Creepy.

That was the word he had used to define her. Of all the words he could have possibly used, and of all the simpleminded actions he tried to take, he used the word creepy. He felt indefinably stupid. Still feels like the biggest moron to have ever talked to a girl. Silly Beast Boy, you can't define someone like Raven. And if he had been trying to describe her, creepy was the last word he should've used. Looking back now, he realizes that at the time he must've sorely misunderstood exactly who Raven was and just what she was capable of because, the more he thinks about her, the more he considers the fact that there was a much better word he should've used. A word that describes her perfectly.

Crooked.

Now, now- don't jump to conclusions and think he's crazy for considering that term when, really, it does describe her perfectly. In a nut shell, the word crooked is her exact descriptive word. One could say "to a T", but that would be a very bad pun. Garfield snickers. He really is so funny. Pink Raven admitted it. It must be true.

Back on topic, everything about Raven is crooked. This is something that Gar has begun to notice more and more recently beginning with the Malchior incident. Her small, barely susceptible smile (the memory of it is ingrained into his mind like tofu waffles- only one corner of her mouth upturns and little crinkles appear at the corner of her eyes when she thinks no one's looking- as he wants both tofu waffles and Raven's barely there smile to appear more in his life than they do) is the first example. Another: her hair, with one side of her bangs being just a little shorter than the other. And that attitude that she holds around them sometimes- so emotionless, detached and cold- but based on his experiences with Nevermore, Gar wonders if maybe she feels more than any of them had ever realized. That was crooked.

Raven's so dark sometimes. She's always locking herself up in her room and keeping to herself; she's so quiet sometimes that even he, with his whole "animal instincts" thing, doesn't even realize she's there. But, on the flip side, she's always there for them if they need her. And, despite her darkness, she's always fought for the light. She's always fought for other. For the better good. But... she's never really fought for herself. In fact, she's often fought herself.

That's crooked.

Garfield means, well, she was literally born into this world (by this world, he means metaphorically; she was literally born into a world- aka she's actually from Azarath- and came to this one, but he supposes she was always born to-) to bring an end to it and the lives of millions of innocents. She was born to destroy. But... she fought against it and saved everyone, including the people who had been trying to save her. She'd never really needed saving in the end. Gar liked that in a girl, even though he absolutely needed to protect a girl who didn't need protecting regardless (once again, think on animal instincts here). Someone born to destroy everything was the one to save it. He definitely counts that as crooked.

Raven is both a demon and a human. She has blue and red eyes and occasionally four eyes instead of two (he'd never call her four eyes regardless- do you think he wants to kill himself?). And she's able to become something other than herself, that's just as much a part of her as breathing: her soul self, and her demon. He can relate. And she hates really annoying children- specifically all children- but doesn't count Melvin, Timmy, and Teether in that number. Raven actually doesn't seem to mind them all that much, and she checks in on them from time to time. Though, if you ask him, they're the picture of annoying children. Coming from Beast Boy, that should be saying something. He'd be concerned about all of this if it wasn't for the one fact that this was Raven they were talking about. He thinks maybe she can handle herself. Sometimes.

Her face, always emotionless, holds the most expression one's ever seen if one knew how to see it. He knows.

She also loves sunrises and sunsets, but hates all that time in between.

And while he's on the topic of things she hates: chickens. Of all the things she could hate in the world, it's chickens. This most definitely, probably, stems off from the fact that she's allergic to them. Which, again, of all things- chickens? Except... she's kept the one he'd given to her at the carnival. That giant stuffed, plush chicken. He'd thought she'd thrown it out eons ago. Wasn't the fact that she's kept it just the tiniest bit crooked? That also sparked some sort of jump in his chest to think about it. He smiles warmly at the plush toy and breaths in her scent.

And that smile, larger than usual- sort of devilish and twisted and very mischievous- directed towards Cyborg after Cy threw a stank ball at Beast Boy, in BB's defense. That hug just moments before- she'd tossed her arms around him in wild abandon, grasping around his shoulders as if he were the only one in this world keeping her there- just that one time, when she usually couldn't stand to be around him.

How often she went to the mall with Star, though she hated doing that too- and how she worked on the T-car with Cyborg although she knew nothing about cars and couldn't really see the point- and how she made some sort of weird mind connection with Robin which enabled the two of them to know certain things about the other when she never revealed anything about herself- all these just so she could help her friends.

No, Garfield recalled. Her family.

She'd wanted to help her family.

