I hope to one day be a successful author, and maybe own the Teen Titans.
Beast Boy absently watched Raven make her morning tea as he waited for their leader to usher them to training. He was reluctantly getting used to the early morning routine, though the thought of curling back beneath his comforter was almost enough to make him fall asleep, then and there, on the kitchen floor. But rather than dwell on the empty promise of returning to bed, he decided to focus on the empath before him.
Raven had definitely seemed more lively since he had offered to help her deal with her emotions, though she had barely approached him. Besides the bathroom and couch incidents, he found that their relationship hadn't really changed. And that was kind of disappointing. Realistically, he knew they wouldn't just become best friends overnight, but he had expected at least a conversation or two. But the only time they ever spoke was when she was providing him with rules or berating him for being too noisy.
As the half-demon removed her kettle from the stove, Beast Boy idly wondered if he should make an attempt at a conversation - though he had no idea what to talk about. He knew she liked books, and libraries, and poems, and basically anything and everything that screamed "boring", but he wasn't the best person to discuss that kind of stuff with. Honestly, he knew why they weren't the greatest of friends, since their hobbies differed so greatly, but he decided that he needed to take a chance and fill the gap between them.
"So, any new, interesting, uh..." He immediately drew a blank as she turned to face him, delicately blowing across the surface of her freshly poured tea.
She quirked her eyebrow curiously as she waited for him to continue, and he suddenly felt his humiliation cloud any coherent thoughts. What the heck was there to talk about?
"Uhm, t-tea flavors?" he squeaked, giving her a sheepish smile.
Raven rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her tea and pushed past him. "Since when are you interested in tea?"
Beast Boy let out an awkward chuckle as he followed her to the table, before sitting down across from her. So far, they were the only two in the common room. Cyborg was probably already in the training room, programming whatever crazy scenario Robin came up with for their training that day. The boy wonder himself was most likely with him, breathing down his neck and correcting any miscalculations the half-robot may have made.
Starfire's absence, on the other hand, was a bit strange. The alien was usually a redheaded ray of sunshine in the mornings, and yet she was nowhere to be found.
Sensing that his conversation on tea wouldn't be going anywhere, Beast Boy ignored the empath's question in favor of asking one of his own.
"Have you seen Star this morning?"
Raven looked up from her tea momentarily to meet his gaze, before darting her eyes towards the common room doors.
"She hadn't been feeling too well last night - I wouldn't be surprised if she was getting sick," she mused in her monotone.
Hearing this made Beast Boy straighten in his seat slightly. It was rare for Starfire to feel ill, but when she did, the tower was thrown into chaos. Robin became frantic, Cyborg would be adamant on taking blood samples for future reference, and Raven would reluctantly agree to keeping an eye on her. And if that were to happen, Beast Boy's chances of getting closer to the empath would shrink.
Everyone knew that Starfire was a strong girl, and that her illness would never last longer than a week, but the idea of postponing his plans didn't sit well with him. And neither did the fact that Robin would use up the titan's free time to do everything in their power to make the alien feel better, or train harder, to make up for the member out of commission.
"Ugh, that sucks!" he complained, earning an incredulous look from his teammate. Giving her a sheepish smile, he attempted to amend his exclamation. "Y-you know, for her."
Raven shook her head in amusement as she brought her mug to her lips once more, her eyes darting back to the doors. Beast Boy watched as she stared at them blankly, before suddenly turning back towards him.
"Okay, I believe we have about five minutes before anyone comes looking for us, so I say we take advantage of this time," she announced quickly.
With hardly any time for him to protest, Raven stood from her chair and walked around the table, before grabbing the changeling's arm and pulling him up. Beast Boy complied in confusion as she dragged him towards the couch and pushed him onto it, before sitting down gently beside him. As he sat himself upright, Raven closed the distance between their bodies quickly.
"I'm going to apologize first, since this is quite sudden, but Starfire had insisted on a girl's night last night," she explained dryly, seemingly ignoring the look of flustered confusion on her teammate's face. "You know that author who writes all of those whiny romance novels that somehow always get turned into movies where some character dies at the end from cancer or something? Well, we ended up marathoning a few of those, and now I'm going to need your help getting all of that garbage out of my head."
Beast Boy attempted to follow along, but the insanity of the situation made it a bit difficult for him. His eyes widened slightly as Raven rested one of her hands on his thigh, and placed her other hand on the back of his neck. Her face moved closer to his, and he could detect her barely-there blush, as well as a few freckles he hadn't realized she had.
"Now, you remember the rules?" she asked curtly. Without waiting for his answer, she listed them off anyway. "My pace, no questions?"
