New oneshot I wrote while I was away! I don't own Teen Titans, if I did, there would be a lot more Beast Boy :P

Review, review, review, reviews are always welcome, but flames will be used to toast marshmallows, who doesn't love 'em?

Lived to tell the tale...

Oneshot

Thunder crashed, causing the titans to glance out the window.

"This sucks! Even the power is out, now I can't cream you at video games Cyborg!" The large man snorted and rolled his eyes at the little changeling.

"Like you could ever beat me grass stain, I am the king." Growling, Beast Boy pounced on his friend sticking a licked finger into his ear.

"Wet Willy!" Narrowing his eyes, Cyborg spluttered and pulled the finger out of his ear.

"You're in for it now you little creep!" Grabbing Beast Boy by the wrists, he flipped them over and sat on his legs so he couldn't escape, he grasped his arms in one hand and reached the other to Beast Boy's hair. "Noogie time for Beast Boy." Just as he was about to rub some sense into the changeling, their leader Robin walked into the room and announced a team meeting. Grumbling and in Beast Boy's case laughing, the two best friends made their way over to the couch and sat down with the assembling titans. Once they were all together Robin looked uncharacteristically nervous as he wrung his hands in front of his friends.

"I think we should have done this long ago. It's time we learn about each others pasts." A few grumbles were sounded among the group and Beast Boy went chalk white. "In a sense this is for team building, but I think it will strengthen our bonds as friends to know more about each other." Starfire and Raven nodded while Cyborg rubbed his eye. To everyone's surprise Beast Boy abruptly stood up and turned around.

"I'm not participating." The team gave him shocked looks.

"Beast Boy it is mandatory, so either you sit down and participate or consider yourself suspended from fighting." Gnashing his teeth and pulling his hands into fists, Beast Boy sat back down and put his chin on his fist.

"Fine, but I'm going last, I need to think about whether or not it's worth it to tell you." Everyone was shocked, his past was the best out of them all, or so they assumed, he was always happy, he couldn't have anything to be upset about. Robin nodded curtly.

"I'll go first since it was my idea." Gathering up his courage, Robin started his story.

"It all started when I was a kid. I lived with my parents in a travelling circus." Cyborg let out a snort, ignoring it, he continued. "We were the best acrobatics team in the world, 'The Flying Grayson's'" Once again, Cyborg made a noise, but this time of shock.

"You were a part of the flying Grayson's? I went to see them once as a very young kid, you were amazing." Robin smiled gravely.

"Yes, we were, as I said, we were the best in the world, my mom, dad and me, Richard Grayson. Right before one show when I was young, I overheard some people talking in a trailer behind the circus tent. They were talking about my parents, apparently my father had owed one of them money, and they wanted it back, bad, apparently bad enough to kill. That night my parents were opening the show together and by the time I had ran into the tent I was too late. They-" Robin leaned his head into his hands momentarily but lifted it up when he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. Starfire was solemnly smiling at him, urging him to finish. Taking a shuddering breath, Robin straightened up and spoke again. "They had been murdered, their wires cut at the base. When my father was supposed to catch my mother after a flip, the wire snapped and they both fell to their death." The Titans were sympathetic, most of them knew how it felt to lose a parent, and they felt Robin's pain. "That night was when I met Bruce Wayne, Batman. He immediately adopted me and took me to his home in Gothem City and trained me to be Robin. For years I was his ally and sidekick, fighting alongside him, but eventually I wanted to be more independent. We got in a fight one night and I took off, coming here to Jump City and becoming who I am today." With a sigh, Robin sat back in his chair, apparently thankful to have that off of his chest. He hastily wiped his eyes and cleared his throat. Not letting any room for sympathies, he gestured for someone else to take their turn. "Who's next?" It took a moment of glancing nervously at each other for Cyborg to sigh and sit forward in his chair.

