Chapter 14

Raven opened her eyes to the familiar sights and sounds of Nevermore. She had decided that coming here would be a good idea. Last night she was pulled her against her will; an intervention of sorts. But this time she felt that she needed to talk to someone. The instant she was there, she regretted the decision.

It was dead quiet and empty. 'Where is everyone? I mean it's never exactly been crowded around here but…'

Each one of her emotions had their own realm within Raven's mind. They all had a place they called home and one common area, where Raven now stood. Whichever emotion was the strongest at the time was usually the one that would greet her upon entry, as it was likely the reason she came here in the first place. Unlike last night, when arrays of her emotions were there to welcome her, there was no one to be found.

"Hello?" she spoke, more to herself than in hopes of anyone answering back.

"They're not here this time," a warm voce answered from behind her.

Raven turned to address the emotion that had not been there moments earlier. "You," she said, not surprised at the girl standing there.

The purple cloaked emotion smiled at her as she spoke. "Yes me."

"I didn't really come here to speak to you. I'm sorry," Raven said.

"Oh no? I was hoping you had come here to finish our talk from last night."

"No. I am here to see Rage. She…caused problems in the tower earlier."

The purple emotion's smile faded slightly. "Yes I saw," she answered as she shook her head.

"I could have hurt Beast Boy. I lost control," Raven said, bowing her head in shame. "I was so jealous that I let Rage get the better of me."

"I know. But it isn't Rage who you should speak to in this case. It's me," the emotion replied.

Raven knew what she meant by that. "I suppose we should talk some more," she finally yielded.

"I believe that would be best."

They stood there in front of one another for a long moment. After a period of silence Raven finally spoke up. "I'm not sure where to begin. I don't know what I should ask you."

The emotion gave her a warm, comforting smile. "Then I will begin. Raven, you know Gar loves you more than he could ever tell you right?"

"I…" she mulled this over in her head. She knew that he did love her, though he had never said anything remotely close to that. But somehow, he always let her know through so many little things that he did. "Yes," she finally answered. "Wait no. I don't know. He has never said anything like that out loud," she stammered.

"Love doesn't need to be loud," the emotion answered.

"Gar never has been one for subtlety. If he ever does try to tell me he loves me it will probably be screamed from the rooftops knowing him," Raven answered.

"No he won't," the emotion stated flatly. "Love doesn't need a crowd."

"And the second everyone does find out he won't be able to shut up about us being together. He will brag to every guy he can find. Like I am some sort of prize," Raven uttered shaking her head in disapproval.

"No he won't," the emotion responded again. "Love isn't proud."

Raven looked at her, slightly annoyed. "How would you know what he would and wouldn't do?"

"Sweetheart, if you know then I know. And vice versa," she said simply.

Raven knew better than to try and lie to herself. She still tried from time to time but it never worked out too well. "Well…let's say I believe you. How exactly do think that conversation will pan out?"

The emotion tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" Raven began but quickly shut her mouth realizing she had no idea how to explain this to her. "I can't say certain stuff to him. It just won't come out right," she answered finally.

"So what if it doesn't come out right?" she asked Raven.

"Beast Boy, he would…he would just—"

"He would just what? Shun you? Laugh at you? Not believe you?" she interrogated.

Raven was slightly surprised by the response she got from her purple cloaked self. She stood there not knowing how to respond to the onslaught.

The emotion continued. "You're right, he would probably think you are weird or are trying to make fun of him. He sure as hell wouldn't return your feelings. You know the ones you just said you knew he had two minutes ago."

Raven was now more frustrated than confused by the last comment. "Hey wait a second. You're getting all high and mighty with me and as far as I can tell you have barely been around for twenty-four hours!" Raven shot back.

"Hmm, true. I have only just been strong enough to manifest this form for about one day. But I have been here for about four months or so," she answered.

"Yeah, and that's another thing," Raven continued, pointing a finger accusingly in her direction, still irritated. "Last night you said that Beast Boy and I 'have been together for four months'. We have been dating for seven months and twenty-six days. I don't know where you got your information from but it's wrong," Raven snapped back.

She simply gave a soft smile in response. This only added to Raven's frustration. "My child, that is not what I meant by 'together,'" a soft answer came.

"What?!" Raven spat as a new wave of confusion came over her.

"I was not referring to your personal social relationship with Garfield. I meant something deeper than a simple 'dinner and a movie' kind of connection."

Again this did nothing to help Raven's perplexed state. She stared at her emotion with a blank look on her face.

The purple cloaked girl saw that this was not going to be easy. She would have to be blunter it seemed. "Four months Raven. What has happened between you and him over the last four months?"

"What do you mean? Nothing. We just hang out like we always do," Raven answered honestly, not seeing the point her emotion was trying to make.

"Yes Raven. And tell me: do you still find him irritating or 'not funny'?" she asked.

Raven pondered the question for a moment. "Well I can tolerate him a lot better now. I have had a lot of practice, I guess."

"And is he still not funny?"

"He still makes the occasional stupid joke but he is not as bad about it as he used to be," Raven answered, half to her emotion, and half to herself.

She seemed to brighten up at Raven's answer. "And do you laugh at these 'stupid jokes'?"

Raven laughed slightly. "More often than not. He…has a way of doing that to me."

Does he like it when you laugh at his jokes?"

"He has never said those words exactly but yes. He acts like he did something impossible," Raven responded. She spoke as if she was thinking out loud more than actually talking to someone. "I can laugh, I can find stuff funny. I don't know why everyone thinks I'm in a bad mood constantly. I just like to control myself, that's all."

"I know sweetheart. And so do our friends. You don't have to be defensive, or think that they don't understand you. They do."

