Prologue Chapter One:
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, sadly.
Author's Note: I've edited this again, taken out some things that weren't strictly necessary. It's still long but what can I say? I couldn't find anything else to take out that wasn't reffered back to later.
Beast Boy sat in the foyer of the tower waiting to let Bumble Bee in, Cyborg was supposed to do it seeing as how he was the one dating her. But he was cleaning out the T-car. Robin and Starfire were already out on their date and Raven was, well Raven. So Beast Boy had been elected by default. He didn't really mind that much, or he wouldn't if it was an occasional thing, but it was every weekend. It wasn't really his fault that he didn't have a date, why was he being punished for it? Raven didn't have a date either and she wasn't getting teased for it, she was getting sympathy despite the fact he knew full well that had she usually been asked out for Saturday night at least three times and just turned all of them down. Personally he felt bad for the guys seeing as he had been on the receiving end of that sort of thing more times then he cared to count, just not with Raven. She was a good friend but he would want anything more with her. So why was he thinking so much about her while he was waiting for Cyborg's date?
Eventually Raven herself showed up at the door to the rest of the tower, "Bumble Bee just called, she can't make it tonight. Apparently they're having a slight problem with a bank robber." she said still standing in the doorway.
Beast Boy frowned, "She called you?" he asked a little confused. But he got up trusting that Raven was telling him the truth, she rarely lied to them. At least he couldn't remember many times that she'd lied to them, but it was possible that she just hadn't gotten caught.
"She called Cyborg." Raven corrected coolly, "Why would she call me?" she asked .
"I don't know I was kind of wondering that." Beast Boy said with a slightly sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head.
Raven rolled her eyes and started back towards the elevator, Beast Boy was used to this reaction from her and just followed. He considered asking her to come with him to check out that new tofu place that had just opened up but 1) he didn't think that she'd want to, 2) he had no clue why he wanted to ask her in the first place, and 3) he was afraid she d hit him if he did ask her, he knew she hated tofu.
"Since Cyborg is apparently staying home I think I'm going to check out that new tofu place." Beast Boy said thoughtfully.
"Whatever." Raven said in a tone that bordered on cold before she phased through the side of the elevator and effectively ended any conversation that might have come from that.
"What's up with her?" Beast Boy muttered the question as the elevator doors opened. He walked down the hall to his bedroom since he found that he wasn t really in the mood for a trip to the Tofu Kingdom tonight, maybe he d go some other time. After all it would probably still be open later in the week, or even next week.
He kicked his desk and flopped onto his bed to think, and irritatingly his thoughts drifted back to Raven and her odd reaction to him having said that he was going to leave the tower. He couldn't think of any reason for it! He shook his head hard; he was starting to feel like he had been hypnotized or something, which he knew was easily done, Mad Mod capitalized on that every time he got out of jail. This happened way too often, if you asked him. Shouldn t that guy be in a higher security prison or something? But at least Raven had smiled once or twice over that, and boy was it creepy how his thoughts kept drifting back to her.
Beast Boy jumped up deciding to go track down Cyborg to talk him into a video game marathon, even if he ended up losing as was almost guaranteed, it had to be better than the disturbing direction his thoughts kept taking when left on their own.
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Two weeks after that strange encounter with Raven, Beast Boy was once more waiting for Bumble Bee to show up. He'd gotten a sort of reprieve the week before when Cyborg had tried to go over to the Titans East's Tower but something had come up here. Dr. Light had escaped and was wreaking havoc and while Raven could handle him easily they were kind of hoping to get him corralled without putting him in a mental hospital again. It had half worked, he had kept fighting until they threatened to call Raven who they claimed was just itching to come talk to him, then he had collapsed in a dead faint. Well, he'd kind of gotten a deer in the headlights look when they threatened him with that; he hadn't fainted until Beast Boy had mentioned that Raven had seemed moody for the past week.
Robin had tried to get on his case about having done that, but somehow it had lost its punch when Cyborg and Starfire were laughing and Robin himself looked like he was about to, besides Beast Boy hadn t lied. Raven hadn't been quite herself. Beast Boy had done some research into hypnosis in the meantime, and found out that it didn't have to be done by swirling black and white lines, it could also be done by shiny objects, or a monotones sounds. He'd also found something about self hypnosis that was pretty interesting but like the rest of it: singularly unhelpful. He'd been trying to find ways to fight hypnosis and all he'd found on that was something about 'no one can hypnotize you if you don't let them'. His response to that was that they had obviously never met Mad Mod. He'd keep looking, contrary to popular belief he could do research when he really wanted to. He just usually didn't see the point when one team mate or another would answer his question if he just asked. Besides usually there wasn't time to look up what he needed to know, imminent destruction on a varying scale usually made research best left to the people who knew what they were looking for.
Ok, there had been the time when Raven's father had been on his way. Then everyone one had been researching that sign, and nobody could find it. Well, Raven had found it, but it had taken forever for her to admit it. Like any of them were going to feel differently about Raven just because she was half demon, she couldn't help who her parents were any more than Robin could having lost his parents, or Cyborg could help whatever had caused him to end up a Cyborg, or Starfire could help the fact that she doesn't quite get the English language since she wasn't raised here and the grammar is different from Tamarainian grammar. Sadly, you can't pick your parents, though thinking back he wouldn't really want to be able to, nothing would have been the same if they could, would they even have Raven on the team if she could have picked her parents? And why was he did that thought disturb him so much?
Beast Boy shook his head, he didn't know why he was suddenly thinking about Raven so much but he resolved to stop now, five minutes ago, maybe even yesterday. The intercom suddenly buzzed, "Are you alright Beast Boy? Your emotions are filtering all the way up here to my room." Raven said through it. Obviously she didn't feel like coming down to talk to him, another thing that irritated him for no known reason.
