Sorry this chapter took a while again to come out. I was just reading Bearhow's awesome Dragon Knight series here on Fanfiction. I would highly recommend it. He definitely put a lot of thought into it, and it showed. I even liked his OC's, despite one of them having dragon powers.

Now though, here is to the next chapter of this colossal fic!

Mailbox Time!

WarpCrazy: Will help be harder to come by? I guess you'll have to wait and find out. And yes, sparks. Sparks that will lead to a grand fight that I can't wait to reveal down the road.

Golem XIV: That is a strange, yet fitting analogy there friend. It justs keeps on getting more tasty, especially since I know the end goal in find.

Eris: You'd hope she'd figure that out. As to what the duo will do now, well you'll have to read and find out.

neslykoki: They act so much like an old married couple with the sarcasm, that I bet it would last till they were an old married couple. And while it'll get harder, at least they'll have help now.

shugokage: Thank you!

: Yeah, maybe it's cheating. Maybe it's not. Who knows? Oh yeah, there's still the demon army out there. That's still down the road... man the JL is just being flat out lazy all around.

Pixel-Pie02: It's so late right now, I'm not even sure how to respond to you Bluedog. I'm sorry I can't write out a more full response, I'm just tired. Hope it goes well!

Since Last Time: 4 more favorites, 5 more follows (Total: 261 Favorites, 298 Followers)

Updated: April 20th, 2019 12:00 A.M.

Disclaimer: Quick! Tell my lawyers that I don't freaking own this!

Chapter Thirty-Six: Hide Away

The scene was painted with a clear night sky up above. The stars twinkled brightly in the firmament, along with a nice glowing half moon. The plains and brush of the Midwest stretched all around in the distance...

…

A dark portal formed down below next to a really old, paint peeling, abandoned looking barn. After a couple seconds, Beast Boy stepped out from the portal. He crossed his arms, and shivered a little.

"I k-k-keep on f-f-forgeting how c-c-cold your p-p-portals are R-R-Rae." Beast Boy said through chattering teeth.

Raven calmly stepped out of the portal as he said that statement. She rolled her eyes as the portal closed behind her. "You weren't cold earlier when I portaled us from the grocery store." She commented.

Beast Boy stared at her wide eyed, then he harrumphed. "Okay. Maybe it's just because of the prolonged portaling that's making it cold." He said.

"Sure. It's not because it's colder at night." She dryly commented.

A blush started to work its way up his neck. He didn't want to admit it, but her cold dark powers didn't feel so... cold and dark to him anymore. "I... um... uh..." He tried to find something to argue with anyways.

"I could just open a portal to Outer Perdition right now if you want to warm up." Raven suggested.

Beast Boy's face took on a pale look, and then he straightened. A forced smile came onto his face. "Nope, I'm all nice and warm and cuddly on the inside already! Thanks for the offer though dude!" He said as he gave her a thumbs up.

Raven rolled her eyes again. "Wuss." Then she took a step forward. "Urgh." She groaned as she dropped to one knee.

Beast Boy was almost immediately down at her level. "What is it Rae? Are you hurt?" He asked worriedly as he looked her over.

Raven closed her eyes tightly. "I... probably shouldn't have opened that last portal." She admitted.

'I should probably ease back into meditating and using my powers before I use them so profusely again.' Raven thought beratedly to herself.

'And you made fun of him for not staying in shape!' Rude laughed in her mind.

'... Shut up.'

Beast Boy got under her left shoulder and helped her up with a look of disapproval on his face. "Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have minded being a horse for the last seven mile leg here."

Raven groaned to herself again. "Because I can handle it Gar." She groaned.

Beast Boy looked to the barn. "Here, let's see if we can camp out in here for the night." He said as he walked them both towards the old barn. Raven was too tired and in pain from overusing her powers to try to object to him helping her out.

…

Kckckckck...

The large old barn door creaked open. Beast Boy and Raven slowly walked together into the place.

The ceiling up above was sagging down. Old hay was piled up against the walls, and the sound of mice could be heard in the hay. The interior, however, was a wide open space. It looked at one time to have housed a variety of tractors, but the only hint of that pasttime was a couple old rusty grease holders that littered the ground. Beast Boy looked around, examining the place. "That ceiling might be sagging, but I don't see any holes. I think we'll be able to hide out here for now." He said.

