It's Only Funny Until...

“It’s only funny until someone gets hurt”

Summary: Robin and Cyborg talk Raven into helping them plot a practical joke against Beast Boy.  Raven reluctantly helps, but all of them get more than they bargained for.  Especially Raven.  Pairings: BB/Raven beginnings.


Raven was sitting cross-legged on the couch in Titans Tower, trying hard to ignore the whispering that was occurring on the other side of the room.  Robin and Cyborg were clearly up to something, but she decided it was best to leave them to their mischief.  She wondered at length if any of their whispers had anything to do with the Titans’ own resident trickster, Beast Boy.  Minutes later, she had her answer.  
“Raven?  Are you busy?” Robin asked.  She noted a hint of covertness in his tone.  Raven didn’t bother looking up from her book.  
“I am reading,” she replied flatly.  Cyborg looked over his shoulder and then back at her.  
“C’mon, Raven, we really need your help with something.  Beast Boy isn’t gonna know what hit him,” Cyborg said, his voice almost a whisper.  Raven sighed softly as her book slapped shut.  
“What is it you want me to do?” she asked without looking at them.  Robin pulled a small canister out of his utility belt.  Suddenly, he had Raven’s undivided attention.  
“You know all those gags he’s pulled with food that Starfire brings home from her home world?  He throws himself on the floor and gags and then pretends to pass out.  What would happen if he actually found someone on the floor?”
“This is pointless.  He’s going to see right through it,” Raven replied.  
“Not likely.  He’ll walk in,” Robin described dramatically.  “He’ll find the lifeless body of his teammate on the floor.  He’ll panic and look around for potential enemies as he begs you to wake up.  He’ll find an open jar of Starfire’s Tamaranian Droozleberry jelly on the floor next to you…”  Raven stopped him mid-sentence.   
“Did you say lifeless?” Raven asked, becoming suspicious.  Robin once again held up the can from his utility belt.  
“Knockout gas.  All you have to do is inhale, Raven,” Cyborg replied.  “You’ll wake up half an hour from now, just like Sleeping Beauty.”  Raven rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, okay.”
Raven hardly got the words out before the boys took a deep breath, held their noses and mouths, and popped the can open.  Raven coughed and choked and inadvertently inhaled.  The gas did its job quickly and Raven slumped down to the couch cushions, unconscious.  Cyborg high-fived Robin before scooping Raven into his arms and following Robin to the kitchen.   Gently, the two mischief makers arranged Raven on the floor to make it look like she had simply fainted there and proceeded to set up the rest.  The open refrigerator door, the jelly jar, etc.  Then the two tiptoed out of the kitchen and waited.  Cyborg grinned like a madman as minutes ticked by, and then slowly, something distressing started to dawn on him.  
“Rob, what’s gonna happen if he doesn’t come downstairs before Raven wakes up?” Cyborg asked.  Robin was busy monitoring his watch.  
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry.  Beast Boy’s stomach is like Big Ben: you could set your watch by it,” Robin replied.  “Five, four, three, two, one…”  Then, just as Robin predicted, Beast Boy came walking down the hall, whistling a happy tune and likely contemplating what to eat for his mid-afternoon snack.  Cyborg and Robin watched from a safe distance as the smallest and youngest of the Teen Titans entered the expansive kitchen.  It took everything they had to keep from laughing when Beast Boy stopped short and gasped.  
Beast Boy was instantly on high alert.  His senses were pegged as high as they would go, and he dropped to his knees.  
“Raven!” he shouted, lifting her into his lap and holding her.  “Speak to me!  Raven, what happened?”  When she failed to respond, Beast Boy did just as his teammates predicted, he panicked.  He shouted for them to come, but no one responded.  Starfire was on her home world visiting her parents and thus too far out of communication range, thank goodness.  She might have spoiled the whole thing.  Beast Boy looked around for the source of his friend’s misfortune and found the carefully planted jar.  
“I knew that stuff was trouble!  Why does Starfire bring that stuff home with her anyway?  Raven, come on, snap out of it!” Beast Boy cried, his voice gaining an edge of sorrow in addition to his apprehension.  He looked around again and then turned his attention back to Raven.  He hugged her tight and started to whimper, hints of his dog form creeping into his voice.  When nothing happened, poor Beast Boy started to talk to Raven, even though he wasn’t entirely sure she could hear him.  
