Well, I'm home sick right now with a wicked sore throat, unable to raise my voice barely above a whisper. So I did the only logical thing I could think of...WRITE MORE FAN FICTION!
7 o'clock seemed like it would never roll around for Beast Boy. He tried to kill the remaining 5 hours anyway he possibly could from GameStation 720 sessions with Cyborg, to training with Robin to, to even shopping with Starfire and yet time still seemed to drag on.
Finally, after what seemed like an entire millenia, 7 o'clock rolled around and the green changeling couldn't have been happier...or more nervous.
He stepped out of Starfire's room and took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the night he'd only dreamed about. Choosing to forsake his typical uniform, he instead was wearing street clothes, something he rarely had the chance to do anymore.
It was a GameStation black tee-shirt, along with loose fitting blue jeans and a pair of white sneakers, his hair slicked back thanks to some of Robin's hair gel. He checked himself to make sure all of his clothes were in working out, before quietly knocking on Raven's door with his right hand, his left hand behind his back nervously clutching a single blue rose he had purchased at the mall.
Slowly, her door opened as his Azarathian goddess walked out timidly, as if she was slightly unsure of herself. Following the same route as Beast Boy, she had apparently decided to forsake her normal leotard and cloak for something a bit more civilian.
She was wearing a simple "girl cut" blue tee-shirt, which like her sweat pants matched the color of her cloak perfectly, a black skirt that hung slightly above her knees, black stockings and thigh high black boots. "Hello Beast Boy.." she said softly, a gentle hint of pink on her marble hued cheeks.
"Raven..." was all Beast Boy could say, finding it hard to piece words together. This just made Raven blush harder, not used to such attention before, gathering herself as best as she could. "What's that behind your back?" she asked the tongue tied young man.
"Oh yeah!" Beast Boy said, "I totally forgot...this is for you." and handed her the blue rose. Raven quietly took it in her slender hands and held it gingerly, her face still expressionless but her eyes seemed to shimmer and glow like nothing Beast Boy had ever seen. "Thank you..." she said quietly. The two Titans stood there in front of her bedroom, neither one of them moving or speaking, till finally Raven broke the silence, her voice having returned to it's normal tone.
"So we should be going..." Raven said, with Beast Boy nodding in agreement.
"Awesome! Let's go to the garage...we're taking my moped." (Cyborg had bought Beast Boy the brand new Tidwell 4000 as a gift for his help in leading the assault team that led to the destruction of the Brotherhood of Evil.)
The two made their way to the garage, with Beast Boy donning his goggles and scarf, but letting Raven wear his helmet. "Ready?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from cracking with excitement. Raven adjusted the strap on Beast Boy's helmet and smiled back at her chauffeur for the evening. "Ready." she said, wrapping her arms tightly around his mid-section to hold on to.
"Keep it together, Gar...keep it together..." Beast Boy muttered to himself and with that revved the Tidwell and zoomed out of the Tower, over the now fully extended retractable bridge that connected the island to the mainland and into the heart of Jump City.
The sensation of speed was new and exciting to Raven. She was used to the feeling of wind in her face whenever she would fly or and the sensation of speed when riding with Cyborg in the T-Car, but the combination of two was something new to her.
She peeked over Beast Boy's shoulder as he zig zagged in between cars, through back alleys and side streets till finally he pulled up right in front of Bloaty's Pizza Barn. "...and here we are!" Beast Boy announced, parking his moped.
"Wow...and not a single wreck or crash. I'm impressed." Raven said slyly.
The two Titans made their way into Bloaty's, which was unusually quiet, mostly because it was a Sunday and everyone was gearing up for another dreadful work week. Beast Boy led Raven to their seat in the corner of the dining room, both of them sitting across from each other in a small secluded booth. He took a deep breath and smiled big, his little fang tooth poking up from his bottom lip.
"You...look awesome tonight, Rae." he said, surprised he managed to finally spit it out. Raven felt her cheeks get hot and glanced down at her table, uttering a quiet "Thank you." She could feel Love inside of her doing back flips of joy.
