#and then skoodle away

[scoups4lyfe]

"*points again at the kermit nodding gif*" damn this early? this is really funny

👀

girl huh

girl wot

[fate-accomplished]

Bakugou bites into a bar of soap and just leaves it there after. Everyone is confused and no one knows its him.

consider: 1A finds it later that night after he's gone to bed and launches a full scale "murder" investigation complete with interrogations, good cop/bad cop acts, and a complete diagram of where everyone was from the last time they saw it whole to the time it was found. there's a lot of drama but nobody even begins to suspect bakugou because that idea is just too outlandish. they convince themselves it must have been a ghost. bakugou hears about it the next day and continues to do completely unreasonable and unexplainable shit every few months just to get his classmates riled up. that's how the rumors about the "ghost of the 1A dorms" start and are passed down from class to class until it eventually just becomes one of those weird urban legend highschool traditions that follows UA for years to come.

[skoodledoodledoo]

would you believe me if i said that most of this is for hxh this saturday?

[dilldaydreamer-blog]

((I'm stepping back in because yours was the first ask I sent and it was a LITTLE LACKING. I like how PI still has his nervousness, but has grown from who he first was- by NO MEANS has he gotten 'better', because I've enjoyed him since the beginning, but it's interesting seeing the change. Also. Every time he has a gun in his hands, my heart does a doki. Even if Death does a hard lean away. Now get him that imagination perk so I can see what you do with it))

((Thank you. 8w8))((It’s been a fun adventure so far. When I first joined, I kind of worried I came in at the tail end of last BB so didn’t have as much chance to get into things.  He’s definitely been growing and evolving, and I’m excited to see where he develops and goes...while hopefully still staying true to his starting characteristics.))((I hope to skoodle along into imagination waters eventually. If only for the majestic Pez candy guns. :B))

[annzybwrites]

“Reading Together” Ch. 1: First Day Reading

Fandom: Teen Titans Summary: Beast Boy and Raven found something they both enjoy doing - reading books to children.  Rating: T Pairing: BBRae, some Robstar

---------------------

It’s not that Beast Boy didn’t enjoy reading. He loved to read comic books, manga, and webcomics! It wasn’t his fault that staring at a page full of nothing but text gave him a headache. He even tried listening to audiobooks like Raven suggested, but the soothing voice of the narrator often ended up putting him to sleep rather than enticing him to want to keep listening to the story.

This didn’t really bother him. A lot of people didn’t like to read books, in fact he’d go so far as to say he was in the majority.

Something that Beast Boy did enjoy doing was volunteering. It started out when Cyborg told them he was going to be helping out with repairs at a homeless shelter. Starfire had liked the idea of helping out the people of Jump City so much that she and Robin started researching other volunteer opportunities, and within a few days they had presented a variety of options to the rest of the team to choose from if they wanted. It ranged to everything from picking up trash on the streets to helping build homes, and Beast Boy’s favorite activities by far were helping out at animal shelters (for obvious reasons), and helping out with fundraising activities. Not only could he be as loud as he wanted to bring attention to the fundraiser, whether it be selling cookies, being duck-taped to a wall*, or planting flowers, but he was also helping raise money for worthy causes. That wasn’t to say he didn’t try his hand at a few other volunteer activities, too, but his favorite was definitely fundraising.

There was one volunteer activity that he usually shied away from, but… well, he couldn’t get away from it forever.

“Is anyone coming with me to read to the kids today?”

It was a simple enough question that Raven posed to Robin while they were all seated in the common room watching TV. It was also enough to make Beast Boy sink down into his seat.

“Actually,” Robin sat up a little, turning to fix his masked gaze onto the boy trying to hide away. “I was thinking Beast Boy should go.”

“Why?” He groaned, sitting up fully to pout at their leader.

“Because some people are starting to think you’re illiterate.”

“What?! That’s ridiculous!” Beast Boy argued. “I read comic books in public!”

