#they gave the man his own intro screen and in universe description and everything | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

galli-writes · 5 years

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(Click here to read on Ao3!)

(Click here to listen to the podfic!)

fandom: Teen Titans

pairing: BBRae

genre/warnings: AU - Canon Divergence; Implied/Referenced Abuse, Abusive Parents, Childhood Trauma, Graphic Depictions of Violence

additional tags: Angst, Family Issues, Friendship/Love, Protectiveness, Slow Burn, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions

summary:

There are a few things that Beast Boy knows for certain:

He’s 21….and a total lightweight. He’s a vegan (but not like…a pretentious vegan). He’s not going to be single forever.

And the Teen Titans are the only family he’ll ever need.

a/n: I am super excited to finally be able to post the next chapter of this crazy project. This chapter was a bit long which was why it took me a while to polish it up. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Unpacking ( words: 11,112)

Nicholas Galtry’s profile picture wasn’t any more convincing the second time Beast Boy saw it. Or the third, fourth, or fifth. But the letter that had sat next to his keyboard for the past two days kept him from closing the tab.

As far as Beast Boy could tell, the note had been written by hand. The elegant, varying curves of the letters suggested as much. Handwriting that someone had clearly put time and effort into perfecting.

Beast Boy glanced back up at the screen in front of him, biting his lip. He scrolled up and down the barren profile page, reminding himself that the lack of pictures was probably just because the guy didn’t understand social media. When he finally clicked ‘accept,’ and no new information appeared on the page, his confidence in his conclusion began to waver. The only thing he had seemed to unlock was a single group picture of about a dozen men and women in lab coats. There wasn’t even a description attached to it.

Beast Boy squinted at the picture for a moment. Galtry was easy enough to pick out--his black hair stood out in the center of the back row, where he towered over the other individuals with a toothless smile. Like he had a secret he couldn’t wait to share with them as soon as the photographer lowered the lens.

Beast Boy scanned the other faces in the small crowd, not knowing what he was looking for, if anything. For a moment, his eyes came to rest on a man and woman standing in the row in front of Nicholas Galtry. His heart rate quickened for a moment as he blinked hard. He looked again at the two individuals. And with that, the sensation faded just as quickly as it had come.

With a sigh, Beast Boy fell back into his chair, rubbing his face. For the past ten minutes he’d been repeating this pointless exercise. But you could only scroll through the same five pictures so many times. With a final cursory reread, he carefully folded up the letter and slid it into the desk drawer.

After throwing some proper clothes on, Beast Boy headed out the door. If he couldn’t tell anyone about the letter, he could at least put some distance between himself and the piece of paper for a few hours.

The moment he entered the hallway outside his room, his thoughts began to automatically reroute themselves. His stomach growled furiously, and he started toward the kitchen on autopilot. He could smell... something cooking. And while his brain hadn’t quite decided whether or not it was actually something appetizing, his stomach wasn’t being choosy.

Half expecting to catch Starfire whipping up some obscure Tamaranean delicacy, Beast Boy immediately stopped short when he realized it was anything but.

Raven stood at the stove, her back turned to him as she shuffled something in a pan. She was the only one in the room--and maybe that made sense, seeing as the sun was just now beginning to shine through the windows on the opposite end of the room.

Beast Boy glanced at the clock on the wall next to him. There was no universe where it made sense for him to be awake right now. But before he had the chance to reconsider his life choices, they were cemented in place for him.

“You’re up...early,” Raven said, catching his eye. She had turned slightly to look at him, a hint of surprise--almost suspicion--in her eyes and her voice. As if his presence at this ungodly hour automatically meant that he was up to no good.

Beast Boy shrugged, squinting past the bright yellow light. “Yeah. I’ve kinda been having trouble sleeping the past few nights,” he said, forcing a laugh. For some reason, the words felt more like a confession than a simple explanation, and it took him a moment to realize why. He wasn’t talking about the letter anymore.

Raven didn’t seem to notice his discomfort though and just rolled her eyes, turning back to the stovetop.

Beast Boy bit his lip. He could shove a letter into the back of his drawer and walk away as many times as he wanted. But it was much harder to ignore conversations that you shared a kitchen with.

“Actually, there’s something I wanted to...talk to you about,” he said suddenly, surprised at hearing the sound of his own voice.

The awkward pause that followed was predictable. But the emptiness of it wasn’t. Beast Boy leaned uncomfortably against the door frame, unable to take his eyes off his friend. The silence may as well have been a tangible wall between them.

After a moment, Raven turned around again, giving him the same look of doubt and confusion. Except this time there was a hint of something a little more defensive mixed in.

“Oh really?” she said, the word slightly curling into a question at the very end. As if everything he’d said had been absolute gibberish and she was only speaking for the sake of doing so. The spatula in her hand remained poised in the air, mid-flip, like she couldn’t continue cooking until he gave her a response.

Beast Boy didn’t know what that response was going to be. He began scratching his arm absentmindedly.

“About...you know...the other night?” he said, looking off to the side. “That was kinda shitty of me.” His heart rate began to pick up again. Hopefully she wouldn’t need any more clarification to know what he was referring to. Hopefully she wouldn’t make him have to say it out loud.

But when Beast Boy finally worked up the courage to glance back at her a moment later, he noticed that Raven’s expression hadn’t changed. If anything, she only seemed more confused. She glanced around the kitchen randomly, as if doing so might give her some clue as to what the hell he was talking about.

“At the warehouse,” he blurted out, his voice embarrassingly frantic. Now the words came easier, but not because he was any more confident in what he had to say. Maybe it came from the realization that it was too late to turn back now.

“When I...you know, pretended I was--” he caught himself, the word stopping clear in his throat. “When I pretended I was--passed out,” he said, knowing that that was the most generous way of putting it. “That was so crazy and stupid and I have no idea why I did it. I’m sorry I made you mad. I didn’t mean to. Please don’t hurt me.”

For a moment, Raven just continued to stare at him, their eyes locked in some kind of inexplicably powerful gaze. Like there was something else being exchanged between them that couldn’t be expressed with words. Beast Boy felt his stomach drop, but it wasn’t for any of the reasons he’d expected it might. A wave of something strange washed over Raven’s features. Something that seemed to smooth out the harsh lines in her brow and at the corners of her mouth. The shift was so subtle and fleeting that Beast Boy wasn’t entirely sure if he’d imagined it or not.

“...Okay...” she said, once more sounding like he was speaking absolute nonsense. And maybe he was. She turned back around, continuing to shuffle whatever was in the pan without so much as batting an eye.

At this, Beast Boy let out a small sigh of relief. But the pit in his stomach remained. He stood in the doorway uncomfortably, unable to relax. There was no way it was going to be that easy.

