Chapter 3: Dinner, Dessert, and a Little Bit of Frustration
(January 28, 2004)
Beast Boy ran to the door as the bell rang. He was deathly nervous at everyone meeting his new friend, but at the same time he was so excited to see Kijin again. She was really interesting, smart, and pretty… and to top it all off, she laughed at his jokes! He actually felt good around her, more at ease with himself than he had ever been.
Beast Boy opened the door and smiled at the sight that greeted him.
Kijin stood there in a cute, little pink sundress with ruffles, and her hair was pulled into two pigtails near the nape of her neck. She looked… absolutely adorable!
She smiled brightly, when she saw his familiar face. "Good evening, Beast Boy!" She said sweetly.
"Hi, Kijin! Come on in!" Beast Boy took a step away from the door and let her enter the Great Hall of Titan Tower.
Kijin allowed him to take her coat, then turned back to face him. "I brought cookies for you and your friends." She held up a decorative box for him to see. "I thought it might be nice if we had dessert after diner."
"Oh…" Beast Boy blushed instantly. "You didn't have to do that, Kijin."
"Oh, but I wanted to. It's so nice for you to introduce me to your friends." Her voice was confident, and seemed very pleased to have done something for Beast Boy and his companions.
"I'm glad that you're happy… but we're not very interesting people." Beast Boy laughed as he led his guest through Titan Tower to the living room.
There was a long silence. "It's nice to be around you just the same…" She whispered.
Beast Boy blushed instantly. He looked down at her in confusion, did she just say…? No, it couldn't have been. Kijin was a sweetheart and everything, but no one ever really got interested in Beast Boy; not one as pretty and interesting as her anyway.
When they entered the living room, the other Titans were milling around, as if not sure what to do until the guest arrived. Robin was just sitting there, staring at the floor; Starfire was paging through her Martha Stewart Living magazine, although her eyes were unfocused, as if she really wasn't looking at the pages; Cyborg had taken to fluffing the pillows on the couch; and Raven was just sitting in a corner brooding about one thing or another. To say the least, they all looked a little nervous about this new guest. What fortunes would she bring?
"Everyone?"
All the Titans looked up as Beast Boy entered. Robin and Cyborg stared for a few long moments at the girl next to him. She was gorgeous! Granted her skin was the unnatural shade of avocados, but she was still very pretty. Her hair and eyes were the shade of midnight blue, and they both shimmered like the ocean whenever she talked or smiled.
Raven looked the new comer up and down. She didn't think that this girl was anything to brag about, but… why in the world was her skin green? And why was it the same shade of green as Beast Boy's?
"Everyone," Beast Boy continued. "This is the girl I met in the park today, her name is Kijin."
"Hello!" Kijin smiled brightly at the Titans; the sound of her voice quickly brought Cyborg and Robin out of their light stare.
"Oh!" Robin stepped forward, hand extended. "It's nice to meet you, Kijin. I'm Robin."
Kijin shook his hand delicately, smiling good-naturedly at him. "Robin! It is so wonderful to be finally meeting you. I must say that your reputation precedes you."
Robin blushed. "Oh? How so?"
"Well," Kijin giggled lightly and tucked her deep blue hair behind an ear. "Beast Boy thinks very highly of you."
Robin shot a glance at Beast Boy, but he had scattered off to the kitchen in haste. Robin made a mental note to ask his green friend exactly what he said to the newcomer.
"Oh… thanks…" Robin smiled back at her.
"Hello, Kijin. I'm Cyborg." The tall man said, coming up next to Robin.
Kijin smiled brightly and shook his hand as well. "Cyborg, it's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you!"
That was certainly strange, he never thought that Beast Boy would talk about him on a date. Cyborg blushed deeply and stuttered with a response.
"Uh… well, I… thank you."
"I am Starfire, and you are Kijin?" Starfire smiled, approaching the new guest.
"I am." Kijin shook the redhead's hand and made pleasant conversation for a moment.
"Where are you from?" Starfire asked, looking deeply into her eyes. "How old are you? What's your favorite color? And will you be my friend?"
Robin stifled a laugh. Star somehow always managed to pull off such an… exuberant introduction.
Kijin laughed. "I'm from Montreal. I'm sixteen years old. My favorite color is pink, and I would love to be your friend, Starfire."
