Whatever you do, don't panic.

This is happening.

Don't panic.

This is real. I'm not hallucinating.

Okay, panic.

Raven paced furiously about her old room, a dozen different sets of clothes lying about her desk, boxes, and dresser.

She hadn't actually stayed in the room since Cyborg had repaired it, but she had moved her stuff back in at least. It was better than having it all in a storage room. She didn't have a bed anymore, so that gave her a convenient excuse to not stay in there.

But now she was supposed to be changing for her first date with Garfield. She had locked herself in her room and fruitlessly searched for something to wear. She didn't even remember when she had gotten so many clothes. She had always collected books, but clothes?

She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. Have I gained weight?

She placed a hand on her thighs, completely convinced that they had gotten bigger. She had never been particularly fond of her slightly thick thighs, but now it seemed that they were fat. A wave of her hand and a quick chant brought out her scale, which she warily stepped onto.

I've lost three pounds? She mused. I wonder if it from Gar's cooking?

It was a possibility. Over the past two weeks, he had cooked for her on a number of occasions, though she always ended up stealing food from his plate as well. Three times he had made her vegetarian meals which were really good. She didn't plan on giving up meat anytime soon, but she didn't mind eating like he did every now and then.

It must be the clothes, they look terrible on me. She thought as she stripped them off and stood in front of the mirror in only her small clothes.

That was when it occurred to her that she was once again being self-conscious about the way she looked.

By Azar, what is wrong with me?

She sighed once more and put another set of clothes on, this time a blue blouse and Capri pants. Frowning, she turned this way and that, still unhappy with her choices. She sat down on a box and rubbed her temples. This was a lot harder than she thought. She needed a second opinion.

She went and got her communicator from the bookshelf and sent a call out. Within a minute, a girl with a complexion similar to her own answered the call.

"Hey Raven. Long time no see. What's up?" Jinx said cheerfully. She was pulling her hair back into its usual twin horn-like braids. It looked like she had just showered.

"I need your help with something." Raven said carefully.

"Oh? Let me get Wally, we'll be over in a few minutes."

"NO!"

Jinx looked at her friend, wide eyed. "Is everything okay, Raven? What is it that you need help with?"

Raven felt a blush creeping up her face. "I need help choosing some clothes."

"Clothes? For what?"

"Um…" Raven bit her lip, trying to calm herself down.

Jinx peered into the communicator, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Well? I need to know what kind of occasion this is before I can help you, Raven."

Raven mumbled into the communicator.

"I'm sorry? Say that again a little louder please?" Jinx said slowly.

Raven sighed and gave up trying to hide her blush. "I'm going on my first date with Beast Boy."

Jinx stared at her without blinking for a full minute before speaking. "Open a portal."

Raven obliged her. Jinx came through immediately, then paused and stuck her head back through for a moment. When she turned back to Raven, her eyes were sparkling with a cat-like curiosity.

"Don't say it." Raven glared as Jinx opened her mouth. Her pink-haired friend laughed and started rifling through the few boxes of clothes Raven had.

"Blue, blue, blue, black, purple, blue, blue…" Jinx sighed a moment later. "I need to take you shopping."

"Why? I have enough clothes that don't get worn as it is."

"So you'll have something nice to wear on the rest of your dates with your new man!"

Raven opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. It wasn't really a bad idea. Heck, it was better than asking Starfire, who would undoubtedly want to get her something pink. At least Jinx had a similar taste in clothes.

"So…how did it happen?" Jinx asked casually, tossing a shirt to the side.

"I'm not sure. It just did."

"Oh really?"

"Yes really." Raven sighed, exasperated already.

"Look, you can't just say that. We were enemies for a couple of years, Raven, and now we're friends. As long as I've known you, you've never had a soft spot for him. There's got to be some thing, some reason, that you fell for him."

"I don't know Jinx. I really don't."

Jinx stopped searching for clothes for a moment and looked at her friend. "There's got to be something that he or you did. Nothing at all comes to mind?"

