Fragrant Soul
Sorry, I think this chapter is my absolute worst! TT I'm so sorry, I just had so much trouble writing this one, and I don't know why. Probably because I'm not entirely sure of how Terra should act.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Teen Titans. If I did, Raven and Beastboy would be together already. XD
Chapter Three: Conversations
Staring into the mirror in her room, Raven gazed at the face she now had. Long, straight blonde hair slightly shimmered in the light of the two candles that Raven had lit. Staring into the eyes of the other person in the mirror, Raven realized that the blue eyes were becoming darker, and soon they were dark glittering purple.
A saying echoed through her head, thanks to Wisdom, 'Eyes are the windows to the soul.' So, since Raven and Terra switched bodies, perhaps their eyes were changing to the new inhabitants of the body. Also Raven noticed that her powers seemed to transfer to this body as well, so Terra must still have her rock-controlling abilities.
Even though the face was of Terra, you could tell it was Raven inside. Her eyes were half open, with their look of complete calm which always seeemd to be in Raven's eyes. At least, now she was calm. After taking a few breaths, and striding around her room, she was able to calm herself down.
"What could have made this happen?" asked Raven to the reflection. She already had experience in the field of body swapping. But that was with Starfire, and it was that Puppet King's fault. This time, the body swapping had nothing to do with a villian.
Tentatively, Raven reached a hand up, and pressed her fingers to the small piece of white gauze on her head. She winced at the touch, and pulled the gauze back. There was a small cut, and a bruise starting to form, besides that, there was no use for the gauze. She gently tore the gauze off, and tossed it into a waste basket that was besides her desk.
Turning around, she strolled back to her bed, and sat down. She wasn't sure what to do now. And she wasn't about to ask her emotions for help, they would all argue. It would probably do more harm than good anyways. As she continued to ponder what to do in this situation, a knock came on her door.
"Raven?" Terra was on the other side, obviously over with her crying fit. However, the girl's voice did crackle a bit, informing anyone who listened that she had been crying very hard. Raven hopped off her bed, and walked over to her door, opening it wide to greet the figure of Terra and Beastboy standing in the hall. Vaguely, Raven noted that Terra had taken the gauze over her wound off as well, and that he girl would probably have a nasty bruise, but not cut.
'Well, my body will have a nasty bruise, while Terra's body has a cut and a slight bruise.' Raven corrected herself, mentally.
Beastboy had his arm wrapped around Terra's shoulders. Raven supposed it was in case she decided to go into her tantrum again. Standing there for a moment, the empath decided to step out into the hallway. She still had issues with people entering her room. So far, only Starfire could enter with her permission, and most times that permission was rarely given.
She also noted that Beastboy must have gotten dressed at some point. She couldn't quite remember if he was dressed in the infirmary. Yet, it didn't matter, because now he had on a pair of dark green, army camo pants, and a black tee-shirt. His feet, for the moment, were bare.
Carefully closing the door behind her, Raven turned to Beastboy and Terra, awaiting for one of them to start the inevitable conversation. Finally, Beastboy stepped up to the challenge.
"Starfire is looking for why you guys swapped bodies." Started the boy, running his hand through his green hair nervously, "I don't know how you two switched bodies, seriously. You both just had an accident and knocked your heads against the kitchen counter and cabinent."
Raven nodded, remembering this part, if it was a bit blurry to remember.
"Are you sure Raven didn't trip me?" asked Terra, full of malicious innocence. Raven stared at Terra, a slight angered annoyance flickering through her eyes. Beastboy just stared, incredulously at Terra. Why'd she say that? Weren't she and Raven friends now?
"I didn't trip you. You slipped in some tea I spilled." stated Raven, matter-of-factly.
"Then you should have cleaned it up!" exclaimed Terra, waving her hands wildly in anger. In Raven's mind, Wisdom made a smart crack about how Terra looked like a dodo bird trying to fly, which caused Happiness to giggle insanely.
