Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any of the characters associated with them. I also use a restaurant in this chapter called Breakfast n' Lunch to go. I made this restaurant up, so it shouldn't matter, but in the event that there is some reatuarant by this name, I don't own it.
Author's Note: One word. SORRY!
I am soooooo sorry that this took me so long to update. October is like the worst month for marching band, we have practice 3 days a week, games on Friday, and competitions all day Saturday. Needless to say, I didn't have much time. However, marching season is over now. Completely. Fineto (sp?). Now all I have to worry about is school. So unless my classwork makes a sudden spike, which knowing my luck, it probably will, I will have much more time to write from now on.
However, some good did come out of the situation. I finally got my first "will you update already?" review. You rock blackmagicrave14! That was awesome!
Anyway, now that I'm finished giving you my life's story, here's chapter 6.
Chapter 6
"Hmmm…" said Starfire as she perused the contents of the refrigerator. "What shall we have this morning?" Robin only yawned in response.
"I don't know Star. Just make sure there's no meat in it so Beast Boy won't freak out."
Starfire continued looking through the food contents, occasionally coming across foods that had fuzz growing over most of their surfaces. Simply ignoring them, she continued searching. They had hot dogs…no. Tofu…definitely not. Eggs…perhaps.
As she continued to look, Starfire pushed aside the numerous drink cartons they had and found something she had completely forgotten about: her Glarklemelt. It was one of Tameran's greatest delicacies, and she had just prepared it last night.
"Oh Robin! I almost forgot!" she shouted, grabbing the dish and springing toward the half-asleep boy wonder. "I prepared a Glarklemelt just last evening! And it looks as though it is ready!"
Awaiting his response, Starfire held the dish up to Robin's face. Once the smell entered his nose, his eyes shot open (and began watering), and he was instantly awake.
"You know what Star, maybe I better get Cyborg to run down to Breakfast n' Lunch Ta Go for us." He said, slowly moving away from the Glarklemelt. Starfire looked suddenly downtrodden.
"What is wrong?" she asked. "You do not wish to consume my Glarklemelt?"
"No no no! It's not that." Robin saved himself. "It's just that…you know…well…you know we're about to have practice in an hour or so. Well, that means that we all need lots of carbs and stuff…for energy."
Starfire's face lit up once again. "Oh your thinking is most logical, Robin!" In all honesty, Robin had no idea what was in Starfire's dish, much less how many carbohydrates it had in it. However, he figured that if the subject ever came up, the rest of the team wouldn't be too upset about missing it.
"But you should hurry if you we are to begin the practice on time." Starfire said.
"Yea, I'll go get Cyborg and see if he'll go." Robin answered as he got up and began toward the door. When he got to the entrance to the hallway, he simply stepped over the doors, or what was left of them. He really didn't know what had happened to them, but having lived with an alien, a robot, a shape shifter, and a half-demon for so long, he learned not to question strange occurrences such as these. Besides, Cyborg could probably have it fixed by the end of the week.
After clearing the mass of metal at his feet, he accidentally ran into Raven, who had been quietly walking towards the kitchen as he was leaving.
"Oh, sorry Raven. Didn't see you there." He apologized.
"Yea, sorry." she replied half-heartedly, as though her mind were somewhere else.
Robin figured she was just having one of those days and continued on to get Cyborg. Raven went into the kitchen to prepare some of her herbal tea. She found Starfire sitting by the counter, casually spooning through some kind of concoction.
"Friend Raven!" Starfire shouted as soon as she walked into the room. "It is glorious to see you awake! I trust you had a pleasant sleep, yes?"
"Yea, I guess," replied Raven, trying to be polite. She hadn't gotten her tea yet and was still half-asleep.
Raven filled a teapot with water and set it on the stove. Once there was a steady flame going, she turned back around to face Starfire, who was again fiddling with whatever mixture she had in the pot.
She looked at the Tameranean girl, eyed her over. Starfire didn't have that many problems with her powers. None that Raven was aware of anyway. They didn't keep her from being happy, or sad…or for caring from someone. After all, the way her and Robin acted around each other was almost pathetically obvious; it seemed even Beast Boy had caught on to them. However, Raven noticed, they never actually seemed to give in to their feelings. Starfire constantly flirted with Robin, and Robin always acted tense around her, but they never actually seemed to want to admit it. They were constantly hiding and denying the way they felt whenever it was brought up.
