Raving Beast Chap4

Raven watched Beast Boy as he prepared the autopilot on the submarine, soon enough he would send it back to the Tower along with a note to their friends, assuring them that they were fine. Beast Boy stood up as the sub went underwater; then he turned back to Raven with a grin.
"I also deleted the route we took to get here" he told her as he picked up his backpack
Raven followed him into the dense jungle; she was surprised at how little noise he made while walking through the undergrowth. After a while she let her mind wander back to Christmas night.
She had walked into the kitchen where all the male members of the Teen Titans waited for their dates. She and Beast Boy had agreed to go together, although neither clarified on whether or not it was a real date, in which case it would've been their first date. Their not date had progressed nicely and Raven had found she enjoyed dancing with the green changeling. It had been the first party she had actually enjoyed herself in, and for a while she actually managed to forget her vision and the fact that they were going to leave people that cared about them without telling them the truth, or where they were going. Beast Boy had gone in search of Robin to tell him that he was going to leave because the Doom patrol called him up; it was the most reasonable excuse that they had found. When he had been nowhere to be found, he had gone to see Kid Flash, then they had taken the submarine and started it. Earlier that day they had taken a moment to load it up with all the necessary supplies. They had spent three and a half days en route to Western Africa.
She heard Beast Boy call out a warning, but by the time he did it was too late, she felt something tighten around her leg and was rudely pulled up, her cloak held on just barely be her neck and its weight chocked her slightly. She muttered a curse and removed her cloak, letting it fall. She resisted the urge to mutter a second curse when she noticed that beneath her was a puddle of mud, her cloak would take forever to clean, and so would she if she got out of this trap. She took hold of the silver pendant around her neck. Beast boy had gotten her half of a yin yang pendant; her half had a paw print, Beast Boy symbol, and three small diamonds while Beast Boy's had a raven and three small diamonds. The changeling in question was running towards her, it seemed that while she was contemplating past events, she had fallen behind.
She glared at him when she saw he was smiling, he managed to sober his expression, but his eyes still twinkled with amusement.
"Are you going to help me get down from here?" She asked him tartly
He smiled again and picked up her muddied cloak "In a moment, first I want to try something"
Before she could think of a suitable protest, Beast Boy leaned closer and kissed her sweetly, before pulling away and racing up the tree as a monkey, he then cut the rope. Raven braced herself for a dirty fall, but before she reached the ground, she heard the snap of the tree breaking and felt something grab hold of her and place her safely on the ground. She looked at Beast Boy just in time to see him switch back to human form; there were four prints from an elephant, which explained the broken tree and the trunk that had taken hold of her. She helped Beast Boy up from the splintered remains of the tree, once he was out he rubbed his lower back.
"I'm going to need you to massage my back every day for a week, I hope you do realize all the pain I went through to make sure you wouldn't get full of mud" he started
Raven leaned over and gave him a quick kiss before she could talk herself out of it, cheeks blushing she looked at him  and said "Thank you" before looking away
Beast Boy remained stunned for a minute, then a small smile appeared on his face and his cheeks grew red, he cleared his throat several times before speaking "It was nothing, really, we should get moving before it gets dark, I don't want to camp near poachers and mud" he handed Raven her muddy cloak and took her other hand "I don't want you to get trapped again" he lied, he wasn't sure how to tell her he just wanted to hold her hand because he liked doing that in a way that wouldn't send her running, or make him the victim of a horrible curse.

Much later, they were sitting around a cheery fire and eating tofu beef. Beast Boy remembered that he'd told Raven to get some real meat if she wanted it, since he knew she hadn't tried tofu, but she had insisted it was more sensible to just buy enough tofu for both of them. That and some wild berries and greens Beast Boy had found were enough to fill them both up for the night. He nearly jumped when he felt Raven rest her head on his shoulder. He smiled to himself, he wasn't used to Raven showing affection, but he had to admit he liked this new side of her. It was a nice change from her just glaring, cursing, and just being cold to him
"I like this new side of you" he admitted slowly, he had waited for her to do something like kissing him ever since he told her
He felt Raven shrug "I decided to leave the past in the past, my emotions are my own now and I am my own person" She settled herself closer to him before she continued "Besides, it's nice to be close to someone else without having to keep a leash around my emotions"
He put an arm around her, she probably didn't know how happy her words made him, he always hoped he'd be the one she opened up to. Slowly and carefully since the first day he met her, he had tried to make her open up by telling her jokes and prying into her life. It was years later he figured out that the best way to get her to open up was to be there for her and listen to her. Now he knew all his patience and perseverance had paid off and it had been more than worth it.