Raven tiredly put her free hand into her bag, and then pulled out a familiar cube with a button on it. "Can you set up the home Gar?" She tiredly asked.

"I don't know. Can you stand on your own Rae?" He asked back toothily.

Raven gave him a glare. "I'm only tired, not useless." Raven grumbled sarcastically.

Beast Boy chuckled a little, and grabbed the cube from her hand. "I didn't think you were useless Rae... in your state, I could still use your body as a shield in a fight." He joked as he walked away from her.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Why thanks. I'll keep that in mind next time we're being attacked." She said sarcastically. Though she was having to use all her effort to keep herself from falling to the ground without him supporting her tired frame.

Beast Boy pressed the button on the cube, and threw it away from him. It had been a while since they had last activated it, but their pocket home turned on like a charm. The nanobots that made it up came to alertness, and expanded outwards. The walls of the home expanding, the roof coming out of the top, the front door forming. Even now it still amazed him how Cyborg had managed to create something extraordinary like this...

Beast Boy smiled as the cube home finished expanding. The porch, the last thing to expand out, settled down on the ground in front of him. He had wanted to adjust the settings so the nanobots would also make a pool attachment, but Raven had won the argument that in doing that they'd lose the bathroom since the nanobots there would be reassigned to the pool. Beast Boy had tried to argue that a pool could technically be used as a bathroom... you can guess how that argument panned out.

Beast Boy looked back. Raven had collapsed down to one knee. "Do you need help walking in Rae?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

Raven stared him down with her best deadpan face. She then floated a couple inches off the ground. "Thank you very much, but I'm feeling a little bit better now-" She said dryly as she started to move forward through the air.

"Urgh!" Thump!

Almost immediately, Raven comically fell face forward onto the ground. She groaned to herself. 'Freaking Azar I'm so drained!' Raven thought a little frustratingly inside her mind.

'Nice fall there twinkletoes! You made us look real good there!' Rude yelled again in her mind.

'That was definitely not one of our best falls in front of him.' Knowledge commented.

'Wheeeee! Random gravity checks! I hope he makes a joke about that!' Happy shrieked in happiness.

'Ugh...' Raven tiredly thought back.

Beast Boy bent down on one knee next to Raven. He was grinning now. "Do you still think you don't need any help Rae, or were you just checking to see if gravity still worked there?" He asked her almost a little teasingly.

'Oh my Azar you were right Happy!' Brave yelled in shock.

'Yay! I won the bet! Now I get BB's lucky penny for a while!' Happy yelled even more loudly.

'Fine, take it anyways! I'm enjoying watching leader bitch make a fool of herself!' Rude yelled happily as she threw the lucky penny necklace to Happy, who happily put it on.

Raven tiredly lifted her head up to glare at him. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" She dryly asked him.

His grin grew a little bigger. "Maybe." He said.

Raven shakily put her arms beneath her, and tried to push herself back up. She didn't get far though before she collapsed back onto the ground again.

'Just when I didn't think we could look more useless.' Rage commented dryly in the background.

'So... tired.' Sloth said tiredly.

Raven did look rather tired and defeated in that moment. She was starting to realize they might have only gotten as far as they had because she had been running her powers on pure adrenaline that came from the fear of being captured. Now that the adrenaline had long since run its course...

'It's a really good thing we didn't fight any of those heroes today. We're out of our training by a long shot.' Wisdom said in her mind.

'Are you kidding me!? I could've still beat them all with my hands tied behind my back!' Brave said proudly.

'This is so embarrassing. He must think we're so weak.' Timid mumbled quietly in the background as she hid.

Raven sighed on the ground. She was also getting tired of the peanut gallery inside her mind. "Gar." Raven said tiredly.

Beast Boy laid down on the ground next to her. His cheesy grin was now plastered on his face. "Yessssss." The word was drawn out from his lips.

Raven groaned to herself again. "Can you please help me?" She finally asked.

"What was that? I think I misunderstood ya." He asked in mock surprise.