Because all she had left in the world of her actual blood relatives was her father; a crazy, giant, blood-red, antler-topped, over-entitled and kind of scary demon overlord. Her father's the only thing aside from Wicked Scary he's ever known her to be afraid of, and she'd beaten both of those so called fears in the end. So they are her family. The team is her family.

She is the most hopeful person he's ever known, as Robin had been so keen as to point out, and it's hard to believe that she's even capable of doubting herself let alone thinking about that one point in time when she's lost hope. And, perhaps, it was kind of crooked that the person she couldn't stand the most was the one to give her hope back to her?

The only reason Garfield's thinking about this right now is because of the small object he's holding in his hands. He'd found it in her room, right after he'd found the plush chicken. It's hard for him to believe he'd ever forgotten about this little thing, especially since it must have some importance to her for her to have kept it. He knew what it was. He remembered it now. There was no doubt in Gar's mind. Of it, he could smell the familiarity from the day.

He'd thought she'd dropped this, or lost it, or something. He's come to realize he'd thought a lot of things about Raven that he's been wrong about so far. Did she hold onto it, all this time? Had she gone back for it?

The object that's currently been captivating his thoughts is a penny. One side is charred beyond recognition; the other side is pretty dirty and roughed up, but otherwise just as a penny should look. Old Uncle Abe is peering up at him. This is the same penny he'd found that day, the one he'd picked up for good luck. The penny he'd given to her the day she'd lost hope. This was the object he'd given to her to give her back hope.

She'd needed it at the time.

And now, as he holds it, it gives him hope.

At this point in his life he'd be remiss to say he's never thought about it before: them. Together. As in together, together. Sure, they argued all the time, but they were still friends. They annoyed each other to death, but the only good of his day begins and ends with her in it. There really wasn't any other girl he'd rather argue with, and he loves to argue with her. He loves to be annoyed with her. He doubts he could actually live without her sarcastic quips in his life. And a life without her in it? It terrifies him to think about. He thinks he'd become fat and bald and lock himself away, maybe lose all respect he's ever had, if she'd ever left. Even then, that's assuming he would be able to survive in utter misery and despair. Those arguments he has with her really keeps him alive.

Everything in her life is crooked (in the best of ways, rest assured) and... wouldn't it be the icing on the cake if their relationship was a mite bit crooked too?

Would it truly matter to them if it was? If they mostly acted the way they did now, but with a little something more to maybe balance out all that tension, or to add fuel to the flames?

Has she ever had the same thoughts?

Garfield plays with the coin in his hands.

He doesn't know. He feels insane for even thinking about this, but that jump in his heart came back and now it's knocking around in his chest erratically. He decides to leave it up to chance. He flips the penny in his hands, and as it spins through the air he decides that if it lands on the crooked side of the coin, he'd ask her out. It took a second, but he catches the penny as it comes down. He takes a breath to steady his racing heart, and reveals the lucky side to win, and then he smiles. Perhaps it's lucky for him that both sides were decidedly crooked. Or maybe Ol' Uncle Abe's a BBRae shipper (he's a teen, he's familiar with how a computer works; he's seen what his fans write about him and Rae and it sometimes makes him blush). Either way, Gar isn't exactly perfect either, so maybe he and Raven could be crooked together.

With that thought, he sets the penny down so that Abe is able continue to stare blankly up at him with that frozen, half melted, crooked smirk on his face. Then Beast Boy leaves to go find Raven. In his book, crooked is a good thing, and everything about Raven to him is crooked.

And maybe, with luck and Abraham Lincoln on his side, Raven will forgive him for invading her privacy by blatantly disregarding any and all rules she has about going into her room and going through her things. Maybe. A slim, most-likely-not-gonna-happen-but-I'm-going-to-make-believe-it-will maybe.

He's decided to tell her after he asks her out and gives her the best date of her life. If she tells yes, maybe. Another slim, most-likely-not-gonna-happen thing.

He'll tell her about going through her things a very, very long time after, if she says yes.

He thinks she'll say yes.

AN

So some of you might recognize this from something I wrote two or three years ago under a different pen name. I recently remembered my old username and password, and decided I'd be more likely to remember my new account, but I wanted to keep some of the old fanfic's I wrote. This was one of them. So I stole it from that old user, deleted it from there, revamped it on here, and reposted it. I don't know if it's better or worse now than then.

To everyone else who hadn't noticed- don't worry about it. Like I said, I wrote this two or three years ago. And it needed to be moderately rewritten anyways. Just leave me a comment on what you think, please and thank you, and I'll love you forever.

In any case, thanks for reading! If you liked it especially, leave a comment or favorite the piece, let me know how I did. Thanks again :)