"Yay!" Starfire jumped forward and embraced her new friend. "I am so glad to have made a new friend!"
Kijin laughed and returned the hug, embracing the redhead. "Thank you, I'm glad to have a new friend as well… I don't get many of those." Her smile turned a little melancholy, then brightened suddenly. She turned to the last Titan and held out her hand.
"You must be Raven!"
Raven looked at the girl's hand, then back into her smiling face. Raven kept her hands crossed over her chest, there was no way she would shake hands with her.
"I am. It's nice to meet you." Raven said this all in a very monotone and nonchalant voice, which brought stares from the other Titans. They had known Raven to be upset sometimes, careful, calm, poise even, but she had never really been rude. This was certainly strange.
Kijin blinked for a moment, her smile faltered and then she continued on smiling. "It's nice to finally meet you, Raven. I've heard so much about you!"
Raven's face grew a light pink. "Huh. That's interesting…"
"Hey!" A voice called. "Who wants dinner?"
Everyone turned to look at Beast Boy. "I ordered Chinese."
"Oh, wonderful. Thank you, Beast Boy." Kijin said, smiling at him. His cheeks turned a shade of red in response.
"It's not that big of a deal…"
"Well," Robin said, starting for the door, "Shall we have dinner?"
Raven stared at Kijin as she stayed close to Beast Boy and conversed with him brightly. Every time she smiled, or their hands brushed together, Beast Boy's cheeks would flare red and he would stutter; like some adolescent, meeting a girl for the first time, what an incompetent fool.
'Stupid boy,' Raven thought in her mind. 'What's he good for anyway? I don't care at all about what he thinks of that girl. Because as of now, I hate him, talking about me behind my back! I bet all he said was snide remarks and cruel words.' These thoughts may have been harsh and unforgiving, but when Beast Boy turned around and locked eyes with Raven, she felt her heart flutter. This was not good… Jealousy was taking a deep root in her mind…
'Why am I thinking these things! Why am I being so rude? What am I doing?' Raven suddenly began to panic. 'I need to meditate… really bad. Stupid Jealousy.'
"Raven?"
Raven gave a start and looked into a pair of deep green eyes. She sighed and turned away. "Not right now, Starfire…"
Starfire blinked. "What do you mean, Raven? If not now, then when?"
"When what?" Raven asked, looking strangely at her friend.
"When will you put, Beast Boy down?"
Raven blinked, then blushed deeply. Without her knowing it, she had levitated Beast Boy and he was not floating near the ceiling, hitting his head every few seconds. When had she activated her powers? And without knowing it to boot? It couldn't be jealousy, could it? Could it have taken a strong enough root to activate her powers without her consent.
You had better belive it, Raven…
No! Raven's eyes went wide… no no no no no! It couldn't be strong enough to communicate with her! Not now! Not without the mirror!
I am, I told you I didn't wait sixteen years to appear for nothing. I'm the second strongest emotion you'll receive. So, good luck with dinner tonight…
"Raven, what's wrong? I didn't think I-" Beast Boy, began. Raven quickly took control of her powers and dropped beast boy, he fell a good eight feet onto his bottom.
"Anou…" He moaned, rubbing his lower back.
"Shut up, Beast Boy!" Raven hissed, then stomped forward and took her place next to Robin, who was snickering.
"Raven," He whispered behind his hand, a smug smile playing on his lips. He knew there was "Is there something you're not telling the class?"
Raven turned to glare at the masked boy. "Shut up, Robin…"
He snickered again. "Raven, I think you and I should have a heart-to-heart chat after dinner, don't you think?"
The cloaked girl looked at him strangely. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… there's something you need to tell someone… I can sense it."
Raven blushed instantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, yes you do… I'll meet you on the roof after Kijin leaves, deal?"
"I'm not promising anything," Raven scowled as she entered the kitchen/dining room.
"Oh, I know. You never promise anything…" Robin smiled knowingly at his friend, then turned to the group. "So what did you order, Best Boy?"
"I got you guys some sea-food and some chicken… but I haven't been able to put it on serving platters yet." He said, walking behind the counter.
"Oh, let me help," Kijin asked politely.
