Chapter Text
Side by side, Raven matched Cyborg’s gentle folding of the dough they had been working on. One to cook and share together and one for the whole team later. The dough was a bit of an experiment, vegan focaccia that she wanted to arrange pretty tomatoes and edible flowers on top, sure that Starfire would get sentimental over the beautiful food.
Cyborg moved to set the bowl down on the counter and covered it with a cheese cloth, elbowing a distracted Raven to get her to do the same. Then he started prepping the other ingredients, his being sage and butternut squash, inspired by the last fancy event they had attended for Jump City, while keeping his ear tuned in to Raven’s adorable rambling.
“..after all that, he had the audacity to just grin like a loon the whole trip.”
“Yea, he was happy that you let him so close to you without the need for him to have an injury.” He looked over pointedly, human eyebrow arched as judgmentally as possible.
Raven flushed, unable to refute that logic, knowing she needed to seriously rethink how she treated her crush. She looked down at the bowl she had just covered and realized that she had stood still and Cy had been quietly moving her along without interrupting her flow. She had probably never talked so much at one time in her life. She rushed to get her own ingredients, flustered again by the casual thoughtfulness of her big brother.
“I bet you anything he’s still sore over you hugging Robin first after defeating your demon dad.”
Raven sputtered and scoffed, “I’m sorry, Robin deserved the first hug! I know you all did everything you could for me, but Robin just… I mean, you get it. He’s my brother and so are you!” She finished in a huff, gesturing nonsensically all around Cyborg.
“Yea, I do get that, but BB doesn’t realize that he isn’t your brother, especially back then. He thought he was just barely your friend.” Cyborg saw Raven’s shoulders droop, defeated by her past self. She brought her arms up to cross her chest, only to uncross them and settle her hands on her hips.
“Well, he is family, in the way we’re all found family, but it’s just different. You know that!”
“Right, and this is why I am currently covered in exploded vegan chocolate torte as we work on you dipping your toes into flirting with one of your best friends.”
Raven slumped her upper body over the counter, waving her hand despondently to gently remove all sad, dried flakes of failed batter that Cyborg had not been able to wash off. “Ok, ok. So what do you think good payback would be?”
Cyborg couldn’t help his huffing laughter. “Other than the fact that this should not be framed as payback, I think you have to decide whether or not you want to act that way in private, or in front of one of the best detectives outside of the Justice League.” Cy considered that statement and corrected, “Really, you just need to prepare for how quickly that detective will call you out on it. Detective he may be, tactful he is not.”
His chuckles were starting back up as he watched Raven straighten up with a very serious expression, staring down at the counter like it held the future.
Rae had clearly not factored that in, so with that look Cyborg was hopeful that she was planning to be pretty open with this. Beast Boy would be over the moon to hear all the worrying she was doing about him. And he was so proud of her maturity, wanting to claim Beast Boy in public, no longer acting as if he was an embarrassment to know, something that had hurt BB more than her snark ever did. This way, not even Beast Boy’s special brand of insecurities could tell him that he was just a distraction or a dirty secret. The fact that she would be openly flirting in front of Robin; their leader, the one that probably understood Raven best, now that was a declaration.
“So I take it you’ve already made up your mind?” A pause before Raven looked away and gave a faltering nod. Cyborg clapped his hands together in glee and preparation. “Alright, I fully approve of this. I think the sweet spot is that we immediately start with more intimate gestures.”
And wow, Cy didn’t know that Raven could even blanche from gray-purple to white and then flush in such quick succession, as fast as BB shifted. She clearly steeled herself and straightened her spine, lifting her chin to meet his eyes head on.
“P-please clarify what you mean by intimate, I’m gonna need specifics. I know you can’t possibly mean what I thought you meant.”
After thinking over his wording a bit, he put together why she had turned so pale and then couldn’t hold in the braying laughter that escaped him in between nearly panicked, heaving gulps of air.
“Oh my god, Rae, NO, no, not that! I forget that none of you losers had social interactions, I mean did you even watch the tv shows about high school?? All you have to do is touch, like his neck or ruffle his hair or maybe side hug for too long.” He cackled again, “Wow, I can’t believe you have such a dirty mind Rae-Rae, this is ruining my image of you.”
