A/N: So, hopefully, you guys now know that Cyborg is not the third part of the triangle. It caught me a bit by surprise when a few of you guys thought that it was him, mostly because I had already written the 'sibling' part of Chapter 1 so in my head they felt like brother/sister and I didn't see how what came out in the Prologue might've been interpreted as romantic interest. Heheh...

Anyway, in this chapter, you'll start to see who the third side is and by Chapter 3 you'll realize why the story's called "Stupid Cupid".

Still not beta'd.

About this chapter: You guys suspected, I hope, that Beast Boy wasn't going to let things alone...right?

Thanks: Check out 'emsscraps'

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Stupid Cupid
Chapter 2: Matchmaker
by Em

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"Matchmaker, Matchmaker / make me a match."
- Fiddler on the Roof

Raven decided, as she tried to tune out Beast Boy's annoying repetitiveness, that despite her considerable creativeness where punishments were concerned, she couldn't think of one that was adequate enough to submit Dr. Chang to.

Oh, the bruises his lackeys had given her had faded, the cuts had healed, and within a few hours of falling asleep on the medlab bed, she had awoken refreshed and without so much as a headache. However, the consequences of her foray with truth serum was felt in a much more lasting and annoying manner.

"C'mon Raven, just tell me!" Beast Boy insisted for the umpteenth time.

Raven had stopped answering him hours ago, but he just continued asking, hoping no doubt, that he would wear her down.

"Maybe I can help you?" he tried to sound cajoling.

Raven considered teleporting to another dimension, but she knew that if she avoided him, he'd just keep asking when he saw her again, and she couldn't permanently disappear. She had to hunker down and bear it until he ran out of steam or something else took his interest. Or he just gave up. That was always something to look forward to.

"I can help you, you know, give you tips or tell you what he likes..."

"What makes you think you know him, whoever it is?" Starfire asked as she entered the room.

Raven just barely withheld a sigh. Now Starfire was getting into it. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

"How many guys does Raven meet enough to crush on?" Beast Boy asked in what he was sure was logically.

'Maybe I could make him disappear?' Raven considered.

"Perhaps she crushes the Johnny Dipp or someone she has never met at all?" Starfire asked pensively.

"Depp, Star," Beast Boy corrected humorously.

"Depp?" she asked.

"It's Johnny Depp, not Johnny Dipp," Beast Boy explained.

Starfire smiled brilliantly, "He is most attractive."

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Raven doesn't crush on movie stars, that would be 'pointless'," he said in a decent imitation of her deadpan. "It's gotta be someone she knows," he insisted.

'No,' she decided, 'Robin would hate having to find a replacement...'

"Perhaps it is Aqualad?" Starfire offered.

Raven stopped her considerations of escape and considered another option. Maybe the best plan of action was to give them a name?

"Nah," Beast Boy dismissed. "He asked her out months ago and she said no."

Raven winced, 'How does he know that?' she wondered.

"He asked if he could join her on her trip to the bookstore," Cyborg added as he too entered the room. "He did not ask her out."

Raven gaped. Did everyone know her business?

"Whatever," Beast Boy said dismissively. "If she would've been crushing on him, she would've wanted him to go with her, wouldn't she?"

Raven sighed and the sound drew Beast Boy's attention again. A name would shut him up, she decided. But then it'd become about teasing her with the name or gods forbid, helping her. Gods save her from her teammates playing Cupid.

"I know you can hear me, Raven, and if you just tell us who it is you're crushing on, we'll know and I swear that I won't do anything if you don't want me too..." he wheedled.

Perhaps a name of someone they wouldn't get a chance to play matchmaker with? Someone that was easy going enough that her teammates couldn't bug with vague insinuations or whatnot. Someone conceited enough to not take it to heart if he heard that some girl had the hots for him?

"Plus, it's not like you couldn't use the help, cause you know you're not the best at..."

Something inside her broke and she slammed the book on her lap shut with a loud snap. Even Robin who had just entered the room jumped in surprise at her sudden action. In the sudden silence and stillness, she turned a glare at Beast Boy. "It's Speedy, alright?" The steely calm of her voice belying how very close to the end of its tether her temper actually was. She raised a finger to point at him, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "And if you say one word about it to him or anyone else, I swear to all the Gods of Azarath that your ancestors will feel the pain I'm going to inflict on you."

Everyone was floored. Both at her finally breaking and telling him and the fact of her choice.

"SPEEDY!" three out of five Titans exclaimed in perfect unison.

Raven scowled and lowered her head back to her book, trying once again to ignore them. Retreat wasn't an option, she knew -- they'd just keep following her.

"You've got the hots for the red-headed carrot top?" Cyborg found his voice first, his face contorting into a very worried, not at all happy frown.

"That conceited attention hound?" Beast Boy spoke up.

She shrugged, "So sue me, I like a guy with nice..." she trailed off and flushed, hunching deeper in front of her book.

"Oh no, now you've gotta finish that!" Beast Boy demanded.

She glared at Beast Boy, "Hands," she finished pointedly, daring him with her expression to question her further.

Beast Boy looked at Cyborg who was pacing back and forth from one end of the room to the other, "Dude, can you believe this?"

In answer, Cyborg shook his head, looking for only he knew what in different storage areas around the common room of the Tower, finding tools that must serve a purpose in his head, but not to the rest of them. "Dude?" Beast Boy asked. "This is no time to go off fixing things!"