Raven groaned. "Again, why am I asking for help from a green moron?" She asked herself.

Beast Boy grinned even wider, and then he stood up. A drum set somehow appeared around him. "That's because you need a lot more help than you realize Rae." He quipped.

Badum! Tiss!

The drum set disappeared as he laughed at his little joke…

Raven wasn't amused. 'Rage, start concocting those torture methods again. I'm going to need them when my strength returns.' Raven thought to her mind.

'Already on it.' Rage responded darkly.

Beast Boy chuckled a little bit, and Raven was brought back to reality. "Here, I won't mind helping ya in Rae." He said before he picked her up off the ground in a fireman's carry.

It was almost like Raven's heart skipped a beat. "No, I meant help me in! Not like this!" Raven tried to protest.

Beast Boy laughed a little. "Sorry Rae. You asked for help, you didn't specify what kind of help you wanted." He said happily as he walked towards the pocket home.

Raven groaned again and put a hand to her forehead. "Just hurry up then you green idiot." She snapped. She didn't want him to see the blush that was slowly crawling up onto her face. A blush that she was too tired to try and fight down.

Beast Boy laughed a little at that as he walked up the steps onto the porch of the home. "So you're saying you want me to carry you like this now?" He asked.

"No, I'm admitting defeat now so I'll be able to kill you later." She grumbled out.

"Oh come on Rae. This is supposed to be fun." He said as he started to do a 360 spin while approaching the door.

"Gar!" Raven said in surprise at the unexpected spin. "You know I don't do fun!" She snapped at him again.

Beast Boy continued to laugh as he opened the door to the pocket home. The inside looked almost virtually unchanged since the last time they had been inside. There wasn't even a speck of dust anywhere, even though it had been quite some time since they had stayed in the cube home. Benefits of when a home can be locked away inside a 3x3 inch box. It's too compact for even a fleck of dust to work it's way into it.

"I swear, if you do that again-" Raven started to say.

"Woooooo!" Garfield yelled happily as he went into a 1080 spin.

Raven stopped speaking again and gripped his uniform as tightly as her tired hands would allow. "I'm sorry, you were saying Rae?" Beast Boy said as he stopped.

Raven was now fighting a torrent of emotions on the inside. She was embarrassed at needing help when she was this tired. She was disoriented from the spinning. She was blushing from being embarrassed. And she was kind of angry too at him for being him.

"I hate you." Raven said flatly as she crossed her arms.

"Aw, I know you wuv me Rae." Beast Boy said a little childishly as he approached her hooded headboard bed.

...

Raven went stock still.

'Wait, what?' She thought.

The emoticlones in her mind were also dead silent.

'How did he know that?' Happy asked Knowledge quietly.

'I think he was just joking.' Knowledge replied quietly.

'I hope it was a joke.' Timid said in a scared whisper.

'I hope it wasn't either.' Lust and Love said at the same time.

Beast Boy didn't seem to catch the change in his friend. He simply whistled to himself as he carried her across the room, did another immature spin, and then finally set her sitting down on top of her bed. He laughed a little bit to himself as well during the process.

"There ya go Rae. I hope you enjoyed your ride on the Garfield Express today. I'll be looking forward to our next trip together." Beast Boy said as he gave her a mock bow.

Raven was still quiet. She was looking at him weirdly.

…

After a moment, Beast Boy looked up. He was starting to sense something was wrong. "What? Is something wrong?" He asked curiously.

Raven blinked, and then shook her head. "Of course something is wrong. I counted at least ten things while you were busy spinning like an idiot." Raven dryly quipped at him.

A look of mock offense came onto Beast Boy's face. "Oh come on dude. I thought what we did there was fun. Plus, I didn't see anything blowing up." He added at the end.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Things could have been blowing up if I hadn't overused my powers today." Raven said dryly.

Beast Boy shrugged his shoulders. "I was just trying to end the day on a fun note after what we went through today." Beast Boy said.

Raven glared slightly at him. "Fun for me, or fun for you?" She dryly asked.

He grinned a little bit. "A little bit of both." He said.

Raven groaned to herself. "Stupid green little-" She started to say.