Raven directed her gaze back to her emotion. "I know. And to be honest I don't really care what any of them think about me dating Beast Boy. I just want them to let us be happy."

Raven could scarcely believe the words that just came out of her mouth. 'Did I really just say that?'

"Yes, you just said that," her purple clone said knowingly. It was as if she had read Raven's mind.

"You know if you get out of control, there is no telling what it would do to my powers," Raven said, doing her best to steer the conversation in a different direction. It had the exact opposite effect.

"Oh really? Just how unstable do you think I am?" the emotion asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "Seeing as how you are now ready to admit that I really am here in you," she added.

"But it isn't just you. What about everyone else? Their interactions with me will affect you too. What about the world around me? How will you—"Raven's rambling was cut off.

"Shhh. Stop worrying so much. I am much too strong for any of that to hurt me. Let the world crash around you, Love can take it."

Raven's eyes grew wide, "Love…"

The emotion smiled and spoke softly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Raven."

Raven didn't know what to say. She was right, Raven knew who she was all along, but it had taken some time for her to wrap her mind around the idea. "I do love him," she said quietly as an energetic, almost giddy feeling of happiness came over her.

"She finally got it huh?" a new but familiar voice chimed in. Raven looked up, not surprised to see Happy standing there next to Love.

"Yes. Now all she has to do is talk to him," Love answered Happy, turning to give the girl a smile.

"Yay! Not to break up your meeting here, but we have company," Happy beamed.

"What?" Raven asked.

Raven opened her eyes to see a sad looking Starfire floating across from her, matching her lotus position. "Starfire? What are you doing out here?" Raven asked, surprised to see her friend.

Starfire slowly floated down to stand as Raven did the same. "Friend Raven, I have come to say goodbye."

Raven didn't understand what her friend was talking about. "Goodbye? Why? Where are you going?" she asked, seeing the large bag on the ground behind her.

"I am going back home. Robin and I…have had 'the break up'," she said sorrowfully. Her voice was heavy with pain and anguish as she spoke. Raven didn't need to be an empath to tell Robin had hurt her badly.

"What happened between the two of you?" Raven asked. Girl talk had never been something she was good at or even enjoyed. It rarely happened between the two girls. But after the events of today she was going for a record, twice in the same day. For that matter twice in the same week would be unusual.

"I do not know," she answered as her voice began to crack and tears formed at the corners of her eyes. "After Beast Boy was insensitive to you and you threw the living room at him and then left-" Raven cringed as she hoped everyone had not seen that- "Beast Boy left to go find you."

"He did?" Raven asked, somewhat surprised at the fact that he would chase after her after she lost her temper. "He didn't find me."

Starfire continued as if she didn't hear Raven's question. "Robin claimed that it was wrong for team members to be romantically involved with one another," she said as she reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes. "He then said that he and I were different and that we don't have to worry about that rule. You were right Raven, he is a hypocrite."

Raven was at a loss for what to say. She felt sorry for her but didn't know where to begin to comfort her. "Uh, it will be okay Star. He will calm down soon and we all can have a talk. Don't worry," Raven said as she reached out her hand to place it on Starfire's shoulder. It felt awkward and out of place, but with a lack of any other good ideas this would have to do, Raven figured.

The awkwardness didn't last long and soon got worse. Starfire quickly wrapped her arms around Raven and pulled her into a bone crushing hug as she began to sob uncontrollably. "Why Raven? He told me he loved me. What we shared this afternoon, and now this. He said we could not be together and then three seconds later said that we could. I do not understand why Earth boys act this way!"

Raven scrambled in her head to find the right words but came up with nothing. After several moments of her silence and Starfier's weeping Raven pulled away from her embrace as gently as she could. "It will be ok Star," she said once again, not knowing what else to say.

"How can we have a relationship when you and friend Beast Boy's will damage the team?" She asked as she locked eyes with Raven. There was a desperate look in her eyes, as if she were pleading, begging for Raven to tell her why.

Raven simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know Starfire. I mean I…I love Beast Boy, I just don't know how to tell him. What if he rejects me? What if he is embarrassed by me or doesn't feel the same way? Should I tell him how I feel or should I wait for him to say it first? If in fact he does feel that way, that is," Raven blurted out. Not censoring herself was something she didn't do very often and was suddenly nervous as to what Starfire's reaction would be.

Starfire had stopped crying and was now wearing one of her more common puzzled looks. "Raven, why do you worry about such things? You are his world. If you could only hear half the things he speaks about you when you are out of the room. He attempts to hide it as harmless jokes but I see through them," she giggled. "I may be of royalty, but in Beast Boy's eyes, you are the only princess in the tower."

Raven could not believe what she just heard. "You are making too much of it Starfire," she finally managed dismissively.

"Those were his words, not mine."

Raven felt her cheeks grow a bright red. "Really? He said that?"

Starfire nodded her head yes. "Perhaps he does not wish to hide his feelings for you from us that much after all."

Raven feel she needed to get control of this again. Otherwise she ran the risk of turning into a love drunk school girl in front of Starfire. "Well Star, Robin just needs to grow up. If he can't accept me and Beast Boy together then maybe we don't need to be a part of his team anymore," she said confidently. "I'm not going to give up the chance of happiness with Gar for him. And neither should you Star. We should go right back in there and talk to them."

Starfire giggled loudly. "Ok Raven."

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. You have really changed, that is all."

Raven didn't know what to make of this. Was it a good thing or bad? But there wasn't much time to think about it as both the girls were suddenly distracted by the sound of a large explosion coming from the tower off in the distance.

"What was that?!" Starfire asked, turning to look towards the tower.

Raven could already sense her presence. "Quinn," she growled out. "Starfire, we need to get back to the tower now!"