A/N: I've upset a few readers with that last one, so hopefully, this sweet thing makes up a bit for the angst.
You're the One
10. Hornets Nest
They heard her scream from far away.
It was uncharacteristic for the half demon to ever let out a shriek so high pitched, and truth be told, they might not even have guessed that it had come from her at all. All they knew was that someone was in danger, and where there was trouble, the Titans appeared.
However, Beast Boy was the only one who immediately knew that the noise had come from Raven. His sharp instincts kicked in naturally, his ears pricking towards the sound as all the muscles in his body tensed in response. Where Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire acted, Beast Boy reacted. It was an innate response, not too different from a creature who recognized its mate's call.
He shifted into a cheetah and raced down the path, catching up to Starfire's flight and leaving the others trailing behind.
He had to get to her, above all else.
In that defining moment, nothing else mattered.
He didn't even need to hear his leader's infamous words to spur him into action. If anything, to his senses, they felt delayed and awkward.
Beast Boy ran. He ran as fast as his four legs allowed him to, feeling the way the muscles of his animal counterpart worked beneath his own skin. He was a blur in the field of green while he followed the faint echoes of her scream and the few streaks of her scent that coloured the air. He was getting closer.
They found her on the ground, clutching at a spot on the pale, naked thigh of her left leg. For all intents and purposes, the empath appeared to be in incredible discomfort, but with no visible threat in the immediate area. All the Titans came to a very sudden, questioning halt; Beast Boy reverting back into his human form and wearing a perplexed, but somewhat relieved expression.
"Uh, Raven…you okay?" He asked her tentatively while taking a few steps closer.
She was grimacing, but as he approached, she moved her pale fingers over the area she was covering and he was greeted with the sight of an angry, red welt on her otherwise fair skin.
"I'm fine," she protested through gritted teeth. "Just a sting."
He knelt forward to further examine the affected area, reaching out with a gloved hand to stroke his fingers against the supple skin of her leg. Raven noticeably coloured at the intimate contact, but did not brush him away.
"That's not a normal sting, Rae," he told her in all seriousness, oblivious to his other nosy teammates crowding around them now.
There was no stinger visible inside of her skin, but the venom left behind was causing the area to swell up and redden. "That's from a hornet," he added expertly after he'd run a gentle thumb over the tender, warm spot.
Raven had winced in reaction but said nothing.
"We'll get you some ice back at the tower, Rae. It should heal up pretty quickly, especially for you," Cyborg told her with a sympathetic smile, his cybernetic eye scanning the wound.
Starfire then draped her injured friend's arm over her shoulders and lifted her off the ground with ease.
"If there's a hornet nest nearby, the park officials should be notified about it," Robin added, securing his communicator and walking away to make a call.
Beast Boy growled, "I'll find it."
Before anyone could utter a word of protest, he'd shifted into an Asian giant hornet and buzzed away into the distance.
Starfire smiled sweetly after the green bug disappearing beyond the trees of the park. "Friend Beast Boy would be considered a most agreeable suitor in Tameran," she conveyed to a flustered Raven.
The empath hid beneath the shadow of her hood, mumbling something inaudible under her breath.
Later that day, the Titans would discover that Beast Boy not only had located the hornet nest deep in the woods that surrounded the park, but had taken it upon himself to find, and sting, the single insect that had caused such embarrassing discomfort to his girlfriend, too.
It was, as he put it, the perfect revenge.
A/N: Short and sweet. Also, head canon that Starfire is a BBRae shipper.