Don't own the Titans. Cries
Raven stood in a silent corner of the local supermarket and glared at shelves upon shelves of tea boxes. She glared with a ferocity so intense that had there been any passerbys they would have undoubtedly withered in her presence. She cursed under her breath, damning her past self for putting her in this situation.
It wasn't really all that difficult to choose a tea and she had done so on multiple occasions. She was a connoisseur in the art of tea making at this point. It had all started with the herbal teas of Azarath which had no name but always seemed to help soothe her soul and send her into a state of inner serenity. When she arrived on Earth, tea was one of the few things she found welcoming and familiar. The sense of having something that was her own spurred her obsession with the beverage and she soon had learned about all types of methods of making tea and about all the kinds of flavors that existed. She started with the easy and simple flavors of chamomile and mint and worked her way onto stranger arrangements like fennel spice. There were very few flavors she had yet to try from the local market and thus she was no novice when it came to choosing flavors that would either delight or fascinate her refined pallet. So why was this so difficult? Inside her mind a storm was brewing.
"What should we bring him? Something we like?" asked a disembodied voice coolly.
"No, something he likes!" said a voice similar to the other. This one, however, was followed by a sweet giggle.
"Well, what does Beast Boy like?"
"We don't know..." said another nearly identical voice, barely above a whisper.
"We thought he didn't like tea and now he does. We're not exactly qualified for this." This voice was brash and almost aggressive as if it was daring the other voices to disagree with her. "It doesn't matter what we bring so let's just get something we like. It's not like we're trying to impress him. What's it matter if he doesn't like our tea? Better for us!"
"But we are trying to make a good impression. We care about what Garfield thinks." It was the happier voice again. This time she sighed.
"Why do we care about that insect!?" This voice sounded completely different from the other sister voices. This one growled out her words making her sound halfway human halfway Beast.
"He's our teammate," said the brash voice.
"He's our friend!" shouted the happy one.
"He's kind to us..." was remarked. It had come from the whisperer at normal volume and the change in her typically small demeanor silenced the other voices.
Externally, Raven sighed a long and low sigh. She had half a mind to just teleport home and away from this whole situation but in the end her stubbornness won out. She planted herself firmly in place and continued glaring at the bright assortment of tea boxes. After several moments contemplation and several more choice words bring thrown around by her inner emotions, she huffed, eyes shut reaching out to grab a random box. When she opened her eyes she saw she had grabbed a box of black cherry tea. Satisfied with her chance decision she tossed her selection in a basket yet before she could convince herself to go check out she grabbed one of each fruit flavored teas in front of her and dumped them into her basket. She was about to turn to leave the aisle finally having gotten what she came for when she impulsively turned back and blindly reached for a box of something floral for her own pleasure.
She quickly checked out before teleporting back to the Titan's tower. When she reached their kitchen she began to silently unpack the copious amounts of boxes she had purchased. A dark strand of blue hair so dark it almost seemed black fell in front of her face as she busied herself with organizing her new collection of fruity teas into an already cramped drawer. She looked down right disheveled as she accepted her defeat to the restriction of space inside her tea drawer and began packing the excess boxes into her nearly vacant cupboard. She hovered over their shared countertop as dark tendrils organized the boxes; first alphabetically, then by color, then by what degree she assumed Beast Boy would enjoy them. Soon the bottom shelf of her designated area was lined with teas and her cereal and other snacks were shoved into the upper shelves. Satisfied with the new order she had found she shut the cupboard and proceeded to shoot straight through the ceiling and onto the Titan's roof.
She went into the lotus pose out of habit before shaking her head. She was agitated, her nerves starting to break at her resolution and yet this was an opportunity. She remained in the lotus position but wiggled in the air as if she was getting comfortable. She breathed in a large breath and then groaned loudly, releasing all of her frustration.
"I can do this. I can do this," she chanted to herself. Within her mind all of her emotions stood on edge, with either excitement or fear, at what tea after dinner would bring.
Within the tower, Beast Boy felt similarly to his teammate. He was fussing around his room looking for something to busy his twitchy hands. He had gotten tidier over the years but copious amounts of clothing still littered most of the bedroom surfaces. At least it was just clothing now instead of food or other organic matter. Regardless he had nothing to do at the moment but waste time until dinner so he began shoving laundry into a large bag. He ran his fingers through his hair anxiously as he thought about what came with him finally being called down for dinner but it wasn't the dinner making him anxious, oh no, tofu could never do him wrong. It was what he knew would happen after dinner that was tying his stomach into knots.
He had hoped for years that he would get a chance to be closer to Raven and though he had gotten that opportunity more than once before, this felt different; like it was higher stakes. Sure before he would have taken just her acknowledgement as a victory but he wanted more now. He wanted a tangible friendship. Not that they weren't already friends but he wanted to act like it; he wanted to act how normal friends do and now there was a chance. There was a possibility, new hope, that he could smile with Raven; make her laugh like he did Starfire or Cyborg. He had always wanted to have that with Raven and it always bugged him that with her powers linked to her emotions it never seemed like a plausible option. Now it was and it was overwhelming.
