Raven walked through the hallways purposefully. Though she walked at a very brisk pace, she remained calm. On the outside, at least. In all honesty, Raven could feel herself beginning to panic. She had only been looking for about three minutes, but she hadn't found him yet, and that scared her.
"Beast Boy!" Raven called. Her voice echoed through the empty hall she was in, but no one replied. "Beast Boy, I want to talk to you!"
Still, no one answered. With a long sigh, Raven leaned against a wall and closed her eyes. Where was he? Why wouldn't he come out? He must know she was looking for him.
Raven opened her eyes, groaning. "And there in lies the problem."
"You are having problems?" Starfire floated around the corner behind Raven, causing the empath to spin around in surprise. "Do you require assistance?"
Raven hesitated, considering Starfire's offer. If she found Beast Boy before Raven, she could always hold him down with her alien strength, and the help would be nice.
"No," Raven finally decided. "This is my problem. I need to do this myself. Thank you though."
"If that is what you wish, friend Raven," Starfire replied.
Raven nodded, turning to leave. A warm hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"I would like to wish you good luck," Starfire told her, smiling. Raven stopped and looked at the girl floating before her. "I hope you find what you are looking for."
"Thank you, Starfire," Raven replied, offering her a small, but genuine smile. The alien's smile grew wider, and she turned and flew away. Raven watched her leave for a second, before turning and continuing her search.
-
Pandemonium. Disorder. Bedlam. Three excellent words to describe Raven's mind after Beast Boy's long-winded speech.
Timid sat in a corner, hugging her legs and sobbing for all she was worth. Rude was pacing back and forth, cursing colorfully about everything and everyone that had been mentioned during Beast Boy's ramble. Brave was also outraged, grumbling about Raven's "cowardice" in not telling him sooner. Anger was muttering under her breath and throwing books and other small objects around the room. Her four red eyes glared angrily at anyone who tried to stop her. Knowledge was following Anger around, picking up books after her, but this seemed mostly out of habit, as she worriedly chewed on her lip, obviously thinking of Beast Boy. Happy had decided to stay positive, and was literally jumping for joy over Beast Boy's confession. Affection had joined in on the celebration when Happy had grabbed her arms and begun spinning, but she seemed distracted over her worry for the changeling.
And Wisdom… well, Wisdom watched all of this in defeat, knowing nothing she could say would calm them down. Finally, she decided this was not a time for words; it was a time for actions.
Calmly, she walked across the room to where Timid sat. Lifting her hand, she slapped the crying emotion across the face. It hadn't been hard, but it got Timid to stop and look at Wisdom in surprise. Within the next minute, Rude and Brave both had their mouths sealed shut, Anger was tied up with a chain of paper, a book was pried from Knowledge's hand, and Happy had not returned to the ground after her latest excited jump. Everyone froze and looked over at Wisdom.
She smiled. Now was the time for words. Gently lowering Happy to the ground, Wisdom let her powers dissipate and looked back at everyone.
"Everyone needs to calm down," she informed them, "You've all been so busy getting worked up over Beast Boy that I doubt any of you have even noticed how much our outfits have changed."
Sure enough, after a couple confused blinks, the other emotions looked down at their clothing in surprise.
"Oh my god! I'm wearing butt-floss!"
"It's called a thong, Rude," Knowledge replied pointedly. "And you're not the only one."
Rude looked around. Much as she hated to admit it, Rude quickly realized that Knowledge was right, as usual. Along with herself, Brave, Happy, and Knowledge all sported thong bikini bottoms.
Along with her thong, Rude wore a string bikini top that had started rising up. The light orange material of her top seemed to be growing thinner- and therefore, slightly more see-through, but let's not dwell on that fact. The strings at the neck and at her back were tied messily, but they seemed tight enough that they wouldn't come undone. For now.
Brave's swimsuit top consisted of two triangles spaced widely apart. Still, at least they covered what they were meant to. A knot at the back of her neck held the top up, while a string a little below her shoulder blades ran across her back and held it in place.
