Chapter Text
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 climactic 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, the smell was overwhelming. Like the toxic waste he so loved to chug, Plasmus’ slime was an assault to the senses. It reeked of a foul concoction of used diapers, week-old garbage, and a rabid skunk that had wallowed in another animal's droppings.
It was enough to make a 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 and could locate the peripheral needle in the haystack. His sensitive nose, however, he sometimes wondered if he could do without. This was especially true for when Plasmus was on the loose, as fighting the slime-covered behemoth also meant fighting for a whiff of fresh air.
The battle had started the same way they usually did, with Robin discreetly issuing his battle plan before he called his famous ‘Titans Go!’. The Titans would then 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.
Since they’d come back from fighting the Brotherhood of Evil, the Titans had been more in sync with each other on the battlefield. It was as if their time away from the city 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 into their 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.
The battle won and Plasmus contentedly sleeping on the damaged pavement, the Titans were free to assess the situation and 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 washroom. 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.
“S-sorry about that, Raven. Won’t happen again,” he stammered.
Beast Boy had noticed these odd, verbal slip-ups happening recently and curiously, they seemed to only occur when conversing with the violet-eyed demi-demon. He tried not to look into it too deeply. Instead, he flashed her a big, toothy grin as he shrugged his shoulders. Embracing his goofy side was something he was particularly good at, and he was always grateful to have it to rely on.
Raven frowned as she noticed his discomfort, but valiantly stayed silent as she continued her vigil over the criminal. The fact that she was an empath and completely aware of all of his emotions, including some of his baser ones, was a somewhat embarrassing fact for the shapeshifter.
Beast Boy shook away those creeping thoughts 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 over 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 shotgun,” Beast Boy weakly called to his teammates as he attempted to change the topic.
“Oh no ,you don’t!” Cyborg 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, his eyes wandered to his cloaked teammate, his frown deepening.
The team instinctively turned their heads towards the empath with equally confused looks. Raven returned their stare with her eyebrows raised and lips parted – a bewildered expression on a usually 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 shook his head as if he was clearing his brain of this newfound 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 he 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 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 endeavours. Beast Boy took a longing look at the T-Car and offered Cyborg a feeble wave before he turned himself into a hawk to fly home for a warm shower.
Despite the grumbling about flying back to the Tower, the ride was a joyous one. Yes, his muscles ached, and yes, he smelled like death, but there was a kind 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. It was 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, its dying rays sparkling 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. That someone would tuck a lock of violet hair behind their ear and shyly close their big, indigo eyes as he slowly leaned into their luscious lips…
His eyes grew wide, startled by these thoughts. They had no business hiding up in his head, and he wondered if he ran fast enough, maybe the idea could stay up on the roof and not find its way back into his mind.
Intimate thoughts of his teammate brushed hastily aside, he promptly raced down the stairs into the tower and started down the halls, making his way to his room.
He was yards away from his door when he abruptly stopped.
Over the foul stench of Plasmus’ toxic waste, his sensitive nose was detecting something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention.
The smell was familiar, the incense and vanilla tones were distinctive, but there was a heady element to it which he couldn't place.
A bouquet of something earthy and primal.
Confused, he deeply breathed it in. He couldn’t understand it, but the animalistic side of him was going wild. It was almost as if he was being instructed to comfort, to nourish, to protect.
Ignoring this bizarre, new urge and the new, distinct scent, he focused on the aroma that he recognized. There was only one person whose scent fused incense and vanilla into such a delicious fragrance.
Barging into his room, his other senses confirmed what his nose had been detecting.
She stood in the middle of his messy bedroom, her back to him, her long blue cloak covering her figure 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, purple eyes gazing through. In an instant, he knew this wasn’t his Raven.
This Raven's hair was longer, coming down in a slight wave to the middle of her back. Her cape was the same, and she still had those violet eyes that were capable of piercing into souls and exposing 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 open in surprise and his eyebrows fixed right up into his hairline.
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 older woman.
The pair stared at each other. Deers caught in a headlight with neither party willing to rupture the unspoken stalemate.
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.
“Beast Boy,” this new Raven whispered. “Please, I need your help.”
Raven’s pleading voice was gentle and held a hint of anguish. There was a desperation in her eyes that Beast Boy had never seen before. He found it odd that his body stiffened at the sight.
After considerable seconds of what Beast Boy thought to be cautious scrutiny, 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 her uniform of a long, loose dress and a gold band hugging her hips, there was no hiding the fact that this Raven was very noticeably, very decisively, very pregnant.