Nodding timidly, he watched with bated breath as her face got even closer. There was barely an inch between their mouths, and a mixture of anxiety and excitement swirled in his stomach.
"Oh, and one more thing," she began, her breath ghosting across his lips. "Can you try to do something with your mouth this time? I swear, it was like kissing a wall. If that's all you can offer, I'm going to have to reconsider this whole arrangement."
Beast Boy began to part his lips in protest, but found that they were suddenly busy as Raven completely closed the space between them.
Though he was still taken by surprise, he was able to gather his senses in a reasonable amount of time. The feeling of his teammate's lips against his own was undeniably foreign, and yet somewhat enjoyable. They were soft, which was incredibly pleasant, and the sensual feeling of them moving along with his was nice. He hadn't really kissed a girl before (besides the occasional goodnight-peck from his adoptive mother Rita when he was younger - which really didn't count - and the whatever it was with Raven when she had ambushed him in the bathroom), but he felt like he was doing a decent job. Raven didn't seem to be complaining, and the fact that she was pulling him closer to deepen the kiss was sure to be a good sign. Deciding to make the most of the odd situation, Beast Boy allowed his hands to explore a bit.
Moving them from his lap, he was momentarily caught off guard as he met the bare skin of his teammate's knee. But when she made no move to stop him, he took his other hand and placed it at her waist, feeling the surprisingly soft fabric of her leotard.
She apparently took their new position as an invitation to bring herself even closer to him, and Beast Boy's back began to ache as he attempted to keep them upright. Her hand on his neck soon traveled into his hair, where she began threading her fingers through it gently. The sensation caused a purr to rise in his throat, earning a snort of amusement from the empath as she pulled away for air.
"Are you..." she began with a smirk, her eyes gleaming with mirth.
Beast Boy hurriedly cut her off by clearing his throat, his face reddening in embarrassment.
"It, uh, it happens sometimes," he admitted sheepishly, avoiding her gaze. He realized suddenly that they were still holding onto each other, and he could feel his face getting hotter. "A-are you good, now?" he mumbled awkwardly.
He spared a glance at the half-demon, catching sight of her own blush as she began to release him.
"The emotions have quieted down considerably," she deadpanned, before completely removing her hands from him and scooting a few feet away. "So, yes, I believe I'm good. Thank you, Beast Boy. You have no idea how much your coöperation is helping me."
Beast Boy grinned at her praise as he noticed that the dullness in her eyes had vanished, replaced by what he assumed to be a content feeling. "No problem, Rae - I mean, this thing is definitely gonna take some getting used to, but it's all for the best!"
"Definitely," she agreed, giving him a thankful smile. They stared at each other awkwardly for several moments, before Raven took the initiative to break the sudden silence. "Well, we better head towards the training room. Robin's undoubtedly getting impatient."
They both stood from the couch at the same time, though neither made a move to leave as their eyes again locked awkwardly. Another few moments of silenced passed between them, before Raven broke it once more.
"I'll go check on Starfire," she announced swiftly, turning from the changeling and making her way towards the exit.
Beast Boy watched as she slipped through the doorway, before following behind her. Though instead of heading towards the alien's room, he raced in the direction of the training room, as not to make his and Raven's delay seem suspicious.
He was greeted with a grunt from his leader as the boy wonder paced behind Cyborg, who was busy typing in commands on the computer. Beast Boy caught a glimpse of the difficulty level, and felt himself groan in exasperation. He hated anything above a level four, and it seemed Robin wanted to make things twice as horrible by demanding a level eight.
"Where are the girls?"
Taken aback by his leader's sudden question, Beast Boy blinked rapidly as an instant replay of what he now dubbed "the couch and kiss incident" flashed through his brain.
"I don't know," he replied quickly, his fingers fidgeting at his sides as he avoided looking at the masked titan. "Why would I know? I mean, they're girls - don't girls always take a long time getting ready in the morning? Heck, maybe Star's sick or something - I have no idea!"
He could feel Robin watching him curiously, but before his leader could comment on his odd behavior, Raven walked through the door. Alone.
"Starfire isn't feeling well, and requested to skip training this morning," she deadpanned, not acknowledging anyone in particular as she made her way further into the room.
Beast Boy watched from the corner of his eye as Robin stiffened immediately.
"Star's sick? What's wrong with her? Is she okay?"
The changeling let out a small huff of amusement at his leader's concern, before directing his gaze towards the empath.
Raven stood a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest and her hood raised. He idly realized that she had neglected to wear her cloak earlier, and wondered if she had gone back to her room to retrieve it.
