Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, nor do I own the 1986 film Stand by Me, nor do I own the 1961 Ben E. King song "Stand by Me."
Ascension of the Beast
Chapter XIII
I Won't Be Afraid
Raven had never been one for large birthday celebrations. Her eighteenth birthday party was an exhausting affair, attended by the Jump City, Steel City, Toronto and Mexico City Titans, a few honorary and reserve Titans, various long-time allies from the JLA and Doom Patrol, and a few dates of the aforementioned guests. In all, there was Dick and Kori, Vic, Gar, Wally and Jinx, Karen and Mal, Roy, Garth and Dolphin, Más, Menos, Leonid, Toni, Kole and Joey (who actually ended up hooking up at the party), Gnarrk and Lilith, Rosabelle, Wildebeest, Isaiah, Rose and Bart (who, while not being a couple per se, did seem to really hit it off), Cassie and Conner, Donna and Terry, Mia, Holly, Dawn, M'gann, Zatanna, Bruce, Tim and Stephanie, Babs, J'onn, Steve and Rita, Cliff, Larry, etc., but Raven's favorite guests were Timmy Tantrum, Teether, Melvin, and, of course, Bobby was there too.
If anyone had made the mistake of robbing a bank or causing some other trouble in Jump City that night, they would have been in for one hell of a nasty surprise; but the evening was actually marked more by conflict between Titans. An argument between Cassie and Rose nearly derailed the entire party, and certainly ruined any chance of a good time for the empath in whose honor it was thrown. Then there was also a friendly pranking competition between Vic, Gar and Garth, which really got way out of hand—the three boys were apparently having fun the whole time, but they were annoying almost everyone else. Then it got worse when M'gann, thinking it looked like fun, joined the boys' competition as well, and—apparently not having completely learned her lesson from the pie incident with Rose—ended up making the mistake of pranking the damn Dark Knight. Luckily, Bruce understood that the Martian girl was still quite naive about Earth customs and etiquette and took the incident in stride. Raven wanted desperately to wring Gar and Kori's necks for throwing the surprise party—in fact, after all the guests left, Vic and Dick had to restrain her from doing so.
A year later, Raven was much more pleased with her nineteenth birthday. No party, no night out, just a simple dinner with friends. This time around, the attendance list was much shorter, consisting only of herself, Gar, Vic, and Sarah Simms, whom Vic had invited to spend the week in Los Angeles.
Raven was also enjoying some new attire this year, as she had chosen a few days before to retire her leotard and add a sleeveless gown to her uniform in its place. This was not the first alteration she had made to her image, as she had decided at the beginning of the year to let her hair begin to grow out more, with the objective of allowing it to once again achieve the length it had randomly grown to when she defeated her father. Both of these changes were made for basically the same reason: the leotard and shoulder-length hair had suited her in adolescence, but now she was a woman and wished to present a more mature image. It was all part of her transition from teen to adult.
The gown seemed to fit her perfectly. The fabric was colored midnight blue, nearly matching the color of her cloak. Its contours perfectly accentuated her breasts, while not exposing the slightest cleavage except for a tiny corner of side boob where the fabric transitioned to its backless form. The slits on both sides of the gown went up to her hips, allowing her legs sufficient freedom of movement. Although the slits were risking quite a bit of attention, the gown went all the way down to her ankles. The final pieces, however, were added to her ensemble on her actual birthday, in the form of gifts from Gar, who gave her a pair of low-healed midnight blue pleather thigh boots (of the haute couture variety, rather than the fetish type he might half expect BB to buy for a woman) and a pair of elbow-high midnight blue evening gloves. Suddenly Raven had a uniform that could reasonably double as formal wear, but what astonished Cyborg was that she seemed to truly love the gifts Beast Boy had given her—adding them to her uniform instantly upon receiving them.
