Something was different.

As Beast Boy turned in place, blankets gathering around him, he pondered what it could be. The world seemed softer, a little less cramped too. For some reason his room smelled awesome right now.

Except he didn't remember going back to his room.

In fact, he didn't remember having dark blue sheets either.

"Oh god." He whispered, eyes going wide as he sat bolt upright in Ravens room, in Raven's BED.

The empath herself was floating at the base of the bed, cross legged and calm, her eyes closed.

"This is where I die, goodbye cruel world." Garfield muttered to himself, desperately trying to figure out when he had found his way into the penultimate crime on record in Titans Tower. Being in Raven's room was one thing, but this, this was sacrilege.

"Relax, Garfield. I put you there." The sorceress sighed as her eyes came slowly open and the ghost of a smile touched her lips. "You can stop panicking."

"You put me in your bed?" The changeling inquired, a frown forming over his bemused eyes. "Why?"

"Because you were half dead from staying up all night and I was half asleep when I woke up, so moving you into the bed seemed reasonable to Before Her Morning Tea Raven."

"And what about After Her Morning Tea Raven? Why didn't you move me into my bed after waking all the way up?" Beast Boy asked as he slipped from beneath the sheets and shifted into a cat to stretch properly.

"Because I didn't want to wake you up. It seemed rude to me after you worked so hard to help me sleep." Raven drifted to the ground, her legs unfolding and her cloak falling around her. "Though I must admit it was also in part because I was curious to hear how many languages you cycled through before getting back to English."

The green teen groaned as he shifted back into his human form, rubbing his face with his hands to hide the blush creeping over his cheeks. "I was sleep-talking? What did I say?"

"In English? Not a lot… How many languages do you know by the way?" Raven tilted her head, a rare gleam of curiosity coloring their amethyst depths.

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head thoughtfully, sitting back down on the bed once he realized they were going to talk at length. "I've never really counted… Eleven, I suppose? Not counting English and different dialects within those languages? Yeah, eleven sounds right." He nodded vaguely before smiling at her. "I picked up a lot of them talking with kids in the villages and towns near where my parents would be researching. It's hard playing make believe in two languages you know? Mostly they're creole and pidgin versions of full languages, but I can get my point across well enough."

"I never really considered whether you spoke anything other than English, I knew you had moved around a lot when you were younger but-"

"But you never thought I'd have strayed far from my folks, yeah." Beast Boy smiled sadly. "Look, Rae, that night with the documentary, it caught me by surprise. Sometimes I just can't help but get a little emotional about them, but for the most part I'm fine."

"Okay Garfield." Raven relented, seeing no need to bring up the uncomfortable fact that she knew he was lying. "Where did you learn that chant?"

"Here and there, mostly from the tribes further up on the Congo, but bits and pieces I made up. I think somewhere I slipped up and just started singing in the same voice, the words don't really matter though." He admitted, rising once more and making his way for the door. "Look, Rae, I know you don't usually go in for the charity appearances, but I've got a thing on tomorrow that I think you'll like. Will you go?"

Raven came to see him out and lingered by the door as he waited on her answer. "I'll consider it."

At ten the next morning, early for Beast Boy, the pair flew from the Tower, Beast Boy leading the way in the form of an emerald hawk, swooping low over parks so that the children could catch glimpses of him and wave. They came to the city center and landed at the last place Raven expected.

"A retirement home?" She whispered to him as they walked through the automatic doors, the smell of disinfectant and old people drifting to her through the ventilation system.

"It's the biggest one in Jump City. People here like it when we stop by, it helps them know that they haven't been forgotten. Usually Cy or Starfire comes along, they're both at the hospital today instead." Her fanged companion explained. "I usually come here though, the older people love seeing all my different forms, one of the guys, Denis, he says seeing a tiger here is easier than flying to India." Beast Boy chuckled, signing in at the desk and asking the desk clerk if her son had recovered okay from his broken arm.

Once they were sent through Beast Boy again assumed the lead, as Raven knew nothing about the buildings layout. "Okay, so you're a hit with the grandparents, why am I here? To see your aging fans?"

"No Rae." Beast Boy said gravely, pausing as his hand fell on a door that read "Recreations Room". "You're here to see your fans."

Raven raised her eyebrows as Garfield opened the door, enthusiastically greeting the senior citizens that awaited them beyond it.

