Broken Spirit - Chapter 7 Pt 2

Raven sat in the center of her bed, lotus position, with a book in her lap. She stared down at the pages more intensely than necessary. It was clear she was struggling to focus. But still she pressed on, shaking her head lightly as if trying to realign her thoughts.
She turned the page. But her eyes remained unmoving. The words were just one big blur to her.

“Ugh!” she slammed the book shut, falling onto her back, kicking out her legs, and holding the book over mouth. She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply through her nose.

“Still mad?”

Raven opened her eyes, sitting up, briefly alarmed but instantly reminded that doors and walls were of little consequence to some people. Quickly she steadied herself.
She could hear BeastBoy’s voice, but as she looked around the room, there was no sign of him.
Did she imagine it? Well, if she was in fact crazy, might as well roll with it.

“I wasn’t mad,” she said. “I was upset.”

There was a brief silence.

“Still upset?”

“A little. Justifiably so.” She punctuated with a downward flex of her eyebrows.

“I didn’t mean it.”

“I know,” she gave a small nod, softening her expression. “But the fact remains…”

“Don’t say it!”

“… You’re an idiot,” she finished bluntly.

. . .

Raven’s eyes scanned the room following no immediate reply.

“I’m entitled to that,” came a surprisingly chipper retort.

“Of course you are,” she crossed her arms. “For all intensive purposes anyone else who talks without thinking the amount of times you have would’ve been locked up, committed, or wound up de…”
There she went almost tempting fate again.

“Guess I’m lucky like that,” he said softly.

Raven gave a sigh of relief, dodging another verbal bullet. She panned the room, now certain she wasn’t hearing things as a result of her mental state. No hallucination could make her this tense in record time.
“You can come out now.”

“Only once I’m sure you’re not gonna’ hit me.”

Raven rolled her eyes as if it should be painfully obvious by now. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

“Trust me, Raven. I know you. If you really wanted to, you could hit me. Any time, anywhere, anyhow.”

“Perhaps,” she paused. “But I’m not anxious to make the situation worse than it already is. Even at the expense of a little gratification.”
Raven had considered the possibility of astral projection. Using her soul self to make contact and possibly use it as a means of retrieving him. But the risk of interfering with and disrupting the flow of whatever energies were keeping BeastBoy in place was too great a concern.

“Chalk this up to the ‘I’m so gonna’ hurt BeastBoy later’ category,” he dismally remarked.

“I would never willingly hurt you to any kind of serious degree,” she assured. “But it’s the thought that counts.” Raven gave a small smirk.

“That…  makes me feel kinda’ good actually,” he perked up somewhat.
It was the first time he’d ever looked forward to her getting mad at him. Either that or he was becoming a masochist.

SHWOO

BeastBoy popped up right beside Raven, materializing up through the bed. Raven turned to her side, meeting eyes with him. If he had startled her she didn’t show it aside from the quick turn of her head.
His face was pointed down, his torso still half beneath the bed, taking a breath before slowly looking up to meet eyes with her. “I’m sorry.”

She held her sights on him. Not so much as blinking and straight faced as ever. Raven had known BeastBoy long enough to know a bluff from sincerity. Well, ninety percent certain. This was BeastBoy after all and assumption could be a dangerous thing where he was concerned.
Her poker face folded. Her eyelids lowering to casual stare as her lips gently loosened. “Me too. This… whole experience is a bit much for me.” She gave a light shake of her head.

“Hey, how do ya think I feel?” he placed his hands on his chest, the tips of his fingers passing right through his own body. “In case ya haven’t noticed, normal and me ain’t exactly on speaking terms.”

She crooked her head to the side. “Body or not, normal has been indisposed on you for some time.”

“Oh, ha ha,” he dryly laughed. “Figures you pick now to grow a sense of humor.”

“I’m just trying to relieve the tension in a manner to which would ease your natural state and cease any undue stress in your enhanced spiritual form,” she explained, clearly pushing well outside BeastBoy’s word power.

