Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Never Say Never
Chapter 1: A Challenge
Monday, July 17, 2006
2:21 p.m.
Raven stormed out of the restaurant and into the bright sunshine, striding angrily down the hot sidewalk without even a glance back. Swiftly exiting behind and following her were the rest of the Titans. Cyborg and Robin endeavored to contain their laughter as they walked, but their mirth was obvious in the snickers and chuckles that escaped them. Starfire watched on worriedly, concerned for her teammate. Beastboy hurriedly tried to catch up to Raven, waving his arms and doing his best to explain.
"Aw, c'mon, Raven, I said I was sorry. It wasn't even really my fault!"
Raven spun furiously on her heel to face the changeling, bringing the entire group to an abrupt halt. "Not your fault! Tell me, Beastboy, how exactly is you dumping an entire glass of sticky, ice cold soda on me not your fault?"
All the Titans looked to Beastboy as he fumbled for an answer. "Well, uh, it just sorta, ya know, happened. Um, I mean... it just... ok, really, whose idea was it to leave an apricot there? And I swear, that poodle came totally out of nowhere! It coulda happened to anyone. Honest!"
Raven took two steps towards him, pinning him with an icy glare and speaking through gritted teeth. "No, this could not have happened to anyone. Only you. This kind of stuff only happens to you!"
Beastboy gave a nervous chuckle as he leaned away from the irate empath. "Heh, so we both agree that I'm the victim here, right?"
With grinding teeth and a sound resonating deep from her throat that could only be called a growl, Raven spun around and continued her angry traverse towards the Tower, oblivious to the beautifully warm summer day around her.
Before Beastboy could follow, he was stopped by the voice of Starfire. "Perhaps you should allow her to do the cooling off."
Robin stepped up next to the changeling. "Starfire's right. Raven is pretty ticked right now. Give her a little space."
Beastboy looked from the angry half demon walking away to his other friends and grudgingly complied. "Fine."
After allowing Raven to get a bit ahead, the rest of the Titan's began walking again. Beastboy trudged along, his hands shoved into his pockets, and said in a sulky voice, "I don't know what she's so mad about. It's not like I did it on purpose."
Cyborg laid a comforting hand on the animorph's shoulder. "Yeah, we know. But you gotta admit, BB, it does seem like the weird stuff always happens to you."
Beastboy looked up incredulously, pointing at each of his friends in turn. "Um, hellooo? Alien, half-demon, Batman wannabe," Robin's splutters of protest were ignored as Beastboy continued, "half-robot, and green dude with fangs. 5 teenage super heroes who wear costumes and live in a giant T and fight totally whacked out bad guys is not exactly normal."
Cyborg waved all that away with his free hand as the group continued to trail Raven down the street. "Yeah, yeah, all that's not normal. But the really weird stuff always happens to you."
"What are you talking about, Cy?"
Starfire spoke up. "Perhaps he is referring to being mistaken for the canine of a large but juvenile alien, and being kidnapped by him to be his pet."
Beastboy tried to respond to this, but was cut off by Cyborg. "Yeah, that. Or maybe the fact that you just happened to get a part-time job at the headquarters of evil, alien, space tofu bent on world domination."
Robin, still obviously miffed about the Batman comment, brought out the trump card. "And who can ever forget about the sporks incident last year?"
Beastboy darkened in a blush as his three friends burst out in hilarious laughter. Quickly trying to salvage some dignity, he protested in as haughty a voice as he could muster. "No one can prove that was me. I stand by my innocence."
Finally mastering his laughter, Cyborg spoke. "Look, all we're saying is that you really do have some weird crap happen to you."
Crossing his arms, Beastboy responded, "Fine. I'm a weirdness magnet. That doesn't mean Raven has to get all pissed off when it happens. It was an accident"
Robin rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, maybe she's not really mad. It could be something else. You did dump your drink on her in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Maybe she's just embarrassed."
"Excuse me?"
All four Titan's jumped at the sound of Raven's voice from directly in front of them. None of them realized they had caught up to her, and she was now looking at the Boy Wonder with a raised eyebrow. "You were saying?"
Robin gulped nervously. "Um, that maybe you weren't..."
Raven didn't let him finish. "I heard you. And you're wrong. I am angry, not embarrassed. I don't get embarrassed, especially not by Beastboy."
Cyborg, an obvious note of skepticism in his voice, said, "Aw, c'mon, Raven. Everyone gets embarrassed sometimes."
Raven stubbornly shook her head. "Not me."
Starfire looked at her friend curiously. "Truly, friend Raven? You never feel the chagrin?"
"No. Never."
Beastboy, hoping she was mostly over her previous anger, spoke in a teasing voice. "You know what they say, Rae, 'Never say never'. Who knows, I might come up with a totally brilliant plan just to prove you wrong."