"I guess it's my turn." He stared down at his metal hands and shook his head. "You know, I wasn't always part robot, I used to be a normal guy like anybody else, I loved hanging out, girls and my motorcycle, but I guess the love for my motorcycle was what turned me into what I am today. It all happened on one motorcycle trip I took with my friends, they were playing chicken with each other and I foolishly joined in, except I was no chicken. At the last minute, when my friend pulled away, I kept going, and flew right over the side of the road and into a tree. I was rushed to the hospital but there was no chance of my survival, except my dad was a robotics expert and my mum was a neurosurgeon, and together they used their last hope and turned me into what I am today. But I didn't like it, I was angry at my parents for turning me into what I thought was a monster, people ran away from me in fear and thought I was going to hurt them, so I ran away. What I didn't know was someone was out to find me, and since my parents didn't and wouldn't tell them where I had gone after I left, they set our house on fire, with my parents inside." Rubbing his eye, Cyborg continued, not looking into his friends' eyes. "I showed up to apologize just as the house finished burning, my parents died in the fire without me having the chance to say I was sorry and to thank them, so I once again ran until I found you guys."

"Oh that is terrible," Starfire looked at her metal friend with sadness in her eyes, "I am terribly sorry for both of your losses, you and Robin; they must have been very terrible." Both Cyborg and Robin gave Starfire a thankful smile. "I guess since I have already spoken, it must be my turn to speak of my past." Taking a breath she began the tale of the Tameranian Princess. "Just like Robin, my misfortune began when I was a small person. My elder sister Blackfire was the heir to the Tameranian throne, but once I was born, I replaced her as heir, because I bore the looks of a proper Tameranian, while she looked foreign to her own planet. She became angered and over the years tried very hard to take over or send me away, she pretended to be me, got me in trouble and so much more. But it was recently just before I came to earth that she succeeded in her plights and sold me off for slavery. I was heartbroken, she had already gotten my parents to take her side before they passed away and then I was taken away. The creatures she sold me to were vile beings, wishing me to do anything they wished with me." Starfire noticeably shivered and wrapped her arms around her body in disgust. "Within a couple days they realized I would not do what they wanted willingly so they started to hurt me. That's when I decided I needed to leave and soon after escaped to earth where I met all of you." The Titans had not expected that, they knew about her being sent away from her planet, but not that her sister had sold her. Raven grimaced, the things some people would do to others was terrible, even on Tameran and Azarath there existed such misfortune and terrible deeds.

Taking the end of her story as a queue, Raven spoke softly. "I was never meant to have been born, even with the prophecy." The Titans looked at her in confusion, especially Beast Boy who had always been curious in the finer details of Raven's past. "As a young woman, my mother was tricked into love by a man she had met at the market, he brought her to a secluded area during a scheduled outing with her and he raped her." The mug in Raven's hand suddenly exploded, sending shards of it into the faces of the titans, who recoiled. Raven gave an apologetic look and folded her hands in her lap, clenching them tightly together. "The man turned out to be Trigon in disguise. Nine months later Arella gave birth to me, the portal. We were shunned from society even though my mother had been a duchess; I was swiftly taken away and kept with the monks, who forced magic into my life at a very young age. My mother was forced to try and forget about me as she went on with her duties. But it proved far too difficult for both of us. At thirteen, after being visited by her many times, I ran away from the temples and to the castle. I had been told that on my sixteenth birthday I would become the portal, so they had been planning my death for months, seeing no other choice. My mother told me to run away from Azarath and find some other planet to hide on, so I could try and forget about the prophecy. So she sent me to earth, where I spent two years living in seclusion, nearly dying at some points before I finally met up with all of you and joined the titans." None of her friends could believe that Raven had been living with the prophecy hanging over her head for so long, no wonder she thought it was the only way. It had been drilled into her mind for so many years.

"I'm sorry Raven, we had no idea that the prophecy had been such a big deal in Azarath, you had to live with people telling you that you'd be the end of the world for thirteen years." Raven nodded her head and took a deep breath to calm all of the rattling items in the room, once they stopped moving, Raven looked up and gave her friends a rare smile. One she let it drop, she turned her gaze over to the green changeling who had once again gone pale.

"Yo, BB, we all poured our hearts out about our pasts, so now it's your turn." Beast Boy sighed and shook his head.

"It's not worth it." His friends gasped and looked at Beast Boy with shock. What was he talking about? "I- I can't tell you, you wouldn't understand, and I don't want pity." Cyborg and Robin shook their heads.

"It can't be that bad, and besides, we've all gone through tough times, we can try to understand." Standing up, Beast Boy turned his back on his friends.

