Disclaimer: No, I don't own Teen Titans.

Chapter 61

"Beast Boy," a voice beckoned, causing the green hero to look up from the all-you-can-eat buffet.

"Whaf?" He asked, through a mouthful of veggie dumplings.

"Get UP," he felt himself shoved from behind, lodging the food in his throat.

"C-camf, camf beave," he sputtered, struggling for air.

The feeling intensified as something else shoved itself down his throat, and dislodged the blockage.

Beast Boy opened his eyes, gasping for breath.

Raven rolled her eyes, dropping the drool-covered sock on the floor.

"You have got to stop sleeping with your laundry."

Beast Boy didn't respond, still catching his breath.

"We're leaving for the library in ten minutes," she informed him.

"The library?" He cried, "you tried to kill me just to drag me to-"

"If I wanted to kill you I would've just let you choke on your sock."

"For your information, it was a dumpling!"

"Right..."

Beast Boy glowered.

"I'm coming back in ten minutes," she reiterated, "I expect you to be ready to go."

Beast Boy watched as she disappeared into a portal, then looked at his digital clock. It read, in glowing digits, 8:30am.

"UGHHHH," he flung himself back onto his lower bunk, "doesn't she ever sleep in?!"

/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\

Raven levitated into the common room, gliding over to the stove before she set her feet down.

"Morning Raven," Robin smiled, putting down his newspaper, "how was the rest of your night?"

"Fine," she replied, monosyllabically.

Robin watched her as she boiled the water for her tea, eyes boring into her as if he was trying to solve some complex puzzle involving the back of her head.

"Robin," Raven said without facing him, "stop staring at me."

"Sorry," he pretended to go back to reading his paper, but continued peeking at her over the pages.

She turned around as she waited for the kettle.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything," Robin said.

"But you clearly want to," she stated, reading his discomfort, "so what is it?"

Robin was just about to respond when Starfire burst in, saving him from having to either accuse Raven or embarrass her. Though Starfire was definitely going to achieve the latter.

"Friend Raven!" Starfire beamed, flying right up to the empath, obscuring her view of Robin.

"Good morning, Starfire."

"Did you have the pleasant shlorvaks?" Starfire hovered as Raven took out a mug from the cabinet.

"Yup," Raven said dismissively.

Starfire was undeterred.

"But perhaps you did not do much of the sleeping?" Starfire suggested innocently.

"I slept enough," Raven answered, lowering a teabag into her cup.

"I see," Starfire frowned, before coming up with a new line of questioning, "did you and one of our friends perhaps do something involving the fun in the past evening?"

"Nope," Raven picked up the now-whistling kettle, and poured the steaming water into her mug.

"I was informed by the small bird," Starfire shot a damaging glance at a cringing Robin, "that you were doing the hanging of out in the room of living," Raven looked at her impassively, "and that another one of our friends may have engaged in the hanging of out as well!"

"Were you really," Raven trained her eyes on her 'fearless' leader, who gulped and offered a mild, "heh."

"I hope your bird doesn't crash into a window," Raven commented, her threat not so veiled, "I hear it hurts."

Starfire either completely missed it or willfully ignored her statement.

"Friend Raven - rest assured that if you had," she leaned in uncomfortably close to Raven's ear, "the secret to tell, I would not do the sharing," she moved away, much to Raven's relief, "my mouth possesses the zipper!"

"Good to know," Raven walked past her, towards the common room doors. "Beast Boy and I are running some errands today," she mentioned casually, "call if you need us."

The doors shut with a swoosh, and Starfire immediately turned to where Robin was seated. Except, he was no longer sitting at the table. Instead, he was at the tower's mainframe, clearly attempting to pull up the common room's security footage from last night.

"What is it that you think you are doing?!" Starfire cried, flying between her boyfriend and the screen.

"Checking the security footage from last night," he said confidently, hoping his frankness would mask his true intentions, "Ravager could send new bots in at any time. We need to be prepared."

"Were Ravager to send more of the bots," Starfire said hotly, "I am sure we would not possess the knowledge."

"Starfire," Robin tried to dissuade her again, "as leader of the Titans, it's my responsibility to make sure everyone's safe, and that means checking-"

"The only thing you have the interest in 'checking'," she called him out, "is the activities of friends Raven and Beast Boy prior to your walking of in on them!"

"Starfire," Robin laughed unconvincingly, "why would I want to-"

"You PROMISED!" Starfire cried, eyes glowing green.

"Promised what?" Cyborg yawned, walking into the room.

"Beast Boy and Raven are secretly doing the dating and in the night Robin walked in on the most romantic of embraces and made the promise that he would do none of the 'digging' because our friends are worthy of the privacy yet Robin has gone back on his word and is now attempting to do the watching of the tender moments not meant for our eyes!"

"Say what?" Cyborg looked to Robin for a more coherent explanation.