Shame was clearly winning the fight with her usual mask of indifference. These cooking lessons had given way to all sorts of adorable expressions on his sister, the anxious ones for cooking and worry for if everyone, especially Beast Boy, would like what she made. Today though, today was a plethora of new and rare expressions and he would treasure this blackmail until the right moment, namely the bachelor parties he was already planning for Rob and BB. Currently, the teasing would have to go on the back burner as a new and horrifying thought struck him; were books the only way she had learned any sex ed? He can’t imagine that the Monks had done much in the way of that type of education since they had all accepted that she would not live past sixteen. Naive of them to assume that even then she would not need to know that. He had to confirm though, maybe they were more progressive than they appeared.
Now that his breathing was under control, he made sure to school his expression into a serious one. “Rae, I swear I’m not trying to be rude…but..”
His poor sister’s shoulders hiked up to her ears and she looked liable to portal away at any moment. “Just spit it out, this can’t get any more embarrassing.”
“Well actually, it might.” Her brows scrunched up in disbelief. “So, I get that this isn’t my business, but I feel like it maybe sorta is, and I just want you to know that I am here for you no matter what, and I will have absolutely no judgement now or ever if you come to me needing any information of this variety.” Her face grew more pale with each stumbling modifier, the horror creeping into her expression as she accepted that this was reality.
“Oh god, please just stop. I got it, I got it.”
He winced in sympathy, “Now look, I gotta know. I just want you to be safe and you don’t ever talk about growing up, so I just…I just want you to know that you’re normal.” Her quirked eyebrow disputed that but he just huffed, “Rae, I have been around kids our age more than you or BB or even Robin and I would keep all of this completely confidential.” Cyborg squared his shoulders and took a deep breath to reset his tone. “Has anyone ever actually sat you down for more than the basics? I don’t trust those damn monks. Or your flaky mom.”
The criticism of those who had raised her warmed her from the inside out. She appreciated them, but they had definitely prioritized the apocalypse.
“I’ve read books Victor, I understand the process.” She just wanted this to end, why did she need to reveal the level of naïveté she may or may not have. Bluffing through all of this had been working out just fine for her so far.
He had totally called it, and seeing her panicked eyes subside into fully dead shark eyes, it looked like she knew that this wasn’t going to be enough for him. She would just have to embrace the resignation.
“Raven, I am not questioning your intelligence I promise, but there are some worldly things that you can’t learn through books, and I just don’t want you blindsided by anything. I don’t think BB would or could ever disrespect you, but there are others who absolutely can and will.” He made sure to keep up eye contact so she saw that he wasn’t questioning her for embarrassment’s sake.
“Look Rae, I think I can safely say most of us are touch starved. With the exception of Starfire. So when I say ‘intimate’ I don’t at all mean sexual. We all have worked hard to match Star and to get past our own touch related issues. I’m worried that if you continue to give Beast Boy those hugs and friendly pats, it doesn’t move you forward.” Cy felt a judgmental eyebrow lift was needed here, waiting until Raven rolled her eyes and gestured for him to continue. “There are plenty of innocent ways to physically show intimacy. Just remember, you need to do both. You’re not gonna stop being friends when you date, you’ll just be more. So these things I’m gonna suggest are things you wouldn’t feel comfortable to do with me and Robin, but I promise I’m not trying to trick you into doing anything that will make you feel like an idiot, or lead you to something inappropriate to do in front of the team.”
His clear, unwavering voice lent itself to credibility, and Raven felt herself getting overwhelmed. She knew they had all matured past cruel pranks, and she felt awful for implying that Cyborg would do such a thing, and doubly awful that he was being so attentive to the delicacy of the subject and the acknowledgment of their trauma. A reminder that she definitely wasn’t alone.
She pursed her lips and nodded, deciding that he had been serious too long. Relaxing back into her deadpan expression she raised her eyebrows and got ready to make him choke. She waited until he was mid drink to spring, “Well, get on with it, teach me how to seduce your little brother.”
The spew hitting her was a miscalculation, but totally worth it. She was only able to maintain her disdain thanks to his spluttering apologies and cracked when he brought her the entire paper towel roll and tried to aim the germ x for her face. Overkill.
Beast Boy decided that he needed to reward Raven for not only allowing him to approach her, but letting her guard drop enough for him to see that she enjoyed his attention. A positive reinforcement, he jokingly thought, for her to continue to allow his advances and encouragement for her to make some of her own moves. In the past, she would have protested immediately and acted violently all while claiming to be unaffected with her face flaming. Even though he had lived for that when they were younger, he had started to admit that it was only part of why he pushed her buttons.
Now he was focused on pushing the right kind of buttons, and never pushing too far. He wasn’t opposed to that kind of response every once in a while, but seeing her sweet and shy demeanor now was addicting. In order to bring more of that out of her, he thought that the gut instincts he had been following so far wouldn’t lead him astray. If she wanted to show affection and care through food, he would do the same. It was time for some research.