Happy's bright pink top was clasped at the back by a clear plastic hook. The material stretched across her tightly, making every, uh… curve, more distinct. The straps of the swimsuit top were pulled up and tied behind her neck, like the others. Clear beads decorated the ends of the bikini strings, and made a small clicking sound as she turned to look at Knowledge.
Knowledge's top no longer had any straps. The two small circles of spandex-nylon material in the front were secured tightly around her chest by tightly clasped hooks at the back. The front sat low on her chest, giving everyone a good view of cleavage.
"These are highly inappropriate," Knowledge stated, almost to herself, as she twisted around to examine her own thong. An obvious blush had spread across her face. "And impractical," she concluded. Pushing up her glasses (which, by now, were almost non-existent), she lifted her chin with as much dignity as she could muster.
"Cry me a river," Anger snarled, crossing her arms. She wore a strapless top, just as revealing as Knowledge's. The dark red material stretched seamlessly across her back, tying up in the front. Her swimsuit bottom, while not a thong, was just as bad. It was low enough that she new if she bent the back would slide down and show a significant amount of her hindquarters. And let's not even mention how low the front was. It made Anger's blood boil just thinking about it.
Wisdom shook her head, knowing that it would be futile to try and stop their snappish comments in a situation like this. Her own outfit was as revealing as the rest. Her own top was much like Knowledge and Anger's, except that it had one strap crossing from the left side of her top to her right shoulder. Her bottoms were the same as Anger's, except that they were the same chocolate brown as her top.
Affection stood next to her. The front and back of the purple bikini bottom she wore were connected by a thin string, tied in a perfect bow on each side. The back wasn't wide enough to cover her entire derriere, but it did the job. The two sides of the front of her bikini were spread apart, showing off much cleavage. Two more bows were tied at the back of her neck and torso to keep the top secure.
Unlike the others, Timid was not wearing a bikini. However, she found herself wishing with every fiber in her body that it were, for surely, a bikini would be much better than the skin showing, skimpy monstrosity she was wearing now.
The one-piece swimsuit could only be described as a 'V'. It started as a strip of material between her legs, separating when it reached the lower abdomen. It continued upward, covering the center of each breast before going over her shoulders and doing the same in the back. The dark gray strips of spandex that made up the swimsuit were barely an inch and a half wide, much to the shy girl's discomfort. Her blush was so intense that it had quickly worked its way down past her shoulders, and was still getting worse.
"Well, look at it this way, Timid," Rude broke the silence as everyone gawked at Timid's outfit. "At least you won't need a tan at this rate."
The crude emotion laughed at her joke, but stopped abruptly as she received a smack in the head from Knowledge, Affection, AND Wisdom.
"Oww," she whined, rubbing the sore spots. "What'd I do?"
Her question was met by rolled eyes from everyone except Timid, who was still blushing quite profusely while trying to hide herself behind some of the others.
"What the hell do you think, genius," Anger snapped. "Quit picking on Timid. We've got enough problems, and we don't need you to make it worse, damn it."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Rude replied, although it was obvious she wasn't. "I'm sorry for trying to lighten the mood when it's obviously heavy enough to weigh down even Happy!"
"Not this again," Wisdom sighed. "You two, separate! This is not the time to fight."
"Yes, mother," Rude grumbled, but complied, walking to the other side of the room. Anger simply remained silent and glared at Wisdom and Rude.
"I know that everyone's upset right now," Wisdom told the room of emotions, "And for some of you, that means you're going to want to make sarcastic comments and fight, but trust me when I say that that is not the best thing to do. We all need to remain calm, while Raven handles the situation. It does her, and us, no good to act like this."
"But… but what if Raven doesn't find him?" Timid asked quietly. Everyone waited in silence for Wisdom's answer.
"She will," Wisdom replied, after a minute.
"H-how do you know?"
"I don't," Wisdom admitted, "But we all know that Raven won't give up trying."
"You're right," Brave agreed, "We won't stop searching until we've found him."
"And told him how we really feel," Affection added.