“You mean...you’re not mad at me?” he hesitated. The short burst of relief he’d felt quickly turned to dread. He felt stupid just asking the question.

But on the other end of the room, Raven merely shrugged. “Not any more than usual,” she said, flipping her concoction in the pan. “I mean, it was pretty obvious you were faking it.”

At this, Beast Boy paused. The same incredulous confusion he had seen in Raven’s face a moment earlier now reflected itself in his own. He began to open his mouth to contest her, but he didn’t know why. He closed it just as quickly.

Raven wasn’t the type of person who wore her heart on her sleeve. She was the type who kept everything locked away inside a box no one had the key to. A box that was buried ten feet deep at the edge of a cliff at the top of a mountain that sat in the center of a swirling lake of lava. And while it made deciphering her mood on a day to day basis nearly impossible, there was one advantage to it. Whatever she kept locked up in there was so unlike everything else about her that whenever it did get loose, you knew it.

He also knew that pressing Raven about her emotions was skating on paper thin ice. Luckily, she cut him off just before he fell through.

“Save your breath,” she said, her back still turned. She slid the last contents of the pan onto a plate. “I already know you feel bad about it.”

“You do?” Beast Boy said.

Raven turned around now, a plate of...something in her hand. She looked disappointed somehow, but not surprised. “The emotional roller coaster you’ve been on for the past seventy two hours hasn’t exactly been a solo ride.”

Beast Boy stood there for a moment, confused. Then his face started to feel the slightest bit warm. Of course she knew. That was Raven 101: Intro to Raven. Raven for Dummies. Raven’s whole schtick. Her entire brand.

“Oh. Right,” he fumbled, a wave of child-like embarrassment washing over him. “Yeah, I guess that would...make sense.”

Raven didn’t do or say anything in particular in response. And on the one hand, Beast Boy knew that should have been a good sign--or at least a comforting sign of normalcy. But there was something about the entire interaction that felt off. Like for once Raven’s avoidance stemmed from somewhere other than mere disinterest. Regardless of the bored expression on her face, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d merely slapped a bandaid over a bullethole.

“Well, I guess since you already know I’m sorry...I’m just gonna...go,” he said, awkwardly shooting two finger guns toward the hallway behind him. He held the position for a moment, waiting for some sort of signal that their conversation had officially ended. The one he got was not the one he had been expecting.

“If you’re going, can you do me a favor?” Raven said suddenly.

Beast Boy froze just as he was beginning to turn around. Coming from Raven, a question like that usually went one general direction--the most popular being something along the lines of ‘ Never speak to me again.’

“Yeah?”

“Can you take these to Cyborg for me?” she said, half turning around with a plate stacked with...something in her hand.

Beast Boy made his way toward her cautiously.

“What...is it?” he said, raising an eyebrow at the plate extended before him.

“What does it look like?” Raven said curtly.

“It looks like that one time Starfire tried to make pancakes.” Beast Boy took the plate from her and picked up one of the layers of the concoction, prodding it with his finger. The pale, muddy mess just barely held its shape.

Raven didn’t reply. She just stared at him with an increasingly displeased expression.

“Aren’t you more of a...waffle person?” he said, laughing a little.

Raven sighed, arms crossed against her chest.

“Cyborg told me that I should try and get out of my comfort zone more,” she said at last. “So today I made pancakes.”

Beast Boy let the so called ‘pancakes’ fall sloppily back onto the plate below, wiping his hand on his shirt. “Maybe you should scoot back into the zone,” he said, eyeing the plate one more time.

“Fine,” Raven said, swiping it back from him in an instant. “I’ll take them to him myself. Jackass.”

Plate in hand, she made her way toward the doorway at the opposite end of the room. The doorway Beast Boy had made a point not to walk through since last night...ever since he had set up--

Shit.

“Wait! Don’t go under the--!”

He started to extend a hand toward her, knowing she was already too far away for it to matter. Raven passed over the threshold without a care in the world—that is until she tripped the switch on the lower left side of it.

In a moment of pure, paralyzing terror, Beast Boy watched as a gallon of slime fell from the ceiling above her, completely drenching her from head to toe.

He flinched, shrinking into himself as Raven held up her arms to examine whatever terrible substance she was now coated in. When she slowly turned to look at him, the shadowy sense of calm on her face was far more disturbing than any display of outright anger could have possibly been.

“I’m sorry—I—I didn’t mean...That was meant for--” Beast Boy stammered, knowing that it was already too late.

Raven’s eyes narrowed into vicious slits, glinting like those of a python ready to strike.

For a split second, Beast Boy could have sworn they had started to change color.

But the image quickly vanished as Raven closed her eyes, taking a deep but impatient breath. When she opened them again he felt only slightly less terrified.

“It was...an accident?” Beast Boy offered with a sheepish shrug and a nervous smile. But you didn’t have to be an empath to see that underneath it he was gritting his teeth.

Raven let a single beat pass before she opened her mouth to give him her reply.

“ You were an accident,” she said with a cold confidence.

An oblong dark shadow appeared behind her, and with a single step over its threshold she was gone.

Beast Boy was completely alone. Again. Which was why he nearly jumped when he turned to see Robin in the doorway behind him.

“Oh my God, you almost gave me a heart attack,” he panted, catching himself on the counter beside him.

“Sorry?” Robin said, his voice tinted with regret, but even more so with confusion. “I was just--” he looked around the now desolate kitchen, then glanced back at Beast Boy expectantly. ”Have you seen Raven? I thought I just heard her in here a second ago.”

Beast Boy began to rub at the back of his neck, making a point of looking anywhere but at the site of Raven’s recent departure. “Maybe she’s...in her room?”

“Maybe,” Robin said, though he didn’t seem particularly pleased with Beast Boy’s answer. He sighed. “I was hoping to catch the two of you together. There are some things I want to--” He paused, looking over in the direction of where Raven had disappeared. “What is that ?”

“What’s what?” Beast Boy said, refusing to follow his gaze. Refusing to acknowledge the green slime covering the kitchen floor behind him.

Robin looked downward, his hand raised to his temples. “Okay. Just...whatever it is, clean it up. Please? And when you’re done go find Raven and meet me outside by the picnic tables.” He glanced between Beast Boy and the mess one last time with a sigh. “Ten minutes.” And then he was gone.

It took nearly an entirely roll of paper towels to soak up the remaining goo. To Beast Boy’s satisfaction, there was only a very minimal green stain left on the tile by the time he was done. But that was the least of his problems.

Robin rarely wanted to ‘talk’ just for the sake of making conversation. The last time he had asked to ‘talk’ to any of them, it had resulted in mandatory after hours training sessions for the entire group. But that still hadn’t been as bad as the time he’d changed the wifi password for a week after Cyborg’s online gaming obsession had gotten out of hand.

