The Roles we Play
See it coming
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***I own no part of Teen Titans. ***
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." –Nathaniel Hawthorne
***TRwP***
"Beast Boy we need to talk" Robin commanded as he blocked a sloppy punch thrown by his younger colleague.
"Sure Rob whatsup?" The boy in question grunted, after being thrown backwards by his opponent.
"All kidding aside I need to know what happened when you were kidnapped, not the shortened version you gave the FBI" Robin knew that the youngest of the Titan's had trouble multitasking so he figured that doing the conversation while they were doing their morning sparring would force the changeling to tell the truth rather than skip around it.
"Not much else to tell Rob. Like I said I woke up," this time he tried for a sweep kick only to be leapt over. "I managed to get out of cuffs and went for the door."
"About that," this time Robin went on the offensive and landed an open palm strike to the boy's chest. "How exactly did you get out of those chains."
"Chains were rusty, managed to break em. Not sure why the guy didn't check over all his supplies but I'm not complaining." Beast Boy leapt forward, trying to tackle his leader, only to be dodged, and tripped, at the last second.
"No doubt, so you made it to the door then you turned back because?"
"Because I heard what the jerk was saying about targeting more people. Couldn't just let him kill someone else right?"
Getting back up the green skinned boy slowly circled his opponent before they both charged forward in a furry of blows, with Robin coming out the winner and putting his opponent onto the defensive.
"What exactly where you planning on doing against him? You said your powers were disabled." At this point Robin had the younger boy in a submission hold, and applied a bit of pressure, causing the changeling to yelp out in discomfort.
"I hadn't thought that far ahead, I just knew I had to try something."
"Then what?"
"The jerk shocked me and I passed out. You know I'm not good with pain."
Robin found himself subconsciously smirking a tiny bit, remembering all of the times he had forced the poor boy to tap out in defeat.
"Alright then you woke up and just wandered around for several days?"
"Pretty much, my sense of direction has never been that good especially when I am not in animal form. Finally I found a road and made my way to a town where I hitched a ride back to Jump and found a nice guy who took me across close to the island in his boat."
Just as Robin had predicted his sparring partner soon tapped in submission, before being released.
"Well that just means twice as much hand to hand combat training for the next few weeks. This incident made it very obvious that you need to work on your ability to fight without your powers."
Beast Boy had long since realized that their 'match' was being observed by the other three Titans. Glancing over he fought the urge to frown in annoyance as the two female Titans admired their leader's shirtless form.
"You look a bit overheated BB. Why don't you ever spar shirtless like Rob does, it helps keep you cool you know."
"Yeah Robin keeps tell me that Cy. Had I known you wanted to see my awesome bod though maybe I would consider." The changeling replied with a waggle of his eyebrows.
The Cybernetic teen just snorted as his girlfriend walked over in a revealing exercise outfit.
"My man better not be eyeing anybody but me up." The pink haired girl replied with a catlike grin. "He does bring up a good question though Beast Boy. Why are you the only one who exercise completely covered up?"
At this point the other Titans began to take notice, focusing their attention on the youngest person in the room.
"Uh well you know… Wouldn't want to show off more than I already do heh…"
"Beast Boy, do you have body image issues?" Robin asked, again a bit of cockiness in his voice as he flexed his muscles just a bit more, showing off the few small scars he had received through his apprenticeship with Batman."
"Perfectly understandable though. It must be hard when you have to compare yourself to Robin." The resident empath replied, showing a bit more emotion than intended.
Robin just took it in stride and smirked even more.
"Heh yeah you caught me Rae, never could lie around you huh."
"Alright that's it for today, I think after the last couple of stressful days we could all use a short break in action
Jinx sent Cyborg a seductive grin before sauntering off with the larger man staring after her for a second before quickly excusing himself.
The other three lovebirds discreetly left soon afterwards, as if to hide what they were doing.
***TRwP***
The day passed quickly for the various Titans, save for the green changeling who had found himself alone in the tower as the others 'busied' themselves elsewhere.
That evening it was Robin's turn to take the midnight patrol.
'Thank goodness a night where I can get a full night's rest in my own bed for once.' The emerald skinned boy sighed, but quickly caught the somewhat depressed looks from his two main female teammates.
'You've got to be kidding me! They had an entire day with him and now Starfire is giving me that "Please take his shift" look.'