“Aaaand, NOW you’re back to bein’ you,” he gestured to her with an open palm.

Raven rolled her head away as if keeping a small smile from being plainly visible.

BeastBoy folded his arms. “Ya know you seem to be takin’ this whole thing of me without a body pretty lightly. Especially considerin’ how… ya know… close we were gettin’.” He pointed a mildly accusatory finger at her, as he painted a neutral look on his face.

Raven leaned in closer, allowing his finger to pass right through her, firmly meeting eyes with him. “That’s because you’re not going anywhere. I won’t let that happen. None of us will.”

He just stared for what felt like a minute or two.
Briefly stunned, BeastBoy gradually shook off the overwhelming loss of brain activity, lost in her eyes. He’d forgotten Raven could do that. “Y-Yeah,” he lightly stammered. “Sorry. I don’t mid telling ya I’m just a ‘little’ worried about all this.” He rubbed the back of his head, shyly looking away just long enough to let his thoughts back into his head.

Raven followed his example, leaning back to upright position, running her hand through her hair.

“Is there even a way to do something like this?” BeastBoy asked, looking down at his hands before looking back at her. Clearly he was casually fishing for any progress she’d made, if any.

“Well sure there are ‘ways’,” she pulled her book against her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. “Assuming we find your physical form in tact I could forcibly pull and tear you back into the proper domain. Drag you across a few vast empty voids, risking your form to be ripped asunder by trans-dimensional cosmic imbalances.”

BeastBoy blinked twice in rapid succession, the signal he was balancing the scales in his mind between regarding that statement as good or bad. “And… that would bring me back here?”

“Here, there. Maybe spattering some of you on the wall perhaps.” Raven’s expression went deadpan as she looked back his way.

BeastBoy gave an audible gulp. “Um, maybe you could learn to sugar coat things just a smidge?” He pinched his fingers together as he forced a grin.

“I just want you to understand how delicate something like this is. How many possible missteps and errors we can’t afford.” She opened the book and began skimming pages. “It is your body after all.”

“Oh, I know you’ll be careful. After all, its obvious ya don’t keep around me for my mind,” he rolled his eyes at her.

Raven paused, holding her head up a bit. “True,” she conceded with a small nod, “I’m not crazy about your mind and the one track it operates on.” She stared down at the pages for an instant. “But it does have its moments. On occasion.”

“So I guess relationships don’t make ya smarter,” he shrugged. “Just make ya realize how stupider ya coulda’ been.” BeastBoy looked at her with an appreciative smile. It was reassuring that they could still grow from even these troubling circumstances.
“I’m grateful. Really. Especially all those times ya threatened to throw me into another dimension,” BeastBoy leaned to the side, “There’s no one else I’d rather have drag me back.”

Raven smiled into her book.

BeastBoy leaned forward trying to peer over her shoulder. “So, ya find anything?”

Raven’s posture stiffened, pulling back sharply. “NO! I-I mean… no.”

BeastBoy reeled back momentarily, her reaction giving him pause. “Um… ok. I mean, obviously, no instant fix but…” BeastBoy lowered his sights off of Raven to the book in her lap. “…Any kinda’ clues or hints to…”

Raven swiveled to the right, rotating her whole body on the bed, swinging her legs over the corner of the mattress.

BeastBoy crawled around her.

But Raven spun back around the other way.

He shot a curious look at her. Raven avoiding conversation was one thing. Maintaining silence another. Now she was just acting weird. Unless…

BeastBoy inched closer.

Raven stood up from the bed about to walk away.

But BeastBoy was quick to cut around in front of her. “Raven, is something wrong?” he looked at her sideways.

“Fine,” she responded in casual deadpan tone. Or at least trying to. There was a slight undertone of concern in the back of her throat. Like she was trying to tiptoe around something. Trying to hide something.

That’s when BeastBoy happened to look down at the book in Raven’s hands. The one held tight in both hands, held close, trying to be tucked away from view under her cloak.
“Sooo,” he smirked, coyly holding his hands behind his back, swaying to and fro, “What DID ya find? Anything good?”

