Come to think of it, he was pretty certain that was the Day.

And a beautiful day it was, he remembered fondly. Sunny and warm, with a breeze that kept it from becoming hot, it was the perfect day for some outdoor rest & relaxation. It was also a great day for a barbecue, and they made damn good use of it. Robin was already devouring a burger, his big bro Cyborg had buried his face into four-and-a-half pounds of baby back ribs, Starfire had just discovered the delightful yellow beverage called mustard…

And Raven?

Unsurprisingly, she was sitting quietly by herself in the shade under a tree. Surprisingly, she wasn't reading or meditating. She was – he supposed – just chilling.

He frowned. He couldn't see why she needed it. She was, like, cold enough as it was. Aloof. Distant.

Not really haughty or standoffish, just… detached, and at times even forbidding. Creepy.

He bit his own tongue. No, not creepy. Never. That was unfair. I mean, she did say he was 'kinda funny'.

Quite a while ago that was, but still. It was very sweet of her. If only he hadn't reacted like an eager St. Bernard puppy and ruined it all.

He sighed and shrugged, then turned his attention to his tofu dogs sizzling on the barbecue. Their aroma was becoming mouthwatering. He scampered up a nearby tree and lowered himself down to take them, hanging from a striped green-and-black tail coiled around an overhanging branch.

"Sweet, my tofu dogs are cooked to perfection!" he muttered with satisfaction, then glanced at the silent empath.

"Yo, Raven!" he called out, offering the tofu dogs with a large grin. "Try one! They're loaded with soybeany goodness!"

Her eyes opened; cool, clear and lovely like amethyst crystals.

"I respect that you don't eat meat," her low, dispassionate voice dismissed him curtly. "Please respect that I don't eat fake meat."

Her eyes closed and she returned to whatever it was she was doing. He shrugged again. More left for him. He devoured the tofu dogs quickly, his gaze unable to wrench itself away from her.

She was actually quite a looker, he realized. It was not so obvious, what with her penchant for keeping her face in the shadow of that hood all the time. And her hair was nice, and looked silky and soft. Maybe she should let it grow longer.

It sure smelled divine.

Nah, scratch that. It was not only the hair. She smelled divine.

And he would have to be blind not to notice those long, shapely legs. Or picture to himself what was under that tight leotard she always wore and that left very little to imagination.

Actually, when he thought about it, it left a lot to imagination, it's just that it was the wrong kind of imagination. He felt his face burn and he finally managed to pry his eyes off her.

He sat cross-legged on the branch, as comfortable as a spider monkey, finishing his tofu dogs. He licked his lips, stretched and yawned in satisfaction. He relaxed and his eyes opened, seeking out Raven again.

She was gone.

His ears perked and the breath hissed in through his nose as he immediately searched for her, without even thinking about it. The soft rustling of the breeze in her cloak and the intoxicating sweetness of her scent guided his eyes and he soon saw her, moving away towards a tall, solitary tree standing about a hundred feet away.

There was a whiff of furtiveness in her scent, confirmed by her head turning back to see if anyone was following. She missed the small green monkey among the green leaves.

Now, if there was something Garfield Mark Logan could not resist, it was a secret. Throw in the fact that it was Raven's secret, and not even the threat of being sent to the deepest Pit of Hell to suffer eternal torture and damnation could keep him from finding out what it was. But it did make him proceed cautiously. He knew she would be able to sense him through her empathy if he approached too close, so he chose to stay where he was and keep a prudent distance.

He morphed into a falcon. His field of vision sharpened incredibly and zoomed in. He was able to see every thread in the indigo weave of her cloak, every strand of soft violet hair that poked out of the hood as it shifted gently in the wind, every sparkling facet of the red gem on her forehead as it reflected the sun's rays in a red that was almost black, as dark as blood.

But he couldn't discern what it was that had aroused her interest. He quickly changed into an owl; his eyesight remained almost as good while his hearing improved dramatically. He listened carefully, distinguishing with ease the soft swish of her cloak, the barely audible scuff of her soft boots, the calm rhythm of her heartbeat and her unhurried breathing.

And then he heard it.

To a human it would sound just like soft chirping. To his sensitive ears it was a wail of fear, a scream for help, a chorus of anguish and helplessness in the face of disaster.

A chick had fallen out of its nest and it was trilling pitifully, urging its desperate parents to help it. But all they could do was to flutter anxiously around it, voicing their impotence. Garfield ruffled his feathers and spread his wings, ready to fly over and lift the chick back up into its nest, but he was stopped by a sudden realization. If he tried to help in the form of any large animal – an owl, a cat, a human – he would scare the parents; they would fly away in fear never to return, and the end result would be the same. Any animal small enough not to drive the two desperate birds off in panic was too little and too weak to lift the powerless chick up the tree and over the branch to its nest.

As he racked his brains looking for a solution, Raven crouched some ten feet away from the scene. Her hand lifted and a small, black disk formed under the chick, elevating it slowly up until it reached the nest, then deposited it inside. The disk vanished and the chick's parents landed immediately beside their child, calming it. The chirps turned joyful and slowly quieted, and all was well with the world again.

Beast Boy understood right away. Raven's empathy had picked up the despair, fear and anguish bursting both from the chick and from its parents and she moved to help. Sometimes being a hero wasn't all just about saving the world; it was also about the smaller things.

He had just enough time to calm his own feelings and begin a show of transforming into several different types of monkeys while jumping, climbing, swinging from branch to branch and screeching before Raven returned. She sat down in the same place she was before and cast a scrutinizing gaze his way. He turned into himself and sent her a goofy grin. She rolled her eyes and closed them, ignoring him.

Good. She wasn't aware that he saw everything. Mission accomplished. It would remain his – and her – secret forever.

Cyborg's voice called them for a game of football. Beast Boy agreed enthusiastically.

"I'll referee," Raven commented dryly.

-=oOo=-

She shifted a little in her sleep and his arms tightened around her. She rubbed her face against his shoulder, mumbled sleepily and relaxed, her breathing slowing down again. He smiled, placed a small, gossamer kiss on her forehead and went back to his thoughts.

Yes, that was definitely the Day.

The day he realized that he loved her.