See, told you I'd have it up in no time. Actually, I've already finished this fic. I'll probably just put the first few chapters up for now though. No point putting up a fic no one is interested in so if y'all like it let me know so I can put the rest up. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing.

Ch. 2: Titans

A few weeks later, Raven heard a familiar voice calling her on the communicator that Robin and Cyborg had made for them. It was one of the most surprising moments of her life. She never expected them to actually call her again. Why would they? She was...creepy.

"Raven? Robin calling Raven."

After hesitating one moment, she answered, "Yes?"

"Meet us at the island. Cyborg and I came up with a brilliant idea."

"Okay," she agreed.

So, a few hours later, she stood on the small island, staring. Apparently, Robin and Cyborg had done a lot of talking because where there had once been just an empty island, there was now a 'T' shaped tower. What in Azar were they up to? She wasn't the only one confused because Beast Boy and Starfire were staring too. That made her feel a little better.

Turning towards Robin and Cyborg, she tilted her head questioningly, but let Beast Boy be the one to verbalize her thoughts.

"What's going on?" the green changling asked with a gesture towards the tower.

"Well, me and Robin got to thinking that the five of us made a pretty good team," Cyborg began with a big grin.

"So we built this tower hoping that you three wouldn't mind joining us here. It could be our home."

Raven blinked in surprise. They actually wanted her around? As in permanently? No one has ever wanted her to stay. Her eyes drifted to the ground. Then again, these four didn't know what she was. It would be better if she stayed away from them.

Beast Boy gave a goofy grin. "I'm in."

"Being part of the team would be glorious," Starfire said happily as she clapped her hands together.

All eyes turned to her. She turned away slightly and pulled her hood up over her face. "I..." Despite logic telling her to say no, she found herself nodding slightly as she said, "Sure."

"This is most wonderful," Starfire said as she turned to face their knew home.

"We've got to take a picture," Beast Boy said as he pulled a camera out of somewhere.

"Sounds perfect," Cyborg agreed. "Let's take it in front of the tower."

"Why is the building in a 'T' shape?" Starfire wondered.

"Me and Robin thought it would be good since we were going to call the team Titans," Cyborg answered with another grin.

Despite her concerns about staying with them, Raven was actually smiling. A real smile. A new home for the five heroes who'd never really had a home before. The five titans all had nothing on their own. Either because they chose to throw it away or because it had been taken away.

In her case, it was stripped away before she even had time to mourn it's loss. Which is what made this moment so important to her. She had a home. A team. A purpose. The smile faded as she remembered her other purpose. The one she'd been born to do. Her father's portal. She didn't want to be that.

"Raven, come on," Beast Boy called with his characteristic grin. He held a camera in one hand and was waving at her with the other. "We're taking the picture."

She stood and walked over to join the group in front of the tower.

"How do we take the picture and keep all of us in it?" Starfire asked curiously as she moved to stand next to the boy wonder.

Raven suspected that the biggest reason for Tameranian's decision to stay on Earth was Robin. Well, suspect might be understating it a little. She was an empath after all. She knew how Starfire felt about the team's leader. Raven wondered how come the feeling didn't scare Starfire. If she felt that way about anyone, Raven knew she'd be terrified. And how did it develop so quickly? That would also terrify Raven. Then again, emotions weren't exactly her strong point. Nor were they safe for her to release on a whim.

Remembering Starfire's question, Raven waved a hand and her magic surrounded the camera. "Aim it at us and I'll hold it in place."

Beast Boy grinned again as he released the camera to run over. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer to the team. "Come on, Raven. Join the group. Smile. We're a family."

She glared at him. Didn't he know that her only family was a monster? That she was a monster because of that. Being a family wasn't a good thing. "A family?"

"Yeah. Don't you know what a family is?"

Curious about what he would say, she shook her head a little - what was a little lie to satisfy curiosity.

"That means we're friend and partners. We can trust each other and lean on each other when we need to." He turned to grin at her. "We protect each other."

She smiled just as the camera flashed. Maybe she wouldn't have to become a portal for pure evil with these friends. At least, she wouldn't if she could believe Beast Boy. She hoped she could. Because then a family wasn't so bad after all.

She was so busy thinking about that she didn't notice the small crack in the armor around her heart. These people were starting to matter to her. Even the annoying green boy. And so when the camera captured the moment in time, Raven was smiling just a little. That picture became the only one she ever kept in her room. The only one that mattered.

Over the next several months, she began to actually care about the other members of the team, even Beast Boy - no matter how many times she threatened to blast him into another dimension. She'd even revealed more of her powers by using them to heal Beast Boy once after the Hive Academy students attacked them. Everything was going smoothly...that is until Starfire's sister came for a visit.

First of all, that was the day Beast Boy gave her a present. This was not so bad really. It was actually the first time someone had ever given her anything in her entire life...even if it was just a silly giant chicken. Because it embarrassed her that he'd managed to touch her heart with that silly gift, she made a snide comment about it. Luckily for her, Starfire was attacked so everyone was effectively distracted.

Despite that, without telling anyone, just before she'd rushed off to help save Starfire, she'd used her powers to faze the silly chicken into her room. That way, it would be safe.

When they got back to the tower, Blackfire was already there and actually laughed at Beast Boy's jokes. Between that and her absolute perfectness, Beast Boy was all gaga over her. Unlike Starfire, Blackfire was very...chameleon like. She could adjust her speech patterns, attitude, and well everything to adapt to the people she was speaking to. She even managed to impress Raven with her knowledge of meditation, and that was saying something. Still, Raven had just started to warm up to the four teammates she'd just made. No way was she going to warm up to someone else just yet. She was still waiting on the world to end because she'd had the audacity to make friends as it was. Which turned out to be a good thing considering how things ended with Blackfire.

Beast Boy's stupid infatuation with her didn't help either. In fact, it caused Raven to feel...something. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew it wasn't good. It didn't matter because the feeling only lasted for a second before it was over. She brushed it off as unimportant because thinking about it too much was just giving her a headache. Still, she was very glad when Blackfire was arrested, not just because of what she'd done to Star but also because of that one second of emotion.

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