"It's nothing." He responded after he had walked over to the intercom, "I just have too much time to think while I m down here, haven't they settled what time zone their dates will be set in yet?" he asked just to try and extend the conversation.
"Obviously not." Raven said in her usual monotone. "Though I'm not certain if it counts as a date if they never actually get around to seeing each other." she added.
Beast Boy blinked, slightly surprised by what, to him, sounded almost like a joke. Though it was kind of hard to tell with Raven since she almost always spoke in a monotone, sometimes he thought she did it just so that they wouldn't be able to tell. "Raven that almost sounded like a joke... Raven?" he turned off the intercom with a sigh when she didn't respond. He chalked the sudden loneliness he felt to having spent way too many Saturdays down here waiting for Cyborg's date alone while Cyborg cleaned out the car. He stopped in his tracks as he thought about Cyborg's car, which they were not allowed to eat or drink anything in, never carried the take out home since they almost always had it delivered, and was most usually washed and waxed on Thursday or Friday. Beast Boy sighed and turned back around to the intercom and, cursing himself as an idiot, called back up to Raven's room. "Raven? May I ask you a question?" he asked.
"What?" Raven responded still in a monotone but you didn't live with someone for a few years and not learn how to listen for the undercurrents in their tone, right now she was annoyed.
"Cyborg's playing the gamestation isn't he?" Beast Boy asked without preamble since any waste of breath would just annoy her further and lessen his chances of getting an answer.
"Yes, last I saw." Raven said simply, but she no longer sounded as if she would hang up on him any second.
"He's been playing every Saturday until he heard from Bee hasn't he?" Beast Boy asked despite the fact that he had specifically requested one question.
"Yes." Raven said deciding to be nice for once and not point out that had already asked two questions, and that was his third. "Please tell me you didn't just figure this out."
"Well I've had other things on my mind!" Beast Boy said defensively.
"What mind?" Raven asked sarcastically, her nice mood was over.
"Oh, ha-ha Raven. Real funny." Beast Boy responded just as sarcastically.
"Well, really Beast Boy, how could you have missed that one? Cyborg never lets his car get dirty so why would it take him four hours to clean it out?" Raven asked derisively.
"He's obsessive about his car, it takes him longer than that just to wash it." Beast Boy said sounding defensive again. "And besides having a date can make you do weird things."
"I haven't done anything weird for my last couple dates." Raven pointed out. "And I'm not doing anything weird tonight."
"I said can not will - Wait a second! You have a date?!" Beast Boy exclaimed as what she said finished filtering through his brain and part of his mind threw up a few stop signs and a couple red lights, he d worry about that later. With who?! When did this happen?!
"It's not unheard of for someone to ask me out Beast Boy, and I was not informed that I had to check with you about my social life." Raven said coldly.
Beast Boy knew that he should apologize, but he really couldn't bring himself to. Instead he called up to the common room again, this time asking for Cyborg. "Cyborg I know you re up there, get off the gamestation and wait for your girlfriend like you're supposed to." he said before he started for the elevator.
"I'll give you five bucks to wait for down there for me." Cyborg said over the intercom. Beast Boy ignored it and was almost to the elevator when the doorbell rang, he went ahead and answered it since he was already down here but resolved to kill Cyborg later. "Hey Bee." he said after opening the door and confirming that it was indeed Bee.
"Hi Beastboy, where's Cyborg?" Bumble Bee asked as she stepped inside.
"Common room last I heard." Beast Boy said as he closed the door behind her, he looked like he was about to say something else but when he turned away from the door his eyes bugged out instead.
Raven was standing there in a rather low cut dark blue top, a knee length black skirt, and black high heels. She was wearing makeup that was actually applied well enough that it was barely noticeable, but it highlighted her eyes and lips and made her look entirely different without actually making her look different.
"Wow girl! You look hot! Whose the lucky guy?" Bumble Bee asked with a grin for Raven, who blushed slightly since she wasn't entirely comfortable with how she was dressed or how Beast Boy was staring.
"Frank." Raven said after only a moments hesitation, she didn't feel that she had to admit that she'd just given up all that she knew of the guy. She still wasn't entirely certain why she had agreed to a blind date, even a double date with Kid Flash and Jinx. Especially a double date with Kid Flash and Jinx!
"Frank who?" Beast Boy demanded finally seeming to shake out of his apparent shock at seeing her dressed up like an actual girl, to be nosy.
"That is none of your business Beast Boy! Now stop bugging me about it!" Raven said sounding a little irritable. Her eyes glowed for a second and Beast Boy changed into a beetle before she walked out.
"I hate it when she does that." Beast Boy said scowling after her in that instant after he had changed back and before she had used her powers to slam the door shut again.
"She can force you to morph?" Bee asked as the two started for the elevator, "That's a pretty cool talent. Wait, can she mess with other people's powers like that?"
"Yes, I guess, and I don t know. If she can she's polite enough not to do it to them, it's rather rude." Beast Boy said still looking less than happy but Bee suspected that it had less to do with Raven having turned him into a beetle than it had to do with the fact that she was out on a date, and it wasn't with him. When the elevator stopped Beast Boy veered off toward his room while Bee went to the common room still amused by what she thought was going on in the tower right under her oblivious boyfriend's nose.
Author s Note: Ok, I know this was up before, but I'm turning it into one of a trilogy. Please don't yell at me about taking it down,I had to rewrite a good chunk of it . And if anyone wants to Beta this let me know please because the only Beta I know does Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys fics and is already looking over two of those for me.