"Hey now, I became taller than you two months ago! So you can't call me little anymore little Rae." Beast Boy complained, and then poked fun at her at the end.

Raven gritted her teeth. "Just... go and do something else for a while. I'm tired." Raven said in annoyance.

Beast Boy grinned even wider. "Hi tired, I'm Beast Boy. It's nice to meet you." He said as he held his hand up for a hand shake.

Raven didn't look amused at all. Beast Boy had a sweat drop appear on his forehead at the cold look she was throwing him. "I guess you aren't really in the mood for any more jokes, are ya Rae?" He asked.

Raven pointed to the corner with a blank look on her face. She didn't say anything.

Beast Boy got the message. "Okay, I'll leave you alone dude. Have a good night." He said as he turned around to walk away.

"Wait, Gar?" Raven suddenly said unsurely behind him.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. 'Great. She wants me to go away, and now she wants to talk again.' He thought as he turned around. "What is it now Rae?" He was asking.

Raven was still sitting on her bed. She slowly raised her arms, and bit her lip in nervousness before she reached out to him. "I... Thank you for today." She said quietly.

Beast Boy was caught off guard at first. 'Wait, does she seriously still want to-' He was thinking.

'Just embrace our mate before her arms give out and we miss our chance master!' The Beast howled impatiently inside his mind.

Almost against his will, he quickly embraced Raven in a hug. Raven weakly hugged him back, and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder. Beast Boy was again caught off guard by the action.

"No problem Rae." Beast Boy said calmly.

…

…

After a moment, the two released, and Raven looked him in the eyes. "Good night Gar. Sweet dreams." She said, before she laid back on her bed.

Beast Boy mutely nodded his head. He then walked over to his corner, and then he laid down as a kitten on the carpet. Within mere seconds the exhaustion of the day caught up to him all at once, and the cute green kitten curled up into a ball. It fell asleep.

…

'What was I annoyed with him about again?' Raven thought.

'I'm sooooooooo happppppyyyyyyy right now!' Happy yelled in happiness.

'I feel warm inside.' Timid said.

'I feel warm too... and for once it's not because of my anger and hatred for everyone and everything.' Rage said.

'That's because we did something brave!' Brave yelled in excitement.

'I asked what we had been mad about, not about the hug.' Raven thought almost dryly, though embarrassment was also in the background of her thought.

'I can't remember.' Wisdom said in confusion.

A stack of papers appeared in Knowledge's hands, and she quickly flicked through them in a matter of seconds. 'I have all the memories here. But they're all marked as unimportant compared to some of the other events from today.' She said professionally.

'Like kicking those stupid redneck idiots' butts!' Brave yelled.

'Or finding out that we actually have allies now.' Rude said.

'Yeah! Heroes who can help us tear Zatanna limb from limb when we find her!' Rage angrily yelled.

'... maybe not that far...' Raven thought.

'The feeling of Garfield carrying us into our home...' Love said almost with a sigh.

'… wait, what was that last part?' Raven thought.

'It'd probably be best right now if you didn't think to much on it Raven. Your body is really tired at the moment.' Wisdom said.

…

'Alright. I guess I'm too tired to be thinking about this now... Don't, bother my dreams.' She thought forcefully to them at the end.

'We won't. At least for tonight.' Wisdom promised.

'Good night then.' Raven thought as she closed her eyes in the real world. Within seconds, she drifted off to a deep sleep.

…

The sky in Nevermore darkened a little bit. The emoticlones in the center of Raven's mind looked at each other. "How much longer do you think it'll be before the hugs do their work?' Love asked.

Knowledge put a hand to her chin in thought. 'It's definitely working a little bit. She was really annoyed with him there, and then she did a complete 180 all on her own. ..." She trailed off, and looked to Wisdom. "What would you say about that?" She asked.

"I'd say there's a greater chance of her discovering on her own about her feelings now that she's actually exercising them a little bit and liking it." Wisdom said.

Lust groaned to herself. "How much longer do we have to wait though? I'm getting tired of just hugging and having no action afterwards." She complained.

