So a shoutout to Crow the Mad, TheForce, and TrumpetNeard for the imagination jumpstarts that they supplied for this chapter. Tanks guise. Ideas are still helpful contributions though if anyone wants to help out since I still honestly don't know where this story is going. Scene ideas, interesting sentences, phrases, anything and everything gets my creative juices flowing.
One last note, I will probably be editing a little in the older chapters so that everything matches up nicely and all that (things like that awkward use of the name Nightwing in the first chapter and then never again. Whoops. I think I also said Beast Boy was already 18 at some point, which is incorrect for this story I might add.). So if you're getting notifications about it, feel free to reread chapters, but I doubt there will be anything monumentally different. I'll make sure to tell you if there are. So thats all, you can read the story now. Of course theres already the chance that you're already reading the story and you skipped this authors note in which case you wouldn't have seen this sentence, but, alas, I do not care. I'm tired, none of this will make sense when I next read it I'm afraid. Goodbye until the end of the chapter.
"…and then he probably stormed off to her room, one of them will break down a little, and the other will come rushing to their rescue. Simple."
Cyborg crossed his arms and stared at Robin incredulously. Even Starfire's face appeared concerned though she usually trusted her boyfriend completely.
"Rob, that plan is full of theoreticals that I'm starting to question your identity right now. You still you, bro?"
"Friends Beast Boy and Raven are very unpredictable, yes? How can you hope to do the predicting of what they would do in such a new occasion?" Robin smirked.
"Actually, when it comes to each other, their pretty easy to read. There's patterns in all of their routines. When Beast Boy acts immature, Raven attacks him verbally or physically. When tries to keep herself distanced, Beast Boy pulls her back to us." Cyborg shook his head at Robin's explanation.
"What does any of that have to do with your horrible plan?"
"I wasn't finished, this last one is the crucial part. One gets hurt, the other goes to comfort them, they open up to each other, and then their relationship grows. In this case, I think the hurt has been building up, probably because they hurt each other if your theory is correct, Cyborg." Robin looked at the metal man for confirmation to which Cyborg nodded.
"Well, right after he came down from the roof he told me that I needed to replace ALL the windows in the top floor and when I asked him why, he practically snarled at me to mind my own business. If that mess wasn't caused by both of them then we probably had a tornado hit only the top floor. It's a good thing none of our rooms are up there 'cause everything up there was trashed." Robin nodded.
"See, when one of them is hurt by some external force, like Terra in Beast Boy's case or Malchior in Raven's, it's easy for the other to come offer some support. But on the rare occasion that Beast Boy hurt Raven, or vice versa, they don't want to go to each other. Usually it's not too serious and they make up soon enough, but I think both of them are actually hurting a lot this time. So, by forcing Beast Boy to go to Raven under the threat of no pizza, we're helping them reconcile. It's simple strategy," said Robin, crossing his arms and meeting his skeptical teammates' stares.
"Yeah, Rob. Simple," Cyborg drawled sarcastically. He noted that he had probably hung out with Raven in the garage too much lately, this cybernetic sarcasm is getting out of hand.
"Robin, do you not see that you cannot force either of them to reconcile? Raven and Beast Boy are stubborn as… is it the mules?" After a nod of confirmation from Cyborg she continued.
"This behavior is only increased when it comes to the two of them together. They will not move if they do not want to do the moving." The Tamaranian princess took a step forward and put her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. Robin covered the hand with his own.
"Don't worry so much. Beside, even if this doesn't work, I always have a Plan B." He smiled with confidence and Starfire couldn't help but smile back, albeit with a quite a bit more concern. At that moment, the doors from the hallway split to reveal the changeling. All eyes turned towards him widely. The still-teen raised his eyebrows and looked at each of them cautiously.
"Uh… can I have pizza now?" The six innocent words snapped them all from whatever trance they were in.
"Um, yeah, of course you can… where's Raven?" was Robin's stammering reply. Beast Boy's back visibly straightened at the mention of the empath. He quickly busied himself with peeling two large wedges of vegetarian pizza from the box at the table.