Cyborg glanced at him and there was a determination in his eyes that halted Beast Boy's further protests, "How dare that skinny-assed redheaded stepchild be the object of my little Raven's affection!" Cyborg asked, turning back to searching through the tool kit next to the kitchen, "I'll break 'im in two, snap 'im in half like a fuckin' carrot stick, the little…" he went off, mumbling the rest of his threat unintelligible under his breath.(+)

Raven glanced up at Cyborg, and wondered whether or not he might do something drastic. When he laughed in triumph, removing a weird looking tool out of the box before standing and walking out of the room, she thought it best to let him deal with the situation on his own. He wasn't talking to her, after all. If he wasn't talking to her, she didn't need to answer. Right?

Somewhat off to the side and behind them, Robin was so silent he was going unnoticed. Which was a good thing, because he wouldn't want anyone to notice how he was turning his own hands palm out and was staring at them. 'What exactly is nice as far as hands are concerned?' he wondered.

"What is wrong with Raven 'having the hots' for friend Speedy?" Starfire asked, turning from one to the other, "It is glorious that she has found someone whom she finds attractive and who she would like to share Whoopislcatch (1) with."

"Whoopislcatch!" Cyborg demanded having suddenly returned to the room to apparently search for some other tool, and everyone remembered at about the same time that Cyborg had learned how to speak Tamaranian, "Oh, hell no!" he told Star, "I'll snap that little fucker straight in half, he lays one damn pretty hand on her…" (+)

Raven looked at Cyborg, then to Starfire and quirked an eyebrow in confusion but before Star could explain, she shook her head, "Never mind, I don't think I want to know."

Starfire laughed. "Why are you not happy for our friend?" she asked the others.

"Because Speedy is such a..."

"Prat," Cyborg offered.

"...a..." Beast Boy continued searching.

"Punk," Cyborg continued to offer.

Beast Boy ignored him, snapping his fingers, searching for the word he was thinking about. "Eee..."

"Candy-ass," Cyborg once again spoke.

"E..." Beast Boy insisted, glaring at him.

"Little red-headed pimple!" Cyborg finished.

Beast Boy ignored him, "Ego...ego..." Beast Boy faltered with the word he was trying to use.

"Egotistical," Robin provided.

"Egotistical!" Beast Boy repeated, "player and totally not the type of guy any of us would picture Raven with."

"Who would you picture Raven with?" Starfire asked.

"Don't answer that," Raven intoned, eyes still on the novel although she hadn't turned a page, "I don't want to know the answer to that either."

"He's just loud and brash and not at all the kind that Raven would..." Beast Boy tried to reason.

"Yes, but it is her choice, is it not?" Starfire countered.

"Well..." Beast Boy started.

Annoyed, Raven closed her book and stood, reminding them all of her presence, "I am here in the room, so I would appreciate it that if you insist on speaking about me as if I weren't in the room, you do it in a room where I really am not in," she said bitingly. "At least that way, I won't have to hear my name bandied about uselessly, alright?"

Star and BB looked sufficiently chastised, Robin still looked shell shocked and Cyborg looked worried. He took a few steps closer to her.

"Rae..." Cyborg began in the tone of voice he reserved for worried half-lectures and Raven looked at him, anticipating his intention.

"Look, I'm not in love with the guy or anything," she told him before he could continue. "I don't need you to tell me what a womanizing loudmouth he is,"she directed at Beast Boy, "you asked if I had a crush on anyone and you wanted to know who and it just so happens that I find Speedy very attractive, that doesn't mean I'd offer to beget his offspring or anything and it certainly doesn't mean I'd be willing to run off with him for a night of hot sex or anything else either..." she looked at each of them in turn, "All it means is that I'm a mostly normal heterosexual girl who is attracted to the particular attributes of this one particular boy, so can we please drop it...now?"

"Alright," Cyborg, again, was the first to regain his speech.

"Consider it dropped," Robin spoke up, cool and casual as he walked into the kitchen.

"Drop what?" Starfire asked.

"The conversation," Cyborg explained, "meaning to stop having it."

"Oh," Starfire nodded, "I will 'drop it'," she confirmed. She grinned at Raven and winked conspiratorially before walking out of the room.

Cyborg raised a hand to Raven and quirked a brow, "But just for now, Dark Girl..." Cyborg told her, shaking his head as he walked out of the room, mumbling what sounded like, "I swear to god, he smiles at her too bright, I'll break those grabby pretty little fingers right off…"(+)

Which left only Beast Boy and when she turned to him, daring him to say one more word, he shrugged, "It's dropped...gone..." he said, shrugging and following Robin into the kitchen.

Raven sighed as her teammates continued with their regular routine, and she knew that the conversation was anything but dropped. The only thing she could hope was that her teammates didn't get any notions in their heads...

But she didn't think fate like her that much.

If she ever got her hands on Dr. Chang she'd show him exactly what she thought of his truth serum.

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Notes:

(1) Made up Tamaranean word, but I'm sure you can guess at what Star is trying to say here.

(+) Absentia gave me these Cyborg moments. I used them almost exactly the way she provided them although I did move some of them around in location and altered for tense, etc.

A/N: So, nobody except the person who had originally suggested about me explaining how Dr. Chang got a hold of Raven mentioned that they wanted to see an explanation of how he got her. And me and the person who had originally suggested the explanation agreed that any explanations in that regard are superfluous, so unless you guys disagree and tell me so, that aspect of the story won't be explained.