Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any of it's characters.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked her green companion as he had his bed room door wide open while he was meddling with something on his cluttered bed. Even though she too enjoyed her privacy, she still wondered what he could be doing so early in the morning.

Garfield looked toward the empath in surprise and quickly slammed the door in her face. She didn't even bother to react, she went back to reading the book in her hands. For once, it was a novel that involved a character similar to herself. She felt almost totally engrossed with every word she read.

Starfire passed her in the hallway, and she was carrying a box that was overflowing with various papers and what nots. It was almost an unusual sight to see, but the alien girl did strange things on a regular basis. She wore dark sun glasses and was whistling a tune, acting completely oblivious to Raven's presence. She rather liked this new behavior, but would never admit to it. She smiled coyly as she walked into the kitchen.

The common room was silent for this time of day. On most days, Cyborg and Garfield would be searching for the TV remote. Finally, her room mates were using their day constructively. Raven layed her book on the kitchen counter as she prepared her morning tea, grabbed a black mug, and put a tea bag in it. She looked up, and saw Robin writing furiously on a note pad. Robin, of course, was literate, but she had never saw him writing for a hobby. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cyborg typing on the Titans Tower''s database. Probably updating it as he did all the time.

She heard the kettle whistle, and she poured the boiling water into the mug. Raven exhaled deeply before she took a sip of her chai tea. She walked back to her room with her book levitating behind her and the hot cup of tea in her hands.

Robin watched as she walked out of the room. When she exited the room, Robin stopped writing, and eyed Cyborg. Cyborg also paused from what he was doing, and looked to where she walked off.

"Do you think she knows?" Robin asked.

A box of papers lay onto a heap of junk inside Garfield's room. Starfire never liked being in this filthy room, but he had asked it of her. She tended to jump at these invitations. She dug through the box of papers, but found nothing of any use. Unless they came from a spell book, or whatever Raven reads. She eyed Garfield across the room.

"Why are we doing this, again?" she asked as she took off her sun glasses.

Garfield was sitting on the floor with his back to her. The last time they chose to do something like this for her, Raven was way less than looked very focused with his new project, and Starfire hoped she wasn't distracting him too much.

"I told you; it's a surprise for Raven." Garfield was obviously hiding what he was doing, even though this was all for Raven. He grabbed more paper that looked cut out of something and some glue.

Starfire held in a sigh. That did not answer her question. She looked into the box again, and grabbed a piece of paper. She remembered Robbin telling her about origami, and began folding the paper randomly into something she may recognize. She had folded the sheet of paper at least fifty times. She began giggling to herself thinking it resembled her childhood pet. She turned the paper each way to fully imagine it. In her mind, it did look like her bumgorf, Knumung. Her giggles turned into boisterous laughter.

Garfield turned from what he was doing to glare at Starfire. She was laughing over some dumb sculpture she made. She fell onto her back while kicking her legs as she couldn't contain her laughter. Aliens were so weird. He would never understand their humor, or anything else for that matter. He shook his head and rolled his eyes at her behavior.

"Just go." He said in exasperation.

Immediately Starfire stifled her laughter as she bit her lip. She rolled over on her feet, and grabbed the sculpture as she prepared to walk out of his room. She felt his cold gaze on her back, and hated this sort of awkwardness. His door slid closed as she tip toed out.

Garfield huffed as he glued another strip of paper to the book. He reached over and dragged the box of papers for him to sort through. Inside the box, were just articles that he planned to cut out certain words or pictures.

For a while now he had been snapping photos in secret. He was going to use some of the photos for this book he was creating. Photos of the team and of him and Raven were littered on the floor in front of him. He picked up one of the photos, and it was of him grabbing Raven for the photo. Raven's face was the usual indifference she usually felt during anytime he grabbed her. He sighed a little, all he wanted was just one happy moment with her. As hard as he tried, Raven almost never cracks a smile.

If he was honest with himself, he didn't only want to see her happy. He wanted to be closer to her in a more intimate way. He really was beginning to see her as more than a team mate. Ever since she gave him a light kiss on the lips, his head has been spinning full of ideas of how he really feels about her. He dismissed those thoughts as he continued figuring out what he would do next for Raven's gift.

Today was the day that Raven defeated her father, Trigon. This gift is meant to remind her what she has, that her father does not control her. Raven blames her father for being so UN-emotional. Garfield believes that she is her own person, and wishes she would see herself as free from him. 'But that will never happen.' He thought.

Raven closed the book she had been reading this morning. She placed it on her only empty shelf left. She was running out of space again, but she put her cloak on anyway to visit the only bookstore left in town. She left swiftly, without looking in the mirror or anything else, as most girls would do. The door closed as she stepped out of her room, and she heard unusual shuffling.

Curious of the sound she walked through the dark hallway. She heard more hushed voices as she walked into the common-

"SUPRISE!"

Raven falls backward from the anticipation she felt from her friends. While sitting up, she rubbed the back of her neck. She had fallen hard on he tail bone as well.

"What's all this?"she asks.

Beast boy took a couple steps toward her. He reached an arm toward her, and helped her onto her feet. Raven had an awkward look on her face while he helped her up. She didn't want the others to have any clue about their current relationship. For the past month, she has been avoiding Garfield entirely. All her life, she has kept herself totally serene, and the only thing that could ruin it now was him. She could feel her face heating up, and a balloon popped somewhere. He looked towards where the balloon pieces littered the floor.

