Hail, readers! As a certain malicious cheese reminded me, there is such a thing as too much fluff, so I can guarantee this will be the last pure-fluff chapter before we get back to the action. Don't worry, it isn't all nauseatingly sweet in this chapter. Just mostly.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Teen Titans, Magic: the Gathering, or Lysol. I do own the same T-shirt as Beast Boy, but not the rights to the slogan. I have nothing worth suing over. These are not the droids you're looking for. You want to go home and rethink your life. There is no 19th floor. There is no Miss Zarves.
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Cyborg was the first to snap. "Have we unknowingly been transported into an alternate universe where Beast Boy and Raven don't argue with each other?"
Beast Boy finally registered the cries of his semimetallic friend. "No, same universe." He and Raven then said the same thing:
"I just had a really good dream last night."
The other Titans, as unaware of the cooperation of the two dreamers' Affections as the dreamers themselves, were still astonished at the astonishing lack of antagonism between Beast Boy and Raven. Starfire voiced the trio's confusion this time. "Please, friends. How would a single dream ease the yellings and insults you have so often exchanged in the past?"
The secret couple both seemed very interested in their cereal, and a blush rose on each face. Cyborg, always one to prey upon his teammates' awkwardness, snickered. "C'mon Star, it's obvious." He jerked his thumb towards the flushed Titans. "Last night, these two dreamed somethin' sex-eh with each other."
Raven rose from her seat, pointedly making a lot of noise by doing so. "Cyborg," she warned, "one more ludicrous insinuation like that and I'll-"
"You'll what?" the mechanoman asked confidently. "Your powers aren't working at the moment, Rae, remember?"
She smiled sinisterly. "Oh, my powers aren't working. But I'm not the only source of magic in this Tower." With that, she dipped a hand into a pocket in her uniform (which she was wearing out of habit more than anything,) and pulled out the Mox Sapphire. She shook it meaningfully. "Remember this?"
Cyborg's human eye widened. He remembered being controlled by the cerulean crystal all too well. "Wh-what are you going to do?"
"For that earlier comment? If you had just made your usual accusations of affection, I'd have made you jump out of the Tower. For saying 'sex-eh,' this." With that, she pointed the Sapphire at one of the massive frying pans occupying the stove, and sent a mental command to the gem. Even though its sentience wasn't currently active, it still possessed enough blue magical energy to, say, turn a side of beef into a huge side-of-beef shaped chunk of tofu.
Cyborg, upon seeing this demonstrated, screamed like a four-year old girl. Rushing to the former slab of meat, he promptly lifted the pan, heaved the mass of soy into the sink, then tore the top off a spray can of Lysol and poured the disinfectant onto the cooking implement, chanting "Unclean. Unclean!" the whole time. Only when he had emptied the can of antiseptic did he realize he had burned his hands. Girly screaming once more, he rushed to the sink, but stopped and ran for the nearest bathroom upon seeing the quivering heap of legume curd still awaiting the garbage disposal. As he ran out of the room, Cyborg lamented, "Why? Why was I programmed to feel pain?"
After that spectacle, everyone but Beast Boy decided to leave Raven alone for a while.
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With the others too freaked out to mess with Raven, she and Beast Boy had been given ample "couple time." They decided to take advantage of it by going on their first date. Not wanting to give the tabloids an excuse to start another superhero pregnancy rumor (Wonder Woman still reflexively punched anyone holding a camera.) they decided to go plainclothes.
For Raven, this wasn't hard, as she was already plainskin. Also, as she had told Beast Boy before, she couldn't tolerate wearing Spandex 24/7, and had therefore assembled a small but serviceable casual wardrobe. From it, she picked gray-washed jeans and a white T-shirt with a dark blue hoodie sweatshirt, then waited about twenty minutes for Beast Boy to finish getting ready.
Those twenty minutes were largely spent searching for the hologram rings Cyborg had made for the changeling. Like those used by their inventor during the HIVE infiltration, the rings would give Beast Boy the appearance of normality. Unfortunately, they had been placed in Beast Boy's room, a place in which archeologist majors from Jump City University occasionally requested permission to dig. Clothes were a simple matter, as the shapeshifter had only one non-uniform outfit that was clean enough not to knock out canaries, as Beast Boy himself had checked. It consisted of red corduroys and a black T-shirt that read "I'm lazy, loud, immature, and disorganized, BUT I'M FUN!" It was complemented by a green windbreaker.
As the two exited the tower, Cyborg nervously peeked his head out of his room, prepared to make a comment about the couple as they passed by, even if it killed him. A sudden flash of blue light sent him cowering back into his room, barb unspoken.
