A/N: Chapter two heading your way.
You're the One
2. milk & honey
Beast Boy was not a morning person.
He liked staying up late, playing videogames into the wee hours of the morning, and sleeping in. Typically in that order.
It was never unusual for him to stroll into the living room well into the afternoon, craving breakfast food even though it was way past lunch time.
Raven, on the other hand, was always an early riser. She was also more often than not, the first Titan to retire to her bedroom for the night. Eventually, it became like a game for him; the green changeling would challenge himself to try and get up earlier than the empath. However, each and every time that Beast Boy would try to beat her to the punch in the morning, he would always find her sitting on the couch, nose buried in one of her many books, mug of freshly made tea sitting on the coffee table before her.
"Good morning," she'd call out to him absent-mindedly, her eyes never leaving the page she would be reading.
Beast Boy would grumble back a greeting, but his heart wouldn't be in it. Just once, he wanted to wake up and not see the back of Raven's pretty head. Just once, he wanted to surprise her, maybe even impress her.
So, every day, Beast Boy had tried setting his alarm clock back by another half an hour until he would accomplish his goal. Every time, he'd wake up grumpy and groggy, tempted to smack the annoying piece of technology next to his bed into little, itty bitty pieces until it would shut off. Of course, just because he was trying to wake up early didn't mean that he would be any less of a night owl. Nonetheless, he was determined, and once he had his mind set on something, it would take more than a measly, annoying, loud beeping noise to dissuade him.
Beast Boy was going to wake up before Raven, and he was going to make her tea. He was going to set it on the table, hot and steaming, so that it awaited her arrival and provided a good start to her day. He wanted to be there to witness the look on her face, to know that he'd finally managed to astonish her in a way she would have never thought possible.
However, after many failed attempts, he'd hopelessly started half expecting to see that familiar purple head of hair, and was thus in temporary disbelief on the one morning that he was greeted with nothing instead. He'd rubbed the rest of the sleep from his eyes, and ogled the very much empty, silent lounge with an open mouth and a dazed expression.
He didn't know how much time he actually had, so he set to work immediately, pepping up the instant he'd recognized that he had the upper hand for once. He'd seen her in the process of making the hot beverage plenty of times before, how hard could it possibly be?
After rushing and slightly stumbling into the kitchen, he pulled out the little silver kettle, filled it with just enough tap water, set it on the stove and turned up the heat. Then, he opened the cupboard, found her shiny, onyx black mug and placed it on the counter. In the pantry, he found her herbal tea bags, took a sniff of the box, and gagged at the smell. He wondered how the heck she even drank the stuff; it reeked something awful. The tea reminded Beast Boy of medicine he hated taking as a kid, and the taste of grass. Everyone had tried eating grass at some point in their lives, right?
He hung the little tassel off the edge of the mug and left the single bag inside at the bottom of the cup. When the kettle whistled, the water finally coming to a boil, he made sure to be slow and steady as he poured it into the ceramic cup and over the teabag. He had to pinch his nose as the scent of the tea quickly grew more odorous, wafting up into his face in little, warm puffs of steam clouds.
That was when he came to a sudden halt, feeling like he had just hit an unforseen brick wall.
How did Raven take her tea?
Beast Boy paled as he realized he had no honest idea what the half demon liked to put in her favourite drink.
Panicking, he figured he would just have to improvise. After all, it was only a matter of time before she'd be joining him, and if she found him still struggling to make the beverage, he'd never leave the impression he'd wanted to. He needed the delivery to be just right, perfect even. She deserved that much.
Wanting to gauge the flavour of his creation first, Beast Boy took a small sip of the hot liquid and immediately detested what it did to his taste buds.
"Blech!" His face scrunched up in repulsion.
Sugar. It needed sugar, and lots of it.
He poured a good few teaspoons into the now earthy looking liquid, stirred, and tried another taste.
Beast Boy wanted to rub his tongue raw; somehow, the sweetness only seemed to make it worse. It was like licking off sugar from a weed.
What else did people put in tea? Cream? Milk? He didn't drink either and thus, didn't know how they would help with the default bitterness of the brew.
After much internal debate, he settled on the less rich of the two. He poured in the milk until the opaque hue changed to that of a lighter shade of brown, equivalent to the colour of desert sand. If he was going to be completely honest, he'd say the substance looked closer to liquid mud than anything actually edible.