"I was cleaning it up, but you came along and slipped. If I remember correctly, Beastboy even tried to warn you, but it was too late." Raven stared levelly at Terra, as the girl tried wildly to find someone to pin the blame of this predicament on. Finally, Terra gave up her quest, and her shoulder's slumped.
"Well, what do we do then? We can't go around in each other's bodies, people will get confused." Muttered Terra, her bottom lip jutting out in a slight pout. Beastboy rubbed her shoulder, lest the girl decide it was time for another cry.
"People will understand, Terra, things like this always happen in this city." Murmured Raven, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Really now, Terra had been frozen in a stone encasement for years, and she was worried about being seen in public as Raven?
The empath seriously doubted that Beastboy informed Terra of all the graffiti people wrote on her stone body. Some people weren't as forgiving as the Titans, and decided to take their revenge on the 'Traitor Titan' while she was still stone. This had added a chore to the Teen Titan's list: They had to clean the graffiti off poor Terra once a week. Only Beastboy was excused from this task, due to his tendency to go hostile and sniff out the people who did that to Terra.
"Yeah, but, I'm so pale now." Whined Terra, holding her hand out, examining it. Her nose wrinkled up as she glanced over at Raven, "No offense, Rae, but I'm not really the gothic type."
"Well, look at the bright side," Snapped Raven, irritated with the whining, "At least you aren't flat chested now." To emphasize her point, she pointed to the chest that was now her's at the moment. It wasn't, in fact, flat. Terra's breasts were just small, and hadn't seen much growing action as stone, apparently.
Terra's mouth hung open, and she glared at Beastboy who actually started to laugh a little. Raven, however, was surprised by her own anger, and slapped a hand across hre mouth as if more sarcastic snips would come flying out. Slowly, Raven's eyes went to Beastboy, once she noticed Terra glaring at him.
The young man was holding his right elbow in his left hand, while he rested his chin in his right hand. His whole stature seemed to be that of calm amusement. Then again, Terra couldn't look very threatening in Raven's body, assumed Raven. Beastboy was used to a 'grumpy' Raven.
"Well, she does, sort of, have a point, Terra." Beastboy chuckled again, nervously. He let his arms fall and he reached out to pat the Terra on her, currently, purple haired head, "Stop complaining. At least you didn't switch bodies with, oh say, that little twerp Gizmo."
Terra squeaked, and nodded. Oh yes, she was thanking all the gods in existence that she wasn't currently in the little brainiac's body. Besides, who knew what that girlfriend-deprived sicko would do to her body?
'Raven does have a point too.' thought Terra, glancing down at the body she was in. 'This body is certainly more...curvy than mine. I wonder what Beastboy thinks of that..."
Terra shook that thought from her head though, and looked back over to Raven, who had now lowered her hand from her mouth. For a moment, a silence fell over the three. No one was really certain how to break the silence.
Finally, a thought struck Raven, and she glanced at Terra, "You do know we'll have to go out and buy clothes for our, uhm, new selves. Seeing as I'm not about to be caught wearing anything you wear. Like you said, you aren't much of a gothic person. And I'm not much of a...prep."
The empath waited to see what the wielder over earth would do. Beatboy winced when he heard Raven call Terra a prep. What Raven received was a scream of outrage, "Prep! I'm not a prep!"
The ground the tower stood on trembled. Raven must have really hit a nerve in Terra. Faintly, Terra's blue eyes turned gold, and she glared at Raven. Now, Raven was becoming tired of this constant light bickering. And she certaintly wasn't going to start up a huge arguement. Might as well get away from Terra for the moment, unless they wanted the T-Tower to be an underwater headquarters.
"Control your emotions, Terra. There's no reason for you to get mad." Rolling her purple eyes, Raven started to walk down the hall only to be grabbed by the collar by Terra.
