(A/N) I'm sitting here, trying to compose my thoughts while the Philadelphia Flyers home crowd chants ***hole at the ref after a bad call. It resulted in a goal, so you've got to give them some leeway, but jeez – there's got to be a ton of kids in that audience getting a bit of an education. I love playoff hockey and all of its insanity. (The game's been a good one too.)
Disclaimer – I don't own the Teen Titans. Happy! Me neither.
A Year In The Life – October –Every day each of us wakes up, reaches into drawers and closets, pulls out a costume for the day and proceeds to dress in a style that can only be called preposterous. (Mary Schmich)
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It had become a tradition that on Halloween the Titans didn't wear their costumes. For whatever reason, the day had always been a slow one for them as everything that happened on the day was easily handled by the police, all of it being vandalism, theft, and the usual crime of the more ordinary citizenry of Jump City.
Cyborg had been the one to convince the rest. Beast Boy had been a bit unintentionally unkind wondering how Cyborg was supposed to dress down for the day when the big man didn't wear clothes.
In an act of blinding charity, Cyborg had only given him a wet Willy in punishment.
Robin had, of course, been the hardest to convince. His initial reluctance was tied to his natural predisposition to discretion. He explained that if people knew who he was, it wasn't hard to figure out who his mentor was either. After he had finally admitted that the rest of the team could be trusted, it had only been the matter of breaking his habit.
Starfire had gladly taken it upon herself to remove the mask whenever she found him wearing it. She boasted a rather large collection after so many years.
This particular Halloween Cyborg was settled comfortably on the couch, just basking in the enjoyment of a casual day with no schedule to keep. He was wearing his holo-ring, like he always did, and was finding the sunrise he could just make out through the early morning fog promising.
There was going to be a little party in the evening. All the honorary Titans had been invited as long as they observed the same costume rules they did. Robin, not quite trusting everyone else who might show up, never attended these get-togethers.
And truth be told, the heroes that could actually pull off normal when they wanted to never came. Mostly it was folks like himself or Beast Boy, who couldn't really hide who they were, or people like Starfire and Bumblebee who didn't try to.
In a lot of ways he admired that second group. They had the choice to live normally on the side yet they chose to always be the hero.
He was still lost in thought when Raven drifted in. Her small wave of greeting, a simple lift of her hand, didn't register for a minute until his brain decided to finally process it and a distracted, "Hey, Rae." popped out. He hadn't even noticed her not-a-costume. Understandable given that it wasn't much of a change – an open blue zip-up hoodie over a plain black t-shirt and black jeans.
He hadn't realized how long had passed between her wave and his welcome, but the whistle of her kettle coming right after he'd spoken got an inquisitive look from the small sorceress.
"Lot on your mind?" She sipped lightly at her tea.
Cyborg looked back out at the fog that was starting to lift as the day warmed up. "Not really. Just thinking about what it'd be like to have a choice about this hero stuff."
"Doesn't your ring give you a choice?"
Cyborg smiled with a bit of pride at his technological marvel. "Not really. Soon as somebody bumps into me or they figure out I won't get on a scale they'll know something's up. It only hides what I look like. The only reason I got away with it at the Hive academy was because everybody there was like that."
"Why does it matter? You'd still be doing this if you could hide who you really were or not."
"Yeah, I was just thinking about folks like Bumblebee. She can hide it, but she's never worn a mask. Everybody who wants to can figure out who she is, where she came from, all of that."
"Sounds like she's got nothing to lose." Cyborg gestured for her to go on, Raven obliged. "Robin didn't want to tell us who he was because it put other people in danger; same thing for Speedy. Even Beast Boy used to wear a mask, though I don't know why. It's not like there's a ton of green boys out there. And nobody's got a fang like his that sticks out when…"
"Rae."
Raven looked up realizing she'd been rambling and quickly got back on topic. Cyborg respectfully ignored her chosen topic of distraction. "Anyway, maybe the reason Bumblebee doesn't hide who she is is because there's nothing to protect."
