In a way, Beast Boy got his wish. But when you're a green shapeshifter on a team of aliens and humans with above average fighting abilities, things generally don't go as planned.
He was startled awake by a primal roar echoing through the room. Though he didn't jump, his eyes shot open wide, revealing the slitted green eyes of the beast within. When it registered that he was watching a movie, he slowly fluttered his eyelids and upon the fifth blink was back to human irises.
The first thing he noticed with frustration, was that he had fallen asleep quite early on in the movie and had missed most of it. He liked that movie, it gave him hope for his own humanity, and now he had just missed all of it except the fight scene between the Beast and Gaston that had just woken him up. He tried to remember what had happened today to make him tired and with a jolt the memories of spending all day at the mall with the resident empath returned to his tired mind. No wonder he was exhausted, he had to keep his energy level at its max around her to keep from being overcome with her negativity. But oddly enough she had been in relatively good spirits the entire trip and he had been forcing himself to bounce off the walls for no reason other than out of habit. He smiled as he recalled this. She was getting so much more control over her emotions and after all these years was finally able so show some. She seemed genuinely happy, or at least not sour, about going shopping with him and when they painted the mugs Raven had seemed to be trying very hard to be friendly.
Things like this were what he lived for.
As he watched more of the movie, the fight between the Beast and the man becoming more desperate, the changeling snuggled into his pillow, hugging it to his body tighter. He took a deep breath and smelled a familiar scent of vanilla and tea leaves…wait. He hadn't brought out any pillows… and his pillows certainly didn't smell that nice…
Beast Boy shut his eyes tightly, wincing, and then glanced upwards, knowing already what he would find. But what he saw surprised him slightly.
Raven, instead of glaring at him for latching onto her arm and using her as a pillow, was watching the movie intently. She'd seen this already, hadn't she? Perhaps she was just deeply engaged in the action. In any case, the demoness was staring at the screen and with her free arm hugging a bright green blanket to her chest. A green blanket? He looked down and winced again. They were sharing a blanket too. He mentally cursed as he realized that he was probably sitting on her cloak. Not that he wasn't loving snuggling with Raven, but he wasn't looking forward to her pummeling him or the rest of the team's teasing.
He wondered if she even noticed, but she was Raven! She had to have noticed at least him hugging her arm. Maybe she didn't mind? Of course she would, she probably just didn't want to do anything to draw attention to herself. Knowing her, she'd be just as embarrassed as she would be angry. He frowned. All he was to his team was an annoying green blob of embarrassment. Why did they keep him around anyway? Its not like he contributed anything to the team other than stupid one liners. Probably just charity, its not like anyone else would take a scrawny green kid.
He took a moment from his self-bashing to look back to the television. The Beast had fallen. He looked away quickly. This part always made him tear up and he was already in a compromising situation; there was no way he was letting Cyborg tease him for cuddling with Raven and for crying in a Disney movie. He tried to look at anything else but the screen, the Beast's supposed death hit too close to home for his tastes.
But as Belle cried over the Beast and finally admitted that she loved him, his eyes became glued to the screen. If he didn't know the end, he would have thought that her last minute proclamation of love was tragic. Instead, he smiled as the Beast returned to the man he had been long ago. He shook his head lightly as, for a moment, the prince's skin seemed to be green and Belle's hair flashed purple. He could only hope.
The credits began to roll and an audible creaking was heard as Cyborg got up from the couch to get the lights. Starfire giggled at the movie's conclusion and began chattering happily about the ending to Robin, who merely smiled down at her and nodded. Raven had released her death grip on the blanket and yawned. With panic, Beast Boy realized that life was about to get complicated. At that moment the lights came on.
Raven tried to stretch her arms as she became aware of the stiffness in her body from sitting for so long. When her left arm refused to obey, she remembered the green 18 year old hugging arm. She looked down, hoping she would find a way to dislodge him before anything bad happened. What she didn't expect, was to see emerald green eyes staring back at her. The two blinked at each other for a moment before Cyborg returned to the couch.
"I guess that was good, but Frozen woulda been—" Cyborg trailed off as he approached the confused empath and the panicking changeling. He crossed his arms and a wide grin split his face.
"Well alright! Its about time you two!"
"NO! This isn't— we weren't—"
"No need to explain, grass stain. Rob, pay up!"
A very red faced Raven finally found the courage to open her mouth.
"You were awake the whole time?! Beast Boy, you were awake the whole time and I allowed this because I didn't want to wake you up!" Raven yelled, her face a mixture of confusion, anger and embarrassment.
Beast Boy's face visibly darkened as an intense blush turned his green skin a brownish color.