What followed next was an awkward silence as both Raven and Beast Boy sat in their respective seats, either one too nervous to say anything. "Come on...think of something, Gar..." Beast Boy angrily thought to himself "...don't keep sitting here like a doofus...say something...ANYTHING!" And suddenly, as if a light bulb had gone off over his head, he had his ice breaker.
"So tell me about yourself..." he said. Raven merely looked back at him puzzled. "About myself? Beast Boy you're known me for years now." she said.
"I know..." he protested "but there's still a lot about you I don't know...like..uhh...when did you first use your powers?" A simple question, he thought. Raven tensed up, feeling the hairs on her neck bristle. She wasn't comfortable talking about her past due to the fact she didn't have the happiest of childhoods. Beast Boy looked at her, seemingly genuinely interested in his question and eagerly awaiting a response.
"I was 5..." she finally said. "It was at the temple where I grew up...where all the children of Azarath grew up. It was sort of like our school, where children were there from 5 to 13. We learned basic writing and reading but we also learned things of a more spiritual nature, to find peace and harmony for all things around us."
Beast Boy nodded, his eyes fixated on her, unable to look away even if he wanted to. She closed her eyes for a brief second to gather herself and continued. "At that time, only a handful of people knew that I was the daughter of Trigon. Most people assumed the prophecy was merely a urban legend, so I was allowed to mingle with the general population of the students. One of them was a boy named James, who was a few years older than me...I don't know if James held a grudge against me or what his problem was, but he would go out of his way to make me miserable."
Beast Boy wrinkled his nose in disgust. "What a jerk!" he said, offering his obvious disapproval of James. Raven smiled slightly at his concern and continued on with her story...
"I tried my best to ignore it, but one day James pushed me into the mud, covering me from head to toe." she said, her eyes vacant. "I...I don't remember what happened next...but..from what the monks told me, I lost control for the first time on that fateful day. I blacked out and woke up several hours later. Apparently..." she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly "apparently, I hurt him. Throwing him with my powers across the temple and into the courtyard. I then went on a rampage leveling everything in my sight...it wasn't until Azar, the high priestess, contained me with her own powers and eventually I calmed down. For the next 7 years the only other living being I saw was Azar, raising me as her own daughter, due to my own mother being forbidden from contacting me in fear of seeing her may cause me to have an emotional overload. For her record, Azar did aid me greatly...she told me how to control my emotions, how to use my powers, how to fly, how to meditate and at the age of 13 she decided I had enough control and allowed me to leave the temple for the first time in 7 years. It was shortly after I arrived in Jump City, hoping that if I did enough good I could somehow undo my supposed fate."
She sighed deeply as the bitterness of her past crept up her spine, but looking forward at the green prankster seemed to fill her with a sense of hope. "But...that's all in the past now..." she said firmly "and besides, I have much to look forward to in my life." Beast Boy perked up, happy to see her happy again. "Oh yeah?" he said "What's that?"
"Well, I'm talking to him right now." she said softly. Beast Boy flashed his trademark toothy grin in approval.
The rest of the dinner seemed to blur by for Beast Boy. The rest of the conversation for the night was light and friendly, with Beast Boy cracking jokes and making corny puns at every opportunity. Raven merely would just roll her eyes or give a defeated sigh in response, but that never stopped him. If anything it sort of became a game for him, to see if he could finally get Raven to laugh at one of his jokes. By the end of dinner, his goal had yet to come to pass, but it didn't matter, he was having a wonderful time.
"...and so the fish says 'That isn't a wallet, it's my sister!'" and he promptly broke down laughing, pounding his fist on the table. Raven just stared back at him, her face unflinching and expressionless.
"You do realize you're the only one laughing?" she stated matter-of-factly. Beast Boy raised his head and wiped a tear from his eye, still chuckling hard to himself. "You get used to it, dude. Besides, at least I can say someone always laughs at my jokes." he said, then almost like an after thought, checked his watch. "Ahhhh!" he shrieked loudly "Dude, the movie starts in like 5 minutes! We have to go!" Beast Boy reached into his wallet and left the tip, before practically dragging Raven out to the moped.
"Hold on tight!" he hollered back to his date for the evening "I don't wanna miss the previews!" and revved the engine loudly as the two Titans zoomed their way to the Jump City Megaplex.