Beast Boy flinched, raising his arms in a futile protective gesture as Raven glared at him, her nostrils flaring.

"Mama? Are you serious? Did you just call me mama?" She hissed, making no attempt to conceal her displeasure.

"What's wrong with 'mama'?" He replied as he cautiously dropped his guard. An exasperated groan escaped her gray lips. They were alone in the common room, not that he didn't use that revolting pet name for her when the others were around. She relaxed somewhat, placing her hands on her hips, and her expression was now merely stern.

"Do I look like a mama?"

"Yeah, you do. I mean, you're smoking hot, Rave."

"What? That doesn't make any sense! I'm 19 years old. How could I possibly look like a mother?"

He snickered. "Not a mother, a mama."

She rolled her eyes and groaned.

"OK, that makes even less sense. Since when is a mama not a mother? Or do you have some kind of Oedipus complex?"

"A what-pus complex? Is that like an octopus?" He asked with a straight but very innocent looking face.

"OK, now I know you're just messing with me, Gar." She said as she walked away. He followed her.

"You know I'd never do that, mama." He said as he smiled one of those goofy grins that always made her heart melt and it did. She caught herself starting to smile and stopped.

"Why do you keep using that pet name for me? It sounds incestuous."

"Say what?"

She heaved an exasperated sigh.

"You've really never heard of Oedipus?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Actually, I do know who he is."

She frowned at him. "Then you should understand why I don't like being called mama."

"But mama … I mean Rave, it doesn't mean what you think it means."

"You expect me to believe that?"

They were now in her room. He quickly looked around and found what he was looking for: the iPad on her desk Without asking he grabbed it and began tapping on its screen.

"What do you think you're doing? That's my tablet, in case you've forgotten. You're notorious for breaking everything you touch."

He tapped on the screen. "Just a sec, Rave, I promise nothing will happen to it… OK, look"

He handed her the iPad and she saw that he had opened a browser to the urban dictionary website. Her brow furrowed as she read it out loud.

"Mama – a very attractive woman … example: daiimmmnnnn! she is one hot mama! "

She put the tablet back on her desk.

"Seriously, Gar? You want to call me that?"

"Absolutely."

"Can't you think of something better?"

He scratched one of his temples for a moment, then an "Aha!" expression appeared on his face: "How about 'my sexy girlfriend who's wicked smoking hot'?"

"Garfield! Be serious."

"Hey, it's true. And I am being serious."

She face palmed. "What have I done to deserve this?"

"OK, how about I call you 'love goddess'?"

With her hand still covering her face, she shook her head.

"Rae Rae?"

She shook it even harder.

"My sweet sorceress?"

She dropped her hand, tilted her head back and rolled her eyes.

"Ravie-poo?"

"Never mind, you can call me mama. I'll learn to live with it. Like I have any choice in the matter."

A huge smile broke out on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two tickets.

"Think you can live with this?" He said as he handed them to her. Her eyes widened when she saw them.

"You got tickets to the symphony? These are for the Mahler concert, it's been sold out for months. I really wanted to go. How in Azar's name did you get these?"

"Let's just say that I have connections." He replied with a very smug look on his face.

She wrapped her arms around him.

"This means so much to me. Thank you … papa."

He jerked away from her.

"Papa? Are you serious? What kind of pet name is that?"

Raven smirked as she walked away, tucking the two tickets into one of the compartments in her jeweled belt. Gar stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

"What's good for the goose, is good for the gander." She whispered to herself.

The End