HERE IT IS. After like, forever, I finished the first chapter. Here you go.
Link to it on ff.net:
www.fanfiction.net/s/3047397/1/Knock, knockRaven opened her eyes, then promptly shut them tightly against the light shining through her window. ‘I thought I shut the curtains…’ she thought as she rolled over and pressed a pillow on top of her head. Her visitor could wait. She needed just five more minutes of sleep…
Knock, knockIt was louder this time. Groaning, Raven rolled out of bed and pulled up her hood to hide her tangled hair; she had fallen asleep in her cloak. She shuffled over to her door and pulled it open halfway. “What?” she said, a little more harshly than she meant to.
Starfire stood before her, rocking back and forth on her heels. “Oh! Good morning, Raven. Um, have I interrupted something?”
“Just sleeping. What is it?”
“I simply wished to inform you that Robin has requested that we meet at 12 o’clock noon today, in the gym,” she paused, “I was also wondering, would you happen to know what this meeting is about? It seems strange, because Robin also requested that we not inform Beast Boy.”
“No idea. I’ll see you at noon, Starfire.”
“Oh. Bye then…” Starfire replied, slightly puzzled.
Raven closed her door and sighed, rubbing her temples. The only reason she hadn’t told Starfire what the meeting was for was that she wasn’t up to going over it with her. She glanced at her digital clock. 11:32. For the next 28 minutes, Raven was going to push this issue as far from her thoughts as possible…
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A while later, Raven stood before the mirror in the hallway bathroom, running a brush through her damp hair. When she was through, she placed her hairbrush inside the medicine cabinet on her designated shelf. There were six shelves in the cabinet: five were assigned to each of the Titans and the extra was for anything that everyone used, such as painkillers and disinfectants. Needless to say, each shelf accommodated very different objects. The economy-sized tub of hair gel that occupied most of Robin’s shelf contrasted greatly with the various scented sprays lotions just below it on Starfire’s shelf. But that was just how the Titans were. They were all very different people.
She closed the cabinet and walked down the hall to her quarters. When she stepped through the door, Raven’s clock promptly showed her that it was 12:05. It seemed that her quick shower wasn’t quite as quick as she thought. She stepped back into the hallway and started towards the gym.
On her way to the room where the informal meeting was to be held, Raven ended up bumping into Beast Boy – literally. He had just been exiting his room as she passed, resulting in an inevitable collision. “Sorry,” Raven said almost automatically after lifting herself to her feet once again.
“It’s okay,” the green teen replied as he also rose from the floor.
Raven blinked, startled at how the stoniness that Beast Boy’s voice now contained rivaled her own. “Um…Where are you headed?”
“Ops room,” Beast Boy replied shortly, stepping around Raven to continue down the hallway.
Raven opened her mouth to say more, then closed it and turned to resume her walk to the training room. It was now evident to her, more than before, that Beast Boy’s behavior was quite irregular. Never before had his mind been so focused on any one thing.
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Raven entered the gym, seeing that Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg were already there, as she thought they would be. “Sorry,” she muttered, leaning against the wall near the door.
Robin stood near the center of the room, ready to lead the little meeting, while Cyborg sat on a bench press, and Starfire sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning back on her hands. “Okay,” Robin began, “First of all, does everyone know why we’re here?”
Starfire looked back and forth between Raven and Cyborg, neither of whom responded. She looked back at Robin and timidly raised her hand.
Robin sighed, but spoke patiently, “Okay, Star. We’re here because it seems like Beast Boy has a problem-”
“Oh!” Starfire cut him off, her eyes brightening in understanding, “Do you mean his recent increased playing of the videogames?”
Robin nodded. “So you do know?”
“Yes,” Starfire replied, “Um, it seems that he has been playing them quite often.”
“He has,” Robin stated, “And it’s a bit of a problem. Together, we need to help him out of it.”
“But how is what I wanna know,” Cyborg piped up.
“That’s what we’re here to talk about,” Robin replied, “Any suggestions?”
“Well, I’ve been trying for awhile…” Cyborg said, “Nothin’ seems to catch his interest anymore.”
“Oh! I might show Beast Boy the wonders of cross-stitching!”
