean- why- sexuality- first?"
Raven chuckled lightly. "Oh. I just wanted to see the look on your face when you thought that. It's funny when you blush; you look like something 'Christmas.'"
He stared at her. "Evil... GENIUS!"She nearly fell back in surprise as Beast Boy lifted her hand for a high five. "Raven, you totally rock! Wow, Ravey, never knew you had it in you." Raven studied him. She wouldn't hear the end of this, would she?
"There's a lot about me you don't know about." She leaned her head to her left as she watched his face fall. Hearing her say it was only a confirmation of what he had inwardly feared since the day he went inside her head. He knew nothing about her. She was right there, living with him in his own hom-
"Attention Titans." Everyone looked up at their leader, who was standing in front of them on the opposite side of the breakfast table. "I have decided to postpone this morning's training session until noon. So... It'll be a noon training session, I guess... Oh, and Beast Boy? Just because you did the favor of cooking breakfast today doesn't mean anyone's going to forget today is your day to do the dishes."
"Aww..." Beast Boy whined. "Do I have to?" Robin rolled his eyes; typical green squirt response.
"Yes. Unless, of course, anyone else wants to volunteer to do it for you." In a heartbeat, they were gone. Starfire's giggling, Cyborg's rambling, Raven's razzing. He glanced past Robin to see them all on the couch, keeping their distances and going about their business. "Darn superhero speed."
As he dried the dishes, Beast Boy continued on with his thoughts from before. He didn't know anything about her other than she's sixteen, taller than him and has cool hair. He really needed to know more about her, to find out stuff that other people around him knew. Everyone had their own connection to Raven, something special to talk about with her. That is, everyone but him. The fact that he knew about Trigon and Malchior didn't count. This needed to be something more... personal. Everyone but him, and he just about had enough of this. "Time to fix this."
Bowl and cloth in hand, he marched into the living room where the other Titans were lazily hanging out, enjoying their time of sleepless rest. He approached Raven, who was reading, or trying to, while drowning out the sound of Starfire's squealing as Cyborg got his butt kicked by Robin on Game Station. He watched as Raven took a sip of her refilled tea and decided to get straight to the point. Besides, Raven might be able to tune everything else out, but nobody could ignore Starfire's voice. It was on a different harmonic level.
"Hey, Raven, wanna go out with me?" Time stopped. A screech and a crash could be heard as the other boys' cars rammed into whatever obstacles on the track; Starfire's giggling ceased exsistence; everyone held their breaths. What king of joke was Beast Boy trying to play? Didn't he know Raven would literaly skin him alive?
Raven simply slowered the mug from her lips slowly, and slowly turned to look at Beast Boy, who was standing to her left on the opposite side of the semicircular couch. Finally getting the idea, he held up his hands in front of him defensively.
"No, no, no! Not like that. I mean, just for a dessert type thing. I kind of needed to talk to you." His hands tightened around the bowl. It could be used as a shield.
Raven raised an eyebrow as she stood to face him. "Dessert, Beast Boy? At breakfast?" She watched his face collapse as he searched for an acceptable comeback, which was nearly impossible with Raven, icy queen of comebacks.
"Well, I just thought that, well- I needed to talk- and- uh- well- since we weren't-" Beast Boy put a finger into the collar of his shirt as he began to sweat. "Now would be the perfect time to- uh- I- geez- nevermind." He turned around and started to walk away, slumping forward exaggeratedly, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Who said I said no?" Instantly lightening, Beast Boy started to jump around.
"Really? Ok! I'll go get my card. I'll be right back." He skipped up and out the door and the other Titans marveled at how stupid the grass stain could look when happy.
Midnight Melodies of the Unexpected ! go read it
Quick fact: Press ctrl b for bold, ctrl i for italics, and ctrl u for underline. It'll make your life easier. wink
Okay, I know what my review was for last chapter and I know it wasn't in here. Sorry, but I couldn't keep you guys waiting any longer. It isn't fair to you and I shouldn't let
1. the fact that I missed my PSATs because I overslept and have to take the SATs with no idea what it's going to be like because I didn't cother to take my PSATs before.
2. I have an interactions and something else essay due in religions of the world or something like that
3. a project in creative writing
4. a low C in physics
5. a book report in history
6. all my other day-to-day and activities
get in the way. :)
Notice: The italicized part from the bookBeast Boywas reading I copied of from along with the part Raven was reading to him. Finally something she can talk about with him.
Oh, and go to to see some real cool BBRae fan art. Check out Emi's work; it's the best. Especially 'Torn Together'.