The fact of the matter was that in the weeks succeeding the fangirl incident, the green and grey pair grew closer than ever, which did not go unnoticed by a bewildered Cyborg. Most of the changes were minor, but he had noticed a few big ones as well. For instance, Beast Boy seemed to have become more clingy toward Raven than ever, as if he was mortally afraid of something and only felt safe in her presence. Indeed, during the intervening weeks since his return to LA, the only time Cyborg had seen either of them in the absence of the other was when Raven sat him down to tell him the full story of Beast Boy's childhood traumas that Monday evening. Even when he was extracting blood from the changeling—which had become so common that the green Titan had probably given about a full body's worth of blood by now—Raven was always sitting by his side, and holding his hand to help ease his issue with needles.
It wasn't particularly abnormal for the changeling to shadow the empath—in fact, it had pretty much been Beast Boy's modus operandi to frequently bug Raven when they were younger. But what Cyborg saw now was more like they were tethered together by some invisible bond, and what really made him raise an eyebrow was that Raven, far from trying to push Beast Boy away, seemed to be enjoying having him near her. And even when he did something that might have caused her anger in the past, now she was far more patient with him than he'd ever seen before. Unaware of what transpired during the weekend he was gone, he began to assume the most likely answer he could think of.
"I bet you fifty bucks they're in some sort of romantic moment when we get back," Cyborg said to Sarah as he started the T-car's engine. The two had decided to go out on the town after dinner. She thought about it for a moment before offering her response to the proposition.
"Okay," she replied as the car left the driveway, "but what exactly are we counting as a 'romantic moment'?"
"Well, since they're not dating, we should probably go with a really broad definition just to be safe," Cyborg noted. "Like, if they're just having the sort of intimate conversation a couple of purely platonic friends who have no romantic feelings for each other at all might have, that doesn't count. But if we come back and they're cuddling on the couch, or spooning, or kissing, or making out, then you have to pay me my $50. And if they're doing more NC-17-rated stuff, then you have to double it."
"No, that's not fair!" Sarah replied. "If you can win $100 but I, at most, can only win $50, that's not a fair bet!"
"Okay, how about if they're in an argument and Raven is on the verge of ripping BB's head off, then I pay you $100? That work?"
"Yeah," Sarah responded. "I don't really like being on the side that's rooting for violence, but I guess it's a fair bet now," she laughed. "I'm in."
Raven was watching from the window as the couple drove off. The empath loved Victor Stone as if he was her big brother, but lately she had developed a tendency to desire more one-on-one time with the animorph who she had recently discovered possessed her heart. Vic, who could never be brought into the loop with regard to the fangirl incident, was suddenly an obstacle to her more intimate conversations with Gar, so she now often found herself (guiltily) counting down the minutes before she and her elf had the house to themselves. However, as she watched the T-car leave, she noticed something was not as it should be.
"Hey, Rae," Beast Boy partially interrupted her focus on the issue at hand, "do you wanna watch a movie or something tonight?"
She nodded almost absently. "Go pick one out. I'm going to quickly take care of something."
"Er...is something wrong?"
"No," she replied, "don't worry about it. Just go pick a movie and I'll be back before it starts."
Beast Boy felt like she was hiding something from him, but his instincts were screaming at him that it was probably something he didn't want to know about. Letting it go, he complied with her request and went to go pick a movie. As soon as he wasn't looking, Raven picked up a conspicuously present iPod which had been sitting on the coffee table, and proceeded to teleport to her destination of choice.
Hiding behind some bushes at the property line, Candi and Mandy were definitely testing their luck by going anywhere near the Logan McMansion. "We're getting your iPod back," Candi said to her cousin, in an determined tone.
"I know you want me to get it back," Mandy responded "but I kinda feel like we're asking for trouble even coming back here. Don't you remember how pissed Raven was?"
"I'm not scared of her."
