Sometimes, Love Just Needs Less...
Chapter 1: Not Again
"YOU IDIOT!"
Starfire, Robin and Cyborg all looked up to watch yet another fight between Raven and Beast Boy. It wasn't exactly uncommon, but it was usually pretty entertaining to watch. It wasn't as fun forcing them to make up after, but there wasn't much they could do about that.
This time, Raven looked angry and was holding up a dripping book, while Beast Boy looked guilty and was holding an empty teacup. You do the math.
"I'm sorry, Raven," Beast Boy apologised hastily. "I just wanted to bring you some tea, and-"
"And you had to be your dumb, clumsy self and spill it all over my new book?" Raven finished for him.
"That's not exactly how I was going to put it," mumbled Beast Boy, looking down at his shoes.
"Why did you bother making tea for me anyway?" Raven continued. "Did you switch the sugar with salt again? Or maybe, you put in one of those ridiculous tablets that will turn my tongue blue."
"No, I-"
"Save it," Raven interrupted stoically. Beast Boy watched indignantly as she coolly left the room, soggy book in hand. He hadn't done anything to the tea! It was unjust how she just immediately assumed that he had somehow spiked her tea! It wasn't his fault that he had tripped on his untied shoelace!
Once the door had closed behind her, Beast Boy decided to turn on his watching friends.
"I was just trying to be nice!" he exclaimed angrily, waving his hands in the air to emphasise his annoyance.
"Well, you did ruin her book before she could finish it," pointed out Robin. Beast Boy scowled.
"Come on. She can't have liked it that much! There were too many pages, and big words," Beast Boy insisted, conveniently omitting that fact that all her books had too many pages and big words, in his opinion.
"And, B, you gotta admit, you have played your fair share of 'tea pranks' on her," Cyborg added calmly to Robin's reasoning.
"Yeah right. Like what?"
"You mean besides switching the sugar and the salt?" asked Cyborg.
"And giving her tea with tablets to turn her tongue blue?" added Robin.
"Or the time you placed the bug of plastic in her cup?" offered Starfire.
"How about the time you made Raven's tea in a dribble cup, so it leaked all over her chin?" Cyborg continued.
"Do not forget when he put the sauce of hotness in her beverage!" Starfire added.
"Or there was-"
"Okay!" Beast Boy interrupted. His friends were getting way too into this. "I get it. I have played a few little jokes on her, but you can't blame this all on me. She's the one that exploded at me over spilt tea!"
"You are both equally to blame," Starfire replied, playing the role of peacemaker, "But, perhaps you should go apologise for spilling the tea on her book."
Beast Boy looked at his friends defiantly for a minute before sighing and slumping his shoulders.
"You're right," he grumbled, shuffling to the door slowly, "But for the record, it's her fault!"
-
Vanilla scented candles greeted Raven's nose as she entered her room. Immediately, Raven felt herself relax.
Sitting down in the middle of her room, Raven dropped her wet book on the floor in front of her. Luckily, her carpets were stain resistant.
Raven looked down at the book. She had bought the paperback at a convenience store across the street from their usual pizza parlour when she hadn't felt like joining in on the meat pizza vs. tofu toppings debate. The book was written by an author she had never heard of, and it was acclaimed by publishing companies that she was sure had been made up.
Raven considered her options: she could dry all the pages with a blow drier, buy a new copy at the store, or she could admit that she hadn't really liked the book to begin with and had only been reading it for lack of anything better to do.
Pride made her choose the first; let Beast Boy feel guilty every time he saw the tea stained pages.
With a small smirk, Raven used her powers to bring a blow drier to the center of the room. Plugging it into a nearby outlet, Raven turned it on low and aimed the warm air at the damp paper.
As she watched the pages slowly dry, Raven felt a strange feeling bubbling in the pit of her stomach. Turning off the hair drier, Raven concentrated on the feeling. It was like there were a million tiny frogs battering against her insides. It was a lovely image.
Eventually, she recognised the frogs as guilt. Guilt for wanting Beast Boy to feel guilty over a little spill.
Sighing in slight frustration, Raven tossed the book in her small trash bin and put the blow drier on the ground. She didn't understand why she should feel guilty (she was really starting to hate that word) for something like that. She had done worse, she was sure, without receiving such a stupid sentiment.
Using her powers, Raven picked up an item on her desk. She looked at the silver mirror in her hands, gently running her thumb over the detailing in the frame.
She knew she shouldn't use it unless it was an emergency, which Raven doubted. Still, it felt like something was encouraging her to use it.
Before she could do anything, however, the familiar alarm rang through the tower. Dropping the item on the ground, Raven stood up and ran out of her room.
-
"The darn thing isn't going to fit!" Private Hive whined as Mammoth attempted to attach a big screen TV onto the back of a stolen motorcycle.
"I bet a pair of handcuffs would fit you five!"
The HIVE Five turned to see five teenage super heroes looking at them confidently.
"You're hilarious," replied Jinx, "Let's see if you think this is funny!"
The sorceress unleashed a wave of pink energy at the group of crime fighters.