"I think Beast Boy and Raven were-"

"They were enjoying the hugging!" Starfire cried, "and did the jumping of apart when Robin appeared!"

"Riiiiiiiight," Cyborg said skeptically.

"Star, I'm just looking because-"

"No more of the lies!" Starfire dismissed him, "if you lack the necessary control of the self, then there is but one thing to do."

"Star? What are you doing?!" Robin cried, as she turned her back and started typing.

"The evidence has been deleted!" She announced.

Robin groaned, slouching into his hair.

"Perhaps, from now on, you shall do the keeping of the promises." She chastized.

"I said I wouldn't spy," Robin insisted, "that wasn't spying, it was just...like watching a movie!"

"A movie starring Beast Boy and Raven and featurin' a secret romance?" Cyborg supplied, prepping his breakfast, "sounds like my soaps."

"Indeed!" Starfire affirmed.

"But there ain't NO WAY those two are dating. I would know."

"Please, friend Cyborg," Starfire flew to his side, "how is this so?"

"Me and BB are tight," he smiled smugly, "there's no way he wouldn't tell me."

"So friend Beast Boy has never kept the secrets from you?" Starfire pressed.

"Well..." Cyborg thought back to the conversation he and the green bean had, weeks ago, when he'd told him it was cool if he and Raven didn't share everything they talked about. Did that really count? "...no..."

"Aha!" Starfire exclaimed, vindicated, "then I may be correct in my assumption!"

"Look, there's no way-"

"There is indeed a way!"

Cyborg sighed. There was no winning here. The facts were the facts. But there was still no way the little grass stain could ever keep a secret like that. Everybody knew that. But then...he had hidden Silkie for a while, before Starfire took him and turned him into even more of a monster than he already was, and there were all those times he'd pranked Cyborg - that took secret-having skills, and there were all those times he'd snuck into Raven's room to spy on her... Cyborg's eyes widened. Maybe Star was right. But there was no way. No way...right?

"Where are they, anyway?" He tried to redirect the conversation, not wanting to entertain the idea that future Beast Boy and Raven might not be as far in the future as he'd thought.

"They are running the errands," Starfire informed him, then, with a pointed smile, "together."

"Huh," was all Cyborg could utter.

He turned back to his bacon.

Robin rolled his eyes. He'd talk to Cyborg later. In the meantime, he'd let Starfire have her excitement. It was nice to see her so happy. It was the first time since the kids that he'd seen her flying that high. So he smiled and let it go. After all - she had to leave the room at some point.

/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\

"Duuuude," Beast Boy whined, "why are we even here?"

"We need to search the archives."

"Can't we just, like, use the computer at the tower?" He pressed, "the ones here are like, a hundred years old," he gestured to the grayish blocks around them.

"We could," Raven agreed, searching as she did so, "but Robin has security footage he may already be using to try and figure out what we're doing," Beast Boy's eyes widened.

"Do you think he-"

"No," Raven waved him off, "we didn't say anything incriminating. Even if he heard the whole conversation, all he'd think is that we wanted to confirm whether or not we thought it was them. I don't think he'd expect us to go this far."

"But we mentioned Mark!" He reminded her.

"Not in specifics," Raven countered, "obviously he'd know the name meant something, but not why."

"I guess..." Beast Boy conceded, but not without hesitation.

"We needed the towers security clearance to access the footage from the mall," she stated, "so it was a necessary risk."

Beast Boy sighed, then wrinkled his nose at the increase of air that entered his lungs.

"It smells weird," he complained.

"Those are books," Raven told him, pulling up some records, "and they smell fine."

"Just 'cause you like dirty old books doesn't make them smell any better."

"Here," Raven ignored him, "this is a list of all registered citizens of Jump City with the name 'Lily', with varying spellings and versions."

"How many versions could there be?" Beast Boy asked, confused.

"Lillian, Lilith, Lilah..." Raven listed off the top of her head.

"...oh," Beast Boy scratched his back awkwardly.

"It's going to take a while to get through all of them," Raven frowned at the screen, "and I'm not sure exactly what we should even be asking them."

"Hello ma'am," Beast Boy said in a poor telemarketer impression, "do you run around in black and orange? Got any friends that go by the name 'Ravager'?"

Raven rolled her eyes.

"There's no guarantee they're going to respond if we contact them," she said pessimistically, "we don't even know that 'Lily' is a relevant name. Maybe it is just a random coincidence that Ryan went by Mark and Lily means nothing."

"Don't be like that Rae!" Raven scowled at the nickname. "Besides," he noted, more seriously, "it's...kinda all we got."

Raven sighed. However much she hated to admit it, he was right.

"I'll print out their contact information," Raven said, clicking some keys, "we have a lot of calls to make."

"Calls?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yeah - how else did you expect us to contact them?"

"No one's gonna pick up if we just call."

"So what do you suggest we do?" She asked, with extra condescension.

The gleam in his eyes made her regret her question immediately.