But at the very least, whatever conversation awaited him with Robin was still ten minutes away. Unlike Robin’s request to find the girl he’d just dumped a bucket of slime on. Which, regrettably, required his immediate attention.

The walk to Raven’s room wasn’t long, but it felt infinite. Infinite in the way Beast Boy imagined walking death row must feel. When he finally turned the corner that brought her door into view, he was unsurprised to find it firmly shut. When he raised his hand to knock, he stopped himself. Or rather, the terrifying sounds on the other side of the door did. He could hear Raven cursing something under her breath, and for a moment he figured it might be best to just turn around and abandon the idea altogether. But there was one thing that scared him even more than Raven’s temperament, and it was waiting patiently for the two of them outside.

“Uh...Raven?”

The hissing profanities came to an abrupt halt as an eerie silence filled the air.

“I know you’re probably busy but--”

“What do you want ?”

“Uh...Robin wants to...talk to us,” Beast Boy replied, speaking as carefully as possible. “Outside. Right now.”

“God bless,” Raven said under her breath, her voice muted by steel door between them.

Beast Boy heard another door within slam shut, followed by what could only be described as the sounds of frantic redecorating.

Suddenly the door flew open--and so did Beast Boy’s mouth. He grit his teeth, but it wasn’t enough to stop the snort-like laughter that escaped from behind his wavering smile. He took a deep breath and tried to think of every sad dog movie he’d ever seen.

Instead of hanging as straight as the daggers in her eyes, the strands of Raven’s hair curled around her face in frizzy purple waves.

“Wow,” Beast Boy said, unable to keep quiet any longer. “Your hair looks--”

“Choose your next words wisely ,” she growled.

Beast Boy swallowed hard, devouring his smile along with his words.

“...Different?”

Raven shot him a look, flipping up the hood of a jacket she had thrown on.

“What does Robin want to talk about?” she said, pushing past him and taking the lead.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Beast Boy said, letting her do so silently.

Raven didn’t respond.

For the rest of the trip, Beast Boy made sure to keep a few feet between them as they walked.

A cool gust of wind swept through his hair as he followed Raven out the front door. It was just cold enough that he began to wish he’d had a reason to grab a jacket as well. Some of the leaves were already starting to change color, a steady breeze testing their hold to the branches. In the distance, under one of the many shifting trees he spotted Robin, waiting with his back to them.

Beast Boy risked a glance at Raven, who, surprisingly enough, returned the favor. A heavy silence hung between them as they shared a single moment of comradery. It was obvious to Beast Boy, and by the looks of it Raven too, that whatever they’d been arguing about moments before had been nothing. Nothing compared to what awaited them at that table.

It was a long, silent walk down the hill. Robin didn’t so much as look up or say hello as they sat down opposite their leader. Beast Boy was too afraid to say anything and, well, Raven’s silence was a given.

Robin sighed, his hands clasped together before him on the table.

“Do either of you have any idea why I wanted to speak to--”

But as he lifted his eyes to look at them, he paused. The serious, angular lines in his face melting away as his eyes widened and his mouth parted slightly.

“Raven...what happened to your hair?”

Raven turned to look at Beast Boy and then back at Robin, eyebrow raised. “Take a wild guess.”

“It was an accident,” Beast Boy said hastily, a hint of impatience in his voice. “I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Being born?” Raven scoffed, crossing her arms.

Just like that, the moment of comradery came and went.

Robin didn’t say a word--but his silence spoke louder than the two of them combined.

Beast Boy and Raven both fell quiet again, the unspoken truce momentarily reinstated.

Robin let out a long sigh before finally opening his mouth to speak.

“This. This is what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. His voice was calm, his words calculated. He raised his clasped hands to his mouth, as if carefully considering how he wanted to phrase his next words. “Look,” he said solemnly. “I know you two don’t always see eye to eye. That sometimes you have...different ways of approaching a situation.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Raven mumbled.

Beast Boy started to open his mouth before their leader cut in again.

“...And that’s fine ,” Robin continued. “It’s important to consider different points of view in a fight--having a greater perspective opens up more options and opportunities for success. But it doesn’t really work out so well when fighting over who’s idea is better takes priority over the target in front of you.” Here he paused, lowering his hands and slouching his shoulders. “I know I can’t stop you two from arguing over who gets the remote when we’re watching TV. And quite frankly I don’t care. But on the battlefield that kind of stuff can have very real consequences. Not just for our team, but for the people we’re trying to protect.” Here he paused again. “I know I wasn’t there for most of it, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what the fatal flaw was in our last battle. And I think you do too.”

This time Raven started to open her mouth to say something.

“Both of you,” Robin cut her off.

Raven closed her mouth, looking off to the side.

“All I’m saying,” Robin continued, “Is that the next time we’re in a fight—please—can you two try and put your differences aside? For everyone’s sake.”

Beast Boy didn’t say anything. But that was only because Robin seemed to take the expression on his face as enough of an answer.

“Was there something you wanted to add to that, Raven?” Robin said, looking over at Raven now, who was still staring off into the distance, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

“No.”

Robin turned back to Beast Boy with a shrug. “Alright then,” he said, sighing one last time. “Just one more thing and I’ll let you two go. I want both of you to start thinking about how you could use your differences to an advantage—rather than the opposite. Beast Boy--”

Beast Boy sat upright. “Yeah?”

“I want you to tell Raven something she did well in that fight.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Raven groaned, her back still turned to the two of them.

“Raven, would you like to go first instead?” Robin questioned.

Raven remained silent, crossing her arms even tighter over her chest in response.

“Take as long as you need,” Robin said, leaning back for the first time since they’d sat down. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Raven muttered something unintelligible under her breath. She looked up at the sky as if it would provide her with some sort of inspiration. Then she begrudgingly turned to look at Beast Boy.

He automatically tensed up the moment they made eye contact.

Raven immediately looked away. “Your bumbling idiocy actually makes a pretty good distraction if the timing’s right,”

Robin raised an eyebrow at her, crossing his arms again.

“What?” Raven said defensively.

“Try again,” Robin said, his tone slightly more serious this time.

Raven paused for a moment. This time when she spoke she didn’t bother to address Beast Boy directly. Instead she just looked off into the distance beyond the yard. “Well...people are generally scared of tigers. So you have that going for you I guess.”

Robin sighed, but didn’t push her further. “Beast Boy, your turn.”

“Oh come on,” Beast Boy protested. “Are you seriously gonna give her that one? That’s such a cop out.”

“Well what am I supposed to do? Lie?” Raven said sharply, turning to face him.

“ Alright, ” Robin said, situating himself to physically push them apart if necessary. “That’s enough. Beast Boy, it’s your turn,” he repeated.

Raven glared at him, inviting him to the challenge.

