Disclaimer: I have no ownership of Teen Titans
Chapter 8
Aiyana sat outside of her hut in the early morning, drawing in the dirt with a stick, as she often did when she was bored. King Tawaba had left nearly an hour before to get Beast Boy. It had been three days since he'd been left out in the middle of the jungle to fend for himself in order to pass the second trial. She was quite worried and hoped he was alright. It was no secret that she cared deeply for him.
She looked up from the dirt for what seemed the hundredth time and, to her relief, saw King Tawaba walking into the village with Beast Boy. She smiled, jumped to her feet, and ran to them.
"Garfield, you're alright!" she said, wrapping her arms around him.
"Yow!" he cried out in pain.
Aiyana quickly let go of him and jumped back. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Are you okay?"
"Barely," he grumbled. "My body's bruised, scraped, and cut all over and I haven't had a decent meal in three days."
"Don't worry, you're home now," she said with a smile. "I'll go make you something to eat!"
"No, you don't have to," said Beast Boy. "Right now, I just wanna go sleep in my nice little hut."
He dragged himself passed her and did just as he said. He crawled into his hut and fell right to sleep. Poor Aiyana felt rather hurt, but King Tawaba put her feelings at ease.
"Don't worry, Aiyana," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "He'll be fine after a good sleep and a good meal. Don't take his attitude to heart."
Aiyana gave him a small smile and then returned to her own hut to go back to bed. She hadn't gotten much sleep those past three nights and now that Beast Boy was home and safe she knew she could sleep comfortably at last. And, like King Tawaba had said, once Beast Boy had slept a good long while and was given a large, hearty meal, he was put in good mood once more. He told everyone of the horrible experience he'd had and that he was surprised he'd survived.
"Well, I wasn't worried," said King Tawaba. "I knew you'd complete the trial successfully."
"I just hope I can live through the next one," said Beast Boy. "What is it?"
"You must prove you are strong and brave," said King Tawaba.
"How am I gonna do that?" asked Beast Boy.
"That is your own task," said King Tawaba. "Sooner or later an opportunity will present itself and it'll be up to you to prove that you're strong and brave."
"Is this why completing the trials sometimes takes years?" asked Beast Boy.
"It's part of the reason, yes," said King Tawaba.
"Well, at least this doesn't have a deadline," said Beast Boy. "For now, I can relax again."
After chatting for a little while longer Beast Boy decided to go find something to do with himself. He was about to go into his hut to wait for any more letters, since he thought they'd send him some more by now, when Aiyana quickly caught him.
"Hi Garfield!" she said with a large smile. "Are you feeling better, now?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he said, smiling as well.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
"Well, I was gonna go see if my friends were gonna send me any more letters," said Beast Boy.
"Your friends send you letters?" she asked. "How?"
"Well, you see, one of my friends knows a bit of magic and she's able to send me letters with a magic stone thingy," Beast Boy tried to explain. "And then I use the stone to send her stuff back."
"Your friend can use magic?" said Aiyana, with wide eyes. "Like, real magic?"
"Yeah, she's really good at it, too," said Beast Boy. "If you think me changing into animals is cool you should see her fly and make stuff move around."
"Wow, I'd like to meet her and see her do magic some day," said Aiyana.
"Actually, you've seen her before," said Beast Boy. "She's the one who came with me when I first arrived. Her name's Raven."
"Oh," said Aiyana, disappointed. "The one who had all of that dark clothing on and looked like she was going to die of heat exhaustion?"
"Yup, that's the one," Beast Boy laughed.
"I hope you don't mind me saying, but she was stranger looking than you," said Aiyana.
"You should see the rest of my team," Beast Boy chuckled. "And what do you mean she looks strange? Oh, you mean her purple hair and really pale skin? Yeah, that's just how she looks. Unlike me, she was born that way."
"She also had an odd look on her face," said Aiyana. "Like she really didn't want to be here. I don't think she likes you."
"No, that's how she always looks," said Beast Boy. "See, if she feels any emotions whatsoever her powers go all berserk and something usually gets destroyed. So, to keep all of us safe, she makes sure to never feel anything at all."
"She can't feel anything at all?" asked Aiyana.
"Nope, not a single emotion," said Beast Boy. "Out of all of us, I'd have to say she has it the roughest."
Suddenly there was a puff of smoke in front of them, causing Aiyana to scream and hide behind Beast Boy. He was slightly startled as well, but recognized the smoke. He looked down and saw a single letter with the stone resting atop of it.
"Cool! Another letter," he said, picking it up and pocketing the stone so he didn't lose it.
