Disclaimer: In case anyone's reading this in the future, know that we had way too much time! Also I didn't own the Teen Titans at the time this was posted (probably still don't, either)

Previously:

Beastboy was ever keener on staying in his personal landfill

The next day, Beastboy wakey-wakey'd to the smell of tofu eggs and bakey. He hungrily attacked the meal.

Raven was walking towards the common room to have breakfast. She found another letter outside of Beastboy's room. His crooked handwriting simply said "Let's talk, please".

The empath, feeling encouraged, went to the kitchen and found Cyborg in his apron, waltzing around and cooking unholy amounts of food.

Raven had an idea. Of course, now it was just a question of whether or not the ends justify the means required.

"Cyborg..." Raven started innocently "Could you maybe cook some food for Beastboy? Because he hasn't come out of his room for nearly a week, maybe?" She decided to add some of her trademark sarcasm to try to divert attention to the green changeling, rather than the fact that she was, in a sense, caring for him.

"Now, now, Raven, you know a good housewife should always cook a meal for her superhero husband!" Cyborg shot back in his best mock-English accent. The human side of his face was contorted into what looked like an imitation of a posh high-society gentleman. The cybernetic side of his face, ironically enough, stared blankly with its always-annoyed expression. Raven controlled herself.

"I ain't touchin' no nasty tofu." Cyborg finally added, firmly abiding by his meatloving beliefs.

A short trip to another dimension later, and a lifetime of trauma resulting from that, Cyborg was happy to serve a pile of tofu goodies on a big plate.

"Thanks Raven," Beastboy said with his mouth full, "this is delicious."

"I'll tell Cyborg you liked it."

Beastboy felt a pinch of guilt. He had crushed his best friend's car. Now he was eating the food he was probably forced to cook. And it was delicious. He couldn't face Cyborg in a million years, but if he could, he would definitely thank him for the meal.

After he finished eating Raven kick-started a conversation.

"So you're afraid we'd judge you and kick you off the team?" Raven winced at her own words "Smooth." She thought to herself.

Beastboy fell silent. Raven was about to change the subject when he finally spoke up:

"Yes. But that's not all. I'm so scared of facing you and the others. How could I ever stand in front of them like this? Like a monster?"

Raven understood. She knew what it felt like to be ashamed. She knew what being a monster meant. She was, after all, a walking portal to hell. The purpose of her birth was for her father to use her body to take over the world. Not really a "sings loudly and off-tune in the shower"-type quirk. Not that she didn't sing loudly and off-tune in the shower. In fact, Robin once heard her. But since his memories weren't left intact and he seemed to walk funny for a week after the event, it's not a stretch to say that it was still her own little secret.

She decided that maybe taking a trip down memory lane (which was more of a highway to hell, really) with Beastboy would encourage him to share as well.

"I know how you feel. I've felt it many times myself. Back in Azarath..." Raven felt her emotions bubbling. She pushed them back down, composed herself and continued.

"Back in Azarath, I was the scapegoat of my people. They viewed me the way you'd look at an executioner, who'd just beheaded a member of your family. Or a horrible ghost. Not a fun place to be."

While she told him about herself, Beastboy was shocked to hear her story. Her life had been as bad, if not worse than his, and hearing her talk about it gave him a weird feeling. It was somewhere between being honored, compassionate and angry. He was honored that Raven, of all people, was opening up to him. This is because Raven was generally considered a mystery for just about everybody. No one knew many details about her life and, after seeing her emotions get better of her only once, they prefered to stay in the dark about the matter.

He felt deeply for her turmoils. He knew what it's like to be treated as an inferior and outcast. The pain of judgemental glances was more familiar to him than his own mother's voice.

The final feeling in the mix was anger at the people who did this to his friend. While their lives were similar in this regard, Beastboy did not like the fact that Raven had to go through what he had gone through. He wouldn't want that for anybody. He was just glad that she had a safe place where she was accepted. And he had, too, but with the way things were going now...

Beastboy paused, and considered his current feelings for a moment. He had to make sure whether or not there were any implications behind these particular things happening inside of him.

After reading so many comic books on the issue (Ha!), could it be that his thoughts were being influenced in some way, by his feelings towards the empath? Did he like Raven more than he gave himself credit for? He genuinely considered the question.

Something felt off with that. It felt like a forced realization. As if he was trying to fit something broader in spectrum into a specific category. On the other hand, he instantly knew when he was crushing on Terra.

He decided to put off his pursuit of an answer temporarily. Not that it was a hasty decision or that he was denying things. He simply cared for Raven, she was an important friend and part of his family, and that was what all that mattered, really. Especially since he was holed up in his room and far from willing to leave it.

"Rae, I really appreciate you telling me. Dude, I feel so honored that you could share that with me, honestly."

"I, uh... Didn't mind... Telling you," Raven answered, surprised at her own words as she spoke.

"Hey, ummm... It's pretty late, so... Y-" Beastboy awkwardly pointed out.

"Yes, let's continue this tomorrow, will you-?" Raven's words were rather strung together and nervous. She paused, wondering if he had caught her drift.

"I'll... Tell you about ol' me tomorrow, then." Beastboy said somewhat reassuringly, but the awkward smile quenching his face could be heard in his words. A short, excruciating silence ensued.

"Good night!" he finally added the cherry to the pie of awkward.

