Behind the Scenes 8 - Meet the Cast
So Beast Boy and Raven are freed from their sitcom prison... but the story doesn't end there.
In the wee hours of the morning, a lone vehicle moved along the roads of the sleeping Jump City. It was white with gleaming blue lights and contained a quintet of extraordinary people: the Titans. Cyborg, as always, sat at the wheel, even though Robin had offered, given his ordeal with Control Freak's Mother Box. Speaking of Robin, he sat in the front passenger seat, tired but still awake, satisfied at the return of their two missing comrades, who sat in the back: Beast Boy in the middle and Raven on the right. The fifth Titan, Starfire, sat to Beast Boy's left and watched the pair of them with a bright grin.
"If I may say so, you looked the dapper in your suit, Beast Boy," she commented easily. The two teens beside her gave each other a wide-eyed look and then turned to face the alien. "And you looked most elegant in those dresses, Raven."
"You... saw us?" Raven asked. Starfire nodded cheerily.
"Indeed. It was as if we were watching the TV show!" she replied. Raven and Beast Boy sighed, though his was louder and more expressive.
"So you didn't see the inbetween... wait. Did you... did you see the part just before we got out?" Beast Boy asked. Starfire shook her head solemnly.
"I did not. At that point my attention was focused on Cyborg's intercourse with an alien computer." Beast Boy snickered at her unwitting innuendo.
"Uh, Star? You mind rephrasing that?" Cyborg called back. Starfire blinked in confusion.
"Very well. I was focused solely on Cyborg's negotiation with an alien computer," she tried, glancing at Cyborg to see if it would do. He smiled at her in the mirror. "Why? Did we miss something?" Raven and Beast Boy glanced at each other, making a silent agreement. Raven smiled at Starfire.
"Not a thing, Star. Not a thing."
TOWER COMMON ROOM
Raven stepped through the doors and stopped. With a tiny smile, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, relishing the imperceptible scent of the Tower. Her home. At the sound of Beast Boy's much more vocal sigh, she opened her eyes again and saw him stretching out on the sofa, visibly as glad to be home as she was. She moved to the kitchen, deciding she disliked coffee almost as much as Beast Boy did and having a long overdue cup of tea. She filled her diffuser with the leaves as she boiled the water, the sounds and smells all familiar and comfortable. She poured the water over the diffuser and watched the colour spread and fill her cup. She realised she was genuinely excited about the tea, momentarily wondering if she had developed a dependency. She sipped and sighed and leaned back against the counter, letting the heat seep through the cup into her hands. It was good to be home.
"So what was it like being stuck in a TV show?" Robin asked. Raven looked around and saw him addressing his question to Beast Boy. Indecision flitted across Raven's mind: they hadn't had time to discuss what had happened to them in there. Much of it had been quite personal and she was unsure how much of it she wanted the others to know.
"Crazy, man. We would just be standing around when we got his ache in our heads that made us act out the scenes when it was time. Then the words just came out of my mouth without me having to think about it," Beast Boy explained. Robin gave him a curious look.
"When it was time? You weren't just acting out the show?" he asked. Beast Boy shook his head.
"Nah, dude. It was like we were in their world, so time passed for us like it would for the characters. We were free to do whatever between scenes up to a point, but there wasn't anything outside the house."
"How long were you in there?" Robin asked quietly.
"Few days," Beast Boy answered matter-of-factly. "How long do you think we were in there?"
"Just a few hours..." Robin replied. Everyone was suddenly very quiet.
"Whoa..." Beast Boy whispered. Sensing the urgent need for a subject change, Beast Boy leapt to his feet. "And I didn't have tofu the entire time! Time to whip up some grub... any other takers?" Everyone shook their heads politely. He gave Raven a bright grin as she stepped aside and made her way to the couch with the others. Cyborg sidled up next to her and stage-whispered comically while Starfire giggled.
"You spent three whole days with BB and didn't turn him inside out?" he said. Raven gave him a lazy glare.
"We're not like that anymore, Beast Boy and I. You know that," she said, a little force behind her words. "It's academic anyway: neither of us had our powers." Cyborg backed away, his hands raised in surrender.
