Alone Together

Rated: M for mature content

Business. He was there on business. Raven rolled the word around on her tongue, like a bittersweet lozenge. Mostly, she hated it. The way it fell out of everyone else's mouth so casually, caused her to purse her lips and scowl in discontent. Her reaction was involuntary, and she all but huffed out of the office after the secretary informed her of his status. With her arms folded over her chest as she spun on her heel, Raven couldn't help but feel the aching hurt of her pride at his callousness.

The nerve.

Business, he'd said. Not just any business; League business. In other words, none of her business.

Just thinking about it made her mood sour anew and her hands curl up into angry fists, her nails digging into the soft flesh of her palms.

How many months had she volunteered to spend away from him to help with the new recruits? How many bruises and aches had she been forced to heal as a result? Her own, and her pupils, after they'd been battered accidentally by those who did not know the limitations of their incredible powers just yet. The very lesson she'd been tasked with teaching.

She'd given up an entire life with him for the sake of the school; the promise they'd made when they'd sworn to pursue their feelings for one another, broken.

Azar, she'd even given up the sex. All the toys in the world couldn't satisfy the way her skin ached for the burn of his fingertips, or that skillful tongue between her quivering thighs…

So much sacrifice, so much work she'd put into helping run the school, she may as well have been a founding member, as one of the oldest Titans in the building. Looking at the brick walls of the impressive building, the towers, and endless surrounding grounds, had Raven feeling almost nostalgic; it was partly hers, and she may as well have helped raise it from the ground up.

Anger returned anew, like a tornado of flame fanning from within her.

How dare he?

She grit her teeth, raised her hood, and marched across the campus grounds, the heels of her boots sinking into the soft soil and grass. Her infamous royal blue cloak billowed about her slender silhouette when the wind picked up on the crisp, autumn day. She was far too agitated to dare call upon her powers and fly to her destination.

Feeling that both her pride and ego were damaged, Raven knew her class for the morning would be a taxing one. Azar help her, she had to ensure that she didn't take out her aggression on her already fragile students. It wasn't their fault that her mood had been ruined, after all. She just had to keep that in mind until, at least, the lesson was over.

"Who's that?"

Raven heard the mutterings of her dismissed students before she was able to lay eyes on the object of their befuddlement. She'd been grabbing her paperwork and ancient tomes from her desk when the young, prospective heroes had bottlenecked at the door, the bell for class dismissal having rung only a few moments ago.

Raven looked up, and caught them all crowding around the entrance, trying to get a better look at…something, while others appeared to be awed in place with fascination.

Curious, she moved towards the chaos, pushing past bodies with ease as her very presence often made her students immediately uncomfortable.

"What's going on?" she queried in her staple, gravelly tone, but no one seemed to be able to answer her.

By the time she was standing at the doorway, she spotted him easily enough.

A green lemur, doing tricks and hanging off the ceiling lights by his tail, had a tendency to stick out, even in a building full of metahumans and the like.

The familiar, red hot fury from the morning returned, and Raven found herself inhaling sharply, eyes narrowed at the fuzzy, green creature currently impressing her kids with simple acrobatics and clever use of this particular animal form.

Business, huh?

She crossed her arms over her chest, and pursed her lips, tapping the toe of her foot impatiently against the tiled floors of the hallway. Unlike the adolescents behind her, Raven was not to be so easily goaded.

The unnaturally emerald-coated beast did a final jump into the air, huddling into a ball before strategically landing on his feet, suddenly human again. Beast Boy grinned up at his spectators, to which most clapped and cheered, with the exception of Raven. His worst critic, as always. Immediately, his smile fell when he regarded her, and he stood to his feet, regaining a serious composure that was akin to that of a hero on the roster of the Justice League.

Clearing his throat, he shyly glanced at the empath. "Hey, Rae."

She responded by continuing to glare at him. All the while, the students surrounding her resumed their gossip about the green stranger, recognizing both his abilities and uniform, and apparently becoming starstruck.

"What are you doing outside my classroom?" Raven finally queried, unable to keep her tone from sounding cold and calculated. "Does your League business somehow concern any of my students?"

