It was another Saturday night and as Cat Stevens once sang, she ain't got nobody. Not that it was unusual for Raven to have the whole T shaped building mostly to herself on a slow, mission free Saturday evening, and her teammates thought she liked it that way.

Robin and Starfire would always go out on a date on such days, with their communicators at their sides should an emergency arise. They would be out until well past midnight. Raven knew this as she would be up very late in meditation and sensed when they finally came home.

Cyborg had also been going out for months now, with his girlfriend, a blond and introverted school teacher named Sarah Simms. That her name sounded like Cyborg's long lost flame Sarasim was not lost on the sorceress. Fate was indeed a capricious mistress. Cyborg didn't seem to be bothered by the coincidence and from outside it appeared that he had forgotten about his stone age girlfriend. But Raven knew better.

All of this meant that she and the changeling were the ones usually left behind. She quickly gave him the brush off when he tried to engage her with video games or even a "just friends" outing to the pizzeria. He tried, more than once, but eventually gave up, sometimes going out by himself when he didn't stay home for a date with the GameStation. So their Saturday evenings often consisted of Beast Boy playing on the GameStation by himself, sitting at one end of the couch as Raven read while seated at the other end, at least until 10 o'clock, when she usually would excuse herself and head out to her room to meditate. It wasn't much, but at least they were civil with each other. Sometimes if Raven made herself some tea, she would bring him a soda without him asking, or he would bring some potato chips with dip to share with her back to the couch. Polite thank yous would be exchanged and they would resume their previous activities.

But something was off tonight. The others would usually leave by 7:00, saying good bye to their friends as they left. Raven would wish them a pleasant evening and Beast Boy would say something like "have fun!" But tonight Beast Boy wasn't there and only Raven wished them a good evening.

Half an hour passed and she wondered where he was. She reached out with her empathic senses. He was in his room and he seemed excited … even more excited than normal; which she found disturbing. She put her book down and stood up. Her curiosity was getting the best of her, and was about to head to his room when the common room doors swished open. Beast Boy, who was wearing a pair of jeans and a Green Lantern T shirt entered the room.

"You're not wearing your Doom Patrol uniform."

He grinned at her. "Rita had these civvies made for me. They'll morph away if I transform, just like the uniform. So I can go out looking normal, or at least as normal as I can look."

She gave him a good look. "OK, that's nice. But why did you change? By the way, I think normal is overrated."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, I have a date tonight."

"You have a date?" Her voice almost cracked.

"Yeah, a date. You seem surprised. You think I can't get a date?"

"The thought crossed my mind." She deadpanned. "Please tell me you're not dating Terra."

He frowned. "Gee, thanks for reminding me that she dumped me last year at that school. And that this is my first date since forever."

"Sorry. That was insensitive of me." She replied in am uncharacteristic for her contrite tone. Beast Boy was surprised that she was apologizing at all, never mind showing a hint of remorse, when the main console beeped. He pushed a button and the giant screen showed someone standing at the visitor's entrance.

"Cool! She's here." He paused and frowned again. "You think I'm making this up, don't you? I'll bring her up so you can meet her."

He disappeared into the elevator. A few minutes later the doors swished open again and he emerged with a shapely and very lovely brunette.

"Lindsey, this is Raven. Raven, this is Lindsey."

Raven walked over and very politely shook the girl's hand. She felt a tidal wave of emotion from the young woman.

"Wow, you're Raven. After Gar, you're my favorite Titan." The visitor gushed, clearly in awe of the gray and violet Titan.

"Gar? Raven replied.

"Lindsey said she want to call me by my real name. And since you teased me to death after you learned that my name is Garfield, I figured I rather be called Gar."

Lindsey hooked her arm into Beast Boy's. "We met at the city zoo. I'm a zoology major at Jump City State University."

"Yeah, we met one day when I helped one of the doctors diagnose a sick zebra."

"I volunteer at the zoo." She interjected. "Gar interpreted between the doctor and the zebra. It really helped the doctor figure out what was wrong with poor little Henry."

"So that's where you go Saturday mornings." Raven remarked.