The Shapeshifter came alive immediately, fist bumping with older guys in wheelchairs, hugging wrinkled women and answering questions about his health, whether he was eating enough, if he could change into a certain kind of cat to remind someone of a pet that had sadly passed away not too long ago.

Raven had glided into a corner early on and found no reason to move until an elderly woman with a walker came up to her with a kindly smile. "Dear, your friend is doing a lot of work keeping us at bay. I hope you don't intend to let him be mobbed out there."

Raven returned her smile as she glanced at the green teen, his laughter spreading to the retirees and his form changing to meet requests. "I don't think he's in too much trouble. I wouldn't want to get in the way of anyone that wants to see him."

"And what about people who want to see you?"

Raven raised her eyebrow again, thrown for a moment by the absurdity of the question. "Who would want to see me?"

"I would." The wizened woman said firmly. "Dear, my grandchildren would be dead if not for you. My son Fredrick said you stopped a building from collapsing, long enough for them to get out, with that black energy of yours. My granddaughter will grow up and live to be old and frail like me, because of you." Reaching out, the older woman grasped Raven's hand and pulled her into a surprisingly strong embrace. "Thank you." She whispered fiercely.

Raven was gobsmacked, and she continued to be as the woman drew away and another took her place, thanking her vehemently for stopping a van from crashing into her nieces store. Then a man who's great-grandchildren were alive because she had pulled their carts from a malfunctioning roller-coaster.

On and on they came, and slowly Raven had moved from her corner to stand beside Garfield, who's smile stretched from ear to ear, regardless of the species he happened to be at any given time. The list of relatives stretched on.

A nephew who had been in the way of a careening van that she had swatted aside, grandchildren at a baseball game who had written to their Grammy about the purple haired girl that had beaten up a monster made of cement before he could hurt them, a wife that had told her near blind husband how Raven had thrown a bomb into the ocean before it exploded in the mall she had been shopping in.

Finally, one of the oldest residents came up to her, his fingers calloused and hard from a life of work, gripping one Raven's hands between his own. "That demon. He would have killed us, all of us. I wasn't ready to go, it wasn't my time. That might be selfish of me, but I have lived through too many wars and too few happy moments to shuffle of this mortal coil yet dammit. That would have been the end for me though, for everyone, if not for you." He said, his eyes glistening and his voice rasping as the weight of his words took their toll. "Some people, they might try to hurt you with their words, they might call you names or blame you for things they don't yet understand. I understand though. That great red fiend came from hell calling for our souls and you sent him back. I'm old, and not long for the grave, but I can go there content in knowing that you got to hear me give thanks. Lord knows you deserve more than that and I'd give it if I could, but for now." He lent down, placing an ever so soft kiss on her hand. "Thank you."

His sentiments were echoed by the others, and Raven began to grow uneasy in their praise, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and confusion. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

Beast Boy's gloved hand encircled her own and he led her out of the room, calling farewells and apologies as he went. The first woman, the one that had hugged Raven, smiled as she passed by and that was the final straw.

Beast Boy breezed past the receptionist with barely a hurried "Goodbye", his steps falling quickly as he turned down an empty side street, pulling the empath to him as she sobbed. "I'm so sorry Raven, I didn't know hearing that would make you so upset."

Raven shook her head, bunching Garfield's shirt in her fists and pulling him closer. "I'm not upset, just surprised." She laughed. "I didn't know… I didn't think people thought about me like that."

"Of course they do Rae." The changeling said gently, taking her shoulders and pushing her forwards slightly so that he could see her eyes. "You're amazing! Everyone thinks so, everyone but you. I kind of hoped, I still hope, that hearing the folks here would finally help you realize it."

Raven, stoic, controlled Raven, lost her head somewhere in his words, in the feelings that echoed them. She threw her arms around the startled green boy and kissed him, the surprise and momentum of her sudden embrace pushing him up against the wall behind them. Beast Boy was quick to catch on and his arms wove around her as they came together.

Too soon, Raven's senses returned to her and she pulled away, Garfield's grip falling away the moment she drew back.

The two regarded one another for several charged moments, Raven's lips forming a small "o" and Beast Boy's eyebrows raising ever further as he considered the implications of what had just happened between the two.

Beast Boy drew a breath and Raven teleported away, leaving him to slide down the wall and stare at the sky in a daze.

"What the fuck." He asked the sky.

It did not deign to answer.