"Will you shut up about stupid emotions?" snapped Terra as Raven turned around to calmly glare at her. In anger and rage, Terra grabbed ahold of Raven's collar again, tempted to shake her. "Everytime I'm around. Emotions, emotions, emotions! Just because you can't control yours doesn't mean I can't control mine!"
Raven just stood there, all the anger and irritation ha taken flight during Terra's little rant. Now, she looked empty. Terra glared into Raven's eyes, waiting for the other girl to do something. After a moment Terra smiled, seeing Raven wasn't about to do anything, and a small sense of accomplishment came over her features. But, soon that accomplishment would drain away, because she had actually infuriated someone else.
"Terra!" Snapped Beastboy, anger actually filtering into his voice. He roughly yanked Terra's hands away from Raven's shirt, and glared at Terra. The girls, both, looked wide-eyed up at the green haired boy. He didn't look very happy with Terra's latest statement, and wasn't afraid to show it. It was scary when a goofball got angry, because it took a lot to get a goofball mad.
For most of this conversation, Beastboy was quiet, except for his little chuckle earlier. Yet, now Terra had taken it too far. Raven may be a stick in the mud when it came to fun sometimes, but she was mature. Maturity aged people, which had it's good and bad points.
Besides, Raven didn't have a choice when it came to controlling her emotions, it was a precaution for everyone's safety, including her own. Terra, on the other hand, had the choice, and she blatantly rubbed that into Raven's face. Beastboy just wasn't going to allow this!
"Look," Started Beastboy, releasing Terra's wrist from his harsh grip, "Raven only tells you to keep your emotions in check, because if you don't, then your powers may get out of hand. Trust her, she knows what she's talking about."
Terra gripped her bruising wrist in one hand and still glared up at Beastboy. Why was he defending her? 'He should be defending me! Not her!' thought Terra, angrilly, but then a thought crossed her path.
A thought that she didn't have time to think about before vocalizing, "Just because I'm in Ravens' body doesn't mean you have to hate me! I'm not Raven, and you know that!"
Then, the girl stormed off, down the hall, pushing Raven out of her way. All tremblings of the Earth had ceased. The purple-eyed girl was staring down at the floor, letting the blonde hair she had create a curtain between her face and the world. Beastboy just stood there, silent, glaring at Terra as she left.
Soon, Beastboy's green eyes shifted over to Raven, and she sighed. A look of remorse slipped into his eyes, and he neared Raven. "Rae? C'mon, don't pay any attention to what Terra said. She's just angry. She didn't mean it. Really, she didn't have a right to say that stuff to you."
Beastboy reached out to put a hand on Raven's shoulder, but she jerked away from his touch. Her eyes were still staring at the carpet as she took a few steps back. Something was wrong, very wrong.
"Rae?" Beastboy's eyebrows furrowed as he leaned closer to her, trying to get a peak at her face, "Oh c'mon, Rae! You know I'm helpless when you won't talk to me! I can't make you forgive me, even with The Face."
Finally, Raven looked up, her same emotionless expression planted on her new face, "I can take care of myself, Beastboy." Started the girl, staring right into the feral green eyes of Beastboy, "Just because I look like Terra doesn't mean I need your help everytime I'm in trouble. You know that, and I know that."
"But, that's not why I--!"
"Just go after your girl, Beastboy. I'll check to see if Starfire has found anything." Raven turned her back on Beastboy, and headed the opposite way Terra had gone. Beastboy just stood there, and glanced down each hallway. Stuck in the middle.
"Man! I'm horrible at making decisions." Growled Beastboy to himself, as he sighed and collapsed into a sitting position in the hallway. He leaned up against a wall, and stared up at the ceiling, desolately despaired.
He could detect the last bits of Raven's scent starting to waft away. Beastboy had finally noticed that not only were their bodies swapped, but so were their eyes, powers, and their scents. Of course, Terra and Raven wouldn't have realized the scent swap. The green teenager closed his eyes, and basked in the artificial lights in the hall.