Beast Boy seemed a touch caught off guard by her abrasiveness, and he prickled at the tone of her accusation. "No, I didn't even know this was your classroom," he admitted. "Vic sent me here as part of the routinely check we do every visit." He appeared genuine in his statement, and this only further aggravated Raven.

Clutching her books tightly to her chest, and with a new, firmer resolve, she made to strut past him, no longer interested in holding a conversation with him.

"Raven! Wait up!" he called after her hopelessly, giving some chase down the bustling hallway, now crowding with students.

"I have work to do, Gar," she sighed, too annoyed to even bother looking at him.

"It can't wait?"

"No," she told him with finality.

He wasn't the only one who could be too busy for their relationship. Part of her knew that she was being unfairly petty, but his dejected sigh gave her a small hint of satisfaction.

Nonetheless, her heart still panged with an unrelieved aching, but she ignored it. Even the small part of her that had hoped — no, wished — he would still give her chase, she opted to silence. He'd hurt her, intentionally or not, and that was never something the empath took lightly. Beast Boy seemed to get the hint, and lingered in the quickly filling hallway where she'd left him, but Raven didn't dare look back. Instead, she held her head high, and turned the corner, focused on her task at hand and trying to pretend that her eyes did not sting with unshed tears.

Azar, have mercy on their souls.

She was running down the dark corridors, her heart hammering in her chest, with nothing but a small light she'd conjured to help her navigate the inside of the school during such late hours. Raven's haggard, raspy breathing was the loudest thing she heard in the echo of the empty halls, followed by the soft padding of her slippered feet against the tiles. She'd barely had the time to drape her cloak over her shoulders, still wearing her sleeping gown when she'd received the ominous, blaring memo that had awoken her in the dead of night.

Her communicator had gone off, the red buttons blinking in the familiar pattern that indicated an emergency at the school. When the map of the grounds flashed on her screen, the light had blipped in the cafeteria, and a million awful thoughts had filled her head.

They'd always said it would be one of her students, if there ever was an attack. Raven had fought for them, stood up against the stigma that surrounded the children and their fearsome capabilities whenever the opportunity arose. She'd swore to herself that she'd never allow them to experience the same fear and isolation she had whilst growing up. After all, she'd bonded with them all, and took great pride in helping facilitate their growth, even the most difficult of the youth she'd been entrusted with.

That was why she'd rushed over. Any of the other teachers would be quick to point fingers, and in their lack of empathy and understanding, they'd likely make the situation worse.

Panic and dread were a deadly cocktail in her system, and Raven could not rely on her powers when her emotions were — for a second time that day — frazzled. So she ran, as fast as she had when she'd been forced to keep up with Robin. There'd been a time when she'd been robbed of all her abilities before, and because of that, she'd been forced to learn how to push past the limitations of her more mortal body.

The school itself was quiet and still, barely reminiscent of the vast amount of life it housed during the daylight hours, but that didn't deter her.

Still, perhaps if she'd paid more attention, she'd have been less surprised by what she found when she'd opened the heavy, oaken doors of the cafeteria.

Her breath caught in her throat, and she hesitated at the scene before her, confused.

Candles lit the room, eerie in the vast, long, shuddering shadows that they summoned against the brick walls. There was one illuminating almost every corner, but the majority of them were situated on a single, solitary table, of which had one unoccupied bench, while the other held the weight of a lounging, sly-smirking shapeshifter.

His eyes, a vibrant emerald green, shone with flecks of gold as the bright flames of the candle wicks illuminated his visage, casting shadows on his handsome features. Raven glanced about suspiciously, looking for any obvious sign of trouble, and when she found none, he'd hopped off the bench, and bowed to her dramatically. "Care to join me, my fair lady?"

She hesitated, lingering by the doorway and pondering what sort of nonsense Beast Boy was up to now. It had quickly become apparent that there was no impending doom, and that no other student or teacher, or villain, was about the school this late at night. All her worry was for naught, and the reason behind the adrenaline coursing through her blood, stood directly before her.

"Garfield," she started with a lick of her lips, taking a careful step forward, "did you…did you set off the emergency call to my communicator?" She scrutinized him with narrowed eyes.

