Lightning/Beast Boy AU // Poetry
Title: Poetry.
Characters/Pairings: Beast Boy/Lightning, Thunder/Starfire.
Summary: Beast Boy snapped his fingers, telling Thunder, “I’ve got an idea.”
Notes: Thunder crushes on Starfire. Beast Boy, like the good guy he is, offers to help. Lightning burns Thunder's poem, which leads to all sorts of shenanigans. Incomplete. Based on AU thing with cheriestar. (The "poem" isn't really a poem. It's lyrics from a song; I don't own said-lyrics at all.)
Beast Boy sighed as he rubbed his wrists, grateful for a break from the cuffs. It had been only two weeks since Beast Boy was captured, but already Lightning had total control over him. Beast Boy, I command that you transform into the strangest animal possible. Beast Boy, fetch me some water, my thirst needs quenching. Beast Boy, entertain the guests while I attend to something else. Beast Boy this, Beast Boy that. Blah blah blah. If Beast Boy heard Lightning say his name like that one more time, he was gonna - !
He paused in his steps as he spotted Thunder ahead. He beamed a little. Unlike his brother, Thunder was actually a decent guy. He was just as mischievous as Lightning, but he was obviously the mature one of the duo. Beast Boy ran towards him, never mind that Thunder was hiding in the corner, looking out into the next hallway, as though he was hiding from something, or someone, and he patted Thunder hard on the shoulder. “Hey man, what’s going on!” he greeted loudly.
Thunder jumped, his eyes widening and his face flushing. “I was not doing anything wrong!” he exclaimed. He relaxed as he realized who it was. “Oh. It is only you, Beast Boy. I thought you were with my brother.”
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “His royal pain-in-the-ass’ness is busy with something else - which is fine with me,” he muttered. “It gives me some time to relax. So what’s the deal with you hiding here in the corner? What’cha looking for, mice? You guys freak out over the weirdest things…”
It was only when Beast Boy peered into the other hallway that he realized what Thunder was looking at. In the distance stood the goddess of the stars, Starfire, speaking with Saki. Well, actually, she was pressuring Saki into trying on the new dress she sewed herself. Saki reluctantly agreed. Before Starfire lead Saki into her guest room, Beast Boy looked back at Thunder and saw that he was watching as well. And that he was smiling, and Beast Boy knew that smile well.
“W-What?” Thunder said, his smile drifting from his face when he noticed Beast Boy was smirking at him.
“You like her.”
“N-No! I do not!”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Beast Boy sighed. Then he wiggled his eyebrows. “You loooove her.”
“Shut up!” Thunder yelled, his face flushing. Beast Boy laughed; he never knew a blue person can blush so deeply, let alone a proud, blue-skinned god. “This is none of your business!”
“You might be right about that. You’re not denying it, though. You do love her.” Beast Boy frowned when Thunder looked at his feet with a forlorn expression on his face. “Dude, if you like her that much, just tell her. It’s better than stalking her,” he chuckled. “Starfire likes you, doesn’t she?”
“Well, yes. We get along. But she is strong and kind…and beautiful,” Thunder added with a fainted hint of a goofy smile on his lips. “I…simply cannot measure up to such standards.”
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “Aw c’mon. That’s not true. You so measure up. You’re strong. You’re…you’re smart! You read lots of books and scrolls, a lot more than anyone else around here. You’re nice, too. Nicer than your brother. Uh….you’re … beautiful on the inside?” he finished awkwardly. That last statement seemed to put a damper Thunder’s mood even further. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
Thunder nodded slowly. “I am aware of my size and my plain appearance, green one,” he told Beast Boy. “She will never notice me.”
Beast Boy thought about it. It was true that Thunder looked intimidating. He was taller and bigger than his twin brother. It was also true that Starfire was attracted to buff guys with beautiful faces. But Starfire wasn’t totally superficial, was she? She would give him a chance if she was aware of his feelings, right? Beast Boy snapped his fingers, telling Thunder, “I’ve got an idea.”
The blue god blinked. “Oh?”
“Can you write poetry?”
