Ah what the heck. Enough of you asked for it, so here it is. Happy reading. : D

Shoutouts to my faithful reviewers:

acosta perez jose ramiro: Despite her ability to control her own emotions doesn't make her an expert on understanding them either. You make a wonderful point about BB's weakness. I'll have to remember to add that in when I write again.

titanfan45: Thanks.

azarielthebladed: Ah yes, the confused love triangle-- it'll be a little later, but I'll get to it.

Agent of the Divine One: I find self-truths to be the strongest recurring themes in my writing-- so yeah.

Mr. Average: Well, truthfully I write weeks ahead of time so I can update when I need to. : D

iluvbb: Yay for cliffhangers! J/k : P

CLAREsaysHI: Nah, I think it's pretty interesting when they fight. I guess because I don't read fanfics that include it a lot. I'm told it's popular however.

SxStrngSamurai13: It's k. I'm just glad I didn't lose a reader. :)

Tears of Trees: Sorry for the confusion, hopefully this one will be less so.

CacahuetePoco: And this is why I can't ever read RobRae fics. I keep saying to myself, "Quit kissing your brother!!" Lol.

wtncgirl09: You got it. : )

Bold Italic writing that's centered with the occasional string of dots... Beast Boy's personal 'Journal'

Plain writing 3rd person omni.

Italic thoughts

Italic followed by dots or the like... Flashback sequence

Hopefully that'll keep everything clear.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE, OR FORM OWN OR CLAIM TEEN TITANS AS MY OWN WORK. THEY BELONG TO DC COMICS, WARNER BROTHERS, AND CARTOON NETWORK.


Explain This to Me

November 28th 2007 7:25:43 pm

Okay so I'm supposed to go dress shopping with Rae today—HAH-- she can't say anything about me calling her 'Rae' in here—anyway…

We're about to leave soon, so I'll report back later. I was going to ramble on aabout how Robin and I patched things up yesterday, and about how he's finally decided to let the team know everything, but that's pretty much all there is to it. And since Raven has always been my favorite distraction, I'll write more later...

"Beast Boy," Raven addressed, tapping her foot impatiently, "We're here for formal clothes, not video games."

Beast Boy didn't even blink as she spoke, he just kept his eyes focused on the screen, "Just a couple more levels Rae-- I've never gotten this far before!"

Raven rolled her eyes, and tried to think better of it. It was a miracle that she'd even got him out of the Tower. She practically had to drag him from his bed and push him into the shower. He whined and complained about being tired, and about how it was 'cruel and usual' punishment. The dark-haired girl figured that he would probably try to drag out their little mall trip as long as he could considering the pair hadn't been to the mall in a long time. She was about to pester him again about getting to a department store, but a dark figure from afar caught her eye. Staring in that direction, it seemed as though the figure was watching her—staring at her quite intently.

"Beast Boy, we should leave." She breathed quietly.

"God woman, I'm almost to the final round-- just another—aw!! What did you do that for?!" he glared at her as she dangled the arcade plug in front of him.

"Come on." She demanded, taking him by the arm and pulling him into the large crowd of people that was swirling outside the arcade.

While she pulled him along, she scanned the area for the dark figure. She'd hoped that she could lose whatever it was in the crowd of people, but instead she found that she'd lost Beast Boy. A chord of fear hit her, "Beast Boy? Beast Boy?" she glanced around the crowd as some pushed and shoved. It was then she realized that this crowd was there for a demonstration. A demonstration a certain green-eyed boy saw fit to participate in.

Sometimes, just sometimes, she found herself wanting to scream. And then a second more pleasing thought of leaving him behind also crossed her mind, but she couldn't leave him there, especially not with that menacing figure lurking about. So instead of continuing to gripe about Beast Boy's lack of listening skills, she took this opportunity to scan the area for that figure. Phasing through the attentive crowd, she began her search.

Okay, so this is so not cool. I was just trying to get to the last level of the Robotman Chronicles and Raven pulled the fricken plug. Then she pulled me into that crowd of spectators for God knows why—but I was pretty glad to find that the demonstration had promotional items for Robotman—items I got to keep!! Anyway, getting off topic again, but now I can't find Raven. She left me here!! She had to've, either that, or she went into one of the other stores.

"Beast Boy calling Raven. Pick up." He spoke into his communicator, but he continued to receive no reply. He'd been trying to contact her for about ten minutes. Finally, he decided to go wandering throughout the mall. A dark thought passed through his mind—what if she was hurt?

His state of mind was about to panic, but before he could, she was sauntering up to him, looking slightly bewildered. She kept looking over her shoulder as if something was following her until she crashed into him, "Beast Boy…" she muttered, "Sorry. I—"

"Why didn't you answer? Why'd you go wandering off like that?"

