PAST BROKEN MIRRORS
Past broken mirrors
In each broken piece
Reflects part of a story
A story that holds
The shadowed truth
Of a forgotten past
"I need to be on my own, to learn more about myself…"
Mirror 2: Conversation by the bay
"Beast Boy, please reconsider."
From where she stood, hidden in the shadows of the nearby room, Raven could hear Starfire trying to negotiate with Beast Boy.
"Star," Beast Boy took a deep breath before continuing, "I've done enough thinking. I have to do this."
"But we're your friends-"
"I know," he interrupted her. "And we'll always be friends; this doesn't change that. So please, as a friend, just try to understand."
Starfire fell silent. Cyborg and Robin had already said what they wanted to say to him, and Star had felt that they were being aloof about the whole thing. Maybe it was a guy thing that they shared she decided and accepted, but even Raven had not said anything to Beast Boy: at all, and that worried her too.
Raven herself felt it was enough of eavesdropping and turned back to her room at that point.
The truth why she still hadn't said anything to Beast Boy yet after he had announced his surprising decision was that she was actually unsure of what to say at all. She sensed his determinedness, knew he was rock-solid on what he'd chosen to do – and as a friend, she felt the least they could do was to support him. He wanted to do this alone; without his friends, to go on his own journey – wanted to find himself: something she too had tried to do, but realized she'd found it after all; in the company of her dear friends – she had found a part of herself.
You couldn't hold on to everything too tightly: sometimes you needed to let go, to let it grow.
---
The sky was brilliant tonight – wide and endless, the faraway stars glowing bright across the endless dark blue horizon.
Raven felt at peace with the calmness of the quiet air, and remained subtle even when a presence she'd already been expecting appeared with her on the roof of the Titan Tower.
"Rae…"
She turned slowly to face the green-faced boy who tentatively approached her, but continued to keep her silence.
"I know you've been avoiding me. But we have got to talk."
"I haven't been avoiding you…it's just that," she looked away. "There's nothing to say."
Beast Boy gave her that exaggerated wide-eyed 'I so don't believe you!' look as his jaw dropped,
"Nothing to say? I'm leaving and you have 'nothing to say'? What about your usual forewarnings or trying to talk me out of doing something I might regret?"
He mimicked her indifferent 'Raven expression', all in hopes of at least lightening the atmosphere.
"Why would I want to do that?"
Beast Boy's expression went to stone: all efforts down the drain. Honestly disappointed, he eyed the ground, and tried again in a humbler tone,
"Well, I hope you'll still keep your sense of humor – even when I won't be around to crack jokes anymore, and also, I'm sorry for being annoying to you-"
He stopped abruptly, taken by surprise as Raven had flung her arms around him.
Could he really do this? The premonition that she had, had marked the beginnings of many major changes yet again and Raven knew, that things just had to flow its on course.
But it wasn't easy…
His face turned red as she hugged him – then pulled away slightly, looking up at him, her own face flushed as she told him;
"I understand why you want to do this and I know…I know that you'll be able to pull through this…just, take care of yourself, okay?"
She gave him an earnest smile and he smiled back at her.
"Thanks, Rae…"
-----
After the evening started to settle, Beast Boy found Raven sitting at the edge of the shore: silently looking into the distance. It was a very familiar pose, even with her now long hair lightly blowing in the breeze, she brought back a memory of the Raven he knew from the days they had shared.
"Hey."
She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. Somehow her smiles had a strange effect on him: as though his heart strangely skipped a beat – probably because he wasn't so used to seeing her smile that freely. She patted to the spot next to her and he made his way beside her; both gazing momentarily at the sunset.
"It feels good to be back…" Beast Boy started with a meaningful smile.
"Well," Raven nodded quietly. "It feels good to have you back."
"Huh?" Beast Boy turned to face her directly, not sure if he had heard her correctly; but Raven kept her gaze in place as she gently shook her head.
"Nothing," she smiled lightly. "I meant it's good to have everyone together again."
"Oh, yeah, right," Beast Boy agreed, deciding he had misheard her after all.
A stronger breeze blew past that moment, and carried small rogue leaves with it – one, that got caught in Raven's hair. On impulsiveness, Beast Boy reached out to free it; startling Raven at first but she remained still as she realized the situation and let him gently brush the leaf away.
"Thanks…" she said, and realized that his gaze was still fixed on her.
"What? Is there something on my face now?"
"No," Beast Boy replied, hurriedly looking away. "It was just…I noticed…you kept your hair long…"
Raising an eyebrow since she had not expected on such a comment, a grin appeared on her face as she reached out and brushed aside the loose strands of hair that fell over his eyes,
"Looks like I'm not the only one…"
Chuckling, Beast Boy admitted,
"Okay. So I went for a change myself…"
Change…
The word seemed to linger in their minds as well as in the air as it began to fill with momentary silence once again.
"So… anything interesting happened that I missed?"
Raven returned Beast Boy's knowing smile as the night went on with them sharing certain events that had occurred during the other's absence…
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Dreamchild's Sidenotes:
Yay, updated the 2nd chappy :) This is more of a moment in between - i'll try to make it the next chappy longer, hehe. Also thanks so much for the reviews - appreciate it a lot! Feel free to offer any suggestions as well 'kay ;) Ja'