"It's not the same; you won't just pity me you won't want to be around me anymore." Abruptly, Raven stood up and turned Beast Boy around, lifting her hand up; she slapped his sharply across the face. Beast Boy looked at her in shock.

"Don't you ever dare say we won't want you around, you are our friend Beast Boy, if you can accept a half demon as a friend, then I can accept whatever you throw at me, we all can." Beast Boy smiled sadly at his friend and dropped back into his seat, face in his hands.

"Well, you had better make yourselves comfortable, it's a long story." He leaned back on the couch and wracked his brain to try and figure out when to start. Starting from the very beginning, Beast Boy cleared his throat.

"My name is Garfield Logan and I used to be tan, with blond hair and blue eyes." Cyborg's jaw immediately dropped,

"You mean you weren't always green?" Beast Boy shook his head and continued.

"I was born normal, and I lived with my parents in Africa who were both scientists looking for a rare disease in animals transmitted by saliva called Sakutia. We travelled around Africa for years before they found what they were looking for. A green monkey came by our camp and had all the signs of being infected with the disease, so my dad caught it and kept it in a cage overnight to do some quick tests, but as a kid I was way too curious and went into the lab in the middle of the night and let the monkey out of the cage. It went crazy. It jumped around the room screeching before it fully noticed me and attacked, it bit me on the arm and I screamed bloody murder as I fell to the ground and felt the disease make its way into my system, a disease that was fatal to humans. My parents rushed into the room and put the monkey back in the cage and tried to wake me up, but the disease was already taking affect, and I had been knocked unconscious. They only had three days before I would die from the disease so they did all they could in trying to figure out a cure. What they did find out was that it was almost impossible to cure it. But finally they came up with something that could potentially save me and wasted no time in injecting me with it. That's how I turned green." The team was amazed; they always thought Beast Boy was born a changeling.

"So the cure turned you into a shape shifter and turned your skin green?" Beast Boy shook his head.

"We didn't even know at that point that I was a shape shifter, but it was the disease that turned my skin green, a natural side effect; all the cure did was making sure I didn't die. Then a couple weeks after my recovery, I wandered into the village near our camp and was met with fear and hostility, they shot at me and cursed at me, terrified by my presence, that's when my parents decided that we should leave. So we packed our stuff and left, but not without conflict. While we were walking through the woods, a cobra came out of nowhere and cornered us against some trees, and out of instinct I turned into the snake's biggest predator, a mongoose. I attacked and grabbed the snake around the head and bit down, but before I turned back into a human I," Beast Boy shuddered. "I ate the snake, and ever since then I have been a vegetarian. That's how we figured out I had shape shifting powers. And that's pretty much it, got to go now bye!" Beast Boy leapt out of his chair and was about to dash out of the room when he felt a dark energy envelop his body and sit him back down on the sofa.

"Beast Boy, I know that's not the whole story, now you promised us the truth, and we all told our pasts, now it's your turn to do the same." Beast Boy looked at his leader defiantly in the eyes, but deflated when Robin's gaze didn't waver.

