Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or Crush, by Mandy Moore. I only own the plot.

Chapter 2: Crush

You know, I'm the one that you can talk to
And sometimes you tell me things that I don't want to know
I just want to hold you
And you say exactly how you feel about her
And I wonder, could you ever think of me that way?

Ooh, I got a crush on you
I hope you feel the way that I do
I get a rush
When I'm with you
Ooh, I've got a crush on you
A crush on you

Ooh, I wish I could tell somebody
But there's no one to talk to, nobody knows
I've got a crush on you
A crush on you, I got a crush

Crush, Mandy Moore

Raven couldn't believe it.

After hours of meditating, no wonder how much she wanted to avoid it...

She liked Beastboy. More than a friend.

She had argued and argued with her emotions, reminding her of Malchior and her promises to herself, but lots of her emotions—including Love, Happy, and even Timid—had argued right back.

I just can't win, can I? Raven thought. She sighed. She couldn't get the feeling of his warm body against hers in that memorable hug after Malchior. The empath remembered the comfort and solace that she had found in his strong and protective arms...and she remembered how he always helped her up when she fell during a battle, how he had saved her when Slade's bots had almost snuck up on her. And Raven especially remembered when he hadn't left her behind when Trigon was attacking her. How he had helped her, encouraged her... She couldn't get him out of her mind.

A small statuette cracked and blew up into a million shimmering pieces. The window cracked even more.

Raven sighed. I need to meditate.

"Rae?" Beastboy was outside her door. Again.

"What."

"Are you okay? I heard the cracking...again..."

"I'm..." She was about to reply with an automatic 'I'm fine', but her newfound Love emotion somehow made her say, "...not."

Beastboy opened the door.

Raven was standing in the middle of the room, looking pale. As soon as the dark empath saw him, she blushed and turned around, putting up her hood quickly. The next thing she felt was Beastboy's breath on her neck: she could still feel it on her face despite of the hood (he was standing behind her).

"Rae...what's up? What's been bothering you lately?" He walked around so he was facing her face. He couldn't see her eyes clearly, but the changeling could still tell they were troubled.

"N-nothing...I just...I meant, I'm fine," Raven's voice came out wavery at first, but then smoothed out to her usual monotone.

She couldn't move away. All she could see were Beastboy's beautiful green eyes... She was swimming through a forest, a forest full of jades and emeralds, with olives growing on the trees. Raven was lost in his eyes...

Suddenly Beastboy changed into a golden retriever. Or, well, a green retriever. Raven jumped at the sudden change and looked down at him in confusion.

"Beastboy, what are you doing?" Raven said, being careful to control her voice.

He turned back and leaned in close to her. "You're nervous. I could sense it before, but turning into a dog made it clearer. You're not the only empath in Titans Tower..."

"Um..."

"You're also sad...but happy. Excited, even, about something..." Beastboy frowned. "Something...no, someone..."

He was too close to her. Raven backed away a few steps.

"Is this about Malchior?"

Raven's voice said no, but her eyes said yes. It wasn't all about Malchior, but a part of her was still sad about him. The empath closed her eyes briefly before opening them again.

"Rae..." He stepped closer, reached out and tugged her hood down gently. "You have to give up on him..."

I already have, Raven wanted to say, but I don't want to love you, because then I might have to give up on you, too...

"I gave up on..." He swallowed, "Terra."

How Raven hated Terra. She would never forgive her. Ever. She had thought she had killed all five Titans, including Beastboy, and had no regrets. Even if she had saved Jump City from the volcano, she was the one who caused it. Raven had no mercy for Terra. She didn't know if Terra deserved to die, but she definitely didn't deserve Beastboy. Or was that a new emotion that she had discovered since Terra, Jealousy, speaking?

"I loved her...I thought she was everything I would ever want or need in my life. But then she betrayed us..."

Shut up, Raven thought mentally. I don't want to hear about how you loved her.

"But we all have to move on," Beastboy stepped even closer. "It's part of life..."

Too close, Raven thought. Way too close. But she made no move to back away. Her heart beat like the biggest drum on Earth, pounding against her chest. The empath felt like she was going to melt or collapse any moment. Raven drew in a sharp breath as the window shattered completely.

Beastboy ignored all of this and gently took hold of her wrist, leaning in...

"RAVEN! I have most glorious news that I am sure...that you..." The rest of Starfire's sentence got washed away as she stopped and saw the intimate scene she had just interrupted, innocent green eyes spread wide in shock.

Every statuette in Raven's room exploded, along with all the windows. The loud shattering sound brought all Titans to her room in a flash just in time to see Beastboy pull away and for Raven to hurriedly put her hood on. Both were blushing furiously. Starfire just looked confused.

"What happened?" Robin finally asked, breaking a long silence.

"And why do you look like a green...and red...fire hydrant?" Cyborg addressed Beastboy.

Raven silently began to clean up with her powers and offered no explanation.

Beastboy scratched his head nervously. "Um, we were just...talking...and then Starfire ran in and Raven got kind of...er, surprised, and... boom...?" He smiled nervously.

Robin raised an eyebrow and turned towards Starfire. "What were they doing, Star?"