"Never thought about that." And as Cyborg was getting lost in his thoughts again, Raven decided to leave the room.
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Party preparations were in full effect when Cyborg announced that the first batch of hors d'oeuvres was done. He had, of course, prepared mainly appetizers from the meat family; rumaki was his specialty.
The first of the guests would be arriving soon and truth be told he was looking forward to seeing Bumblebee after his conversation with Raven that morning.
The girl could get pretty annoying with all that 'Sparky' talk and her bossy attitude, but he had to admit she had it going on. Not a bad brain either. Sure, it was all biology and genetics with some electronics thrown in for good measure instead of the princely fields of cybernetics and robotics, but they were respectable at least.
He was so caught up in his thoughts of Bumblebee that he barely registered Beast Boy's gripes about the vast amount of dead things now littering the table. Just a quick, "The veggie tray's hidden in the corner where it belongs and there's some spring rolls still baking" and he was back to his thoughts.
When Bumblebee did finally show up an hour later, he found himself fidgeting nervously. His nerves subsided when he remembered that he hadn't ever had problems talking to the girl. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had trouble talking with any girl. Now the nerves he'd felt had him confused.
He started to wonder what had caused them and was thinking through the knot of emotions to find its source when a "Hey, Sparky" broke him out of his systems check. Bumblebee looked stylishly relaxed in a loose fitting brown turtleneck sweater and a pair of hip-hugger jeans. As she drew near her smirk settled in more firmly as she added, "or should I be calling you Stone?"
He lifted his own smirk into place. "Hey, I put my pants on the same as anybody, one holographic display at a time. It's just this is the only pair I had."
After she'd laughed in a way that had Cyborg guessing whether it was a courtesy chuckle or not, they'd gabbed for a few minutes about their respective teams, getting the latest on various criminals, advancements, and gossip. Apparently, Aqualad had started dating dry-land girls in an attempt to get away from the fawning of the girls of his home. The results had been mixed.
Cyborg countered with the strangeness of Raven's behavior, but pointed out his own doubts as nothing had actually happened.
When a song Bumblebee liked came on over the sound system, Beast Boy had volunteered to DJ with the proviso that he keep it on the danceable end of the spectrum, she dragged Cyborg out onto the floor.
Cyborg thought it was funny that so many people who worked every day to stay agile could be so bad at dancing. At least he and Bumblebee were showing folks how it was done.
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When Cyborg and Bumblebee finally got off the dance floor over an hour had passed. He went and grabbed them both drinks and they settled into chatter about the party, about the people there, and about each other.
"I don't know how you do it." Cyborg took a hard pull from his water bottle. "You've got a solid team and a top notch tech-genius built tower, but you hold it together a lot more cool than Rob even with everything you got to deal with."
Bumblebee smiled appreciatively. "Well, I don't have to deal with you, so it's easier for me."
Cyborg rolled his eyes, but continued. "Just saying I'm impressed is all. And…"
"What?"
"You don't even have to make as hard as it is. How come you don't do the secret identity thing? It's gotta be nice having a way to take a day off."
"Probably is, but I wouldn't know. I went from high school to college to the police force to trying to be a super hero without stopping. I got to keep busy, that's actually how I got the name. Busy as a bee, that's me."
"Didn't know you'd been on the force, crime lab stuff?"
"Yeah. Took my degrees and started showing the detectives that all that evidence they were collecting mattered. I was doing experiments on the side when I invented my suit, the stingers came later."
"Wait, so your powers are all tech? Why'd you need my help with your tower if you can do all that?"
Bumblebee laughed. "It's all bioengineering and advanced physics. Not exactly the kind of stuff you want if you like the roof staying up and the doors locking when they're supposed to. Besides, most of my work is really hard to duplicate. Lots of waiting for just the right moment to get things set up when you're dealing with all this biological stuff."
