Sitting on the couch, Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin watched as the latter of the three flicked through channel after channel, looking for something they could all watch together. As was often the case, Starfire would end up disagreeing about what they should watch and then Robin would start channel surfing again, and usually the process would repeat ad nauseum until the day had ended, Starfire decided to do something other than watch TV, or in a very rare moment of unity, they would actually find something that they agreed on. That didn't look to be the case today, because with three hundred channels and plenty of things to watch, the only thing happening on TV was a bunch of channel changing.
"You're not giving me a real answer, Raven!"
The three couch potatoes turned around to see that Raven had walked in, a huge grin on her face, with Beastboy behind her looking upset.
"I think that 'no' and 'because I don't want to' are perfectly real answers." Raven replied, sitting down next to Robin. Far closer than she normally sat next to anybody, in fact. There was barely any space between them.
"Yeah, but no!" Beastboy had crossed to the front of the couch and was now in front of her. "Those are excuses! Anyone can say 'no' and 'I don't want to'. There has to be another reason that you're not telling me!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Raven.
She rolled her eyes, then looked at Robin.
"What's going on?" Cyborg asked from Robin's left.
"Beastboy asked me out on a date." Raven said flatly. "And I told him no."
"You asked...Raven out? Like, this Raven? The one who hates you?" Cyborg looked like he was trying reaaaaaally hard not to laugh.
"She doesn't hate me, she begrudgingly gets along with me." Beastboy said matter of factly.
Cyborg looked at him, then Raven, then Robin, then Starfire, then Raven again, and then he looked back at Beastboy. "If you knew that, then what did you think she was going to say?" He said, then wasn't able to hold back his laughter anymore. "Why on Earth did you think she was going to say yes?"
Beastboy frowned. "I was polite and serious about it." He looked at Raven. "Wasn't I?"
"Shockingly, yes." Raven nodded. "Of course, I didn't think he was serious, so I laughed at him."
Robin joined in Cyborg's laughter. "That's awful!" They both said at the same time. "The one time she thinks you're joking, man…" Cyborg said.
"Yeah, well, whatever! The point is, Raven only said she wouldn't date me, but not why she shouldn't. I deserve to know." Beastboy crossed his arms over his chest, turning his attention to Raven.
"Maybe it's because you're immature?"
"Or you smell bad all the time?"
"Because you are not handsome."
"What is this!?" Beastboy raised his hands to his head as Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire all chimed in for Raven. "I wasn't asking you, I was asking her! Raven, c'mon, tell me why!"
Raven interlaced her fingers with Robin's, lifting their hands up so everyone could see. "Because I'm dating Robin." She said simply.
Unfazed, Robin nodded at Beastboy, then turned to the others with a look on his face that clearly said, "No she's not."
At first, Cyborg and Starfire looked just as stunned as Beastboy did, but they relaxed when they caught the silent message. For his part, the changeling was still standing there slack jawed, his hands in the air as he looked at Robin and Raven's hands. After about eight seconds, he finally spoke. "What!? Since when?"
"A few months." Robin answered. If he was going to be pulled into this lie, he definitely wasn't going to leave it all up to Raven. Besides, they were generally on the same wavelength, so he was sure she could play along to whatever he made up.
Raven nodded. "Get it now?" She asked Beastboy.
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're lying, I can tell."
"Oh? How so?" Raven asked innocently.
"Because I've never noticed anything going on between you two until now." Beastboy said.
"They're the most secretive people on this team, of course you wouldn't notice anything if they wanted to keep their little fling a secret." Cyborg pointed out, saving both liars from trying to come up with something and possibly contradicting each other.
"Yep, if we wanted you to know, we would've said something." Robin said casually.
Beastboy still didn't look convinced. "Prove it." He said as stared down Robin.
Shrugging indifferently, Robin turned to Raven and gently pulled her hood down, smoothing her hair out as it became slightly disheveled from the movement. He traced her jawline and let his hand cup her chin, leaning forward three fourths of the way and stopping, waiting for her to close the gap. She must've been really desperate to convince Beastboy, because she didn't hesitate, leaning forward into the kiss the instant he'd stopped moving. Or maybe she'd been leaning forward already because she had come up with the same idea. Either way, he couldn't stop himself from smiling as he titled Raven's head back and leaned further into her touch. Her hands fell onto his chest, then slid up his torso and her arms linked behind his neck, locking him in place. They held still for a second as they savoured the moment before pulling back and smiling at each other.
"Proof enough for you?" Raven said as she looked at Beastboy.
"... Yeah, fine. I hope you two are happy together." He dropped his hands to his sides and then walked off.
"Poor Beastboy." Starfire said with a frown. "Perhaps we should go cheer him up?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Don't get up to anything too naughty, love birds." Cyborg said with a grin as he and Starfire went after Beastboy.
Once they had left the room, Robin turned to Raven and said with a smirk, "Y'know, you're not a very good kisser."
"Pardon me, I haven't got much experience." Raven said in mock annoyance.
"Well, I'm always here if you need to practice!" Robin responded with a laugh.
"In your dreams, Boy Blunder. I just needed to get Beastboy off my back." Raven pulled her hood back over her head. "Don't think it'll happen again."
"Oh, but it will." Robin rested his elbow on the back of the couch as he continued smirking at her. "You wanna know why?"
"Do tell." Raven pulled her legs up underneath her as she turned to face him.
"Because we're gonna have to kiss again at some point to really sell the illusion that you and I are dating. After all, if Beastboy doesn't believe that we're dating, what's to stop him from asking you out again?"
Raven's eyes widened.
"Yep." Robin said with a nod. "Why, we'll have to do things like holding hands and hugging and saying 'I love you' in public where Beastboy can see and hear us!" When Raven groaned, Robin started chuckling. "You didn't really think this through, Rae. You should've just told Beastboy 'no' however many times it took him to get the hint."
"If I did that, I would never stop saying no. Case in point, he still comes up to me daily asking if I want to hear another one of his jokes." Raven shook her head. "No matter how many times I tell him I don't."
"You could always tell the truth…." Robin sing songed to her.
"And spend the rest of my days being followed around by a guy I'm not interest in? No thanks. I'd rather pretend with a guy I get along with." Raven said.
"So you're not interested in me?" Robin asked with an exaggerated frown.
"Why Robin, I thought we were dating?" Raven asked in response. "Surely now that we're an "official" couple you understood that."
"Well, I could use a reminder." He said as he leaned in, once again letting Raven close the distance between them.
The second kiss was nice, a lot nicer than the first one had been. Not to say that their first kiss was bad by any stretch of the imagination; Robin had simply lied to get another kiss out of her. It wasn't every day the girl you had a crush on was willing to do this, after all.