"Fine," he mumbled, "But you don't know what you're getting yourself into." Robin leaned back in his chair in an almost challenging sense and Beast Boy chuckled grimly. If it's the truth he wants, that's what he gets, but Beast Boy was most certainly not going to sweeten it up for their soft ears, if they wanted the truth, they were going to get the whole truth. "It was a few days after my first shape shifting incident and my parents and I were scheduled to rent a little boat and paddle across the river, the only other animal I had turned into was a Kingfisher, a bird commonly found in Africa, but my mother had forbid me for the time being from using my powers. Halfway across the river my parents started to panic slightly, they told me to turn into a bird and fly back to the shore and wait for them there, I was confused but did what they said, I had been brought up to be obedient. But when I turned back into a human and looked out over the water to prove to them I was a good boy, I could only see the edge of my parent's boat tipping over the side of the waterfall. I ran to the edge of the river and looked over the side to find the boat skewered onto the rocks below, I saw red in the water and all I could do was scream and cry, I had been selfish and let them go over the falls while I was safe on land. The next thing I knew, some guy came up behind me and put a rag over my mouth and I blacked out." The titans regarded their friend with widened eyes; they never knew any of this. Their gazes were responded to with a hardened glare. "Next thing I knew, I woke up chained to a wall in a warehouse, a collar around my neck that shocked me every time I tried to shift. I waited there hours before two men came in and threw some stale bread at my feet. Eating it quickly they explained the rules. One, I wasn't to speak unless spoken to. Two, I was to do everything they said or there would be consequences. Three, shifting would be impossible unless they wanted me to. Four, they were in charge; I did nothing unless they wanted me to. And five, never, ever disobey their orders, those were the rules I lived by for a long time as they forced me to learn how to shift into other animals using a painful teaching method. They would show me a picture and tell me to shift, every time I failed, I would be beaten. I quickly learned that I needed to learn as fast as possible. They would send me out almost every night to do their dirty work, whether it was tracking down someone who owed them money or stealing anything from anywhere, I could do it all, I was their secret weapon and nobody could catch me. I was met with harsh beatings every night and morning, and grew quickly accustomed to the lifestyle where the only goal was to survive another day. After years of not being able to leave them I came up with a plan. One day I spoke out a breakfast and received an exceptionally brutal beating. When they sent me off to steal something, I purposely set off the alarm and waited to be found by the police. I told them my story and seeing all the broken bones, bruises, cuts and scars, they believed me, I told them the place of the warehouse and the men were arrested, sentenced to life in jail." Opening his eyes, Beast Boy laughed darkly at the expressions on his friends' faces. They couldn't believe their ears. Beast Boy had gone through all of that?

"We're so sorry Beast Boy; we never knew you had suffered through all of that." What shocked them then is the fact that Beast Boy actually smiled.

"My parents died when I was five and I stayed with them until I was nine, I'm seventeen now, I still have another eight years of my life to go through, and that was barely the worst of it." Grimacing slightly at his friends expressions, Beast Boy once again continued his long tale. "After the police found me, I was quickly adopted by a man named Nicolas Galtry. I didn't particularly like him at first, and soon had a deep despising for the man; he sent me to school and laughed when I was teased. He would often beat me in drunken stupors and only gave me enough food and clothes as to not arouse suspicion. He didn't know about my powers but he knew of my past of thievery. My parents had left me a large sum of money that Galtry soon took over and lost to gambling. One day he saw me shift and things only went downhill from there. He despised me and hid me from the world, we moved away and he looked up my old captors in prison and was planning on bailing them out with money he had made me steal around the neighbourhood after he had drugged me one night. The three of them ganged up on me and were planning on killing me, but pent up rage and frustration was suddenly let out all at once and for the first time ever, I turned into the Beast." The rest of the titans were far too shocked by everything Beast Boy had already revealed that at the mention of the beast, their jaws only dropped lower into their laps.

"In a fit of rage I chased them all into the park where I- I." Beast Boy dropped his head into his hands and whispered the rest of his statement. "I killed them." Choosing to ignore his friend's looks of horror, he continued, desperate to finish his story. "I was terrified that the police would know that it was me who killed them that I stashed their bodies under a bridge and took off, running away from my mistakes. Eventually I found myself in a new town, I was tired, hungry and I hadn't bathed in weeks, I apparently and ironically collapsed in front of the Doom Patrol's secret headquarters and was taken in by Mentos and was finally, slowly nursed back to health, when I woke up, Mentos decided to take me in as his apprentice when he learned of my powers and I finally felt like I had found my place with the Doom Patrol. But as fate would have it, it didn't last very long, in one particular mission, Elasti-Girl told me to go back to the base, and to read a note she had left there, the mission was to dangerous for me at the time. When I found the note, it said that she and Mentos wanted to adopt me if I would let them, and obviously I wanted a family, so I waited patiently for the team to get home. But that never happened, the next morning I awoke to the sound of the TV and the news report said that they had all died during their mission, taking the enemy down with them. I was heartbroken; my first real family in a long time had been ripped away from me. My time with both Galtry and the Doom Patrol took up only four years, and once again I was left to run. By then word of me had gotten out and many people knew of my powers. A few days after I ran away from the Doom Patrol, I turned into a kitten and tried to get some warmth in an alley under some boxes, but when I woke up, I was at the pound. There was a man there looking at all the animals and he stopped once he saw me as the little green kitten, he pointed at me and suddenly someone grabbed me around my middle and dragged me out of the cage, stuffing me in a smaller cage. I was in a daze as they transported me to what looked like a hospital, but once inside, I knew exactly where I was. They had taken me to an animal testing facility. I was roughly tossed into a large cage where I promptly turned back into a human and gave the animal caretaker the fright of his life. When the man in charge heard of me he ordered me to a special part of the facility where I spent two years trapped." Standing up, he vehemently ripped his gloves and shirt off to reveal an number tattooed on the inside of both his arms and green skin so disfigured with scars and branding and burns so bad that it was hard to look at him without cringing. He pulled down the collar on his neck to reveal more scars and burns to his skin. Sitting down he softly caressed his face. "Thankfully, they never touched my face, other than punches and kicks, so nothing ever lasted, but the rest of my body was grossly disfigured." He pulled his shirt and gloves back over his marred skin and leaned back in the chair. "They tested on me for everything you could imagine, injecting makeup solutions, burning off my skin with acidic creams and sprinkling dust from different things into open wounds to see how I would react. I was amazing to them, a miracle; they could test on every animal at once. I was already in the midst of trying to plan my escape when they were shut down by a group against animal cruelty. I fled before I could be seen by any press and found my Doom Patrol suit stashed away before once again running off. When I met you guys I was determined to make a good impression, so I tried to act goofy and funny, I had always liked to laugh as a kid, so it was my best defense against my memories. If I could laugh now, and act happy there was no point in burdening my new found friends with my life, so I kept it all to myself, you four are the first to ever know my whole life. Though I should mention, I with-held the more disturbing facts, what you know is only the bare minimum." Finally looking up into the faces of his friends, he expected to see disgust or fear or both, but all he saw, was sadness, sadness and sympathy. He was forcefully enveloped in a surprise hug by a tearful alien.