'Perhaps' Raven thought, 'I might just be able to get some useful information from Starfire yet.'
"Starfire?" Raven said.
Starfire looked up. "Yes, friend?"
"Do you mind if I ask you something a bit personal?"
Starfire thought. "Well, I suppose not, if you need help with something." Starfire had known Raven for quite a while. She knew when Raven was befuddled about something. And she knew Raven was seeking some kind of advice from her.
"Yea," Raven mused. "I guess I need a little help."
"Oh glorious! I will gladly assist you in any way possible!" Starfire elated, rising from her previous position. "Tell me what troubles you."
"Well…I just…tell me something. What exactly is going on between you and Robin?"
Starfire's euphoric, ready-to-help visage immediately dissipated and was replaced with an averting, flushing face. "I…don't know what you're talking about, friend… The only thing between me and friend Robin is…these walls, and, of course, some amount of oxygen. Theoretically, there could be furniture too, as well as—" Starfire answered sheepishly.
"Perfect." Raven cut her off. "That's what I was counting on."
"What do you mean?" Starfire asked, puzzled.
"I mean, I need you to tell me how you go around all the time pretending you don't have feelings for Robin." Raven stated bluntly.
"I, well…I don't…" Starfire muttered, desperately trying to find a way out of the conversation she had been eager to join not ten seconds ago.
"And don't try to come up with any excuses. We both know you're crazy about him." Raven said, almost smiling at Starfire's situation. She really had come here to find a way out of her circumstances with Beast Boy, but she still couldn't help but find Starfire's predicament a bit humorous. As Raven continued to muse at the situation, Starfire merely continued to stutter little pieces of nonsense out of her mouth.
Raven became serious again and sighed. "Come on Starfire. This is important. I need to know how you do it."
"Well… this seems like a very silly thing to ask somebody!" Starfire said somewhat defensively. She wasn't trying to be standoffish; she was just confused as to why someone would ask something so preposterous.
"Starfire—"
"I mean, why would you want to know such a thing? Nobody would—"
"Starfire—"
"—want to know that. I mean, conceivably the only reason someone would even ask that in the first place is if…" Starfire paused. She suddenly smiled and turned to Raven.
"What?" Raven demanded. "If what?"
"Oh Raven! You are in love! This is most wonderful!" Starfire shouted, immediately wrapping Raven in one of her trademark, killer hugs. "You can go on the dates to restaurants, and see movies together, and do all sorts of things!"
"Sterfir…I'm not…in loff" Raven tried to say whenever she could manage.
"We can go buy you new clothes, and jewelry, and…Eep! I almost forgot! Raven, who is it that you are in love with? Oh you must tell me!"
"Sterfir…I sid…I'm not…in loff—" Raven freed herself from Starfire's deathgrip. "—with Beast Boy!"
Upon saying this, all of the cabinets and drawers on the bottom row of the kitchen were enveloped in black light, and blusteringly thrust open with a quick, staccato PANG.
Starfire, who had been rambling on and on while Raven had been attempting to speak, only perceived the very last part of her sentence. Upon hearing it, she forgot all about Raven's raucous outburst, then squinted in confusion.
"You are in love with… friend Beast Boy?" she asked, infinitely perplexed. It wasn't that there was anything coherently wrong with that. Both Raven and Beast Boy were her tremendously close friends, and she wished the world for both of them. However, putting them together as a couple just didn't make much sense to her.
"NO!" Raven shouted. At this, every pot, pan, utensil, and otherwise available kitchen accessory in the bottom drawers promptly shot out of its resting place and collided with the floor. The metal pots and pans were especially loud, sounding out in long, boisterous clangs that seemed to continue resonating long after their initial impact. Luckily for the two girls, all of the plates, cups, and other glass materials were kept in the top cabinets and remained unharmed.
Starfire gasped. "Please, friend! You must calm down! I am…sorry to have angered you."
Raven gradually calmed down and regained her usual, static composure. Her breathing slowed down and she took a deep breath in and peacefully exhaled it. "You're right Starfire." She said. "I'm sorry."
"It is…okay." Starfire said timidly, not wanting to further upset Raven. "So…you are not in love with Beast Boy?"
"I'm not in love with anyone, Starfire." Raven sighed. A slight cracking sound began in the background, but it was so slight the girls didn't notice it.