Raven bit her lip in thought. "I don't know if they really count, but there's been more than a few times that he's been at my side during some rough times. He and Cyborg once visited my mind via an enchanted mirror. After that, he understood me a lot better. Then there was the time I summoned what I thought was a trapped sorcerer from an enchanted book, a guy I almost fell in love with. Turns out he was an evil dragon that wanted to kill us all. After we beat him, Garfield came to my side again to comfort me. And this one time he and Adonis got chemically altered into some kind of monstrous beasts and he spent the whole time protecting me from Adonis until they were cured. Time after time, battle after battle, he always came and checked up on me. Even after that stuff with Trigon, he told me that even if I wasn't happy with being born that he and the others were. He's always been so stupid and immature…but he's always been at my side too, always trying to get me to come hang out with the others, always telling me the lamest jokes there is, always trying to get me to eat some of that gross tofu. Even though I've abused him so much he still stayed by me. I've hit him, I've yelled at him, I've thrown him around, I've insulted him time and time and time again…and yet he kept coming back, unwilling to give up on me. I think…I think that's why I…" She trailed off, staring at the floor in thought.

Jinx knew it was probably a bit deeper than that, but she didn't push it. Raven had told her a lot more than she thought she did.

Time to change to the mood, She thought as she rooted through another box.

She stopped and held up one of Raven's black bras, her eyes widening. "Hold on, you're a 36C? You don't look like that when wearing your uniform!"

Raven sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's because I hide it with the uniform and my cloak. I'm not particularly fond of my breasts."

Or my thighs, she said silently to herself.

"You've got assets and you don't want to use them? I bet Beast Boy likes them, eh?" Jinx pointed to her much smaller chest. "I'd love to have these puppies grow a bit."

Raven ignored the jibe. "Trade?"

"I would in a heartbeat." Jinx laughed. "But Wally likes them as they are."

Raven looked at her friend in surprise. "You two are intimate?"

The pink haired witch nodded. "Yeah, for a little bit now. It's great, when we're careful."

"Gar and I just started dating, so…"

Jinx bunched up a shirt she was holding and hit Raven in the face with it. "I already know what happened between you two. You can't deny it either, 'cause I went to your room before we left that night to try to save Beast Boy from getting killed by you in the morning."

Before Raven could express her reoccurring surprise and embarrassment, Jinx bit her lip. "You two were going at it hard. I could hear you outside the room. Honestly Raven? It was so hot sounding that I had to hurry Wally somewhere quiet so I could have some alone time with him."

Raven buried her face in her shirt.

Jinx stared silently at her darker haired magical friend until she had calmed enough to pull her face out of the shirt. Then she walked over and sat next to Raven. "Look, I think it's great to see you like this."

"Embarrassed as hell?!"

"No, you look happy to me."

"Happy?" Raven echoed the word, thinking of all the time she had spent with Garfield recently. There was a tightening in her chest, making it harder to breathe, as she thought of waking up next to him every morning. She shuddered as the goosebumps from memories of his skin touching hers skittered across her body.

"Raven…where is your bed?" Jinx asked suddenly, looking around.

Raven didn't answer her, but instead got up and started pacing the room. She started half talking, half mumbling to herself, clearly nervous about the first date.

Jinx didn't miss that Raven had avoided answering. She pulled up her communicator and sent a call to Cyborg, who answered after a moment.

"Hey Cy, is Beast Boy ready yet?"

He looked startled. "Woah, hey Jinx, didn't expect you to call. I'm guessing you're helping Raven?"

"Yeah…though helping is a strong term right now."

"I hear ya. Grass stain here is pacing the room in a half dressed nervous mess."

Jinx glanced up at Raven, who had taken her shirt off and tossed it to the side and started pacing again. "Sounds familiar. Twenty minutes then."

"I'll have him ready by then. Make sure it she brings a good coat, it started snowing again."

Jinx nodded and then cut the call. She stared at Raven hard before an evil smile spread across her face.