“Well you sure are good at scaring the shit out of people,” Beast Boy said, wrinkling his nose. “And you don’t even have to turn into anything to do it.”

Robin was silent for a long moment before he spoke next. “We’ll work on it,” he said, his tone slightly disappointed, but too exasperated to keep trying. He pushed himself up from the table in one swift movement and stood before them. “I have to go set up for our ten o’clock training regimen,” he announced, looking them both sternly in the eye. “Just...think about it, okay?” Robin didn’t wait for either of them to respond before taking his leave.

When Robin was finally out of earshot, Beast Boy caught him rubbing his temples, muttering something to himself under his breath. At the top of the hill, he caught a glimpse of two more figures peeking through one of the tower windows. He immediately recognized Starfire and Cyborg peering through the glass pane. In the same moment he turned to look at them however, they flinched and ducked out of sight.

Beast Boy turned back to the table, head in his hands. “Thank God that’s over with,” he said aloud, not sure if he was really expecting Raven to reply.

“For now,” she said, getting to her feet. “At least until you do something stupid again.”

“Me?” Beast Boy narrowed his eyes. “You know that conversation was about both of us, right?”

Raven shook her head. “I don’t care what Robin said. My behavior toward you is strictly reactive.”

“Meaning?”

“It’s simple. You do something stupid, I react to it,” she said, matter-of-factly. “My actions are just a symptom of the disease.”

Beast Boy looked at her, one eyebrow cocked in questioning.

“ You’re the disease,” she clarified curtly.

He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. “That doesn’t make any sense. Even for you.”

Raven sighed. “You’re inherently self-sabotaging. No matter what it is you’re doing you always find a way to mess it up,” she said with a wave of her hand. “And that’s not my problem.”

“That’s not even--fuck!” Beast Boy exclaimed, his words cut short as a rush of air passed over his face and his right leg buckled under a small rut in the ground. He caught himself with his hands extended, now covered in mud.

“I rest my case,” Raven said dismissively as she continued walking up the hill.

Beast Boy quickly got to his feet, wiping his hands on his shirt.

“Thanks for the hand,” he said, throwing Raven a taste of her own sarcasm.

Raven paused and turned around to look at him, a familiar look of apathy on her face. But suddenly her eyes widened and then narrowed again as her line of sight shifted to something just behind him.

Beast Boy turned around to follow her gaze.

He didn’t see the truck at first, but the thrumming of the engine was enough to announce its approach. Without a clear driveway to follow, Beast Boy watched as the large brown vehicle pulled up next to the curb at the bottom of the hill. A lanky man hopped out of the driver’s seat, clipboard in hand.

Raven was already halfway down the hill again. As she passed by him, Beast Boy felt the inexplicable urge to follow her. She stopped right before the strange man, who was already at the back of the truck, beginning to lift the hatch on the wide back door.

“Can I help you?” she asked, towering over him as he leaned down to undo the lock.

The man looked up at the two of them, standing up straight. Now it was him who towered over them like a skyscraper. But it didn’t seem to change the dynamic.

“Yeah,” he said, clearly taken aback by Raven’s tone. He scanned over the clipboard in his hand. “I’m lookin’ for a Mr….” His words faded as he looked back up at the two of them once more. Really looked at them. “Logan. Mr. Logan.” His eyes narrowed. “You know, Halloween’s still a month away.”

Beast Boy sighed. For as much as they did for the city, this was sometimes all the recognition they got.

“What do you want?” Raven repeated, this time with a little more bite to the words.

The man shot her an annoyed but cautious look.

“I’m looking for a Mr. Logan,” he said, turning now to Beast Boy. “Do you kids know--”

“No,” Raven interjected.

He looked down at the clipboard again with a frown, lifting up the first page to closer inspect the one beneath it.

“You delivered a letter to him here the other day,” Raven continued. “You’ve got the wrong address.”

The man’s frown grew slightly more prominent at her words. “Look kid, I didn’t deliver any letter here. But this is the address I have. If he’s not here now, he must’ve been a...past resident,” the man said, looking suspiciously at the large T-shaped building before him. He shook his head. “And that’s not my department.” He let the papers fall back down on his clipboard, then extended it out into the space between the two of them.

Raven snatched it from his hand.

“If you have a complaint you can call the number on the bottom of the slip,” the man said, pulling a pen out of his pocket, which Beast Boy automatically took.

Before either of them could say anything more, there were two large boxes sitting at their feet.

The man didn’t wait for Raven to return the clipboard--he didn’t so much as look down to see if she’d bothered to fill anything out. She hadn’t.

When she tried to shove it back into his hands, the man pulled away. “Keep it,” he said, muttering something afterwards that was muffled by the deafening sound of the truck door slamming shut. “It’s your problem now.”

The engine revved, the truck disappearing twice as quickly as it had come. Almost as if the driver were abandoning a ticking time bomb.

For a reason he couldn’t quite place, the man’s hurried retreat sent a shiver down Beast Boy’s spine. Whatever was inside those boxes was clearly enough of a burden that this man was willing to cut corners to get rid of them. Knowing who they were addressed to only heightened his uneasiness.

“Great,” Raven said aloud, looking down at the boxes. But she only looked at them before letting out another sigh and turning on her heel again.

“Where are you going?” Beast Boy asked, knowing the answer already.

“Uh...inside?” Raven said, clipboard in hand.

“We can’t just leave this stuff out here,” Beast Boy protested, gesturing to the boxes at his feet. But as he said it, he realized it would be hard to explain why they probably shouldn’t abandon them. “I mean...we don’t know what’s inside. Maybe it’s something really important,” he added hastily, not sure how that would make a difference to Raven.

“Important to someone else,” she said, her disinterest in the matter unsurprising.

“If we leave this shit out here we’re just gonna hear about it from Robin later,” Beast Boy offered, hoping to convince her from a different angle.

Raven sighed once more, this time in begrudging acceptance of the fact that he knew that she knew that he was right.

“Fine. But don’t expect me to deal with it once it's on the doorstep.” One of the larger boxes in front of her floated into the air, shrouded in shadow. “That's ‘not my department,’” she said, air quotes included.

Beast Boy looked down at the remaining box sitting at his own feet. He kicked it gently with his sneaker. It was definitely as heavy as it looked. For a moment he just stared at it in bewilderment, trying to think of any animal that would make the job of carrying it any easier. But it wasn’t so simple when you realized how few of them had opposable thumbs.

“You okay?” Raven said suddenly, knocking him from his daze.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Fine.”

“Here, I can just—“

“No, I got it,” he said, waving her off as he bent down and prepared the lift the package up from its bottom. He took a deep breath and lurched it into the air, barely catching it against his chest as it settled in his arms. “See? It’s no problem—“ he choked, instantly feeling his arms wobble as the cardboard slid under his fingers. Just as the last bit of his grip started to give, he felt the weight instantly disappear altogether as the box ascended several inches in the air.

