Titan Tower, Night.
Raven is alone in her bedroom, likely going through her books to pass the time and avoid further awkwardness with her fellow heroes.
The others are in the living area, watching on as Beast Boy and Cyborg engage in battle using some post-apocalypse tabletop game, arguing over whether or not the former gets to reroll for damages or not.
Starfire is deep in thought as she keeps peering back and forth between the festivities and Raven's bedroom door, a door that hasn't opened for a few hours now.
And Robin? He just tries not to make it obvious that he's totally pining for the Tamaranian princess.
"Okay, just ask her if she wants to maybe go for a walk. Yeah! That's perfect! Beast Boy and Cyborg are distracted with their dumb game, Raven's probably going to be in her room for the rest of the night… This is the perfect chance to finally make a move on her!" he thinks to himself.
"So… Why aren't I?" he asks himself. Even so, the truth is irrefutable. He's just too nervous.
"Ah! Crit! Total crit!" Cyborg blurts out as he rolls a ten with his die.
"No way! You had to've cheated somehow!" Beast Boy argues.
"How could I have cheated? You watched me roll?"
"I don't know?! You rigged the dice somehow with your... Cyborg... powers…" he stammers, realizing himself just how ridiculous it sounds.
Cyborg just smiles. "All I know is, that's one more XP for-"
Raven's door creaks open.
Everyone stops what they're doing to look to it, and slowly, the resident Azarthian steps out of her bedroom to join them. She's uncharacteristically timid, as she pussyfoots her way over to the table to join everyone. While a few days ago she would have unquestionably taken a seat by Beast Boy, tonight she opts to sit alone on the nearby couch. It's a comfortable distance from the others. Not too close, not too far.
Despite this, everyone seems to forget they're staring at her like a bunch of dunderheads, which doesn't help much.
It's a little annoying for her, but she realizes that things will only become weirder if she responds to the tension with frustration.
Instead, she decides to establish the pretense that this is just a normal evening at Titan Tower, and that there's no reason things need to be, as Star called it earlier, 'the awkward.'
"What are you guys playing?" she simply asks.
Everyone exchanges surprised looks, and then returns to facing her.
"Uhm, War in the Wastes…" Beast Boy cautiously begins. "It's a RPG. You know, like-"
"Like role-playing; got it," Raven finishes.
The others just watch as the two gaze at one another, both conveying the same look of understanding. It's touch-and-go for a moment, but Cyborg decides to help everyone ease back into the spirit of fun.
"Uhm, you missed it, Rae. I just killed Beast Boy's last elite, and now he's stuck with his grunts. And it doesn't help that I have his leader pinned down here in the-"
"Uhm, no," Beast Boy interrupts. "You forgot to mention the part where I totally annihilated three of your dudes with one character... in one turn!"
Raven forces a little half smile. "I'm sure I'll catch on," she tells them.
With that, the boys pick back up on their gaming, and Robin resumes thinking of how to approach Starfire.
"Okay, so there's still a chance here for me to ask her. Just, ease into it. Be casual," he tells himself.
Just as he is about to open his mouth and speak up…
"CRIT!" Cyborg shouts again, this time wracking everyone's nerves. "That's another crit! And that's another of your grunts dead! Man, I am good!"
Rather than expectantly firing back with a petulant argument, Beast Boy glances at Raven out of the corner of his eye, all while wearing a somber expression.
"Actually Cyborg… Why don't we call it a game? I don't think I can afford to lose anymore people this round," he concedes.
It surprises Cyborg, and everyone, really. But he sees the way his best friend looks at his ex-girlfriend, and realizes just what's up.
"Oh… Alright," he simply responds. He brightens up a little though with his next suggestion. "Hey! I know! Why don't we all pop in a movie? I hear 'Carol Likes Luna' is a good one!"
"Uhm, here in a little bit, bro. I gotta go- brush my hair…" Beast Boy unconvincingly tells him, and he stands to make his way out of the room.
The others watch on with piteous expressions, and then, of course, they look to Raven.
She heavily sighs, making her frustration apparent. "Before anyone says anything… No. I don't want to talk about it."
Cyborg and Robin shrug to one another, but Starfire just frowns. It pains her so to see her friend this way.
Deciding she needs a moment to clear her head, which is likely what her ex-boyfriend is doing right now, Raven stands up to make her way into the kitchen.
The others watch on, then all look to each other. "Man, I hope things never get like that between us," Cyborg quips, playfully nudging Robin.