"I am! I mean, she definitely has the ability to do everything she threatened to do, and to be honest, I wouldn't blame her at this point if she did." After having a few weeks to think about it, Mandy concluded "what we did was wrong. I mean, he said no over and over...if we were guys and he was the girl, we'd be in jail right now."
"Good point." Candi was also feeling a small, tiny, barely extant sliver of guilt. "But I'm still not afraid of the witch..."
"You should be!" said a familiar, rage-filled voice. Looking behind them, they found what appeared to be Raven in her semi-demonic form—she still had her basic human appearance as far as her limbs and torso went, but her face now bore four glowing red eyes. Except for the color of her cloak, she really most resembled Rage at this point—the girls were doomed.
Both of the blondes showed obvious signs of fear, but Candi was still brazen enough to speak. "We don't want any trouble! We just want to get my cousin's iPod back."
Using her powers, Raven restrained the objects of her anger with bands of black energy. Pausing for a moment, she tossed the object the women desired to Mandy. "I hope you have your earbuds on hand, because you're going to want some music to distract you where you're going." She paused for a moment. "Who am I kidding? It isn't really going to matter anyway. Just do me a favor: if you run into someone named Belial, tell him his sister sends her regards...and that I'll give him the same treatment I gave our father if he sends you back."
Manifesting a portal beneath the blondes, Raven released her powers and allowed gravity to take care of sending them to their destination. "Oh, and by the way, I'm not a witch, slut!" she said as the portal closed. "She'll learn the difference between a demon and a witch soon enough," the demi-demoness said to herself.
Returning to her more human form, Raven decided to walk back into the house. 'I wonder what movie Gar picked,' she thought as she reached the front door. 'I know he probably picked something I don't like, but I really hope it's just not some mindless comedy. I love him, but if he chose something stupid and pointless...'
She was relieved to find that the film he had chosen, from what she'd heard about it, was not entirely mindless. Then again, she wouldn't yet be able to say for herself that such was the case—despite the fact that this particular coming of age dramedy had been filmed more than two decades earlier, she'd never actually seen the film. This was in spite of the fact that it was based on a novella by one of her favorite authors.
"Stand by Me?" she asked.
"Yeah," Beast Boy replied. "I figured you might like it. It's based on a story by Stephen King."
"I'm sure that's not why you own a copy of it. I know how you are with reading."
"Well," he replied, "to be honest, you're kinda right. You know how big of a Corey Feldman fan I am. Even if his role in this movie isn't exactly the coolest character."
She knew very that he was indeed a big Corey Feldman fan. There'd actually been an entire week a couple years back when every sentence Beast Boy spoke quoted Edgar Frog, Feldman's character from The Lost Boys. It was interesting watching him try to match the right quote for the context of the situations. She was pretty sure the changeling owned a copy of every film Corey Feldman was ever in.
Narrator: "Teddy Duchamp was the craziest guy we hung around with. He didn't have much of a chance in life. His dad was given to fits of rage—one time he held Teddy's ear to a stove and almost burned it off."
"That's a pleasant image for a film starring a bunch of twelve year olds," Raven quipped. Raven didn't really say anything about it, but she quickly found herself enjoying the film. She'd read The Body—the novella the movie was based on—and, between Teddy's absolutely horrible father, the fact that everyone expected Chris to be bad, Gordie's emotionally distant parents, and Vern's antagonistic older brother, she couldn't help but identify deeply with each of the characters.
She was also beginning to see Beast Boy in each of them as well. In Chris, she saw Garfield the leader. In Gordie, she saw the potential for what Garfield could be if he exercised his mind a little more. In Teddy's passionate defense of his father in the junk yard scene, she was reminded of Garfield's die hard loyalty, which often was literally to a fault (such as when he refused for so long to give up on Terra, despite the fact that she had at one point been on the verge of actually killing him). 'Idiot,' she thought as she remembered that incident, 'but he's my idiot; even if he can never know.' As for Vern...well, the elements of that character which reminded her of Beast Boy were not necessarily the kindest of things.
