I don't own the Titans. Maybe one day... sigh.
Raven hovered over to her bedroom, wondering what she would do about Beast Boy. Should she offer him a cup of tea after dinner? No, that would be too obvious. She needed to be a little more inconspicuous than that. Her mind drifted off to an image of Beast Boy cowering before her as she offered him tea. She fought to suppress a shudder as she phased through the door to her bedroom. Inside she found her mug sitting right where she had left last night. She wasn't surprised to see that it was very similar to the one that Beast Boy had; of course this one was missing the inscription but she could understand the confusion. She sat on her desk chair and tapped her fingers idly on the old mug. What to do, what to do? She could just brew him a mug of tea and leave it at his doorstep; a silent message of sorts. No, it was still a bit much. He might take it as a silent threat rather than an offering of good will. All she wanted was to figure out a way to open up a good rapport between them.
Regardless, of how she confronted him, her main concern was that she may seem uncharacteristically desperate for company. She had never made many efforts at that with any of her other team mates. Just laughing with them at breakfast (though her barely audible snickers could barely pass as laughter) had set them on alert. The last thing she wanted was for them to think she was ill with all this abnormal behavior.
It would seem rather out of nowhere for them but it really wasn't. They didn't know the countless hours she had put into training for this. Of course now that Trigon was otherwise disposed of she could be free to use her emotions more but that didn't mean she didn't have to show some restraint. After all, her powers were still linked to her emotions but now free from Trigon's influence she could use about as much restraint as Starfire regularly did. It was an adjustment to say the least. It took her so long to figure out how unrestricted she would be that she felt cheated out of months of possible progress.
She had been overly cautious at the beginning only allowing herself to be slightly happier than normal, allowing herself to feel sadness and fear and not stop them dead in their tracks. She was used to those shackles she had bound her emotions with and now that she was free of the weight she barely knew how to act. Internally allowing herself to feel gave way to slowly allowing those emotions to breach the surface. She would smile almost invisibly, shed a hesitant tear and blush softly on occasion. She didn't believe she'd ever be as expressive as her compatriots; years of hard restrictions would surely combat that tooth and nail but that's not what she really wanted anyway. She wasn't going for affectionate but rather open and approachable.
It was all so new. It was all so strange and yet addictive. She was beginning to grow impatient. All she wanted to do was show off all her progress to her teammates in one swift swoop but the reason in her won out. That was the very reason she hadn't told them about what she was attempting before. At the very start when she had realized what the situation presented she didn't want to give them false hope on account of it not working out. She didn't want to falsely lead them to believe that one of their beloved family members could begin to express emotion like the rest of them. That she could express happiness, express sadness, express anger. That he could possibly express love and she loved them all so much. Now, she finally felt she was well and truly ready to begin opening up to them. She felt incredible excitement and dread at the same time.
Her dream family moment wasn't something she could do overnight so when she discovered she could express more emotions she decided that it would be wise to start small and try her hand one Titan at a time. The perfect option was almost immediately Beast Boy. Though they had tortured each other for years with their very presence she felt he was the perfect starting point. He had been the one who for years never gave up on trying to make her smile. Though that may say more about his ability to take a hint rather than a sign of any underlying noble trait. Regardless, the constant effort he showed was what had originally led her to choose him as her first target. He was the obvious choice and the situation at present granted her the perfect opportunity to begin her trials. He was desperate to please her and she was desperate to connect.
Her eyes shifted over to her mug. She should get it into the washing machine. The object silently became enveloped in darkness at a moment's notice and swiftly disappeared from view. She often use this method to clean out her room. She rarely left anything out as it was so easy to just teleport them to their proper place. Unlike Beast Boy who often left his forgotten personal items strewn about the tower. She thought of the amount of times she had seen him get chewed out by Robin for doing so. No one could tell if he did it on purpose or if he really was just that forgetful. His abandoned tea mug in the common room came as no surprise to her. She was back to that thought again.
