Raven

3 months later

I'm knocked senseless out of the sky by a blinding ray of light. I had let my guard down for just one moment, to protect Hot Spot when he was too busy being aggressive with his fighting to actually take care. He tended to do that; lose his patience and do the more dangerous thing. This time it cost me and I lost all of my breath when I was shot out of the clouds. Our team needs a lot more work.

I should have woke from the sense that surged through my belly as I fell, but I'm utterly drained. My shield around Hot Spot disintegrates and I can't even muster up the energy to stop my fall. I can hear everyone losing their cool below, exclaiming in fear for me. I want to tell them to hush so I can focus, but instead someone else takes care of everything for me. Pain shoots through my shoulders and I'm suddenly flying. while the sound of a screeching bird fills my ears. Thank god for Beast Boy.

I'm laid down on the asphalt of the road, and my vision is blurry while I slowly begin to heal my sight. My eyes were seriously damaged by Doctor Light's blow to me, and I have to be fast. I can't defend myself in this state and my team is down a member. I hear the low familiar hum of another beam about to blow me away.

Not a moment too soon, I'm lifted onto something soft and warm, but it pokes me sharply from beneath me as wind surges around us. We're moving erratically. Someone besides me is panting hard. I realize muscles are what I'm feeling under me, pulled tight and released in leaps and bounds. The uncomfortable jabs are raised hackles. I can see blurred green fur and dark stripes. I'm being carried by an enormous tiger. I silently thank him and begin to do my best at recovering my vision and taking care of the burns all along my body that I'm just now beginning to feel. His hair rubbing all over it is making the pain worse.

Beast Boy zigzags all over the road to avoid going down under fire, and I can hear the other Titans whirring around me into action. Light is much more attentive to me than he used to be, when he feared me. I can guess that he still does a bit, otherwise he wouldn't be trying so hard to take me out first. We've run into him three times in the past month, and each time he has managed to blind me at some point.

It's taking a toll, honestly. My eyes regenerate everything that they need, and I work on my burns just as my tiger mount rounds into an alleyway and kneels to lay me on the ground. I lean against the wall, scrunching my nose up at the smell of the dumpster next to me. My hands cover the burns on my legs and side, my uniform torn. It sticks to my flesh like a band aid and I hiss.

The tiger leans in and its huge face rubs against my much smaller head in comparison. I feel sharp tongue spikes run through my hair and I shiver, temporarily relieved of my pain to find myself quite annoyed. I know it's precisely what he meant to do. I look up at the creature standing over me and find that I'm probably never going to get used to the wild look in Beast Boy's eyes whenever he's an animal. Particularly, a big one. It just looks like a discolored beast. There almost isn't any trace of himself in it, until he lets out a comforting series of huffs and leaves me to heal, dashing back around the corner into battle.

I really appreciate him sometimes.

Hot Spot, however, I hope will get an earful.

"All right, Hot Head, what the fuck is up?" Beast Boy snaps, waving his arms above his head as we all silently enter the top floor of the tower. He breaks the awkward silence by saying everything the rest of us had been thinking, and I don't bother to calm him. I'm tired and cranky from the encounter and having to deal with my injuries and sit out of more than half of the fight. I'm more than happy to let my comrade continue hounding the other one. "You put her in danger by straying from the plan! Like always! You know Light always fucking goes for her and you let her save your ass while she got knocked out because of you."

Aqualad usually would have intervened by now, but I can tell he's just as angry with Hot Spot. Hot Spot himself is afraid to speak up, guilt-ridden, yet he's close to fighting physically. I sense him trembling and Argent grabs his arm just as it raises.

"I'm sorry," Hot Spot grumbles, and refuses to look at anyone.

"Tell her, not me," Beast Boy growls. I don't have to look at him to know his eyes are dark and the pupils are dilated.

"I'm sorry." All eyes on me.

I shrug halfheartedly. I want nothing more than to carry on being mad. However, my wounds are gone, and I don't want to be the reason this team falls apart already. "It's fine."

"Rae-"

"It's fine, Beast Boy," I assure him, and lay a hand on his shoulder just as he opens his mouth to argue. "We have more to worry about. Although, I need to ask that we all keep to our original strategies. Please. Unless it is for the greater good. I don't enjoy being burned to a crisp every time we run into Doctor Light just because he's terrified of me."

