Summary: Jump City had been peaceful for the past two years. Slade was out of commission after a grueling fight, super-villains were far and few, and the crime rate was low. So the Titans had pursed their hobbies. Beast Boy volunteered at a wildlife museum for children and enjoyed the work. The 19-year-old had nothing to fear…until Slade reappeared. (One-sided Slade x Beast Boy)

Trapped Chapter 7

November passed without much fanfare as December rolled around. Other than the food fight they wound up having during Thanksgiving, not much had happened. During the holiday, Becca had accidentally knocked her drink onto Grant's lap and Beast Boy had then flung some of his tofu at the man to distract him. Pretty soon they dissolved into a free-for-all food fight that ended with the floor and themselves being a mess. But it was fun and he'd never seen Grant laugh or play before. He and the girls had then raced to see who could clean up the dining room the fastest.

It had been nice. Grant had been nice. Weird. Beast Boy shook his head and shifted atop the pillow next to the window. His gaze roamed to the outside world filled with snow. At some point after Grant adopted the girls and they were wed, Grant had finally allowed Beast Boy to open the curtains in the back of the house and look outside for the first time in months.

Though, there some things he couldn't understand. Like, why did it turn out that the curtains were sealed with a digital code? They didn't budge when he tried to move them any time before, but not because they were heavy, but because they were metal covered in fabric and locked. He could understand using a code to lock the doors and using bulletproof glass for windows but the curtains? Just how paranoid about intruders was Grant?

Or…just how worried was Grant about him escaping? At this point in time, he knew he had no chance of successfully leaving, at least not without outside help. Grant kept him secure on a tight leash and in a big cage. Though he hated to admit it, he was glad he wasn't alone anymore. He had the girls for company but even they had things to do.

When they weren't being home-schooled with Ms. Winterberry, they were being trained in martial arts by Grant in the gym. Beast Boy was never allowed to watch them train, never allowed to see them during school time, and never allowed to have any fun.

The young man groaned. Of course it was his birthday of all days. And he was spending it alone. He hated being alone. If he were home, his real home, then the Titans would have thrown a party. Celebrated with cake and singing and presents and just seeing them one more time, in the flesh, would make this month bearable.

He exhaled, eyes tracing the shape of flowers in the garden. Winter-roses. Grant had bought seeds of them awhile back and let him watch from afar as they were planted and slowly grew. Now that they had bloomed, Grant would sometimes clip the prettiest ones, leaving the leaves intact, and bring a vaseful inside that would then be placed in their shared bedroom.

The first time Grant had brought him flowers of any kind, Beast Boy had marveled at the sight. Soft and cold petals, real beneath his fingers, oh so real and smelling of the winter breeze and freedom.

But he wasn't free. He was as trapped in the house as the flowers were trapped in the vase. Neither could go anywhere. Both would wilt one day. His cheeks puffed. Okay, he really needed to cheer himself up. Pronto.

"Think of something funny," he clambered off the pillow and stood. "Uh…"

It was funny whenever Grant ordered the girls to call him "Papa" instead of "Mr. Grant" and the way Grant said, "Garfield is your father so call him Daddy" in a serious tone was really funny and…

…Was he really twenty years old now? Didn't feel like it. He'd been here since early July. Five months…or was it six? How many months had he been here? Did it even matter? Felt more like he was stuck in time…

"That's not funny!" He griped, grabbing his hair as he walked to his room.

The young man hurried to the guitar and pulled it out of its case. He tried to play but just couldn't shake the gloom. Even messing with the chess pieces and pretending they could speak in squeaky voices didn't help! And he was too agitated to read the books Grant had gotten him. Not even his favorite superhero comic books could hold his focus.

So he put away the guitar and paced on the green rug in the middle of the room. His gaze darted about the room, glancing at the circled date on the calendar before skittering away. He needed to do something or he was gonna go crazy!

"Movies." Beast Boy rushed to the living room. "There's bound to be something new to watch, right?"

Something, anything to get his mind off how empty he felt. How lonely he felt. How lonely to the point even seeing Grant would make him happy. He'd prefer the girls but he was desperate!

He passed by Grant's office and hesitated. Didn't Grant once say there was a cellphone in his office? Only allowed to use in case of emergencies? Did this count as an emergency? He was practically going insane at this point, so…

Beast Boy crept inside, door creaking with the movement and he flinched. Jumping over noises? Maybe he was the paranoid one here. To be fair, though, he usually only came into the office for a solid reason, so it felt like it was a forbidden place or something.