“Larry for the last time, she is not my girlfriend.”
“Currently, you mean.”
If Beast Boy broke this new communicator, Robin would be furious and he couldn’t handle an interrogation about this. So he gently put it face down on his messy bed, and took deep calming breaths to ignore the teasing chatter.
Feeling gathered enough, he brought it back up to his face to try again. He was dismayed to see Rita’s face pushing Negative Man out of frame. She hadn’t realized that Beast Boy was back and staunchly defended him.
“Let the boy be, this is the first time he’s been so serious. It’s precious.”
Definitely not the defense that he wanted, and Beast Boy couldn’t stop his flush any more than he could the agitated twitch of his ears. He squeaked out, “Rita! Not helping.”
“Sorry Garfield, I’m just so excited you called for help with your love life.”
Beast Boy dropped his head into his hands. “Don’t call it that, you’re not helping.”
“I thought you wanted to date this girl. Raven, right? I like her, she was very protective of you in the jungle. Seems like a good investment to me.” Rita shrugged casually like she hadn’t just affirmed everything that Garfield had been trying not to fixate on from that time.
“Call again when you actually get some stones and ask her out green bean.” Larry moved to cut the communication and Rita enlarged herself to stop him in time and then all Beast Boy could see was the ceiling as the two Doom Patrol members argued heatedly.
“Fine! Fine.” His outburst startled the squabbling heroes and they both stopped and leaned in way too close to look in the communicator. Sometimes they acted so old. “I do like her.”
Annoyingly, Rita and Larry were nodding in sync. Larry wrestled the communicator out of Rita’s hand and put it on the stand it probably should have stayed on. He gestured impatiently for Beast Boy to go on.
When he still hesitated, Rita got in front of the camera far too close again despite Negative Man actually setting it up correctly for them both to be in frame. “Well? What else Garfield? Don’t leave us in suspense.”
A wrapped hand pulled her back and she dutifully followed until they were both staring Beast Boy down from a normal distance.
“I want to date her. Properly. But I’m not ready to ask her out yet.” Again, the heroes nodded together. Beast Boy sighed. “I need to go about this better. I need to be serious. Even if she says no and we stay friends and teammates, I gotta give this my best shot. No silly pick up lines.”
Larry quipped back, “Maybe some silly pick up lines.”
Beast Boy rolled his eyes and tried to be patient. He waited for his confession to actually process for them and was surprised by how much he was processing it as well. This was what he was really feeling and it made him nervous to be admitting it out loud at all, much less to two people he respected.
Negative Man had his hand on his chin, and Beast Boy could see Rita staring intently at the side of his head, waiting for him to speak first. He imitated Larry’s earlier ‘get on with it’ move and heard him scoff.
“See Lar? I told you he was serious, he’s really been thinking this through, look at that anxious face.” Rita’s whisper was easy to pick up even though the communicator warbled her a bit. “You better be serious too.”
Larry put both hands up in defense, “Alright, alright, I hear you guys.” Rita smiled in victory. “So tell me you at least have some ideas of your own?”
Beast Boy crossed his arms self consciously and glanced away.
“Of course I do. If you had just been chill, we could have been way past this.” He looked back to the screen and saw Rita holding unnaturally still. Probably trying to hold in any teasing. “She’s really into tea, and I know you’re incredibly uptight about your own leaf water.” He held up the tea tin he’d snuck in from the kitchen. “I’ve already figured out her favorite place, but I called to get good info on a new one.”
“So you’ve done your research, have you?” Larry was back to stroking his chin, and his tone was suffused with enough pride to flush Beast Boy’s ears. “Well, since you’ve done most of the work, I guess we could help you with this.”
Beast Boy deeply regretted that he had such limited reserves to go to for advice. But dang, if Negative Man didn’t have the best information. The snob couldn’t go without knowing at least one locally sourced, crunchy granola mom place. And the dude delivered. He had apparently been researching Jump City to make sure that on the off chance Garfield ever did invite them, he would have a get away spot for his important alone time. And he was giving up the secret with honestly less heckling than Beast Boy had predicted. Thank Batman Larry also had enough knowledge of what Garfield needed that the preliminary planning was done.
He wasn’t ready to have his head spinning just yet. That could wait for when he went to the tea shop for a full course they offered on how to brew the perfect cup. This week was just about black tea, but he kinda felt like he had time to go to all the courses. Surely there weren’t too many kinds of tea?