Chapter 6: A Dumb Doom Patrol Mask

"Star, I'm trying to watch the movie. Why don't you talk to me afterwards?" Beast Boy suggested, while in reality he just wanted more time to figure out how to answer her question.

"I apologise, but you do not seem to be interested in the oversized television screen," the redhead replied with a cocky smirk.

"Man, could y'all be quiet? This is the best part!"

"I am sorry, friend Cyborg. Beast Boy will assist me in the journey to my room so I can discuss matters with him there." The alien swiftly stood up and stretched before offering her hand out to the changeling. He smugly accepted it, allowing her to pull him up. After doing so, the duo made their way out of the common room and into the hallway. The juvenile changeling made sure that they weren't in hearing range before speaking.

"So, what's up Starfire?"

"What is up friend Beast Boy, is that you have acquired the romantic feelings for Raven! Tell me, when did you realise that you were the heels under the head for her?" the alien asked, bouncing up and down repeatedly to emphasise her excitement.

"Uh, I think you mean 'head over heels', and I don't like Raven that much," the green Titan said, despite the fact it wasn't true, and he was completely lovesick for her.

"Oh, but you do! It is most romantic! You should make the proposal of the arrangement of the first date!" the redhead squealed, completely oblivious to the fact that this girl had a boyfriend.

"I don't mean to burst your bubble dude, but Raven has a boyfriend. I can't ask her out. Sorry."

"Oh, you are correct." The alien's face fell. "Raven is already doing the dating... with Robin."

"Yeah..." The changeling rubbed the back of his head.

"I should not have said that, I-"

"Star, chill, it's alright. Obviously the subject of their relationship is still... delicate to you. You'll get over it. I'll get over it. Maybe you and Rob just weren't meant to be."

"Perhaps you are correct, friend Beast Boy. I try to be the stoic that Robin is, but it is not as easy as he makes it appear. It has been many months since they broke my heart, but the pain remains the same," the redhead confessed, her eyes starting to water.

Beast Boy narrowed his eyebrows, his thoughts intently on her usage of the word 'they' instead of 'he'. It slowly occurred to him that Raven's betrayal or ignorance to the alien's feelings for Robin must've hurt the girl as much as Robin dumping her did. Being the only females on the team, they had a special sister-like relationship. Starfire would always encourage Raven to do casual best friend activities, such as makeovers and sleepovers and shopping. When the empath would finally give in to the proposals, the Tamaranian would be ecstatic.

Starfire sure missed that.

Raven did, too.

"Robin, they're gone. You can stop now," Raven stated, slowly removing Robin's arm from her shoulder. "Are we researching anything tonight?"

"Nope, not tonight. I have patrol with Cyborg in half an hour, but feel free to research if you want to." The leader stretched before readjusting his mask. "Write down everything that you find out, okay? Even if it's just the littlest thing, write it down. It could help."

"Alright. Have fun on patrol, I guess. Speaking of which, may I switch partners? Perhaps Jinx, Cyborg, Kid Flash or you?"

"I get why you wouldn't want to go with Starfire, but why Beast Boy? What's he done this time?" Robin asked, rolling his eyes under his mask.

"You don't want to know," Raven deadpanned.

"Well, he's probably just happy that he gets to spend some time with you. He's always telling me about how he wants to get to know you better, and maybe he sees this as his chance to do so," the stoic leader replied. "You've managed just fine on patrol these past two weeks, so you'll be alright. Just try and resolve whatever happened between you two by tomorrow."

"I wish it were that easy. Anyway, how long do we have to keep this up?"

"You know the answer to that, Raven," Robin said, his tone turning serious.

"We need to tell them," Raven said with a sigh.

"Do you think I don't know that? Of course we'll tell them," he paused. "Eventually."

"Even eventually is too soon," the empath stated, rustling her hand through her violet hair.

"Exactly. Which is why we have to take this subject slow, for their case and for ours. It won't kill them not knowing for just a little longer. I trust that you won't say anything."

The two birds exchanged glances a few times before-

"I miss us," the empath suddenly said, breaking the tension.

"Excuse me?" Robin questioned.

"I miss the Titans."

"What do you mean? We're right here, Raven," the stoic leader said with a questioning glare.

The empath rolled her eyes. "No, we're not. We left long ago. I miss Beast Boy. I miss Cyborg. I miss you and I miss Starfire. I even miss myself."

"What are you-"

Raven cut him off. "We ruined everything. Me and you, I mean. Everything was okay. You and Starfire were carelessly and effortlessly in love, Beast Boy would try to make me laugh with a few of his embarrassing jokes if he wasn't arguing with Cyborg about breakfast meals. And then, it happened. We could've worked around it, you know. Why did we have to jump right in and assume that they would think that? Why didn't we just tell them the truth from the beginning? Why did we let Starfire endure all of that? We were a team. They would've understood. They would've helped."

Robin hesitated. "We still are a team."

"In literal sense, yes, we are. But we're not a team. We don't work together or help each other out anymore. Don't you remember when we used to treat one another like family? We were a family, actually. Now we're utterly teammates," were the last words the empath said before she teleported out of the common room.

Robin couldn't help but think that Raven was correct. Everything went downhill since the day that they told the rest of the Titans about their relationship.

You can't blame him for thinking ahead though, can you?

He was just looking out for his team, after all.

Right?

Wrong.

Raven was fuming. When she figured that pacing around her room wasn't getting her anywhere, she carelessly threw herself onto her bed. She had to tell them the truth. She needed to tell them what was going on. She was close to making up her mind when-

knock knock knock

Sighing, she made her way to her door before it opened with a hiss.

"Hey, mama."

"What do you want, Beast Boy?"

"Just wanna talk about patrol tomorrow s'all."

"Unfortunately for you, I don't have time. Or effort. And I just don't care," the empath said with a grunt.

She really didn't have time for this.

"Well, I have time. And effort. And I do care," the serene changeling said, trying to make her montone as best as he could.

Raven smirked at his effort. He could be really cute when he wanted to. He could also be fierce as times too. Something that she, although she would never admit, really found attractive.

One of the reasons that she had forgave him so easily for him violating her was the fact that she had enjoyed it.

Wait, what?

Was she seriously-

"Something wrong, Rae-Rae?"

"Hm? Just fazed out a little. Oh, and stop with the nicknames," Raven bluntly requested.

"Whatever you say, Raven. Can I ask you a personal question?"

"It depends."

"It's about... control."

"Go on," the empath said, suddenly intrigued with where this conversation was heading.

"Do you ever feel like... you can't control yourself? Like, there's this thing, that just, controls you, but it's not you, but it also is at the same time, but you know it's not you and it knows it's not you but... you just... I don't know. Do you understand?"

Raven gave the changeling a dazed look before muttering, "I don't know what you're trying to say."

She earned a grunt from Beast Boy. "No! Like, you gotta understand! I can't, I can't explain it. I just feel my control slip sometimes, like, with no trigger. Actually, there might be a trigger, but it's pretty embarrassing. But enough of that, I just want whatever it is to go. Can you help me?"

"How do you expect me to help you when I have no idea what you're saying?"

"I can't control myself around you!" the changeling suddenly exclaimed. "I just feel like there's this... thing inside me. And that it takes over my body sometimes and there's nothing that I can say or do that will stop it when it's unleashed. Whenever I'm around you, I can just... feel it surface."

Oh.

"Care to explain a bit more?" the empath requested, surprised that she could actually mutter those six words. What she had just heard was certainly a lot to take in.

"Once upon a time, there was a goofy guy in a dumb Doom Patrol mask..."