A Girl's Heart

Heartbreak

Beast Boy sighed as he entered the living room. It had taken days to repair the tower after Malchior had trashed the place. Raven's room had taken the brunt of the damage and the longest to repair. Though once finished Raven retreated inside. Truthfully Beast Boy wasn't sure when he'd seen her last and that bothered him. What bothered him more was that it didn't seem to bother anybody else.

"Has anyone seen Raven?" He asked.

"No, but it's Raven..." Robin shrugged.

"Yeah... but did you pay any attention to what happened?"

"Yeah dragon nearly destroyed the tower..." Cyborg chimed from the couch.

"No... what happened to her!" Beast Boy shot back.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked curiously.

"Think carefully about the way she acted after she cursed that dragon back into that book!" he said then stormed off to her room.

It didn't take long to get to Raven's bedroom and knock on the door.

"Raven? It's me. Look. I'm sorry." he said.

"For what? You're not the one who..."

"I'm sorry he broke your heart."

"I know it was all a lie. But he was the only person who ever made me feel like I wasn't...creepy. And don't try to tell me I'm not."

"Okay. Fine. You're way creepy. But that doesn't mean you have to stay locked in your room. You think you're alone, Raven, but you're not."

That obviously drew her up short because she didn't reply.

A few seconds pass then the door opened. Beast Boy was stunned when Raven threw her arms around his neck. He froze for a second then returned the embrace, his arms slipping easily between her cloak and body clutching her gently to himself.

He took a deep breath of her scent and caught the unmistakable stench of her anguish. He didn't brag about it but he had arguably the best nose in the team even in his natural human state. Then another scent caught his attention, salty, bitter... tears. Was Raven crying? Raven never cried, but then he heard the sobs and Beast Boy came to the conclusion that having this moment in a public corridor wasn't the best idea.

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Meanwhile Robin had been chewing on what Beast Boys had said as he went to his office. How had she behaved after cursing the dragon away? Then it suddenly dawned on the boy wonder why Beast Boy was so adamant that leaving Raven to her own devices had been a bad idea. Apparently something had happened between her and Malchior, he wasn't sure what but she had seemed upset, for lack of a better word, heartbroken. How had Malchior gotten to her? The book, that held the answer, but there was no way in hell she'd let anyone have that not after all it took her to curse Malchior back into the book.

Then it dawned on him, Malchior must have fooled her, used her as his means to escape. Maybe even gone so far as to seduce her. Raven was young and Malchior was ancient it wasn't too big a stretch to believe he could have paid attention to what she told him, found a way to convince her he loved her and win her heart in return. Finding the right words to seduce a girl like her would have been sadly too easy. She often isolated herself and seemed the outcast, if he could convince her he didn't see her that way even Raven could have fallen for him.

He had pulled up the camera down the hall from her room and was watching as Beast Boy approached her room.

"I'm sorry he broke your heart." Beast Boy said to Raven's closed door.