"Wow, I've never seen anything like that before," said Aiyana, still shocked.
"If that impresses you I can't wait for Raven to show you how she uses dark energy," Beast Boy smiled. He held the letter up and smelled it, to see whom it was from. He was quite surprised to smell herbal tea and lavender. "Speaking of Raven, she sent me this letter."
"How can you tell?" asked Aiyana.
"I recognized her smell," he said smiling and touching his nose.
"You know her smell?" said Aiyana, looking at him, oddly.
"Sure, I know the particular smell of just about everyone I'm close to," said Beast Boy.
"Then what do I smell like?" she asked, bashfully.
"You?" he said and took a sniff of the air around him. "You smell like bananas, actually."
"Those are my favorite!" said Aiyana. "I eat them all the time."
"That's probably why you smell like them," said Beast Boy, going into his hut. Aiyana quickly followed him inside.
"And, what does she smell like?" she asked.
"Who?" asked Beast Boy.
"Your friend, Raven," said Aiyana. "What does she smell like?"
"Why do you wanna know?" he laughed as he grabbed his notebook and pens.
"I just do," said Aiyana.
"Well, she smells like herbal tea and lavender," said Beast Boy.
"Does she smell better than me?" asked Aiyana.
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow and stared at Aiyana strangely. "Uh, okay, you just got really weird," he said, proceeding to exit the hut.
"Wait, where are you going?!" she said, quickly following after him.
"I'm gonna go read the letter and write one back," said Beast Boy. "It's too dark in the hut so I'm gonna go for a walk and find a nice place to sit."
"Can I come with you?" asked Aiyana.
"Well, this is kinda something personal, you know?" he said.
"I promise I won't look at the letter," said Aiyana.
"Even if you did you wouldn't be able to understand it," said Beast Boy. "It's in English."
"All the more reason I can come!" said Aiyana. "I'll keep you company."
"Sorry, Aiyana, but I kinda need some alone time," said Beast Boy.
"You just spent three days and nights alone!" said Aiyana.
"See you later!" he said with a smile and a wave as he ran off. Aiyana watched him leave and felt saddened again. She took a seat outside of her own hut, grabbed her drawing stick, and began to doodle in the dirt.
Beast Boy finally came to a stop and, out of breath, looked behind him. Aiyana hadn't followed him, thank goodness. He wasn't sure what her deal was. He liked hanging out with her, but she always wanted to be around him and now she was starting to ask really weird questions.
He found the tree he'd sat under a few days before when he'd gotten his care package and took a seat again. He opened Ravens letter and began to read.
Dear Beast Boy,
I don't know what you were thinking telling Starfire that the two of us should get our ears pierced but it's something I won't forgive you for anytime soon. We went to the mall to hang out and suddenly she blindfolds me and tells me she has a surprise for me. She leads me through the mall and then sits me down in a chair. I kept asking her what was going on but she was too excited to say anything at all. The next thing I know I feel these two things on either sides of my ears and before I could say anything I have earring studs injected into my lobes!
Beast Boy started laughing hysterically.
After nearly losing my control I had to sit there and watch Starfire not only get her ears pierced once, I had to watch them get pierced seven times! I told her not to, but she said the more times she got them pierced the prettier her ears would be. Robin's absolutely furious and now the two of them are fighting because she thinks they look pretty and he thinks she looks like trailer trash. And I've attempted taking my earrings out so they can heal, but Cyborg has this ridiculous idea that I should keep them in. I think I'm going to let them stop hurting and then take them out. Even when you're thousands of miles away you still cause chaos. And I also told everyone that you're not planning on coming home for a few years. Starfire began to cry, Cyborg's as sad as he can be, and Robin isn't sure what to do. He doesn't want to replace you, because we know that'd hurt your feelings, but missions have been getting increasingly harder without you here. So please let me know what your opinion is. Oh, and how did your trial go?
-Raven
Beast Boy took out his notebook and grabbed a pen.
Dear Raven,
Hey, Starfire got the idea to get her ears pierced and asked me if I liked the idea. I did, so I told her. I didn't tell her to trick you into getting your ears pierced, too. And I'm with Cyborg, I think you should keep the earrings. As for Starfire, I think she should take out at least four earrings in each ear. Seven's a bit much. And my trial went okay. Meaning I survived. The next trial is that I have to prove that I'm strong and brave. Luckily I can take as long as I want to do this trial. As for if you guys should replace me, as much as I don't like saying it, I think you should for now. If you need the help then it'd be stupid not to get it just because it might hurt my feelings. I know you guys could never replace a stud like me.
-Beast Boy