“Nothing useful,” Raven took a step back, eyes darting to the side.

“Really?” his smirk began to grow. “Nothin’, huh? Hmm. Ya know, ya been readin’ an awful lot. Ya coulda’ maybe missed somethin’. Why don’t you ah… set it down, and I’ll look it over while you try another book.”

“No,” she calmly but somewhat nervously took another step back.
She turned left, but BeastBoy was there at the ready. She sidestepped to make for a dash right, but he was there to cut her off once more.

“C’mon, Rae,” he teased. “Whatcha’ got?”

Raven turned her back to BeastBoy, holding the book close to her chest.

SHWOO

BeastBoy phased his head right through her, and right into the book.

Raven narrowed her eyes in the most un-amused expression amidst a sigh in defeat. “I really should’ve seen that one coming,” she muttered to herself.

BeastBoy slowly pulled back. Silent, almost in a state of shock.

“Dude,” he said in mild disbelief, “Is… that…?”

The book in Raven’s hands, now begrudgingly held out in plain view as there was no way to hide it anymore, held a familiar title on the cover: ‘All Kinds of Love’
It was the same relationship self help book BeastBoy had been caught with and somewhat cautioned about at the bookstore only a day or two ago.

Raven cast her eyes off to the side, unable to look at him.

“So,” BeastBoy began.

“Here it comes,” Raven sank her head between her shoulders.

“All that super secret and ‘discreet’ talk? About ‘not adding to problems’? How’d you put it?” he mused out loud, tapping his chin as if pretending to recall when it was clearly already locked in his memory. “Oh yeah, ‘putting a strain on things’.” It figured BeastBoy’s memory was sharp as a tack when it came to rubbing it in over something. And he was pretty much quoting word for word her opening diatribe regarding relationships in general.

Raven’s head sank back as if trying to bury it under the collar of her cloak like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

And then?

Nothing.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Raven braved a glance back at the translucent green boy before her.
BeastBoy’s smile was barley at a quarter strength than she had predicted. She thought for certain he’d be ear to ear with teasing remarks and chuckles rattling off like automatic weapon fire. However that didn’t seem to be the fitting description. He was still clearly amused by this, as no doubt she figured he would be. But not in a mocking or conceited sense. Rather in a more… pleased way. Glad.

Raven relaxed her posture, still keeping the book in plain view before setting it down on the bed. She looked to BeastBoy again who still wore a content smile, but beginning to gleam with a sly and somewhat devious underscore to it.
“Well?” She asked.

“Well what?” he smirked, the innocence of his demeanor starting to fade.

Raven gave a somewhat impatient look to him. The only thing worse than BeastBoy having something up his sleeve was him dragging it out.
“Oh, come on,” she said dryly. “No sarcasm? No ‘too good for you’ literary remarks?”

He just closed his eyes as he shook his head.

Raven quirked an eyebrow.

“I admit, it’s… surprising,” he rolled with a step to the side. “Flattering, a little sweet, and… kinda’ cute.”
BeastBoy was clearly making the most of his intangibility and zero effect to physical repercussions, as he turned to slyly smile.

A black aura of seething embers seemed to rise off of her. Raven’s eyes narrowed, somehow taking umbrage of the word cute to classify the present situation and her demeanor.

BeastBoy got the message with a single flare of her nostrils, straightening his posture and clearing his throat. “Anyways, whaddya’ say we just kinda’ ‘overlook’ this whole thing?”

Raven down shifted her expression to second gear, lowering her outward energy aura. “So, you’re not going to hold… that,” gesturing her head to the side at the book while still keeping BeastBoy locked in view, “Over my head? Now or in the immediate future.”

“Nah,” he waved off, turning to place his hand on the book’s cover. “Compromise, Raven.” He smiled. “Relationships are all about compromise.”

Raven stared with an unconvinced look of suspicion.

. . .