"She's fine, Robin," Raven started to say, but the masked titan was already racing out of the room, no doubt on his way to check on his sort-of girlfriend.
"Wow, you totally called it, BB," Cyborg laughed, speaking for the first time since the changeling had entered the room.
Trading a skeptical glance with the half-demon, Beast Boy let out a sheepish laugh. "Heh, yeah - hey! Maybe I'm a psychic!"
His suggestion was met with a snort of amusement from the half-robot and an eye-roll from the half-demon. Letting out a huff of mock-frustration, Beast Boy hesitantly made his way towards the control panel, attempting to get a good look at what the training session would entail.
Cyborg must have realized what he was trying to do, and quickly covered the screen.
"Uh, uh, grass stain! Rob wants us to be prepared for surprise attacks, so nobody gets a peek! Hell, I have to put it on random, so even I won't know!"
Beast Boy let out an exasperated sigh as his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Dude! That sucks! I hate surprises... Unless there's like cake and presents involved!"
Cyborg let out another chuckle at his teammate's antics, before typing in one last code. He then pressed the start button, and Beast Boy watched as the screen blinked several times, before the word "Ready" popped up.
"Well, everything's all set!" the robotic titan announced proudly, taking a step back from the machine and turning to face his teammates. "Now all we gotta do is wait for Rob to get back."
"Which shouldn't be too long," Raven mused dryly. "After all, since it's Starfire who's sick, he won't insist on taking her temperature or anything. He'll just take her word for it."
Cyborg hummed in agreement, while Beast Boy's expression quickly turned to one of annoyance. Last time he had claimed he was sick, their leader had not only demanded Cyborg to take his temperature - he had the half-robot take a blood sample and analyze his saliva.
Beast Boy hadn't only been irritated by the whole ordeal - he had been livid; especially since the boy wonder deemed him healthy enough to train. And though he knew if Starfire's illness lasted longer than a day or two, Cyborg would be ordered to do the same to her, it still bothered him that the alien always got special treatment.
But, the fact that Robin was harboring the biggest crush on the redhead was reason enough to just ignore the obvious favoritism.
As expected, their leader returned shortly, confirming that the alien was, indeed, too ill to attend training. He then proceeded to explain what Cyborg had already informed them of, only adding that their quick thinking and reflexes would be recorded into the computer to enhance their own personal training regimen.
Beast Boy tried to stifle a yawn as he watched Robin demonstrate the course, barely breaking a sweat. Even though the masked titan's skills were quite admirable, the changeling found that they became rather unimpressive when one would see them over and over again.
Next up was Cyborg, who also blew through the course, though the level of difficulty did take its toll. He was obviously disappointed with his final score as he let out an exasperated groan.
It was now Raven's turn, and Beast Boy watched with interest as she made quick work of the obstacles, her powers working flawlessly. He couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself - after all, he had helped her to vent out some emotions earlier, which obviously took a weight off her shoulders. So her successful run was, in part, thanks to him. She finished gracefully, beating their leader's time by several seconds and earning a round of applause from the boy wonder himself.
Hoping to attain a similar score, Beast Boy stepped onto the course with new-found confidence. But he found that it quickly depleted as he shifted his way past the many obstacles, morphing between flight-enabled creatures and strength-possessing primates. He wasn't doing horrible, but he knew that Robin would probably lecture him on focus and dedication.
Thankfully, though, the alarm began blaring, signalling a crime alert as the training course automatically shut down and the lights began flashing red.
"Titans, go!" Robin commanded almost immediately, and the four of them quickly raced from the room.
Beast Boy usually hated morning alerts, but he hated Robin's lectures even more, so the distraction was welcomed. He just hoped that it would be a quick battle, against somebody harmless, like Control Freak or Mumbo. That way, they could return to the tower shortly and he would maybe get some free time before lunch.
As he and Raven headed towards the roof entrance, he couldn't help but blush as she grabbed his hand and phased them through the ceiling, rather than taking the extra few seconds to take the stairs. She had done that kind of thing countless times before, but after their kiss from this morning, Beast Boy was finding that any physical contact with the empath caused his stomach to swirl.
He only hoped it was a temporary feeling - one that wouldn't get any worse.
Again, thank you guys for the reviews and whatnot! They are super duper encouraging, so feel free to keep it up! Also, any constructive criticism is welcomed - like, if you feel anybody is being completely OOC, let me know! And I am trying to make my chapters a tad bit longer, so I'm sorry if they seem unnecessarily wordy - I'm sure they'll get better as we go along!
Anywhoo, like I said, reviews are so appreciated, and favorites and follows are just as amazing! And I really hope you guys enjoy this story, despite it being a little different than what you're used to from me! :D