“Um, that doesn’t exactly seem like a Beast Boy thing, Starfire,” Raven said.
“Oh,” the red-head replied, her voice a bit quieter, “I suppose you are correct.”
Raven thought a moment. “I can look at some of my books, but I can’t promise anything. Videogame addiction isn’t exactly something they cover.”
“Well,” Robin said, “That’s all I can ask of any of you is to try and draw Beast Boy away from the games. However,” he took on a slightly darker expression, “if this goes on for too much longer, we’re going to need to find professional help for him.”
Upon hearing this, Raven immediately stiffened, and she could see that her teammates were a bit discomforted by this idea as well. If there was one thing that she knew Beast Boy hated as much as animal cruelty, if not more, it was shrinks. The topic had in someway or another come up in conversation once before, and though Beast Boy had tried to mask it, Raven’s empathy had helped her see through the façade and sense that he was unnerved. She didn’t know where this feeling came from, but she did know that seeking professional help would probably hurt him more than help him, but she kept quiet for the time being.
After a few more minutes of discussion, Robin dismissed everyone, adding that there would be combat practice at 4:00, outside.
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As she exited the gym, Raven was pulled aside by Starfire, who claimed to have an idea for her.
“Raven, might I suggest that you do the research in the book I presented to you for this past Christmas? The worker at the store of books where I purchased your gift said that it explained ways to help with slightly more…” she paused as she searched for the word, “modern problems.”
“Okay, Starfire. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.” Truth be told, she had completely forgotten about that book. It was basically about spiritual healing through meditation, and it was designed to reach out to modern-day teenagers. She hadn’t really needed it, but maybe she could take a look at it, just to see if there was anything that could help Beast Boy. She turned and started to walk back to her room, but Starfire stopped her once again.
“Oh, Raven? Would you perhaps enjoy accompanying me to the mall of shopping?”
Raven was about to turn her offer down, as she often did, but then thought,
‘Well, it has been awhile since I did something with her…’ She turned back to face her friend and replied, “Okay, but how about a bit later? Maybe around 3?”
Starfire’s face lit up. “Oh, wonderful! We will visit the store of sweets and buy many delicious treats, and we will try on many different shoes of high heels… Oh I cannot wait!”
Raven smiled internally. “Alright, Star, I’ll see you then.” Finally, she returned to her room, closing her door behind her. “Okay, now let’s get this done…” she said aloud as she headed over to her bookshelves. She pulled a stack of about 5 books from the shelves, including the one Starfire had reminded her of, and brought them over to her bed.
The first three books she studied ranged from 80 to 300 years old, and offered nothing that she could relate to Beast Boy’s situation. Shaking her head, she put them aside. Next came the book she had received from Starfire. This particular book had an index, so she flipped to the back of the volume and ran a slender finger down the page in a column of keywords beginning with the letter ‘V’. She did indeed find the word ‘videogames’ in the listing, along with two page numbers. Curiously, she turned to the first page that videogames were mentioned on. On the page was a simple table, listing the seven chakras in the first column and addictions related to the chakras in the second. Videogames was listed next to the fifth chakra, the
Vishuddha chakra. Raven’s heart skipped a beat. She knew from memory that this particular center of power dealt with communication. An imbalance could result from a few things, fear to speak one’s mind being one of them. Could that really be the root of Beast Boy’s problem? Typically, he was pretty outspoken, but maybe that was just the way it seemed?
She quickly flipped to the next page that had been listed in the index. This one was an in-depth explanation of the fifth chakra, along with a couple of simple balancing methods. This book would never have quite done it for Raven, as she was already accustomed to more complicated meditations and procedures, but could it work for Beast Boy? Maybe.
She honestly had no idea if any of these methods would work. Beast Boy would first have to be convinced that he had a problem and that he needed help, because an unwilling party would not benefit in the least from meditation or otherwise.
For the time, Raven chose to keep the information she had found to herself. If none of her teammates found anything else in a couple of days and Beast Boy’s behavior did not change, she would inform them of her discovery and find out what they thought of it.
Pushing the subject out of her mind for the time, Raven crossed her legs for some meditation before she was to journey to the mall with Starfire.
‘No use worrying,’ she thought.
‘For right now, it’s out of my hands.’
