Woo! 'nother chapter! So... after looking back at a the first chapter, I realized I had intended on switching Robin to Nightwing and making him and Starfire still unofficial... apparently I reverted to what felt natural right after that first chapter. Oops. So at some point I'll probably go back and fix that but for now I'm going to move on with the story. Enjoy!
Raven desperately needed to meditate. She had needed to meditate since she woke up that morning and that need only escalated as the day went on. The mall had been fine, but the freely flowing emotions of all the many people there bombarding her with their emotional carelessness was annoying to block out. When they returned to the tower, a movie seemed like a safe idea, but she hadn't counted on arguing with her emotions the entire time. She realized afterwards that she hadn't seen pretty much any of the movie though she had been staring intently at the screen because she had drifted into her mindscape. And when she came out of her trancelike situation, she was completely unprepared to have a handsome, green gremlin attached to her arm nor was she prepared for her team to witness the compromising situation. All in all, that night, meditation was more crucial than sleep. Should she go to bed while she was like this, she would not only have some overly emotional dreams that she would feel embarrassed about in the morning, but the force of these emotions would probably tear her room right out of the west wall of the tower.
So, that's what she planned to do. When she teleported to her room, she immediately lit some of the vanilla scented candles that she used so often. Lifting off into the air, she began what would become a six hour meditation session just to settle the emotions that Beast Boy had overexcited.
This proved to be a horrible mistake.
At the bright and early 6:30 am, they received their first crime alert in a week. Though it was merely a bank robbery by a nameless thief, it was annoying for the sleepy Titans (minus Robin, who's alarm clock had gone off right at that time anyway and he most likely popped right out of bed, fully ready for the day like the insanely efficient leader he was). Cyborg was not heavily affected, as most of him was robotic, but as he pinned the robber's arms to his sides, the cybernetic man was stifling yawns. Starfire similarly flew slightly slower and lower to the ground as she evacuated the bank tellers and as soon as the crime was settled, Beast Boy curled up in a corner as a cat and fell asleep. However, none had it worse than Raven.
Having not slept at all and merely was shocked from her meditation by the alarm, Raven not only opted out of flying to the crime scene and joined Cyborg in the T-car, but when shielding her teammates from gunshots, her shields almost fell as she faded in and out of consciousness.
So, while Robin settled the case with the police, Raven leaned against the still locked T-car, eyes closed and leaning her head back against the high-tech, blue and silver metal.
"So, a 12'o'clock movie night is too late for you, huh?"
Raven opened her eyes a sliver to view the green titan standing in front of her, looking down at her with amused, half-lidded eyes.
"Not exactly…" She replied, adverting her gaze. He tilted his head to the side in a way that mirrored that of a confused puppy and his smirking face turned to one of concern.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She sighed.
"…not exactly…"
"Rae… what's wrong?" The changeling put his hand on her shoulder and tried to shift so he could see her face. She flinched at the contact.
When one is tired, his or her senses are both heightened and dulled, making everything a bit confusing and drastically more funny, sad, or exciting. Because of her personified emotions, this was all too noticeable. With one touch, Happy and Love became hyper-excited, Timid and Embarrassment were extremely shaken, and Intelligence and Brave had all but disappeared. She bit her bottom lip and glanced up into his surprisingly close eyes. Looking into his forest green irises, Raven lost it. A dark portal materialized to swallow her up, leaving a very confused Beast Boy in her wake. He frowned, morphed into a pterodactyl, and flew in the direction of the tower.
When she reappeared in her room, she collapsed on the floor and clutched at her head as her powers created a whirlwind around her, catching a few of her books and loose papers in the swirling winds. She gritted her teeth as her emotions battled for control in her head. After a grueling five minutes her exhaustion got the better of her. Her emoticlones were either over-exhausted or returned to equilibrium. Struggling to keep her eyes open, Raven got up from the floor on wobbling legs and crawled into her bed, her hands trembling as she pulled at the covers.
I guess sleep is necessary for a demon… who knew…
And then a knock at the door.
Raven groaned. Tentatively reaching out her emotional sensors, which proved to be more trouble than it was worth, she picked Beast Boy's emotional signature out from behind the door. The waves of worry and fear rolling off of him spiked her already increasing headache to the level of a migraine.
"Raven?" came the muffled voice from behind the door. She crawled out of her bed, steadying herself with one hand and clutching at her temple with the other. She paused a moment at the door to prepare herself from the bright lights of the hall and then sloppily slid the door open.
"What?" she replied harshly as she attempted to keep her wobbling knees from showing any sign of weakness. Beast Boy looked at her with concern, which turned to alarm with the glance at her whirlwind of a room.