"Okay, okay... but BB can be pretty intense and you sometimes have issues with said intensity," he tried. Raven grumbled. She knew that the relationship between her and Beast Boy had been tumultuous, especially in the beginning, but they had found stability in their friendship. She decided, in the face of Cyborg's gentle mockery, that her friend had earned a little praise.
"Actually, he took the lead in there. He had seen the show and made sure I knew what to expect, as well as working out what was going on with us and our following the script." She had worked it out too but decided not to mention it. Robin looked approvingly in Beast Boy's direction as the changeling sang excerpts from several different songs, never settling on one for more than a few lines.
"Is that right... ," he muttered before returning his attention to Raven. "This might sound dumb but... how are you?" he said uncertainly. Raven raised a brow. Starfire landed beside her and laid a hand on Raven's shoulder.
"We witnessed Trigon's appearance," she said. Raven clenched her jaw at his name. Then, just as quickly, she relaxed as the image of him in a sweater vest returned to her. To the surprise of the others, her hand moved to her mouth as she stifled a giggle.
"Well, his "appearance" was honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It certainly took him down a notch in my eyes. I was even almost grateful to Control Freak for it, though that sentiment was rather short-lived," she said, her expression glad and satisfied with a subtle hint of sadism.
"So you're really okay with it?" Cyborg checked. Raven nodded, taking another sip.
"I am. I admit I was concerned at first I was concerned, given the upset caused by Beast Boy's parents' cameo... Azar, I shouldn't have said that," she muttered, closing her eyes in resignation.
"BB was upset?" Cyborg asked, worry creeping into his voice. Raven gave him a chastising look.
"Of course he was. Of course he was!" she chided, feeling Cyborg should have realised as much on his own. Cyborg gave her a glare to rival her own.
"Don't think I didn't worry about him," he said icily. "I was just hoping he was okay with it." He looked over Raven's shoulder at the dancing changeling. Raven's expression relaxed.
"I'm sorry, Cyborg. I suppose the last few days have made me a little protective of him," she said. Cyborg's frown melted into a smirk.
"Already forgiven, Rae-Rae," he said. Satisfied, Raven took another sip.
"If you decide you need to speak to him about it, make sure it's one-on-one," she advised, putting a commanding weight into her words. Cyborg nodded, then pursed his lips and gave her a strange look. She understood: Beast Boy was returning.
"What are we talking about?" Beast Boy said around a mouthful of food, eliciting a look of mild distaste from Raven which, in turn, caused him to smile sheepishly.
"I was explaining my auto-pilot kitchen adventures," Raven lied smoothly. The others had no idea what she meant but went along with it when Beast Boy laughed enthusiastically.
"Oh yeah! Man, it was totally crazy: she would be talking to me and not even paying attention to what she was doing but her hands would keep chopping and peeling and cooking and stuff. The food was good, too! Still, I'm glad I got a chance to express myself to Control Freak for making me eat meat, even if it was fake."
"But I did not hear you speak to the Control Freak," Starfire wondered. Beast Boy shrugged.
"I punched him in the face," he said.
""Seems like a pretty clear expression to me," Raven said, smirking into her tea cup. Starfire giggled as understanding filled her eyes. The pair of them spent the next hour or so telling the others of their time in the simulation, though they deliberately glossed over some events and details, including the impact of Beast Boy's parents' appearance. Given the late (early?) hour, Robin eventually called time and decided it was bedtime, even promising to cancel morning training so everyone could sleep in if they pleased. As one, the group of five rose and made their way to their rooms. That wasn't the end of the night, however. As Beast Boy entered his room, someone rapped their fist lightly on the door frame, even vocalising it.
"Knock knock," said the guest, quietly. Beast Boy turned and gave them a confused look.
"Robin? What is it?" he asked. Robin stepped inside and leaned against the wall, closing the door as he did.
"I saw your parents in there," he said simply. There was no missing the thick gulp Beast Boy took, or the visible paling of his face.
"Uh... yeah, it was pretty crazy," Beast Boy muttered. Robin watched him patiently, speaking after what felt like a long silence.
"If you need to talk about it, then talk about it. With me, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire... your adoptive parents maybe? Don't try and pretend it didn't happen or that you're okay with it," he said firmly but not unkindly. Beast Boy looked away.