"Well, yeah. I'd often see Lindsey there … anyway, this morning I asked her out, and she accepted."

"I was thinking of asking Gar weeks ago, but since he's an amazing super hero I figured that he already had a girlfriend, a super hero girlfriend."

Gar snickered. "I once thought about asking Power Girl out, but she lives in Metropolis and well, I never got around to it."

Lindsey smiled. "Actually I thought that maybe you were dating Raven."

"What? Me and Raven? No way, we're just friends. I mean, really good friends, I mean ..."

"What Gar is trying to say is that we are not romantically involved. Just two very good, close and dear friends."

Lindsey suddenly looked very relieved.

"That's a relief. A lot of people think you're a secret couple, and if you were I wouldn't want to get on your bad side."

"You have nothing to worry about, and it's getting late, so perhaps you should get going." Raven remarked in her deadpan, complete free of any emotion.

Lindsey shook Raven's hand again and pleasantries were exchanged. And then they were gone.

Raven walked to the giant window and watched as they zoomed away on Beast Boy's moped, Lindsey sitting behind him with her arms tightly wrapped around him. Within moments they vanished into the bay side traffic and could no longer be seen. Raven remained there for the longest time, staring outside into twilight as the sun was beginning to set. She found that she was feeling unsettled and unfocused and she heaved a weary sigh.

She left the common room, leaving her tea and book behind. Her posture was slightly slouched and her expression looked hollow and sad. She slowly walked back to her room. As always, when the door opened it looked gloomy and uninviting. She stood motionless for a few minutes, then walked to her chest and opened it, from which she retrieved the plush chicken Beast Boy gave her years ago. She sat down on the edge of her bed, clutching the clucker, staring into the void and watched as darkness fell outside. The chest where Malchior remained imprisoned was still open.

"Still silently pining for him, my sweet Raven?" His smooth voice taunted her.

"No one asked you."

"Well, well. I see you're still the sorry little girl you were when I met you. You can't bring yourself to tell that green loser how you really feel about him, can you?"

She got up and closed the chest, silencing the dragon's taunts. She sat in her room for over an hour before stowing the chicken back in the chest and returning to the common room.

Two hours later ...

Raven was reading when the changeling returned from his date. It was about 10:30 and he was the first one to return. He smiled when he saw her.

"You still up?" He asked as he went to the fridge to pour himself a root beer.

"I suppose I should meditate sometime tonight. So, how was your date?"

He shrugged. "It was so-so. Well, not even that good."

She locked eyes with him. "That's unfortunate. Will you be seeing her again?"

He shook his head. "Nah, probably not. Turns out we don't have as much in common as we thought." He drank his soda in a deep swig before sitting on the couch and turning on the GameStation.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I've been told that it's hard to date 'normal' people." She whispered.

"You know, when you finally think you're not a freak, you're reminded that you're a freak."

"I don't understand. What happened? And for the record, you're not a freak."

A small grimace formed on his face. "She said she smelled something stinky, said she could smell a wet dog … turns out it was me. And I took a shower before getting ready."

He started playing Mega Monkeys and she watched silently. He didn't really seem into it, but continued to play. A few minutes passed before Raven suddenly cleared her throat.

"Gar?"

"Yeah?"

"About how you smell ..."

"You don't have to tell me, I know I smell like a wet dog."

"No … what I mean to say is … I like the way you smell."

He did a double take. "Really? I mean, I really like the way you smell too."

A light blush formed on her face. "Thanks … Gar?"

"Yeah?" He was now smiling, his date forgotten.

"Would you go out on a date with me?"

He paused the game and looked at her.

"Are you asking me if I would go out with you if you asked, or are you actually asking me on a date?"

She frowned at him "What do you think? Of course I'm asking you out on a date. Do you have any idea of how hard this is for me? I've never done this before."

He rewarded her with one of his warm smiles.

"Yeah, I do understand and I'd love to go out with you … though I have to say, I wasn't expecting this. I mean, why?"

She sat down next to him and pecked him on the cheek.

"Let's just say I'm finally done with silently pining."

The End