Beast Boy tried to catch his breath without gulping in the air he knew he needed. When he looked up, he caught Raven looking at him again, a box now floating on either side of her.

“You know, Robin literally just lectured us about working together,” she said, unfaltering. “If you need help you can just ask..”

Beast Boy paused for a moment. The way she had phrased it, he couldn’t decide if her offer came from a place of genuine kindness or merely from a lack of faith in him. Maybe both.

He wiped his burning fingertips on his pant legs absentmindedly. “It wasn’t that heavy,” he muttered.

“Off to a good start then,” Raven said, the facade of kindness evaporating as quickly as it had come. She turned on her heel and started back up to the tower, the two boxes, along with a pouting Beast Boy lagging behind her.

But the closer they got to the entrance of the towering building, the more Beast Boy’s feet began to drag. And this time it had nothing to do with the physical effort of the incline. As he trudged behind Raven, he found himself staring at the two boxes again. What exactly could be in them that made them so heavy? Just like the letter, they had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Just like the letter, there wasn’t any return address on them. But he knew there was only one person they could be from. A pit began forming in his stomach again. And again he couldn’t give any one reason why. He tried desperately to twist the facts into a shape that made sense.

Well, he thought to himself, at least it had only been two boxes and not an entire truckload.

` ***

With every passing hour, the doorbell rang on cue like a grandfather clock. Trucks of all shapes and sizes passed by their door, toting mysterious packages just as diverse. The onslaught of deliveries brought all training to a standstill after Robin gave up trying to simultaneously run drills and answer the door every three minutes. When they began to run out of space in the entryway, moving boxes into the living room became a full time job.

As the chaos grew, so did the pit in Beast Boy’s stomach. While Robin directed traffic, Raven begrudgingly moved the stacks of boxes about the room. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Starfire continuously traversed the labyrinth of cardboard like two kids on Christmas morning. Every box they carried in received a hearty shake, just enough for them to throw out a guess as to what could be inside. Their guesses were as absurd as the game itself, seeing how Starfire continued to insist upon the criminality of opening ‘someone else’s mail’. Each time she made this announcement, she met eyes with Beast Boy, giving him a not so subtle wink that made him tense up all the more. Luckily no one else seemed to notice.

He didn’t know what was more unnerving--the great unknown of the packages’ contents or the sheer number of them. The common room was beginning to look more like a small warehouse, waist deep in packing supplies on every side.

Just after they finished hauling three more crates inside, the doorbell rang again, this time presenting the first unwrapped delivery—a brand new, shiny red moped.

“Beast Boy, look! It is what you have always wanted!” Starfire said, excitedly pointing at the scooter, complete with a large red ribbon wrapped around the handles.

“Well I guess now we know who Garfield is,” Raven said with a wry smile and a glance in his direction.

Beast Boy froze for a moment. But when he met Raven’s gaze and saw the smirk on her face, he allowed himself a cautious sigh of relief. Raven’s sarcasm and seriousness were sometimes barely distinguishable—but this time she’d been joking. Some joke.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the room understood the intricacies of Raven’s humor.

Like a gunshot going off, Starfire suddenly burst out crying. Everyone naturally turned to face her in alarm, including Beast Boy.

“Star, what’s wrong?�� Robin asked desperately, running over to try and calm her down.

“I am so sorry,” she said through a broken sob. “I did not mean to give away your secret.”

“What...secret?” Raven said slowly.

Through stifled sniffles, Starfire opened her mouth to explain.

“It’s not--” Beast Boy tried to interject. But it was too late.

“The other morning when I was preparing for my daily blogilates, I caught Beast Boy reading the strange letter we had received in the mail,” Starfire blurted out, speaking so fast she began tripping over her own words. “At first I thought he had simply allowed curiosity to get the better of him, but then he confided in me that he was the Garfield in question, and I promised I would not reveal his true identity to anyone , but now I have done so without even realizing it and I am sorry!”

Beast Boy covered his face with both his hands, closing his eyes tight behind them. The skin beneath his palms began to feel slightly warmer in comparison. Sure, Starfire was a great friend, but definitely not the most calculating.

The room fell silent for a moment. Then, regrettably, the silence was broken with a familiar laugh.

“Oh my God ,” Raven said, suddenly sounding much more animated than she had a moment before.

If Beast Boy had suspected his face was turning red a moment ago, now he knew it without a doubt.

“Is that...true?” Robin asked, slightly concerned, but mostly just confused.

There may as well have been crickets chirping in the beat between.

“Well...it’s not... not true,” Beast Boy said with a sheepish smile.

Robin frowned, unamused. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he said, gesturing to the packages.

“I dunno,” Beast Boy blurted defensively. “I thought it had to be a mistake or something. Seriously. Nobody’s called me that in years.”

“Hold up,” Cyborg chimed in, peeking out from over a stack of boxes. “Does that mean we can finally open all of this stuff?” An excited grin spread over his face as an exacto knife sprung from his finger.

“Wait,” Robin said, lifting his hand in warning. “Everybody just slow down for a second.” He stood up straight and took a deep breath to clear the air. “Even if all of that’s true, we still don’t know who they’re from or what’s inside them.”

“Well if it was a bomb we probably would’ve figured that out by now,” Raven said grimly.

Robin shot her a quick look before clearing his throat and returning to his monologue. “More importantly, it’s not our mail to open,” he said, shifting his gaze to Beast Boy.

There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone followed Robin’s stare. Beast Boy bit his lip.

“Oh please,” Raven scoffed. “We’re talking about the same person who ripped open the Fruit Loops in the parking lot for his special ‘collectors edition’ Star Wars spoon.”

Beast Boy shot Raven a look, but his heart wasn’t in it. He knew she was right. He had no idea what making that leap would entail, but, for better or worse, the course had been set as soon as the first package had arrived. Cyborg had always told him he was a model ‘people pleaser,’ and Beast Boy was starting to understand all too well what he had meant. At least in this case it worked to his friend’s advantage.

“I...guess...we can open them,” Beast Boy said after a moment, the words stinging the back of his throat.

“Hell yeah!” Cyborg exclaimed, pointing at a package he had seemingly set aside for this very purpose. “Ooooh, open this one first!”

The package he identified was one of the few that hadn’t been delivered in a box but wrapped in rough paper and heavy twine. It had to be for how odd of a shape it was--tall and narrow with jagged edges protruding randomly on all sides. The points seemed so sharp underneath that it was a wonder the paper hadn’t ripped on its own.