Letting out a silent sigh Beast Boy informed his leader that he would take the midnight patrol, as a thank you for the extra training. This seemed to have the desired effect and the two girls perked up immediately.
This lead to another night of pseudo sleep for the youngest Titan as he coasted through the skies.
***TRwP***
The next few days went much the same way, with Beast Boy taking up extra shifts so that the various other Titans could spend time with their significant others and the boy in question could get some semblance of rest.
This also lead to the changeling being ignored more and more often during the day as Jinx was able to stay later than she had originally planned to do so.
The days would be filled with group dates and 'activities' that left the youngest member by himself and the nights left with the sweat and more carnal activities.
It all caught up to the poor boy when there was an actual emergency one afternoon when Cinderblock broke out of prison.
***TRwP***
"Beast Boy I need you to distract him while Cyborg and I get into position go!"
"Gotcha Rob." The boy replied, charging head first into combat. It was rather interesting the boy mused as he dodged around the larger opponent, that Robin forced so much tactics and patience into his head only to put him onto the most dangerous and reckless assignments, being the bait or the distraction more than anyone else.
Unfortunately they had missed a civilian during the evacuation of the area and her cries for help had drawn the large stone giant's attention. Thinking quickly the young boy had thrown their enemy off balance will a full charge in his triceratops form and used those precious few seconds to get the young girl to safety.
This had left Robin wide open though who received a backhanded slap in the process.
After the two girls had pummeled the monster into submission with more projectiles than Cyborg would have thought possible. Raven had healed their leader who told the youngest member he would be receiving double training duty to make sure that he could follow orders correctly next time.
It wasn't as bad as what had happened later that evening though.
"What the hell were you thinking Beast Boy!?" The Sorceress seethed in anger towards the bewildered boy.
"I don't know what you're talking about Rae. The girl was in a combat area I couldn't just…"
"What you couldn't just follow orders like the rest of us do every missions? You always have to be the one to put everyone else in danger, always the one who risks the mission just because you think you know what is best and it ends up being something trivial that could have been dealt with later."
"You call a girl's life trivial? Besides Robin should have been able to handle himself for five seconds."
"That's not the point! What if he hadn't survived? Have you ever thought about that? No you didn't because you never think you just act like always. Next time throw yourself in the way of the attack instead of letting someone who is important get hurt!" The empath screamed at her teammate, while the lightbulbs in the room exploded in power.
A moment later the other Titans rushed into the room and saw the results of the argument. After Raven stormed out.
"Come on BB you know not to push her buttons like that man."
"Indeed Raven has been under the stress lately Beast Boy, why do you anger her so?"
"I've told you before Beast Boy to leave her alone. Her emotions can be dangerous and as interesting as it might be to watch you get thrown around the room and into walls we prefer not having to fix the tower every day."
The young boy tightened his fists. If it wasn't for the gloves he was wearing he was sure there would be blood dripping to the floor by now. Of course they would immediately take her side, when did they ever take his?
Instead of giving into his anger and yelling back the changeling merely nodded in acknowledgement before leaving for the main door of the tower. He needed to get away from people before he did something he would end up regretting.
***TRwP***
"We shouldn't have snapped at him, now he probably hates us!" Timid sobbed as brave tried in vain to comfort her.
"Serves the brat right, he screwed up and thus earned the consequences. We should have just thrown the idiot around the room for a bit, would've made us feel better." The crimson cloaked clone snarled.
"We probably should have but let Robin deal with his punishment after all…" The original began before being interrupted by her logical side.
"After all if the situation had been reversed I am sure we would have been praising Robin for thinking about the innocent lives at stake rather than just focusing on the mission. We probably would have yelled at Beast Boy for getting injured due to his own carelessness and then had some 'stress relief' with Robin and Starfire. Heck if it had been anyone else besides Beast Boy we wouldn't have yelled at them. Was it not just a few weeks ago that you were contemplating on how you even called yourself his teammate let alone his friend when you abandoned your search for him so easily?"
"That's different… it's…. Robin was…"
"Exactly, double standards are not logical and you can't come up with a single rebuttal for why it should be different for him and Beast Boy."