Raven stopped, a shiver of dread running down her spine. She turned to her friend, who was digging vigorously through a box of clothes. She watched as Jinx pulled out a number of things, then started comparing them, mumbling and muttering the whole time.

Raven wondered if it was a bad idea to call the young witch to help her. Jinx stopped and turned suddenly, the evil grin still plastered across her face.

"Ohhhh Raaavvveeennnnn….come here!"

"Look BB, I'm telling you it will be fine! It looks great on you bro, I'm sure Raven will think so too."

Garfield stopped in front of his mirror for the umpteenth time and stared at himself. He was wearing his black pants and purple long sleeved shirt with an UnderArmour shirt under it. He didn't have many clothes (let alone nice clothes) to begin with. His confidence was flagging badly.

"I dunno dude, I just don't think it's good enough." His shoulders sagged.

"Look man, it's snowing outside, you only have so many options that aren't freaking freezing or goofy." Cyborg groaned.

"I know Vic, but I still don't…"

Cyborg got up and clapped his hand on his best friends shoulder. "Look Garfield. Neither you nor Raven has done much, if any, dating, let alone dressing up. I'm willing to bet my copy of Munchkin Masher that she's just as wrung out as you are right now."

Garfield sighed and opened his mouth to argue when Cyborg cut him off, now giving his buddy the one little push he needed. "Seriously bro. You'll be fine. You got this man. Sweep her off her feet, if you haven't already."

Garfield looked up to his best friend, his brother, his team mate. He took a deep breath. "Alright, I'm ready."

Raven bit her lip in disbelief when she met Garfield in the common room. His clothes were as casual as hers, but something about him was so attractive that she couldn't meet his gaze. She could only turn away blushing.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was there to take her, of all people, out on a date?

Garfield was in a similar boat. Raven was standing before him in a long black and blue plaid skirt that ended just above her shoes, a dark blue crop top with a black long sleeved undershirt beneath it, and black winter jacket with white fur on the hood. He knew the fur was fake so it didn't bother him the slightest.

But she was so beautiful that he couldn't keep his eyes off of her or the blush from his own face.

Cyborg stepped between the awkward teenagers and handed his buddy a purple and black jacket.

"You two know where you're going yet?" He asked, looking from one to the other. They both looked dumbly up at him. He ran his hand down his face in exasperation. "Seriously guys? You're going out on a date and you have NO idea where you're going?

Both of them shook their heads, to which Jinx snorted and poked Beast Boy in the shoulder. "Here's what you're gonna do. First, take her somewhere nice for lunch, since it's almost time for it anyways. Then, take her somewhere nice and quiet, like a bookstore or something. After that, maybe the park."

Beast Boy nodded vigorously, but Raven frowned. "Hold on Jinx, this is about both of us. We should do something Gar likes too, it wouldn't be fair to him if it's stuff just for me."

"You know he'd pick an arcade or comic shop, right?" Jinx raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"I'm sure we can find something he likes that I'm okay with." Raven said adamantly.

"Come on, Raven, this is the first date! He's supposed to spoil you rotten and stuff!"

It was Raven's turn to cross her arms and she glared at her friend. "I'm not some girl that needs spoiling from her man. A relationship is two people treating each other as equals, not elevating one or the other on some kind of pedestal. Living together, laughing together, eating together, and crying together, the whole nine yards. It's one thing to treat your significant other as special, but to smother them in unbelievable amounts of attention like that…it's not for me. I like doing thing separately with him beside me."

Cyborg, Jinx, and Beast Boy all stared at her. Garfield was blushing something fierce, but it didn't work with his verdant complexion at all. Jinx put her hands up and backed away.

"Alright Raven, you win. I can't argue that."

Raven nodded and turned back to her date. He had started fiddling with his jacket.

"Wow Rae, I didn't know you thought of it so seriously." He said quietly.

She could feel herself turning crimson again, but she took a deep breath and held her hand out for his.

"It's only been a couple of weeks, but we've come too far for me to not take this seriously." She said softly. "And Gar…if we can make this date relatively quiet, I would appreciate it."