“Come on, BB,” Cyborg nudged him with his elbow. “Reading to children is easy - it’s mostly pictures anyway.”

“You can just do the voices,” Raven told him. “I’ll be the narrator.”

“Oh, yes!” Starfire piped up, clapping her hands together by her head. “Being the voices are so much fun! You can make the children smile and giggle and jump up and down!”

“...” Beast Boy had to admit, that sounded appealing.

“Just one time won’t kill you,” Cyborg teased.

“All right, I’ll go,” Beast Boy relented, turning to grin at Raven. “If only because I can’t see you doing voices.”

Raven’s eyes were slightly bigger, as if something had just surprised her. “I tried doing them once. I’m just… not that good at it.”

So that was why someone always went to the library with her to help read. He had wondered about that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What is that?!” Beast Boy’s mouth fell open at the sight of a very peculiar advertisement hanging on the library’s front billboard. Among all of the brightly colored posters displaying all of the activities they had going on the public library, there was one slightly darker poster in the center with a very simple message:

Reading expands your mind.

That wasn’t the interesting part, no. The interesting part was that the picture above the words was of Raven in her meditating stance, except she was holding a book while a circle of other books floated around her. The library’s logo was in the corner.

“What?” Raven couldn’t hide her small smile. “I’m already a mascot for gum. Might as well be a mascot for the Jump City library.”

“Wait, you’re a mascot for gum, too?!”

Raven shook her head. “Yes. We need to get going.”

“Don’t avoid this conversation!” Beast Boy pouted. “When did you even have this picture taken?”

“We really need to get going.”

Beast Boy knew what she was going to add to that sentence from the look in her eyes. “Don’t you -”

“Garfield.”

Beast Boy’s groan filled the room. Good thing they weren’t actually in the library yet - just the space before the library. “One of these days I won’t care if you call me that.”

“Luckily for me, today is not that day.” She turned and floated off into the library, leading them to the children’s section. And by section, he basically means an entire wing dedicated to rows and rows of children’s books and wide-open, comfortable spaces for reading, as well as a few play areas.

“Hello, Raven!” A peppy, motherly-looking woman greeted them at the entrance of the wing with an excited whisper, eagerly shaking her hand. She wore a dark red polo-shirt and khaki pants. “The kids are all so excited you’ll be reading today!”

“I’m glad.” She smiled softly. “Is Sarah here?”

“Yes!” the woman chuckled and put her hands on her hips. “She’s really enjoying the Katie Kazoo books you suggested.”

“Katie Kazoo?” Beast Boy questioned.

“Oh!” The woman turned to him now, smiling wider but not answering his question. “Beast Boy’s joining us today? Jax will be excited!”

“I’m counting on it.” Raven sounded just a bit too mischievous for his liking. “Well, shall we get started?”

“Right this way!” The woman turned around and started leading them further into the children’s section of the library.

“That’s Ms. Dimple,” Raven whispered to her teammate. “She runs most of the reading programs here.”

“She seems nice.”

“She is.”

“So what’s this about Jax?”

Raven grinned a little. “Let’s just say he loves animals. Especially one particular kind of animal.”

“Which one?” He really wanted to meet Jax now. He loved talking with any animal enthusiasts, no matter their age.

“Let’s see if you can guess when you see him.”

They were lead into a fairly large room that contained three tables with plenty of chairs on one half and a large circle rug with two chairs on the other half. In the middle was a bookshelf, a toy box, and a costume box, and there were already at least ten children inside the room. A few were working on a puzzle, a few were reading, and others were playing pretend with whatever costumes they found. Right now it seemed to be a princess fighting a viking? Pretty cool.

Beast Boy’s ears pricked towards the sound of a particularly loud gasp, and before he knew it he was being hugged by small kid with short, dark hair. “Beast Boy!!” the kid exclaimed, looking up at him with the biggest, melt-your-heart smile he had ever seen.