"Um… I guess…" Beast Boy wasn't really used to having much help, and it was strange to see some one offer it so freely. She followed him behind the counter, and opened a box. Beast Boy reached in a drawer to get a serving spoon, but before his fingers closed in on one, he saw Kijin was half way done putting the food out… with chopsticks??
"Whoa…" Beast Boy said, staring at her.
"Huh?" The blue-haired girl questioned, turning to look at her companion. "What's the matter?"
"I've never seen anyone use chopsticks before… at least, not that well…"
Kijin blushed. "I lived in Japan for several years, when my father was working there… you can't survive unless you know how to use chopsticks…"
"Oh?" Cyborg questioned. "You lived in Japan?"
"Mm-hm." Kijin took the serving platters to the table, then set out the plates.
"I lived in Japan for a while too, while they were working on me. I really enjoyed living there, it's so different from North America."
"Really?" Kijin asked, suddenly very interested in this new information. She sat down across from him. "What city did you live in?"
"Tokyo for a couple years, then they sent me to Kyoto. Japan is the best place to go for electronics." He laughed, Kijin chuckled with him. The two continued to converse for several more minutes before Beast Boy sat down next to Kijin.
"Well… help yourself!"
Raven diligently watched Beast Boy and Kijin during diner, although she didn't know why. It wasn't as if she cared about them… or their relationship. It didn't matter… at all. It wasn't as if this Kijin girl was actually his girlfriend or anything… it was just some stupid… thing.
'Calm down, Raven,' she thought to herself. 'You don't want to make anything explode… or something. Besides, this has nothing to do with you.'
She took a deep breath and calmly ignored the world for a while. If she didn't keep her head, something was going to explode, or implode, or levitate… again.
After dinner, Kijin and Starfire cleaned up the dishes together, and Kijin made tea and coffee, then set out her cookies. Everyone seemed to be so excited to have homemade cookies, and kept praising her for her thoughtfulness and otherwise. Except Raven, she didn't care about stupid cookies… it was probably easy to make such things anyway!
Well… why don't you try it yourself? Make cookies for the group?
Raven glared for a few long moments at nothing in particular.
Then, after all that time, Kijin finally left.
And Raven felt suddenly relived.
"So…?" Beast Boy asked innocently as he returned from seeing Kijin off. "What do you think?"
"She's really nice, BB." Cyborg said, blushing lightly. He and Kijin talked a lot during dinner, and Cyborg couldn't help but feel very connected to this new girl. There was so much they had in common, and she was really pretty to top it all off.
Raven looked up at Beast Boy, nonchalance shining in her eyes. "She's fine, but answer me a question, Beast Boy."
He blinked strangely for a moment, then nodded. "Sure, but only if you promise not to levitate me again. That really sucked."
"Mmm… I guess so… although it was pretty funny to see you up there… why is Kijin green, anyway?"
"Oh that's right, I didn't get the chance to tell you!" he smiled at her brightly. "Kijin is a shape-shifter, like me. I wanted everyone to meet her… you know, just in case we need some back-up or something." He looked a little sheepish as his true intentions of the introduction came out.
Robin smiled softly, looking up at Beast Boy. Was he trying to find a home for a lost soul like himself? "Does she do hand-to-hand combat?"
Beast Boy nodded. "Yep. She studied ninjitsu when she was in Japan, and a little bit of kendo. Right now she's studying Tae Kwon Do."
"That's amazing!" Robin said, fascinated that she was so active in martial arts. "Well, you tell her next time we train, she's more than welcome to do so with us."
Raven scowled angrily at her masked companion, for provoking more interaction with the green goddess. "Hmph."
"Raven?" Beast Boy questioned innocently. "Is something the matter?"
"No… everything's fine." She snipped, turning to glare at him.
"Well!" Robin said suddenly and loudly, to draw the attention away from Raven. "I think I'm going to turn in for the night."
Starfire looked up at him, blinking. "Turn in what?"
Robin laughed and stood up, heading for the door. "It means I'm going to bed."
"Oh… right!" She smiled brightly at him. "Good night, Robin. I hope your sleep cycle is pleasurable."
Cyborg and Beast Boy snorted, trying to hold in their laughter where as Robin's face was now turning a lovely shade of deep crimson.
{Insert Standard Disclaimer}