"Where do we go from here?" she asked him
Beast Boy dug around his bag with his free arm and pulled out a map. He pointed to a spot marked with an X.
"that's where the waterfall is at" he told her, before looking up at the night sky, his parents had taught him how to navigate with the stars, when he was sure of where they were he marked it with a dot on the map "We're here, it will take us a day and a half to get there, then I guess we should sleep and go in when we're well rested"
Raven nodded "We might as well get some sleep then"
Beast Boy reluctantly let her go and doused their fire before following her inside the tent. She was already inside her sleeping bag when he got there and seemed to be sleeping. But Beast Boy remembered how she had seemed to fidget and moan in her sleep before during their ride in the submarine, every time he asked her what it was, she had said it was being in the ocean.
"Raven, are you still awake?" He asked carefully as he got in his own sleeping bag
Raven opened her eyes and looked at him "What is it?"
"Well, I was just wondering if you were still having those strange nightmares, I know I have"
Raven sighed and nodded "I think they keep getting worse every time" she admitted
"Why don't you tell me about them? Maybe together we can figure out what they are"
"They are just flashes of images, a dark place, I can feel no hope there and a being of pure evil is rooted inside. Sometimes I dream that I'm chained up on the wall and my forehead is full of blood. You do remember that time when Brother Blood took my soul self gave me a body and married me? Most of the images are from that time" She looked straight at him "Others are about my father"
Beast Boy reached over and took her hand "It will all be Ok in the end, if there's anything I've learned from all my dreams as a titan, Rae, it's that Good always kicks Evil's butt in the end"
Raven looked down "But at what price?" she whispered to him "We have been lucky and haven't lost many titans, but heroes have died fighting evil, innocent bystanders have died fighting evil"
Beast Boy looked Raven in the eyes, the last thing he wanted was for Raven to doubt herself or her mission "Those innocent people who die in these battles would be twice the amount if it wasn't for us heroes stopping the evil, if it wasn't for us, the world would be horrible with cruel corrupted men ruling and the good honest hardworking people being oppressed without hope!" he couldn't help the passion in his voice, it was that which drove him forward to say what he knew she needed to hear "All of us go out into a battle knowing we might not make it out alive, but we do it because we believe there is something worth living for, something worth fighting for"
Raven saw the passion and the strength of his resolve and let his emotions go into her, she felt her fear and that strange hopelessness that had been consuming her leave her body, her mind settled and her spirit soared. Beast Boy noticed the change in her and grinned happily, glad to see her back. Without stopping to think, he leaned over and kissed her deeply, fully enjoying himself. He was surprised when Raven wrapped her arms around him and answered with equal passion. When he ended the kiss they both stayed close to each other, enjoying the closeness.
"Thanks… Garfield, I needed that" she told him
He grinned, he liked it when she used his real name "Which, the speech or the kiss?" he asked playfully
"The kiss was good, not as good as the speech but-"
"Not as good as the speech" Beast Boy echoed in disbelief, he caught Raven's eyes and noticed she was teasing him, he grinned "Well, maybe I should practice kissing more" he mused, looking at her considerately
Before she could speak, he kissed her again, softly and sweetly. They kissed maybe a dozen times or so before Beast Boy forced himself to stop.
"Any more kissing and I won't be able to sleep" he told her with a smile
He thought he heard her chuckle quietly, but when he looked at her, she was sleeping, looking more peaceful than before. He closed his eyes and forced his own worries down and away, they could wait until the next day it did him no good to worry when it wouldn't change a thing. With that in mind, he managed to fall asleep, his hand still holding Raven's.