"I-I… It wasn't… I didn't want to freak you out! I don't know, I thought you didn't notice or something!" The changeling stuttered out. He had disentangled his arms from around hers and scooted a whole seat-cushion away from her as he prepared for her to lash out. And indeed she did, but not quite how he expected. The mugs on the table that had once held cocoa all proceeded to shatter at the same moment, making the whole team fall silent and look at the empath. Raven glanced at all the faces turned towards her and then suddenly dissipated in a black swirl of energy. Beast Boy was now the center of attention and his flustered appearance had not left him.
"I swear, I didn't do anything to make her that upset!" He practically shouted, waving his hands outstretched hands to shield himself from any possible accusations. Cyborg merely shook his head at the changeling in front of him.
"Well, you obviously did something. I've never seen Raven that upset except for when that whole mess with Trigon was happening," the cybernetic man said pointedly.
"I am confused. Usually the act of snuggling is welcomed when two are doing the dating. Are friend Raven and friend Beast Boy not participating in such actions?" Starfire piped in.
"DATING?! Nonononononono! We're just friends, Star! I mean, dating? Really? We would never— We couldn't! Right?!" Beast Boy said, far too quickly.
"Riiiiiiiight. That wasn't suspicious, green bean," Cyborg said, his grin returning and his eyebrow raised.
"Maybe they aren't, Cyborg. You don't need to bother him about it."
"Shut up, Rob! You just don't wanna have to pay the fifty bucks!"
"Cut it out, Cy! Robin's right! Why are you so— wait… you were betting on us?!"
The two older male team members froze at this statement. They glanced at each other and Robin nodded. Cyborg cleared his throat.
"Yeah, we were betting on you two. 'Cause this so called detective can't see the obvious attraction between you two. I know it's gonna happen some day, so I put money on it. Is that a problem for you?" Cyborg said with so much sarcasm in his voice that it rivaled Raven's.
"Uh, yeah! Just the fact that you even think there's something between us is crazy!"
"But you have become the better friends and both have begun to act strangely around each other. Is that not a symptom of the crush?"
Beast Boy couldn't argue with her logic, he had been certain that his crush was obvious, much to his mortification. However, apparently Raven had noticed nothing of it which was surprising considering her empathy. So, he merely fell back on the couch, groaning and digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets.
"Geez. Guys, I've got it bad," He admitted, still covering his face.
"Yeah B, we're passed that," Cyborg said, looking down at the changeling.
"Well, what do I do!? She hates me even more after this!" Beast Boy threw his hands in the air in exasperation and let them drop so that one was handing over the back of the couch and the other trailed the floor. He looked at each of them in turn when Starfire opened her mouth.
"Does she not also have the crush on you? She was not very angry when she realized that you were not asleep, otherwise, she would have used her magic and thrown you from the tower as she used to, yes?"
"Yeah, thats right! She used to chuck you out the window, remember? We had to replace that window something like six times last year," Cyborg recalled excitedly. "She probably wouldn't care about your safety if she didn't like you at least a little."
"Yeah, okay, she doesn't hate me. So what, doesn't mean she likes me that way," Beast Boy reasoned, glaring up at his friend.
"Fine, don't believe me. But lets consult the 'detective' around here. Robin?" Cyborg said, putting air quotes around "detective". "What was unusual about Raven's behavior before she left?"
"She was acting considerably more flustered than usual, very confused, and exhibiting traits of a cornered animal. But that doesn't necessarily mean she has feelings for him. She could have just been spooked by the compromising situation she was in," Robin said, almost mechanically. Cyborg slapped a robotic hand to his forehead.
"Geez man, no wonder it took you so long to finally ask Starfire out, those are all key signs of a crush! Star, its a good thing you pretty much shoved your love in his face or he never would've figured it out!" Cyborg said mockingly, ignoring Robin crossing his arms and a pout forming on his reddening face as Starfire giggled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"But, Raven's complicated! Even if she liked me, she'd just deny it so she could 'protect me' or something!" Beast Boy drew air quotes as he sat up. "She's too selfless for her own good…" he mumbled.
"Just keep trying. Make sure she definitely knows how much you like her and she won't be able to deny it to herself." Cyborg put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder.
The green teen shrugged away from the gesture and vaulted over the back of the couch.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm going to bed, g'night guys." With that, he walked through the automatic doors and they swished shut behind him. Cyborg turned to Robin.
"If you couldn't see Starfire's love until, what, last month, its gonna take you until those two are getting married to get Raven's emotions through your thick skull. Seriously though, how could you not see right through this bundle of sunshine?" Cyborg asked, motioning towards Starfire. The Tamaranian giggled once more and planted a kiss on her irritated boyfriend's cheek before floating off to her room for the night.