Thunder looked embarrassed for a moment, before he answered Beast Boy’s question. “I have written a few.” He paused. “…I-I have written a lot of poems. It is…a secret hobby of mine. I am not very skilled, though.”
“Perfect!” Beast Boy said, wrapping an arm around Thunder, or at least rested it on his back. “Then let’s collaborate on a poem together. I can help you woo her. You’re a creative, I’m good with words, it works out both ways. I’ll get a sheet of paper, you tell me what to write down, and we’ll go from there.”
“Well…” Thunder started, unsure, “if you say so.”
--
Beast Boy sat in the chair, by a desk in the library, and tried to scratch notes onto the sheet of paper as best he could, what with cuffs back on his wrists and all. Sure, the chain was lengthened for his comfort, but it still intervened with the simplest tasks. Writing with a pen on paper was no exception. However, he promised Thunder to help him prepare a poem for Starfire, and Beast Boy didn’t want to disappoint him.
As he scribbled at the corner of the sheet, his chain knocked over his cup of water, spilling it all over the carpet. “Oh, crud,” he sighed, leaning down to pick up the empty cup. He sat back up, only to notice Lightning was standing by the desk with the sheet of paper in his hands.
“What is this?” Lightning questioned.
“Give that back!” Beast Boy shouted, lunging himself over the desk and towards Lightning, to snatch the paper away. Except he lunged a little too carelessly, his knee got caught on the chains of his cuffs, and he fell to the floor instead. Lightning ignored Beast Boy as he started to pace around the desk, reading the words aloud.
“ ‘Happiness, more or less. It's just a change in me, something in my liberty. Happiness, coming and going. I watch you look at me, watch my fever growing.’ ” Lightning paused, gaped at the page, before he started to giggle. “Poetry!” he burst out in a short laugh. “You were reading poetry!”
Beast Boy stood up, still dizzy from the fall. “It’s not that funny…!”
“Are you blind, green one? It is pathetic! ‘I watch you look at me, watching my fever growing’,” Lightning read again, dropping his tone a pitch lower than normal, reading each line more dramatically than the last. Then he giggled again. “So childish! A fever that grows? Just from looking at a person!? How stupid!”
“Shut up!” Beast Boy yelled, clenching his hands into fists. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! It’s…it’s a great poem, okay?!”
Lightning was still laughing when he replied, ignoring Beast Boy’s argument. “Where did you get such a ridiculous poem?” he asked.
Beast Boy opened his mouth to answer, but he closed it, thinking about what this meant for Thunder. Thunder was embarrassed for his interest in poetry. If his brother Lightning thought this poem was ridiculous, he could only imagine the ridicule Thunder would endure if Lightning found out he wrote it. So, instead of telling the truth, Beast Boy lied. “I wrote it,” he answered. “It’s mine.”
Lightning stopped laughing instantly. Then he looked at the poem, his eyes scanning each line, before he looked at Beast Boy curiously. “You wrote this?” he asked. Beast Boy nodded. Lightning raised an eyebrow. “For whom?”
Beast Boy felt his stomach twist into a knot. He should‘ve seen this coming. Lightning was a naturally curious being. “I’m not telling you,” he snapped.
He could tell by the stern look on Lightning’s face that he had no choice in the matter. Think of something, Beast Boy told himself, and think fast. He glanced at the shelf of books beside him, spotting a blue book with yellow letters. He noticed the author’s name and then, with confidence, looked to Lightning and announced, “Her name was Tara.”
“Tara…?”
“Yep. Tara. She was my girlfriend,” Beast Boy said, beaming, and the lies seemed to pour out of him with ease from then on. “We grew up together. In our tribe, I mean. She has long blonde hair, kinda like yours except she hangs it down or pulls it back with butterfly clips. She’s got these big blue eyes that look just the sky. Oh, and she’s so tough, she can arm wrestle any guy to the ground. Oh, and one time, when we were hiking on Mount Olympia, we came across this huge bear, and she fought it off with her -”
“I see,” said the god standing across from him. Beast Boy noticed Lightning was staring oddly at the poem, biting his lower lip. He obviously didn’t look happy with this answer; normally, he always wanted answers to his questions, and he was always happy to receive them. This reaction was different. He looked…sad wasn’t the word. Was he confused? No, he looked upset. Very upset.
