Chapter Text
Sitting with his back propped up against a wall, Beast Boy kept burning green eyes locked on the slow rise and falling chest of the man on the opposite side of the room.
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't fair that Galtry could be welcomed into the peaceful embrace of sleep even when the only bed to be had was a cold and hard concrete floor, while just the thought of sleep was enough to make Beast Boy's skin crawl.
Because sleep meant taking his eyes off of Galtry, and he was not doing that. Never again.
It wasn't fair how easily Galtry could sleep after everything the man had done to him.
But when had anything that Galtry had done to him ever been fair?
One by one, the other Titans trickled back into the abandoned building.
Robin had been out scouting the best route to take their prisoner down tomorrow.
Cy and Star had been patrolling the perimeter of their temporary camp.
Raven had been in the next room, deep in meditation.
Beast Boy barely noticed them come in. His eyes were too busy glaring at the disgustingly oily black hair protruding from the back of Galtry’s head as he simultaneously waited for and dreaded Galtry to make a move on them. The green Titan still more than half-expected this whole thing to be some kind of trick set up by Galtry himself. The details were just too perfect.
It wasn’t until Robin sat down beside him, elbows resting on his raised knees, that Beast Boy’s senses finally tuned back into the real world.
“You don’t have to do this,” Robin said, not unkindly. “No one would blame you for distancing yourself from this mission.”
“I already told you,” Beast Boy said, not taking his eyes off the oily death trap lying prone on the other side of the room. “I’m not leaving you– any of you– alone with him.”
Robin sighed. “It was worth a try. I guess now we know why the authorities were being so secretive with the specifics of this mission.”
“Yeah,” the green Titan muttered noncommittally. He had been hoping that Robin would get the gist– that Beast Boy wasn’t in the mood to talk. He couldn't, not when Galtry was right there. He didn’t need to be distracted; he needed to keep his guard up, for all of their sakes.
Robin didn’t say anything else, but Beast Boy could feel the other’s gaze on him. The mask permanently settled on the other’s face did nothing to hide or soften the piercing gaze moving up and down him, analyzing, scrutinizing a million factors that Beast Boy couldn’t hope to comprehend.
He didn’t need to know any of the little details, though. The green Titan had never been too good with that; quick decisions made on a whim– instinct– that was his domain.
He already knew people like Robin well enough to know that, whatever little details the Boy Wonder was taking in, the end result was that Rob was trying to figure out how much of a hindrance Beast Boy might be to the mission. If he could handle this, or if he’d send everything crashing down in blazing flames.
“Gar,” Robin said carefully, after a silence that– for once– Beast Boy didn’t even bother trying to fill. “Arsenal… who is he to you?”