GROWING PAINS
...
Raven stared into the reflection of her bedroom mirror.
It was meant to be a good thing. A good change.
It wasn't meant to make her feel like this. It wasn't meant to look wrong, but it did.
It looked so, so wrong, and she felt like she might be sick.
"I need to cut it."
Garfield peered over to her from where he sat on the bed, nonchalantly scrolling through his phone.
"I thought you wanted to try growin' it?" he mused, a brow now quirked.
She bit down on her lip.
She had said that, hadn't she? It felt like it grew so much faster these days. Like it was battling her until she just gave in and let it be.
"... Do you like it?"
He tilted his head and sat up from the pillows.
"Longer," she explained.
It's like three inches longer, he didn't say. Barely even noticeable.
"Of course I do," her boyfriend smiled. "You look gorgeous."
Raven avoided his eyes in the mirror. Her own fell slowly down the loose tresses of hair, just beginning to form a wave past the round of her shoulders.
She was quiet and unmoving for a long time.
"... Rae, is something up?" Gar inched toward the edge of the bed, expression turning bothered.
He heard her exhale a little shaky through her nose.
"I just don't like when it grows."
When it grows so fast...
His mouth angled up at the side. "That's kinda what hair does, babe."
Raven's neck was tense. She struggled to swallow, like the tip of a knife had appeared at her throat. If she even breathed, it would pierce her.
Green eyes studied her face in the glass, vague in the dim light of her room, and he felt his heart slide down when that shine appeared beneath her lashes.
"Woah." Gar sat up. "Raven, what's—"
Her head bowed and eyebrows creased.
Had he said something wrong?
"I... I like it short too!" He was scrambling off the bed now, making his way over to her. "I love it short! You suit both!" he told her, frantic and confused.
Raven just lightly shook her head before turning from the mirror and bracing herself against his chest. Her arms folded around his shoulders, cheek nestled deep into his collarbone, and Beast Boy blinked then hugged her back, completely at a loss.
If he'd done something wrong, why was she hugging him?
She squeezed him tighter and he squeezed back. A bare hand sank into her locks, fingers running across the bed of her scalp.
Think, Gar. When was the last time she...
His gaze rose from the carpet to the window standing opposite.
An image flashed through his mind of that same blue sky set on fire. Of criminal clutches ripping into her clothes on the roof of a building. Searing red eyes boring down through the smoke.
Garfield held her impossibly close and pressed a kiss to her violet crown.
"Shh," he whispered when she started to choke. "It's okay. You're fine, Rae. You're okay..."
Trembling fists clasped at the back of his shirt. He bent down to her ear.
"You want me to get the scissors?"
Raven silently nodded into his shoulder.
He kissed her again.
"Okay."
Author's Note:
winning the war doesn't mean the trauma just goes away