He gave her a smile that made her heart beat madly as he took her hand. They walked through a portal together, leaving Jinx and Cyborg behind. However, Kid Flash arrived just a moment later.

"Hey Cy. How's it hanging?" He asked before turning to his girlfriend. "Hey babe, ready to go?"

Jinx ignored Wally for a moment. "Cyborg, I'm not entirely following what's going on. How did they hook up after they hooked up?"

The tin man shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure how, but I know that B's been crushin' on Raven for a long time. Heck, I don't even really know when he fell for her, just that when he did he fell hard. It's weird in a lot of ways. Raven has been pretty harsh to him at times over the past couple of years, but at the same him comforted him when he needed it. After that funk with Terra, it was Raven, of all people, who went and pulled him out of his funk."

"That…that is pretty weird." Jinx rubbed her chin in thought, watching Wally as he raided the fridge.

"It gets weirder." Cyborg shook his head. "I was doing some thinking and reviewing old mission footage when I noticed something. Raven and Beast Boy actually spent more time at each other's side than Rob and Star. I'm not talking recently either. I've talking over the past couple of years. Battle after battle, they would check up on each other. During fights they covered each other more than anyone else."

Wally walked up, half a sandwich in his hand. "So what? Friends help each other out, don't they?"

Cyborg shook his head. "It was more than that; I just don't think they realized it. Their personalities clash so much you couldn't tell, but they were really close. It makes me think of what happened with Adonis."

"That's the second time I've heard of that. What happened?" Jinx sat on the head of the couch.

"Man, that was a really screwed up day. We went to this chemical plant and found out it was testing chems on animals, which really made BB mad. While we were there, Adonis ambushed us. I won't lie, he's pretty damn tough. He took everything we had and kept plowing through it, badmouthing BB the whole time. Then after he pinned Raven down and started talking nasty to her, the string bean got pissed. He opened the biggest can of butt-whoop I've ever seen him open. But him and Adonis got covered in the chemicals during the fight. We didn't realize it, but it immediately started messing with our little buddy. He got crazy aggro over a couple of days, eating meat and smashing up the workout room like it was paper. Right after that, he flipped out and transformed into a suped-up beast that was just…crazy."

"Crazy?"

"Yeah, crazy crazy. It took me, Rob, and Star going all out just to get him to back down."

Jinx and Wally looked wide eyed at their cybernetic friend. He shook his head. "It was bad enough that stunning him was the only option. If we had tried lethal force…he probably would have killed us without hesitating. Raven was missing during all of this and we had found her in BB's jaws, which is why we attacked him. We thought he had done something to her, but turns out the green bean was protecting her from Adonis, who had also turned into a beast like that. BB beat the hell outta Adonis again, though. While both of them were passed out, I made an antidote and gave it to both of them."

Cy sighed. "All that messed with my buddy real bad. He didn't say it, but he was thinking of quitting the team to protect us from that beast inside of him. I couldn't get him to talk to me, Rob couldn't, Star couldn't…but Raven? She went right on down to where BB was sulking and talked him out of his funk. Again."

"Wow…I didn't know they were that close." Jinx shook her head.

"You know…I don't think they knew it either."

Wally walked up again, this time eating a bag of popcorn. As he munched on a handful, he pointed at Cyborg. "Hold on, doesn't Raven like, hit him and stuff? I heard she threw him in the bay a while back."

"Actually, that doesn't happen very often. It's just when he really irritates her that she does something. She threw him in the bay, yeah, but that was her powers reacting to her irritation, not her actually throwing him in. But she blames herself for throwing him in anyways. About 95% of the stuff between them is just verbal. As for the other 5%...well, they always apologize and mean it."

Jinx grabbed a handful of popcorn from her boyfriend and chewed it thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, isn't she the almost always the first to respond to one of his bad jokes? Like, almost every time, without fail?"

Cy hesitated. "You know…I think you're right."