“You can open it,” Beast Boy offered with an uneasy smile. “I mean--since you want to so bad. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

“You sure?” Cyborg asked, his expression shifting suddenly from excitement to hesitation.

“No, really. We already have all of them, we might as well open them. Just go for it man,” he said, his anxiety ushering him forward in the way it always did when he was about to do something he knew he would regret.

Beast Boy took a seat down on the couch as Cyborg began to cut through the paper. He tried his best to look as bored as possible--but it was hard not to stare at the hideous object that revealed itself as the paper fell away.

A tall, humanoid figure stood before them, bent into a uniquely inhuman shape—its back hunched, arms craning over its head. The face strayed even further from any sense of proper anatomy. The nose, wide and flat, ran up to the figure’s forehead. Two large, perfectly spherical eyes adorned either side of the bridge. But the mouth was the worst. Open wider than it should have been, the lips were pulled back, frozen in a scream. In truth, it was the most human part of the visage--until you noticed the prominent canines and short fangs that jutted out along the bottom.

Beast Boy ran his tongue over his teeth—a nervous habit he’d never really been able to shake. Especially for as long as he’d had his own pseudo-fangs. He closed his mouth tight and tried not to think about it.

“Uh…” Cyborg said, mouth agape. “What...is this?”

“Racist Hollywood propaganda?” Raven offered with a disgruntled shrug.

“But why is it here?” Cyborg said, furrowing his brow as he stared at the figure.

It wasn’t long before his gaze, along with everyone else’s, shifted from the statue over to Beast Boy again.

“What?” he said, backing slightly into the couch.

“It was sent to you , Beast Boy,” Robin said, gesturing to the figure. “You don’t have any idea what it is?”

Beast Boy took a deep breath and looked at the statue again. It was painful to admit that, in some corner of his mind, the image of it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. But not in a way that gave him any solace. Rather, it was familiar in the way that bits and pieces of nightmares sometimes gnawed their way into the waking world. A bitter after-taste from a sweet drink.

“No. Not a clue.”

The room remained silent, and Beast Boy began to wonder if there was too much confidence in his voice for it to sound convincing.

“Perhaps we should open some of the other mystery gifts?” Starfire said suddenly, a bright smile on her face as she lifted another smaller box in her arms. On the side, bold black letters warned the recipient to ‘handle with care.’ “It is possible they will reveal further context regarding the situation.”

Robin just looked at Beast Boy again, as if waiting for some sort of signal that it was fine to continue.

“Sure,” he said, figuring it was best to stick to one word answers.

Starfire grinned, gripping the box on either side. Despite it being wrapped tightly around with heavy duty packing tape, she denied Robin’s offer of scissors. “Eugh! Ahhhh!” she grunted, ripping the cardboard apart in one swift motion. Packing peanuts flew from the box like oversized confetti, as a single object clattered to the floor.

When it finally settled flat, it was Raven who was closest to lean over and pick it up.

“Oh joy,,” she said, her tone as flat as Starfire’s was elated. “More garbage.”

“I wish to see!” Starfire said, snagging the item from Raven’s grip.

As she did, she turned just enough for Beast Boy to really get a look at what had come out of the box.

It was a mask.

That was easy enough to tell. But it wasn’t anything resembling the simple, sleek adornments superheroes used to ‘protect their identities’. This mask was a work of art in and of itself. Beige matted fur that must have once been as soft as silk lined the edges of the full face covering. The chiseled features were harsh and angular, but carefully crafted. From the slope of the brow to the perfectly sculpted lips, every inch of it seemed uncomfortably lived-in. Even the eyes, which were nothing more than two narrow slits of inky darkness, seemed like they might blink back at any moment. He knew the thought was ridiculous. But it was enough to distract him from the chaos for a moment--a moment that would cost him dearly.

“Boo!”

Beast Boy jumped in his seat, unable to hold back an audible gasp. His stomach lurched as turned to meet Starfire’s eyes underneath the mask, mere inches from his face.

Starfire merely laughed, lowering it to the side.

Beast Boy quickly conjured a playful smirk as he retaliated with the nearest couch pillow.

Starfire ducked out of the way with lightning speed, throwing one right back at him in the span of a second.

Beast Boy’s reflexes were notably slower, and the cushion hit him square in the face with the force of a battering ram.

The room at once filled with a familiar light again as Cyborg--even Robin--let loose a laugh at the scene. For a split second, the mystery before them seemed of secondary importance to the battle that had been declared.

But as Beast Boy lowered the pillow from his face, the scene before him began to shift again. Something wasn’t right.

He was being watched. He could feel it in the strange stillness of the air.

Instinctively, he glanced up at the large statue Cyborg had unwrapped. Then over at the mask, now dangling in Starfire’s right hand. Neither seemed to be staring back at him now.

He turned to look in the one remaining corner of the room. And it was there that he found the undeniable source of the sensation.

Raven wasn’t laughing. Which felt ironically out of place, considering the joke had been at his expense. Her gaze was steady--at least until the moment he caught her. In an instant her eyes fell to the floor again.

Beast Boy followed her stare for only a moment, noting how it now fell on a box near her feet. Close enough that she must have intentionally pulled it aside.

“Open this one next!!” Starfire exclaimed, shoving another box into Beast Boy’s lap.

He blinked hard, looking down at the package.

The audience had swapped places. Now all eyes were on him again--except for the one pair that wasn’t.

***

With the next dozen boxes they opened, Beast Boy began to notice a pattern. The objects ranged from torn fabric scarves to chipped clay statues and long strings of beads, their colors worn to the palest hues. It all reminded him of when Robin had brought them to the Natural History museum last time they were in DC. Except these items weren’t in titanium glass cases or hanging in the souvenir shop window. He wasn’t sure that was where they belonged either. But he knew they didn’t belong in Titan’s Tower.

As Starfire and Cyborg worked together to pull another package into the living room for unboxing, Beast Boy watched as Robin stood and made his way over to him. He had no idea why, but he suddenly tensed up as their leader took a seat next to him.

“What’s up?” Beast Boy asked, trying to lean back casually.

“Look. I don’t want this to come off the wrong way...but I just want to ask you honestly,” Robin said, leaning in closer as he spoke. “Are you sure this stuff is really yours?” he asked solemnly.

Beast Boy flinched. He wasn’t exactly sure how to answer.

Robin’s tone was far from threatening--if anything it only seemed like he was trying to help. But the question was more complicated than Robin knew.

Beast Boy was pretty sure it was his stuff. But then again, he was pretty sure it really wasn’t.

“I think it is,” Raven said suddenly.

The two both looked up at her, sitting quietly on the other side of the room. So quietly, Beast Boy had almost forgotten she was still there.

“What makes you say that?” Robin asked, getting to his feet again.

She nodded vaguely toward the box at her feet. The one Beast Boy had noticed her staring at earlier.