"She, uh, was asleep?" he said, almost questioningly. From her seat, Starfire couldn't tear her eyes from the green animorph's face, much to said subject's dismay. Cyborg coughed awkwardly before speaking.
"Right. Yeah, she looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up today. Thanks for checking on her buddy." Beast Boy let out a little chuckle of relief and took a bite of his pizza.
"No problem dude!" grinning, which only shocked his teammates more, he began to eat with the most enthusiasm they'd seen in him for a week.
When Beast Boy walked in, he had been unable to contain his joy and had a blissful grin plastered to his face. This in itself was alarming because the still-teen hadn't so much as smiled wholeheartedly since that fateful Tuesday. However, this was not the main cause of their shock. No, the reason that they had all forgotten completely what they were about to say, the reason for Robin's uncharacteristic stuttering, the reason that Starfire couldn't for the life of her look away from his face, was a reason much more shocking than a measly grin.
The reason for their disturbance was that they were all very aware of the fact that Raven wore lip gloss. Purple lip gloss.
Now, Starfire already knew about her friend's make-up use. She was the one who had gone to the mall and helped the demoness pick out the perfect colors for her unusual skin tone. What bothered her so much was the presence of said make-up on Beast Boy. His lips in particular. She had been expecting some kind of romance to bloom between the two, but she hadn't expected it quite so soon.
But there he was, the green rascal. Scarfing down pizza with a purplish, waxy residue plastered messily on his lips.
Slowly, Robin reached out and tore two pieces of pizza out of the box. One meat lovers and one vegetarian slice. Cyborg followed suit with two pieces of meat lovers, realizing that the leader was trying to create some kind of normalcy. If Raven wanted them to know, Beast Boy would have been announcing their relationship at the top of his lungs. And since Raven didn't want them to know, they all silently agreed that as far as they were concerned, they knew nothing. Starfire still looked extremely uncomfortable, but she took whichever slice was nearest to her in the doughy disk and began eating it without really tasting anything as she thought deeply. Robin seemed to be planning what to do next, so once again, it was left to Cyborg to run the conversation.
"So, BB." Beast Boy's face shot up to meet Cyborg's, fear wiping across his face momentarily as if he were guilty of something (which clearly he was).
"Y-yeah?"
"It's your birthday next week, right?" The changeling's concern melted into a horribly obvious sigh.
"Uh, yeah! Friday the 2nd!" He grinned. For some reason it seemed like it was a surprise that they all remembered his birthday each year. Cyborg figured that they hadn't celebrated anything so "frivolous" as birthdays in the Doom Patrol.
"You got any plans yet? Eighteen's a big one man. I was thinking we might invite some other Titans and make it a party." The metal man smiled as his friend brightened considerably. He knew exactly what would distract this kid, he had the attention span of a dog in a park full of frisbees, squirrels and bacon.
"You mean it?!" Beast Boy looked at Robin quickly.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," the masked leader replied. Starfire giggled and clapped her hand's lightly as her excitement for the party grew as well.
"Dude! This is gonna be the best birthday ever! Thanks Cy!" Without another thought Beast Boy wiped his face in a napkin, effectively removing most of the purple, and threw both his paper plate and napkin into the trash can. The massive grin on his face was unmistakably genuine when the changeling turned back to face his team.
"You guys are awesome, you know that? I'm gonna go for a ride in the B-car. Get it? 'Cause… Beast Boy?" He snickered at his own joke, failing to notice the lack of groans from Cyborg. Swiftly, he grabbed his keys from off the hook on the wall, green t rex keychain dancing madly, and walked off to the garage with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. The door slammed, leaving Robin and Cyborg to stare at each other with wide eyes and Starfire to continue eating her pizza in silence as she tried to comprehend that day's events.
"What just…?"
"Happened? I honestly have no clue. Did you see the…?"
"He has green skin and it was purple. I'm a detective, Cy, did you think I wouldn't when it's that obvious?!"
