A/N: A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to leave kind words. You guys are the best and I promise to reply to you all soon. A warm welcome to new readers and followers. To help clarify (in the event there is confusion), Beast Boy and Raven are in an established relationship at this point, and the team is aware of it. Enjoy. :)
You're the One
5. flock together
It had started with a magic trick.
"Raven and Robin," Mumbo began, pinpointing the two Titans closest to him, "you know what they say about such creatures; birds of a feather, flock together!"
Colourful scarves escaped his black suit's sleeve and attacked both the empath and boy wonder, effectively tying them up together in an uncomfortable binding grip. Mumbo cackled aloud, continuing to make a quick getaway from the remaining members of the team. Starfire was still trapped in the Aztec Lady cabinet and Cyborg was busy trying to burst free from the Chinese linking rings that restrained him.
Angry and alone, Beast Boy shifted into an ostrich and ran Mumbo down at an incredible speed. The cunning old man then threw small explosives behind him and at the flightless green bird in an effort to thwart his chase, but Beast Boy shifted into an eagle and flew away right in the nick of time. He then loomed overhead, like a giant green shadow, before diving downward at the escaping crook. Once he'd knocked Mumbo over, he changed shape again, this time into a king vulture, and started pecking at him with his powerful, sharp beak. The false magician used his arms to protect himself from the onslaught of Beast Boy's attacks. That was when one of Mumbo's toy flowers went off and shot a jet stream of water into the changeling's eyes, causing the large bird to stumble away with a loud croak.
"Hey, B!" Cyborg shouted in the distance, finally having broken free of the rings and running to confront Mumbo with his canon at the ready. "Star could really use a hand!" Cyborg took aim at Mumbo right away, the blue energy charging up within his weapon. Even as he spoke, he never took his eyes off of his target for so much as a second.
Raven and Robin had both also broken free, with the former Titan using her dark energy to manipulate the scarves off of their bodies. The green shapeshifter however, had morphed into yet another massive bird; the extinct argentavis magnificens, and was then seen flying towards Starfire's still trapped and struggling form. He swooped down with a single beat of his gigantic wings and, with his massive talons, crushed the cabinet into many splintered, wooden pieces.
The Tamaranean didn't waste any time recovering; once freed, she zoomed ahead, starbolts at the ready and her eyes glowing a bright, unnatural green to match. Once Beast Boy rejoined them, this time as a wandering albatross, the Titans team were yet again on the offensive, chasing Mumbo Jumbo down the bustling streets of Jump City.
"We could really use something big like a T-Rex right about now, Beast Boy!" Robin called out behind him as he dodged more bombs that the magician flung in their direction.
But the large green sea bird didn't shift as instructed by his leader, and as Mumbo threw out his infamous stack of cards at the pursuing Titans, it was becoming clear that he was going to get away.
"Ta-ta, Titans! Better luck at the next show!" Mumbo mocked, disappearing behind a corner in a puff of smoke while his card deck effectively left them all staggered.
Gritting his teeth, Robin stood up and dusted off the cards and dirt that had settled on him. He then turned on Beast Boy, leering angrily at the green skinned Titan; "Why didn't you change?!" He barked, the vein at his temple pulsing to life.
The youngest teen spared his leader a heavy set glare while both Raven and Starfire floated along nearby. The alien princess appeared to be concerned for her friend, while Raven remained impassive to the situation. Despite being asked a question, Beast Boy remained silent except for a low growl emanating from deep in his throat.
"We coulda used a gorilla, or a lion, or somethin' big and nasty. Heck, I'd take a chimpanzee, but Beastie, what's with the birds?" Cyborg echoed Robin's sentiments, looking just as frustrated by his teammate's actions.
Beast Boy suddenly stood up to his full height, dark brows furrowed, teeth grinding, and his hands turning into fists at his sides. With a snarl and not another glance at the friends that surrounded him, he jumped into the air, shifted into a hawk and took off into the skies.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire desperately cried out after him.
However, the changeling was out of earshot, becoming nothing more than a dark, winged dot in the sky as he glided above the city and into the pink, evening clouds.
As Starfire made to chase after him, Robin stopped her with a gentle, gloved hand on her shoulder. "Leave him. He probably just needs some time to cool off," he informed her in a softer tone of voice.
"But Robin," Starfire argued, "What transpired to make Beast Boy need the cooling off?"
"He's not cooling off. He's going after Mumbo," Raven corrected her comrades, removing her hood and staring off into the horizon where the green bird had last been spotted. Her voice was laced with worry and her friends did not fail to pick up on it.
"Alone?" Cyborg asked, mirroring everyone's concerns.
"He's most likely upset that he let Mumbo Jumbo get away...," Robin replied, wearing a deep set scowl as he recalled the team's collective failure.
Starfire shook her head slowly in disagreement. "I have not seen friend Beast Boy become this angry unless...it has gotten 'personal'."
"You sayin' Mumbo's got somethin' to do with B's transformations?" Cyborg inquired uncertainly, his single brow raised in question.
That was when Starfire's eerie, luminescent, green stare landed in accusation on the other female of the group. "I am saying that perhaps it has something to do with friend Raven?"
The empath's eyes widened as she suddenly became the centre of attention.
"M-me? What do I have to do with this?" Raven stuttered, taken aback by her friend's unforeseen speculation.
With a nod, Starfire explained in a quieter, sincere voice; "Birds of a feather flock together. That is what Mumbo Jumbo had said to you and Robin, correct? Perhaps this is what has made Beast Boy...upset?"
It took a moment for it to settle in, but once it did, Raven filled the silence with an inward groan. "You've got to be kidding me," she mumbled with a grimace, her hand resting on her forehead while she closed her eyes in annoyance.
