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“You’re my roommate who’s super cute and it’s the middle of the night and you’re cramming for your exams in your flannel pajamas and disheveled hair and it’s becoming increasingly hard for me not to kiss you” AU
From <http://dailyau.tumblr.com/post/166676134495/youre-my-roommate-whos-super-cute-and-its-the>
I just froze. I just stood there with the fridge door open and the carton of soy milk in my hand and my body just stopped. Have you ever seen something that was so out of place, so outrageous that it demanded your attention? I once saw Batman eating a hamburger with a knife and fork. I mean who does that?
When I first saw her I thought that she broke into the tower. Yea Beast Boy, some cute girl snuck into the home of the Teen Titans in the dead of night to drink tea and study. I guess it was just the shock of it all it took me at least 30 seconds of staring with my mouth hanging open to put it all together, it was Raven.
Yea, I know I have lived with this woman for years, how did I not know it was her? Well, I have barely seen Raven in almost three months. After we sent Trigon's red demon butt packing, (Okay Raven did the heavy lifting) Raven decided to go to college. She had her whole life now in front of her and no idea what to do with it. So unless it was something really bad, as in, the end of life and waffles as we know it bad, we left Raven to study and go to class. I would only catch glimpses of her at times or hear her in the middle of the night. She didn’t so much live in the tower but haunt it.
I had never seen Raven like this. Her hair had grown a bit longer and it hung just below her chin as she leaned over the book she was reading. A few strands had gone astray. She was wearing dark blue and black plaid flannel PJs. I mean I knew Raven must have had something else in her closet besides cloaks but this was all so…normal. Looking at her she wasn't the dark and mysterious sorcerous, she wasn't the powerful half-demon hero. She was just a girl, in her bare feet, wearing pjs, and reading a book as thick as a mattress.
"You're starting to distract me Beast Boy, and the food is going to spoil if you don’t close the refrigerator." She said never looking up.
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I closed the fridge door forgetting about the soy milk still in my hand. I opened it back up again to put it away. "Um, do you want anything in here?" I said, sounding like a dope.
"No," she said lifting a tea cup to her mouth and sighing in frustration finding that It was empty. "Dammit"
"Why is the Tea always gone!" I said to her in my best Jack Sparrow. She finally looked up at me, her eyes were a bit red and I could tell she had been up long past her bedtime, by days. Her mouth opened slightly but she must have been too tired because there was no biting remark no sarcasm just a blank stare and a shake of her head.
Raven started to stand up, she groaned and she stretched out her back. I closed the fridge door and before she could leave the table grabbed her kettle and was filling it. I had it on the stove a moment later.
"Beast Boy, I can do that myself."
"I know you can, but you look like you have a lot to do. " I told her. I watched her let her weight drop into her chair and bury her nose back into her book. I reached into the cupboard for her tea and my eyes fell on the jar of peanut butter. "When was the last time you ate?" She didn’t answer. I wasn't sure if she didn’t hear me, or if she didn’t remember. So I decided to fix that.
A few minutes later she had a full tea cup and a plate with a peanut butter sandwich cut into 4 triangles placed on top of the pages she was reading. She looked up at me and then back at the sandwich like she was not sure what it was.
"You look like you need a break," I took the seat across from her.
She lifted the plate and moved it aside, her eyes returning to the book "Beast Boy I do not need a break"
I took a long pull of air through my nose. "You're right, you need a meal and about 8 hours of sleep." She gave me a confused look "Your scent, I can smell the ketones. Your body is screaming for a rest. So how about you eat something or I might just throw you over my shoulder and throw you into your bed?"
Now that, got her to forget about her books and brought her to her feet. "You wouldn’t dare."
I stood up and leaned in close to her looking her in the eye. "Try me." I was almost hoping she wouldn’t back down. Despite magic powers, demonic heritage, and the fact she has a wicked left cross when she uses it (Trust me this is experience talking). She looked like a strong wind would knock her down. Her eyes were a bit sunken and she was a bit paler than usual. Then she brought one of the pieces of sandwiches to her lips and took a bite.
We both eased back into our chairs. Soon the piece of sandwich was gone. Then she reached for another and another, and a few minutes later the sandwich was finished.
"Would you like another sandwich?"
Raven looked up at me and then back at the empty plate. "Yes please" she whispered.
I made her another sandwich, brought it back, and started looking through the piles of books assembled on the table. Each one was littered with post-it notes and page holders covered with her small squiggly handwriting. The books were miles apart. European history, introduction to chemistry, pre-calculus. There were guides for at least 4 other subjects.
"How many classes are you taking?"
"6."
"Isn’t that a lot?"