The changeling grinned up at her cheekily, a single fang gleaming in the light. "How else was I going to get you all alone without anyone else prying?"

Now, standing up to his full height, he walked directly towards her, only pausing when there was less than a hairsbreadth between them. His hands then moved gently to clutch at her bare upper arms from beneath her cloak, and began rubbing them up and down in a warm, tender caress.

Raven fell easily enough into his touch, her icy skin tingling at the heat emanating from the palms of his hands. He always did burn hot. Fast metabolism, animal genetics, and a really good appetite, he'd once told her.

As pleasant of a distraction as it was, Raven's sense of logic demanded answers for her questions. "So, there's no emergency?"

Beast Boy stepped closer, one of his legs pressing between her thighs. His hands fell to her waist, the pads of his fingers feeling the soft fabric of her silken nightdress. "Oh, there's definitely an emergency," he whispered gruffly next to her mouth. Azar, she could smell the sharp spice of his cologne on his neck, as well as his natural musk beneath it. "Just not the one you were probably expecting."

His voice was husky and low in her ear just as he placed his lips in a soft, lingering kiss along the edge of her jaw. He then followed it, painfully slow, with another one right by the corner of her mouth, until Raven could take it no more, and crushed her lips to his, gripping his head by tangling her fingers in his hair like a woman starved.

She moaned into him, fervently pressing her body as tightly against his as she could. He seemed to reciprocate her eagerness, the fever contagious between them, as his slick tongue darted into her hot mouth to war with her own. Grunting, he'd lifted the ends of her dress about her waist, and hoisted her up over his hips by gripping her buttocks. Her long, pale legs wrapped about him instinctively, and she arched her pelvis against his in a frustrating fashion.

When they had to part for air, gasping, Raven said, "Azar, I've missed you."

He nuzzled his nose against hers, closing his eyes and breathing her in. "You have no idea how long I've been trying to get us alone together. The thought of you being in the same building all this time, and not being near you, kills me, Rae."

She nipped at his bottom lip, savouring the way he moaned when she did, his warm hands feeling delectable against the naked skin of her back. Their clothes were vexing to his touch, and she wished he'd merely use his claws to tear them apart already. Lust and desire predominated Raven's psyche, but there was also an inkling of guilt at his words and her previous behaviour; she ought to haveknown better.

With her fingers still knotted in the lush waves of his hair at the nape of his neck, she glanced down into his eyes, and asked, "Then why did you tell everyone you were here strictly on business?"

He gave her a lopsided smile, devious in nature. "Because it was the only way the League would send me here at all. I convinced them the school needed a quick check-in, and to send me to do it. Of course, they made Vic come, too, just to keep an eye on me, but between us, I'm pretty sure they allknew that I just really wanted to see you again. I was getting pretty antsy about it, in fact."

Beast Boy then buried his face in the crook over her neck, biting down on the sensitive flesh until Raven's head fell back and she moaned aloud, her voice echoing and carrying throughout the empty halls of the school. He then licked the reddened spot, and placed a sweet kiss up along the path to her ear, purring in content at how her body reacted to him. "God, I've missed you, babe," he growled, inhaling her her sweet scent.

"You did all this just to see me?" she asked, almost in disbelief of such flattery.

"Of course I did. Why else would I even be here? I hate school," he teased.

She had to chuckle a little at that, stroking his hair lovingly. "I thought you were homeschooled."

"I was, but I hated that, too. Although…" His expression darkened, and his hands moved south to the roundness of her backside. "If I had a teacher as hot as you, I might have hated it a little less."

"If this is your attempt at convincing me to roleplay, it's not working," she stated in a deadpan manner.

Garfield shrugged, and then turned to gently settle her back against the table, making Raven gasp in surprise. Moving the bench out of his way in a display of incredible strength, Beast Boy then hovered over top of her, his arms on either side of her head. "Doesn't really matter to me; either way, we're doing it in the cafeteria, after hours, in the school you work at. Still pretty taboo, and hot, in my opinion."

Raven found herself smiling along with him and, before pulling his head down towards her in a passionate kiss, she whispered in warning, "Just don't tell the principle…"

FIN