I Don't own Teen Titans. I did own my year long vacation thought...Sorry about that.;
Robin glared at the scruffy looking man in front of him and sighed knowing that trying to get info out of this guy was like trying to get clean water from the Gotham river; maybe in the next century it would happen.
Glaring even more at the smug face of the dirty old man in the alleyway, he reached into his back pocket for the one thing he knew this man liked even more then money.
The man's black and dirty yellow eyes followed the boy wonders movement with fascination and expectation knowing what it was. Making a grab for the small vial, the boy wonder stepped back, easily evading the malnutritioned hobo. Answers was what he and Batman wanted, and answers is what they would get.
The young boy asked his question yet again, watching the poor man's face turn into a pathetic and perverse child-like ideology for the vial of drugs and immediately answered, wanting his...'escape'...as fast as possible. Frowning at the old addicts behavior, Robin threw the vial of impending death at him, watching him scoop it up and handle it with great care, acting almost as if it was his own child.
Turning away from the degenerative scene, the boy wonder jumped back onto his bike, riding back to the tower as fast as humanly possible, wanting to wash away the dirt and grime of todays escapade away. He had gotten what he wanted for today, and to him, that was all that mattered.
-0-0-
Starfire had left her room in the middle of the night, worried about Robin and his strange behavior after that mysterious call from his...'bat-thing' or whatever the strange contraption was called. All that mattered to Starfire was Robin and his well-being, which was leading to hers slowly decreasing as she stood stock still, waiting for the boy wonder to return.
This was exactly the position Robin found her in, except for instead of being stock still, she was leaning against the glass, drool slowly making it's way down the pane as her closed eyes and slow breaths indicated she was asleep.
Smiling to himself, Robin looked upon the girl with tired happiness as he picked her up, bridal style, and began to carry her to her room, feeling all the strain of the nights info hunt dissapear as he carried the innocent girl in his arms, wondering how much father he had to go before the feeling left as well.
Slowly, green eyes opened and Starfire looked up at Robin and muttered tiredly, "...Ro...bin?"
Robin smiled down at the young girl and said, "Hey Star."
Starfire rubbed her eyes with her hands, trying to get the sleep out of them
"When...when...", she yawned and continued with, "Did you...get...back?"
Robin's smile widened as he said, "Just a couple of minutes ago Star."
Yawning again, the young tamaranian snuggled into the boy wonders chest and getting more comfortable in his arms asked, "What...What time is...it...Robin?"
Robin twisted his wrist holding the girl's neck and sighed, saying, "Four thirty in the morning Star."
Starfire gave her best glare, which just amounted to a cute pout and said in her best lecturing voice, "Friend Robin! You should not...Should not be out that late...or...or...early..."
The sentence was followed by another yawn and her trying to keep her heavy lids opened, so that she could talk with her friend, Robin.
Robin sighed as he tried to run a hand through his hair, only remembering that he was holding Star and looked straight ahead, saying, "I know Star, but now I got what I needed, so I won't need to do that again for a while."
Starfire smiled sleepily as she whispered, "That is good...Robin."
Robin turned a corner and all of a sudden, found himself in front of Starfire's room much sooner then he would have liked. Laying her down on her bed the right way, Robin ran a gloved hand across her face as he smiled and promptly about faced, wanting to let the poor tamaranian sleep. Right when he was about to leave, Robin heard something that made him stop in his tracks.
"...Rob...Robin?"
Without turning around, Robin replied, "Yeah Star?"
Cold and quiet silence greeted his ears, then, "Goodnight Robin..."
Robin smiled as he felt a warm felling encompass his scarred heart and slowly begin to heal it as he quietly said, "Goodnight Star" and promptly left, feeling a little better than before...
Okay, maybe he still needed a shower but still, the warm feeling was still with him, and that was what counted most to him.
-0-0-
Beast Boy looked at Raven's sleeping head, wondering what would happen next. He knew Cy had pumped the Beast-suppressing drug into his system and already he could feel it slowly withering away to the deep, darker parts but one monster still remained.
His past.
With the pain of the beast and the memorial of his parents Death day coming up, Gar couldn't help but remember what happened. All the pain, all the shock, all of the simple and yet such complex feelings hatred that had helped him create the beast that day. Sometimes, when he was alone, he could sometimes hear their screams, feel the fires and hear the little pop pop of the bullets as they ignited in all their blazing glory. And sometimes, he could still feel the warm comfort the of the blood that bathed him that day, letting him know that justice had been dealt to the savages that had ravaged his home. And sometimes, he could still feel the shame of knowing that he enjoyed gutting those men, enjoyed the feeling that only those who had been on the hunting prowl knew.
The rush of adrenaline; the primordial and carnal joy of the hunt.
Sighing, he rolled over and away from Raven, trying to think of his home, his heaven. He pictured the plains of Africa, the little ponds and swamps that he and the local kids would jump in and through, screaming in joy and ecstasy. The huge amazonian trees that he would climb and explore when he knew his parents weren't looking. He remembered the little critters he would find and bring back to the village to ask if he could keep it and the large predators that would prowl the local cattle fields until a farmer scared it away.
Thinking back on these memories, he felt that he still cherished them, yet they felt hollow and old, almost as if it didn't feel like...home anymore. Thinking as to why, he rolled over again, with his eyes concentrated in deep thought, that was something extremely uncharacteristic of him. Opening his eyes, he let them wander onto Raven and knew, in that instant why.
Images and memories rolled through Beast Boy's head at light speed of the Titans fighting, talking, and eating Pizza.
He watched through his own eyes as he blurted out a horrible pun involving Cyborg and the Titan's vacuum cleaner, making Cyborg burn in embarrassment and try to strangle him. He watched as he ate Veggie pizza with Robin, try to socialize with Raven and experimentally poked Starfire's home cooking, seeing if it would move...which it did.
Smiling wistfully, a sudden epiphany hit him. His home was with the Titans now in Titans tower, not in Africa, not anywhere else. Smiling to himself, he closed his eyes, finally letting sleep overtake as he muttered one, childish phrase that let him feel like his old self again.
"Goodnight."
And with that, he fell asleep, letting dreams of the Titans instead of nightmares of Africa overtake his mind. Tomorrow everything would return to normal, and Beast Boy would be sure to try his best that it stayed that way.
A/N: Don't kill me. We had a family emergence that lasted a year and a half so I couldn't write much. Ah well, you now have me back until I start 11th grade so enjoy,