"Mhmmm..." Beastboy sighed, as his mind danced around the scent of Raven. It was sweet, like vanilla, yet it was also mixed with the slightly spicy scent of cinnamon sticks or spiced oranges. Yet, it struck Beastboy as slightly funny that Raven had the sweet scent of vanilla in her. Sure, she was nice, but she was hardly ever sweet. Suddenly, a few memories of Raven swished about Beastboy's mind, and he smiled to himself,
"Okay, she does have her moments." He whispered to himself, he let the grin linger. Another thought popped into his head, curling about all the thoughts like a boa constrictor and wringing the other thoughts out of Beastboy's mind: 'One of these days I oughta tell her what a fragrant soul she has. Just to see her reaction.'
Finally, Beastboy got to his feet, and brushed off his pants. He had made his decision. 'Well then, let's go and find Ra--' Just as he turned down the hallway Raven had disappeared down, someone called him from behind. Turning around, his mind quickly registered, 'Terra', before the girl had latched onto his waist.
"I'm sorry, B.B." whimpered Terra, burying her pale face into Beastboy's chest, "I didn't mean to upset you! It's all my fault. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
The green-haired young man got a look of distressed guilt on his face and wrapped his arms around the girl's body. Beastboy hated to see a girl cry, much less feel everything was her fault. Quietly, he rubbed Terra's back, as he comfortingly said, "It's okay, Terra. It's not that big of a deal."
Terra glanced up at Beastboy, and a happy smile broke over her lips. Beastboy just stared, and slowly returned the smile as he suggested they go get some breakfast now. As the two strolled down the hall, holding hands, a nagging thought kept coming to the surface in Beastboy's mind.
'Once all this body swapping nonsense is over, you really gotta get Raven to smile.'
Meanwhile, Raven had slowly made her way down to the gargantuan computer room, mostly used by Robin and Cyborg. And the main reason was, only they knew how to use all the bits of technology in this room.
During her whole walk, however, Raven's thoughts had lingered on Beastboy. So many questions filtered into her mind. Sometimes, they were answered by her emotions, who were either too stubborn, or too stupid to keep their mouths shut.
'You know, he probably only defended me because I look like his precious Terra.' thought Raven, a little bitterly, 'Otherwise, he would have sided with her, and not me.'
'Shut up, you're starting to sound like Timid.' Snapped Bravery. This earned her a slap from Wisdom, and a slight cry of despair from the mentioned Timid
'Well, it's not completely impossible that he likes you, Raven.' stated Wisdom, authoritively.
'Yeah! I mean, he's a really cool guy!' Happiness giggled, and Raven had was sure the girl probably spun around, 'Not to mention cute, very cute. And tries to make you laugh. I always love his jokes!'
Raven rolled her eyes and frowned a bit, 'He's not funny, and he doesn't make me laugh. He is immature, and a total goofball. Besides, even if I liked him, he's not my type at all.'
'Then who is?' Asked Wisdom, with the sense of one about to unleash a whirlwind of verbal hurt, 'That Malchior man? You'd like the dark, sexy, yet back-stabbing type?'
As the last thought rolled around Raven's head, she became quiet. Finally, she bit out her retort, which would hopefully silence her emotions, 'Just shut up.'
With an indignant 'humph' from Wisdom the emotions fell quiet. Glancing about the room, Raven soon found her red-headed friend. As Raven neared, she realized that Starfire was very much angered at the computer for a reason. In fact, the girl was screaming at it mostly in her alien language and making threatening gestures.
' What's wrong with Starfire? ' Wondered Raven, raising an eyebrow as she watched the scene. Finally, her question was answered, but it caused a giggle to echo through the deep recesses of Raven's mind from, no doubt, Happiness.
End Chapter Three
Oh wah, Jan. ; (( Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! XD ))
Hmm, what could have Starfire so riled up? What could be annoying her so much? XD Find out in the next chapter of Fragrant Soul. Wheeee. Sorry, this chapter sucked.
Review if you have any comments, complaints or compliments. XD