Author's Notes/Spoiler: This is the last scene that really should have been on the end of "Homecoming" (the episode where we meet the Doom Patrol).

Pairing: BB/Raven

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Let's move on.

Those Who Know You
By Gatekeeper

The tower was far, far too quiet. If it had been a legitimate sort of quiet, the sort that might come if someone were to wrap an entire roll of duct tape around Beast Boy's mouth, Raven was quite sure that the quiet would be everything she'd hoped for.

But this quiet had come because Beast Boy was out on the rocks hunched over in misery, and the sheer wrongness of that fact twisted itself around her stomach and made it impossible to think of anything else. An entire spoke of a properly ordered universe hinged on Beast Boy's ability to smile, though if anyone ever accused her of even thinking such a thing she would make their life a series of increasingly painful tortures.

She walked out, quiet as a ghost, to where Beast Boy was sitting. "Starfire's insisting on making dinner," she said dryly, dropping down beside him. "So until everything's stopped crawling, I'm hiding out here with you."

There wasn't a flicker of lip or even a twitch of eyelid from Beast Boy as he stared down at the water. "Did Robin send you?" he asked, his voice so low she could barely hear it.

Raven raised an eyebrow. That certainly would have been a far more pleasantly convenient explanation. "What idiot would send me to comfort someone?"

He shrugged. "Not as big an idiot as I am."

The rocks around them shifted slightly at Raven's sudden, brief stab of anger at the Doom Patrol. "The decision you made saved eight lives, Beast Boy."

He finally turned to look at her, his eyes so raw and dark that for a second she almost wished he hadn't. "And put pretty much the whole rest of the planet in danger."

"It's because of you that both the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol will still be here to stop them and every other super villain out there." Her voice softened, sounding almost gentle in the darkness. "You still haven't convinced me that the choice you made was wrong."

He turned to stare back out over the water. "Could you maybe mention that to Mento?" he whispered.

Raven shifted toward him slightly without even realizing she was doing it. "Is he always so …." She let her voice trail off, realizing that all the accurate words to finish the sentence would also be insulting ones. None of them would help Beast Boy.

"Only with me." He rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. "Everyone else on the team knew how to do their jobs."

And these were the people who Robin had said "practically raised" Beast Boy. For the first time, Raven was struck by the similarities between Beast Boy's time with the Doom Patrol and her own childhood on Azarath. Maybe, just maybe, he knew more about being alone than she had ever thought possible.

She watched him for a minute in the silence, seeing him far more carefully than she had ever been willing to before. Somehow, after all that, he had still managed to turn into the sort of person who was ready to give everything he had to anyone. Even her, whether or not she thought she wanted it.

"Maybe," she said finally, beginning to understand. "Mento gave you the wrong job."

"He was the team leader. I was supposed to do whatever job he gave me. I just …." Beast Boy squeezed his eyes shut for a second. "I just couldn't."

"Of course you couldn't." Voice firm, Raven placed a finger to the side of his chin and turned his head to face her. Beast Boy's eyes flew open in surprise. "It doesn't matter what's happening, or the danger you're in – you're not the kind of person who will sacrifice people you care about on someone else's order. Anyone who knew you at all wouldn't even ask it of you." She took a deep breath. "The Titans know you, and we need you exactly like you are."

Then, mortally embarrassed, she pulled away and turned to stare hard the water. Arms folded tight across her chest, she added in a mutter, "And if you ever repeat what I just said to anyone, I'll explode all of your cds."

The silence that followed was too long, too full of the wrong thing to say, but Raven didn't dare even glance over at Beast Boy. It had been a terrible mistake to come out here. She would never ….

Wiry arms threw themselves around her, squeezing tight. She tensed, even more surprised than Beast Boy had been, but the embrace was so warm and steady and silent that slowly but surely her body gave in and relaxed.

"Thank you," he whispered against her shoulder. After a moment, she tentatively reached a hand up and laid it against Beast Boy's arm.

They stayed that way a long time, enjoying the quiet.