“Hey!” Upon closer inspection, BB noticed the kid was wearing a dark green shirt and pants that had little turtles all over it. “You must be Jax.”

The kid nodded, just looking up at him with those wide, sparkling eyes.

“Let me guess - you like turtles?”

“Mmhm!” Jax’s already bright face got even more blindingly happy at the mention of his favorite animal.

Beast Boy didn’t wait any longer - he morphed into a turtle and smiled inwardly as he felt Jax hug him tight.

“Turtle!!” He ran right up to Raven and Ms. Dimple then, displaying the too-green turtle to them as if they hadn’t just witnessed the whole thing.

Ms. Dimple laughed and shook her head fondly, while Raven just smiled. “Be careful not to hug it too tight, Jax!”

“I won’t, Ms. Dimple!” Jax chirped before going back to hugging Beast Boy and looking like the happiest kid on the planet.

The changeling started to realize that maybe morphing wasn’t the best idea, as another kid ran up to Jax and demanded Beast Boy turn into a rabbit. Then another kid requested he turn into a puppy, and another wanted a goldfish, and another wanted a parakeet, and then they all started shouting out the names of animals they knew until Ms. Dimple clapped her hands.

“Okay, kids! We need to let Beast Boy and Raven look over the books they’re going to read for you today, all right? So let the… mongoose go!”

The green mongoose was very grateful and scurried over next to Raven before turning back into his more human form, panting slightly. He forgot how exhausting a big group of kids could be.

“You’re an instant hit,” Raven teased him quietly as they walked over to the bookshelf.

“What can I say?” He grinned back. “Everybody loves me.”

Raven rolled her eyes, but he could tell she wasn’t actually annoyed. “We’re supposed to read these two today.” She showed him the thin books, Blueberries for Sal and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

“What?” Beast Boy laughed as he grabbed the second book, wondering what the heck it was about. Raven must not have known either, as she looked over his shoulder to see what was written there. It was about the letters of the alphabet climbing up a coconut tree, and Beast Boy could already feel the natural rhythm of the words as it was all one, giant, fun poem. “I think I can handle this one by myself.”

“Good,” Raven nodded. “Because I really didn’t want to say “skit skat skoodle doot.””

Beast Boy’s laughter gained the attention of literally everyone in the room, causing Raven’s cheeks to color softly.

“What’s so funny?!”

“S-say it again??” Beast Boy was still laughing.

“No way.” Raven glared before floating over to one of the chairs in front of the circle rug. “Now come here.”

Beast Boy still snickered as he bounded over, perching himself on the seat next to her with a grin.

“We want the kids to be able to see the pictures,” Raven told him, opening the book and holding it up near the side of her face so that the pages would face the audience. “So we hold it like this. It makes it a little more difficult to read, but not much.”

“Uh…” Beast Boy copied her, holding it up near the side of his face and squinting at the words. The light obscured some letters, but if he just moved it a little it was fine. “Okay, got it.”

“When you first start, say the title as well as who wrote the book.”

“Makes sense.”

“Be sure to read it slow.”

“Like I’m in a play?”

“Exactly. After we’re done reading,” she pointed over to the tables, “we’ll have a little craft to go along with one of the books. Ms. Dimple runs that, but we can help the smaller kids. Then it’s free time.”

“Huh.” Beast Boy looked out at everything. “Maybe I’d enjoy reading if I went to stuff like this as a kid.”

Raven didn’t know what to say to that, so she just continued in her explanation. “Er… Don’t be afraid if you mess up. Even I fumble a word sometimes.”

“Oh really?” Beast Boy turned to grin at her. “I’d love to see that.”

She rolled her eyes again before turning to skim through her own book. “Beast Boy?”

“Yeah?”

“You can talk while in your animal forms, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, this story involves talking bears.”

Beast Boy just stared at her for a moment. “... You want me to turn into a bear to read the story?”

“Just the dialogue that the bears say. I think it would get the little ones even more involved.”