Starfire scowled at Raven's statement. She realized that she often didn't understand the customs of Earth, and was even considered naïve at times. However, she was no idiot. "Then why were you questioning me as to how to stop being in love with somebody? It seems quite an irrelevant thing to ask if you yourself are not in love, yes?"
Raven had no quick response ready. "Well…I…uh…" she choked. Starfire was right. Her logic, though sketchily expressed, was seemingly flawless. But no…she didn't care for Beast Boy. Not in the way Starfire was implying anyway. And what was that incessant cracking sound behind her?
"You see? You cannot argue. Because I am right. You. are. in. love." she blatantly stated. Starfire smiled. The tables had been turned. Now, she was doing the drilling, and Raven was the one being verbally backed into a corner.
"No. I. am. not." Raven said.
"Tell me with whom."
"Nobody."
Crack.
"I will not tell anyone else."
"There's nobody."
Crack.
"Just once? Please friend."
"Starfire there's nobody."
Crack.
Starfire sighed and slapped her hands on her hips in an annoyed manner. "Raven you are being quite difficult for no apparent reason. Tell me, how can you ask me how to deny the love you feel, when you then turn around and say you are not feeling it at all? How can you not be in love when you ask that kind of question?"
"I'm just not, okay!" Raven shouted.
Crack.
"And what keeps making that noise!" she added.
"What noise?" Starfire questioned.
Raven sighed. "Never mind Starfire." She spoke, exasperated. "Look, I'm going to go…take a shower. I haven't had one yet."
"Alright. Pleasant…showering, friend." Starfire said as Raven headed toward the door (or lack thereof).
Starfire sat down in the nearest chair and sighed. It seemed Raven was keeping something from her; she just didn't know what. As she sat there, she replayed the conversation in her head. Raven had entered, set up her tea, asked Starfire how to completely eradicate feelings of undying love and affection. So on and so on. Starfire had hugged her, she had said something, then yelled about not being in love with Beast Boy and…wait…Beast Boy? Why did Raven mention Beast Boy? They hadn't even been discussing him. She certainly hadn't brought him up before that.
"Friend, wait!" Starfire called out to Raven as she rose out of her chair. "If you are not in love with Beast Boy, then why did you mention him before?"
Raven, who was almost to the hallway, flinched momentarily, almost unnoticeably at the sound of his name. However, taking less than a millisecond to recover, she continued to the hallway as if Starfire hadn't even spoken at all.
Starfire, thinking Raven simply hadn't heard her, sat down again defeatedly. Now that it was quiet, she finally heard the cracking sound Raven had referred to. She looked toward the source to find that Raven's teapot was surrounded in black energy that was slowly crushing it. Once Raven left the room and was out of sight, the teapot finally gave way and shattered. Glass shards jumped everywhere. Boiling hot water sizzled as it landed on the surface of the stove, leaving Starfire with one more mess to clean up in the now ruined kitchen.
Two hours later...
Cyborg shot his sonic cannon at one of the artificial laser shooters that had protruded from the ground. Beast Boy, in the form of a rhinoceros, simply stepped on them, smashing the small machines to pieces. Overall, the Titan's new obstacle course had not provided the two with too much of a challenge. The two teens had had a small problem in a previous area of the course where, Cyborg noted, Beast Boy had suddenly found it imperative to stare at something in Raven's direction. His momentary lack of focus resulted in a brief slip-up, though he and Cyborg quickly recovered due to the quick pace of the course, and it seemed no one else noticed what had happened.
The two teenagers crossed the finish line and slowed to a stop. Beast Boy resumed his human form, while Cyborg wiped some sweat from one side of his face.
"Whoo, now that's a rush!" the metal man said in the midst of catching his breath. "What's our time Rob?"
"Five minutes, thirty seconds" replied Robin.
"Oh yeah! Five-thirty! Go us! It's our birthday!" Beast Boy shouted. He then looked suddenly puzzled. "Uhhh…Is that good?"
"Dunno" Robin said. "You guys are the first to do the course. I guess that does put you're time at the top."
"Sweet! Oh yeah! Go—" Beast Boy began cheering.
"—By default" Robin said, interrupting Beast Boy session.
"Oh…" the changeling replied, his bravado vanishing.
"Coulda been better if you had an attention span above three seconds…" Cyborg muttered indistinctly.
"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?" Beast Boy responded agitatedly.
"It's supposed to mean that maybe we coulda made a better time if you hadn't been starin' at Raven." Cyborg retaliated. Beast Boy flinched.