Raven was once again seated in mid air, reading intently from another of her spell books. While BeastBoy paced back and forth a short distance from her, arms held behind his back as he appeared deep in thought of his own. Back and forth he walked, staring at the floor as it crossed under his feet.
“Okay,” he announced, standing up straight turning to face her.

Raven retained her book in place, only lifting her eyes just enough to display her redirected attention.

“What’s your favorite tv show?” he asked.

Raven lowered her eyes back down into the book. “I don’t watch tv,” she answered discreetly.

BeastBoy leaned off to the side, rubbing his head in mild disappointment. “Well, that cuts down on the small talk.”

Rather than hold the book over Raven, BeastBoy had instead opted for a little interpersonal information in exchange. A few questions and key personal knowledge he had made note of from his own brief interpretation of the book in question.
Despite some early objection Raven eventually conceded. It was the quickest way to keep him quiet and otherwise occupied. And she was a little curious what BeastBoy might deem as privileged information about her. He learns about her, she learns about him.
Compromise.

“What’s your favorite food?” he asked with an eager smile.

“The edible kind,” again she answered without having to look away from the book, as if hardly giving it any thought.

“Aw, c’mon Rae. Remember what the book said? Common interests. This isn’t gonna work if ya don’t take it seriously.” BeastBoy crossed his arms, lightly pouting.

“No, I’m not taking it seriously ‘because’ it doesn’t work.” Raven was still adamant about how having similar interests of any kind was not a pivotal factor.

BeastBoy just shook his head deciding not to press the argument further lest he risk losing the opportunity to learn while he could.
“Okay, okay. Um… favorite kind of movie?” he aimed for a more generic question. Raven wasn’t big on tv, so movies were an equal long shot. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Horror,” she answered.

“Really?” BeastBoy was mildly surprised, crooking his head at her.
Raven hadn’t fared well with Hollywood engineered fear in the past so this was somewhat of a shock. If she was being sincere that is.

“The ignorant immature ones always die first. Poetic justice in a sense,” she shrugged with a turn of the page.

BeastBoy slumped in his posture. “Gee… that’s comforting.”

Raven looked up, seeking to clarify that last remark. “You’re not dead,” she reminded him. “You’re just between dimensional planes. Your spiritual essence is merely free to wander without an anchor.”

“Way to raise my spirit,” he remarked unenthusiastically. By now he was far less sensitive on the D word, at least not directly pertaining to him. Still…

Raven closed the book, setting down onto the ground to walk softly towards the bookshelf.

“Another one?!” he asked, somewhat shocked, almost annoyed at her dedication to the written word.

“I’m still not getting anywhere,” she sighed. “Most of what’s available is conjecture. Guess work at best. Every chapter dealing with something associated with this kind of magic is either flawed by lore or simply trails off without any explanation.” She plucked another book from the shelf. “I’m guessing there’s a reason magic like this isn’t well documented. Hardly seems deserving of existence.” Raven began to skim the first few pages as she lifted herself back into the air.

BeastBoy’s mind clicked, as if Raven’s words had tripped something on his mind. “That kinda’ reminds me…”

Raven glanced briefly at him before turning back to her book having located the passage she was looking for.

He shyly lowered his head a bit, twiddling his fingers. “Remember how… when you asked why I was with you?”

Raven’s pupils stopped cold, frozen to the word of the current sentence she was reading.

“Well…”

“BeastBoy, you don’t have to.” She cut him off, lowering the book. “It was the tension of the moment, brought on by exhaustion and… other factors,” she conceded, intentionally leaving out guilt, before raising the book back up to reading level.

A wave of relief washed over him as he sank a little lower in his posture. But he quickly shook it off, standing back at attention puffing out his chest slightly. This felt too personal to ignore.
“Well, I know but… I feel like it deserves an answer. But at the same time, I can’t really pin one down.”

“It’s fine BeastB…”

“No,” he calmly protested. “I really wanna’ answer this. It’s just I don’t wanna’ say something to end this when I’m trying to explain it. I mean, you do kinda’ deserve to know, don’t you?”

