As I slept, curled up on the Titans' couch, my mind replayed events from only hours ago. Once Cyborg had successfully recruited me to the team, I was invited back to Titans Tower. Since I didn't have the chance to explore the tower completely, or even enter or exit through the front door, it took me a little by surprise as to how legitimately these young people took their job.

I thought about how the garage was filled with equipment, spare parts, and all sorts of goodies that'd make a mechanic feel like it was Christmas everyday. I thought about how Cyborg had made a pit-stop to pick up three pizzas from Pizza Corner prior to meeting me in the forest, and I thought about how he had a grin as cheesy as the pizzas when I called him out on it. I thought about how I went to bed with a half-empty stomach because I chose to eat a mere two slices due to how nervous I was (my mutation made it to where my minimum of pizza slices I could eat was four or five, but I didn't want to come off as a pig to the Titans). And I thought about how awkward I felt upon being ignored the majority of the night.

I remembered how I spent the entire night in my wolf form because my nerves were through the roof and I stayed as a wolf in an attempt to make myself feel more comfortable. Plus, I was secretly hoping that a wolf being in the room would muster up some acknowledgement. Unfortunately it didn't.

Cyborg and Beast Boy immediately began arguing over something so trivial and minuscule that I to this day don't even remember what it was they were arguing about. Starfire continued to ignore and avoid me, and huffed whenever we happened to make eye contact. As for Robin, when the pizzas had arrived and everyone began eating, he immediately swiped away four slices for himself. He wrapped up two of them and stuck them in the fridge for later, and brought the other two with him back to whatever room he was previously in and disappeared for the night. The only person I felt acknowledged that I was there was Raven, her hood still down, but even that made me nervous as well.

Usually, even when I met new people, even if I was nervous, I managed to stay cool, calm, and collected throughout and at the ready for anything to pop off. With Raven, I felt I was under a microscope. It's not that it was a bad thing, after all I wanted her to notice me, but that didn't mean it was any less nerve-racking. Her large, violet eyes scanned the room quietly among all of the chaos the boys were making, while periodically locking eye contact with me. Each time she did, I broke away first. It was easier to look into her eyes before, probably because it was only us when we had met. Now it was intimidating as Hell. I think the only reason why she didn't pry was because as she was doing that, Starfire kept chatting her ear off. I remember how interesting the girls' dynamic with each other was as it seemed to consist of Starfire excitedly chatting up a storm much like a television stereotype of very young high school girls chatting with their girlfriends, while Raven, still with her monotoned look on her face, responded with an equally monotoned voice as if she were a mother humoring the pointless and random conversation her toddler was attempting to have.

After everyone had eaten their fill, most everyone anyway, the guys immediately went straight back to video games, some new one, at least to me, called "Mega Monkeys 4". Raven went over into a corner of the room and began to knit. What she was knitting remained a mystery to me, she had knitted enough for it be visually seen as something, but not enough to be identified yet, and I dared not attempt to read her mind. I look over at another corner of the room to see Starfire cradling some pink, fleshy thing while she talked sweetly to it as if it were a human baby. When she caught me looking in their direction as I tried to figure out what it was she was holding, she pauses from her sweet talking and glares at me as her eyes burn green from her powers. The message was clear, so I didn't pry.

It was at that moment that I looked around the room once more to see that once again, everyone was occupied with their own activity. I dropped back down to all fours and headed to the elevator. Once there, I hit the desired button with my tail as the elevator closes and rises to the top of the tower. The elevator stops as the little bell rings and the doors open. I pause for a moment to take a deep breath. The air was still moist from the storm as the smell of wet concrete flooded my nose. I walked out of the elevator and through the doorway that led to the rooftop. I then turn right and walk towards the spot I was when I first met Raven, passing by the damage we caused, still unrepaired, on the way.

When I reach the edge of the rooftop, I look up to see the moon. She wasn't full anymore, but she was full enough to where the human eye couldn't tell the difference. My tail wagged at the sight of the moon. It was large and bright, and the sky was clear without so much as a cloud in it, the irony of how beautiful the evening sky looks only moments after a storm. Though all werewolves had some connection to the moon, me personally, the moon was almost like a lover to me. I loved seeing her, and I could sense whenever she was near or full. She made me feel joy despite whatever happened prior to seeing her.

I lower my rear to the ground and sit as I think to myself, dare I act out the cliche? Hell yeah! I then threw my head back and began howling my heart out. I wasn't singing anything that could be translated, howling didn't work like that. Wolves sang feelings and emotions. If I had to compare a wolf's howl to a musical instrument, I would choose to compare it to a harmonica. Imagine what a harmonica sounds like when the musician is happy. Imagine he's playing an upbeat country song with a lot of energy that makes you want to get up and dance. Imagine what that sounds like. Now imagine what that same harmonica would sound like if he was playing the blues. Imagine the sad and depressing chords coming from the instrument as it feels the world around you seems to turn dark and gray. Same instrument, different emotions, that's how I looked at my howling.

With the moon as my audience I sang whatever was on my mind. I sang about Doctor Light and my mother and how they ruined my life. I sang about Jump City and the hospitality they'd shown me that can be described as rude, to say the least. I sang about Starfire and the origins of our feud. I sang about my powers and how I missed being able to access all of them. And I sang about Raven, and how I could feel her just as easily as I could feel the moon. It was then that, as if on cue, Raven appeared behind me.

