Slightly AU. Kyd/Raven friendship

2. Halloween

"Trick or Treeeat!"

Raven stared in surprise and slight confusion at the young trio in front of her at the door of Titan's Tower. There stood a miniature princess, skeleton, and pumpkin.

Then the pumpkin started babbling in a familiar voice, the skeleton began shouting, "Gimme gimme gimme CANDY" and the princess was smiling sweetly and holding a seemingly invisible person's hand.

Melvin, Teether, and Timmy. (and Bobby)

"Raven!" Melvin cheered, running forward and letting go of Bobby's claw, "Happy Halloween!"

Raven still stared in a mix of bafflement and shock as they all ran forward and greeted her. She turned to her left to see Kyd Wykkyd eyeing them curiously as he walked over from the Common room. Raven scooped up Teether — who in the process of being lifted dropped his pacifier and was now wailing. Bobby became visible and grinned, and Timmy was screeching for candy again.

"Kyd, this is Melvin, Teether, and Timmy. They're... honorary Titans," she explained over the noise. He smiled and walked closer. When Timmy saw the cowl and red eyes, he shivered a little and hung closer to Raven.

"What're you all doing here? And how did you get here? We live on an island."

Melvin, ignoring her second question, smiled. "Do ya 'member after the Brotherhood of Evil thing, when you said we could all go Trick-or-Treating together?"

Raven shook her head.

Melvin frowned and jutted out her lip. "Well you did. So we gotta go trick'er-treating now. And we're not leaving till we go!"

Raven stared at the child, whose tiara was beginning to slip. Timmy and Teether were now silent; she had a moment to think.

"...Alright. Let's go." she sighed in defeat. The kids — and Wykkyd — all cheered.

A half hour later, the party of five was walking along the streets of Jump City. Raven was already irritated as she had to teleport all of the children across the bay to the city; Timmy didn't want to go with Kyd since he proclaimed he "didn't want any of his bad-guy germs to get on him." So what if Kyd was "evil"? No one would know that he was even over at the Tower; the rest of the Titans were at some party or patrolling the streets. Being friends was their secret.

"Sooo... where do you want to trick-or-whatever?" Raven asked Melvin. The young girl smiled brightly before pointing to the East. "There's some neighborhoods over there," she said.

Raven sighed before pulling up her hood and following the young children towards said direction. Kyd Wykkyd patted her shoulder sympathetically, smiling weakly. Teether was the only one who didn't mind being carried, so Kyd had the young child in his arms. Raven smiled back with pursed lips before trailing after Timmy, who was running towards a group of teenagers dressed as the Scooby Doo gang. Apparently that was his favorite cartoon.

It was going to be a long night.

,.,

"Um... Aren't you a little old to be dressing up?"

A middle-aged woman in a one-piece exercise suit looked Raven and Kyd Wykkyd up and down with a disapproving frown. Raven growled under her breath and Kyd had to hold an arm out to stop her from attacking the woman that had been handing out candy to the kids.

"No. No we're not." Raven spat as Melvin, Teether, and Timmy rushed down the steps. Raven blew up the woman's bowl of candy and shut the door in her face, leaving the exercise lady baffled behind her now-closed front door.

Wykkyd silently snickered as he followed the sorceress down the driveway to the next house, where a man dressed as Frankenstein dropped black licorice into the young Titan's jack-o-lantern-themed candy bags. Timmy took one glance at the cheap sweets and began screaming about who-knows-what.

Raven face-palmed herself. Of course he had to throw a tantrum right in the middle of the street where a huge group of people were gathered.

Shrugging her cloak back from her shoulders, Raven briskly walked over to the annoying child and scooped him up, effectively shutting his mouth with a wisp of black magic. Yes, she loved these kids with all her heart, but come on. It would be nice if they weren't always trying to ruin her. People shot her, the kids and Wykkyd stares; what was a Titan, a villain, and three young children doing trick-or-treating? It baffled them all.

,.,

"Now we gotta trade candy!" the other children cheered at Melvin's suggestion. They were back at Titans Tower, the kids sitting in a triangle-circle thing in the middle of the floor and the older "kids" on the couch.

Melvin began seriously explaining the rules to the others and Raven couldn't help but smile at their childishness. Kyd smiled at Raven, who glared back at him. "What?" she said. He shrugged and gestured to the kids, back to Raven, and made a movement like he was cradling a baby. "You're like a mother to them," was what he meant.

Raven rolled her eyes and pulled up her hood. "Yeah, right." she muttered.

Kyd smiled knowingly before curling his cape around himself, disappearing in a second. And just then the other Titans entered, laughing and greeting Raven and the kids.

Melvin looked up abruptly. "Hey, where'd the creepy guy go?"

"What?"