"What makes you think it was so bad?" he mumbled. Robin stepped away from the wall and stood near Beast Boy, clapping his hand in his shoulder.
"If I saw someone using my parents like puppets, I know how I'd feel," Robin said. Beast Boy knew then it was useless to deny how affected he had been by it. He turned to face Robin, trying to resist the stinging in his eyes.
"It's just been so long, y'know? The picture I have in my head... it was getting more and more vague, man. I was starting to forget. And then there they were, but not them. It freaked me the hell out." Beast Boy sat heavily on his bed as he confessed, pushing the heels of his palms in his eyes. Robin sat next to him.
"I get it. I really do. I got more time with my parents than you... but I understand," he said. Beast Boy looked at him glumly, nodding his acknowledgement. Robin's hand reached around Beast Boy's shoulder and pulled him a little closer in an affectionate but, it must be said, rather awkwardly masculine hug. Still, Beast Boy smiled at the sentiment, remembering a time when Robin had been one if his idols, before they had even met. Now he was one of his closest friends. Life was weird that way sometimes. Robin stood and headed for the door. "It's good to have you back, Beast Boy," he said before leaving for his own bed.
An hour later, Beast Boy stared up at the ceiling. Well... the bottom of the upper bunk anyway. He was definitely tired but couldn't seem to get to sleep. He counted sheep, tried to visualise paint drying, replayed a particularly boring speech Robin had given last year... nothing worked. He thought about getting up for a glass of warm milk or something, or watching TV til he fell asleep in the couch. He wondered, idly, if the experience in Control Freak's simulation had somehow broken his brain and he would never sleep again. Still, he kept coming back to what he knew was wrong: he was alone. Having Raven with him over the past few days had taken on great importance given their predicament at the time and now he felt strangely unsettled without her there. He was sure he was alone in this. He was certain he was alone in this. So going to Raven was out of the question and that was that.
Or was it?
What if he just went to her room and checked on her. Morph into a spider, creep inside, see Raven, creep outside, go to bed and go to sleep.
"Nah... too creepy," he whispered to himself, not even realising the pun in his fatigue. But what if he didn't go inside? He could just go down the hall and listen. Press his ear against the door and maybe hear her breathe or something, just to check she was there and okay.
"Naaaaaaaahhh..."
A few minutes later, Beast Boy found himself tip-toeing down the hallway toward Raven's room. Inwardly, he berated himself for his foolishness while. Outwardly, he kept walking. He was barely a few yards from Raven's door when, to his horror, her door opened and the girl herself stepped out in front of him. She wore a pair of grey sweats and an oversized T-shirt she had been given by Cyborg years ago. Her hair was a mess and her eyes, red with tiredness and wide with surprise. In that one, unguarded moment, Beast Boy looked at her and saw the most beautiful sight he had ever beheld.
RAVEN'S ROOM - A FEW MINUTES EARLIER
Raven stared at her ceiling. Sleep had not come to her tonight and, though she had come up with many possible (but improbable) explanations, including one in which her brain had been damaged by Control Freak's apparatus so that she would never know sleep again, eventually she had to face the truth: she couldn't sleep because Beast Boy wasn't there. It seemed both ridiculous and obvious, that somehow, in the last few days, she had learned to depend on the shapeshifter, expect him to be there and, now that he wasn't, she couldn't quite relax. She wondered if she could perhaps portal into his room and check on him before returning to her room and finally going to sleep. She shook her head.
"No. This is ridiculous, he's just down the hall. Go. To. Sleep." What if she didn't go inside, just went to his door and checked his aura or something. That might work. "No," she told herself, rolling over and pulling her sheets up to her chin, her eyes squeezed shut.
Minuted later, Raven found herself at her door, shaking her head ruefully at her own foolishness. She stepped into the hallway, turned... and there he was, looking as much like a deer in the headlights as he could without actually turning into one. Wide-eyed in her own surprise, a thought sprang to life unchecked by Raven's will: had Beast Boy always been this beautiful?
Whoa! Night-time hijinks abound! So the pair of them are now definitely seeing something in each other. But what will they do with this knowledge, and the apparent fact that they can't even sleep without the other there? We'll find out and we'll do it together... though I'll probably do most of it lol
Enjoy!
-Jack