A/N I watched "You've Got Mail" the other day and confirmed to myself what I'd believed for a while now: I'm a bit of a romantic. And what that means is that I think about doing romantic things but don't carry them out. Mostly because I don't date (Thirty year old fanfic author not dating? I know! It's weird.), but still, no follow through. Raven of Alaska, I don't give spoilers. :-)
Disclaimer – The Teen Titans are a group of five super-powered teenagers who fight for justice, and I don't believe in slave or child labor, so I don't own them. We should all boycott Warner Brothers for doing that to children…to CHILDREN!!
A Year In The Life – March – Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade? (Bob Merrill)
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It was a bright and sunny day as Beast Boy strode into the common room with as much swagger as his skinny little frame could manage. Sure he had grown, but it was so hard to tell when everyone else you lived with was growing too. Well, everyone except Cyborg. The one measuring stick in the whole tower still towered over him by at least a foot. The only good news was that it wasn't two feet anymore.
It was that same technological teen that noticed Beast Boy's inflated nature and grinned as his friend pretended to be showing off the muscles of a much more daunting figure than he possessed. "Alright, I'll bite. You finally get a date or something?" It went unnoticed, but Raven seemed to have stopped in her reading at this point. More noticeable was that Robin and Starfire had looked over to hear the answer.
"Dude, it is so much better than a date. I..." And here Beast Boy paused for dramatic effect; it nearly worked. "...get to be the grand marshal for the Saint Patrick's Day parade!" Seeing as how everyone still looked a little under whelmed he clarified. "Come on! They had Green Lantern last year and the Hulk the year before that and Green Archer before him! It is so totally cool I get to do it this year!"
"But you've been in lots of parades. They had one in almost every city we went to after we caught the Brain."
Beast Boy waved his hand dismissively at Cyborg's offhanded comment. "Yeah, yeah, but this one is just me. I get to do it by myself. That totally rocks."
"I remember when Green Lantern came in." Robin had finally decided to join the conversation. "He was kinda stiff, you know? Stuck in soldier mode, but at least he talked to us like we were equals."
"See? It's a cool thing, and it's the first time people are gonna see me as me and not just as part of the group."
"You do not wish to be a Titan anymore?" Starfire asked with slight worry. And since it was slight in Starfire's range of emotions it meant that it was with a quaver in her voice and a glossing of the eyes in preparation for the tears that would surely follow if her fears weren't alleviated.
"No! No, nothing like that, Star." Beast Boy said waving his hands. "It's just that I'm always the kid of the gang. This is like when I got my driver's license. It's something else that shows I'm not that kid anymore."
Robin laughed and quickly stopped to explain himself to a now glaring changeling. "I'm not laughing at you, Beast Boy...well, okay, I am, but not the way you think. You led the Titans when we finally caught the Brain and freed everybody who'd been captured at the same time. I don't think I could've called you a kid for over a year now…not really anyway."
"Me neither, dawg. I mean, you'll always be a little grass stain, but that's just 'cause we kinda grew up together."
Beast Boy smiled, but it slipped away almost as soon as it appeared. "Yeah, but that's you guys. You're my friends; you're supposed to do that stuff. It's like I get to prove it to the rest of the world."
"So let's go the whole nine yards then." Robin always did have an overly expressive face when he wanted to use it. How else could you show that you were planning something with just a look in your eyes when you wore a mask? "We'll make you leader of the Titans for Saint Patrick's Day and we'll all walk in front of your float or whatever as a kind of honor guard."
"Oh Robin that is a wonderful idea!" Starfire said gliding forward happily.
"You'd do that?" And when Robin nodded the corners of Beast Boy's mouth made for the top of his head. "This is the most awesome thing ever…Dude, I am so not pranking you for at least a month."
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The days that followed were filled with the usual crime fighting that comes from living in a large city that constantly needs your help. Mixed into this everyday life were bits and nuggets of the upcoming celebration. An official looking package had arrived a week before the parade from the mayor's office that had some general guidelines to follow as well as tips on how to ride a float. They were providing a large flatbed style platform for Beast Boy to use so that he could shape shift as they went down the main route.
Starfire had somehow managed to talk Robin (and through him the others as well) into wearing uniforms so that they looked the part of a distinguished honor guard. The mayor had loved the idea of the other Titans being in the parade and quickly had them in charge of bearing the grand marshal's sign. Cyborg had been the most difficult in getting to wear a uniform, not because he protested, but because his had needed to be custom made and took three times as much material as the other's.
I'd like to talk about how excited everyone was or about how funny it was to watch Beast Boy trying to act as much the part of the dignified honoree as he could, but that's not what happened. As the parade neared Beast Boy had instead become increasingly nervous and nitpicked over every detail until he had caused most of his teammates to lose what enjoyment they were taking in the festivities; except for Robin who seemed oddly pleased with the whole ordeal. Most likely because the things nitpicked over were things that his overly keen eye kept spotting as well.