"Hey, don't treat me like I'm five years old. You're the one who decided to be on-stage and distract us from our purpose." Her spooked demeanor disappeared, and anger reclaimed her, "I just walked off on my own for a few minutes. I figured you'd be up there awhile."

He could sense that there was something she wasn't telling him. She hadn't exactly been herself lately, "Well, okay," he decided to drop it, he hadn't exactly been a 1st-class Titan either, "I was just worried."

Raven sighed, and started to walk towards one of the department stores. He watched her go with a look of pure wonder. He walked a few steps behind her until he finally pushed himself to walk fast enough to walk beside her. Taking her hand, he attracted her attention immediately, "Could ya slow down? We're not in any rush are we?"

She blinked at him with a contradiction of thought bemusing her face, "Not really I guess. And I thought we were saving Hand Tag for the boring slumber parties?" her tone wearing a mischievous mask of innocence.

Ah yes, Hand Tag. I forgot that's what we'd decided to name it shortly after I started holding her hand as a joke...

"Beast Boy," she whispered softly into his ear, it was of tantalizing softness to him, how he adored the shivers that blemished his heart when she spoke to him like that, "What are you doing?"

"Holding your hand." he whispered into her ear, allowing his face to linger in her hair, and smiling to himself at the shivers he could feel coming off of her.

"I guess 'Why?' would be a better question." she retorted, her voice dropping an octive but still maintaining its sweet alure to his delicate ears.

"Because I want to, and besides, I'm getting to touch history you know? How many girl's hands have callouses like these?" his voice teasing her as he drew so close to her.

She wanted to hurt him for a comment like that-- hurt him brutally, but the only words that came to her were, "The Titans are staring at us."

"Does anyone think it's strange that Beast Boy and Raven sit next to each other every meeting?" Hotspot remarked, placing a fist in front of his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"It's so they can whisper sweet nothings to each other." Aqualad gushed then pretending to be damsel in distress he cried, "Save me from this horrible meeting Beast Boy!"

Beast Boy could feel his blood boiling, "Who cares who sits by who?" as soon as the words left his mouth, his felt a coldness in his hand. He glanced at his side to see Raven stalking out the meeting room door. He leapt to his feet and rushed after her while Robin tried to hush the chorus of controversy that was rising from his teammates.

"Raven! Raven, please wait." he pleaded finding that his voice was sounding exceptionally desperate.

She halted her steps, "You know it will never be the same for us."

"What are you talking about?" he inquired, "We were just playing around. It doesn't mean anything."

When his eyes met hers, he felt like a mirror had broken before him and the tiny little shards were carving away a sad reflection of her true feelings for him, "The next time you want to hold hands with me-- it better mean something to you." she stalked away from him with her shoulders slumped.

The exigency of his words finally tore their way through to his conscious, "Raven, wait-- I don't care what they think of us-- I mean," she seemed to be listening to his words because her pace had slowed considerablely, "I'm sorry-- I shouldn't have said it doesn't mean anything, because it does. You're my friend, and even friends play Hand Tag every so often. Except for the guys that is."

She paused breifly, "Hand Tag? Is that what we're calling it?"

"Do I hear an objection Miss Raven?"

"Apology accepted Beast Boy, but no more cracks about the condition of my hands-- I work a lot harder than other certain individuals around here." she stared pointedly at him with her special smile.

His gaze softened, "I had to find something to tease you about, okay?"

"You had to tease me about something?" she quirked a brow.

"Yeah, like how you're always teasing me."

"Teasing? Who said anyting about teasing you? Don't you know flirting when you hear it?"

"So you were flirting with me then, is that about right?"

"Don't change the subject. I said it was a possibility." she remarked and walked down the hallway towards her room.

He laughed, "I didn't hear 'possibility' in that sentence."

She cast him a fleeting glance, before disappearing into her room.

If only it were a joke to me now, it would make my life so much easier. And I think it was when she said those things to me that I realized that she might like me too.

Raven looked into the crowded department store, "Are we really going into that mess?" his irritated voice cutting through her thoughts.

She smiled, and felt his hand grip hers tighter, "Is that an objection I hear Mister Beast Boy?" she asked while leading him into the seemingly chaotic store.

"You're hilarious, you know that?" he replied, but honestly, he couldn't complain; he was getting to hold her hand and everything seemed fine between them again despite their heated arguements of a few days past.