The other emoticlones looked at her. "Girl, do you realize just how long it took Raven to hug someone the first time since you were locked away?" Brave asked.

"About 4-5 years." Timid said sadly.

"The fact that she's hugging the green bean every night for three weeks straight is a massive improvement from where she was at before!" Brave yelled.

Lust crossed her arms. "Fine, I guess." She said to herself.

Love looked down at her hands. "It feels like we're making progress... but I'm not sure what else we can do to help her continue moving along." Love said.

Rage clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Love, you're a pretty unyielding emotion. I'm sure Raven will eventually get the message on her own. Besides, she's already listening to the silent suggestions you give her more than when I yell at her to do something." Rage said.

"That's because what you tell her is mostly kill, torture, and maim." Rude said next to her.

"And what do you tell her to do? Burp and fart?!" Rage angrily asked.

Rude looked Rage in the eye. "How about the times she calls you a b**** and tells you to shut up? Who do you think suggests to her to do that?" Rude smugly asked.

"That does it!" Rage angrily yelled, before she dived for Rude.

Rude got an 'oh crap' look on her face, before she quickly portaled into her realm. Rage landed face first on the ground where she had been standing.

"Hahahaha! Nice faceplant loser!" Rude's laughter could be heard clear from her realm far away in Raven's mind.

"You can't run from me b****! We're stuck together in here!" Rage yelled, before she portaled after her.

…

The other emoticlones looked a little surprised at first, and then they looked at each other. "I'll go make sure that they don't kill each other." Brave said, before she ran off.

"I'll help out!" Happy said excitedly, before she skipped off after Brave.

"I'll hide under a rock until this blows over." Timid said, before she quietly portaled away.

"I'll hide out with her and catch up on some beauty sleep." Sloth said drowsily, before she walked into Timid's portal.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Love, and Lust were left of the group. The four looked to each other. "Is there anything else we should discuss with each other while Raven is transferring to dream mode?" Wisdom asked.

Love shook her head. "I'll just continue to wait. I guess I'm good at doing that." She said.

"And I'll impatiently continue to wait with her. Since I'm good at being impatient with Love." Lust said grouchily.

The two of them walked away from the circle hand in hand.

Knowledge looked around herself, and then she started to smile. "Things really seem to be on track now." She said.

A frown came onto Wisdom's face. "We shouldn't be too sure about that yet sister. We don't know if Raven will be able to handle everything in the future still or not." She said.

"Like what?" Knowledge asked curiously.

"Maybe, if something were to happen between her and Gar?" She suggested.

Knowledge's smile turned into a frown. "Raven is doing a lot better emotionally now because of him... but with how much she is trusting Garfield... If something were to happen between them-" Knowledge was saying.

"Then Raven would never trust anyone again." Wisdom finished.

A long silence fell between them at those words. The message in the background of Wisdom's words was pretty clear. They would most likely fall under that list of not being trusted with everyone and everything else. Even though as a representation of her emotions, they were helping her to recognize what she was starting to feel for the green skinned changeling

…

"Do you think the risk we're taking here in becoming one with Raven is worth it?" Knowledge asked.

Wisdom looked deep in thought. "She's never made as much progress in all her life as she has the last few months with Gar... even if things don't work out in the end, it's better that she had this experience. Instead of her choosing not to try and allow herself to feel anything at all like before." Wisdom said.

Knowledge sighed. "I know... I'm just afraid in helping her along we'll get her hurt..." She said.

…

"I just wish she wasn't so stupidly stubborn. Then we'd have less time for that to happen." Knowledge said.

Wisdom smiled. "That's where she probably listens to Rude then." Wisdom said wisely.

Knowledge smiled as well. "Yeah, both Rude and Brave. They're both pretty stubborn too."

"So even if she gets burned in the end, we know at least two emoticlones she'll still listen to." Wisdom said.

The two calm emotions chuckled at the joke, and then walked away from the circle. Figuring at this point that the two heroes' relationship with each other was so on track they didn't have much cause to worry about it going haywire.

I mean seriously, with how things were going now, what was the worst that could possibly happen?

Author's Notes:

There is none. I'm giving away nothing.

Till Next Time

Allen Blaster