Continuity note: takes place between seasons 4 and 5.
"—and things were pretty scary there for a while, what with Zahl's minions closing in on us, but then Mento was able to use his awesome mental powers to find out exactly what was wrong with the Doom-Jet. And then Elastigirl shrunk her hands and reached behind some panel in the cockpit and fixed the wiring or something so we had power again and Mento took off and we escaped by the skin of our teeth! Oh and then we went back and picked up Robotman and Negative Man—Robotman didn't want to leave because he was making mincemeat out of Zahl's robot tank thingees and Negative Man had to drag him away! The Brotherhood must have been totally cheering and stuff to think they had beaten us—I wonder what happened when they realized we'd stolen the blueprints to the Brain's new ultra-secret hideout? Man, the DP sure knew how to kick some serious tail back in the day, when The Chief ran things."
"Nnnngh... Sounds like… fun."
Beast Boy smiled softly, sadly, down at the gothic sorceress in his arms. He was resting back on his heels with her broken body pulled up against him. Her cloak was draped over them like a blanket, providing what meager warmth it could; but it was cold down here, and damp, and Beast Boy had shifted Raven into a reclining position, bent his legs to support her lower back, and with his wiry arms, clutched Raven against his bony chest. His small frame didn't have the bulk of Cyborg's, or the natural Tameranean heat of Starfire's, or the dense muscle mass of Robin's, but he held her nonetheless and prayed that he could keep her warm enough and comfortable until their rescue arrived.
"Oh, it was great fun," he reassured with ease. "Except when I had class of course. If you think Mento's a drill sergeant of a team leader you ain't seen nothin' til you've had to sit through him trying to teach Algebra."
"I'm surprised he had… had the—nnngghh—patience."
Beast Boy stifled a laugh—any jostling was painful for Raven. The cave had collapsed on top of them—or more precisely, on top of her. It had taken him ages (and numerous animal forms) to dig her out, and when he finally reached her—oh! He'd been so very certain that she'd died. Just a fraction of a moment, no more half a heartbeat before he saw her chest rise and fall and rise again, and his cry of anguish caught in his throat, choked by tears of joy. That strangled sound echoed off the fathomless walls of their stone prison; terrible, beautiful realization. He didn't have Raven's empathy, or Cyborg's built in scanners, or Robin's uncomfortably extensive knowledge of the human body, but he didn't need any of those things to see just how severe her injuries were.
"Oh, he didn't," Beast Boy assured her. "He handed over all my math lessons to Negative Man after about a month."
"Nnngh… I pity who—whoever tried to… to teach you to—read."
Worse still was how the head wound she'd sustained (that he'd wrapped with a piece of her cloak) was severe enough that she couldn't concentrate enough to meditate, and therefore couldn't enter a healing trance. Not knowing what else to do for her, Beast Boy had bound the wounds that bled and then pulled her into his arms, and his worst fears were confirmed when she'd regained consciousness and offered no protests of this arrangement.
And that had been hours ago.
"Hey, I'll have you know I loved to read as a kid!"
Raven tried to laugh, a little chuff of sound that trailed into a breathless cough. "Nnngh, c—comic books?"
Beast Boy winced as a small trail of blood dribbled unnoticed down her chin, but as it had been this past eternity, the forced smile never left his voice. In that time he's told her anecdotes from his acting days, shared stories about his time in Africa, and lauded the successes of the Doom Patrol. He told her things no one else knew, shared glimpses of his past, his hopes, his dreams, his fears; he spoke of everything and nothing—anything to keep Raven conscious, anything to keep her from slipping away until the others reached them.
"The important thing is that I was reading, right? Raven? Hey—hey, Raven, right?" Panic crept into his voice as he shifted her slightly in his grasp.
Raven's head lolled slightly and she blinked lazy, half-lidded eyes. "...Doesn't… count…"
"Of course it does!" Beast Boy insisted, his voice back to blithely cheerful even though his eyes were uncharacteristically bright.
A soft moan of protest was all the response Raven could offer him.