He laughed and looked out at the kids, who were still busy with whatever they had been doing before his little animal show. “Sure, why not?”

“Thanks.” She looked up to catch Ms. Dimple’s eyes, causing the older woman to clap her hands and gain the children’s attention.

“All right kids, our readers are ready! Let’s all sit on the reading rug!”

Some kids cheered as they quickly headed over to sit cross-legged on the rug, looking up at the two superheroes in anticipation. One little girl ran right up to Raven and gave her a hug, much to Beast Boy’s surprise. “Do you have more book recommendations, Raven?” she asked.

“I’ll find something for you later, I promise,” Raven chuckled and pointed at the rug. “Go sit down, okay?”

“Kay!” She took a seat relatively close to the empath, beaming up at her.

“That’s Sarah,” Raven whispered to Beast Boy, as if that explained everything. “She reads the Katie Kazoo books?”

“Yeah, I still have no idea what those are,” he deadpanned.

Before Raven could say anything else, Ms Dimple appeared next to Beast Boy and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s have our newest volunteer read first!”

“Oh, right!” Beast Boy cleared his throat and held up the book so the kids could see the cover. “So, uh, I’ll be reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for you all,” he silently commended himself for not laughing while reading the title, but he did smile a bit wider. “Written by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault.” He really hoped he didn’t butcher that pronunciation. He cleared his throat and opened the book up, holding it to the side of his head like Raven instructed.

He had to admit, he was a little impressed with how quiet the kids were while he read, but occasionally a few of them would giggle just from the way the words sounded. He tried his best to read slowly, but due to the rhyming nature of the book he noticed himself wanting to pick up speed. God, reading slowly felt so awkward, or maybe he was just nervous?

Either way, he felt like he was done reading the book all too soon, and Ms. Dimple lead the kids into clapping for him. “Thank you, Beast Boy!” She put her hands on her knees, leaning forward to address the kids with an excited voice. “Now, who all here knows their alphabet?”

The older kids, of course, all raised their hands, but some of the younger ones looked like they had to think about it for a moment. That was enough for Ms. Dimple to chuckle and say, “How about we all sing the alphabet slowly before getting to our next book, okay?”

Beast Boy turned to give Raven an “is she serious?” look, to which she just nodded before singing the alphabet along with Ms. Dimple. So, of course, he felt compelled to join in as well. He looked out at all the kids, smiling when their expressions ranged from bored to confused to happy as they sang with. They all seemed used to joining in on chants and songs at the drop of a hat.

Once they were done, Ms. Dimple clapped so loud that Beast Boy jumped. “All right! Onto the second book!”

Raven nodded and held up her book. “I'll be reading Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.” She opened to the first page and held it between her and Beast Boy so he could see it a bit better.

When she started to read, Beast Boy could feel how still and attentive everyone became, and he could understand why. There was this undertone of pure passion as Raven read, and it drew in everyone who listened. Even though her voice didn’t usually betray much emotion, Beast Boy was very attuned to listening to her emotions through her subtle tonal changes, and he had a feeling the children were equally adapted - kids tended to have that ability. Plus, he swore her eyes were sparkling with enjoyment. She really just had an appreciation for the written word, even in a story as simple as a children’s book.

He almost missed his cue to come in. Almost, because he could never miss those dark, violet irises looking up to meet his gaze. He jolted a bit before quickly turning into a bear and enjoying the delighted gasps of the children before he read his line as “Little Bear’s Mother” - which of course meant he tried to do a high pitched voice.

“Little Bear -”

“She said,” Raven cut in, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile from his ridiculous voice.

“- eat lots of berries and grow big and fat.” He put his paws on his stomach to emphasize his point. “We must store up food for the long, cold winter.”

The story continued on after that, and Beast Boy decided that as long as he was already morphed into a bear he might as well try and act out what’s happening in the pictures. The next part of the story was about Little Bear (and a little human kid named Sal) eating blueberries from the bushes, so he mosied on over next to the children and pretended they were his blueberry bushes, though he kept his fingers pointed towards his palms as he “picked berries” so he wouldn’t accidentally claw anyone. He kept it up as the kids kept giggling and looking over at him with big smiles.