When the actual parade date arrived and everyone found their places in the procession after a quick word or two with the parade manager, the fun and excitement of the thing returned. Beast Boy had been told that the platform that made up his float had been specially brought in so that he could change into pretty much anything due to its extremely high weight tolerance.
He couldn't help but smile like a child in a toy store near Christmas as he climbed up onto the float. The uniforms that the other Titans were wearing looked perfect. He couldn't believe they'd even talked Raven into ditching her cloak to don the military style uniform that had been specially made to be the same color as his hair. He laughed to himself when he caught her looking embarrassed as he stared.
The blast of a bullhorn announced that it was time to start things up and the four Titans walking in front of the float took up their banner and led the procession out from behind city hall to Main street.
Wanting to make a big entrance Beast Boy shifted into a polar bear and let out as loud a roar as he could. The crowd went instantly insane and screamed for more. If there's one thing Beast Boy was addicted to, it was attention, and the people lined along the parade route were gladly giving him his fix as he showed off to their applause.
Beast Boy was feeling giddy with the cheers and elated that his friends were enjoying themselves too. He'd seen Robin and Starfire waving at anyone who called out to them and Cyborg had somehow gotten his sonic cannon to shoot candy to several of the children they'd passed. He even caught Raven smiling back at him a few times after particularly loud "ooh"s and "ahh"s from the audience.
He'd managed to catch her eye after a little girl had called out "kitty" at the green tiger she saw. She looked radiant to him until he realized that it was the glare from the explosion going off in the building they were next to.
The custom Harley that came flying out of the wreckage landed neatly on the street in front of the parade and Johnny Rancid managed to somehow screech his tires as he speed away making rude gestures with both hands.
It seemed as if the entire world had stopped to gape, but the illusion was broken when the familiar call of "Titans, go!" came. Yet, nearly everyone who'd heard the call just turned their heads to stare at the skinny, green kid who'd squeaked out the order.
Beast Boy and Robin were a full block away when the rest of the Titans realized that they'd heard correctly, that Robin had followed, and that they were lagging behind.
A quick shift into a pterodactyl and a deft grab of Robin and the two titans in the lead gained altitude to see where the fleeing villain had gone.
Sadly, Beast Boy's first official stint as leader turned out to be a little bit of a let down. As soon as he and Robin had cleared the tops of the apartment buildings that surrounded them on all sides, they'd found Johnny Rancid neatly contained in a dumpster that he had crashed into after taking a sharp turn down an alley.
He still kept up his duties as leader though and called in to the local police station for a pick up and a tow of the wrecked bike. And he'd done the obligatory statement so the men in blue could file a proper report. AND he'd managed to do it all with a very professional air.
After they'd tied up the last of the loose ends that needed knotting, Beast Boy remarked about how they needed to get back to the parade. And when Starfire had asked if they would get in trouble for holding everything up, Beast Boy simply said, "Nah, I told 'em to just keep going without us if anything came up." He ignored Cyborg's look of incredulity.
The walk back to the parade float was short what with Rancid's snafu, and soon everyone was back in their positions. Beast Boy was showing off again, Robin and Starfire had gotten some...strange...chant going through the crowd, mostly due to Starfire's interesting turns of phrase, Cyborg was reloading his candy cannon, much to the delight of some smaller children who had been sure that video games, toys, and mud were all more fun than standing on a street, and Raven had gone the entire time without scowling at one single person.
The procession was reaching the halfway point, right in front of the Wayne Corporation tower. The plan for the day was that the parade would stop, Beast Boy would make a little speech, the people who'd put in all the money for the event would get a nod, and then they'd be off again.
Beast Boy made his way up to the podium amidst cheers and clapping. He started with a little joke about needing to go home because he was feeling green, except no one laughed, only not for the usual reasons. Instead, it was because his voice had been drowned out by the bank alarm going off in the next block over. It must have been quite the shock for Mammoth to burst through the wall with his arms loaded full of money bags to find the Teen Titans, the chief of police and his immediate subordinates, the Jump City Women's Guild, and half the city's citizens staring at him. To his credit, he only stood there looking like a complete moron for a second or two before he gave a cocky smirk and bolted.
Beast Boy called out the Titan's battle cry again, though this time the entire team rallied to the call. Beast Boy called for Robin and Starfire to check if any of Mammoth's usual crowd were still in the bank while he grabbed Cyborg and told Raven to cut in front of the over sized Neanderthal.
Mammoth, thinking that all five Titans were hot on his tail, looked behind himself and stopped short finding the street empty. He looked up just in time to see Cyborg fire off his cannon. The attack was devastatingly point blank except that candy didn't seem to hit as hard as the sonic waves that were normal used. Cursing himself, Cyborg quickly switched up his ammo.