Beast Boy swallowed past the lump in his throat. "C'mon Raven, I need you to stay awake here. You can do that, can't you?" When Raven didn't answer he shifted her again, sitting her up straighter as his arms tightened around her. "Raven? Raven! C'mon you can't go to sleep now. It's important that you stay awake."
Still no reply.
"Raven?"—he shook her—"Raven! RAVEN!"
"Nnnnngggghh…" Finally she groaned and shifted in his arms, but she didn't feel Beast Boy relax again beneath her. "Cold…" her voice trembled, sounding small, and young—impossibly young—in that moment.
Beast Boy's breath hitched and he forced a sigh, dropping his head. His chin almost brushed against her violet hair. "I know," he whispered, confession in his voice.
"S-s-so c-cold…"
Beast Boy's hands balled into fists momentarily, but then he willed them to relax. "I know," he echoed, louder, but he knew he needed to say something more—anything more—to keep her here with him. "The Earth is cold," he murmured low. "Terra told me that. You wouldn't think it, what with how she loved the desert and sleeping outside and stuff—and, you know, volcanoes, but… she said she was always cold, you know? What did Cyborg call her powers—thermalkinesis, yeah. Her powers were so… so warm, but that warmth came from her I think, because when… when I hugged her that last time, she… she was shivering."
In that moment Raven's whole body tensed and seemed to twitch slightly before lying still again. Beast Boy's eyes widened and instantly one hand pressed down into her chest, right between her breasts (with no thought to propriety) and strained to feel her heartbeat. His other hand hovered just over her mouth, right below her nose, but he withdrew it the moment he felt warm breath ghost faintly across his skin. The other hand remained though, without any pretenses beyond the achingly slow metronome of her waning life.
"I've often wondered if… if she can feel the cold, where she is. She's part of the Earth now, so it, it's gotta be cold, but… but I hope she doesn't feel it." He squinted his eyes against a sudden sting. "I hope she's warm." And he bowed his head again, this time tucking his chin and allowing his nose to lightly brush her hair. She smelt of jasmine, and he mused that Raven truly did belong to the night. A fragrant summer night, warm and sweet like a waking dream, timeless as summer's starry sky.
"Raven?" he asked, doubtful that she could hear him, her heart's rhythm ever failing beneath his hand. Yet she shifted slightly, consciously or not, when he rested his cheek against the crown of her violet head, and her sigh, no more than a hiss of breath, might have meant she heard him.
"Garfield," he said, his voice surprising steady. He felt her shift again, this time with more force. She writhed against him, moaning, and the sound grated in his ears, dragging shards of glass across his fraying nerves. But he answered the question he selfishly hoped she'd meant to ask.
"No one else—" his voice caught as the first of his tears tumbled down his face to splash softly in Raven's silky hair. "No one else is allowed die. No one I love—" he bit his lip against the sob, brittle tension uncoiling behind his words. "Not without knowing my real name."
Raven spasmed again, her fingers twitched and her face scrunched slightly as if from pain. "Nnn—nngggghh…" She groaned and strained, as though fighting some unseen foe in the planescape of her mind.
Beast Boy held his breath, and felt the pulse beneath his hand flutter before rallying, dipping, and then rallying again. Then suddenly she relaxed against him again with a soft sigh, the visage of pain fading from her face at last.
"Hmmm…"
Something had changed, but Beast Boy didn't dare to hope. Instead he swallowed thickly. "Raven?"
"…Nngggrrr…"
"Raven? Can you hear me? Raven?"
"R-Robin?"
Something in Beast Boy shattered then, something that had been buried deep. It gnawed and clawed and tore its way out of his insides with silent keening.
"Stay, Raven," he pleaded, everything broken but his voice.
"Mmmmmm…" She sighed against him and relaxed fully into his embrace, and a slightly quaking hand felt her heartbeat even out, weak but steady. Her breaths lengthened. Somewhere, somehow, Raven had found the strength—or the will—to enter a healing trance at last.
Head bowed, Beast Boy turned his face away as bitter tears etched their familiar path and fell, unheeded, onto the silent stone below. "Stay." And he held on, because he had to, because he couldn't not, because—
"Stay."
-fin-