"BEAST BOY IS AN ANNOYING LITTLE…"
"Sweet, kind, innocent, compassionate, caring, mystery that has had you puzzled for so long that I doubt you can honestly say you are merely 'intrigued' by him anymore. Don't lie Raven, the first time you saw him in those form fitting clothes with that awful Holo device Cyborg gave him you thought of nothing more than tearing into him right then and there." A new voice interrupted, as 'Love' stepped out of the shadows from a nearby tree.
"Ridiculous and besides what is your problem with the Holorings?"
"Sure that's the part of the conversation you are interested in… The Holorings change a person's outside appearance to something that blends in more. There is no part of any of our teammates that should ever need to be changed. Each aspect of them, both on the outside and inside helps to define and reveal who they are. Every scar, deformation, quirk, muscle, and perfection only helps to create who they are. To change these in order to be more 'normal' is an abomination unto nature and what it has helped to create. No one fits this more than Beast Boy. He is nature and life incarnate and to force him into using technology to try and 'improve' upon his image is as close to blasphemy as I can figure."
"Beast Boy is not perfect! He is loud mouthed, rude, stupid, anim.."
The ensuing slap echoed throughout Nevermore.
Raven stood shocked, unmoving at the force of the blow. For an emotion like Love to strike her was… Love shouldn't even be possible of violence.
As she turned her head back to face the emoticlone she was forced to take a step back, a twinge of fear rolling down her spine.
The mirrored face she looked at as deadly serious even as the rage filled her eyes.
"Don't you ever say that about him, he was the only one to comfort us after that bastard broke our hearts, the only one who made an effort to befriend us for so many years, the only one who could even slightly make us laugh and feel good about ourselves. You have no right to call him that and even thinking about doing so makes you what you have always been feared of being referred to as, a witch and a demon."
The pink cloaked Raven's voice never rose or changed, rather the entire statement was said at just above a whisper, loud enough for everyone to hear but not so much that it could be confused with shouting.
"We should apologize." Knowledge spoke with conviction, earning a few nods from the others present.
"There is nothing to apologize for, even if there was he will just go back to being the annoying little kid he always has been, watch and see. Tomorrow everything will be back to normal.
***TRwP***
It was there again, that feeling, the mixture of adrenaline, anger, and power. He knew what he was capable of, the things that he could destroy, the people he could hurt. He remembered his former commander's lessons on restraint and the calming techniques he had been taught.
All members of the Doom Patrol had been taught them but he had been the focus on more than one occasion. There was darkness in him, created from all of the hardships he had been through in his short life. If it was not properly dealt with and concealed it could make him very dangerous to all those around him. He still liked being a part of the Titans, still enjoyed their company despite being ignored for the past few weeks.
He had no interest in losing his cool and being kicked off of the team for killing the next villain that they ran into. There was no desire to see the looks of horror in their eyes when they realized just how casually and efficiently he could, and would, tear enemies apart.
So his breathing slowed, he let the power and rage flow out of his body, letting go of the emotions that he wanted to dearly to embrace.
He went back to being plain old Beast Boy, the weakest member of the team, the one who was there to remind everyone else of how strong they were and how superior they could be even to other super powered individuals.
Letting out a sigh the green skinned boy began his walk from the shores back to the tower, hoping to avoid any more confrontations for the rest of the day.
***TRwP***
"Hey Beast Boy, Jinx and I are going out to dinner tonight you want to tag along?" The cybernetic teen inquired as the two boys sat in front of the television.
"Nah I don't want to intrude on your 'bonding time'." The changeling replied, in a suggestive tone.
Once again his best friend blushed at the insinuation before the other half of the couple chimed in.
"Its fine Beast Boy, besides you have been taking a lot of midnight shifts for Cyborg lately, it's only fair that you get to relax too."
"Don't worry about me I am always relaxed, besides you two don't get a whole lot of time to yourselves in a tower with four other tenants. Take the night off, have fun, dance, do the horizontal tango, you know normal stuff for teenagers to do."
Jinx turned beet red at his statement, while Cyborg was too busy gaping like a fish to reply.
"H-how did you find out!?"
"Easy dude I haven't told anyone, course we do live with Robin so he probably figured it out already, my guess is Raven has too empathy and all. As for how I know it's pretty easy to smell on you guys after you get finished. Also neither of you two are exactly quiet during the activity."