The movie's four protagonists were crossing a train bridge, completely clueless as to when the next train would be coming through. Scared out of his mind, the fat one, Vern, was crawling on all fours, lamenting the loss of a comb that he didn't really need to begin with, seeing as he had a buzz cut. Gordie, the smart one trapped behind him, suddenly had a bad feeling. Looking back, he placed his hand on the track, feeling for vibrations. Not a fraction of a second after he squeezed the rail, he heard the chugging of the steam locomotive. Looking back once more, he saw the black smoke rising above the crowns of the trees.
"TRAIIIIIN!" yelled Gordie, prompting all of the boys to look back as the train rounded the corner into view.
"Oh shit!" exclaimed Vern, as he proceeded to...crawl faster.
"Get up Vern, damn it!" Gordie yelled as he forced Vern to his feet, "get up! Move it!" Vern proceeded to run about five feet before tripping. "Oh shit! Vern, get up! Come on, man!"
Paralyzed with fear, Vern replied almost crying "I don't wanna, we're gonna fall!"
"We're gonna die, damn it! Get up!" shouted Gordie before getting Vern to his feet again.
Watching as the boys in the movie hightailed it across the bridge, Raven suddenly became herself for the first time in weeks. "After having been your battle partner so many times, I can really understand what Gordie's going through there," she wisecracked.
"Ye-Wait! Hey!" Beast Boy responded, realizing in half-word what she meant. "I'm not really that bad, am I?" he asked as a frown formed on his face. "I mean...if I'm that much dead weight, why even keep me around?" he was taking the comment too seriously—much more seriously than he ever would under normal circumstances—and she could tell as the tone of his voice sunk and his speaking became less energetic.
She placed her hand on his shoulder, comfortingly. "Dead weight or not, you're my friend," she said, as she tried to get around what she was going to say next. For years she had been trying never to repeat the statement, for years she had been afraid doing so would only encourage him to be more annoying. Then again, for the past month or so, he really hadn't been himself anyway. "And...well...and, usually," she paused for a second before mumbling incoherently.
"What?" Beast Boy asked, for once not trying to tease her, but actually unable to understand what she said.
"I said," she paused with a sigh, "I think you're kind of funny. But don't let that go to your head, because I will keep the promise I made the last time you pranked me!" It was about six months prior. The prank was extremely elaborate and left her covered from head to toe in paint and feathers. Ironically, considering what she'd done to Candi and Mandy just a little while before this memory came to mind, she'd threatened to send him to literal Hell if he ever pulled a prank on her again—even going as far as to open an actual portal thereto to illustrate the point.
"And, I was kidding. For the past couple years or so, you've actually been one of the most skilled heroes I've ever seen, but there was a time when you were, at times, kind of..." she searched for the right word to use without hurting his feelings again. 'He wouldn't know what anencephalous means, would he? Oh, wait...biology is one of his strong points. Shit! Not really accurate either—it's not that he doesn't have a brain, he just didn't really use it that often. Dumb would be too blunt, and also kind of inaccurate. Daft? No, doesn't really fit. Impetuous? Yeah, I'll go with that.' "...impetuous, before the whole Brotherhood of Evil thing made you use your brain."
"Hey," he said, "I promised I would never prank you again. I don't exactly have damnation insurance!" Raven rolled her eyes at the bad joke, but was at least happy that she could repair the unintended damage her own joke had done. She was really hoping he would get back to normal sooner, though, but she supposed that was too much to ask for, considering everything that had happened since the year began—from a country he'd had such a deep connection to being thrown into a temporal hell, to losing one of his earliest mentors, and finally being sexually assaulted by a pair of overzealous fans. And it was only February!
"Uh, Rae?" the changeling said, as the movie was nearing its close, after a long span of the two Titans just silently watching.
"Yes, Gar?"
