(A/N: I've been seeking inspiration to make a meaningful yet adorable holiday BBRae one-shot, and I've settled on this one. I hope it tickles your festive fancy!)
It was a winter day in Jump City. As a coastal city, it's been a yearly foregone conclusion that snow would be a no-show. But that never deterred its people from snuggling into the holiday joy and festive spirit.
Neither did that ever stop the Teen Titans, though it's inadvertently become an annual tradition to procrastinate Christmas preparations. Crime-fighting duties would do that to you.
It was the week before Christmas Eve when the five superheroes set some schedule slots aside for the most wonderful time of the year. This year, the resident jokester and snark-equipped foil were in charge of tree-picking, both currently at the Christmas tree farm outside the city.
Raven had her arms folded in disgruntled fashion as she watched her green-skinned teammate Beast Boy inspect the branches of one of the countless conifers. There was little light for him do the inspection, since evening had arrived.
"Why do I have to help you with the tree selection this year?" she complained unenthusiastically. And though her question was rhetorical, Beast Boy responded anyway.
"Do it for Robin and Starfire!" he exclaimed ever jovially as he slid his fingers along a fir branch. "It'll be their first Christmas as a couple. We all agreed they can be in charge of decorating the tower this year while Cyborg does feast-prep, as he always does."
Like most nagging teenagers, Raven heaved an exasperated sigh as Beast Boy moved on to the next tree. "I've given her many materials on Christmas traditions, and she told me she has many ideas for herself and Robin, so I guess I brought it upon myself..."
Beast Boy halted his current arboreal assessment to face the apathetic Raven. "Oh come on, lighten up, Raven! Christmas is coming!"
Feeling the gust of wind pick up speed, Raven pulled up her hood, and replied, "You know how I feel about the meaning of Christmas."
The green changeling let out a smirk as he spun back around, returning his attention to the evergreen trees.
"Yeah yeah, He was born with the prophecy as the Light, while your birth brought forth the prophecy of doom blah blah blah," he reiterated nonchalantly. "But that was before Trigon! 'B.T.'! 'Sides, you were apparently wrong about your quote-unquote 'destiny', so now here we are! So, help me pick a good, sturdy tree for our tower!"
Raven stifled a yawn as she lazily levitated next to Beast Boy, staring at the crooked fir tree before them, which she could tell was definitely not sturdy.
"I've never been in charge of this," she pointed out.
Beast Boy waggled his eyebrows at her. "There's a first time for everything."
That earned him her signature frown, and an additional, "Gross."
Beast Boy laughed it off, moving on to a pine tree, Raven hovering by him. "But, seriously? You're no longer bound to your demon dad, and you're still not gonna try a bit of joy? It won't hurt, I promise."
It's a strong emotion, so actually, maybe it will, Raven thought to retort to him. Instead, she simply stated, "It's not that simple."
Beast Boy shrugged, quickly proceeding to the next Christmas conifer candidate, as he retorted back, "I didn't say it is."
Raven was somewhat skeptical about engaging in a seemingly intellectual debate with Beast Boy. But what else could she do right now?
"Fine. While we're on this topic, why don't you recommend me a few tactics to... get in the Christmas spirit?"
"Why don't you pick a tree first, then I'll be your guidance counselor?"
Raven groaned, then looked around her immediate surroundings. She tugged at Beast Boy's arm and pointed at a particular tree.
Beast Boy didn't have to get a closer look to know that the tree did not fit the Teen Titans' criteria. Not even close. Sturdy and tall, yes. But, too little green, and its trunk had an unshapely look to it.
"Err... Maybe I'll point you to the right direction first," he decided.
This time, it was Raven who smirked. She quipped, "Sounding like a preacher there."
Beast Boy scowled at her. "Ha ha ha."
A strong gust of California winter wind blew against his frontside. He didn't layer himself quite enough, and consequently shivered slightly.
"Can we maybe get some warmth in the cottage before I go preachy on you?" Beast Boy requested lightheartedly. Hesitantly, Raven agreed as they started slowly making their way to the little log house. "Anyway, yes, I am the right person for this job of guidance-ing counselor-ing you! I am the joyful one of the bunch, after all."