"Well you know, it's hard to do anything but make exclamations with the love machine over here." Jinx finally recovered enough to try and switch the focal point of the teasing.
The green boy chuckled, "Yeah I bet, anyway like I said, go have an evening alone who knows when the next time we will have a quiet afternoon will be?"
"Alright if you're sure man, you know I owe you one for this right?"
"Yeah, yeah I'll put it on your tab."
***TRwP***
The next morning all the Titans, save Beast Boy who had slept in a bit, were gathered in the kitchen enjoying a group breakfast.
"So Cyborg I trust you two had a nice date night yesterday?" Robin asked, smirking in a suggestive manner.
"Aw come on not this again…" The large teen groaned, he had already been lightly teased by Beast Boy and Raven of all people.
"Oh yes please tell us about your night of dates!"
Jinx just smirked at the impressionable alien princess.
"Oh it was wonderful Starfire. We went to a fancy restaurant then to a movie. After that we took a long walk along the moonlit shore, then we came back to the tower where he ripped off my dress and…"
"AND we went for a nice swim in the pool to cool off yeah! You see Star one of the most romantic parts of being a couple is swimming together." The Cybernetic teen interrupted hastily, earning chuckles from his roommates.
"But did you not do the…"
"Star let them have their privacy. We shouldn't intrude on a private date night between them." Robin interrupted this time, hoping to avoid any hint of what he had been doing for fear of the larger man's reaction.
Just then the door swished open, saving the teenage heroes from any further awkward conversation as the last remaining member of the Titans walked in.
"Good morning everyone."
"Morning BB how was your evening? I hope you weren't bored without me around to kick your butt at video games."
"Nah just went for an evening fly help me relax a bit."
"Oh that sounds wonderful Beast Boy perhaps I may join you sometime?" The orange skinned girl happily asked.
"Sure Star sounds like fun."
'Perhaps you should ask to join as well Raven? With everything that has happened lately you could use some relaxation and bonding time with a teammate who doesn't wear more hair gel than should be legally allowed.' Knowledge suggested.
'Heck yeah that sounds like soooo much fun! We could even get BB to tell us some jokes maybe even find an amusement park or something to go to with him.' Happy exclaimed.
'I do not do amusement or parks. But maybe you are right it has been a bit tense between us lately.'
"Say Beast Boy, would you mind if I joined you two as well?" Raven spoke up, hoping to make amends for the argument they had engaged in.
The emerald skinned boy merely shrugged for pouring himself a bowl of cereal and busying himself with its consumption.
***TRwP***
The following few days occurred much the same way, with Raven attempting to make small talk at various times with her fellow teammate and the responses being short, and often just gestures rather than anything audible.
It was starting to affect the empath more than she wanted to admit.
Sure she had always been annoyed with the green skinned menace but that didn't mean she enjoyed the silent treatment he had been giving her. But the more she thought about it the worse it was.
He wasn't ignoring her or acting angry towards her. Rather he was simply treating her like a teammate, nothing more, nothing less.
That hurt worse than any anger he could have shown towards her. It was his indifference that felt as though she was no longer worth his time, that she had broken an unspoken bond between the two of them that had connected them as family and friends before, now to remain only as coworkers.
A few days later and Jinx had left to help out the Titans East with a situation they had been stuck on.
"Hey Jinx, could I talk with you in private for a minute."
"Sure Raven whatsup?"
"I am in a bit of a situation with Beast Boy and since you two seem fairly close I was wondering if you had any advice."
"I guess so, but Vic would know way more than I would, why ask me and not him?"
"I was hoping for a neutral third party. Cyborg is very close friends with Beast Boy but is also very protective of me. I know that you won't pull any punches either way."
"True enough, so what's the situation?"
"Beast Boy and I had an argument a few days ago about what happened during a mission. I said some things I shouldn't have and now I am trying to make amends by spending some time with him but it's like he won't even bother talking to me. He doesn't seem angry, more like distant and professional."
"I didn't know Beast Boy could even be professional." The pink haired sorceress joked before taking on a thinking pose. "Have you tried apologizing to him?"
"I offered to help him with training and to spend some time with him and Starfire."
"So you haven't… Beast Boy isn't complicated Raven, most guys aren't. When you do something wrong they usually just want an apology and for you to admit you were wrong this time."