It was official, he was glad he came.

Apparently the main part of the story was about little Sal the human and Little Bear getting mixed up and following each others’ moms for awhile as they all picked blueberries off of blueberry hill. Beast Boy had to admit some lines were really funny, though he didn’t really understand the message of the book. Weren’t all children’s books supposed to have meanings or morals or at least teach you something? Maybe this one was just about making sure you stay close to your parents so you don’t get lost? Well, whatever it was about, he didn’t really have that many lines as either bear character, which allowed him to just pretend he was climbing up and down blueberry hill (or random chairs throughout the room) eating blueberries all the way.

When “the end” was finally said, the children all clapped politely again and Beast Boy padded back over to his seat to change back into his more human form. He glanced over at Raven, his grin widening when he saw her smiling. At him, not just in general, but right at him, with eye contact and everything. Getting someone elusive like Raven to smile at you was like winning a first-place trophy. That was why his heart was racing, because he felt like a winner! And that was also why he wanted to keep staring at her; he just wanted to enjoy his prize a bit more.

“All right kids,” Ms. Dimple started speaking again, so Beast Boy tore his gaze over to her. “What did you all think of this book?”

One kid rose her hand, and when she was called on she stood up, her childish voice stumbling out, “Um…” she played with the edge of her skirt, distracted. “I liked how - how the momma bear didn’t hurt Sal.”

“Yes, that was very nice, wasn’t it?” Ms. Dimple agreed. “And how Sal’s mother didn’t hurt Little Bear.”

The little girl nodded and sat back down. A few other kids were called on, talking about what they liked or found funny, or saying they liked watching Beast Boy act like a real bear. He felt mighty proud every time a little kid said they liked his act; he almost wanted to shift back into a bear, but he didn't want to interrupt the little discussion.  

Soon enough they were moving onto the craft portion. The main craft involved flat foam pieces and glue that would eventually form a 2D bucket full of blueberries if they glued the foam down correctly, but there were coloring pages of blueberry bushes offered as an alternate if a child didn’t want to work with glue or just prefered coloring better.

Beast Boy kind of wished he could build his own craft, but knew his place was to help the kids make their own. In fact, very soon he found himself in the middle of helping three kids build their foam buckets at the same time. This was obviously the perfect opportunity to show off, so he tried to juggle the foam pieces a little and twirl the little glue stick between his fingers, the latter of which resulted in a lot of glue getting stuck to his hands. Great, just his luck. He forced a nervous smile onto his face as he tried continuing to help the kids with their craft, but soon everything started sticking to his hands and he couldn’t get it off no matter how much shaking or pulling he did. He could feel himself blushing as the kids nearby began giggling at him, and he felt even more mortified when Raven started heading towards him. Of course the kids she had been helping were all done with their baskets and were free to go play dress up or read.

“I can help them,” she told him. “Why don’t you go to the bathroom and get that glue off you?”

“Yeah, okay,” he grumbled, feeling even hotter as the kids started laughing louder at his retreating form. Was this his punishment for trying to look cool? He grumbled to himself as he scrubbed his hands in the bathroom sink, wishing he could go back to them thinking he was awesome. Turning into a few more animals should do the trick, right?

He smiled a little, thinking of how thrilled Jax would be if he turned into a turtle again. That kid had the brightest little eyes! He bet he knew everything about turtles you could possibly know. When he came back out of the bathroom, he started looking for his little animal buddy, laughing a bit when he saw him sitting near a wall and reading a book that was literally shaped like a turtle. The craft tables were pretty much abandoned as the kids all played with the toys or read, so Beast Boy felt he was at liberty to walk right up to Jax.

“Hey buddy,” he plopped down right next to the kid with an easy smile. “What’cha readin’?”