Raven lifted and wagged a finger at him. "Correction: Starfire's the joyful one of us. In fact, she may actually be our light. She's even got the moniker for it. While you, Beast Boy, are the... wild one."
Once again, Beast Boy waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.
Raven rolled her eyes. "Correction, again: You're the immature one."
Beast Boy's facial expression went from flirty to a frown. The pair entered the vacant cottage, their entrance announced by the ringing of little jingle bells hung above the cedar wood doorway. Beast Boy grabbed a seat, and picked up an unused pair of gloves from the table, putting them on, on top of his uniform gloves for extra warmth. Raven, on the other hand, hovered cross-legged in mid-air, unperturbed by the wind chill.
Beast Boy continued, "I'm like an evergreen pine. Or a spruce. Or a fir. You get the idea."
Beast Boy looked up at Raven, noticing that she had her eyes closed out of disinterest. Right on cue, she reopened them as she retorted, "Ooh, a profound metaphor? No origami hats for emphasis this time?"
Beast Boy grabbed the Santa hat on the table and put it on. She just had to ask.
The changeling cleared his throat. "As I was saying, I'm like an evergreen pine! I bring out the festivities every season I'm most needed, and I always deliver."
"And you lived in farms or forests before being chopped down and brought into strangers' houses, yes," Raven muttered sarcastically. Beast Boy chose not to respond.
"But, for the rest of the year, I stay my cheerful, green self! I never turn red, or lose my leaves, when the season isn't favorable to me."
"Consistently green; check. Consistently annoying; double-check."
"What keeps the trees evergreen are the needles. The spruces are especially sharp. So, they can hurt if you get up close to them.
"Everyone may think I'm always cheery, but I'm just amazing at fronting happiness. Because if I come across as a never-needy, joyful jolly, it convinces most people enough that I'm content with my life and they don't bother prodding further into how I really feel deep down, which is a world of hurt."
This time, Raven did not come up with a snarky remark. Instead, she was taken aback by how much Beast Boy's talk took such a serious, down-to-earth turn. For the first time today, and in a while, she actually started paying attention to him, putting an ounce of effort to understand his underlying feelings underneath his words.
"And I do this for everyone else's sake, not my own, like all good guys should," Beast Boy went on. "Whenever I flashed a strong smile at my Doom Patrol fam, even after Mento's jabbing critiques. Whenever Cyborg gets into a nail-biting round of video games with me. Whenever Starfire giggles because she misunderstood another one of my jokes. Whenever I tell Robin I'm all chipper after a rough go at combat practice even though I'm wincing all over inside. Whenever I recover from all your sarcasms at my expense to let you know that we're still cool as a cucumber."
Raven winced at that last sentence. A few instances, she broke eye contact with Beast Boy as he was giving his spiel, feeling a tinge of guilt. How was the one she dubbed 'the immature one' making her feel genuinely immature for her actions? She always knew there was more to Beast Boy than meets the eye, but it didn't hit her until now that he was this nuanced.
"Not all heroes wear capes, Raven. Not even uniforms. I wear a smile on my face. You wanna know what I think the true meaning of Christmas is? That."
There was a moment of silence. A tense one for Raven. But to Beast Boy, it was a bit of a release of tension. Pent-up feelings he'd bottled up so well, and had just poured out just as coolly.
Raven finally managed to think of something to say.
"Does it ever become too much? Too hard to keep the facade?"
Beast Boy leaned backwards, his chair tilting back and balanced on their hind legs, his arms resting against the table's edge.
"A few times," he admitted. Raven couldn't help but feel ashamed. At least one of those times must have involved her. "But, I always try. The payoff is almost always worth it, Raven. You might wanna try it sometime. See how that feels for you -"
Suddenly, a stroke of Raven's emotionally-charged telekinetic energy emerged out of her head, and shattered one of the two lightbulbs inside the cottage, making their current accommodation quite dim.
"- now that you can let loose a little more," Beast Boy completed his sentence as he stared perplexed at the broken lightbulb. He wasn't sure if Raven was wanting to strangle him for coming at her with a few truth bombs. "Uh... what was that for?"
Raven didn't want to immediately admit that it was because she was feeling an overwhelming sense of a certain emotion, which caused her powers to overcome her a bit. Was that emotion guilt? Sympathy? An epiphany of some sort?
"I'm sorry..." she muttered.