Raven was silent, trying to retain focus to her book. But it was obvious reading was no longer of interest as her eyes had stopped flowing across the page.
She wanted to protest, but deep down she was semi curious. She did want some degree of closure.

He began pacing a few steps. “I mean, i-is it because you’re honest with me? Because you don’t force yourself around me? You say what’s on your mind or you only sugar coat stuff when ya absolutely have to? There’s just so many reasons, but none of them seem like that one good reason I’m… ya know… ‘with’ you.” He ceased his back and forth pacing and jumped up onto the bed. Seating himself on the edge of the mattress he took a small breath before looking up at her. “But I gave it a lotta’ thought and it’s a little hard to explain. So… just kinda go with it.”

“You’re asking me to bear with you in how you explain yourself? Oh, there’s a stretch.” She held her head with one hand.

“No really,” he offered sincerely.

Raven stared, somewhat caught off guard by the sudden seriousness in his eyes. She leaned forward, listening intently.

BeastBoy gave a small nod acknowledging her attention. “Okay. Ya know all those times ya hit me, and look at me hard, and talk down to me?”

“Yes,” she answered simply.

“Why do you do that?” he tilted his head to the side feigning almost childlike curiosity to make her give it serious thought.

Raven reared her head back as if surprised he’d even have to ask. “Because… it feels right and its what you deserve most of the time.”

“Exactly,” he pointed to her with a smile. “Well, that’s kinda’ the same way I feel about you. It feels right and you deserve it.”

Raven blinked, taking a second to mentally digest, clearly confused. “You’re saying… you’re with me because… I deserve you?”

“Are you saying you don’t?”

“You, possibly. The headaches that come with you, that’s another story,” she dipped her head onto her shoulder.

“But it does feel right.”

Raven stopped, lingering a few seconds before looking back to meet eyes with him. It took a moment to let it all sink in before she found herself shyly nodding, finding some measure of truth to it.

BeastBoy smiled.

Raven softly exhaled as if holding her breath for the last five minutes of the conversation.

“Okay. Now, how about me?” he reinstated the topic the topic at hand, leaning forward unable to hide his anticipation.

“What about you?” She quickly took up proper reading posture as if anxious to delve back into her research.

“Why are you with me?”

Raven hung her head off to the side. “I do not think…”

“No, no,” he waved both hands in front of him, not willing to accept a refusal. Not after all the stress that question had put on him at the time. “Fair’s fair. And I don’t think it’s too much to ask.”

Raven sighed. Speaking under heavy emotional influence had this nasty habit of catching up with her when she wanted to deal with it at the least desirable time.

BeastBoy nervously scratched the back of his head, leaning one hand back on the bed. “Not to rip off old band-aids but… the ways things kinda’ clicked with me and you. Isn’t that kinda’ the same as… uh… what’s his face? Two faced dude. Half toothpick with old mop hair, half spooky dragon?”

Raven hung her head in shameful remembrance. “Wolf in sheep’s clothing.” She responded, unwilling to speak his name, knowing full well whom he was referring to.

“For real!? I gotta compete with other animals now?”

Raven shook off a sigh with a soft smile, unable to tell if he was serious or charmingly idiotic.

“It… is kinda’ the same,” he stared down at the floor before peeking back up at her.

“No,” she began solemnly, “It’s not.”
Raven had long since more carefully rationalized and re-thought her fleeting encounter with Malchior. The dragon disguised as a charming male wizard, bound to one of Raven’s spell books until she unwittingly unleashed him through his tactful manipulation. And even at its peak, she never fully associated the connection she had with him as one of affection. It was more of an overwhelming acceptance and at a time where she had felt more isolated than usual. Which made it all the easier for him to prey on her as he had. It was a few things. But it was not like it was with BeastBoy, then or now.
“It’s not how it was with Malchior,” she concluded.

BeastBoy gave a visual double take. “Wait, I thought Malchior was the prince dude and Rorek was the dragon who impersonated the prince dude.”

“That’s what I said,” she affirmed.

