Chapter One
These situations usually started out the same. A pull here, a poke there. A sudden jerk to the left, a tug to the right. A building up of anticipation, perspiration, frustration, and finally, a climatic occurrence which would usually conclude with Beast Boy ending up sticky and wet.
Fighting Plasmus had become rather tedious.
If the goo wasn't enough, it was the smell. Like the toxic waste he so loved to chug, Plasmus' slime was an assault to the senses. A mixture of used diapers, week-old garbage, and a rabid skunk that had rolled itself in another animal's droppings, it was enough to make even the normal person's bile rise to their throat.
Beast Boy was usually grateful for his heightened abilities: his keen eyes could detect a plane falling out of the sky several hundred miles away, could locate the peripheral needle in the haystack, but his sensitive nose, especially after a fight with the gungy behemoth, he sometimes wondered if he could do without.
The fight had started out like all the others usually did; Robin would discreetly issue his battle plan before he called his famous 'Titans Go!' Each Titan would follow their leader's strategy which usually involved a complicated dance of animal shifting, star bolts, sonic blast waves, dark magic, and whatever Robin pulled out of his trusty utility belt.
Ever since they'd come back from fighting the Brotherhood of Evil they had been more in sync with each other on the battlefield. It was as if their time away from the tower had led them to a place of comfort where anticipating the other's moves became second nature.
Lately, fighting Plasmus had become less of a battle and more of a petty skirmish; like a petulant child and its parents putting them back into thier room after one too many temper tantrums. It had become so easy for the Titans that, unlike previous fights with the purple slush monster, most were able to walk away from the fight completely free of his foul ooze.
Beast Boy had yet to get that memo.
With the battle won and Plasmus contently sleeping on the damaged pavement, the Titans were free to assess their situation and of course, tease the youngest member.
"Good job, everyone," Robin said, acknowledging his team. "Not only did we take down Plasmus in record time, but we did it without getting encased in goo." The side of his mouth turned up in a smirk, "At least most of us did."
"I do believe we did the kicking of the backside." Starfire suppressed a giggle as she floated next to her boyfriend. "Beast Boy fought admirably. It is not his fault that Plasmus disgorged his filth all over his form."
"Errrr….. Thanks Star?" Beast Boy said, scratching his head and trying not to rub the toxic waste even further into his green mane of hair.
"BB, you smell worse than a pile of week-old Warcraft-playing nerd socks," Cyborg teased. "The crispy kind, dude. Like they can stand up and everything. Even the socks are plugging their noses."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very funny, Cy," Beast Boy said as he attempted to brush off some of the slime. "I just want to get home and get this stench off of me. Whose turn is it to wait for the police?"
"Mine," said a gravelly voice behind him. "This time Beast Boy please remember to take your dirty laundry out of the bathroom. Last time we fought Plasmus you left your underwear behind the toilet for three days and it stunk up the room for two weeks." Raven frowned as she floated towards the sleeping outlaw.
Beast Boy's green complexion went a maroon-ish brown with a blush at Raven mentioning his underwear.
"S-sorry about that, Raven. Won't happen again!" He stumbled on his words to the empath. Those kinds of verbal mishaps seem to have been happening a lot recently and curiously, only when it concerned the violet-eyed, half-demon. Beast Boy tried not to look into it too much. Instead, he gave her a grin as he shrugged his shoulders. Goofy was something he could do well and he was constantly glad he could always fall back onto it.
Raven frowned as she noticed his discomfort but valiantly said nothing and continued her vigilance over the criminal. The fact that she was an empath and completely aware of all of his emotions, even some of the baser ones, was a somewhat embarrassing fact for the shapeshifter.
Beast Boy shook off the creeping thoughts from his head and walked towards the T-car. He needed to figure out what was going on with himself. He was used to feeling like an idiot around Raven but lately, for some reason, he felt as though he was tripping on himself whenever she was around. It wasn't like him and the fact that he couldn't put his finger on the issue irked him to no end.
"I call shot-gun," Beast Boy weakly called to his teammates as he attempted to change the topic.
"Oh no you don't!" Cyborg passionately shouted from across the street. He started to run towards his precious car. "You will NOT stink up my baby with that stuff on you!"
Beast Boy threw his head back in exasperation. "Awww c'mon Cy! It's late and I'm too tired to fly! Just this once! I'll help you clean up tomorrow! I pinky-promise, man!" He didn't mean for it to come out as whiny as he did but he was tired and flying was WAY more effort than he was willing to give at that moment.
"Like the time you helped clean up that smoothie you spilled on the dashboard?" Cyborg crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Dude, that was not my fault. Those girls were only going to be at the park for an hour and I had to make my moves!" Beast Boy's dark eyebrows crinkled into a scowl. "Besides, I did clean it up!"
"Wiping it once does NOT count as 'cleaning'" Cyborg stated, his voice becoming increasingly loud. "First you need to -"
"Okay! Okay!" Beast Boy interrupted. "I don't need a lecture about cleaning the T-car right now." He turned his attention to his leader. He knew his pleading would be rebuffed but felt the need to ask anyway. One day Robin will break. One day he'll drive it. Heck, maybe today was the day!
"Robin, please, give a guy a break. Let me take the R-cycle. Just this once. PLEEEASE?"
Behind his mask, Robin raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "Sorry, Beast Boy."
Today was not the day.
"Fine," Beast Boy said, shoulders slumping in defeat. "I guess I'll-"
"Hold up BB" Cyborg interrupted. His face creased into a frown as he looked at a beeping on his robotic arm. Puzzled, he kept his face centered on his arm while his eyes wandered to his cloaked teammate. The team instinctively all turned their heads towards the empath with equally confused looks. Raven herself took the attention with a puzzled look on her usual passive face.