"Yeah." Raven answered, on her feet, ready to walk.

"Raven?... Thanks." Beastboy couldn't help but reach for a cliché. He cringed at his choice of words, their effect on his posture was similar to a metal pan dropping on the floor.

Raven, on the other hand, felt them warmly reaching out to her, pitching a nice feeling into her abdomen, a hint of pink creeping to her cheeks. That was until she realized what was going on. Concentrated shame clamped down on her chest so suddenly it knocked the air out of her lungs and she notably picked up her pace.

When her door closed behind her, she was appalled. Did she really crave compliments that badly? That a sincere thank-you was enough to make her into a giddy schoolgirl? Ashamed and displeased with herself, she laid on the bed and tucked herself between the sheets. She would deny it under pain of death, but the warm feeling stayed until she fell asleep.

Beastboy, on the other hand, had no choice but to stay awake. Raven's personal story had a great effect on him. Not that he hadn't known - though her past was seldom subject to discussion (save for extreme cases, like when her interdimensional evil god of a father decides that Jump City bay is a nice vacation spot.) What really hit him was the fact that Raven was discussing the matter with him, of all people. Not that she would normally do it anyway, she didn't seem to need to make peace with her past. But just the thought that, when it seemed really necessary, she was willing to go that far for him, shifted Raven's image in his mind to another light entirely.

Though he often announced it, Raven didn't actually hate him. He was well aware of that. There were naturally a good few moments where the sole reason he wasn't puréed, was the dark girl's consideration of others. Most of the time, though, they were sharing a decent, symbiotic (or parasitic, if you ask Raven) relationship.

His thoughts turned away from Raven's change of heart, as he couldn't quite comprehend why she was willing to go this far to help him. He diverted his attention instead, to his own opinions of her. He thought back to their conversation, and the palette of emotions which he was experiencing while she told him about her past.

Objectively, romantic feelings could even be considered a poor reason to empathise with her story to such a degree. Beastboy had good intentions, and genuinely cared for the person that Raven was, he didn't just feel like he was taking her side. In comparison, if Terra had shared a similar story with him, he might have found himself engaged just as intensely, but that would be based on his romantic feelings.

Was he unable to truly empathise with the blonde because his one-dimensional view of her forced its way into his opinion? On the flipside, was his compassion for Raven stronger, because he could imagine himself as someone who judged her and feel the negative emotions that drove their behaviour, and see their mistake? That he appreciated her more because anyone could misjudge her (and a lot of people indeed have), and most of them didn't even know they were so badly mistaken?

The base of his emotional connection with Terra was plain, simple and obvious - she caught his eye and he liked her immediately. The intricate link he shared with Raven was different. Not necessarily stronger or weaker. And definitely not based around romance.

Beastboy felt like he was running up against a wall, so he decided to re-approach the matter from a different angle.

Maybe it was a much simpler matter. He and Terra both wore masks of happiness. And he simply loved the mask she had set up for him, and vice versa. It was a game of charades. The worst part was that their relationship was based on enforcing the artificial masks they were wearing, which would slowly turn them into cardboard characters.

Raven was quite the opposite. In their interactions, they flat out ignored each other's mask most of the time. Raven didn't naturally simplify or cut down her words to cater his outward image of stupidity, and only did it when the situation called for it. Be it a sarcastic comment to relieve her stress or just a helping hand so he could keep his image, she would rarely ever have to do it when they were alone.

On the flipside, Beastboy didn't bother with formalities. While most people who knew of Raven's powers and personality would take great care to refine the way they wanted to convey their thoughts. The changeling, however, spoke to her with his own tact (or lack of thereof). They were being themselves with each other - no compromises. And no one else noticed.

Was this proof of romantic engagement? Beastboy didn't think so. He would have liked to think that these traits of a relationship could be separated from love. That he could find more people he could connect with this way, and wasn't limited to just one person who understood him the way Raven did.

He also didn't want to chalk up every nice thing he could say about their friendship to the fact that he liked her more than that. It would be a cheap-out to say that the unique interactions they shared were an awkward way of hiding deeper feelings. Beastboy much prefered thinking of them as a mutual understanding between two people who have been through a lot and appreciate each other as the persons they have come to be, regardless of circumstance.

After this, Beastboy was finally satisfied with his reasoning and went to sleep.

Let's see what he wakes up to find next time. Don't burn me at the stake for bad grammar - just leave a review, puh-lease!

A/N

Ayy, a little bit of fluff! That's the stuff that keeps us going, right?

Went really deep into Beastboy's head this chapter, and I tried (somewhat) to achieve two things:

One, make sure people know I'm not treating Beastboy as a stupid drama queen. He's capable of deep thought all right, he just isn't ready to accept his stalker side yet.

Two, I wanted to lay down the current situation and relationship "stats" between them. I hope I didn't overthink or downplay Beastboy's relationship with Terra too much, I'd say that the part talking about how they encourage each other's "mask" (that is, the persona they use to appeal to others) is me speaking.

I encourage your own interpretation of the story! But! If you'd like my interpretation of anything I wrote specifically, don't be shy to review or PM. I'll try to be mystical about things that could be spoilers, though. You have been warned.

Finally, I appreciate you guys for reading this and the words of encouragement you've sent. They are my little treasures and they make writing this a blast. Thank you loads, have a wonderful day!