Now that the dust had settled, he was able to look at it clearly. It wasn’t anything special as far as he could tell. Just a plain cardboard box about two feet square in dimension. There was only one thing that set it apart to any degree. While it was true that all of the other packages had been sealed with generous amounts of tape or twine, this box was nearly made of the stuff. Even the tape was taped down--not just for extra security, but because there might not have been much of a box without it.

In that instant, a large crash came from down the hallway. The same hallway Cyborg and Starfire had disappeared down moments before.

Their three remaining teammates automatically looked up in the direction of the noise to find Cyborg peeking around the doorframe.

In the distance, Starfire cursed aloud, her words audible but unintelligible.

Cyborg did a double take behind him before addressing them. “Uh...I can fix that,” he said with a smile.

Starfire appeared behind him with her hands behind her back, her face flushed with embarrassment. Her glance bounced around the room spontaneously before landing on the one unopened package that remained within it. Her eyes widened instantly at the sight, sheer excitement once more reigning supreme.

“Oh?” she said, flying over to the box in question. “Raven. I did not realize you had also picked a gift for Beast Boy to open!”

“I didn’t,” Raven said flatly.

Starfire raised an eyebrow. “Well...may I open it for him then?” she said, looking at Beast Boy expectantly.

“Sure,” he shrugged, surprised she was still bothering to ask permission.

“Excellent!” Starfire said, with a level of sincerity only she could pull off. She gripped the package on either side and lifted it into the air. After a moment of staring at the layers upon layers of tape, lips pursed in contemplation, she smiled as her eyes began to glow a wicked green.

“Errggh....Ah!” she cried, ripping the box open with her bare hands, tape and all.

Among the copious packing peanuts, several items tumbled out like prizes from a pinata.

Suddenly, Raven sat up, eyes wide. She extended her hand toward the blur of objects. The contents began to glow, and, as if moving in slow motion, came to an abrupt halt just before clattering to the floor.

“Y’know...we have scissors,” Cyborg said flatly, raising his hand again.

“But this way is much more exciting,” Starfire smiled, cradling the cardboard carnage in her arms. A well-meaning but terrifying energy sparkled in her eyes.

Raven lowered her hand as the items slowly settled on the cushion of styrofoam peanuts below. As she did, Beast Boy rose from his seat, making his way toward the pile as if drawn by a magnetic force. He crouched down, picking something up at random. The item was instantly recognizable--and that made it all the more out of place in a room littered with mysterious statues and pottery.

The spherical object was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Inside, white flakes swirled around a simple scene. A miniature plastic lion paraded mid-stride through the globe on a backdrop sandy grasses and flat topped trees. Along the bottom rim, a few plastic letters spelled out ‘Pretoria Zoo’. After a moment, the flecks settled at the bottom, covering the ground in white. It briefly occurred to him that the savannah was a nonsensical backdrop for the souvenir.

“A...snowglobe?” Robin said aloud, his brow furrowed.

“What’s that doing in here?” Cyborg said.

“I don’t know,” was all Beast Boy could manage to say. And it was true. He had no idea what it was doing there.

The room fell silent again. And Beast Boy realized that this time the silence had centered around him--not just the thing he was holding.

“Is...something wrong, Beast Boy?” Robin asked.

“What? No,” Beast Boy said distractedly, shaking his head. “It’s just...a snowglobe...from the Pretoria Zoo.” The observation seemed innocent enough, but the sound of the name made him flinch.

“Pretoria?” Starfire repeated.

“It’s a city,” Beast Boy said curtly, as he set the snowglobe off to the side. “In the northern part of South Africa.” He reached out toward the pile in front of him and fished out a few water-stained National Geographic magazines. He propped himself up against the couch and opened one up. But it was difficult to pretend the pages in front of him demanded more attention than the looks on his friends’ faces.

“How do you know that?” Cyborg asked suddenly, breaking the awkward silence that had immediately returned.

Beast Boy just shrugged, flipping through the magazines even faster. “Because...I’ve been there.”

“What do you mean you’ve been there?” Robin pressed.

Beast Boy looked down at the open magazine in his lap. He bit his lip, pouring all of his concentration into feigning interest in an article about submarines.

“I mean I’ve been there. When I was a kid. The zoo wasn’t that far from my house,” he said, terrified at the thought of looking up and meeting his friends’ eyes. But the fear only made the words spill out faster.

“I mean, we weren’t really there most of the time, so I only got to actually go once. My parents probably spent more time at the house when they were still teaching at the university, but after they pulled me out of school to travel we mostly just used it for storage.”

A silence more deafening than any of his words filled the room.

“Okaaaay,” Cyborg said slowly. “Is it just me, or is that a lot of information I feel like I should’ve already known? Anybody?”

As he spoke, Beast Boy noticed that Starfire had leaned down and grabbed something else out of the pile on the floor. It seemed to be a picture frame, the back stand bent horribly out of shape. “Are these the parents of which you speak?” she hesitated, turning the frame around for Beast Boy to see.

He froze. In an instant, Beast Boy recognized where the picture had been taken. The O.R. Tambo International Airport--just outside of the where the terminals split between international and domestic flights.

It took him a moment longer to recognize the three strangers who smiled back at him.

On the far left, a woman with pale skin and dull, brown hair draped her arm around the person in the middle. Leftover strands fell lazily on either side of her face, the rest of the mane pulled up in a bun at the back of her head. Parallel to her was a man with slight shoulders and hair that must have once been dark as night. Like the woman opposite him, he looked into the camera with a warm smile as he completed the arm-link chain binding the three of them together.

The only person whose smile felt real was the person that filled the gap between them. A young boy--no more than ten or eleven--who’s grin was twice as wide, but only half as poised. His eyes were wide and bright like his mother’s, but in every other regard he was the spitting image of his father.

“No way,” Cyborg said, grabbing the picture from Starfire. “They can’t be. ‘Cause that would mean--”

“The small human at the forefront is...Beast Boy?” Starfire said at last.

The silence that fell over the room once more had by this point become all too familiar.

Beast Boy felt his stomach drop.

“I thought you said you were born with your powers,” Robin said, bewildered.

“Did I?” Beast Boy said, unsure of where he should be looking. He wished he could just disappear.

More silence. Terrible, awful silence.

“Well that is not important!” Starfire suddenly burst out. Everyone turned to look at her now, shaken out of their stupor. “Regardless of the change in your appearance, your adorableness has stayed much the same,” she exclaimed, flying over to embrace him in a huge bear hug.

Though he knew Starfire meant well, Beast Boy couldn’t help but flinch in her arms--and not just because of his friend’s sheer strength.

“So...do you want us to call you Garfield now, or...?” Cyborg trailed off. There was a hint of teasing in his voice, but another sense of hesitation still lingered.