"You know theres still the whole thing with you not realizing how much Star liked you—"
"Fine. Okay, I get it." Robin pinched the bridge of his nose and screwed his eyes shut as if he expected this whole predicament to go away if he closed his visual portals to the world.
"Bro, I think "Plan A" worked almost too well. Sorry for doubting you on that."
"It's fine, I probably would have doubted me too if I actually heard myself. You should hear what Plan B was; now that was—" Suddenly, Starfire slammed her fists on the table and glared daggers at both males, effectively cutting off their conversation.
"Why are we not focusing on the issue of importance?! Friend Beast Boy has let us in on information that we have no business knowing! This is the serious matter!" Cyborg's human eye drifted over the cheese Starfire had splattered when she hammered her fist into her slice of pizza but looked her in the eye with a look of concern a moment later.
"Honestly, Star, I don't know what we can do. I mean, beside pretending we don't know, but I feel like we should let them just do their own thing, ya know?" Robin nodded and rubbed his hand over Starfire's tensed forearm to try and get her to calm down.
"He's right, Star. And to be fair, they're both pretty oblivious—"
"Like a certain leader we know." Robin shot a glare at the snickering robotic man before continuing.
"What I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure that it will be too hard to keep the fact that we know a secret. Unless we say something extremely incriminating, which I trust us all to not do, I think we should be fine." Starfire's arms began relaxing and she looked up at Robin for the first time since he had begun speaking. A faint smile graced her lips.
"I am sure you are right, boyfriend. I am truly sorry for my outburst, I shall clean up my mess." As she began wiping cheese and toppings off the table, Cyborg let out a sigh.
"Man am I glad that it's Beast Boy that we're keeping secrets from. If it was him trying to hold it in, we'd be toast no doubt. If that kid has a filter, it's full of holes."
TtTtTtTtTtT
As he drove through the connecting tunnel, his face illuminated at regular intervals by the evenly placed LED lights, Beast Boy chuckled softly. He couldn't believe what he had gotten away with. And here he was thinking he was an open book. Maybe he'd been hanging out with Raven long enough to pick up her blank facade and monotone. He'd been replaying the last half hour's events over and over in his mind.
"You keep calling me 'Rae'."
"You keep calling me 'Gar'."
"…fair enough." He pulled away from her embrace so that he could see her face. Being tall was great, but man, even such a simple task was a struggle.
"So… are you my girlfriend now? Can I at least tell people that I finally have a girlfriend even if I don't tell them who?" he asked playfully. The low chuckle that drove him crazy drifted up to his ears.
"I'm not completely sure how things like this work, but I suppose someone like me couldn't merely date someone. The fact that I told you how I feel proves that you mean more to me than just someone I'm dating. But knowing our team, if you told them you had a girlfriend they would want to meet her." Raven leaned forward to rest her head on his chest once again. He tightened his arms around her.
"Thats true. What should we do now? They're kinda expecting me to bring you back for pizza soon. But I don't really wanna leave now…" The empath paused.
"Tell them I was asleep when you got here. And try to act as natural as possible."
"I guess." Yet neither made any move to leave.
"I should really get back to meditating."
"I should get out there soon." No movement.
Slowly, so not to be too abrupt, Beast Boy retracted his arms from around the waist of the girl that he loved. He rested his large gloved hands on her biceps to gently tell her that it was time to let go of his neck, though he was really enjoying her slender fingers dragging through the hair above his neck. After a moment, she released him and they stood together awkwardly. In one swift and sudden movement, Raven gave him a peck on the lips before dashing into her bedroom.
His eyes opened a bit wider as the residual tingle flew through every neuron in his body. He had a dazed grin on his face as he reached up and brushed his lips with two gloved fingers. The animorph read the now slightly dented nameplate on the door one last time and then turned down the hall towards the main ops room.
After that, the whole episode with the remaining members of his team occurred, but he was confident. So maybe he was acting a little funny? Another toothy grin split Beast Boy's face. No one even suspected a thing.
Oh Beast Boy, it's a good thing you're adorable, because you know so little. As for Starfire, couldn't you have waited to shush them? I was wondering what Plan B was...