"Rae… I mean Raven… What happened to you? Are you alright?!" Beast Boy said, attempting to enter her room and assess the damage. The hand that had cradled her head shot out and blocked his entry, the other hand still braced on the door to steady herself. She inwardly cursed herself for being so careless as to give him any hint of weakness.
"I'm fine."
"Well, obviously not! I'm pretty sure I haven't rubbed off on you enough that you would do that to your room! I know you Raven. I saw that look in your eye before you teleported; you're in pain. And by the look of it, a lot," the changeling said, looking meaningfully down at her wobbling knees.
"I don't need your help, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'm all I've ever needed and all I'll ever need. Just because I have friends now, doesn't mean I need to burden them," Raven said, a bit more icily than she had intended.
"Come on, Rae, let me in."
"Don't call me that." Beast Boy frowned, his fang poking out a little farther than usual.
"Alright, if you won't let me in, I'm just gonna come in." He shoved the door, dislodging her hand. With the imbalance she was feeling, this motion brought Raven teetering backwards. She closed her eyes as the room spun and prepared to land on her rear. A landing that never occurred.
With his animal reflexes, Beast Boy's hand shot out and grabbed Raven's as she plummeted. Amethyst eyes met emerald ones and he knew her last defenses were spent. She looked at him with the eyes of a frightened puppy. He tugged her arm until it was across his shoulders and then proceeded to support her as they made slow progress to her bed, as he assumed she would object to being carried bridal style even in this weakened state.
"If you want to fool me, you might try changing your habits. Every time you insist on being alright, you're not," the green man said softly as he piled up pillows so that she could sit up.
"I didn't realize that I was so easy to read." He snorted incredulously.
"You're definitely not. I just pay too much attention," Beast Boy said almost to himself. Some color lighted upon both green and gray cheeks.
"Oh."
The two sat in silence as Beast Boy busied himself with making sure Raven would be comfortable. Raven, who had been looking down for the entirety of the process, finally looked up at the changeling and broke the silence.
"Garfield?"
His ears shot up at the mention of his real name and he quickly looked up at her.
"Garfield?!"
"Is… is it okay if I call you that?"
"Well, I prefer Gar if we're gonna go on a first name basis, but I suppose the full thing works too."
"Well… Garfield… I just want to say… thank you. I've been acting strange lately and I'm afraid it's rather confusing to the rest of you. So, thank you for putting up with all this," the empath said. He felt as though she were looking into his soul as she stared into his pupils.
"Theres no need to thank us. We're your friends, Rae." He got a mischievous light in his eyes.
"Mind if I call you that?" Beast Boy said, a grin splitting his face. A ghost of a smile touched her lips.
"I'll allow it."
"Great, Rae."
Another silence enveloped them. Beast Boy's attention returned to the trashed room.
"Soooo, I like what you did with your room?" he said questioningly. Her smile returned.
"I'm afraid this isn't the next big interior design fad. I've been having… a bit of trouble with my emotions lately. I'm imbalanced I suppose," the demoness bit her cheek and adverted her eyes towards the drawer that held her journal.
"So… you need to meditate more?"
"Yes. Its actually worse than usual. If I come out of my room at all this week, it will be a miracle."
"That bad, huh?"
She nodded and looked back at him with the same pained look. They stared at each other with a shared concern for the situation at hand as well as a crazy desire to kiss the other. The tension could be cut with a butter knife. Eventually, Beast Boy began to feel awkward and Raven nervously watched the pens on her desk dance about as black magic enveloped them. When the changeling coughed and started to get up the pens dropped and she looked up at him.
"Well, I uh… gotta go see how the rest of the team ended up. I'll see ya later… Rae," Beast Boy said, trying to cover up his obvious discomfort with the use of her nickname.
"Goodbye, Garfield."
"Feel better, okay? Just call if you need anything."
"I will."
"Right… okay. Later!" Beast Boy narrowly missed the wall as he tried to walk backwards to the door, keeping his eyes on her as long as he could. The door shut behind him and Raven sighed. The room felt empty. On the other side of the door, Beast Boy slid down the length of the door and leaned his head back, smiling.
Looks like I really am getting through.
Raven levitated her journal and it's key to her. She unlocked the journal and began to write.
Starfire was right. I must be deprived of love because I literally had to restrain myself to keep from kissing him. That's all for now, I need to meditate, badly.
Beast Boy's face was stuck in a clenched teeth grin. He was so jittery, but he felt happy at the same time. She was opening up. He got up and took a sharp breath to try and calm himself. As he walked down the hall away from the door, he scratched the back of his neck.
Dude, she called me Garfield…
So, this was a bit of a short chapter. I'll try for a longer one next time. Reviews are appreciated! Laterade!