"I was not staring at her!" he protested, pointing a gloved hand at Raven. She and Starfire were walking over to the boys and were completely oblivious to what had been said before Beast Boy's outburst.
"Staring at who, friend Beast Boy?" Starfire asked casually.
"Nobody!" the changeling again shouted. Starfire cringed, half expecting something to explode at the sound of someone shouting 'nobody', however, nothing of the sort happened.
"So, who's up next?" asked Robin, completely uninterested in Beast Boy and Cyborg's typical bickering.
"Oh friend Raven, let us participate in the course of obstacles! It will be most fun!" Starfire shrieked in excitement. Judging by the…episode in the kitchen a few hours ago, Starfire figured Raven could use something to take her mind off of whatever was ailing her. This seemed like the best, instant solution she could come up with.
"Sure, whatever Starfire." Raven replied apathetically. She had no genuine interest in "playing" on the obstacle course, but she had long since given up arguing when Starfire wanted her to do something.
The two girls approached the beginning of the course and the ten-second countdown began. As Raven mentally prepared, she glanced over at the rest of the team. Robin was continuously making furtive glances at Starfire. He would look at something else in between these glances to make it appear as though he wasn't concentrated on her; his illusion was sadly failing though. Cyborg was apparently watching the countdown of the red number above them (which was now at 5). Beast Boy, as Raven noted, was conspicuously avoiding any and all eye contact. She didn't have to wonder why. His entire face was turned away from her and Starfire. He didn't look mad, just distant, as though he was thinking about something he wasn't actually seeing.
1…0!
A loud buzzing noise suddenly stole Raven away from her thoughts. She looked up at the countdown; it was now at zero and the overbearing buzzing sound was her signal to go. Forgetting her thoughts, Raven tore off to make up from her lack of concentration. Hopefully the others hadn't noticed…
Once Raven's mad dash to catch up with Starfire ended, the challenges of the course began. Small machines rose from the ground all around the two girls. They didn't appear that intimidating at first sight. However, they became much more daunting when multiple rounds of bomb-discs were propelled out of them.
Three of the exploding discs were headed straight for Starfire. Immediately, she readied her starbolts and thrust numerous green lights at the oncoming bombs. Each of them were struck by the attacks and obliterated upon impact. Starfire continued flying, and went forth into the debris before her. In a theatrical display, she shot out of the smoke like an airplane emerging from a cloud and continued to defend herself against the onslaught of bombs.
Meanwhile, Raven was also dealing with the discs coming her way. Using her powers, she managed to contain two or three that threatened to come her way. Occasionally, some got quite close to her, in which case she drew out a black shield in front of her with her hands. At one moment, she found herself surrounded by several exploding discs on all sides. Using quick calculation, she simply flew upward out of range, and the ambush of bombs collided with each other. Although the resulting "BOOM" was loud, it was a safe distance away and caused Raven no injury.
Soon, the two girls found themselves in the next section of the course. Giant steel towers of random height rose from the ground in attempt to stop the girls. They served almost no challenge at all though. Seeing as Raven and Starfire both had the ability to fly, they merely lifted off the ground and flew over the obstacles with ease.
Raven, believing she was out of danger for the moment, glanced over at the team as they eagerly watched her superhuman actions. She took note of Beast Boy, who, after his last run on the course, had become a bit sweaty. His face was moist and his hair was quite damp. The whole look made him seem, to say the least…hot. Her eyes moved downward to his torso. The recent exercise had caused his muscles to bulge out a bit, she noticed; his arms looked a bit larger, his chest appeared more defined. His entire physique was…
BAM!
With that, Raven crashed right into one of the metal towers that she had thought to be safely flying over. In a dazed concussion, she began spiraling to the ground.
"Raven!" Starfire shouted upon seeing Raven crash and begin plummeting to the ground. She immediately forgot the obstacle course and rushed to aid her falling friend. Just in the nick of time, she caught Raven and rushed her back over to the course controls where the boys had been watching. They too had begun running out to help.
Once she got to them, Starfire sat Raven down on the ground and began trying to assist her. The dark girl had apparently regained consciousness but was still clutching her throbbing head.
"Raven, are you alright!" Robin asked frantically as he approached the two girls.