Finally mostly satisfied, he picked up the drink by the handle, and carefully walked it to the spot Raven always sat in to read her book, being sure to watch his step. He only had enough time for one chance to get it right, after all, and he couldn't afford spilling it and starting all over again.
When he'd at long last settled it onto a coaster on the glass table, he placed his hands on his hips and grinned brightly.
"There!" He admired his handy work, his eagerness and anticipation growing more and more by the second.
As if on cue, he heard a door swish open in the distance of the hallway, and it was enough to set his heart into a furious gallop.
Throwing himself onto the couch in haste, he tried to appear casual and complacent, even though he was sure his heart was going to burst out of his chest at any given moment.
After what felt like forever, she floated into the room, her head buried in her book, as was customary for the half demon sorceress. He watched her all the while, wearing a toothy smirk and waiting for her to drop the novel to meet his gaze. Meaning to set her story down on the counter so that she would be able to go ahead with her morning ritual, Raven's eyes widened at the sight of Beast Boy's most unexpected presence.
"Morning, Rae," he greeted her in an eerily confident tune.
Her gaze then darted to the familiar mug sitting on the table, and then back again at Beast Boy. "Did you... make tea?"
He nodded briskly. "Sure did."
"But you don't even like herbal tea," she explained, confusion working its way into her delicate features.
Beast Boy snickered. "It's for you, duh."
Eyes like purple amethysts grew in surprise. "You...made me tea?"
The green teenager gave her another curt, encouraging shake of his head.
"Beast Boy, I...why did you...but...," Raven seemed to struggle with the words, her tongue tripping over her own thoughts and feelings on the matter.
Then, hugging her book to her chest, she brushed a stray lock of plum coloured hair behind her ear nervously, and stared at the floor with a reddening complexion. "Thank you," she told him quite simply, her voice barely an octave higher than a murmur.
He sat up abruptly and grinned smugly at her, making room for her next to him on the couch now that his lanky figure wasn't taking up all the space. Raven took her seat beside him in a demure fashion before lifting her favourite ceramic mug off of the coffee table, and bringing it up to her mouth.
Before she took a drink, she gave the contents a look of bemusement. "Did you...did you put milk in herbal tea?"
Beast Boy waved his arms frantically about. "I swear it's not soy!" He promised her, appearing suddenly alarmed while completely missing the point of her observation.
Raven opened her mouth as if to speak to his oblivious nature, but seemed to decide against it after meeting his bright eyes and giving it some more thought. Instead, the empath then focused her attention back to her drink and hesitantly brought the mug to her lips. She then blew gently enough at it to create ripples on the liquid's surface and took a tentative sip.
She tensed immediately, the sugar hitting her taste buds like a bus. Raven didn't want to blanch in front of him, but the taste was something she was so unaccustomed to, that she couldn't help but let the awful surprise of it show in her body language.
His face fell as he watched her reaction. "You don't like it. It's the sugar isn't it? I knew I put too much. It's just, that stuff tastes super gross on its own, and what doesn't taste better when it's sweeter, right?" Beast Boy was babbling on, slowly becoming frazzled once he'd registered his screw up.
Raven, mentally and physically bracing herself for what she was going to do next, took another small sample of the concoction her green teammate had made especially for her, effectively shutting him up. Gulping it down quick enough to avoid the atrocious flavouring, she then said, "For future reference, I prefer honey to sugar."
She smiled genuinely at him afterwards, successfully masking the grimace she would have broken into when her tongue relearned the unique aftertaste of the horrible mixture. Her forced, positive outlook was enough to keep him sated for the time being, and he perked up almost instantly, beaming at her with a bashful grin.
However, even with her helpful tips and advice, Beast Boy would at no time manage to ever get her tea right. Even so, almost every morning, she'd wake up to find a warm cup sitting on the table, with the changeling sometimes snoozing on the couch next to it, still in his animal printed pajamas. Every morning, she begrudgingly drank it and, when her teammates asked her why she didn't bother to correct him, she never really did know how to answer them...
A/N: This went a smidge over my self imposed limit of 1500 words, but not by enough to bother me. Constructive and positive feedback is welcomed and encouraged. Thanks for reading.