"I am truly sorry, Beast Boy, I didn't know about your terrible past, I do not think you are a beast, you are Beast Boy and will always be a great friend." Robin, Raven and Cyborg still sat in their seats, shocked into stupor by their friends' story. Beast Boy awkwardly patted Starfire on the back as she cried freely into his shoulder. Finally she let go and sat down beside him, her hand on his shoulder. A ghost of a smile floated onto Beast Boy's face as the faces of his friends turned from shock to those of slight acceptance.

"You were right Beast Boy, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but I for one am glad you told us. That must have been a great burden to bear by yourself for all these years, I can't even begin to possibly imagine how you must have felt through all of that, and I hope you'll be able to forgive us for prying." Beast Boy looked at Raven with thanks in his eyes.

"In a way, I guess I'm glad I got it off my chest, but I expected you to be more afraid or disgusted by me, I did kill people, even more than I mentioned, the men made me do their dirty work, which sometimes included killing their enemies." They all drew back slightly in surprise, but it was Robin who spoke.

"That doesn't change who you are Beast Boy, you killed out of necessity, not blood lust, and you're not a bad person, just a person with bad luck." Beast Boy smiled at Robin and clenched his hands together.

"But that doesn't change the fact that I murdered people though, I always thought that everything in my life happened for a reason, the bad things the world threw at me were penance for bad things I had done to the world. I know I never asked for any of the things in my life to happen, but I'm glad it all happened to me than to individual people, nobody deserves to go through what I did, I guess even I didn't deserve it like I thought for so many years. I never accepted my life and moved on; it was always there in the back of my mind, haunting me everyday, I wasn't willing to confront it." Beast Boy was suddenly jerked forward by a slap to his back by his beast friend.

"Well I'm glad you lived to tell the tale BB, because that was one heck of a tale." Beast Boy smiled and silently noted the fact that Raven hadn't said a word since he finished his story. Glad for his friends attempt at lack of pity, he announced that he was tired and went to bed. From the hallway he heard the rest of the titans fall back in their seats and curse. He overheard them talking to one another about his for a few minutes before they each went to bed to mull over Beast Boy's revelation. He silently waited outside a certain Titan's room until she came around a corner and was surprisingly startled by his presence.

"What are you doing here Beast Boy?" Raven would not meet his eyes as he looked at her in bewilderment.

"You didn't say anything when I was done; you don't hate me do you?" There was real pain and dread in Beast Boy's voice as he voiced his fears, he didn't want her to think that, she was the most important person in his world. "Because if you want me to, I can leave you alone." His voice wavered slightly as he looked away from Raven just as she quickly looked up and once again slapped him in the face, lightly this time. "What was that for?" Raven stared at Beast Boy straight in the eyes, causing his frown to falter and for his to take a slight step back.