He ignores his sophomoric innuendo. "I get what you mean, though. I hope those two figure things out soon," he sullenly says, even though he is much more concerned with how he really wants to ask Starfire out for a walk before anything else can-
"Oh, I must see if I can get her to confide in me. She has to be hurting, even if she acts as though she is not," Starfire proclaims, and she makes her way to follow Raven's footsteps.
"Dang it," Robin cusses to himself.
"Hey," Cyborg begins with a privied grin, "You'll get your chance sooner or later," he encourages his fellow Titan.
"I hope so. I can fight bad guys and save the world without breaking a sweat, but a pretty girl makes me turn to mush. How is that fair?"
"Yeah, well, you better figure out something soon. Girls like Star get swooped up before too long," Cyborg tells him.
In the kitchen, Raven uses her powers to pour herself some juice from the fridge. What she doesn't know, is that Starfire is quietly standing beneath the entryway, watching her as she thinks of how to approach this.
"She seems so distraught. I hate to think that I could ever feel the pain she does now with the Earthlings' heartache."
She's not too far off either. Raven pours juice with more ennui than a young woman ever should, sighing a sigh that absolutely crushes Starfire.
"Oh, I cannot take it!"
"Raven?" she cautiously utters, just audibly enough to attract her attention.
Without a word, Raven looks to her, and she lets out another, this time weak, sigh.
"Starfire…"
"I know you will say that you do not wish to talk about it," she begins, "but I only wish to help you. Please… Talk to me… Tell me how you are feeling…"
Raven meets her with her familiar stoicism at first, but ebbs as her true feelings show in the form of a deflating frown.
"Believe me, Starfire, I wish I could just talk to you about this. I know you want to help…"
She looks up from the tiles of the kitchen floor to look into Starfire's beckoning green eyes, her own displaying nothing but sadness.
"But maybe I just need to keep to myself for a little while. I only make things worse when I try to act like things are okay between me and Beast Boy, but it's obvious he just wants to avoid me…"
Starfire frowns. "No, Raven. That is not true. You both make things awkward," she contends, earning her a glare from Raven. "Wait, that did not come out right."
"It is true that things with you and Beast Boy may not be so good now, but I think it can be better than before," she starts again.
"That's nice," Raven indifferently responds, "but I think I just want to be left alone either way. I think I'm just going to go back to my room."
She begins to walk away, but Starfire persists.
"Wait! What about the movie?"
"It's probably stupid," Raven retorts, pressing forward.
"It is probably stupid, but it could be fun!" Starfire insists. "Or maybe we could brush each other's hair! That is, assuming Beast Boy isn't using one of our brushes. I do find green hairs in mine sometimes… Or maybe we could bake cookies! Or maybe-!"
"Starfire," Raven pleadingly says as she turns to face her again. "Please… Please… Just leave me alone…"
…
Starfire's heart sinks as she watches Raven walk away from her again for the second time today. She continues down the hall, and disappears into her bedroom just as she did when she returned home earlier.
"Oh… I wish she would come back out…" Starfire depressingly thinks aloud.
And, surprisingly, Raven does come back out, and she even comes back to the kitchen.
Starfire can't help but brightly smile, but Raven's demeanor hasn't changed even slightly.
"Uhm, I forgot my juice," she explains, and she gets her beverage off the counter before doing just as she did before and escaping into her room.
"Darn it…" Starfire sorrowfully curses, alone again.
"There must be something I can do to cheer her up. There just has to be!" she thinks.
"Starfire! You need to see this!" Robin cries from the living area.
She perks up upon realizing the desperate tone in Robin's voice, and hurries back into the living area.
Meanwhile, Raven has just closed her bedroom door, and sets her juice down on her dresser before she takes a seat on her bed.
"I know she means well… But she wouldn't get it. She's never been in a relationship, and… Well…"
She reconsiders her thought.
"She is empath though. One of the good ones too. And I know she cares…"
"Maybe I'm being too stubborn. Maybe I should just… talk to her. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"
She glances over at her mirror, not enough to get lost in it, literally or figuratively, but enough to see her sorry self for just a moment.
"Do I really want to sit alone in my bedroom for the rest of the night?... Again?"
A knock comes at her door.
"Uhm, Raven. It's me. Beast Boy…"
Her cheeks become flushed, and her heart starts racing. "Uhm… Come in," she tries to say, but it's as if her larynx can't muster the strength to actually voice the words.
She stands up from her bed, paces to the door, stops, steps back to get a drink of juice, then goes to actually answer the door.
She opens it, and sure enough, Beast Boy is standing outside.
