Title: Beast Boy's New Trick

Genre: Romance

Pairings: Raven/Beast Boy

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Beast Boy likes Raven, but she doesn't know he exists. When a new trick allows Beast Boy to relate to Raven in an entirely new way, Beast Boy may actually land the girl of his dreams. Raven/Beast Boy.

Disclaimer: Once more with feeling. I don't own the Teen Titans. If I did, I'd make them into a musical.

Author Notes: Hm...I'm glad I seemed to inspire some reviews through the sheer lunacy of my idea. Ah well, too much of the Ranma influence, I'm afraid. Anyway, on with the story.

Beast Boy's New Trick

Part II: Raven's New Friend

Being a girl was much better than being a boy, Beast Boy thought, as he and Raven walked throughout the park.

In the last hour, Beast Boy was convinced he had gone much farther being Raven's girl friend than he could ever have gone (at his current rate, anyway) being her boyfriend. Raven was much nicer to his girl side, and was more tolerant and appreciative of his jokes when he was in girl form.

It was unnerving how quickly she had taken to him because she didn't seem like the type of person to pick up a random fan and take them around the park, but Beast Boy didn't want to push fate any further by dwelling on the thought. Hopefully, she hadn't figured it out yet who he was, and if she had, hopefully she wouldn't kill him when they got home for lying to her.

In the last hour, he'd gotten her to lower her hood and smile twenty times (and he counted every last one of them, hoping to savor them throughout the next year), and he'd even managed to hold her hand for a bit when she'd pulled him towards the park lake to look at baby ducks.

That was where they were right now. Beast Boy had never thought she would be interested in looking at a bunch of animals because he'd only ever seen her reading on the couch in a stoic manner while spouting sarcastic things to get him to try even harder at making her smile. But, here she was, pointing out a family of a four—a mother tugging her baby ducks in a line as if they were a tiny train trailing through the water.

She smiled at them as they swam by again and again, and he was so caught up in her smile that he almost forgot himself when she called his name again.

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

After the ducks, the unmistakable sound of an ice cream truck had chimed through the air, and Beast Boy couldn't resist dragging her over to it. Raven, who usually didn't like sweets, mysteriously complied and bought something as well.

So the two of them were now sitting on another park bench under the shade of two trees, enjoying their ice cream. Beast Boy had ordered a three scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone—his personal favorite, the mocha almond fudge, peppermint, and vanilla extreme triplet with two large spoons of fudge and a bunch of nuts. Raven had opted for a simple scoop of unknown flavor, but its color was an interesting shade of pink.

"What flavor is that?"

Raven smiled. "It's a secret."

"Anything involving ice cream should never be a secret."

"That's silly."

"So, what kind is it?"

"...bubblegum."

"Bubblegum?" Beast Boy blinked in disbelief.

"What's wrong with bubblegum?"

"Nothing. It's just so...bubbly...and pink...and...stretchy. And, not you." Beast Boy blurted out before he could stop.

"I could be like bubblegum." Raven gave him an indignant look.

"You don't look quite the part." Beast Boy replied. At Raven's frown, he asked, "Why could you be like bubblegum?

"People take one look at a piece of bubblegum and think they know everything about it." Raven answered philosophically. "They think they know what to do with it, they think they know how to handle it, and they treat every single piece the same way. They judge it before they even know it!"

Beast Boy gave her a serious look. "Is that how you think people treat you?"

Raven stopped as if realizing for the first time what she just said. She shrugged and turned away from him.

Shrugging without eye contact was Raven's way of saying the topic was closed in Beast Boy's experience, and even though he really did want to know Raven better, he decided not to push his luck and changed the topic.

Raven smiled as he did so.

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

It was Raven's idea to go to the mall after the park.

Beast Boy was hesitant about the whole idea. Shopping? With Raven? The only time he'd ever considered that was when they made their weekly trips to the grocery store...and even then he didn't like the idea much. He didn't even know that Raven liked to go to the mall.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"You don't like the mall?" Raven asked quietly as Beast Boy tried to back out of it.

Beast Boy shook his head. "No! It's not that. It's just that...I went yesterday! And, so...uhm...yeah."

"Oh." Raven said, eyes downcast. "Well, if that's the case then, I should probably get going. I have to stop by the place to pick up something for a friend."

Beast Boy wanted to kick himself. He could take the easy way out, leave, and try to find out more things about Raven as Beast Boy...or he could go with her and keep up this strange ruse of being a girl but finally have the chance to talk to her. Beast Boy could see Raven's mouth moving to form some sort of good-bye, and he knew he had to make a decision quickly.

"On second thought, maybe I wouldn't mind going again."

A/N: Thank you for reading! This chapter was a bit shorter than most, I realize, but the next chapter will hopefully be longer and have more interesting stuff going on.

laugh I'm such a dork, I also wanted to say that the '2's I've been using as separators between parts look like little ducks...

As always, I really want to shape and improve my writing style, so PLEASE REVIEW (or feel free to email me: ) and give any comments, suggestions, criticisms, or ideas that you may have for me. Your help is invaluable to me.