Raven looked up at me. There was a small smear of peanut butter at the corner of her mouth. "I didn’t know what I wanted to study." She sounded so defeated. "I picked random from the undergrad requirements. I thought by the end of the semester I would know but I still have no idea. "
"Do you want some help?" She had tried to wave me off but I had already pulled one of the books out of the stack and flipped to the back where the study guide questions were. I started asking questions at random doing my best Alex Trebec impression. This went on for a while me jumping from different books each time saying "The Category is". With each question, Raven snapped back with the correct answer immediately.
After about half an hour and jumping through all the books Raven looked like her battery was about to run out. She could barely support her head as she looked down at the book In front of her.
"You have this stuff down cold Mama, I think it's time to get to bed. "
"No, I got to pass, need to graduate so I can do…"
"Rae, this is your first year I think you should-
"Should what?!" She cut him off suppressing him with a burst of anger she got to her feet shuffling towards him "I have no idea what I should do and neither do you! This whole thing was supposed to help me figure this out! I am more confused than ever. I feel guilty about not helping you, if I don't do well the world is going to end. All of us won't get breakfast, and I won't get to touch your ears!" She said as she lunged/collapsed in my general direction.
I quickly grabbed her around her torso under her arms to keep her from a faceplant onto the kitchen tile. I pulled her up a bit to put her on her feet her head rested on my shoulder. Her face was so close to mine, and there was still that smear of peanut butter on the corner of her lip. That was the closest I had ever been to her not counting the time the Red-X had tied us together. For a moment my brain stopped working. I just started to bring my face closer to hers. Her eyes had fluttered closed. Then she mumbled.
"Are we dancing?"
That was enough to snap me back. I thought for a moment. "Yea Rae we're dancing," I said and I started humming. There was a bit on the old Muppet show where the cast would dance. I started humming that goofy repetitive tune swaying Raven gently. I slowly danced her right out of the kitchen and back to her room. My big finish was scooping up her legs to put her in bed.
"You are a lovely dancer," I told her as I pulled the blanket over her. She mumbled incoherently a bit. Before tucking her in I took her hand. "Raven," I said quietly as I guided her hand to one of my ears letting her fingers brush against it. "I have no idea why you wanted to do that, or if you were serious, but you can do that if you ask okay?" she had no response, already fast asleep. "Good night Rae" I retreated quietly back to my own bed.
I didn't see Raven again until two days later. A string of small alerts took up the time. We had run into each other in the hallway. She looked worlds better much more like herself than she did the other night. I had no idea how much or if she had remembered the other night.
"Hi, Raven." I tried to keep it light. For some reason, I felt like I did something wrong. I don't think I did anything unless peanut butter had become a controlled substance that I had not heard about.
"Beast Boy. " She acknowledged walking past me not even looking at me.
I did not know whether to be insulted or relieved that was Raven, and that was normal behavior for her. I continued down the hallway not noticing that she had turned around. Until she asked. "May I touch your ears?"
I nearly jumped out of my socks. I turned around and she was right there. Not down the hall, not across the tower, not as far as she could get from me but right there. "Uh yeah, okay," I said agreeing without a first or second thought.
She brought both her hands up to either side of my face she gently traced the outer ridges of my ears with her fingertips, her thumbs ran up from my temples to the points, then slid back. "Is this uncomfortable?" She asked as she examined them.
"N-no" I stammered out. That was the absolute opposite of uncomfortable. I could live in that feeling. "Uh, why did you want to do this?" I asked.
"Simple curiosity, and since you gave me permission. "
"Yeah.." I said her fingers were slowly melting me like a lit candle until I made the connection. "You remember that?!" My eyes shot open.
"I have a complete memory of that night." She said as it was a fact from her books. "Thank you for what you did, and you should have done it."
"Done what?"
"This," she said her hands leaving my ears and cupping my face. She kissed me. It was simple her lips met mine for only a few moments before she pulled away. But what a few moments. Raven stepped back with a smirk an actual smirk. I didn’t think that was physically possible. "Thank you for helping me study Beast Boy" She turned and started to walk away. "This is only the first semester, I hope I can count on your help again. "
Then she disappeared into her room. Me? I hadn’t moved since the kiss. I was probably making a gurgling sound. All I know is that after that night I had a whole new appreciation for higher education.
So it's been a while. I have not posted anything of substance in a long time. This is something from my draft folder that I pushed to complete. So bare with me I am rusty. Will I start writing more? Don't know. I want to. I have missed doing this. Also if anyone was wondering about that Muppet show bit I referenced in the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Felv3OZKtU (At the risk of dating myself.) Take care all.