All About BBrae

Opuntia Rhodantha

"You know this is what's wrong with everyone's concept of love, right?"

"You're taking this way too seriously, B. They're roses, not wedding rings."

"No, they were roses. Now they're... I don't even know what they are anymore."

"You're aware that you're completely nuts, right?"

Only Beast Boy could take a simple trip to the florist and turn it into a matter of moral outrage.

Having grown tired of his green friend's incessant pining after a certain purple-haired empath, Cyborg had dragged Beast Boy to the nearest florist. One way or another, there was going to be a resolution. By the end of the day, Cyborg would either be congratulating his best friend on the realization of his long-held dream, or he'd be helping him pick up the pieces of his heart, consoling him with the knowledge that he had at least tried.

"...turning everything into the fairytale version that doesn't look anything like what it's supposed to be. Expectations get completely skewed, and no one is satisfied." Beast Boy cocked his head to the side before jumping and waving a hand scant inches in front of Cyborg's face. "Dude, are you even listening at all?"

He hadn't been, obviously, but a sped-up playback of his memory caught him up in a quarter of a second. "Of course I am, Grass Stain. You don't like it when people create unrealistic expectations of romance. I just don't get why this is bugging you so much."

His friend shrank back into himself, ears drooping. "The thorns are as much a part of those roses as the petals that everyone goes all doe-eyed over. And they just cut them off and threw them away because they didn't like them. They didn't understand them. Just like people don't understand Raven's dark side."

Understanding hit Cyborg like a love tap from Cinderblock. This wasn't about a general societal trend; this was about loving someone, not in spite of their faults, nor because of them, but simply accepting them as a whole person. Cyborg had known that what Beast Boy felt for Raven went beyond simple puppy love, but he hadn't ever suspected that such depth and maturity lay buried in his feelings.

Beast Boy grabbed Cyborg's hand and began dragging him out of the florist's shop. "Come on. We're going to a nursery."

After stumbling for a few steps as his legs caught up with his near-horizontal torso, the taller of the two young men pulled his hand free to walk normally. "Ooookay... ummm... why?"

Beast Boy stopped short and turned around, and Cyborg had to come to a screeching halt and swing his arms to avoid flattening his friend. The green boy's grin split his face in half, fangs gleaming as bright as his eyes. "I'm gonna buy Raven a whole rose bush."

— — —

"SEVENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT'S SEVENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS?"

"And ninety-nine cents. Not including tax." The burly, tattooed man in charge of the nursery folded his arms as he towered over Beast Boy, obviously not feeling particularly patient with the youth's antics.

"Look, contrary to what my being green may lead you to believe, I'm not actually made of money!" Beast Boy stopped yanking at his hair long enough to scratch his chin in thought. "Is there a student discount or something? Maybe a superhero discount? Puppydog eyes discount?" At this last thought, he morphed into a terrier and sat blinking up at the man with as sorrowful a gaze as he could manage.

The blank stare that met the green boy deflated him into a puddle of goo with eyes. Slithering over to Cyborg's foot, it clung to him and transformed back into Beast Boy.

"What am I gonna do, Cy?"

Cyborg held up a small plant, utterly dwarfed by the five-gallon pot upon which Beast Boy had set his heart. "You do know they have roses in smaller sizes, right?"