"Huh?"
Raven sighed. "I'm sorry for constantly responding to you with quips and sarcasm, even when you don't deserve it. But even if it was somewhat warranted, I'm realizing now that I'm not helping you by doing that, and I'm realizing that I've been hard on you as often as your childish tendencies have been hard on me."
She let out an audible groan. She ceased her flight and landed her two feet down on to the wooden floor.
"And now I feel very guilty for slapping you in front of Japanese national TV that one time, and all those other times..."
Beast Boy stood up, waving his hands towards her. "I don't mean to make you feel bad. I was just telling you how I really feel for once is all. Actually, can you do me a favor and not say this to any of the Titans? Otherwise, they might start pitying me instead of laughing with me - or at me.
"I feel okay telling you 'cause I've always miserably failed giving you something to be happy about anyway, so no loss there."
And with that additional comment, Raven's powers shattered the only remaining lightbulb. The enchantress prayed to Azar - prayed to God - that Beast Boy remained oblivious as to why her powers were doing that, and that they were connected to her emotions.
Beast Boy let out a single laugh, likely out of nervousness.
"You prefer darkness that much, huh?" he joked quietly.
"It's my style," Raven remarked. She shook her head, and added, "Thank you, Beast Boy, for sharing your feelings with me. This doesn't leave this room.
"Listen; I've been really unfair to you. I've never taken the effort to learn more about you; always resorting to giving up and justifying that by convincing myself how immature you were being. And I've never given you a real fair chance to know me voluntarily and not by circumstance, and you've already knocked on my door so many times. Figuratively and literally. I've always cared about you, but now I want to better be there for you.
"I'm gonna try a bit of joy."
Raven's T-communicator beeped. It was Starfire.
"Friends! Alert!" boomed the Tamaranian's voice, slightly exasperated. "We require Raven's healing abilities on boyfriend Robin."
"What's the matter, Star?" Raven asked. Cyborg appeared next to Starfire onscreen, a plate of freshly baked cookies in hand.
"Apparently, Star's Christmas research has been simultaneously a bit too extensive and not extensive enough!" Cyborg informed them. "She somehow got hold of the more toxic variety of mistletoes and surprised Robin with 'em, and worst of all incorporated the toxic berries into her... er... Christmas pudding-ish, which Robin ingested. I'm whipping up some remedy now, but Raven might be able to help with the more instantaneous treatment."
"Yikes, dude, that sounds like a rough first couple's Christmas," Beast Boy uttered.
"How critical is it? We're not done with the tree yet," Raven told their teammates. Then, a slightly sickly-looking Robin popped up on Raven's little communicator monitor.
"I'm okay, guys," the leader insisted weakly. "It's not that bad... gah... Don't feel bad, Star..."
Raven and Beast Boy could see that Robin's face was turning slightly greener by the second, which contrasted against the red rashes sprouting on his face. Christmas colors had never looked more unappealing.
"If you say so," murmured the guilt-ridden Starfire.
"Get well soon, Robin," Raven said with finality before ending the transmission. She looked up at Beast Boy, and was quickly reminded that she had damaged all sources of light in the cottage, almost unable to see him.
"Yeah, we oughta check up on him," Beast Boy suggested, but was surprised when Raven shook her head.
"You heard him. He said it's not that bad. I need you, to help me choose the best tree."
Raven turned around and made her way to the door. She had her hand on the doorknob when a thought struck her.
"I'm pining for your guidance," she quipped, her emphasis on that one word to highlight the joke was a high pitch that made her voice almost crack comedically in addition to her usual vocal fry.
Beast Boy, in utter shock, let out an audible "Guhh...?", and his jaw dropped. The Santa hat that he had had on had dropped to the floor with it. She had just made a pun, one so lame it rivaled his. "N-nice one..."
At that moment, they both separately were realizing that this was a good beginning to something new.
Raven finally opened the door, the dim evening lights from outside finally letting some light in. Beast Boy stood, still shocked, staring at Raven from behind. However, his eyes were twinkling. Twinkling for and because of Raven. Twinkling not from fronting happiness, but from genuine joy.
On the other hand, Raven, still with her back on him as she sauntered out, was glad that she had her hood down, to conceal her blush.
And there it was. The birth of a new joy.