"So, what's up?" he asks, nervously scratching the back of his neck.
She doesn't answer right away, her own anxiety getting the better of her.
"Not much…"
They both look at some really interesting spots on the floor before Beast Boy speaks up again.
"Uhm… I kind of need to talk to you about something," he tells her, trying to make eye contact without reducing to a puddle.
"Sure…" Raven dejectedly says, gesturing him to come in.
She returns to her spot on the bed, but Beast Boy chooses to stand as he steps back and forth on his heels while pocketing his hands.
"So… Read anything good lately?" he asks to help break the ice.
"This story by some Sunderland guy. Nothing good," she answers.
Then, there's silence.
…
Finally, the palpable tension becomes too much for Raven to stomach.
"So… What did you want to talk about?"
Beast Boy takes a deep breath. "Okay, it's like this," he begins. "I'm sorry. I was a jerk yesterday, okay?"
"You… were kind of a jerk just now," Raven boldly tells him.
Neither of them gets excitable though.
"Yeah, it was uncool of me to bail like that, it's just… I didn't want to make things weird again," Beast Boy explains.
"Things are gonna be weird, Beast Boy. I mean, we broke up. Now we just have to move on," Raven claims.
"I guess so," Beast Boy weakly responds, looking down to the floor again.
Raven waits a moment to see if he'll say anything more, but it appears he's finished.
So, she decides she is too.
"Is that all?"
Beast Boy uncomfortably winces, and again nervously rubs his neck.
"Do you hate me?" he skittishly asks.
…
It momentarily stuns Raven, who can only look to him with her resonating remorse as she tries to think of a halfway decent response.
But, he starts drawing conclusions anyway, as he is known to do.
"It's okay of you do. I know I can be a stupid jerk sometimes…"
And while she can't help but stare, he has to avoid eye contact.
He steps towards her door.
"I'll leave you alone now. I know that's what you want-"
"Beast Boy!" she somewhat excitedly says as she stands up from her bed, and he looks back to her.
"You're not a stupid jerk," she sincerely says to him. "Well, okay. You are a stupid jerk… But in a good way."
He smiles at this. "So you don't hate me?"
"No…" Raven guiltily replies, and she steels herself for a moment before saying what she truly wants to say.
She meets his eyes, and he doesn't look away.
"I just want us to be able to talk to each other again. I want things to be okay between us…"
He thinks her words over, then composes a response.
"I do too, Rae. And I want everyone to stop acting weird about it," he says somewhat jokingly.
It gets her to crack a small, brief smile.
He does the same before following up. "I just want things to be back to the way they were."
…
As her chest swells with conflicting emotions, she thinks back to what Starfire said to her not long ago.
"Well, maybe things can't be the way they were before… But maybe… maybe they can be better," she tells Beast Boy.
He smiles at that. "I'd like that."
She smiles too, feeling the weight of some of her misery beginning to fall from her shoulders.
But then, Cyborg suddenly makes his way in through the door.
"Raven, you've gotta-"
He sees the former couple standing there together, and realizes again just what's up.
"Uhh… is this a bad time?" he asks.
The two smile at each other again. "It's fine, Cyborg," Raven responds on their behalf.
"Alright, well we got a bit of a situation," Cyborg tells them before making his leave.
Raven softly smiles at Beast Boy once more before deciding to follow Cyborg.
"One more thing," her ex-boyfriend says, and she turns to face him.
"It really was your turn to pay for lunch," he tells her.
He cracks a smile though, and she has to too.
"Shut up," she simply says, and they make their way out together to see what's the matter.
In the living area, the Titans gather around the monitor to find there is an emergency.
"What's going on?" Beast Boy asks.
"Take a look at this," Robin says, pointing to bleeping dot on the radar.
"What is it?" Raven now asks.
"I don't know, but I can't get it to stop bleeping, until someone buys batteries for the remote," he answers. "Now take a look at this," he continues, switching the screen over to a video stream.
Everyone gasps upon seeing what Robin has to show them.
"Is that-?" Raven starts.
"It can't be?!" Beast Boy finishes.
They all look to Starfire, who is perhaps the most perturbed of all.
"Blackfire…"
I'm sorry if I went overBOARD with the tabletop stuff (Oh I kill me). It was mostly inside jokes for my friend.
And no, 'Carol Likes Luna' is NOT a good one… But you should go watch, er, read it anyway.
What will happen between Starfire and her villainous sister? Will she ever be able to get through to Raven? Have I completely turned you off from this story by creating a Robin side plot?
Find out next time on TitansBall Z!