With a bag full of clothes slung over his shoulder he trounced out into the hall and towards the laundry chute. Once the bag had disappeared from his sight he ran his hand through his naturally untamed bed head. He was going to pull his hair out from the anticipation at this point. He couldn't wait but he had to. For Raven, he had to. Lost in thought and wandering the hallways Beast Boy bumped into their masked leader.
"Oh, hey Rob. Didn't see you there," he said, abashed.
"You're looking a little distracted there, Beast Boy. Something on your mind?"
Beast Boy ran his hand through his hair nervously again before catching himself and holding onto his wrist with his other hand. He chuckled lost in thought again as he was reminded of what had him walking so dazedly through the tower. "Uh, yeah you could say that."
"I'm going to be going down to run the training course for a little while. Wanna come with me? Maybe get whatever's bugging the unbuggable Beast Boy off your mind."
"Huh?" Robin's words had flown in one ear and out the other and Beast Boy tried to hurriedly rewind the ongoing conversation in his mind. "Training bugs? I don't know how much help I can be at that but I'll give it a shot."
Robin smiled gently and placed a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "I don't know what's going on with you today but if you join my training session maybe we can, uh, talk about it or we can get your mind a little more focused on the real world for a little while." He chuckled awkwardly. "Just try not to be too distracted. We don't want the stun guns blasting you on our free day off."
Beast Boy couldn't really figure out how he had managed to get roped into a training session with Robin on their day off but while he didn't particularly feel like training that day it at least gave him something to do before dinner. For the chance at a better bond with his most allusive teammate he would have to wait and be patient; even if it meant he had to train with Robin to kill time; even if that brutal time in the gym made him reconsider his all his life choices.
When dinner time finally rolled around Beast Boy was thankfully too exhausted to be stressed while Raven was not so lucky. She was at her wits end, not having allowed herself to completely defuse through meditation had her emotions reeling. On the outside she seemed calm and poised like always but on the inside her mind felt like it was melting.
"And Garfield is supposed to be the easiest of them!"
"Is he though?" A second voice wondered.
Raven breathed deeply as she used her powers to load the dirty dinner plates into the dish washer. She could practically feel Beast Boy's eyes boring holes into her spine as he wiped down the table tops. The rest of the team had gone off into the common area and the tension between the two was getting stifling. They had been fine earlier. Well, closer to fine than they were at this moment at least. It seemed as though the day had just put their anxieties into a pressure cooker and it was starting to feel like they would boil over soon if the heat remained on.
Beast Boy decided he had waited long enough when he walked over to Raven's kettle. Without saying a word, he filled it and promptly put it on the rapidly heating stove top. Raven felt relief wash over her. Where she was inept at this whole being comfortable and relaxed thing, Beast Boy seemed to like an expert. He was using his casual demeanor to settle her nerves.
When the kettle started whistling it seemed like all the remaining tension disappeared from within them. It might've been the immediate trained response that calmed Raven's nerves when she heard a pot brewing but that didn't explain the wave of peacefulness that washed over the whole kitchen. Raven moved to her cupboard. After opening the door she beckoned the taller Titan over.
"Holy cow, Rae! Did you buy the whole cities supply of tea or just this districts?" He laughed whole heartedly, nudging Raven in the arm. She rolled her eyes like usual and pointed at the arrangement almost sheepishly.
"I wanted you to have a variety to choose from."
"We could have just gone to a tea shop. This is too much, Mama." He stopped, noting her silence. She had raised her hood without him noticing while he had been speaking. He bit his lip. "Thank you, RaeRae. This means a lot to me."
Cautious eyes peered out from under her hood. She took in his honest features and steadied herself before dead panning. "You're welcome. Pick one...please."
To her everlasting surprise he chose the floral tea she had chosen on a last minute whim.
"Rose bud tea? Can we try this one?" he asked excitedly.
"We buy all that fruity tea and he goes and picks the one tea that's different. The only floral tea we buy!"
"He likes what we like!"
"Will he like it..."
"We can try whatever you want to. You're the noob here." That made Beast Boy chuckle and he began preparing their cups.
They sat across from eachother at the dining room table and Raven stared expectantly at the cup in front of her friend. Beast Boy's eyes made context with her line of sight and he supressed a smile he knew would be to bright. He drew his hands sound the cup and took a long slow drink.
"Blech. More honey, please." Raven sat up ram rod straight in her seat. She had been so focused on watching for his reaction that the sudden outburst had startled her; so much so that she got up to grab the honey tube instead of using her magic like she normally did. She added a generous amount of the golden syrup and when Beast Boy took another sip and sighed contentedly she smiled. It was brief, hardly a flicker but nothing she did could evade the watchful gaze of his sharp eyes. His heart was immediately full.
Renewed confidence surged through the young man and he attempted initiating small talk with the dark demoness before him. Soon they were sitting chatting about nothing as they took slow deliberate sips from their cups. One tender hour later they said their goodnights before departing to their individual rooms and as they lay in bed they both felt warm inside and not just from the tea.
This is just fluff. Pls enjoy