Shock Therapy

Beast Boy had never thought he would ever even think this to himself, let alone say it out loud. But as he sat in front of the now-empty place where Terra had once stood as little more than a statue, there was only one thought on his mind.

"I wish she hadn't come back."

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Beast Boy forced it down his throat all the same. Having to live with the guilt of not being able to save her was one thing. But knowing that she'd come back to life in some form, and that she didn't remember anything?

That hurt tens of thousands of times worse than her petrifaction ever could have. At best, she was truly an amnesiac, but at worst, Terra was willfully ignoring him. The person who had always been there for her, and had her back when no one else did.

The shrill beep of his communicator jolted Beast Boy out of his thoughts, and he distractedly pulled it out of his belt and pressed the button on its side.

"Beast Boy here," he said flatly, but the voice on the other end wasn't the one he'd been expecting to hear.

"It's me," Raven's equally toneless voice answered back. "Are you busy?"

"Yeah," the shape-shifter answered as convincingly as he could, but Raven wasn't buying it for a second.

"Wallowing in self-pity doesn't count," she parried, an edge to her voice that made Beast Boy frown. "Come back to the Tower; we need to talk."

"If this is a group thing, just tell Robin to go on ahead without me. I'll catch up later."

The hardness in Beast Boy's voice, far from convincing Raven to back down, only served to make her even more annoyed.

"This has nothing to do with Robin, Starfire or Cyborg, Beast Boy," she countered. "I just need to talk to you. Now, you can either come back to the Tower yourself, or I can come down to Terra's tomb and drag you out of there kicking and screaming. But trust me when I say that if you make me come down there myself, you are not going to be happy."

Beast Boy's lips curled up into a spiteful smirk, spurred on by Raven's challenge.

"That's fine by me, Raven," he taunted, shutting off the communicator without giving her a chance to reply. If she was going to be such a pain in the ass, the last thing he wanted was Raven chewing him out. Why did she even care so much, anyway?

Beast Boy was pulled out of his thoughts once more by an insistent tap on his shoulder, and he turned around without thinking. The next thing the shape-shifter felt was the sharp pain of a fist slamming into the side of his face, sending him staggering backwards on his heels. Before he could regain his balance and see who had struck him, a second blow crashed into his jaw and sent him to the ground, landing hard on his tailbone. As Beast Boy sat there, dazed, a level voice broke through his haze.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Beast Boy."

The shape-shifter snapped out of his punch-drunk state in an instant when he heard the words, his eyes narrowing in hatred that was nothing short of primal.

"What the hell was that for, Raven?" he spat, the lingering shock from the blows the only thing keeping him from jumping up and retaliating. "What's your problem?"

"My problem?" she shot back, refusing to give ground and instead advancing closer and closer to her teammate.

"My problem is that you can't get over yourself, and your negative emotions are starting to drive me insane," Raven hissed. "You mope around the Tower all day when you're not pining down here, and I have to put up with every single second of your pointless heartbreak!"

Her words struck Beast Boy deeply, and he felt a new wave of grief rising up to swallow him whole. That wave turned quickly into raw anger, though, and the shape-shifter found himself on his feet before he had even thought about what he was doing. Not giving Raven so much as a second to react, Beast Boy lunged forward and gripped the front of her cloak in one clawed hand as his other hand drew closed in a tight fist, cocked back behind him and ready to strike.

"Pointless?!" he shouted, one movement away from bringing his free fist smashing down into Raven's unmoving face for some well-deserved payback. "If you had even a little bit of an idea how much it hurt to lose someone as close to you as Terra was to me, you'll apologize before I get really pissed!"

Far from backing down, Raven moved closer to her teammate, her eyes smoldering with quiet fury as her hood fell away to bring her face into the light.

"So that's it, is it?" she asked acidly, and if Beast Boy hadn't fought as hard as he could to not shiver, he would have done so right then and there. "You think that you're the only person who's ever felt this bad before, and you're just going to let yourself drown to get away from it all? You know, I used to think you were brave, Beast Boy, but now I can see that I was wrong.

"You're nothing but a coward."

That taunt brought Beast Boy's fist racing forward as he snarled in rage, and Raven closed her eyes calmly in anticipation of the impact.

But it never came. Opening her eyes again, Raven saw that Beast Boy's hand was frozen an inch away from her face, shaking.

"How do you do it?"

The vulnerable voice of her friend gave Raven pause, and she wondered if maybe she'd gone a bit too far with her idea of shock therapy.

"What?"