"It's to celebrate the day you defeated Trigon." Cyborg said. Raven could see his shoulders slump.

They had been planning this day for weeks, and didn't celebrate her birthday because of it.

"Should we not have done it?" Starfire asked pleadingly. She looked at where the balloon pieces were. They were all aware she wasn't fond of surprises, but they hoped this year would be better. "I've prepared the traditional Throcknar." Starfire forced an award-winning smile, while holding the crown of meat.

"No, this is nice." Raven put on a smile on her face for her friends. Starfire's smile brightened as she put the smelly meat crown on Raven's head. She giggled with delight at the sight. It may be the first time she has worn it.

In the back of Raven's mind, she reminded herself that Trigon always looking for a way out, he existed inside her after all. Her face grimaced a little by reminding herself of that fact. Even though she truly wanted a life full of happiness and love. Actually, form her relationship with Garfield but a single touch could lead to disaster. She feared allowing Trigon to escape, by releasing her emotions. The crown of meat exploded off her head. It became obvious to her not to think about Garfield.

The meat spattered on everyone. Robin grabbed some hand towels, and wiped his face and uniform before tossing the towels to his team mates. Cyborg and Garfield wiped it off with the towels, acting like it was a regular thing. Starfire simply ate the meat of her face, and the others pretended not to be disgusted that she ate completely raw meat. Robin grabbed his stomach and ran to the bathroom with his cape flaring behind him, as if he was going to throw up.

"Let's cut my tripled layered cake!" Cyborg carried the monstrosity of the three different icing cake and a knife to the table on the left side off the room. Starfire, Raven, and Garfield sat down at the table. Cyborg gave Raven a huge, towering slice of cake. She decided to cut it up more, and put a third of her piece on the others' plates. Garfield was the first to pick at the cake, wondering if he should go vegan. Starfire and Cyborg gobbled up theirs like it was nobody's business. Robin came back from the bathroom, and Cyborg cut him a piece as well.

After done eating, they opened gifts. Raven inspected the selection, able to tell which was from who. She could tell from first glance which one was from Starfire. It was in a large, purple container, what it was she wasn't sure. The one that was from Cyborg was bright blue wrapped object that he probably made. Robin's gift was in a small red bag. There was a gift shaped like a book, and was wrapped in newspaper, rather sloppy looking, that had to be from Garfield. She decided to open that one last.

She grabbed Starfire's gift first, and when she touched it it felt like skin of some kind. Ignoring the cool temperature of the container, she realized it was a opened it and it revealed different kinds of herbs, she did not recognize.

"They are herbs from Tamaran. I thought you would like too taste different kinds of tea." Starfire said. "I have learned people from my planet use these herbs to create tea, too."

"That's very thoughtful of you." Raven thanked.

She went on to the other's gifts. She opened Robin's gift next. It was a pendent for her cloak of a blue and black raven. She loved it. Then, Cyborg gave her a device that found books she could read online, called a Kindle. It would prove to be useful for books she can not find. She finally got to Garfield's unwrapped it with ease. And found a leather bound book.

Garfield gulped before she inspecting it, he wondered what her reaction would be. Pictures of possible outcomes flashed before his mind. Mentally he was crossing his fingers for hope she would like it.

Raven put her hand over the leather book, she always admired leather, and flipped it open. There was a quote on the first page, that read: "A friend gives hope when life is low, a friend is a place when you have nowhere to go, a friend is honest, a friend is true. A friend is precious, and that, my friend, is you."Around the quote were pictures of the team. Where did he get these pictures? The next page had pictures of them saving Jump city, and cutouts of her and Garfield. Just looking at these pictures made her feel butterflies in her stomach. She sensed that shed needed to look at this book alone. It was already stirring emotions within her. She flipped to the other pages briefly, and thanked Garfield. Garfield had an awestruck look on his continence.

She didn't look at it all. He thought she might do that. He felt that Raven's attitude was a pit of indifference. He watched as she rose from the table taking the gifts to her dark abode. He jumped at the chance. Hurriedly, he grabbed the leather book, Starfire's big purple bag of tea, and Cyborg's gift.

They walked through the hallway in silence, but when they reached Raven's room Garfield spoke.

"What did you think of my gift?" he asked, while holding out the leather book.

Raven didn't answer as she walked into her room. She layed Robin's gift down, and Garfield walked into the room. Immediately, she walked to the outside of her door, waiting for him so she could close the door. He eyed her as he walked toward her. He grabbed her hand before she could walk away, and she tried pulling away.

"Let go."she said in a hushed voice.

"No, not until you tell me what's going on." Garfield said in equally quiet voice, he knew she did not want anyone to hear.

Raven stood quietly, trying to search for the right words. She didn't know where to start; whether to mention Trigon, or how she really felt...She knew what response he wanted. But she said the one thing she could.

"It's complicated." she said as she jerked her arm away. He let go, and watched her walk away.

How much space does she need? He was tired of being patient with her. His mind played a flashback of what happened last month, and how nothing happened after it. That kiss in her room, and how she ran from him afterward. She was the initiater so why did she leave him hanging? He was sure she felt the same way he did, and sighed. He began into follow her to the common room.

A/N:

This is my attempt of my last Teen Titans story's, Experiment, sequel. I hope I'm not writing Raven more like her comic book version.

As always, read and review!

~Animated Britney