"I wasn't necessarily wrong I just…"
"There's your second problem, you are still acting like what happened was his fault, from what I heard it wasn't. You can't apologize to someone and mean it if you can't convince yourself of your guilt first."
"I wasn't wrong, and he will get over it eventually he just needs some time. This is Beast Boy after all. He can't take anything seriously for more than a few hours. I'm surprised he was able to keep up this act for this long."
"If you say so Raven, best of luck with sorting everything out."
***TRwP***
The next day an alarm rang out through the tower, alerting the Titans to a break in at the First National Bank.
The team arrived less than a half hour later, and gathered together while Robin brought out a floorplan of the building.
Alright team here's the situation. Four armed men broke into the bank less than twenty minutes ago and have taken over twenty hostages. The men appear to be armed with light automatic weapons so nothing too heavy to worry about but it still presents the potential to be deadly.
"So what's the plan Robin?" Cyborg asked as the Titan's arrived at the scene of a bank robbery.
"Nothing fancy, Cyborg you and Beast Boy go in the back door to surprise the robbers, Star and I will go through the front. Raven will use her powers to remove the hostages from any ensuing fight and the can aid either group as needed." the Titan's nodded in understanding before splitting up to their various jobs.
***TRwP***
The plan had gone well.
Robin and Starfire's entrance had caused enough confusion that the secondary infiltration had allowed Beast Boy and Cyborg to remove the man guarding the hostages without conflict. From there Raven had then preceded to teleport them out before returning to help the first two.
Then the situation became far more complicated.
From one of the side rooms another three men quickly exited, the difference being that these new opponents were not dressed or armed as the others had been.
The first was a large powerful man dressed in what appeared to be a type of high tech armor. He immediately rushed the dark skinned male, tackling him through a wall.
Before Robin could give out any orders the second individual, reached out with a strange looking gauntlet device, which sent forth a wave of sonic energy, shattering glass and throwing both the leader and his orange skinned companion backwards.
Raven's eyes immediately opened wide in horror at seeing her lover tossed against the ground so casually and began rushing to his side, her immediate surroundings forgotten.
In her haste she never saw the last man striding out into the main room, wearing a black trench coat and taking aim with a large revolver, before pulling the trigger.
The gun clicked a split second before launching a projectile towards its intended victim… only to be intercepted halfway through its path by a small green skinned boy.
***TRwP***
As the young changeling lay on the floor, coughing up blood from the bullet now lodged in his chest, he became aware of the man slowly walking up to him, his gun trained on the boy's prone form the entire time.
"Funny I half expected you to change shapes and attack or something."
Beast Boy just let out a humorless chuckle, "Too dangerous with a bullet lodged in my chest, no telling where it might end up in my new form or possibly make it worse for when I change back."
"Ah pity," The man glanced around at the other Titans, noticing that Cyborg was still busy with his fight while the two girls were crouched over their leader with concerned looks on their faces as Raven was healing his leg.
Apparently Starfire had disabled the man responsible for his injury shortly after the attack.
"Some team you got here kid, two of them are more concerned about some boy's broken leg than their teammate who has a gun trained on him. Hell the one didn't even notice you took a bullet for her."
"That's my luck I suppose." The teen coughed up, trying to remain conscious to keep the man's attention diverted to him.
"If it makes you feel any better, you probably saved all of their lives, I can't risk fighting four of them at once and my other companion is about to fall. Shame that you have to die alone like this, not how you expected eh?"
"Actually it's pretty close to how I also figured I would end up."
"That look in your eyes doesn't suit one so young kid. What's your name anyway?"
"Beast Boy, why?"
"Hm I feel like I recognize you from somewhere… oh well, if you want to close your eyes I understand, not a whole lot of my targets want to watch the end."
"Thanks but I would rather see it coming."
"Your call"
The man raised the barrel, pointing it at the young boy's head.
Beast Boy stared back defiantly.
The trigger was pulled.
A gunshot thundered through the open air.
***A/N***
How's that for a cliffhanger? I couldn't quite decide on the wording for the last sentence so I hope it is good enough.
I enjoyed writing Beast Boy's little conversation with the mercenary. Parts of it were taken from 'The Transporter' if anyone caught that.
Poor Beast Boy, it is just his luck that he got me as a writer, and that for some reason I enjoy making my main characters suffer…
As always I hope everyone enjoyed reading!