Another one word prompt.
. . .
Stalked
. . .
Beast Boy gaped at the grafitti on the front door, trying to figure out how best to handle this while also struggling not to completely lose his shit. He'd come outside to splash around in the surf before breakfast since it had been a hundred degrees out all week, but had immediately skidded to a halt when he saw the obscene spray painted message. It wasn't the first time this month that someone had sent a horrifically explicit message for Raven, but it was the first time that it had been hand delivered and painted on their property. That meant the stalker had been here last night. He narrowed his eyes at the words demon whore and promptly went back inside for a bucket of fresh paint.
Over breakfast, Beast Boy managed to casually mention the note without betraying that it had been far worse than any of the recent creepy letters that had been clogging the mailbox. Raven was irked, as usual, but refused to give it any further attention.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Beast Boy demanded, turning to Robin for backup. He was starting to wish he had been honest about the whole 'he came to the island and graffitied our door' thing, but he hadn't wanted to upset Raven.
Robin grimaced at his bagel. "I don't like it but it's up to Raven. If she wants to just keep ignoring it then that's what we'll do."
"It's still the best course of action," Raven deadpanned. "Ignore him and he'll eventually lose interest. After all, it's happened before."
It was true. They were all heroes and they all dealt with their fair share of admirers, but even so, Raven's had always been more hardcore than the rest. Her dark vibe drew a darker crowd, and when the crowd was dark then the darkest of them were downright scary.
Beast Boy glared into his coffee mug. "Not like this," he muttered angrily.
He crept out of his room that night to keep watch on the beach. The stalker never showed, and Robin gave him hell for lazing his way through the next day's training since he hadn't slept a wink. Cyborg wanted to go to the arcade but Beast Boy slept away the afternoon instead and lay awake all night, watching the beach for signs of motion. But the stalker didn't come back until Friday night, four days after the graffiti incident.
Beast Boy was a little frog, croaking away on a rock by the newly repainted door when the motor boat beached on the shore. He waited. It hurt (god how he wanted to throttle him) but he waited. He had to make sure it was the right guy before going all full metal jacket on him.
The man was lanky and sauntered up the beach like he owned the entire western hemisphere. He carried with him a fat duffelbag, which clanked heavily when he dropped it by the door. As soon as he pulled out a can of spray paint, Beast Boy leapt into action. He had the man pinned in a headlock with his face smashed against the door before he'd even been spotted. The man cried out as Beast Boy twisted his arm behind his back, forcing him to release the can of paint.
"Let me go, let me go, let me-"
"Shut up," Beast Boy growled. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
The man was quiet for a moment, whimpering against the door. "Is that a trick question?"
"No, douchebag! It's not. Obviously I know what you're doing here. But I want you to say it."
After another whimpery minute and and a halfhearted escape attempt, the man gave in. "I was gonna leave a message on your door."
"For who?" he hissed.
The man cried out at the pressure on his wrist. "For the demon girl! For Raven!" he wheezed. "For-"
"That's enough," Beast Boy decided, and twisted the man around before shoving him back against the door, but this time looking him in the eyes. "Empty your pockets."
The man blinked rapidly, bewildered, but quavered under the ferocity of Beast Boy's glare and did as he was told. Beast Boy snatched the wallet from his hands and sifted through it without breaking eye contact until he found the guy's driver's license, giving it a disgusted glance before tucking it in his own pocket and throwing the wallet over his shoulder into the sand. "I know I won't need to say this more than once, Jones." He pushed his arm harder into Jones's shoulders, hitting him with the wildest, most ferocious look he could unlock. "Never come here again. Never contact her again. Hell, I don't even want you to say her name again. Get it?"
"Are you threatening me?" The man grew indignant, some of his fear fading in the process. "You can't do that!"
"I don't remember threatening you," Beast Boy argued. "But," he went on dangerously, "I will remember your name."
The man struggled suddenly under his forceful grip, and this time Beast Boy relinquished him. "I get it, you psycho. Fuck! You can have her!"
A wave of sweet satisfaction flooded him as the stalker fled down the beach. Maybe he'd been a little heavy-handed, but man that had felt good. If Raven wasn't going to give that guy what-for because she was too level-headed then someone had to do it. For her sake! And you know what? By jove, he was willing to bend his values just a smidge if it meant keeping scum like that away from her. She deserved so much better.
He slept well that night. But the next day after training, Robin called him into his office.
"You must think I'm real stupid, Beast Boy." Robin gave him an odd look and gestured for Beast Boy to take a seat. He didn't. He was frozen in place. All he could think was shit shit shit shit.
"The sensors went off," Robin went on, "the second that guy set foot on our beach on Monday. I found out later that day that there'd been someone on the shore at night, so I was watching the cameras all week, waiting for him to come back. Of course I wouldn't just do nothing if Raven was in legitimate danger."
"Wait." He calculated all this information slowly and came up empty. "So you knew I was sitting out there waiting for the guy to come back? And you just… let me?"
Robin leaned against his desk and crossed his arms. "I wanted to see what you were going to do."
Beast Boy tried to read his leader's stoic expression, but promptly gave up. "So… what. Am I off the team? I'm off the team, aren't I?"
Robin actually laughed, before quickly schooling his expression again. "No. No, you're not. Actually, I'm impressed at how well you were able to keep your cool. I was afraid you were going to do something questionable, at which point I would have stepped in, but you handled it fairly well, uh, all things considered. I can't say for sure that I myself would have handled it as levelly."
Realizing that he wasn't in trouble at all, Beast Boy's face lit up. "So I passed the test, then?"
Robin shuffled some papers on his desk and took a seat. "With flying colors, Beast Boy. But you should know that I have to tell Raven what happened. It's not right to keep her in the dark when it directly concerns her."
Beast Boy flushed at that, though he'd suspected it was coming.
Robin flashed him a sly grin. "Is there a problem with that?" He tapped his fingertips together.
You can have her! Remembering the stalker's words, Beast Boy cringed. He'd smiled so shamelessly as the guy ran away. God, he really hoped Robin didn't show her the security tape. "Nope," he wheezed. "No problem at all."
The next OWP is "immortality" and it'll probably be the last one.