Before anyone could say anything else on the matter, there was a sharp, bird like cry heard from up above them, and then an enormous, green, winged beast landed before the team. As it opened its colossal beak, it spat out a certain familiar blue skinned magician, now covered in a thick coat of slime and saliva. Mumbo Jumbo rolled onto the cement with a weak groan, clearly unconscious. Beast Boy, having finally expelled his catch of the day, finally resumed his human form once again.
His jump suit was ripped and torn up along his arms, torso and back, and his green hair was matted with blood by the right side of his forehead. His nose was bleeding from a single nostril, and there was a still drying cut on his lip. A faint purpling bruise was forming around the injury on his head, and Beast Boy swayed side to side as he took an agonizing step forward.
"Got him," he heaved, trying to smirk in his trademark fashion.
Before he could gloat in his victory, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he swung forward, suddenly unconscious and exhausted. Just as he was about to hit the ground, a surge of black magic kept him afloat and cradled him, lowering him down with slow, meticulous care...
"You're an idiot, you know that? What the hell were you thinkin', if you were even thinkin' at all?! First, you transform into birds and refuse to change into anything else, then you go off chasin' a dangerous criminal all alone because he just happened to have said somethin' you didn't like. Were you dropped as a child or what?!" Cyborg was just about done running his tests on the now conscious changeling, but he wasn't anywhere near done scolding him for his reckless behaviour.
With shoulders slumped forward, Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "And here I thought Robin was gonna be the one to tear me a new one," he confessed under his breath.
"Don't you dare sass me!" Cyborg bellowed back, plunging a needle roughly into his unsuspecting teammate's green arm.
"Ow!" Beast Boy jolted at the sudden pain shortly before antagonizing his robotic friend with a nasty snarl.
The two friends then proceeded to growl at one another, locked in what looked to be a heated glaring competition.
"I think maybe you need a break, Cyborg." Raven's monotonous voice interrupted the two other Titans as she levitated into the med room. The blue hood of her cloak cast most of her features in shadows beneath the glow of the synthetic light.
Her calming demeanor was enough to negate the tension in the room, and both Beast Boy and Cyborg appeared unusually chastised by her interference.
"I'll take it from here," she told Cyborg, her hands finding and lingering above Beast Boy's superficial wounds on his naked torso. An unearthly warm glow began to emanate from her palms and fingers.
The injured flesh lost its discolouration as ruptured blood vessels repaired themselves, and the skin knitted itself back together slowly.
"He's all yours, Rae," Cyborg conceded easily, too frustrated with his best friend to fight her on it.
When he was nearly out the door, Beast Boy had tried to have the last word. "Like it or not, I'm still going with Bird Man for my specialization, tin can!" he shouted after him, spitting out the insult like a poison in his system.
Cyborg paused, turned, and gave him a hard, serious stare. "You don't think Jealous Man might be more fitting?"
Before the changeling could even digest the jibe, Cyborg was gone, closing the door behind him. The room then fell silent with tension anew. Outside the sound of the beeping and whirring of medical machines in the background, there was no other noise. Raven put a pause on her healing powers then and floated away towards the door, leaving Beast Boy to stare at the ground submissively. He concluded that she must have known he was way too embarrassed to look at her after what everyone had managed to puzzle out about his atypical, disobedient behaviour. Considering he was supposed to be the hero for the day, he sure as heck wasn't feeling anything like one.
He heard the click of the lock on the door and tried to think of things that didn't involve self pity and loathing. It wasn't working.
"I owe you an apology...," he admitted, swallowing the dry lump in his throat as he spoke. "I was out of line, and I know it was an overreaction. I can't help it; it's in my nature to get reckless, and when Mumbo said that stupid line...I guess it just triggered something in me. I had to get him, I had to prove myself. Even though I knew I didn't need to and that you probably wouldn't care, I couldn't stop myself. It just really pissed me off, and I wasn't going to stop until he was mine. Looking back at it all now, I guess it does sound pretty immature-"
He'd been rambling nonsensically when she'd managed to walk back to him, and was thus taken off guard by the sudden, cool touch of her fingertips on his chin. She tilted his head so that he had to look at her, and met his gaze head on. He hadn't even noticed when she'd taken off her hood.
She searched his face with deep purple orbs, seeing through to the bottom of his soul like she always did. Her expression seemed to soften when they landed on the dried brown flakes of blood still marring his skin.
"The great thing about all this between us," she spoke in a husky whisper as she leaned up towards him, "is that you don't get to decide how I feel about you..."
And then her fingers cupped his face and she brought her lips up to his in a tender, chaste kiss. Her lashes tickled his cheeks, while his right hand found its way to her small waist. When he parted her lips with his slick tongue, a fierce hunger awakening within him, his left hand tangled in her soft, dark purple hair, and his fingers clutched at the strands until his knuckles paled.
She mewled helplessly against him, her body craning into his, and allowed him to lead the dizzying dance with their tongues.
When they at long last separated for air, their noses brushed against one another, their foreheads touched, and they relished in the small, hazy amount of space between them, breathing each other in. With a winded, trembling voice, she added, "And also, changing your name to Bird Man is literally the worst idea you've ever had, so please don't do it..."
They both laughed at the absurdity of it then; she, with a small giggle and he, with a cheeky snicker, all the while his fingers drawing slow, lazy circles along her hip bone.
A/N: A short action sequence, some mild jealousy, and Raven reaffirming that Beast Boy really has nothing to worry about. Also, if anyone is curious about the bird that was big enough to fit Mumbo in its beak, it's a thing that did exist and it was known to eat its prey whole. As usual, your feedback is appreciated.