Eyes wide, he looked around the room. Filing cabinets with white labels lined the walls and the desk sat in the center of the room. Papers neatly stacked covered the surface of the wood and, just behind the desk was a pushed in swivel chair. He had half a mind to sit in that chair and spin until he wanted to hurl, but resisted the urge.

He had a phone to find.

He rifled through the desk drawers, making sure to put things back where they were, but still he couldn't find the phone. What did it even look like? For a dude that built his own robots, he sure did a lot of paperwork by hand rather than by computer.

It wasn't until he thought to actually read the labels on the filing cabinets did he find a drawer labeled "tech" and opened it. His brows shot to his hairline.

How many cellphones did a dude need?

Better question…just how much money did Grant even have? What was his day job? Did he even do anything besides plot against the Titans and raise some mysterious army that Beast Boy had never even seen? He was gone during typical work hours and there had been nothing on the news about the Titans being defeated. And there was nothing about a fresh wave of enemies, so…

Beast Boy hadn't realized he held a phone in his hands. A new phone too. He'd seen commercials for this updated version of a previous model. It seemed pretty cool. He always wanted a fancy phone but the Titans had their communicators so it wasn't needed.

He stared at the screen. How did he even turn it on? Clicking a few buttons and gaining no results, he tried holding down different buttons until the device beeped to life. His eyes blew wide. Whoa the screen was like super sharp quality.

He grinned and absently sat in the chair, spinning from side to side as he fiddled with the device. The screen would move beneath his fingers and he could do so many things. It was more than a phone, it was like a…a…something really cool!

His heart stopped. It was a phone. He was holding a phone in his hands. And though the Titans didn't have typical cellphones they did have numbers assigned to their communicators.

Fingers shaking, he dialed in a familiar number.

The phone rang.

…and rang…

…and rang.

Click.

Beast Boy pressed the phone to his ear, eyes wide.

"I see you found the phone."

His heart dropped and he murmured. "Hey, Grant."

"Any and all calls from those phones direct straight to me, pet. You should know by now that you aren't allowed to call the Titans."

"I know." He deflated more. "I just thought…"

Static crackled as Grant shifted on the other side of the line. "You thought wrong."

"Don't have to rub it in."

"…Garfield, what happened?"

Beast Boy leaned back in the chair with a sigh. "Nothing." He was tempted to hang up but couldn't bring himself to do it. Just hearing a voice that wasn't his own was comforting, even if the speaker was a controlling jerk.

"Tell me." The tone was calm and patient, and Beast Boy could've refused but he complied anyway.

"I'm all alone." He struggled to put his thoughts together. "The girls are still with Ms. Winterberry and I don't want to be alone anymore. Makes me sad."

"Garfield…" Grant trailed before solidifying. "I'm coming home early tonight."

His eyes widened. "What? You never come back early unless it's important!"

"Today feels like an important day. See you soon, love."

The phone beeped and Beast Boy pulled away to stare at the screen. Did…did Grant know it was his birthday?

Impossible. Even if he did, he wouldn't care enough to say so, would he?

Beast Boy returned the phone to the drawer and left the room, heading for the kitchen. Wouldn't hurt to prepare dinner early tonight. It would give him something to do at least.

~oOo~

Grant hadn't returned from work early that day. Though they waited for a bit before eating, Beast Boy decided that he still had to feed the girls. There was no sense in letting them starve just cause Grant was a liar.

"Thanks, Daddy." Becca chirped and clapped her hands.

Throughout dinner the girls had exchanged odd looks and small smiles but he didn't have the heart to ask them to share the joke. Though the girls hadn't picked up on his low mood, he was glad that they were having a good day. Better than his at least.

"Glad you liked it, lil dude." He offered a strained smile but they missed the weary edge and brightened. "So how was school?"

"Boring." Angie pushed the grapes around her plate with a fork. "I asked a lot of dumb questions that Ms. Winterberry didn't like."

Beast Boy frowned. "Your questions aren't dumb, Angie. You're very smart!"

She shrugged and he set to clearing the table. She hopped out of her chair, ready to help, when footsteps approached outside of the room and his ear twitched. The lights flicked off and he jolted in alarm, searching for the cause.