"Agreed," Argent sighs from Hot Spot's side. I watch her tangle her fingers with her friend's, and I'm satisfied. She has proved to be a wonderful asset to the team. Not just because of her dark style that I'm quite attracted to; she's a great fighter, and she seems close to Hot Spot. I fear that if she wasn't here, he would be unmanageable. It's a shame, because he's just as good a member, if it weren't for his pointed personality. I assume the fire must come emotionally as well as physically.

Beast Boy gives up and relaxes slightly. I see the muscles under his suit loosen. He no longer looks poised to strike. Good.

He has done this with me ever since we arrived. He's very protective, probably because the two of us are from the same original team.

Hot Spot was less than friendly at the start, though Argent was quite approachable. Unfortunately, the two were inseparable and still are. They're a set. Hot Spot tends to be ultra negative while I keep neutrally pessimistic. There is a difference. Naturally, we clash a little. All of us do. No one wants to be around Hot Spot, but everyone loves Argent.

Beast Boy, Aqualad and I spend the most time together, and I figure Argent doesn't mind that much. I feel she and the hothead are likely a pair, or will be if they aren't already. And the two boys tend to drive me insane when the three of us are alone, because they bicker, as much as they like each other.

The only way to avoid drama entirely is to be alone or with only Beast Boy. Which, honestly, I find to be relaxing. Sometimes he meditates with me, and if he can't focus, he takes a nap in my bed while I meditate. It's the small, thoughtful things like that that make me enjoy his company more than the others'. The things I know he does because we have history, not because it's just polite.

I ask him to meditate with me often. It provides his scent on my pillows for me to fall asleep to later. A tiny, embarrassing thing I allow myself. Much to my surprise, he smells of the woods and late cold nights; not dirty socks and old pizza. I should really give him more credit.

Beast Boy

I don't like that Raven lets it go so easily when she could have been hurt a whole lot worse, but it's unlike me to carry on a fight that easily simmers down. My eyes are trained on her while we all part ways to get the rest of the energy out of our system, or sleep it off. She seems better than when I'd left her in the alley. Just exhausted.

"Rest time?" I ask once Aqualad is out of earshot. He's always worrying over Raven, too, and it bugs me. I realize that it's normal behavior but I still don't like it. Being away from home with only one real companion has made me somewhat territorial.

How embarrassing.

"I think so," she replies quietly, holding her head in one hand.

"Well, I'll walk you there, then," I say while I shuffle my feet. I have absolutely no reason to assist her or hover over her when she's perfectly able to take care of herself, and has already. Time and time again. I hold my breath, and only exhale when she says that she would appreciate it if I came with her.

She really doesn't sense it. How weird things have become.

I had been the first to react when she was hit by the ray of light. No one else was going to take her from me once I had her in my grasp. Aqualad offered. Instead, I had thundered past him, only providing a low snarl in my throat for him to get away. When I dumped her on the ground against the side of a building, I was too nervous to shift back into my human form. What would I say? You're welcome? Of course I would. I did stuff like that all the time at home. I made jokes after it happened. But not this time. I licked her. With my tongue.

My confusion tugs at me until I want to rip it out of me with my bare hands. Instead, I trail along after her to the elevator and press the button for her floor while she holds onto the railing. I do everything I can not to look at her. I don't even know why. She just puts me on edge. This never used to happen, not even when she slapped me in the face at least three times a day.

I pause at the door of her room, lost in thought, before it dawns on me that this is where I leave her.

She glances back at me expectantly. "Come in? We can read for a while."

This is definitely not what would have happened if we were home. Since our arrival, all the boundaries just disappeared. She never mentions it, so I don't either. But it's driving me insane.

All it took was the right lighting and our first night here and one look at her and I knew. I'd either made the best decision of my life to come here or I had just ruined everything we had ever established.

She's so innocent, for a half-demon. My timid, sarcastic goth girl. Asking me to come in.

"Sure," I find myself saying, giving a toothy grin as I step inside.

I've told Cyborg a little about my newfound emotions in the last few weeks. He likes to make fun of me and he thinks I'm joking about it or seeing too much into things. He's probably right. I silence my phone. I'll keep this to myself.