Once the pair had reached the formal part of the women's clothing department, Raven began picking over the dresses. Some part of her wished that she had Starfire with her to help pick out a pretty dress. After all, what did Beast Boy know about dresses anyway? His apathetic form lingered nearby as his diverted his attention from Raven, and a young couple nearby who seemed to be arguing about something (he wasn't paying enough attention to pick up what they were saying).

"Will you carry some of these back with me?" her voice breaking its way through the wall of bordeom his was building around himself.

"Sure." he answered, taking some of the dresses from her hands.

So, yeah, girls need to learn how to make up their minds--

I've already got my suit ready to go, just gotta pick out a tie—when she actually picks a dress-- I've been sitting outside her changing room for about an hour and half, and everything she puts on looks fine to me, but for some reason or another—"It's not good enough!"-- I'm mocking her when I write that, she just keeps looking for the "perfect dress" as she put it. She said she doesn't want to pay for something if she'll never wear it again.

Which she probably won't-- I mean how many formal dances do superheroes go to anyway? This is like the first one ever. Mayors…grumble..

"What about this one?" she asked, stepping out of the dressing room wearing a sparkling periwinkle blue dress.

He'd barely lifted his face out of his hands to look at her before she disappeared into the changing room again, "It doesn't look right." She answered her own question.

That's it!! She's been doing this for an hour and a half now. If I have to be here, I want to actually see what the hell she's talking about.

"Raven, either you come back out here, or I'm coming in there. You don't even let me see what you're talking about-- how am I supposed to answer you?!" he shouted, giving a swift knock to her door.

"You wouldn't dare!" She snapped, "You're no help."

Beast Boy pivoted on his heel and huffed away from the door with frustration written all over his face, and then he turned swiftly around to beat on the door again, but she swung it open and the door smacked him square on the nose, "Argh…" he grumbled holding his nose.

Raven grimaced as he whined, "Sorry." All traces of her anger disappeared, "Let me see."

"You'll just make it worse." He argued backing away from her, "I can't even smell anymore!"

"Beast Boy quit being a baby and let me see!"

The two of them hadn't really noticed how much of a fuss they were making, but those around them couldn't stop staring at the arguing pair. Finally an employee approached them and kindly asked them to quiet down or leave. Beast Boy and Raven blushed bashfully at the crowd they'd gathered. Slinking away, the two returned to the outside of her dressing room. Beast Boy continued to hold his nose that was now bleeding, and Raven stared at him with uncertainty. She just wanted to help—couldn't he see that? His eyes were now squinted tight with pain, so he didn't see the shadowy figure that caught Raven's eye once more, "Maybe you should come in here." She pulled him into the dressing room with her.

"Ah, I thought you didn't want me in here." He tried to chuckle but only found himself wincing.

Raven placed a hand on his damaged nose and smoothed her fingertips across his nose to heal it. Her fingertips lingered on his face, "Does it feel better now?" her eyes meeting his with a soft expression of embarrassment.

"Yeah, it does." his voice softened.

If only I could have her look at me that way everyday...sigh. I'm a hopeless romantic and I didn't even know it. Cyborg's gonna have something else to rag on me about.

A few slow moments passed before she realized that she'd been staring at him way too long. A blush crept on her face, and she noticed him leaning foreward again, "Now quit fooling around. We can't be here all day."

"Why not?" he asked curiously while twitching his nose experimentally.

Suddenly she felt shy in his presence. She hadn't been letting him really look at her dresses because deep down, she didn't want to hear what he thought of them. She didn't want any negative comments about her physical appearance-- it was already a lacking confidence department. But now, there was no hiding from his opinion.

And she really didn't need another meeting with that dark figure…

Raven was just about to turn around and pull Beast Boy down from his 'soap box', when a dark figure yanked her aside. It pulled her into the dim-lighted hallway that led to the management's offices. The dark figure held her steadily against the wall, "I have a message for you from Ríona." it croaked.

She slowly felt her powers being stolen from her. Helplessness settled in, "What do you want? Who is Ríona?"

"Ríona is my master. She wishes you to know that any interference by your petty little team will not be taken lightly. She will deliver swift and terrible punishment."

"What else is Riona? A person—"

"A sorceress." He growled.

Raven stared senselessly at the figure before her, and felt more waves of shock wash over her when it removed its hood revealing a wolf head, "This is all you need to know. Ríona is giving you a warning—take heed." And a heartbeat the wolf-like being was gone.

The dark-haired heroine breathed out deeply and felt her powers slowly returning.

"Raven it's beautiful." Beast Boy's compliment shook her back to the waking world, "You should get that one." He smiled earnestly.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror, "You think?"

"I said it didn't I?" he retorted rolling his eyes, "And really, I think you've tried on every dress here."