"You're sounding like my science teacher back in high school. He always liked saying 'people change, even if no one can tell'."
"Ha! That's a pretty good one, for a biologist."
"So how come we've never gone out?" Cyborg hoped the sudden change in topic wasn't jarring.
Bumblebee sat contemplating for a bit, giving Cyborg a half smile as she thought up her answer. "Well, last time you had a chance, you asked out Jinx instead."
Cyborg laughed heartily at that. "She actually asked me. I guess it might have been a bad idea anyway. Two undercover heroes going to a dance together doesn't seem all that subtle."
"Probably not."
"So what about now? Any chances on the horizon?" He was keeping his tone light, but now that he'd gotten to the actual asking his nerves reappeared. And having them right in front of him he was finally able to identify where they were coming from.
And where they were coming from had turned out to be from his respect. He respected Bumblebee quite a lot and rejection would feel like he'd failed at something. He didn't like the idea of her deeming him less because he'd accept her opinion over his own.
Bumblebee, for her part, chose to crowd watch rather than answer right away. After a few moments she finally turned back to the tall man. "Sorry, Sparky, but I just don't see how it'd work right now. I know I like you enough that one date wouldn't be the end of things and I don't do the whole long distance relationship thing."
"That's probably the best 'no' I've ever been given."
"You get a lot of them?" She asked with a smirk.
"Enough that I still have a memory of what it's like. Pretty faded though."
She gave him a playful elbow to the ribs and winced slightly when she hit metal. "Forgot what's under you little light show. Now I wish I'd been a little more rough."
With a chuckle he offered another water bottle to put against the bump. "Don't suppose you got any plans to move. Come out and enjoy all this California sunshine."
"Probably the same plans you've got for moving out to see all that New York culture."
"Probably."
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Cyborg and Bumblebee went back out onto the dance floor not long after their conversation and lost themselves in the freedom that comes from dancing like you mean it. They spent the rest of the evening repeating that cycle; dancing, breaking for water or some food and a little bit of playful banter, and then back out onto the dance floor.
As the evening was winding down Cyborg started on the clean up with Bumblebee helping him. It hadn't gone unnoticed that the two had spent the entire evening together. Beast Boy had a clear view of them on the dance floor since he was set up in front of it and Raven had watched them talking as she tended to the food and beverages throughout the night.
Even Aqualad had noticed with an inquisitive smile on his face while he attempted to avoid the girls at the party who thought he was some kind of prize they could win.
Raven didn't know what Bumblebee's side of the story was, but when the party had finally broken for the even and it was just her cleaning up streamers, Beast Boy rounding up sound system equipment and cables, and Cyborg finishing off or storing the last of the food she broached the subject. "Looks like you and Bumblebee had a good time."
Beast Boy's head popped up from the table the DJ equipment had been set up on. "Yeah, you guys totally dominated the dance floor."
A smile. "Wasn't too bad a night. Bee's pretty cool."
"What'd I do?"
"Not 'B', Bee. As in Bumblebee."
"Ooooooooh." Beast Boy ducked his head back under the table. "So when are you guys hooking up again?"
"We're not."
Raven stopped shoving garbage into a bag. "Why?"
Cyborg gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Well, it's not because we don't like each other. Y'all probably saw me dance more than I have in my life. But, just because you like somebody and they like you and you both know it doesn't mean something will happen. Life gets in the way and you can't do everything you want to."
Beast Boy popped back up again, his arms full of neatly coiled cables. "Dude, that sucks."
"It's just the way life is, man. It'd be great if she lived closer or if I did, but since that's not how it is, we both move on."
"I am so not letting chances like that pass me by. You can be a super hero anywhere."
Neither man noticed Raven glaring at Beast Boy.
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(A/N) Just had one of those laughing at myself moments as I sat here going back and forth between enjoying a really good hockey game and thinking about my romance tilted children's show fanfic. Join in on the laughter, won't you?
And yes, this was kind of an odd chapter, but I liked it.