Jax’s eyes lit up as he thrust the book towards him. “Turtles!! Did you know that a turtle’s top shell is called a carapace?”

“No, I did not.” He had done his own research on turtles before, but since they were rarely useful in battle he hadn’t committed much about them to memory like Jax apparently has.

“Yeah!” Jax continued, bouncing a little, “And the bottom one is called a plastron!!”

“That’s really neat,” Beast Boy laughed. God he loved how excited kids got about pretty much everything. “What else do you know about turtles?”

Jax started rambling on, talking about how turtles are born with their shells or that they’ve been around for 215 million years, and telling stories about turtles he’s seen (his favorites were the ones with the red and black underbellies) or how he and his dad always helped escort turtles across the road so they didn’t get run over.

By the end of it, Beast Boy was smiling fondly and ruffling Jax’s hair. “I bet turtles love you just as much as you love them.”

Jax’s wide smile made Beast Boy feel like the best man in the world. Soon he was being hugged by the little guy as he exclaimed, “I’m happy Raven finally brought you!!”

“Finally?” Beast Boy replied, a little confused. Had he been asking about him for a long time? This was the first he’s heard of it! He lifted his head to look for his teammate, a little surprised to see her sitting down with a little girl in her lap. Though as he saw her pointing to the pages and having the little child read them, he realized she was helping teach her to read. He found himself smiling, not finding such a sight so surprising anymore. Ever since Raven’s little escort mission with Melvin, Timmy, and Teether, she had actually started taking a real liking to kids. It still surprised him to see her so comfortable with them though, especially when she had seemed so clueless about children before.

“Can you turn into a turtle again?” Jax asked, looking up at him hopefully.

“Uh…” he hesitated, not wanting a repeat of before. “Ask me again before you leave, okay?”

“Okay!” Jax seemed content with this and sat back down, picking up his book again and resuming where he had read before. Beast Boy took that as his opportunity to go over and talk to Raven about his “finally” comment, but soon he was stopped by a little boy tugging at his hand.

“Play pretend with us!!”

“Be my knight!” a little girl added, grabbing his other hand and pulling him towards her.

“No! He needs to be a pirate!”

“No, wait! He should be my prince!!”

“Woah!” Beast Boy interrupted, laughing. “Uh, how about I’m a pirate prince?”

The two small children thought over his proposal, looking over at each other thoughtfully. They both started nodding before going to grab him a pirate hat and a plastic sword from the dress-up box. “Pirate prince!!”

Soon, he was dragged into their pretend world, where his backstory was made up on the spot. At first the little boy, named Charles, wanted him to be his pirate partner and help him steal the riches from the kingdom across the ocean, but the little girl, named Lola, wanted him to be a romantic prince like in Sleeping Beauty. That was the exact story example she gave before she went to lay down, evidently expecting Beast Boy to come save her from a sleeping curse.

“Don’t wake her up!” Charles insisted. “If she’s sleeping we can steal all of her gold!”

“Uh,” Beast Boy suddenly felt the need to tell this small child that stealing was wrong, even though Charles probably knew that and was just pretending. Was this what older adult daycare workers went through? The struggle to either play along with the kids or try and teach them lessons? “Well, I’m also a prince! And as a prince I have a duty to rescue princesses!”

“Awww!” Charles complained, but Beast Boy’s logic was sound enough. He let the changeling walk over to the girl and gently shake her awake.

“You have to wake me up with a kiss!” Lola argued, opening one eye to look at him with a knowing little smile.

Beast Boy tried desperately to think of a comeback to that, not wanting to ruin the game completely just yet, but thankfully Raven came to his rescue.

“Lola, Ms. Dimple has already talked with you about this,” she reminded the little girl, coming to squat beside her with a stern expression. “You can’t make boys kiss you during games.”

Lola pouted before sitting up. “The curse is lifted!” She ran over to begin “fighting” with Charles, trying to stop him from stealing her gold.