"I've been thinking for the past couple weeks, and I don't think I'm comfortable staying in LA anymore after all that's happened," he said. "I wanted to be around for your birthday, but I kinda wanna move to Steve and Rita's place in East Hampton. They don't use it anymore, since they have more of a sentimental connection to the place in Midway City, but I think I'd feel more comfortable there now." The biggest thing factoring into his decision ended up being the large number of fangirls who now knew where he lived—he didn't feel safe living in his LA home anymore.
"Oh," was all she could say. To be honest, she was shocked out of her mind by this and didn't really know what to feel. Although she was certain it was accidental—improvements be damned, Gar still had a tendency to not think things through as much as he should at times—his timing was definitely the worst as far as saying what he said while watching this particular film went. Not more than three seconds after Raven replied to the changeling's statement, the narrator began talking about how the four kids in the movie had drifted apart and gone their separate ways. This made her think about the state of the Titans.
Dick and Kori were gone—lightyears away. Although it would hurt, if Vic were to decide that he wanted to leave to go live with Sarah, Raven would eventually get over it. But Gar was a different story; for years, she had unknowingly allowed him to get away with things no one else could. For years, she had allowed the changeling to test her boundaries in his effort to draw her out of her solitary stoic state. No one ever knew why, but she saw it now. It was there even on that first day they met, when she told him she thought he was funny—that was not something she'd ever done before, nor did it particularly fit her personality. She tried for years to keep him at arm's length, but at the same time she could never allow him to be any further away than that either. The two of them as individuals had deep scars which stunted their personal growth, as their respective defense mechanisms forced them to extreme positions.
More alike in life experience than one would immediately have recognized, their personality differences did not actually make them opposites, but rather they were as parts of the same whole. Under normal circumstances, he was her hyperactive, effusive, light yang, and she was his passive, stoic, dark yin. Their similar life experiences bound them, while their differences in personality complimented each other, bringing balance. She realized now that she had herself been a major force in his maturation. So too had he been a driving force in her growing sociability, forcing her to come to terms with social contact even when she wanted to lock herself away from the world. They strengthened each other where they were weakest.
On the emotional level, she could not bear to lose him. Indeed, this had been why she didn't tell him how she felt. She was afraid that he wouldn't feel the same way, and it would destroy their friendship. She also figured that, after what happened with Candi and Mandy, the thought of a woman being in love with him, like she found herself to be, might scare the living crap out of him. But now he wanted to move to the other side of the continent, and if she didn't want to lose him. She had to think fast. It especially affected her as the movie's narration spoke of Chris's fate—the thought of having Garfield fade out of her life and then end up dead (which very well could happen in the near future considering what he was planning) scared her even more than the thought of negative reactions to him finding out about her feelings for him. She had to be there to protect her Garfield, for in his death she truly would lose him forever.
"What about Vic and I?" Raven asked, hoping to dance around the issue to the point of staying near him without telling him that she needed to be near him.
"You guys can stay here for as long as you want," Beast Boy replied.
"It just seems odd that you would want to move away so suddenly," she noted.
"I know," he responded, "but after what happened with those girls at that party, LA, like...scares me."
"Well, I'm pretty sure you'll never see those two again," she said while moving her arm around his shoulder in a gesture very unlike her normal self, but which she'd gotten used to over the preceding weeks. The tone of her voice had an absolute certainty that the words themselves didn't quite impart. She had not told him about what happened earlier that day—needless to say, he definitely would never see his attackers again. Somehow, that certain tone did seem to help him. He certainly became more comfortable, leaning in to rest his head on her shoulder. Four years ago she would have sent him out a window for that gesture, but now she was actually enjoying his proximity to her.
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
"I'm going with you," Raven said as the credits began to roll. "I swore by Azar that I would be by your side, and I intend to keep my promise."
"But..." Gar did not know how to react to this. After the past few weeks, he'd been sure she'd have been getting tired of his continuous company, and he needed to have enough space to keep from ruining their friendship by disclosing his feelings. But, at the same time, he also was not any more happy about the prospect of being apart than she was.
So darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me, stand by me
"...are you sure this is what you want? New York is a long way away." As he thought about it, he quickly warmed up to the idea of her coming with. 'It's not like we'd be smothering each other,' he thought, 'that place is big enough that we probably wouldn't even need to see each other everyday if either of us needed time alone.'
To be honest, her loyalty and compassion had been one of the few bright spots in his life during that still-young year. Then again, that had always typified their relationship—at the end of the day, no matter how many times she insulted him or how many slaps she gave him, he knew she cared and she would never abandon him. Even if he asked her to abandon him in his time of need, she would still do anything to make sure he was alright. That's the kind of friend she was with all of her friends—her introversion tended to make displays of affection a rarity, but she was always caring when it was really needed. No matter what, all of the Titans knew she cared about them. He knew he couldn't say no—he needed her.
If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
"If you're going," she said as she eased the changeling into an embrace, "I'm going. After all I've seen and all of the experiences we've shared, I'm not going to just let you fade out of my life like that. And I'm definitely not going to let you go to Lamumba alone, either."
And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand now, stand by me, stand by me
As the song broke into an instrumental bridge, Beast Boy reciprocated Raven's embrace, resulting in what one would have to call a cuddle under any context. The combination of his close proximity and the romantic/nostalgic tone to the string solo had a peculiar effect on the empath, forcing a flood of memories to overcome her mind. She remembered the moment they met, the debate about that silly mask of his, the first time he'd protected her in battle, the first time she'd seen him seriously injured, that damn chicken he won her, his and Vic's refusal to leave when Trigon was on the offensive in Nevermore, the first time they played chess with each other (surprisingly, he had her in check three times and managed to take two-thirds of her pieces—including her queen—before she finally got him into checkmate; she later learned that Mento had taught him the game and the Doom Patrol men used to frequently play it with him, in order to improve the boy's strategic thinking), carrying him around the first time they faced Mad Mod, the time the Titans almost lost him to Soto, the day they met Terra, the night of Terra's betrayal, the moment Terra nearly killed him, the moment he called her creepy, his concern for her during her seduction by Malchior, the moment he told her she wasn't alone, the incident with Adonis and the Beast and its immediate aftermath, his insistence upon throwing her a birthday party for her sixteenth birthday, the penny he gave her for luck, his jubilation when she confirmed that she was truly herself following the defeat of Trigon, the Japanese fangirls who pursued him, the ultra-flirtatious attacks upon him from Nya-Nya, and many examples of his flirtatious banter and terrible (yet still, she now begrudgingly admitted, endearing) jokes.
With each memory that flashed in her mind's eye, she also felt the adjoining emotional responses she had in the moments. The relief from the moments when he was her guardian. The fear from the moments when he was in danger, which in the instance when he was nearly taken by Soto was also colored with some guilt for having refused to make time to spend with him. The sentimental appreciation she never openly admitted feeling when he gave her gifts or tried to do things for her. The hurt she felt when he called her creepy and that time he exploded at her while under the influence of those chemicals. The deep and very open appreciation she felt for him when he told her exactly what she needed to hear after Malchior broke her heart and when he saved her from Adonis. The hope his penny represented. The only recently-recognized jealousy she felt around Terra, and later in Japan. The protective rage she felt when Terra was on the verge of killing him. The embarrassed, bashful and very secret flattery she felt every time he'd direct his flirty demeanor toward her.
Darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me, stand by me
The totality of her memories and the feelings they invoked, together with the warmth emanating from his body, made her feel secure and, well, content. She basically went into autopilot at this point; or, rather, Affection had apparently taken over, as Raven unconsciously pulled Beast Boy into a closer snuggle.