Then without warning, the sheet of paper burst into flames in Lightning’s hands, and the ashes slipped through his fingers and onto the floor. Beast Boy screamed, dropping to his knees and tried to sweep the ashes onto his hand. “Dude, what the hell did you do that for?!” he demanded, glaring up at the god.
“Sorry,” Lightning said, glaring back at Beast Boy, his shoulders tense. “The poem is so bad, I suppose I could not help myself. Excuse me.” He turned and walked away from the green pet, leaving the library, but not without slamming the door behind him, hard enough for books to fall out of their shelves and onto Beast Boy’s head.
--
An hour later, Beast Boy hesitantly approached Thunder in the hallway, outside of his bedroom, holding out the “poem” and what became of it. Thunder stared in horror at the ball of ash in Beast Boy’s hand. “Beast Boy! What have you done?!” he cried out, grabbing the ball, cupping it in his large hands.
“I didn’t do anything this time! I was writing notes on it when your crazy brother took it from me and burned it with his hands!” Beast Boy explained.
“Oh, no. He saw it?” Thunder asked quietly, his face paling. “He hated it. He does not approve of this, does he? Oh, no. No, no, no…I will never hear the end of it.”
“Don’t worry. He didn’t know it was yours,” Beast Boy assured him. “I lied. I told him I wrote it for some girl from my tribe. Then he got mad, burnt it, and told me I was a horrible writer or something like that. I guess he really hates poetry.”
Thunder stared at Beast Boy in shock. For a moment, he thought about his brother’s strange behavior. It was true that Lightning was fascinated with this green mortal, to such an abnormal degree that he claimed the mortal as his pet. It was also true that Lightning barely showed an interest in the goddesses, let alone women in general. Could these two facts somehow relate to each other? Still, Thunder didn’t linger long on his speculations. He spotted Starfire approaching from the distance, turning to Beast Boy with a desperate look in his eyes. “She is coming! I told her to meet me here. What should I do?” he whispered.
“Just tell her what’s in your heart,” Beast Boy said to him, smiling. “That’s what counts.”
Characters/Pairings: Beast Boy/Lightning, Thunder/Starfire.
Summary: Beast Boy snapped his fingers, telling Thunder, “I’ve got an idea.”
Notes: Thunder crushes on Starfire. Beast Boy, like the good guy he is, offers to help. Lightning burns Thunder's poem, which leads to all sorts of shenanigans. Incomplete. Based on AU thing with cheriestar. (The "poem" isn't really a poem. It's lyrics from a song; I don't own said-lyrics at all.)
Beast Boy sighed as he rubbed his wrists, grateful for a break from the cuffs. It had been only two weeks since Beast Boy was captured, but already Lightning had total control over him. Beast Boy, I command that you transform into the strangest animal possible. Beast Boy, fetch me some water, my thirst needs quenching. Beast Boy, entertain the guests while I attend to something else. Beast Boy this, Beast Boy that. Blah blah blah. If Beast Boy heard Lightning say his name like that one more time, he was gonna - !
He paused in his steps as he spotted Thunder ahead. He beamed a little. Unlike his brother, Thunder was actually a decent guy. He was just as mischievous as Lightning, but he was obviously the mature one of the duo. Beast Boy ran towards him, never mind that Thunder was hiding in the corner, looking out into the next hallway, as though he was hiding from something, or someone, and he patted Thunder hard on the shoulder. “Hey man, what’s going on!” he greeted loudly.
Thunder jumped, his eyes widening and his face flushing. “I was not doing anything wrong!” he exclaimed. He relaxed as he realized who it was. “Oh. It is only you, Beast Boy. I thought you were with my brother.”
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “His royal pain-in-the-ass’ness is busy with something else - which is fine with me,” he muttered. “It gives me some time to relax. So what’s the deal with you hiding here in the corner? What’cha looking for, mice? You guys freak out over the weirdest things…”
It was only when Beast Boy peered into the other hallway that he realized what Thunder was looking at. In the distance stood the goddess of the stars, Starfire, speaking with Saki. Well, actually, she was pressuring Saki into trying on the new dress she sewed herself. Saki reluctantly agreed. Before Starfire lead Saki into her guest room, Beast Boy looked back at Thunder and saw that he was watching as well. And that he was smiling, and Beast Boy knew that smile well.