The harsh glare directed at the changeling and Raven's ice cold voice attested to the fact that she was, indeed, still very angry . "No, Beastboy, there are times when I can say never. Pigs will never sprout wings and fly. The sun will never rise in the west. I never get embarrassed. And you will never, EVER come up with anything even remotely resembling something that anyone would call a brilliant plan."
That ended the discussion. The group lapsed into an awkward silence as they continued to walk. It was several minutes later that the silence was broken and they finally turned their talk to other topics. Beastboy, however, was uncharacteristically quiet the rest of the way home.
Monday, July 17, 2006
8:32 p.m.
"Oh, no, dawg, there ain't no way you're getting' away with that!" Cyborg attacked his controller with new ferocity, punching buttons at an almost blinding speed. Robin sat next to him, his intent focus obvious even through the smirk on his face.
Finally, the screen flashed "Game Over" and Robin sprang up with a yell of victory. "Yes! That's three in a row, Cy!"
Cyborg stood and pointed at the Boy Wonder in indignation. "I want a rematch!"
Robin let his controller drop to the ground with a smug grin. "Sorry, Cyborg. I'm going to go get a workout in. You should practice beating up on Beastboy for a while. Maybe then you might actually be a little bit of a challenge."
"Don't get cocky, Bird Boy. I'll get you next time."
Robin laughed as he exited the room, throwing one last taunt over his shoulder. "You just keep telling yourself that, Cyborg."
After the doors swished closed, a grumbling Cyborg turned to the rest of the room. "Yo, grass stain, you wanna..." He stopped short when he realized that the changeling wasn't there. "Hey, where's BB at?"
Raven didn't even look up from her book as she replied, "Don't know, don't care."
Starfire was only slightly more helpful. "I have not seen him for many hours. I do not even think he has been down for an evening meal."
Cyborg furrowed his brow. "That's strange. I wonder what the little guy is up to."
Monday, July 17, 2006
8:44 p.m.
Beastboy slowly walked back and forth across his room, absently stepping over and around the various dirty laundry, used dishes, empty soda cans, and other refuse that littered the floor. He had long been oblivious to the disaster area he lived in. It was normal for him. The only abnormal part of his room at the moment was the fact that the surface of his desk had been completely cleared off. The only thing on it was a single sheet of paper. Scrawled across the top of it in large, underlined letters were the words "Beastboy's Top Secret Super Awesome Completely Amazing Totally Brilliant Plan To Embarrass Raven. DO NOT READ!". The rest of the paper was almost completely filled with Beastboy's messy handwriting.
He stopped pacing and took one final, long look at the paper. After leaning down to add a few last changes, he picked it up with a nod of satisfaction. Beastboy looked around his room for a moment before walking over to a particularly large pile of laundry, his free hand pinching his nose closed as he neared it. He stuffed the paper into the middle of the pile and then quickly retreated.
A sly smile spread across the changeling's face as he sat on his bed and reached for his communicator. Time for step one.
He punched a few buttons on the communicator and waited for it to connect. The tiny screen suddenly lit up with the picture of one of the Titans East.
"Hi Beastboy. What's up?"
"Oh, nothin', nothin' at all. Hey, Speedy, you play the guitar, right?"
A/N: And there's the first chapter. This is going to be a goofy little story I threw together to kill a couple of hours. (Airport layover. Long enough to be really boring, not long enough to leave and do anything.) I was able to write out a complete outline of the story, finish the first chapter, and start on the second. I didn't spend a huge amount of time editing anything, either, so my apologies for any typos or spelling/grammar mistakes. Best I can tell, this will be pretty short. Not more than 4 or 5 chapters, if that many, and they won't be ridiculously long chapters (like in my last chaptered fic). They will probably be closer to the length of this chapter.
I will try to update as quickly as possible, but I haven't really had much time to write recently. The layover was the only reason I got this much done. I do fully intend to have it finished before November 1, for reasons that should become obvious in chapter 2. Of course, my intentions tend to have absolutely no bearing on reality, so we'll see. Also, the date I list before each section becomes slightly more useful in chapter 2, as it is not the same date repeated over and over. The story will progress at uneven intervals, sometimes a day, sometimes a week, sometimes more. The date stamp is just to try and keep everything clear later on.
And to be perfectly honest, I have no idea if comic or cartoon Speedy can actually play the guitar, but he seemed as likely a candidate as anyone. Anyways, this story is going to be pretty pointless and silly (and short), but hopefully you will enjoy it. My thanks to everyone who takes the time to read it, especially to everyone that reviews. I will be sure and reply to all signed reviews.
Thanks again!
Coeus