If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
He was still mostly conscious of what was happening, but that was fading fast. Initially, he found Raven seeking this much physical contact to be weird, but he wasn't exactly going to complain. Potential consequences were nagging the back of his mind, but he was too wrapped up in the moment to really heed his more fearful side's warnings.
And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand now, stand by me, stand by me
As the song went into another string solo, Gar had his own flood of memories. He remembered the first time she told him she thought he was funny, the moment she invited him to room with her in her old apartment, the first time he'd seen her in danger, the first time she protected him, her helping him back to the Tower after their first disastrous confrontation with the H.I.V.E., that first time she healed his leg, his interactions with Happy, Timid and Brave in Nevermore, the conversation where they found out that although each thought the other didn't like them they actually did like each other, her snapping him back to reality after he was hypnotized during their first confrontation with Mad Mod (although he had to protest because it was at his expense, he actually did think the joke was funny), the emotion in her voice when she told Terra that if she killed him it would "be the last thing [she'd] ever do," his annoyance when Raven would become angry at him when he only wanted to include her in activities, the surprise he felt when Raven hugged him after the Malchior incident (and the frustration he felt when Cyborg killed the moment), the fear and self-doubt he felt when everyone was telling him he'd hurt her in his werebeast form, the comforting conversation they had after she woke up, the feelings of fear he felt when it was believed that she was dead, the determination he felt to defeat her father (even going so far as to use his werebeast form, which he was normally too scared to use), the relief he felt when she returned to her normal self and defeated Trigon, the embarassment he felt when she learned his real name, the adorable sense of helplessness she was exuding when it came to babysitting a certain trio of superpowered children, the triumphant feeling that took him over as she, Cyborg and Starfire showed up during the fight in Paris, and various other things. It was a hell of a trip.
Darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me, stand by me
Compulsion took over the both of them as the emotional residue of their memories drew them closer still on the emotional plane. As the song began to fade out, the two chromatically-challenged Titans each found their eyes trapped in the other's. Unable to break the gaze, the emotional connection overpowered their conscious minds. Acting on emotion and instinct now, they drew closer until their lips were barely half a centimeter apart, when...
"BOOYA!" a familiar voice shouted from behind them. As Gar and Rae jumped away from each other and tried to pretend what just almost happened was just a construct of his imagination, Vic was very full of glee for having just won a $50 bet. Raven and Beast Boy were decidedly less pleased.
"I...uh...I think I'm going to go...uh..." Raven said with a voice uncharacteristically full of hesitation. She was very obviously thinking a lot about each word she used, trying to will herself out of this situation. "I'm going to go meditate," she finally said, as she got up and fled to privacy of her room.
"I...uh...think I'm gonna go to bed," Beast Boy said after Raven left the room. It was obvious that he was just using that as an excuse, though, as it was still very early in the evening. Usually Gar, who had been notably affected by the nocturnal instincts of much of the Animal Kingdom, wouldn't be going to sleep for at least another six hours.
As the other two Titans fled to their respective bedrooms, Cyborg couldn't help but laugh. He'd known something was up, and now as he and Sarah returned from their night out, they found Gar and Rae cuddling on the couch on the verge of kissing.
Author's Notes
If you're paying attention, Raven's uniform is at this point more like a composite of her uniforms from the comics than her uniform in the cartoons (although I'll note that her hair and skin still remain the same colors as they were in the 2003-2006 cartoons). I did that mostly just because I like the gown better than the leotard, though it did give a good opportunity to provide a piece of exposition on the evolution of her relationship with Gar. Suddenly, either he (hypothetically) knows exactly what to get her for a gift, or she (actually) just treasures what he gives her, but the dynamic has shifted nonetheless.
I wrote Gar as being a fan of Corey Feldman; this actually has a bit of basis in canon—in Teen Titans Vol 3 #15 (Nov 2004), Beast Boy described his own acting career by comparing it with Feldman's, stating that he was "like Corey Feldman but with super-powers." I also wrote Raven as a Stephen King fan which, while not having any canonical basis that I can think of, does seem to be one of those things that floats around in a lot of fanfics which really seems to fit her perfectly.
