Marriage
"Do you want to get married?"
Raven always judged herself as someone that was hard to shock but when that question hit hear ear she almost choked on her breakfast. They had just ended a long patrol that that took them well past sunrise. They both decided that breakfast had to happen before heading back to the tower. Witch brought them to a little 24 hour diner just south of downtown.
"Rae, you good?" Beast Boy was half out of his seat before she waved him off.
After she coughed and regained her composure. "I am fine!" She took a sip of tea to wet her throat" Where did THAT come from?"
"The family over in the corner" Beast Boy pointed with his chin. Raven turned her head to glance at the corner booth. A Young man and woman were having breakfast taking turns entertaining a little boy with brown hair sitting in a high chair.
"That must be nice" Beast Boy said to himself.
"You, have thought about this?" Raven questioned her friend.
Beast Boy had no idea why this stray idea came out of his mouth. He was going to try to cover it up with a joke or but when his eyes met hers the truth just escaped. "Don't most people?" He took a sip of his orange juice though a straw "Marriage, Family, Kids, home, hearth, bundled cellphone plans, that jazz." he continued. "Don't you ever think about that?"
"No" Raven said simply returning to her meal. Beast Boy smiled weakly and she could almost feel him retreat inside of himself. A small wave of embarrassment hit her. A stiff silence filled the rest of the meal. Raven knew that Beast Boy had shared something personal with her, something genuine. His usual defenses of jokes and puns were left out of the topic.
The server came and Beast Boy gave him his card. He started to get up from the table when Raven reached out and grabbed his wrist. Unsure what to do he sat back down giving Raven a confused look.
"I didn't mean to be rude" Raven started pulling her hand away. "Beast Boy I spent most of my life thinking I was going to be the gateway to the end of the world." She said examining her fingers. "There were many ideas that I did not think about."
Raven could feel the shame in Beast Boy felt start to subside and blend into concern.
"Raven, you got your whole life in front of you. You can do anything you want, have a relationship, get married, go to college, have career, kids, travel, open an ice cream shop. " He said with a smile.
"An ice cream shop?" Her eyebrow raised
"Water slide test pilot?" He smiled "If you want, You can do any of those things, or none of them, or something completely different."
"Can you really see me as the 'Happy little homemaker?"
"If that’s what you want Rae. I am not talking about little house on the prairie, no one says you got to be the one staying home with the kids, or that you couldn’t have a career"
"Are you saying that you, would be okay at home all day cleaning, cooking and taking care of babies?"
"If that’s what works for my family, and if you ever tried my Tofu loaf you would know I am a great cook"
"Pass. You have thought about this often?"
"Sometimes" Beast Boy looking into his OJ.
"I can’t see it." she stated after an awkward pause. "It's hard for me to look forward too far, like if I did the universe would punish me for wanting something more. I am alive, my friends are alive, asking for more somehow feels greedy."
"Want to know what I see?" his eyes came up to meet hers again.
Beast Boy grabbed one of the discarded straw wrappers. Quickly twisting and tying it into a loop. Before Raven could react he scooped up her left hand slid the hastily assembled ring onto her finger.
"There your married."
"Beast B-"
"Rae I got enough imagination for this whole diner, I can spare some for you now go with it!"
Before Raven could protest any further Beast Boy had already weaving his story for her.
"You didn’t go for a traditional wedding, you decided for something small, like that Shinto wedding we saw when we went to Tokyo. You looked stunning in dark blue kimono. Your new husband couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have you."
Beast Boys eyes lifted from her hand to her eyes as he continued the story. "You and your husband get an apartment it’s a shoe box but it's close to your school. He works from home while you get a degree. He will stay up late with you to help you study and makes sure that you remember to eat. Takes you places like the park or the beach so you can see the sun now and again between lectures and term papers."
Raven just sat there dear in the headlights stunned as he continued to paint this picture for her. She had opened a floodgate of emotions from him, when he stated he had enough imagination to share she believed him.
"You get a job and you need to travel all over. It's okay cause his work all he needs is a laptop and wi-fi. He is up for the adventure with you. You both live out of suitcases for a while. Not sure what hotel or city you are both in half the time, but it’s okay the most important thing is that your together. " Beast Boys voice got a little dreamy, his mouth was narrating the flight of fancy his head had gone on.
"Maybe a few years later you buy an old fixer upper. It's someplace out of the way, two stories, lots of room for your books, and a big kitchen. It takes you and your husband a while to get it the way you want it. The people at the local hardware store know you both by name." He only paused to get a lung full of air "It's important to him that you have a place where you feel safe, away from too many people so you don’t have to keep your guard up 24/7 and that you have places where you can be alone to put your head together and when he gets on your nerves"
Raven was completely lost in this shared daydream. Eager to hear where it would lead next like the next chapter of a novel.
"It might be a little unexpected but you both have a kid. The tyke is a little ball of energy you both can barely keep up with, running all over the yard, and climbing up trees. You tell him bedtime stories about when you and your friends took down Cinderblock or Mad Mod."
"Here you go!" The waiter came back with Beast Boys Credit card and put a cardboard to-go container on the table. "From the management. Congratulations I hope your both very happy together" He said smiling opening the container to show two cupcakes with white icing.
Before either of them could yammer out anything to correct him the waiter had rushed off to another table.
"Well dear, we should get home the kids are waiting." Beast Boy's grin took up his whole face, obviously amused by the waiters mistake. Raven was not, and was dreading the possibility that this might hit the internet before they made it back to the tower.
Raven put up her hood and walked away briskly out of the dinner. But later the ideas that Beast Boy put in her head kept surfacing. He was right she could have any life she wanted. The things that she had read about, the things that she never dared dream about were now all possible. The image of the family stuck with her. For some reason though every time she pictured her and her husband and a child. The young girl had these wonderful bright green eyes. Just like her father.
This is another one that was a false start from @bbraeweek17 I never did make that prompt for May the 5th, so this could be a really late submission. I am finding that comming back to some of my older stuff with fresh eyes has been helping. Also I did barrow a few things. @xaphrin did a wonderful fanfic about Beast Boy finding Raven in a Kimono http://xaphrin.tumblr.com/post/90965914456/kimono and @shock777 did amazing picture of them both in traditional Japanese garments.http://shock777.tumblr.com/post/148571610963/massive-bbrae-sketchdump (11th from the top) So I liked the idea of different kind of wedding. (Remember kids cite your sources)
