What I like about you …

Chores; a necessary evil. At least, that was how she had heard them described by her friend and unofficial boss. Raven honestly didn't mind chores, but then again her life was little more than repetitive tasks.

She got up at six am every morning, and went straight for the kitchen. Tea and a crumpet lathered in honey followed, then she was off to the gym for a quick run. Robin was there, every morning, martial arts dummies set up and sweating. Apparently his former mentor was a strict as the monks of Azarath.

Waving a greeting to her leader, she then went to the roof for her morning meditation. Minutes later the sound of a unique motorcycle engine would rev up, and Robin would be off for his morning patrol.

Back to the chores though; Raven didn't mind. She would do them all the time if she could, but she knew the value of the lesson for her teammates. Today wasn't her day, it was Beast Boys, so she supposed she should check on him later to see if he was skipping out again. Raven was always watching, all of them; it was simply her nature.

An hour passed, Robin returned and Cyborg headed out, and Starfire arrived beside her for her morning sunbath. Tamaranians, Starfire had once explained, required a significantly larger amount of vitamin D than humans, and on earth the only way to get it was through the sun. Raven didn't mind, the orange teen was one of her closest friends, and it was funny to catch one of the boys ogling her now and then.

By 9:00 she would head back inside, straight to her room usually for some 'recreation'. Recreation for Raven of course meant sitting in her brooding chair with a large, small print book in her lap.

As she passed by the common room she heard muffled music. Peaking through the tall doors she saw Beast Boy, surprisingly awake, vacuum in hand and ear buds in.

The mp3 had been a gift from one of them she knew, and whatever music he was listening to was likely uncouth, but at least he was working. His scrawny purple clad butt wiggled as he pushed the Cyborg-Vacuum mark 12 (don't ask about the earlier models) across the no shag carpet.

Raven was about to leave when she heard Beast Boy exclaim, "Oh! I love this song!" She stepped back and watched as he pulled the vacuum close and began to dance with it.

"What I like about you…" he began, and Raven rolled her eyes, ready to leave again.

"You smack me around!" her foot stopped on the carpet and her head spun around, eyebrow cocked.

"Tell me I'm the only one, who can piss you off like I do! Ooh!" On second thought, she mused, maybe a cup of tea would be nice. She hovered off to the kitchen and poured the remains of the teapot into her morning mug.

The tune and rhythm were muddled in his hands, but the song was unmistakable; "You are yelling in my ear, telling all the things that I'm doing wrong and its true!" he spun the vacuum about and dipped it, hand raised in the rocker sign, "That's what I like about you!"

Now he was wiggling as he pushed the cleaner back and forth, "What I like about you, you don't like to dance! Yeah!" Raven couldn't keep back the smile any longer, and the edges of her mouth turned up in silent laughter. "You throw me up, down, all around, it really is true romance! Yeah!"

He returned to the chorus and Raven sipped the cold tea, silently sliding into one of the chairs around the table. She wondered, briefly, if he knew she was there; he could be quite the ham. But as he smooched the handle of the vacuum she decided he didn't. She chuckled silently as he stumbled, emotions all alert and watching.

"What I like about you, you make me wet the bed!" she frowned, confused. "Cause I never want to let you go, babe you really are alright! Yeah!" he went into a guitar solo now, mumbling notes as he strummed the vacuum.

Raven's mind was an array of colour as her aspects cheered the little green guy on, and her smile remained. No one could make her smile lie Beast Boy could.

Silence suddenly fell, only the muffled sound of the Romantics blasting from ear buds. Raven looked out to the sofa and saw Beast Boy, staring slack jawed in the middle of kissing the vacuum. They stayed like that, staring at each other, Beast Boy's face slowly blushing deeper and deeper.

Raven just stood, finished her tea in a neat sip, and placed it back beside the sink. As she walked to the door she turned back around, and winked. "That's what I like about you," she said, as calmly as she could.

She stepped through and pressed the close button on the other side, grin returning as she headed to her room. Yes, chores were most definitely okay.

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