It wouldn't have bothered me so much if it weren't for the fact that she didn't say anything. I discovered she was there because I could once again sense her darkness and hear her heartbeat. I was so preoccupied with my howling that even now, I have no idea how long she'd been standing there. I look at her into her eyes, once again feeling embarassed and bashful. I then lower my ears and break contact once again as I turn back to look forward out over the ocean. I don't know what I was expecting from her at that point, but it was then that she walked over to my right and sat down beside me. Her legs hung over the edge of the tower. I could feel my heart racing faster and faster as I looked down at her legs out of the corners of my eyes. I wasn't sure if her pale skin actually glistened and shimmered in the moonlight, or if I was just blown away by her legs and how beautifully sculpted they were. Either way they were stunning. I quickly return to looking forward before she notices as I think to myself, smooth, dude. Day three and you've already developed a fetish.

Raven, like me, just looked over the ocean and said nothing. I also said nothing. We literally just sat like that for a couple of hours. No talking, no flirting, no looking at one another, just sat there in silence, but surprisingly it wasn't awkward. I mean it was at first, but after a while the feelings of awkwardness just melted away. I was enjoying her company. Raven managed to take an interaction that most people would find boring and awkward, and make it into something enjoyable. I would've been perfectly content with sitting there with her all night. However, like two or three hours into our quiet time, I heard Raven hold back a yawn.

Unable to hold it back, I yawned in response, though I saw it as an opportunity to break the ice a little and show off. I yawned as big as I could, flashing as many of my sharp teeth as possible. When the yawn was coming to a close, I violently shook my head for a second as if to shake the feeling off. Though it was visually an interesting sight to see my head shake like that, truthfully that part wasn't for show. It was some weird reflex I apparently picked up as a child, so now I couldn't not do it. I heard Raven chuckle a little upon seeing me spaz out, giving me a bit of a confidence boost. To keep the energy going I rise back onto my paws and turn to face towards the doorway behind us. I then lift my back left leg straight behind me and my front right leg in front of me. While balancing on my other two legs, I then turned the underside of my front right paw out to where it was halfway between facing my left and facing upward. I look back at Raven as I bow my head and motion my paw towards the doorway as if to ask her the intended question, may I walk you to your room? Just because I was a wolf at the time, didn't mean I couldn't be a gentleman.

A smile appears on her face as she rises to her feet. My tail wags in delight as I realize that her smile was a litter bigger than the last time I got her to smile. She then hangs her arms in front of her, with one hand on top of the other, and then bows back. She then starts walking back towards the doorway, with me down at her feet walking right by her side as if I were her faithful pet.

Most other animagi would laugh at or be offended by my pet-like gestures, but personally I find them to be fun. Pets tended to be pampered, adored, and loved in ways that other people don't experience from each other. The connections between a person and an animal are always unique and powerful. The bond that people and animals can form tugs at the heart strings and makes them feel, even if only for a moment, as equals. When that little girl got separated from her mothers, she saw me not as a wild animal, but as an animal friend. She and I, though for only a short while, bonded, and I genuinely cared for that child in that moment as if she were my own cub. I fell in love with that little girl, and because of that, she would be in my memories for the rest of my life, and that was what I wanted to have with Raven. The fur on my spine shoots up as I realize what I was thinking.

Did I just say that? Did I just say that I wanted to fall in love with Raven? When I came to, we had just finished walking down the stairs, and down the South Hall and were right outside of her room. She opens the automatic door and pauses for a moment. She then looks back at me as I lowered my rear to the ground to sit again. In an attempt to make myself look more dog-like, I wag my tail and begin to pant. I assumed it worked because her smile got the tiniest bit bigger. She squats down to meet me eye-to-eye. She then reaches out with her right hand and scratches me behind the ears. If Liv's partner had magic fingers, then Raven's were fucking orgasmic. I closed my eyes and just lost it. My tail was wagging out of control and my right leg couldn't be stopped. My body awkwardly shifts as my right leg shoots out from underneath my body and starts thumping on the ground. Though she was only scratching my ears, in my mind we were reenacting the scene from "Bambi" when Thumper got kissed for the first time by the female bunny and his foot goes ballistic.

However, our moment was short-lived because the resulting noise from my leg grabbed Beast Boy's attention. Raven's green nextdoor neighbor pokes his head out of his room as Raven and I awkwardly back off from one another.

"Um, what was that noise?"

"What noise", asked Raven sharply, her voice and attitude now returned to her usual monotone.

"That thumping noise. What's going on out here?"

"We didn't hear anything", I added.

"How could you not? It was like an earthquake." Raven, now becoming annoyed, started losing her cool a little.

"If there was a noise, we would've heard it. But we didn't hear it, so there obviously wasn't a noise." Beast Boy, finally taking the hint responded awkwardly.

"O-kay then. I'm just going to go back to bed now." And with that Beast Boy retreated to his room, however Raven was still a bit ticked off. The mood was gone. Raven then turns back to her open door and walks through. Before closing it she looks down at me one more time and smiles once again, this time with a wink. As her door closed I sat there for a minute thinking about what I had mentioned to myself earlier about wanting to fall in love with Raven.

Welp, too late. It already happened, I think to myself as I walk down the hallway to make my way to the couch.