“No, you said it wasn’t how it was with Malchior, but it wasn’t Malchior. It was mostly Rorek as Malchior. Or was it more like Malchior as Rorek?” BeastBoy’s hands were pointing every which way; crisscrossing around one another, almost tangling his own hands if not for the fact they could pass through each other.

“Well he w-… I mean it was more lik-… Ugh! Even just the essence of you gives me a headache.” She shut her eyes, rubbing her forehead. Raven was on the verge of giving herself a migraine. She leaned forward burying her face in her book once more.

BeastBoy clammed up for a moment to give her time to calm down. It was clear he’d unintentionally worked her up. He was increasingly more aware and surprisingly sensitive to Raven’s emotional learning curve. Like playing Operation. Except instead of worrying about touching the sides and making the nose glow, he was more worried about touching a nerve and having her eyes glow.

The past was still no easier to look back on. And especially not all the jarred emotions that came with it. Raven sighed, her eyes drooping deeper into her book. “Sometimes I just want to shut myself away.”

SHWOO

BeastBoy phased his head through the book.

“Guh,” Raven lightly huffed, reeling back still in air, arms fully outstretched as she instantaneously had pushed the book away, caught off guard. She looked briefly to the vacant spot on the bed no longer occupied by BeastBoy, making certain this wasn’t some new spiritual ability. He’d merely crept out in front of her.

He kneeled on the floor just below her, his face still looking up at her through the book. “You don’t ever have to hide from me.”

She looked right at him.

He looked right back. “I so wanna’ try for a kiss right now,” he said dreamily.

Raven replied with a lighter frown and a semi-serious demeanor. “And I so want to throw you out the window and into the bay. But there’s not a lot we can do about that, now can we?”

Gradually Raven eased back into upright reading position. Catching her breath she released one side of the book to run her fingers through her hair and brush a single bead of sweat from her brow, steadying her breathing and dispersing the creeping redness in her cheeks. With a small cough clearing her throat she returned to her hand to the book.

BeastBoy phased out of the pages, taking a few steps back. “I know you’ll do your best Raven.”

She sighed once more. “And if my best isn’t enough?” she asked drearily.

“Sheesh, no pressure or nothin’,” he attempted the ease the tension. “See, this is what happens when ya read too much. All those big words start weighin’ down your chill. It’s not like I’m already gone.” He held out his arms around him as if punctuating that he was still present to some capacity.

She shook her head. While it was nice to know he could adapt under the most extreme circumstances she couldn’t put this off any longer. “BeastBoy, as hard as this might be to even think about there is a distinct possibility that there might not be a way to reverse this.”

“Not like I’m gone,” he shrugged. “Exclusive, but not gone. Might take some gettin’ used to though. Ya know, the whole no body thing.”

“No!” Raven exclaimed, starting to get worked up again. “I can’t accept that!” She stared daggers at him, making him almost jump back.

“How co…?”

“Because I like you the way you are. Were… Are… Am? Ugh, I don’t even know any more!” She threw out her hands, dropping the book the ground, holding her face in her palms.

Quiet.

No counter remarks, no desperate apology for upsetting her, nothing. Just the stillness of the room.

Raven peeked through her fingers.

BeastBoy just looked at her. And with the warmest smile she could ever recall.

Slowly she pulled her head back up and fixing her hair back into place. “What?” she asked in a firm tone.

He looked down, shyly tracing circles on the floor with his foot before looking back up at her, his smile never once faltering. “That’s the first time you ever said you like me.”

Raven’s eyes widened, momentarily at a standstill, having blurted it out without thinking. But it was true. Since this whole thing began she had never told him straight up and to his face the one thing that seemed to make this whole thing work. She liked him. Granted, it wasn’t love. But it was above tolerable too. A step in the right direction. And for BeastBoy that was like a reaching a whole new level.
“I-I…um, that is…” she stammered. Her chakra stone sparked, dropping her onto the floor flat on her bottom. “Ugh,” she groaned with a thud onto the floor.