“Oh absolutely!” Starfire burst out in response. “It is much faster than saying Beast Boy.”

“It’s literally not,” Raven said abruptly.

Following the conversation around the room, Beast Boy glanced over his shoulder in her direction. To his surprise, Raven was now holding the picture frame, studying it intently.

“Then we can shorten it!” Starfire instantly added.

Beast Boy bit his lip, unsure of the consequences of responding.

“My parent’s only really called me Garfield when they were mad at me,” he said, half to himself. “Usually I just went by Gar.”

“Excellent!” Starfire burst out again, her energy only growing exponentially. But it seemed a bit much, even for her. “I will begin preparations for the ceremony right away!”

“Ceremony?”

“Of course! On my planet, changing one’s name is a momentous occasion,” she continued. “The event not only symbolizes a change in who you are--but who you wish to become.”

“But I’m not really changing it,” Beast Boy hazarded. “I mean, it’s always technically been my name.”

“Yes. But reclamation can also be a form of change,” starfire said, pointedly sticking in her finger in the air. “It is about discovering the version of yourself that is closest to your truth.”

There was another silence. And for the first time that night, it wasn’t in response to anything Beast Boy had said or done.

“Well on that note…” Raven said, getting to her feet. “I’m gonna go discover the version of me that’s unconscious in my bed right now.”

“Raven’s right...it’s getting late,” Robin added. “I’m sure Beast Boy’s tired too.”

“Oh,” Starfire said bashfully. “Of course.”

“But...you are gonna tell us about all of this stuff later, right?” Cyborg said, raising an eyebrow at Beast Boy.

Beast Boy paused. Was he?

“Yeah, sure. Maybe tomorrow.”

The statement felt hollow and heavy at the same time.

As everyone exchanged ‘Goodnights,’ Raven extended the picture frame out to him.

“Here,” she said, keeping an arms length between them.

“Oh. Thanks,” Beast Boy said, though ‘thankful’ wasn’t exactly how he would describe how he felt. Regardless, he took it, hoping she couldn’t feel his reluctance on the other end of the exchange.

For as much as he wanted to let go, he held on, gripping the frame tightly all the way back to his room. Once inside, he flicked on every light in the space and shut the door behind him. He turned the lock the wrong direction on his first try—that was how infrequently he used it. But right now it seemed uncomfortably necessary.

The picture from the airport immediately took up residence at bottom of the sock drawer. As Beast Boy slid the drawer shut, he very briefly considered more permanent solutions. It wouldn’t be hard to burn the image to ashes. He knew right where they kept the matches in the kitchen. But the thought quickly came and went, nothing more than a passing fantasy.

Beast Boy lay down on his bed. He let out a long, exhausting sigh--one he’d been holding in all night. But it didn’t seem to steady the pounding in his chest as he’d hoped it might. Instead, it just made him all the more aware of how difficult the action was. It felt like there was a rubber band caught in the back of his throat holding something back. In the past few hours, breathing had become an intentional action. And he guessed it would remain that way for many more.

Sleep was difficult, if not impossible. The hours passed like minutes, the minutes like hours. Which of course explained why the knock on his door ripped Beast Boy’s next breath straight from his chest. He bolted upright, clutching the pillow he had been tossing around on for the past hour. He glimpsed his reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair before getting up to answer the call.

The sound of the lock turning felt just as deafening as the knocking, though he knew it couldn’t have made more than a small click. He pulled the door open just a crack at first, having the sudden thought that an axe murderer might be waiting on the other side.

Who he found was even more of a shock.

“Raven? What’re you doing here?” he whispered. The sliver of light that crept into the hallway illuminated her face, which was scrunched up in groggy disgust.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“Uh...right now?” Beast Boy said, still gripping the door.

Raven rolled her eyes and pushed past him into the room.

Beast Boy stood frozen in place as a million tiny alarms suddenly went off in his head.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a direct violation of one of the many unspoken rules he’d come to establish with Raven. Section 3 Article B—entering each other’s rooms. Of course, the law mainly existed to keep Beast Boy out . He had never dreamed that he’d have to worry about Raven coming in .

She stepped inside silently, not beyond a foot or two from the threshold. Just barely enough for Beast Boy to close the door behind her.

He assumed Raven would naturally explain why she was there. But when a long moment of silence was all that followed, he realized that maybe that was too big of an assumption.

“Sooo…..” he droned on, avoiding eye contact. “What’s...up?”

Raven remained completely silent. She looked tired. And maybe angry. Silent, tired, and angry. The three worst things Raven could be--all rolled into one.

“Is this some kind of joke to you?” Raven sneered.

“You haven’t really given me any reason to assume it’s not.”

“Yeah, because I definitely just came by in the middle of the night to say hi,” she retorted.

“And I’m a shapeshifter not a mindreader, Raven,” Beast Boy said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door behind him.

Raven mirrored the gesture, hunched in agitation. “Look. It’s late. I’m tired. And I’m not gonna ask you if you wanna ‘ talk about it ’ or anything like that. But if you’re gonna be all angsty can you do it...quietly?”

Beast Boy wasn’t sure exactly what expression came across his face, but Raven’s next remark was enough of a hint.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Uh...not really ,” he protested.

Raven closed her eyes tight, lifting a hand to her temple. “Okay. You’re in denial. That’s fine. The first time I was willing to let it slide, but two nights in a row is pushing it.” She opened her eyes again, looking straight at him. “It’s three in the goddamn morning, and I feel like I’m strapped to a chair watching the Titanic sink on a loop.”

“Sounds like a personal problem to me,” Beast Boy shrugged, unduly proud of himself for getting the word in when he did.

“Yeah, it is. Yours ,” Raven threw back.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Beast Boy said, throwing his hands in the air dramatically. “ No one ever knows what you’re talking about.”

Raven raised an eyebrow in doubt. She looked over his shoulder into his room. “Does it have something to do with that picture? Or the snowglobe or something?”

Beast Boy felt a wave of heat rush through him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“How would I know?”

“I guess you wouldn’t,” he said curtly, surprised at the sudden shift of tone in his own voice.

“Whatever,” Raven mumbled, the frustration in her voice replaced with pure exhaustion. “Just figure it out, okay?” She stepped toward the door, taking the liberty of cracking it open to see herself out. Just before she did, she turned one more time to look at him. “Oh. And next time maybe consider the implications of lying to an empath.”

Beast Boy bit his lip. “Maybe I will,” he said defiantly, realizing two beats too late that the response made no sense.

Raven just stared at him for one second more. “You’re impossible,” she muttered, shaking her head. And with that she quietly, but firmly, closed the door behind her.

#teen titans #bbrae #bbrae fanfiction #beast boy #raven #dc

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