Mammoth called out a few choice taunts as he sprinted off, blowing a bubble with his newly acquired gum.
He laughed when he turned the corner and saw clear sailing, knowing that he would be able to lose them once he'd gotten to the Hive's secret tunnels. The two cars that suddenly slammed together with him in the middle didn't find anything funny about the whole ordeal.
Slightly groggy, but able to shake it off quickly, he spotted Raven hurtling another car at him and only just dodged it. But the dodge had cost him, Cyborg and Beast Boy had caught up and Cyborg's cannon blast and a tail whip from a T-Rex Beast Boy put him down for the count. A quick call on the communicator clued Robin in to where they were. He reported back that Mammoth had been the only one to make any unauthorized withdrawals, and that the only money missing was the bags holding the bank's monthly change delivery.
All Beast Boy could do after he radioed in the police was a pitiful laugh.
The trip back to the parade was longer this time. Mammoth had gotten farther away from the route than Johnny had, and the parade had moved on, acting under Beast Boy's orders. When the team caught up, they found the various marching bands, local community groups, and men on tiny mopeds with silly hats all stopped. Since there weren't supposed to be any more stops until the finish back at city hall, Beast Boy raced ahead while Cyborg called after him saying it was probably just a float malfunction somewhere in the line.
He absolutely hated it when Cyborg was right.
The malfunction in question was that the lead float, HIS float, had decided to be stolen. Being such a well designed piece of machinery, the thing had actually been fast enough for the other members of the parade to completely lose sight of it. After being pointed in the right direction and hearing that it was some fat kid in a trench coat, Beast Boy let slip another "Titan's go!" and was quickly off to the races as a greyhound.
When the trail started to go cold several blocks later Beast Boy called for everyone to split up for a wider search, though he needn't have bothered. The sudden emergence of a small, yet impressive looking building driving up the street some how distracted everyone from following the order.
And it was with great annoyance that they watched as Control Freak leaned out of a window to taunt them about their impending doom.
"You stole my float and ruined the parade to make a mobile home?!"
The ginger haired jelly bowl sneered at the comment and started bragging at length about his "mobile tactical fortress" and its many defense systems and weapons. To prove his point he hit the largest button on the remote control in his hands and a surprising number of laser cannons popped out and self-targeted at various members of the team.
It was a curious thing to watch Beast Boy. He seemed to have just finished some internal decision and was marching straight towards the window that Control Freak was in. The cannons all seemed to go off at the same time and yet it didn't seem to do anything to slow Beast Boy's advance on the building. Beams would be perfectly aimed at his head and chest but a quick shift into a snake and then a small bird and once again the green boy was marching directly at his opponent.
Control Freak looked unnerved by the whole thing and started hitting buttons on his remote hastily. The concussion grenades that came pinging into Beast Boys path were either swiped away to explode harmlessly on the sidelines or were simply ignored through one form or another that could take the impact.
The oil slick that came next became a slide for an otter. The caltrops that littered the ground watched a mouse scurry along between the spiked balls. And the iron plating that suddenly blocked the windows and doors was breached after a few impacts from a Tyrannosaurus tail whip.
The other Titans, who had been too busy dodging laser fire themselves to keep pace with Beast Boy were suddenly treated to a girlish shriek, a muted thud, and a grunt of pain. Most of the cannons had been taken out in the battle, but it was still a relief to watch all the remaining ones go dead. And when the front door to the building opened up Beast Boy came slowly out dragging Control Freak behind him.
Robin had been about to praise Beast Boy's daring do during the duel when a massive cheer erupted from down the street. The fight, it seems, had somehow managed to end close enough to the parade route that many had seen the it, and consequently, the victory the Titan's had just won. And the cheers just grew louder when Beast Boy came fully into view. In fact, it took a full twenty minutes before the mayor's bullhorn could be heard over the ruckus calling for the parade to get back on track.
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That night Beast Boy slumped down onto the couch in his usual spot near the middle. His face looked tired, but happy and his friends were still talking about the strangeness of the day. He watched as Cyborg munched on leftover candy while Robin explained some saying or other to Starfire. He then lolled his head in the other direction and caught Raven's eye from her place at the end of the couch. She smiled lightly in return of his sleepy grin and asked if he was ready to take up the lead full time.
The only thing Beast Boy could muster to say was, "Maybe next year."
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A/N So…guess how long a period of time this fic's gonna cover………I'll wait………Hey! You're smart. Reviews are appreciated if you write more than one sentence. Anyway, the opinions expressed in the preceding fan fiction are solely those of the author and in no way reflect the views of your creepy aunt Edna. She's just nuts.