"Cyborg… Is there an issue?" Robin asked slowly.
"Well…" The cybernetic man hesitated and continued looking at the controls on his arm. His eyes darted back at Raven, then back at his arm again. Finally, he quickly shook his head as if he were clearing his brain of this new-found data. "Naw. The security system on the Tower has been on the fritz for a couple of days now. I'll make sure I spend some time updating it tonight."
He put his attention back onto the green changeling who had taken the brief interruption to sneak his way back to the car. "Don't even think about it, Green Bean," he said pointing his finger directly at his best friend. His outstretched finger changed to his thumb. "Beat it".
Beast Boy's ears turned down and bowed his head in defeat. "Fine dude, you win. Can you at least bring a pizza back for me?" He asked hopefully.
Cyborg visibly brightened. "Now that I can do. Robin, Star, Raven? You guys want some?"
"Just save me a slice," Raven said as she scanned the road for the (supposedly) impending police. "I'll probably be here awhile."
Starfire wrapped her hands around Robin's and gave her friend a small smile. "Robin has promised me a walk along the beach and the dogs that are hot."
Robin's returning expression to his girlfriend made Beast Boy want to hurl all over himself. Not that the smell would improve his current situation. Why did those two have to be so gross? Did love do that to everybody?
"Next time, Cyborg," the love-sick Romeo stated. "We'll see you all back in the Tower in a couple of hours. Titans out!"
The dismissed teammates slowly started to disperse to their endeavors. Beast Boy took one last longing look at the T-Car and offered Cyborg a feeble wave before he turned himself into a hawk and started to fly back towards the Tower and its awaiting warm shower.
Despite the grumbling he did about flying back to the Tower, the ride was a joyous one. Yes, his muscles ached and yes, he smelled like death warmed over but there was a sort of bliss in spreading one's wings and taking to the skies. It was often his go-to pursuit when he was down or needed some perspective. When he was in the air there was nothing else to think about, nothing else to worry about. Just him and the wind blowing through his feathers. He often felt sorry for those who weren't able to experience such a thrill. It brought a clarity to his mind that he guessed was similar to Raven's meditation.
Feeling sore but refreshed, he landed on the top of the Tower and took in the view. The sun was just setting, a sliver on the water, and its dying rays sparkled the ocean with reflecting pinks and oranges. He smiled a crooked smile and wished, just for a second, that he could be enjoying this view with someone. With a purple-haired someone.
His eyes grew wide as he was startled by his thoughts. Quickly, he turned and ran to the stairs to get into the tower. Maybe if he ran fast enough the thought could stay up on the roof and not follow him back to his head.
Pushing thoughts of his teammate out of his brain (where they belonged, he reasoned with himself) he promptly started down the halls, making his way to his room.
He was yards away from his door when he abruptly stopped.
Although his nose was mainly picking up the leftovers of Plasmus and his toxic waste, he detected something strange that made him halt in his tracks.
The smell was something familiar, yet not familiar. The notes of incense and vanilla were the same but there was an undertone he didn't recognize. Something distinctly feminine in its earthy, primal tones. Confused, he deeply breathed it in. He couldn't understand it- something about it made the animals inside him go wild. They told him to comfort, to nourish, to protect.
Ignoring the animals and the new, distinct scent, he focused on the smells that made him stop in the first place. Only one person could smell like that.
Barging into his room his other senses confirmed what his nose had been detecting. Raven stood in the middle of his messy bedroom. Her back was to him and her long blue cloak covered her from her shoulders to her elven-shoes.
"Raven? What the hell!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "What are you doing in my room?!"
With her back still to him, Raven turned her head just slightly towards him, and in an instant, he knew this wasn't his Raven.
Her hair was longer, coming down in a slight wave to the middle of her back. Her cape was the same and she still had violet eyes that could pierce into one's soul and expose all their secrets but they seemed wiser, softer, and even had a couple of tiny wrinkles around the sides. Laugh lines, he thought with surprise.
Beast Boy would be lying if he said he didn't feel his heart flutter briefly in his chest. This Raven was an older version of the one he knew. Older, more mature, more beautiful.
"Raven?" He questioned this Raven stranger, perplexed. He realized he had been standing there for a good minute with his mouth opened in surprise and his eyebrows fixed right up into his hairline.
With lips slightly parted and without blinking, Raven searched Beast Boy's face. For what, he wasn't quite sure. He, in turn, continued to gape at the seemingly older woman.
The pair stared at each other.
They were the proverbial deers caught in a headlight as neither was willing to rupture this unspoken stalemate they had seemed to have agreed upon.
Finally, as if accepting her fate, the older empath closed her eyes, bowed her head, and took a deep breath in through her nose. She let it out with a soft rasp and looked back at the teenager whose room she was occupying.
"Beast Boy," this new Raven whispered. "Please, I need your help."
This Raven's pleading voice was gentle and held a hint of anguish. Her eyes held a peculiar look that the green changeling had never seen in her before; this Raven was desperate.
Finally, the empath turned her body towards her younger teammate and repeated her plea with a dejected murmur, "Please."
Without her cape hiding her figure and her entire frame in full view there was no question about it- this was NOT his Raven.
For despite her petite frame and despite the new uniform which was now a long, loose dress with a gold band hugging her hips, there was no hiding the fact that this Raven was very noticeably, very decisively, very pregnant.
Authors Notes:
Hi there!
I'm so excited to finally contribute to the Teen Titans fandom! This is my first ever fanfic and the first creative thing I've done in many many years. If you can go easy on me that would be great but I would also love to hear your thoughts!
All 16 Chapters of Back to the Future are complete and I will be updating every Sunday for the next few months.
Thanks for reading!