"I'm fine" she replied, moving away from Starfire and attempting to stand up. Her head still ached, and her vision wasn't quite sitting still yet, but she hated showing any sign of weakness. Not to mention she was already embarrassed enough from smashing into a ten-foot wide metal column.
"Ya' sure? Maybe you outta sit down for a while" Cyborg asked.
"Yeah, you took a pretty hard hit." Beast Boy said delicately.
"I said I'm fine." She repeated as she scowled at the changeling. He was the one that had broken her concentration after all. Beast Boy merely backed away from her, not wanting to be the cause of any more tension between Raven and himself.
"Well…anyone else wanna give the course a go?" Robin asked sheepishly. At this, Starfire's face lit up like there were fireworks in the air.
"Oh Robin, let us try it next! It is most exhilarating!" she shouted. Seeming to forget about what had been going on, Starfire darted up and grabbed the unsuspecting Robin's hand before he even had a chance to respond. His cheeks turned a light shade of crimson for a moment, but before he knew it, Starfire had gotten them to the start of the course. The countdown began, and Robin was forced to push down any thoughts about Starfire and concentrate on the task before him.
The number finally reached zero and there was a buzzing sound signaling the start of the course. The two were off! They made their way through the bomb section, pummeled around (or over) the metal pillars, and exquisitely dodged the laser shooters. All in all, they had done fairly well, and had even gotten a time of 4: 57. Beast Boy scoffed at the fact that they had badly beaten his and Cyborg's time, but tried not to act too envious.
Robin and Cyborg decided to try the obstacle course next. They came out of it with a time not much worse than the previous, around 5: 02. Again, Beast Boy was miffed that his and Cyborg's time had been beaten, but tried not to look too much into it. Robin and Cyborg got off the course and walked back over to the rest of the team.
"Well, anyone want to go next?" Robin asked tiredly, still a bit out of breath from his run. There weren't any volunteers.
"No one? …How 'bout you Beast Boy? You haven't gone in a while." He said, turning his attention to the changeling.
"Come on. Give it a go BB." Cyborg interjected. "You may not be able to beat me n' Rob's time, but you couldn't possibly do any worse than your first run." Beast Boy glared.
"Fine, maybe I will." He said defiantly, rising to the chance to make Cyborg eat his words. "Uh, who wants to come with?"
Again, there were no volunteers.
"How about…" Robin said thoughtfully, looking around. "Raven. Think you might be in good enough condition to go?"
"Mm, fine, whatever." Raven replied apathetically. She started over toward the beginning of the course, Beast Boy following close (but not too close) behind. In reality, she desperately wanted to give the course at least one more run before practice was over, just to prove that she actually was capable of doing so without nearly killing herself.
The buzz sounded and the two went off. They made their way through the bomb section with relative ease. Both got through the pillar section without getting injured at all. Finally, they made their way through the field of laser guns and crossed the finish line. It seemed their various motivations had not been wasted. Once they made it back to the rest of the team, Robin told them that their time had been an extraordinary 3: 44!
"Dude, sweet! That's like the best time yet, right?" Beast Boy boasted avidly.
"Yea, it is." Robin said, still a bit surprised at their success. "Maybe you two should do stuff together more often. You work great together."
"No we DON'T!" Raven suddenly burst out. Every rock, stone, and other piece of debris within a 30-foot radius immediately exploded in a rush of black light. There was a complete hush from the rest of the team. Raven knew Robin really hadn't meant it to mean that she and Beast Boy worked well as a couple, but the possible double meaning of his words simply struck her by surprise.
After a few moments of awkward silence, everyone's communicators went off, breaking the stillness. Robin flipped his opened and read the information.
"It's the Hive and Cinderblock. They've broken out of jail." He said sternly. "But this time, they've got Plasmus with them."
"Aww, come on!" Beast Boy groaned. "Right after practice! Couldn't they have at least waited til' we, you know, shower or something?"
"Nope. Come one green man, we gotta go kick their sorry butts now" sighed Cyborg, pressing Beast Boy toward the car.
"Man this whomps." Beast Boy said angrily, folding his arms and huffing toward the T-Car with the rest of the team.
Author's Note: Okay, so again, sorry about the wait. However, I think that this fic is now officially over 20,000 words! Woot!
By the way, I read somewhere that this month (November if you're reading a long time from now) is BB/Rae spirit month or something. Can an informed person clarify this in a review or something. Thanks. If you don't know however, please don't hesistate to review anyway :-).
Til' next time. GoldenBlade416