“W-What?” Thunder said, his smile drifting from his face when he noticed Beast Boy was smirking at him.
“You like her.”
“N-No! I do not!”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Beast Boy sighed. Then he wiggled his eyebrows. “You loooove her.”
“Shut up!” Thunder yelled, his face flushing. Beast Boy laughed; he never knew a blue person can blush so deeply, let alone a proud, blue-skinned god. “This is none of your business!”
“You might be right about that. You’re not denying it, though. You do love her.” Beast Boy frowned when Thunder looked at his feet with a forlorn expression on his face. “Dude, if you like her that much, just tell her. It’s better than stalking her,” he chuckled. “Starfire likes you, doesn’t she?”
“Well, yes. We get along. But she is strong and kind…and beautiful,” Thunder added with a fainted hint of a goofy smile on his lips. “I…simply cannot measure up to such standards.”
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “Aw c’mon. That’s not true. You so measure up. You’re strong. You’re…you’re smart! You read lots of books and scrolls, a lot more than anyone else around here. You’re nice, too. Nicer than your brother. Uh….you’re … beautiful on the inside?” he finished awkwardly. That last statement seemed to put a damper Thunder’s mood even further. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
Thunder nodded slowly. “I am aware of my size and my plain appearance, green one,” he told Beast Boy. “She will never notice me.”
Beast Boy thought about it. It was true that Thunder looked intimidating. He was taller and bigger than his twin brother. It was also true that Starfire was attracted to buff guys with beautiful faces. But Starfire wasn’t totally superficial, was she? She would give him a chance if she was aware of his feelings, right? Beast Boy snapped his fingers, telling Thunder, “I’ve got an idea.”
The blue god blinked. “Oh?”
“Can you write poetry?”
Thunder looked embarrassed for a moment, before he answered Beast Boy’s question. “I have written a few.” He paused. “…I-I have written a lot of poems. It is…a secret hobby of mine. I am not very skilled, though.”
“Perfect!” Beast Boy said, wrapping an arm around Thunder, or at least rested it on his back. “Then let’s collaborate on a poem together. I can help you woo her. You’re a creative, I’m good with words, it works out both ways. I’ll get a sheet of paper, you tell me what to write down, and we’ll go from there.”
“Well…” Thunder started, unsure, “if you say so.”
--
Beast Boy sat in the chair, by a desk in the library, and tried to scratch notes onto the sheet of paper as best he could, what with cuffs back on his wrists and all. Sure, the chain was lengthened for his comfort, but it still intervened with the simplest tasks. Writing with a pen on paper was no exception. However, he promised Thunder to help him prepare a poem for Starfire, and Beast Boy didn’t want to disappoint him.
As he scribbled at the corner of the sheet, his chain knocked over his cup of water, spilling it all over the carpet. “Oh, crud,” he sighed, leaning down to pick up the empty cup. He sat back up, only to notice Lightning was standing by the desk with the sheet of paper in his hands.
“What is this?” Lightning questioned.
“Give that back!” Beast Boy shouted, lunging himself over the desk and towards Lightning, to snatch the paper away. Except he lunged a little too carelessly, his knee got caught on the chains of his cuffs, and he fell to the floor instead. Lightning ignored Beast Boy as he started to pace around the desk, reading the words aloud.
“ ‘Happiness, more or less. It's just a change in me, something in my liberty. Happiness, coming and going. I watch you look at me, watch my fever growing.’ ” Lightning paused, gaped at the page, before he started to giggle. “Poetry!” he burst out in a short laugh. “You were reading poetry!”
Beast Boy stood up, still dizzy from the fall. “It’s not that funny…!”
“Are you blind, green one? It is pathetic! ‘I watch you look at me, watching my fever growing’,” Lightning read again, dropping his tone a pitch lower than normal, reading each line more dramatically than the last. Then he giggled again. “So childish! A fever that grows? Just from looking at a person!? How stupid!”