She reached a hand around for the zipper, but found some difficultly in pulling it. She twisted a little more and lost her balance. He reacted quickly and caught her by the arms, with a swift tug he pulled her back to the standing position, "Really, you've been so jumpy today—were you aiming for falling next?"

"Hilarious." She glared, "Now help me unzip this thing."

Once she turned her back to him, his anxiety returned; it was a simple request. He gulped, and then pulled on the zipper. It didn't budge at first, but after a few more determined tugs, he pulled it downward halfway. His fingertips lingered on her skin, and he felt those familiar shivers rising off of her.

"What are you doing?" she asked in that soft and tantalizing voice he loved.

"Sorry Rae," her voice shook him to the present; snapping himself free of the less-than-innocent thoughts he'd been having-- it was funny how skin contact could do that to a person, "I'll be outside." He mumbled, feeling embarrassed.

"No. Don't." she was trying to think fast, but she didn't want to worry him about the dark figure. Normally she would've spilled about it by now, but she didn't want him to worry or go into overprotective mode, "Just turn around."

"Raven, you're being ridiculous." He replied, and forgetting a moment that she was changing, he turned around. He only glimpsed her bare form a moment before he threw himself out the door blushing. Raven hurried to pull her uniform on ignoring the burning that was forming in her cheeks. She just didn't want the figure to take him away and leave her by herself again.

Yeah, I saw more of Raven than I should've today. Once again, our arguments get us into embarrassing/awkward situations. And the mystery has finally been solved—it's white. And Cyborg said I'd never find out. He's sucha jerk. We were playing Truth or Dare one night with the other guys, and since Raven and mine's relationship is often the topic they tease me about, Cyborg thought that it'd be funny to dare me to find out the color of Raven's—

"Beast Boy? Are you ready to go now?" she asked him avoiding his gaze; she couldn't imagine what he was thinking of her now.

He looked at her a moment, but found himself unable to see anything but the embarrassing situation unfolding before him again, so he looked away, "How about we get something to eat before we go? I'm starving."

Raven was still unnerved by the dark wolf creature that might still be following them, but she knew that he would probably end up arguing with her if he didn't get his way, "Okay." She smiled meekly.

Yes, the jerk dared me to ask Raven the color of her bra.

Damn. The other boys thought it was great though. Laughing like a pack of jaguars—I mean hyenas-- whatever. So I went upstairs and stared at her door with the boys hiding out behind the corner. There was no backing out now. And seeing as I didn't feel like dying that particular night, I—

"So you really like the dress?" she prodded, looking up at him from her plate.

He slurped up another noodle, "Yeah. It's just not as pretty as its owner." He grinned picking a few carrots up from his plate of Chinese food.

A twinge of pink stained her cheeks; Beast Boy certainly seemed quite intent of destabilizing her with compliments, "We should probably leave soon though. The others might worry."

"Why? So we can wander around our boring Tower some more? There's so much left to look at Rae—and if you hadn't spent so much time undressing we could look at more."

It took him a second, but he realized what he'd just managed to tease her about again. The two stared down at their plates again and idly picked at their food.

Just when we were starting to forget about it, and he mentions it again!! She found herself thinking bitterly.

Smooth B.B. What next? Jokes about bra colors?! I could hurt myself right now.

So when she opened the door, I asked her if I could talk to her for awhile. We actually talked about a lot of different stuff, and I was too chicken-y to ask that stupid question. But when I left her room, I realized that the other Titan boys had left already. Cyborg told me that they were tired of waiting, or they thought Raven had killed me.

But he made it quite clear to me that I would never be able to find it out. And the dare was merely to rile me up. Great friends I have, eh?

White. White. White. My new mantra for embarrassment…Beige. : p

"Alright, since you're so intent on living all of this up. Why don't we get ice cream? And then we can go to the toy store. And then ride the carousel." She sighed, staring at him pointedly with an edge of umbrage in her voice.

"Sounds great." He grinned, ignoring her attempts to make fun of his childish likes.

Raven wanted to groan, or protest-- but curiousty bit at her like a hungry dog. Beast Boy slurped up the last morsel of food off of his plate, "Let's do ice cream last though, I'm stuffed." he gave her his award-winning smile.

She would never admit it outloud, but there was always something about his smile that made her smile. Granted, it was normally a soft, and fleeting smile. But on the inside, it was like a circus had made camp in her heart, and the tightrope walker was who she identified with most; balancing high above an attentive crowd that brought a rush of excitement and nervousness. The girl barely had time to blink before he took her hand and took off in the direction of the toy store. He can't be serious! she found herself thinking, although she couldn't help but love that about his personality.