"How could you ever think that I hate you Beast Boy? I didn't say anything because I was shocked, I had never thought that there could be anybody who had suffered as much as I did, you opened my eyes, I had been too content with the way things were to notice changes in your behaviour, but as I look back, there were signs, but I was to dense and wrapped up in my own world to notice them. You suffered much more than I did Beast Boy, and you have no idea how much I admire you for being the person you are today, my emotions still control me while you can be happy and still carry the burdens of a hundred men on your shoulders." Beast Boy was shocked at Raven's outburst and his eyes softened.

"And to think, I was always amazed by you and the fact that you kept your cool the whole time you knew that you were going to be the end of the world, all I did was bury my past, but you confronted your future and tried to stop it while I can't think two minutes ahead or behind me." Gazing into Raven's eyes he felt something click inside of him, he knew he had a crush on Raven for months, but now he realized it was much more than that. He was in love with her. Reaching his hand up towards her face and lightly pushed back her hood to reveal a pair of vulnerable looking eyes, staring into his own.

"Garfield," Raven wrapped her arms around Garfield's waist and hesitantly buried her face into his chest, tears slowly escaping her eyes. "I'm sorry." With a content sigh, Garfield's heart fluttered at Raven's touch. He pulled her close to him and slung his arms around her shoulders, resting his chin on the top of her head, having grown taller in the past years, he was easily a head taller than Raven and her head fit perfectly under his own.

Standing there, nestled into Garfield's chest, Raven felt the happiest she had been in a long time, she felt a strong urge to pull him closer to her and she tightened her grasp. Breathing in his scent, she heard him gasp slightly; she looked up and noticed she was kind of squeezing all the air out of his lungs.

"Oh!" Raven released her grasp and Garfield took a deep erratic breath, grinning and laughing at Raven's embarrassed expression. "Don't look at me like that Garfield, I didn't mean to hug you so forcefully."

"Can't get enough of my devilish charm can you Raven, are you finally falling for me?" smirking, Garfield expected the usual slap on the arm and scolding, but instead, he was only met with silence. He looked at Raven and noticed she was blushing, actually blushing! Grinning like an idiot, he stuck his face right next to hers and whispered. "I love you." Raven took a shocked step back and looked at Garfield straight in the face; she couldn't believe he was serious. She blushed as read as a tomato and pulled her hood over he eyes causing Garfield to frown. "If you don't like me just turn me down like you usually do." Raven tilted her head away from his view and muttered something incomprehensible. Assuming it was a rejection; Garfield hung his head slightly and turned away.

"I understand, goodnight Raven." In his mind, he scolded himself for revealing his true feelings when suddenly he was picked up by a dark energy and pulled back to the door of Raven's room. "What are you doing?" Garfield stuttered and recoiled at the look of anger on Raven's face.

"Stupid Garfield, you never gave me a chance to explain, did you even hear what I said?" Garfield shook his head in confusion and a look of shyness appeared once again over Raven's features. She released her hold of him and took a step closer to where he was standing. "I said I…" The rest of her words mumbled incoherently and Garfield had to strain to even try to hear what she said.

"I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?" A look of contempt flashed across Raven's face as she quickly blushed.

"I said that I love you too." Her blush quickly vanished as shock flashed through her features, she couldn't believe she had actually said it. At Garfield's lack of response, she looked up curiously and found her face to be dangerously close to his. He was grinning a sheepish grin and then spoke to her quietly, his now deeper voice sending pleasant shivers down her spine.

"I'm glad." He quickly lowered his face to hers and captured he lips in a quick but passionate kiss, pulling away slowly and resting his forehead on hers. Out of breath and surprised, Raven wrapped her arms around Garfield's neck and pulled him into a hug. "I love you Raven, with all my heart." Raven blushed furiously and she hid her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. Trying to express her feeling to him was one of the hardest things she had done in her life, she never showed this much emotion. A vase behind them cracked and shattered as she whispered to him.

"Ditto."

ALL FINITO, i personally love the idea of this whole story, and love beast boy! Review please :) more stories on their way and still working on all those unfinished ones :P sorry for the wait!