His gaze landed on the doorway to the dining room to find Grant's face illuminated by candlelight coming from a…cake?

The girls burst into song, Grant singing flatly along and Beast Boy blushed as the man brought the cake to the table. Grant pushed aside plates and placed the cake down as the singing faded.

"Make a wish, love."

Warmth flowed in his chest and he closed his eyes, thinking. Happiness. He opened his eyes and blew out the candles. When they sparked back to life he burst into a grin.

"Trick candles!" He couldn't stop a laugh as Becca clapped and Angie grinned. "I love those!"

"Knew you would." Grant murmured with a soft smile and Beast Boy turned to face him, eyes bright.

"C'mon Daddy!" Angie prompted. "You gotta try again."

"Alright, alright, lil dudes!" He made a show of inhaling and blowing hard. He tried to stifle a laugh as the candles ignited again. "Maybe I outta just spit on the candles. Think that would keep them out? Can't have the house burning down on us!"

"Daddy!" The girls giggled and he brightened further.

"Help me blow them out, then!"

They did, Grant watching from the sidelines. Once the fire was out, Grant flicked on the lights and called. "Grab the presents for your father, children."

As they scampered away with affirmatives, the young man turned. "I thought–"

"Don't worry, I got you a present too." Grant waved a hand with a smile. "I'm afraid I didn't realize how long traffic would take. Otherwise, I would have been on time."

Becca and Angie returned with sloppily wrapped presents, clearly made by young hands, but with care all the same.

"Open mine first!" Becca chirped and plopped a small rectangular box into his hands. "Hurry!"

He grinned, blushing, and placed it atop the table. The colorful paper ripped beneath his hands and inside was…

"My own phone…?" he breathed, eyes wide and turning to his husband. "Grant, what…?"

"I got you that!" Becca protested. "And it's as green as you are!"

Beast Boy laughed and messed up her hair. "Well it's a wonderful gift, Becca. I love it! Thank you."

She beamed and batted a hand at Angie. "Your turn!"

Angie tried to hide her embarrassment as she presented a longer but flatter rectangular shape. On top was a piece of paper folded in various places and sorta resembled…

"That's a wonderful turtle, Angie!" He grinned. "I can see you've been practicing a lot."

She blushed and looked away, smiling. He pinched her cheek and she pouted, swatting away his hand as he laughed. He was just about to tickle her when Becca cut in with an impatient. "C'mon! Open it!"

He chuckled and returned to the present. Curiosity made his ears perk high as the paper tore to reveal–his jaw dropped.

"A laptop?" It felt as if he couldn't breathe. "What? How?"

Angie puffed her chest. "I got to pick the color! It's green like you, Daddy!"

"Yeah! It's cool like you!" Becca pitched in.

He sucked on the inside of his cheek, trying not to burst into tears. He blinked fast and bit his lip.

"Daddy…?" Angie caught on first to his distress.

His jaw lowered but nothing came out. How could he express how happy he was? They thought he was upset!

"Best for last, love." Grant cleared his throat and Beast Boy forced his eyes to meet the man's own. "The girls will be allowed to attend a private school. They begin this Monday."

The young man glowed. "Really? Really really?"

Grant just smiled, so soft and so gently that Beast Boy couldn't hold himself back. He launched himself at the man, hugging him tight, and the tears flowed freely. The girls rushed to his side, asking what was wrong, and he gathered them into his arms and returned to cuddling close to the broad chest.

"Thank you…" he managed through choked hiccups. "I love it all so much. Thank you."

Grant returned the hug and Beast Boy could feel the smile against his hair and the smiles pressed against the front of his own chest, and he stepped back with a giddy smile of his own.

"How's cake sound, dudes?" His cheeks hurt.

"It's artificial dairy." The man added and stepped around him to grasp the knife and cut the chocolate.

Beast Boy brightened like the only star in the sky and set the girls to the floor so they could grab some clean plates. While they rushed to the kitchen to raid the cabinets, Beast Boy approached Grant and ducked beneath a muscled arm to be in front of the man.

"Thank you," he murmured and pushed himself onto his tip toes to press a kiss against warm lips. "Thank you."

Grant grinned, light and affectionate and Beast Boy melted. His heart quickened speed as the man placed the knife down and gathered him into another hug, kissing him with care. Beast Boy hummed.

He hadn't felt so happy in a long time.

~oOo~

Notes:

Thanks for reading!