"How do you act like everything's fine?" Beast Boy asked again. "You lost your mother and your people, Robin lost both of his parents and Cyborg's freaking half-machine! How do you deal with it every day? Tell me! Tell me, tell me, please; just tell me…"

Raven drew the now-openly crying shape-shifter into a gentle embrace, sighing as she felt his warm tears splashing down on her shoulder.

"I wish I could tell you it was easy, Garfield," she began softly, using his first name without a hint of teasing, "but the truth is that it's not. Robin comes to talk with me at least twice a week just to get things off his chest, and I know Starfire goes to him for the same thing even more often. And that's also the reason why Cyborg leaves to go to Steel City every once in a while to be with Bumblebee.

"We're all screwed up in our own ways, Garfield," she finished, gently breaking apart the embrace, but keeping her hands on his shoulders. "Why do you think we depend on each other so much? Without you guys as my friends, I don't know what I would do to keep myself together."

Raven's unspoken message was crystal-clear to the shapeshifter: I'm here for you.

Beast Boy sniffled and sighed, feeling part of his guilt and grief vanish. There was still a bunch that remained, and it would take some time to fully reconcile himself with it.

For now, though, a start was better than nothing.

"Thank you, Raven," he said sincerely, apologetic. "I didn't think you cared."

She smiled, inwardly immensely relieved to see Beast Boy getting back to his normal spirits.

"Why would you think something like that?" she asked, lifting her hands at last away from his shoulders and turning around. "Of course I care about you, you idiot. And I don't actually think you're a coward, by the way," she added after a moment. When he heard her apology, Beast Boy smiled through his weariness.

"So, does that mean you actually think I'm funny, deep down?" he pressed, a playful gleam beginning to shine in his eye as he moved to walk beside Raven.

"Do I look like I'm wearing pink to you, Beast Boy?" she shot back sardonically in refusal.

Beast Boy was silent, but his smirk widened as they left the cave through one of Raven's portals.

The next morning, Robin was eating an early breakfast with Starfire when Beast Boy practically skipped into the main room, humming contentedly to himself. There were dark bags under his eyes indicating a lack of sleep, but nonetheless he still seemed more upbeat than he had in weeks.

"Good morning, Beast Boy," Robin greeted somewhat hesitantly, unsure how to take his friend's change in mood. "What brings you here so early?"

"I got hungry," the shape-shifter replied simply, busying himself with rummaging around in the fridge. "Oh, jackpot," he said after a minute. "Tofu sausages! Score!"

As Beast Boy sat down at the table and began chowing down on his meal, Starfire took up the questioning in Robin's place.

"Beast Boy, though I feel somewhat strange saying this, I must confess that I find your cheerfulness slightly... odd. What has caused such a sharp change in your temperament?"

"You'll see, Star," the shape-shifter said smugly, a wide smile spreading across his face. "I just finished pulling off my best prank ever. Took me all night, but it's gonna be so worth it!"

As if on some kind of perverse cue, a loud shout that was closer to a roar tore through the silent halls of the Tower.

"BEAST BOY! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Robin felt a chill lance down his spine as he recognized the voice, and looked worriedly over at Beast Boy.

"Was that… Raven just now, Beast Boy?" he asked, and his teammate snickered.

"Sure was," Beast Boy said with satisfaction, continuing to eat his breakfast as if nothing was wrong. As Starfire and Robin bolted for the exit, they were cut off by Raven rising through the floor, clad in simple blue pajamas and so furious that the air around her crackled with malevolent energy. One of her uniforms was clutched in her right hand, and Robin and Starfire immediately saw what had made Raven so enraged.

The purple cloak had been dyed a bright pink, contrasting sharply with the black leotard beneath it.

"Robin. Starfire." Raven said simply, and the two other Titans snapped to attention.

"Yes?!"

"Get out of here," she commanded, "unless you want to join Beast Boy over there as fresh paint on the walls."

Robin and Starfire disappeared instantly, leaving Raven alone with her prey.

"Any last words, Beast Boy?" she asked to break the silence. Beast Boy got up calmly, walked over to one of the large windows looking out over the city, and turned to face Raven.

"Yeah, actually," he answered, grinning like a hyena.

"You're welcome."

The shape-shifter morphed into an eagle and flew through the window, escaping his friend's wrath. Raven stood completely still, struck dumb by Beast Boy's audacity. After a few heartbeats, though, she smiled and gave a small chuckle. Throwing the dyed uniform on the couch, Raven shook her head and went to make herself a large mug of tea.

She'd forgotten how much she'd missed that moron.

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A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews, as always, are appreciated. I'm trying to put together a plot for a larger story, but I figured I'd post this one-shot in the interim.

Later!