Disclaimer- i don't own the TT.
A Fine Line
Story By StormDancer
It is not light that we need, but fire; not the gentle shower but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
"Guess what Rae?" Beast Boy chirped as he strolled into the main room of the Tower and meandered over to the meditating girl.
"Raven, not Rae. Two syllables," she responded without opening her eyes. It was better to humor Beast Boy and get it over quickly.
"Right. Anyway, guess what I just did?"
"Decided to go annoy someone else?" came the drawled reply.
"Not exactly." Raven opened one eye, surprised. "I've made my New Year's Resolution."
"Congratulations."
"Yeah, well, I know it's early, but whatcha gonna do?" the changeling shrugged, "So my resolution is I'm going to stop annoying you and trying to get you to laugh and stuff."
He said it all in one breath, as if attempting to get it all out before it hurt him. Both of Raven's eyes flew open, and she landed on the floor.
"Who are you and what have you done with Beast Boy?" she asked in seeming sincerity.
"No, it's really me. I just thought that well, the whole making you smile deal isn't really working, so I might as well give up and save me the time and you the annoyance," he admitted. Raven's eyebrows rose.
"No." she stated.
"What do you mean, no?" he inquired in complete confusion.
"I am not accepting your resolution," she clarified.
He gaped. "What do you mean, you aren't accepting it? Can you even do that?"
"I am, so obviously it can be done."
"Well, I'm refusing your non-accepting."
"What?" she spat.
"I'm tired of getting thrown out of windows for a lost cause," he explained bluntly. She lunged over to him and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him hard.
"Don't ever stop doing that. Don't ever give me up as a lost cause. I need you, don't you get that?" she snapped, "I need you to make me feel. The minute I stop feeling, even if it would stop my father completely, is the day the greatest assassin in this dimension is bored."
"And you call me conceited," BeastBoy retorted, "You can't be that good."
She sighed. Taking a step back, she took a deep breath and muttered her mantra, casting an arm filled with dark energy at him. Beast Boy tried to let out the breath he had just took, me it wouldn't go. He shifted into a dog, then a cat, but still he couldn't breathe. Finally, Raven lowered her hand.
"I just stopped your diaphragm," she explained, as Beast Boy gasped, drawing in long drafts of air, "Another aspect of telekinesis and healing. I could just as easily do that to your heart, or even your brain. It's virtually untraceable, fairly simple, and fast."
"People would see you," he replied, "You would be caught."
"Would I?" she responded whimsically, "I don't think so. Consider this. You're fighting Plasmus in a crowded area. The park, say. I'm in a tree. As you fight, I stop your heart. You die within the minute. The coroners examine your body. Cause of death? Cardiac arrest. Reason? Who knows, maybe the stress was getting to you. No suspicion of murder, especially not on the bland and quiet girl."
"But you wouldn't-" he grasped for a reason to stop.
"Not as I am now, of course," Raven sighed, "I have emotions and an ethical code. But if you stop nagging me to feel, my emotions go. With them go my morals. I thus go where I can be bettered, say where the most money is. And assassination pays a lot more then hero work, Beast Boy. Trust me."
He didn't ask how she knew that. He had a feeling he really didn't want to know.
"So you don't want to have a lot of emotions because then your father would come, but you don't want to have none because then you'd go over to the dark side?" he clarified.
"In an extremely oversimplified form, yes."
"So you like me annoying you?"
"Did I ever say that?" she rolled her eyes, "I said it was necessary, not that I liked it. I don't enjoy tossing you out of buildings anymore then you enjoy being tossed out of them. I just have a fine line to walk with my emotions, and you help define that more then anyone else on the team."
"So you need me to force you to feel. That's what me annoying you does, but it's just any emotion you need to feel, not just rage, right?" he asked, a smirk growing on his face as an idea occurred to him. Sure, it was going to get him killed, but what was life without the risk?
"Correct," she agreed, "Now, may I return to my meditation? I assure you that you have annoyed me enough for one day."
He grinned as she closed her eyes. As soon as they were completely closed, he lunged forward and slammed his lips to hers. She froze for a millisecond, then shoved him away.
"What in all the hells-" she was cut off by his sheepish smile.
"It made you feel, didn't it?" he asked rhetorically before shifting to a cheetah and sprinting out of the room, fearing instant death. Instead, Raven just stayed where she was, hand pressed to her lips and eyes wide with surprise.
"Oh yes," she replied to the rhetorical question once the boy was out of earshot, "It made me feel."
So, she decided, maybe her fine line could be a little wider then she thought.