"Titans, go!" Robin exclaimed. Everyone jumped away from the attack, and everyone turned their attention to their own opponent.
Robin chose to go against Gizmo, sending a barrage of bird-o-rangs at the short boy.
Starfire swooped down, shooting starbolts at Mammoth, as Cyborg blasted his sonic cannon at See-More.
Transforming into a rhino, Beast Boy went after Jinx, leaving Raven with Private Hive.
It wasn't a very eventful fight, and within fifteen minutes, each of the HIVE students had been handcuffed.
"The HIVE Five are so going to get back at you scum buffin' crud munchers!"
That was all they heard as the police van door was closed on the angry HIVE students.
"I'd like to see you try!" Beast Boy yelled, smiling, after the retreating vehicle. "Ha, we sure showed them."
"Don't get cocky," Raven warned him, "It's unattractive."
Oh, bad choice of words, Raven.
"So, you're saying that I'm attractive the rest of the time?" Beast Boy asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
To her chagrin, Raven felt a small blush cross her face when she realised she was actually considering the question. Thank Azar, she was still wearing her hood.
"I never said that."
"No, but you implied it. C'mon Raven, just admit it. You think I'm sexy." He wiggled his eyebrows again, and Raven had to fight the urge to rip the offensive hairs out of his head.
"If you like green elves," Raven snapped, sliding into the back seat of the T-car before Beast Boy could reply.
Beast Boy let Starfire sit in the middle, letting Raven sit in moody silence on the other side of the car.
Raven spent the entire ride looking out the window angrily.
How dare he suggest that she thought he was attractive, let alone sexy? The very thought was ridiculous. Sure, he did have pretty nice muscles, considering he was the scrawniest person on the team. And, his eyes were a gorgeous shade of emerald. He could wear spandex surprisingly well—
'Bad Raven!' the empath mentally slapped herself. 'No thinking like that!'
Giving her head a good bang on the car window, which only earned a few strange looks, Raven quickly shook the thoughts from her head.
Beast Boy watched her in concern. Was she really that angry? He had only been joking when he said she thought he was sexy.
Unless, of course, she was still angry about the book. Beast Boy gulped. He never had got around to apologising for that, had he?
As soon as the T-car had come to a halt in the garage, Raven opened the door and jumped out, disappearing into the tower. Beast Boy watched her hasty retreat. So did the other Titans.
"Haven't you apologised to her yet?" asked Robin, stepping out of the front passenger seat.
"Uh, not yet," replied Beast Boy. "I kind of… took too long, and the alarm went off before I could get to her room."
The other Titans groaned and fixed stern looks on the changeling.
"Okay. I'm going, I'm going," Beast Boy told them, backing out of the garage.
Beast Boy walked through the halls, still nervous about having to apologise, but moving at a faster pace than he had earlier. He wasn't angry any more, although he had been pretty peeved earlier. He was just nervous about having to talk to Raven when she was probably in a kill-the-green-guy kind of mood.
Unfortunately, it didn't take him long to reach the hallway Raven's room was in.
Keeping his eyes glued on the floor, Beast Boy walked over to the door and raised a hand to knock. To his surprise, his hand went right through the door.
Blinking and looking up in surprise, Beast Boy realised that his hand hadn't actually gone through the door. The door was already open, which was possibly a bigger surprise than if his hand really had passed through the solid metal door. Raven never left her door open, even when she was inside.
Nervously, Beast Boy inched forward so that only his head was in her room.
"Raven? Hellooo... You there, Rae?"
Sighing in relief, Beast Boy walked in. Whenever he wanted to know if she was in her room, he just had to call her 'Rae'. She hated that. Not enough to maim him, but enough to give him some type of angry response. If she didn't come yell at him, he was safe to sneak in. Not that he snuck into her room... usually. Okay, so maybe a few times to look for a diary of some sort. He had never found one.
Beast Boy walked through the room, looking around. It was still pretty creepy in here, but it was nicer than when he usually came. She had left candles burning, casting their soft, peaceful glow through the room. She had probably forgotten about them when the alarm went off.
Beast Boy walked over to the bookshelf that covered most of one wall. He wondered what that book he had ruined was called. Feeling his neck start to get sore from looking up at the bookshelf, Beast Boy walked backwards, rubbing his neck.
As he backed up, he felt something under his foot. Looking down, he saw that the something was glowing. His eyes widened as he recognised the 'something' as Raven's meditation mirror. A portal to her mind.
The air around him started to swirl, and Beast Boy felt himself being pulled.
"Not again!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he was sucked into the swirling vortex to her mind.
Hey everyone! I hope you liked the first chapter of 'Sometimes, Love Just Needs Less...' Great title, eh? You can all thank Regrem Erutaerc for that. In fact, this entire story idea is his idea, I'm just writing it.
Anyway, I hope you like it. Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit funnier, and longer. If you haven't guessed already (Which I really hope you have), Beast Boy is going into Raven's mind again, where he's going to have some strange encounters with Raven-kind.
I know there are a lot of fics where Beast Boy goes back into Raven's mind, but I don't think this idea has been done before. Just wait, you'll see what I mean.
Until then, feel free to review!
Tammy Tamborine