“Shut up!” Beast Boy yelled, clenching his hands into fists. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! It’s…it’s a great poem, okay?!”
Lightning was still laughing when he replied, ignoring Beast Boy’s argument. “Where did you get such a ridiculous poem?” he asked.
Beast Boy opened his mouth to answer, but he closed it, thinking about what this meant for Thunder. Thunder was embarrassed for his interest in poetry. If his brother Lightning thought this poem was ridiculous, he could only imagine the ridicule Thunder would endure if Lightning found out he wrote it. So, instead of telling the truth, Beast Boy lied. “I wrote it,” he answered. “It’s mine.”
Lightning stopped laughing instantly. Then he looked at the poem, his eyes scanning each line, before he looked at Beast Boy curiously. “You wrote this?” he asked. Beast Boy nodded. Lightning raised an eyebrow. “For whom?”
Beast Boy felt his stomach twist into a knot. He should‘ve seen this coming. Lightning was a naturally curious being. “I’m not telling you,” he snapped.
He could tell by the stern look on Lightning’s face that he had no choice in the matter. Think of something, Beast Boy told himself, and think fast. He glanced at the shelf of books beside him, spotting a blue book with yellow letters. He noticed the author’s name and then, with confidence, looked to Lightning and announced, “Her name was Tara.”
“Tara…?”
“Yep. Tara. She was my girlfriend,” Beast Boy said, beaming, and the lies seemed to pour out of him with ease from then on. “We grew up together. In our tribe, I mean. She has long blonde hair, kinda like yours except she hangs it down or pulls it back with butterfly clips. She’s got these big blue eyes that look just the sky. Oh, and she’s so tough, she can arm wrestle any guy to the ground. Oh, and one time, when we were hiking on Mount Olympia, we came across this huge bear, and she fought it off with her -”
“I see,” said the god standing across from him. Beast Boy noticed Lightning was staring oddly at the poem, biting his lower lip. He obviously didn’t look happy with this answer; normally, he always wanted answers to his questions, and he was always happy to receive them. This reaction was different. He looked…sad wasn’t the word. Was he confused? No, he looked upset. Very upset.
Then without warning, the sheet of paper burst into flames in Lightning’s hands, and the ashes slipped through his fingers and onto the floor. Beast Boy screamed, dropping to his knees and tried to sweep the ashes onto his hand. “Dude, what the hell did you do that for?!” he demanded, glaring up at the god.
“Sorry,” Lightning said, glaring back at Beast Boy, his shoulders tense. “The poem is so bad, I suppose I could not help myself. Excuse me.” He turned and walked away from the green pet, leaving the library, but not without slamming the door behind him, hard enough for books to fall out of their shelves and onto Beast Boy’s head.
--
An hour later, Beast Boy hesitantly approached Thunder in the hallway, outside of his bedroom, holding out the “poem” and what became of it. Thunder stared in horror at the ball of ash in Beast Boy’s hand. “Beast Boy! What have you done?!” he cried out, grabbing the ball, cupping it in his large hands.
“I didn’t do anything this time! I was writing notes on it when your crazy brother took it from me and burned it with his hands!” Beast Boy explained.
“Oh, no. He saw it?” Thunder asked quietly, his face paling. “He hated it. He does not approve of this, does he? Oh, no. No, no, no…I will never hear the end of it.”
“Don’t worry. He didn’t know it was yours,” Beast Boy assured him. “I lied. I told him I wrote it for some girl from my tribe. Then he got mad, burnt it, and told me I was a horrible writer or something like that. I guess he really hates poetry.”
Thunder stared at Beast Boy in shock. For a moment, he thought about his brother’s strange behavior. It was true that Lightning was fascinated with this green mortal, to such an abnormal degree that he claimed the mortal as his pet. It was also true that Lightning barely showed an interest in the goddesses, let alone women in general. Could these two facts somehow relate to each other? Still, Thunder didn’t linger long on his speculations. He spotted Starfire approaching from the distance, turning to Beast Boy with a desperate look in his eyes. “She is coming! I told her to meet me here. What should I do?” he whispered.
“Just tell her what’s in your heart,” Beast Boy said to him, smiling. “That’s what counts.”