“I know I’ve never been easy to live with and sometimes I really annoy you, but I need you to know something.  I really care about you, Raven.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really hope you’re not gone because I’d really like to catch a movie with you sometime and I…oh, I don’t know what I’m doing.  I’m going on and you probably can’t hear me,” Beast Boy babbled.  
Raven was just barely beginning to come around when she heard Beast Boy talking.  She wasn’t quite sure of the beginning of his drabble, but what she did catch, she wasn’t sure she believed.  What was he doing?  Was this another set up by Robin and Cyborg?  
Unbeknownst to the two Titans in the kitchen, Cyborg and Robin were glued to a small view screen that Robin held in his hand.  The screen was receiving live feed from the kitchen, and the two pranksters were watching with rapt attention as their joke went wrong, but all at the same time took an interesting new turn.  
Beast Boy once again called out for Robin and Cyborg and then turned his attention back to the limp body of Raven in his arms.  He morphed into a wolf and howled as tears peeked at the corners of his eyes.  He morphed back into his normal form and pulled Raven close again.  His tears fell on her dark blue uniform, dampening her hood as it fell back from her blue hair.  
Raven forced her eyes open a little bit.  She took a deeper breath and turned her head to face Beast Boy, who continued to cry over her.  Beast Boy noticed immediately and stopped short, blinking away his sorrowful tears.  
“Raven!” he squealed, squeezing her again.  “You’re okay! I was so afraid that gunk that Star--” Raven cut him off.  
“It was not the jelly.  I did not even touch it,” Raven remarked, forgetting that she was still lying in his arms.  Beast Boy feigned confusion.  Raven explained that it was a can of Robin’s knockout gas and was about to tell him that it had all been a set up, but Beast Boy beat her to it.  
“Well, I suppose you heard all of what I said, huh?” Beast Boy said shyly, his cheeks turning as pink as they could beneath his green skin.  Raven saw this and her expression softened.  
“…Did you mean it?” Raven asked softly.  Her sapphire blue eyes were reflected in Beast Boy’s emerald green ones.  His heart pounded.  There was only one option: tell her the truth.  Beast Boy closed his eyes when he replied in a voice little more than a whisper, “It would have been the end of life as I know it if you had died.”
“After the whole thing with Terra, I didn’t think I’d ever care about anyone the same way again.  I was right.  I like you even more, and you were right here all along,” Beast Boy continued, now looking deeply into Raven’s eyes.  She hadn’t even realized that she had relaxed into his embrace.  It was becoming harder and harder to contain her emotions now.  She allowed herself a small smile, and carefully extracted herself from Beast Boy’s arms.  Standing, she helped him up and while she still held his hand, Raven gently kissed Beast Boy’s lips.  She broke the kiss and looked Beast Boy in the eyes.  
“We will discuss that movie later,” Raven murmured, releasing his hand.  She quickly left the room, leaving a stunned Beast Boy to process what had just happened.  
“Did she just say she’d go out with me?” Beast Boy murmured.  Then, from behind the couch, Beast Boy heard the sound of a sob and a sniffle.  Morphing into a cat and creeping up upon the couch, Beast Boy discovered the source of the sounds: Robin and Cyborg, still staring at the small screen in shock.  
“Man, that was beautiful!” Cyborg whimpered.  “Just the way you cried and she woke up in your arms and…” Cyborg had to stop and blow his nose.  Robin was wiping his eyes with the hem of his cape.  
“Wow…I can’t believe that after all this time…” Robin sniffed, turning off the screen.  
“You mean it was all a prank?” Beast Boy asked.  His teammates nodded ruefully and patted Beast Boy’s shoulder.  
“You gotta admit though, it did turn out pretty well, didn’t it?” Cyborg added before he and Robin left the living room.  Beast Boy was frozen to the spot.  For a fleeting second, he wondered if the two of them had somehow coaxed Raven to say what she did.  But then he remembered the look in her eyes.  There could be no doubt about it, Raven had been truthful too.  
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Tower, in her bedroom, Raven tucked her feet beneath her and began to meditate.  If her surfacing feelings for Beast Boy became any more apparent than they were now, she was liable to do something dangerous and she couldn’t risk that.  Taking a deep breath of the fresh air coming into her open window, Raven closed her eyes and spoke.  “Azarath…Metreon…Zinthos....”


To Be Continued!!