“Yeah, yeah,” he waved off, allowing the deniability to sink in. “Ya never said anything. Now, it’s gettin’ late. I’m just gonna’ walk outside, go to my room so you can get your feels in order, blow something up, and then we can start fresh tomorrow. Cool?”

Raven could tell it was already late in the day. And from the lack of light at the back of the curtains the sun had probably already set. It was nighttime. And a little shuteye might not be such a bad idea right about now. She had a lot to process.

BeastBoy started for the door.

Raven reached out, about to tell him to stay. He did still have a ‘condition’ after all. But under the circumstances maybe a little break would be good for her.
She drew her hand back, still trembling somewhat as if trying to figure out how to make her mouth work. Fighting hard to hold back her embarrassment, rubbing her backside briefly before starting to pick herself up.

“Oh, and Raven?” he called, halfway through the door.

She looked back up, doing her best to project a neutral stare. But her eyes were far from convincing, a look of subtle bewitchment about them.

He smiled. “I like you too.” And with that phased the rest of the way out the door and into the hall.

He took two steps away from the door, before stopping abruptly. He looked back as he leaned in back towards the door, his ear perked up, listening intently. “Three… two… one, and…?”

A small tremor shook the wall.

BeastBoy smiled bigger as he walked down the hall towards his room.

Raven sat up from the floor, dissipating a black energy barrier she’d thrown up around her. Every book blown off the shelf, scattered across the room and her bed as she exhaled deeply. Her powers had vented momentarily due to such a strong emotional spike.
“File this under the ‘I’m going to hurt BeastBoy later’ category.” She whispered to herself clutching her chest, red in the face. Though, which kind of red remained to be seen.

She could really learn to hate him. If she wasn’t working on openly loving him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

SHWOO

BeastBoy walked through the door to his room, trudging inside the dark dimly lit confines of his room. Dragging his feet forward he passed his small mounds of disheveled and wrinkled clothes, past the teetering stacks of comics, and right up to his bed.
He stopped short to briefly glance out the window, verifying the starry sky outside and the gentle moonlight glistening off the bay. He rubbed his eyes as he turned to begin leaning forward and drop face first into bed.

SHWOO

“WAH!”

WOOMP!

BeastBoy passed right through the bed and onto the floor. Slowly he crawled out from under the bed, getting to his feet. “What the heck?” he rubbed his jaw. He held out his hand pressing down onto the bed, to which he was able to keep it from passing through this time. “Weird.”
Cautiously, BeastBoy climbed into bed lying down on his back. After a minute or so of remaining situated without further vertical incursions with the floor below he relaxed his shoulders, rolling onto his side.

He chalked it up as a fluke. Got in too fast. Yeah, that was it. Being able to will just enough bearing on what to and not pass through was a subtle ability not suited for BeastBoy’s typical spur of the moment life style.

It was strange though. He didn’t know why but he felt… different. Not achy or painful different. Not ‘special time in a young boy’s life’ different. Just different. Like his whole body felt lighter and heavier at the same time. Tingly almost, like when your foot falls asleep only without the pins and needles sensation that came with it.

He rolled over onto his other side, closing his eyes. At least sleep was a notion that seemed somewhat easier.

The first night after this whole incident occurred he practically had to force himself to nod off. Maybe it was the tension of sharing Raven’s room. Or maybe just taking in everything that’d happened.
But now it seemed much more natural. Almost like his body was adjusting maybe. Adjusting his senses accordingly. Whatever the case, he took it as a positive. He felt tired, just like he had been before. Who knew, by this time tomorrow, he might be hungry too.

Maybe this whole thing was temporary and starting to wear off.

He snuggled deeper into sleep, curling his arm around his head to support himself as a makeshift pillow.

Maybe he was getting better.

. . .

BeastBoy’s ear twitched in the night. His eyes squeezed tight, tossing and turning back onto the other side of the bed. He mumbled a low groan in his sleep.

Fade out.

Fade in.

His body flickered.


To Be Continued…