A Book by its Cover

She hated it when she misplaced things, mostly because it so rarely happened. She hated no knowing where her things were, being left in the dark to their whereabouts. And not only that, but she had misplaced something so significant to her person that she was mentally kicking herself as she stalked down the hallways in search of it. To anyone else, the absence of an old and leather bound book would seem nonessential, but to Raven, it was anything but.

However, when Raven entered the common room she not only found Beast Boy, but the book she had been missing as well. She narrowed her eyes as she watched him tentatively flip through the pages, too distracted to even notice she was there. That in itself was odd considering his senses should have detected her the moment—or hell, even before—she stepped into the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked demanded.

He nearly jumped out of his boots at the sound of her voice, his wide eyes meeting hers in a turbulent frenzy. He held her gaze momentarily before sheepishly sliding her book across the table, his cheeks faintly flushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, Raven," he said as she hastily swiped her book off the counter, flipping quickly through the pages as if he might have purposely damaged it.

Finding nothing, she sighed exasperatedly and snapped, "Look, I don't have time for this. What did you do?"

Beast Boy was taken aback. "Whu…?"

"What did you do to it?" Her temper flaring, she raised the book in emphasis. "I know you did something, now tell me, what did you do?"

He raised his hands before him in a combination of defensiveness and in an attempt to reassure her. However, his open palms and lack of anything to defile her book with didn't faze her anger in the slighest. In fact, she seemed even angrier. Knowing her patience was wearing thin, he said, "I didn't do anything to your book. I was . . ." He trailed off and flushed again, his hands falling to his stomach were he seemed fascinated by them—as opposed to meeting her angry eyes.

"You were . . .?" she hedged.

Before he could reply, she spotted it. "You're so damn infuriatingly childish!" she snapped. He resisted the urge to jump when her hand shot forward and grabbed a thin, blue strip of velvet that lay sprawled in heap next to the mug of untouched hot chocolate on the table before him "Really, you took my bookmark?" She sighed inwardly, mentally cursing herself for not memorizing the page she was on as she usually did. "Why can't you just leave my stuff alone?"

When she began flipping through her pages again in a mad search for her page number, Beast Boy, slightly put off by her fury, muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

She glared at him. "What was that?"

"I said, 309—your page number is 309."

She paused, momentarily eyeing him suspiciously, before flipping to said page. Sure enough, it was in fact the page she had left off on. Surprised, she tried to catch his eye but he but he was intentionally avoiding her and continued to watch his hands, as if waiting for her to scold him again. Honestly, she wished she had something to scold him for, because right now she truly didn't know what to say. "How . . .?" she questioned.

"Your book . . .," he began awkwardly, "it's good."

"You read it?" she asked, unable to conceal her surprise. To say she was surprised was actually an understatement—she was incredulous! The mere thought of Beast Boy even holding a book, let alone actually reading one, literally stopped her short and left her to falter, prior anger forgotten.

Now he rubbed the back of his neck and slowly met her gaze, his face visibly getting redder. "Yeah . . ." He smiled nervously. "I'm sorry, Rae . . . I didn't—"

"You actually read a book?"

"Well, I was bored . . . and you left it lyin' open and all." The rush of his words tumbled out of his mouth, sometimes catching as his embarrassment increased. "At first I was just gonna close it for you and give it back to you, I swear. But then I just . . . I don't know. I just started reading and . . ." His hands danced before him, trying to emphasize a point he couldn't seem to make. Then he sighed and gave up. "I really am sorry, Rae. Won't happen again, promise!"

At first she just stood there, mind abuzz, her eyes shifting between him with his expression, and then back to the book with its velvet blue ribbon that suddenly began to tremble as she laughed. She didn't know why she laughed—maybe from the irony of the situation?—but she did, and then her lips twisted into small smile, her eyes alight with slight curiosity as she regarded him, completely forgetting that moments ago she was ready to rip his throat out for messing with her book.

"I didn't know you could read," Raven murmured in surprisingly good humor, before handing the book back to him. She almost burst out laughing again at his expression. "You can finish it"—she retracted the book slightly—"if you want to, that is."

Beasty Boy took it hesitantly. "Don't you . . . wanna finish it?" he asked her with a quirk of his brow. He was actually even more embarrassed to receive the book from her than he was to get caught with it, like a ten-year-old getting caught by his mother with a Playboy magazine and then having her suddenly approve. It was, in every sense of the word, spontaneous—something Raven was not normally known for. And not only that but she laughed. Her! And at him nonetheless! He actually made Raven laugh! Sure it wasn't intentionally, but still.

She shrugged, snapping him back to reality. "I've already read it—a few times actually." Another smile, this one softer than the other, curved at her lips. "It's one of my favorites."

He smiled. "I can . . . Well, I can actually see why. I dunno, I just never thought a book without pictures could be so . . . adventurful!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "First of all, Beast Boy, the word you're looking for is adventurous. And second of all, maybe you shouldn't always judge something by their exterior, because there's a lot of adventurous things out there, you're just too dense to see it." She began turning away, heading for her room. Over her shoulder she said, "Take good care of it, otherwise I will hurt you." As she left, she shook her head at the complete insanity of the whole thing. However, just as she made it to the door, Beasty Boy's voice stopped her.

"Thanks, Rae," he said softly. "This'll be our little secret, okay? Can't let Cy know, right?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Whatever," she said lightly.

"And Rae?"

"Yes?"

His thumbs drew absent circles on the dark binding of the book. "The main character . . . the girl," he began tentatively, unsure of himself. "She—well, she reminds me of you."

This caused her to raise her brow. "How so?"

"Well, for one, she's strong and she's smart. She acts like she's not afraid of anything, but really, all she needs is to open up and laugh of bit . . ." he trailed, nervous again. But after a moment of searching for the right words he eventually sighed, and with a sudden bout of bravery, he said, "And she's beautiful too." His last few words stuck together in a rush: "At least, that's what is says in the book."

Raven felt it was finally her turn to blush, dropping her gaze she found he finally said something that left her speechless. A dull throbbing at her temple reminded her of how emotionally tumultuous those whole random encounter was, not just for her, but for both of them, and with that she decided it was time for her to leave. Without another glance in his direction, she silently left the room, intent on heading to the roof to mediate. As she walked, she ran over the whole scenario in her head, and laughed again how fantastic it seemed. Beast Boy was actually reading a book without being forced to; he was reading because he wanted to.

She then realized that maybe she, too, should heed her own advice and not judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a person by their exterior.

LOL! I'm sorry, I really am. I don't know where this came from. I guess, I just have this image in my head of Best Boy; for some reason I see him as a character whose "stupidity" (although he is pretty dense) is more of an act. I just think he's a lot smarter than he lets on, and if the right book presents itself, he'd actually take an interest into reading it. I dunno. It was a thought. And I apologize for the awkward writing style—I was trying to experiment a bit. Usually I'm one for symbolism, but I wanted to try a more light and airy writing style. I failed epically though, I think. Not to mention, the whole thing is OOC. XD No worries, I'm gonna be writing more from this fandom, and I plan to catch their personalities better soon. :] Read and review please!