"So in her case…when did it turn into something more? She has no idea, I know that much."

"I'm not sure, but after these past couple of weeks…I don't think she's gonna want to go back to the way things were."

Cyborg turned to the yellow speedster. "And you know, Wally, if Raven ever finds out who spiked the punch bowl, she might just send him to another dimension."

"I feel bad for that guy." Wally said, not looking at Vic. Jinx slid her gaze between her boyfriend and Cyborg, who was glaring intensely at the backside of the yellow hero. Jinx wondered to herself how long it was before she was forcibly made single.

Nobody noticed Starfire standing quietly in the doorway.

Raven peeked up from her book, almost bursting with happiness that her new boyfriend was sitting quietly next to her reading a book about Africa. She had been surprised at his choice, but he just smiled and shrugged.

"I figured reading up on home might be nice."

The café was a nice one, located just a couple of streets from the main roads in Jump City. She'd been there many times over the past few years. There were around two dozen shelves scattered about the first and second floors, a small coffee/desert shop on the bottom, and a balcony as well. She had even been there once with Gregory, the goth guy she had gone on two dates with before he had stood her up on a third and avoided her afterwards. It had hurt her and made her withdraw from people even more around that time, but the verdant fool next to her had noticed immediately and done what he could to bring her back out around people. Of course, that was almost two months ago, far before Garfield and she had had that little mishap.

"Hey Gar?"

"Hm?"

"Whatcha reading?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and glanced as she leaned over on his shoulder to see what he was reading. It wasn't like her to use slang like he did. It wasn't the first time she had done so recently, and while he found it to be pretty cute it was also slightly unnerving. It was almost like some of his habits were rubbing on her.

But here he was reading a book, so maybe their habits were rubbing off on each other.

"Nothing specific, really. Just browsing through all the stuff in here." He smiled and tapped his head against hers gently. "Though I was just reading up on a bunch of on various tribes around the continent, like various hunting strategies they use, marriage rituals and ceremonies, economics and bartering systems, stuff like that."

It was Raven's turn to glance at him now. That was a serious line of thinking he was implying there, she was surprised his usually hollow skull wasn't about to explode with overthinking.

"Marriage rituals? Why would you read up on those?" She gave him a questioning look, to which he just shrugged and laughed.

"It was just part of that section, talking about the practices that various tribes do when an individual courts another. Some had trading pacts involving cattle, some involved marrying outside the tribe, stuff like that." He flipped to the next page. "Heck, there was one tribe where when a man or woman wants to marry another, they danced in front of the entire tribe to show their devotion to that individual."

Raven was suddenly hit by a nagging feeling in the back of her skull, like there was something that she was forgetting about. Something important.

Something very important.

"Hey Rae…as much as I like you sitting there looking at me, it's weird to see you not blink."

Raven snapped back from her thoughts and found herself looking straight into his emerald green eyes, hardly two inches of space between them now. She blushed and turned away, as did he. But his eyes weren't hiding his embarrassment.

His eyes were looking around the café diligently, looking for some sign that Raven's emotions were out of control. Before the incident, something like what had just happened would have made objects nearby explode or worse.

But now…nothing.

Nothing at all. No exploding bookshelves, disintegrating books, no screaming people…just nothing. It was both a relief and concerning. His thoughts turned inward as he attempted to start reading again.

This is weird. Raven's been all kinds of crazy odd since that night. She's still got her powers but nothing happens when she feels anything. She got mad at me this morning and nothing blew up. She's always so adorably red-faced when she wakes up next to me and nothing blows up. She embarrassed right now and nothing is happening!

What's going on with Raven?

Raven got up suddenly and headed towards the café, stopping to look back at him. "I'm getting some tea. Want something?"

"Hot chocolate, please."

She turned to hide her smile at his politeness and went to the counter. Garfield's eyes followed her, still in awe of seeing her in something other than her leotard. The skirt really suited her and so did the shirts. She had the same mysterious feel to her, but it was more of a "You can look but never touch" kinda feeling now.