"What should I do?" She was starting to fret and in an instant she decided she was making a mountain out of a molehill and she'd just have to wing it. With that in mind, she swiftly teleported to the roof where she would try to vacate her mind and prepare herself mentally for what was to come.
Some time later, Beast Boy had finally made his way to the floor the kitchen was on. He had previously gotten sidetracked by the sight of some distressed bird outside of the tower and now feeling satisfied having helped the struggling creature he felt he deserved to be rewarded by some good food. He walked down the corridor to the dining area confidently as Robin was walking out of the kitchen. The team leader gave him a curt nod from behind his newspaper, coffee cup still in hand.
"I miss breakfast?" asked Beast Boy, stopping Robin from continuing down the call. Robin peered around his newspaper and gave him a tired smile.
"Just by a bit. Good effort though. I left a couple of slices of bread in the toaster just in case you woke up," he answered, still walking down the corridor.
"Where is everyone?" he asked swiftly, as he turned to see Robin's retreating form.
"Training room," the older boy called back. Satisfied with this answer Beast Boy continued onward.
He strolled into the empty room that smelled vaguely of bacon and sausages. He scowled for a moment before going about his business. He rummaged around the fridge and grabbed his carton of eggs. As he turned on the stove-top to start cooking his eggs he saw a glint of something reflective nearby. He turned his head and his eyes landed on Raven's kettle. It was in the sink again; same place from before. He bit his lip and eyed it warily.
He had enjoyed his cup of tea the previous night and felt the allure of having himself another cup. Maybe a caffeinated cup this time to wake him up a bit. He peered around the kitchen's connecting hallways quickly then perked up his ears to listen for signs of his other teammates. He sighed, relieved when he heard Cyborg's, Starfire's, and Robin's voices all coming from a few floors below himself. That only left Raven unaccounted for but if he was a betting man he'd say she was more than likely to be hiding out on the roof like always.
"What are the odds she'll decide to go against her routine today?"
Before he could think more of it he put the kettle on the stove-top next to the frying pan and started searching through the tea drawer for another satchel. His hands paused over one that read Orange and Spice tea. Unwilling to continue his perusal of the drawer in case he was caught in the act he picked out the Orange tea and started looking for the green sloth he had used the last night. That's when he remembered he had left it on the floor of the common room and started worrying about it. He ran over to the common room and found it clean of any trace of it. He ran a hand through his hair and walked back to the kitchen. He started pacing as he wondered where it could have gone before finally spotting the sloth in the open dishwasher as well as his mug. Confused, he walked over to it and picked it up. He looked inside the mug. It was unwashed and something about it was off. He sniffed the air lightly. He couldn't smell the blackberry tea he had had in it at all. All he could smell was mint. That meant someone had used his mug! That meant Raven had used his mug!
"Did she find it out in the common room this morning? Oh my God, does she know I stole one of her tea packs? She's gonna kill me. I'm going to have to move away. Far away." He started nodding very fast then shaking his head even faster. "No, she'll find me anywhere I go. Dammit, I'm a dead man," he whined. Reason kicked in a moment later.
If Raven had indeed found out what he had done, she would have immediately gone for the jugular. Unless this was a new kind of anger where she was plotting his slow death. He rubbed his neck weakly.
"Should I still make the tea? Yeah, yeah. I'll make her a cup too. Maybe she won't strangle me then."
He began busily preparing his eggs as the tea kettle was slowly coming to a boil. It finally began whistling as he stuffed his eggs down his throat. He almost choked on a yolk as he ran to grab the mugs and infusers and very nearly dropped the mugs from how sweaty his hands had become. He chose the green sloth from the day before and a small lavender sailboat he had found in the dishwasher. Hurriedly he filled each mug with the steaming water and dipped the packed infusers in the water. Tea mugs in hand he started carefully speed walking towards the roof, hoping Raven would like or at least accept his peace offering.
Yeah so this chapter is one of those in betweeners. I hope you liked it. Please let me know if any of the continuity doesn't work. I swear I confuse myself sometimes. Have a lovely day y'all!