“Thanks,” Beast Boy breathed a sigh of relief as he and Raven stood up.

“You’re welcome. This isn’t the first time she’s pulled the Sleeping Beauty card.”

“Seriously?!” He laughed, watching the two pretenders “battle” it out. They mainly talked about how the battle would go, and pretended to throw punches and sat down quickly to emulate “falling.”  “Hope she grows out of that.”

“Mm.” Raven nodded, watching them with her more neutral expression.

“So,” Beast Boy grinned at her. “Jax said he was glad you finally brought me.”

“Did he?” Raven hummed. “What an interesting choice of words.”

He laughed shortly and shook his head. “Why didn’t you just tell me some little kid wanted to see me? I would have helped you read earlier.”

“Well,” Raven hesitated, looking off to the side. “To be honest, I was worried they might find out you don’t like reading, and that would make some of them stop.”

“Oh.” He felt a little guilty; that reasoning did make sense, but he wouldn’t just go around saying “reading sucks” or something to a bunch of kids in a library. Just because he didn't enjoy books didn't mean they shouldn't. Besides, not a lot of time was focused on solely reading - there was a lot more time for crafts and playing if they chose.

“Yeah.” Raven brushed some hair back behind her ear before looking at him out of the corner of her eyes. “But, you’re… having fun, right?”

“About as much fun as I could have in a library,” he joked, turning to give her an easy grin.

She huffed softly, looking away from him. “Enough to read with me every week?”

The proposal shocked him at first, mainly because he had never realized Raven went here every week. Then he wondered if he really did that good of a job reading - certainly Starfire made a better partner than him? She was the one who usually attended the reading sessions with Raven, or at least that’s what he thought. “You… really want me every week?”

“Yes.” Raven turned back to look at him, as serious as ever. “Most of the books feature animals anyway, plus… you have a nice singing voice.”

Beast Boy felt himself blush from the unexpected compliment. “What does that have to do with reading?”

“Ms. Dimple has been wanting to add a song and dance time to the little program here for awhile.” He immediately perked up, and Raven glanced away again. “You like dancing, too, right?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Language!”

“Right!” Beast Boy smiled sheepishly. “I mean, yes, I like dancing.”

Raven sighed softly. “I can talk with Ms. Dimple and she can send me some of the songs she was thinking about teaching the kids. If you really want to do this,” she added the last part hastily, realizing that Beast Boy had never actually agreed to her proposal.

“Hm…” He scratched at his chin, looking out at all the young, little, creative minds. “I mean… I guess it could be fun.”

“Is that a yes?”

Beast Boy started to feel a joyful warmth growing inside him. Raven actually sounded excited about this. She really did want him to help her with this every week. Him, she wanted him. He couldn’t recall a lot of times where someone wanted him specifically for anything. Even during missions he often times felt like his part could be done better by someone else, but not this time. This time he was being asked to do something because someone thought he was the best man for the job. How could he deny her when she was asking for him? “Yeah, I’ll do this with you.”

“Great.” Raven smiled, one of those tiny smiles that she probably didn’t even realize she had on. Beast Boy loved those smiles, and, actually, he realized that she wore those smiles a lot while in this environment.

As he looked out at all of these little faces happily reading, playing, and just having fun, and took note of how relaxed and open Raven was next to him, Beast Boy felt a joyful calm settle over him.

Yeah, he could definitely get used to this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*”being duck-taped to a wall” - basically a fundraiser that would involve Beast Boy standing on a chair against a wall and people buying duct tape for ~50 cents per yard to apply to him, thereby causing him to be stuck to the wall. They stop selling duct tape once the person stays on the wall without the use of a chair, and then they see how long they stay stuck there. Or maybe they don’t stop selling tape, who knows. I imagine they could get a lot of money to tape a superhero against a wall (and the other Titans would probably be around to make sure no villains would take advantage of it).

Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Click here for author notes and links to readings of the books mentioned!