It was also kind of funny because he was used to seeing those long shapely legs of hers and nothing else but her eyes, and now he wasn't seeing any leg and plenty of everything else. The way the shirts hugged her chest made him a little fidgety, but he had done pretty well on squashing that instinct before anything came of it. But as he stared at her…

I want to wrap my arms around her, breathe in her scent, to kiss her, to feel the touch of her soft skin, to hear her breath in my ear as I nibbled on her delicate neck…

He hesitated as he realized where his thoughts were headed.

Wooooah now, let's calm it down dude, this dang sure ain't the place for that and its waaay too early for that kind of thing.

He took deep breaths for a minute, calming himself with the scent of books, which his mind had long since associated with Raven. By this time she had returned and he accepted the hot chocolate graciously, taking a hearty swig of the drink to calm his jumpy nerves even more. His girlfriend on the other hand, took a deep breath of her tea before she sipped it. The small smile on her face gave away her satisfaction before she picked her book back up and leaned against him.

They spent several more hours there before Garfield started getting restless. He was unused to sitting still for so long but he had endured it the best he could for Raven's sake. His inner animal was getting fidgety, wanting to go out and about instead of sitting around reading. It didn't help that he was hungry, either.

As he was contemplating on what he'd rather be doing right now he noticed a group of teenagers walk in. They were high schoolers; he knew that from the uniform. The uniform looked familiar, but he couldn't place it.

And then she walked in.

Raven snapped to attention when Garfield flinched. Her eyes followed his to the teenagers who had walked in, then to the girl in the back. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, skinny and no figure whatsoever.

Terra.

That little bitch.

Without realizing it, Raven took his arm and wrapped it up and over her shoulders and snuggled into his side. He glanced at her in surprise, but her eyes were still glued to Terra when she spoke quietly to him.

"Gar, that girl looks remarkably similar to Terra." Her voice quivered with a mixture of disbelief and irritation.

"That's because it is Terra." He said in a simple and completely apathetic way.

"How do youknow that?"

"Remember a little while after we beat the Brotherhood and we fought that white monster thing?" He sighed. "Well ya see, thing is, I ran into her about that time. I was pretty shocked and tried to get her to come back with me, but she couldn't remember anything about any of us at all. I kept trying and trying and trying…but nothing worked. Eventually, I gave up and moved on."

Raven stared at him, her expression as unreadable as it used to be. She was silent for what felt like a long time before she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for being honest. I appreciate it a lot."

"I just got you, Rae. I'm not going to do anything to lose you." He smiled at her so warmly that she couldn't hide her smile as she snuggled more into him.

"Hey…isn't that Beast Boy and Raven?"

Both of the teen superheroes looked up at the sound of the voice. It was a brunette girl in the group of teens and she was pointing at them. The whole group turned as one and stared at the snuggling couple before huddling around a bookshelf. Whispers flooded Garfield's hearing.

"Ohmygosh, when did that happen?"

"I thought they hated each other?"

"That's not fair that he's with that creepy chick, he's cute."

"You think he's cute? He's green like vomit and has pointy ears like some kind of freak!"

"He's still more attractive that that creepy goth bitch at his side. You've seen how harsh she is to the people that call her friend."

A low and angry growl began to reverberate in the room, causing the teens and many other patrons to turn wide eyed in the direction of the two heroes.

"He can hear you." Raven said darkly as the lights in the room all began to flicker and fade. The shadows seemed to deepen and stretch out like clawed hands as the high schoolers backed away in fear.

"Excuse me Miss Raven, but can I ask you to calm down a bit?" A voice called out.

Raven looked to the man who jogged up, his dark hair flopping over his eyes and his uniform sporting a fresh coffee stain. She looked around and saw what she was causing. Taking a deep breath, she chanted for a few moments as she calmed down. Garfield had stopped growling, but his eyes were anything but friendly.

"Now, may I ask what is bothering you?" The man looked at Garfield more warily than he did at Raven, much to her unspoken amusement.