-
Three short raps echoed through the hallway that Raven was in as she knocked on Beast Boy's door. A couple minutes passed, but no one opened the door. Growing impatient, Raven pressed her ear against the metal door. She couldn't hear anything.
"He might still be in there," Raven reasoned, "He might just not want to talk to me after what happened."
Closing her eyes, Raven pressed her palms against the door. A second later, she opened them again, having successfully passed through it.
Looking around Beast Boy's bedroom, Raven frowned.
Torn posters, old magazines, dirty laundry, old food, and various other things covered his floor, and his desk. His bed hadn't been made, and the blankets were hanging off the side. As she looked around, she came to the conclusion that the messy room was void of human life- although she had the strangest feeling that the plate of moldy tofu on his desk was watching her.
Slowly, Raven walked further into his bedroom, being careful not to step on anything. How anyone could stay in a room as disgusting as Beast Boy's was beyond her.
Raven stopped after only three steps. Something had caught her eye. On the desk next to her, right beside the plate of tofu, sat a leather bound photo album. Curiosity getting the better of her, Raven walked over.
After pushing a pile of dirty laundry onto the floor, Raven sat at the desk chair and looked at the closed book. Small doubts tugged at the back of her mind. What if he didn't want her to see it? What if it was extremely personal to him? Should she even be in his room in the first place? It was somewhat hypocritical of her, after all, to be in someone's room without their permission.
She shrugged these thoughts away. There were many pictures around his room, on the floor and messily taped on his walls, but Raven wanted to see what pictures were so important to him that he kept them in an album.
Before she could change her mind, Raven opened the album to the first page. A large picture of Titans Tower looked back at her. Next to it was a picture of herself, Robin, Cyborg and Starfire. It had been taken in the common room, and no one appeared to be looking at the camera. Robin and Starfire were on the left side, watching TV on the couch, Cyborg was walking towards that from the other side of the picture, and Raven was in the very center of the picture, meditating.
Raven flipped the page. Each side had four pockets to hold pictures. On the left side, were a picture of herself reading, one of Cyborg waving to the camera with an excited grin, another picture of Raven, this time with a slightly annoyed look directed at the picture taker, and a picture of all the Titans piled onto the couch.
On the other side was a picture of Robin and Starfire, both smiling brightly at the camera. Next to it was a picture Beast Boy had taken of himself by stretching his arms out in front of him and aiming the camera at himself. Cyborg's hand had entered last minute, giving him metal bunny ears. The other two pictures were of herself looking blankly at the camera and reading on the couch.
Flipping the page, Raven found three more pictures of herself, and one of all the Titans. In the first one, Raven was turning her head and talking, unaware of the camera that had caught her mid-blink, mouth open. The second picture was of her making a cup of tea, and the last was of her drinking the tea and staring into space. The picture of all the Titans had been taken at the park. All five were sitting under- and in Beast Boy's case, in- an old tree.
On the page next to it were a picture of Beast Boy and Cyborg posing like muscle builders, and a picture of Robin smirking for the camera. One of Starfire offering the camera holder some of her Tameranian cuisine with a hopeful smile, and the last was of Raven meditating, while Robin and Cyborg argued over a video game in the background.
Raven smiled a little and quickly flipped through the previous pages, counting. She was in ten of the seventeen pictures she had looked at so far. Though she despised having pictures taken of herself- she was convinced she wasn't photogenic- she couldn't help but feel a bit flattered that Beast Boy had so many pictures of her.
She was about to turn to the next page, when she noticed something sticking out of the side. A yellow post-it note had been placed further into the album, acting as some sort of marker. Interested, Raven flipped the album to the marked page.
The page she had flipped to only had one large pocket for photos and paper instead of four smaller ones. A piece of blank paper with messily scrawled words had been placed inside it.
"BB's totally awesome and amazing favorites," Raven read aloud. Raising an eyebrow with slight amusement, she turned the page.
Once again there were four pockets to hold pictures in, however only two of the pockets were used for pictures. Small slips of paper with comments written on them had been slipped into the other two.