Beast Boy pulled her along down the aisles of the toy store. He glanced around at the toys and smiled as children passed by, "So why do you like going into toy stores?" Raven broke the silence between them.

"It makes me feel young again." he replied simply, pausing in front of the planes and cars section.

"Beast Boy, you'll always be young to me." she sighed.

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing-- young at heart's the way to be." he grinned, before leading her out of the toy store and toward the carousel, "Does your stomach feel settled enough for this?"

"I guess." she seemed squimish as he eagerly approached it.

Yes, I'll admit it-- sometimes I act like a five year old. But sometimes, I feel it's necessary. I mean, you have to have fun while you can right?

Beast Boy let go of the dark-haired girl's hand and leapt onto the saddle of a horse. The heroine glanced cautiously around at the creatures, "Pick the tiger Rae. It's right next to me."

A deep breath escaped her, and she pulled herself onto the colorful tiger beside her teammate. A few minutes later, however, all signs of her wariness had vanished. A cheerful excitement had replaced her normally gloomy demeanor. She found herself smiling widely, and laughing as Beast Boy made faces at her while the ride bobbed up and down. Once they exited the ride, they slowly walked toward the ice cream parlor. He took her hand out of habit now, but she didn't seem to mind at all. But he had so much he wanted to tell her, so much he wanted to ask her, but he just walked silently beside her-- keeping his pent-up feelings for her his heart's most treasured secret-- even if it was blatantly obvious to everyone else.

"So, Mister Garfield, what's your favorite kind of ice cream?" her voice snapped him from his trans.

He looked into her flirty eyes, and replied, "Whatever kind of ice cream you hate, Miss Rae-Rae."

"What a cute couple!" the employee piped in, "What can I get you?"

She gave him a mock-angry look, "Do you want me to throw plates at you again?"

"My dear, your aim is so bad I would relish the disappointment." a mischievous look froliced within his eyes.

"I missed on purpose." she scoffed, "I think I'd like plain vanilla cone."

"You say that now-- but I bet you were keeping score about how many times in a row you could hit me. And don't get all crazy on me with these ice cream choices."

She quirked a brow at him, "'Get all crazy'?"

"Alright, joke over." he grinned sheepishly, "I'll take mint chocolate chip."

'Get all crazy'-- White-- Geez, I'll have to write that down in my big book of embarrassement. But I guess it's just because whenever I'm around her, sometimes my brain doesn't work right. Especially when I'm trying to be witty. Keyword: Trying.

So we finally arrived home, and Raven told me she needed to talk to Robin.

Hopefully embarrassment won't be part of that conversation…

"That was an awful long mall trip, B." Cyborg prodded, hinting at something Beast Boy couldn't discern.

"What's your point?" he grumbled, staring up at his half-metal friend.

Cyborg led him away from the main room, and into his own room, "So did anything happen? Did you finally tell her how you feel?"

The green teen rolled his eyes, and folded his arms, "Haven't you seen how much we've been arguing? It's not exactly something that comes up in casual conversations. So no." he paused momentarily, contemplating telling Cyborg what he'd learned—on one hand it would be an ego boost to prove Cy wrong—on the other, it could be his secret—revealing it would reveal the embarrassing situation in which he'd discovered the info anyway, "Nothing interesting happened. We just spent forever in a dress store." Cyborg nodded letting the information in.

"Girls." They both groaned and then laughed.

So yeah, dress shopping wasn't so bad. After all I got to compliment Raven openly, even though she didn't believe half of it. But that's okay; I'll convince her one of these days. : )

"Are you using smileys Beast Boy?" a voice asked over his shoulder.

"Private journal." He snipped, minimizing the window, and twisting his seat around.

Robin raised a brow, "While you two were gone, we found some interesting things out about that toad-like creature we fought about five days ago. And we also found some things out about that sorceress that attacked us too. We found out that her name is Ríona, and she has it in for Jump City; namely us Titans."

"Like usual." Beast Boy groaned, "How'd you find all of this out?"

Robin looked pensive for a moment, "I found out the stuff about the sorceress today while going through some newspapers, and internet articles. But Raven told me what happened today, and we put two and two together."

The changeling looked confused, "What happened today?"

The dark-haired leader then realized that Raven had not yet told her green friend, "Um, I have some paperwork to file." He continued, disappearing from his friend's room.

Something happened today and I wasn't there to protect her?

And then she didn't tell me?

It's seems trust is very lacking in our relationship…somehow.

I'm sad now. I'll write tomorrow or something.

-B.B.


Alrighty then. I hope you all liked it. It was more fluffiness, and humor. ; D Thanks again!! Wysti