There's an interesting connection between Stand by Me and Teen Titans, though: Wil Wheaton, who played Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me, did the voice of Aqualad in Teen Titans. But I did not even realize that connection existed until after I wrote Beast Boy and Raven watching that movie, mind you.
Also, Candi and Mandy have voided their Karma Houdini Warranties. Didn't think I was gonna let them off the hook, did you?
I'm also hoping to get the abnormal situations which are impacting Beast Boy's and Raven's personalities resolved so that I can have Raven actually acting like Raven and Beast Boy actually acting like Beast Boy soon. There seems to be a lot of agreement that Raven's normal MBTI type would be either INTJ or INFJ, with tv tropes settling on listing her as an INTJ (which makes a lot of sense). As far as Beast Boy's personality goes, there's a lot of disagreement, but tv tropes lists him as an ENFP (which, he does seem to exhibit a lot of ENFP traits under normal circumstances). But it's starting to bug me that, for most of the story thus far, I've had both of them acting pretty OOC (albeit that's not entirely unreasonable given the stresses the story has created for them; it could be explained that they're acting according to their shadow functions).
CheeseJellyBean-Thanks for the favorite. Glad you liked that chapter, and I hope the rest of the story pans out. As far as Candi and Mandy go, I was wondering if I was pushing it a little far, but I really wanted to portray them in an especially depraved light in that chapter (then in this chapter you see them realizing they were wrong, but it's too late and Raven ends up dispensing with them anyway). I'm glad you think the adult content was tasteful and evocative; my main concern with writing adult content in general is that I don't want it to be smutty, while I'm also trying to avoid making it boring while making it tasteful—for lack of a better word, 'refined eroticism' is what I'm shooting for in general when I write an adult scene. In this particular case, though, I was shooting more for horror than eroticism, though; putting BB in a situation where he had absolutely no control. And in that horrifying situation, I was also aiming for social commentary as well.
Hairul The Nightrage Beast-Well, their luck ran out in this chapter...
shugokage-Thanks. I figured I wanted to have Raven be forced to come to terms with her feelings for Beast Boy in a situation that had socially meaningful contexts.
JasonVUK- Well, I would figure BB would handle that traumatic experience like he's handled others. He'll be quite uncomfortable in situations that remind him of it, but he's skillful enough at compartmentalizing his traumatic memories that I see him taking it much better than most people would. Moreover, I've intentionally written him feeling safer in Raven's presence—whether that's because he actually does feel like she'll protect him (which, we see in this chapter, she certainly will), or whether she might be using her empathic powers to 'eat' some of his negative emotions being entirely up for interpretation for the time being—as a way to kind of hopefully work around the trauma from that particular experience.
Annatheavidreader-I kinda wanted to work some socially conscious content into the story, so it was intentional that that particular chapter be on the more serious side, and it certainly won't be the last of the chapters that are like that (though I do not plan on exploring the subject of rape again in this story). I agree with you completely that it seemed wrong that Candi and Mandy were basically Karma Houdinis in that chapter, which is why I actually decided to write their scene in this chapter (needless to say, they're out of the story for good now). As for whay Gar is suddenly conscious of his emotions, I'm not really sure if I'm going to explore it at all in the story itself, but the way I figure it is that when Raven was in his mind, she left behind a piece of her soul self, which interacted with the Beast, who of course interacts with the other aspects of Gar's self, and then the traumatic situation he was experiencing the moment his emotions began interacting like that was a catalyst forcing it all together. I figure Raven's soul self's interaction with the Beast opened up the Beast to becoming a channel for Gar's other emotions, seeing as the conversation Raven had with him at the end of "The Beast Within" indicates that he could sense the Beast within him anyway...Raven gave it a bit of a push via her presence, while the experience the following evening pushed the interactions over the edge.