The first picture was of all of the Titans standing outside the tower. On the piece of paper next to it, Beast Boy had written, "My family, and my home." The second picture featured Raven and Cyborg playing chess. Both were playing such close attention to their game that neither had noticed the camera. Raven's lips curled up when she read the piece of paper next to the picture. "My best friends."
Flipping the page, Raven found a picture of Robin and Starfire and another of herself. In the first, Starfire had pulled Robin into a tight hug for the picture. Robin had a light blush on his face from the close contact, while Starfire simply looked ecstatic. The note next to it read: "I wish they'd just kiss and get it over with… But then again, then we wouldn't get to watch Robin squirm."
Chuckling softly, Raven turned her attention to the other picture. It was one of her training. Black energy surrounded her hands, and her eyes had turned white. A stream of energy had already been released and was making a beeline for the targets set up. The charred remains of another target sat next to it.
Next to the picture, Beast Boy had scrawled, "Note to self: Never make Raven this angry."
Raven shook her head, smiling. Though she didn't like to admit it, Beast Boy could be pretty funny sometimes.
On the next page were two more pictures featuring the resident empath. The first picture had been taken on the couch. Raven's eyes were wide, and she was looking in horror at the screen in front of her. Beast Boy sat next to her, one arm pressed against hers, the other outstretched to take the picture. He looked a little shaken, but he had a big grin on his face.
"I still can't believe I was able to shake off how scared I was from the movie long enough to take the picture," He had written. "But look how close I got to Raven. Thumbs up, dude!"
Raven smirked. She remembered that night. All of the Titans had agreed to watch a horror movie (on the condition that Raven admit if she got scared), and partway through the movie, Raven had noticed that she had slowly been inching towards Beast Boy. At the time, she had told herself that it was just because he was the closest, and she just needed to be near someone during the scariest parts. Now, however, she was starting to wonder if that had been the only reason.
The second picture was of Raven meditating on the roof. The sun was setting behind her, casting a rosy glow on everything. "I think sunset might be my favorite time of day… Everything's so beautiful. Even more than usual in this picture." Beast Boy had stated on the slip of paper next to it. Unsure what to think about that one, but unable to stop the blush that crept to her face, Raven flipped the page.
Raven frowned, finding that the four squares on the next page were empty. The page next to it didn't have the same pockets that the others did. Instead, the page had only one pocket, in which an enlarged photo had been placed above a piece of paper.
The picture had been taken on a sunny day in the park. The dark girl was leaning against the trunk of an old tree with her eyes closed, obviously dozing. A small smile had made its way to her lips, and the picture taker had captured the moment. The piece of paper underneath was quite a bit longer than the others.
"This is definitely my favorite picture," Beast Boy had stated. "Raven's actually smiling in it. That alone makes it the most beautiful thing in this entire album. Not that I could ever tell Raven that. How could I? How could I tell her that her smile could light up a room? Or that I would do anything to see her smile? I swear, I could live off of the feeling I get whenever Raven smiles. It's like, no matter what's going on, everything's going to be all right."
Slowly, Raven closed the album, thoughts racing through her head.
Raven couldn't stop the smile that worked its way onto her face. That had probably been the most touching thing she had ever heard from Beast Boy. It filled her with a feeling that could only be described as warm and fuzzy. She had no idea he felt so strongly over something so small as a smile from her. How had she never noticed before?
Almost as soon as it had appeared, Raven's smile disappeared as reality hit.
Beast Boy still didn't know how she felt about him. She still didn't even know where he was. The thought of losing him…
Shaking her head, Raven stood up. She refused to give in. She wasn't beaten yet, and she sure as hell wasn't giving up without a fight.
I have to tell ya, describing all the emotions' outfits was pretty difficult. Not only was I blushing like crazy, it can be kinda hard coming up with different ways of describing bathing suits, when most of them are almost the exact same thing. ;)
Ah well, I'm glad with how it turned out. Hope you liked it. :D
Tammy Tamborine