"Man," said Beast Boy, "these holo-ring things go really bright when you turn them on."
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Beast Boy sighed contentedly. All was well. Raven and he had gone to the Titans' usual pizzeria, and while it felt weird not to get their usual table, not being surrounded by obsessed fans reminded him there were some perks to being incognito. Now, they were lying on the grass, watching clouds roll by, holding hands. Just as he was about to fall asleep, Raven said something.
He grudgingly returned to consciousness. "Whazzat?"
"I said," she repeated, "that this is nice."
"Yeah," Beast Boy replied, and started to fall asleep again.
"But," Raven continued, getting up, "I'd like to do something more while I still can."
The holographically cloaked changeling rose as well. "What do you mean?"
She tried to explain. "I feel like a starving girl who'd been given twenty minutes at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I want to get as much on my plate as I can, but right now it feels like I'm stuck at the salad bar, grabbing one chickpea at a time." She frowned. "I don't even like chickpeas."
Beast Boy attempted to follow the extended metaphor. "Soooo, you want to go to a salad bar?"
"No, I want to do something that will make me have an emotional response! I want to savor this freedom while I can! C'mon!" she shouted, pulling him to his feet. "Let's go do something!"
"Waah!" cried Beast Boy as she dragged him out of the park.
After getting pulled for a few minutes by a girl on a warpath, who, as he soon learned, has super strength regardless of what she's like when less determined, the changeling noticed his arm had stopped trying to exit the socket. He took this to mean they had stopped, and looked around. Raven had stopped in front of a clothing outlet, and was staring at the manikins in the display window. "Everything OK, Rae?"
She shook her head. "Look at me, B-Garfield." He did so eagerly, and she smacked him lightly in rebuke. "Look, don't ogle. What do you see?"
"The girl I love."
She blushed, but pressed on. "Spare me the fluff. Now compare me to the manikins in that display. Notice any differences?"
"You aren't made of plastic?"
"Any differences about our clothes?"
"Uhhh…" A droplet of drool threatened to drip out of the side of Beast Boy/Garfield's mouth. Raven firmly closed it.
"If you want to catch flies, turn into a frog. The difference is that they're wearing far more colorful clothes than I am. I mean, look at me!" He decided not to this time, fearing another love slap. "For all intents and purposes, I'm currently one hundred percent human, but from my outfit you'd think I'm still the gloomy, creepy half-demon-"
"Is that how you really see yourself, Rae?"
"It's how I am, how I normally have to be," she replied matter-of-factly. "I don't want to be that person when I don't have to be her."
"Well then," he smiled, "who would you like to be?"
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Beast Boy and Raven returned late, exhausted, filthy, and barely able to stand from laughing.
"I-I never even knew you c-could do that with a potato peeler," the empath gasped.
"I never saw so much upholstery in my life," the changeling replied. He turned to Raven. She was wearing tie-dyed jeans, a Hawaiian shirt, and the blue hoody tied around her neck. She looked like a chameleon on hallucinogens. "So, would you say we 'did something' today?"
"Oh, most definitely." The two reached the point where they'd have to go in opposite directions to get to their respective rooms. "Oh, and Gar?" Raven called, using her pet name for the green boy.
"Yeah?"
She smirked evilly. "Just wait until tomorrow."
His smile could've lit the Tower. He'd never seen this side of Raven: the inside, the person behind the monotone. She was the person he'd been trying to unearth for years, and that person was everything he'd dreamed of. As he entered his room, he couldn't help but do a victory dance.
Raven felt truly free for the first time ever. 'Is this what it's going to be like when I get all the Moxen?' she wondered, 'so open, so rich?' She felt split: Wish she never regenerated her powers, or wish it to happen here and now so the last two Moxen could be collected post haste? She wasn't sure, and she honestly didn't care. She managed to resist the victory dance urge, but still had a smile on her face for the remainder of the night.
Cyborg, meanwhile, rocked back and forth in a fetal position on his table/bed, holding Rufus in a death grip with one hand and sucking the thumb of the other. On occasion, he mumbled to himself, "Change the meat back, Mommy. Change the meat back," then resumed his oscillation.
No one had noticed Raven's hair had started reddening.
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Cliffie! Not a "lives hang in the balance" cliffie, but a cliffhanger nonetheless. Don't worry about Cyborg, he should be fine by tomorrow…I hope. As for what Beast Boy looked like with hologram rings active, just imagine him as your favorite human-colored bishounen (pretty boy) version of him. Those not attracted to men, just go with how you think he'd look. I like to leave at least a few details up to readers' imaginations. Now then, review, lest I turn your meat into tofu (or, for vegetarians, vice versa!)