"I don't care if they talk bad about me, but they will not badmouth Raven." Garfield turned his glare towards the shop owner for a moment before returning his gaze to the source of his anger.

Before Raven could protest, the shop owner strode away to the high schoolers and said in a loud voice. "I do apologize ladies and gentlemen, but you'll have to leave now, you are disturbing the other patrons."

"WHAT?" One of them yelled.

"We have to leave because the freaks are mad?!" Spat another.

The manager's eyes turned nasty as he scolded the girls. "Have any of you brats ever saved my store, my life, and my home city? No? Didn't think so. So you can take your unbiased hatred and leave. You may come back when you have learned to respect people who are different!"

The teens left in a huff, except Terra, who apologized to the manager for the way her friends were. She too left the store after letting her gaze linger on Beast Boy and Raven. She felt a familiar tug towards them, but it was so faint she barely noticed it. Without looking back she left, never to encounter them again.

The store owner strode back up to the couple, who were looking at him in awe.

"What?" He asked, looking at them.

Garfield shook his head. "Sorry…it's just that nobody has ever stood up for us being different except each other."

"Like I said, Miss Raven has saved my store several times over the past few years and I am eternally grateful. This store is my life and it wouldn't be here without her. You and your friends have saved my home city from all sorts of nasty monsters and people over the years too. What kind of person would I be if I turned you away simply because you're green or she has magical powers?" He shook his head. "All this hate in the world is ridiculous."

"Well…thanks dude. Seriously." Beast Boy smiled at the man, feeling his bad mood wash away almost instantly.

"Mr. Jean, there's another part to that truth, isn't there?" Raven sipped from her tea as she stared at him.

Mr. Jean shifted from one foot to the other, then shook his head and laughed. "Can't fool you, huh? Yes, there's more. Business picked up when people started seeing you come in here to buy books. I can't deny I enjoy the unintentional advertisement!"

Raven gave the man a small smile. "I don't mind it either, Mr. Jean. You've kept a good selection of books as long as I've been in town. The only things you don't carry are magical and occult tomes, but I wouldn't expect or ask you to, those things can be dangerous."

"Thank you Miss Raven. I'll leave you two to your books now."

Raven and Garfield waved the man goodbye as he returned to the counter. Gar turned to his girlfriend and gave her a smug grin.

"You were being protective of me!"

Raven stared at her book and replied in her traditional monotone. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Garfield."

He laughed, only to be interrupted by the loud growl of his stomach. Raven stopped reading and looked at her verdant lover.

"You must be hungry." She asked in a sarcastic but affectionate way as his stomach growled again.

"Hahaha….yeah. I have been for a while."

"Why didn't you tell me that? You know your genetics is more demanding of energy than anyone else's on the team." Raven closed her book after marking it, then opened a small portal and deposited the book on their nightstand.

"I know I know, that's why I'm always eating. Gotta stock up on carbohydrates and everything else I can so that…." He trailed off, staring at her. "Wait. How did you know how my metabolic process works? I haven't told anyone about that."

Her expression went from disbelief to confusion, her mouth opening and shutting several times. "I don't know, maybe I heard it from Cyborg? Where did you learn to use the words carbohydrates and metabolic without your head exploding?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, maybe I heard it from Rob? He's the exercise nut."

They both stared at each other for a moment before Raven shook her head. "I'll figure it out later. Let's go eat."

"Right behind you babe." Garfield grinned.

Raven stopped and looked at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Too soon?" Her boyfriend smiled meekly. He was absolutely adorable but she wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, she took his hand in hers and walked out with him as she pondered the affectionate name. He knew that she was thinking and let her lead the way as they silently wandered around looking for food.

Suddenly Raven stopped, looking up at the sign of an Indian restaurant. She let go of his hand and opened the door.

"Hold on." She said as she walked in. Garfield leaned against a street sign, aware of all the passing people gawking at him. Raven popped her head out after about two minutes.

"Let's eat here; they have vegetarian dishes you can eat and you still have that duel with Control Freak in a while."