A/N: See SideStory #1 for full Notes and explanation.
Based on Kysra's sketch to be found here: www . deviantart . com / deviation / 33685488 / (remove spaces) -- Please remember to drop her a note and make her feel wonderful for having done this amazing thing for me? If you can't get the link to work (even removing the spaces) then just go to my emsscraps or go straight to Kysra's deviantart page. Just have kysra . deviantart . com (without spaces) or, just go to my profile page here and you'll find links to both my deviantart page and my emsscraps journal. But people, don't give up! Look at this picture! It's so worth it. Well, any of her stuff is worth it, but if you haven't seen the picture there might be nuances to what I wrote that you won't get.
It Only Takes A Moment – Sidestory 6 (From Part VIII)
Scottish Terriers
by Em
"For ever action, there is a re-action...and a Pikey reaction... is quite a fucking thing."
- Turkish, "Snatch"
"...the ones with the Scottish Terriers on them with the big red bows..."
Seeing emotion, any emotion, on Raven's face was scary enough in its own right.
Raven's anger, even the smallest amount of it, was something any smart person avoided like hot cols, Star's puddings, and sharp projectiles flying in their general direction.
"IcanfixitIcanfixitICANFIXIIIIIT!"
Raven's anger while she was wearing gray flannel pajamas with pictures of itty bitty Scottish Terriers snarling was scary as shit.
Beast Boy, being the focus of her wrath, did the smartest thing he could think of to do in his panic: he ran.
Raven this angry was certainly nothing to laugh about, but one look at the big red bows at the neck and at the front tie of her pants and Robin was hard pressed not to explode in outright guffaws. It didn't help that the shirt proclaimed her as "Rabid", which she certainly was if the look of death riding her expression was any indication. If Beast Boy didn't fix whatever it was he had broken, Robin had no doubt Raven might start to foam at the mouth at any moment.
Raven floated the few feet from the elevator across the common room, ignoring everyone else that wasn't Beast Boy.
Beast Boy tried changing into various cute and cuddly characters, but when her expression only darkened (granted, after he made the mistake of turning into a rabbit), he eeped and ran to hide behind Cyborg.
Robin was infinitely glad he hadn't been on that side of the room.
"Don'tkillmepleaseIdidn'tmeantoISWEAR!" Beast Boy exclaimed, nigh on tears.
"How could you possibly NOT..." she inhaled in an effort to keep her voice from rising into anything more than her normal tone, "...mean to?"
"IcanFIXIT!"
Raven shook her head, "No, I don't think you can," she said calmly, starting to stalk toward him, "Cyborg, get out of the way."
Cyborg moved just a small inch, but Beast Boy changed into an octopus and wrapped all 8 tentacles around him, holding tight.
"Justlemmeexplain,PLEEEEEEEASSEEEEE!" Beast Boy pleaded.
"Raven," Robin spoke softly. It held no rebuke, no demand, no order, just a reminder that he was present. But it was all she needed to know what he wanted.
Raven stopped and looked at him over her shoulder, waiting for him to say his peace.
"What did he do?" Robin asked, looking from Raven to Beast Boy and back again.
Raven raised her left hand and showed him her how the glass of her antique hand mirror was cracked irreparably, "This is what he did," Raven said. "Can I kill him now?"
Robin looked at Beast Boy, his expression disbelieving. How could Beast Boy have broken her meditation mirror? Beast Boy was careless sometimes, but he wasn't stupid enough to do something like that. He sighed, "At least hear him out," Robin said reasonably. "You can kill him later."
Beast Boy's burgeoning look of hope at Robin speaking up for him fell harder than a sack of potatoes.
Raven nodded minutely at him before turning to Beast Boy, "Okay," she said calmly, "You have two seconds before I go Trigon on your ass."
"Two...?" Beast Boy started to whine, but Raven cut him off, taking a menacing step toward him.
"One..." she started counting.
"Iwantedtoborrowoneofyourbooks,butIdidn'tthinkyou'dlendittomesoIsnuckinandbumpedyourtablebyaccident..." he let out in a hurried gush of air.
"So not only did you enter my room without my permission, but you were going to take something from within it without telling me?" she asked, her tone deceptively quiet and controlled.
Beast Boy wasn't fooled. He didn't know how to get out of it, so he looked pleadingly at Robin. "Help!" he squeaked.
Robin shook his head, "Sorry, Beast Boy, you know better than to sneak into anyone's room," he said.
"Can I kill him now?" Raven asked.
"How were you planning on fixing it?" Robin asked.
"I thought I'd take it to the mirror maker in town," Beast Boy said sorrowfully. "How was I to know you'd get back earlier than planned?"
"And would you have this mirror maker weave the magic spells into the quicksilver and mercury that I had in this glass you so casually broke?" Raven pressed.
"I...uh...do..." Beast Boy stuttered. Raven began to advance on him again.
"What book were you looking for Beast Boy?" Cyborg finally asked calmly, trying as best he could to ignore the tightness of his friend's hands grasping at his arms and neck.
Raven stopped.
Beast Boy thought frantically, but it took him a moment to remember the title he had been searching for in the haze of his panic, "That book we found when we were decorating the White Room with all the things that looked like recipes," Beast Boy answered, too flustered to remember what the title of the book actually was, despite the fact he had memorized it at the time.
Robin looked at Raven who had gone completely still, "Why?" he asked.
Beast Boy seemed to realize that Raven's temper was no longer right on the surface of her eyes anymore, that she was staring at him in emotionless expectancy. "I thought if they were recipes, I could do one..." he mumbled, half under his breath.
"Why?" Raven asked.
Beast Boy flushed down to his toes, "Next week's your birthday," he said simply. He looked around and when no one seemed to understand the significance of Raven's birthday to him looking for recipes, he let his gaze fall onto his feet, "...wanted to know...favorite...cook...birthday..." he mumbled so low Robin only managed to catch a handful of words from which he was nonetheless able to stitch together a coherent sentence of Beast Boy's intent.
Without a word, Raven turned and walked out of the room.
Robin was so stunned at Beast Boy's motives to be in Raven's room that he didn't register the fact that Raven's pajama pants had little Scottish Terriers all over them until much later.
As in after Beast Boy slid off of Cyborg's back and after Cyborg had pushed a controller into Beast Boy's hands in the hopes of distracting his friend from his near death escape, but certainly before a large, leather bound tome came falling through the roof to land right at Beast Boy's feet.
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A/N: Okay, so this came out...weird. Robin's just kind of a bystander in this one, isn't he?