"Well, Raven was very close to Beastboy and Beastboy was leaning down to her like this," Starfire demonstrated by inching very close to Robin and leaning down so that their lips were almost touching. Robin backed away quickly.

"Um, okay, Star...I get the point," Robin stammered, glancing at Beastboy and Raven with a slight look of amusement.

Cyborg snorted loudly, then broke into gales of loud laughter. "BB and Raven, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G..."

Starfire looked confused. "I do not understand. Why were they sitting in a tree and..." She paused. "K-I-S-S-I-N-Ging?"

"It's supposed to be kissing, Star," Robin explained patiently.

"First comes love, then comes marriage..."

"But what is this kissing Cyborg speaks of?"

"Then comes a baby in a baby carriage!"

"It's...um...when two friends...very good friends...uh...start..."

Cyborg started laughing again at Robin's expression.

Raven quietly swept out of the room.

"Start what, Robin?" Starfire persisted.

"Um...start doing what Beastboy and Raven were about to do..."

Cyborg nearly exploded with mirth.

"Oh! Then may we try this 'kissing', Robin? We are very good friends, correct?" Starfire beamed and twirled up in the air.

"No!" Robin blushed, sending death glares at Cyborg. "It's a thing very, VERY good friends do...Like, a boyfriend and a girlfriend."

"But, Robin! You are a boy and you are my friend, and I am a girl and I am your friend, so why cannot we join the pleasure in this 'kissing'?"

"Yea, BB, was it full of pleasure?" Cyborg joked.

BB blushed even more. "We weren't kissing, dude! It just looked that way..."

"Uh huh, I'm sure..."

"Well, anyway," Beastboy changed the subject hastily. "Star, what were you about to tell us?"

"Oh!" Starfire said happily. "It is most wonderful news, friends! We must have Raven in here before I announce the joyous information to the team!"

"Yea, BB, can you go find Rae?" Robin grinned. "I'm sure she'll love this...and I'm sure you'll enjoy finding her."

"What!" Beastboy exclaimed. "Why me?" But he left without waiting for a reply.

Good job, Gar, you just screwed it up! Beastboy groaned to himself. Now she probably hates me...I have to go apologize...Why did I do that anyway? I don't like her that way... Do I?

"Raven?" Beastboy poked his head onto the roof. Raven was meditating, her hood pulled up protectively around her face.

"Rae..." Beastboy walked towards her. She made no indication that she noticed or cared that he was there. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Somewhere in the tower, something crashed.

Shit, Beastboy thought, wincing. She's mad...I knew it!

"Go away," Raven's flat voice rang throughout the warm mid spring air. "I need to be alone."

"Well, Robin and Star wanna tell us something..."

"What?"

"I don't know."

Raven paused, then opened her eyes, landing gently on the ground.

Beastboy loved her gracefulness, the way the wind blew her cloak around so that she couldn't hide in it...

The two silently walked back to Raven's room. Robin and Cyborg exchanged looks as they arrived, both fighting the urge to snicker at the lovesick way Beastboy was gazing at Raven, who was staring at the ground.

"Wonderful, friend Beastboy and Raven are back!" Starfire clapped her hands together in delight. "Robin and I have most magnificent news to announce to you and Cyborg!"

"What is it?" Raven said, her voice betraying no emotion. Beastboy quickly moved away from her side.

"Please don't say you're pregnant," Cyborg said quickly, his good eye widening.

"No," Robin laughed. He seemed not to mind the joke. "No, we found a cure!"

"For what, dude?" Beastboy felt uncomfortable. He could sense something big coming. "Cancer?"

"For Terra!" Starfire shouted, shooting into the air to do several twirls.

Beastboy blinked. "Wha?"

Raven's powers cracked the door.

"We found a way to change her back," Robin explained. "I took hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, mixed with deuterium and...well...Windex and mixed it together..."

"You used WINDEX?" Cyborg asked incredulously. "What were you, extremely bored?"

"Well, all of you were away somewhere," Robin blushed. "Anyway, I poured it on some molten lava, the same thing Terra is trapped in, and it melted away the lava to release a perfectly healthy rabbit that was trapped inside the lava!"

Beastboy looked confused. "But shouldn't the rabbit be dead? It's been a year since...her."

"No, the Windex did something to it..." Robin admitted. "I don't know what, though..."

"That's really weird, dude."

"I know."

"Isn't it most wondrous?" Starfire squealed with glee, her emerald eyes shining with happiness. "Let us go revive friend Terra immediately!"

"No."

The Titans turned toward Raven, who was standing resolutely in the corner.

"We don't know what the acid could do to a human opposed to a rabbit," Raven said evenly. "If we go now, don't get your hopes up. I'm not going."

"Come on, Rae-Rae!" Beastboy begged. "Terra will be glad to see you...and she did save us all!"

"She saved us all from something she created," Raven sounded angry. "You go. I don't care anymore."

"But friend Raven!"

"Get. Out. Of. My. Room."

"Come on, Rae..."

"Out!" Raven's door dissipated into millions of face and a strong wind pushed the other Titans out. "Go without me!" She put up a wall of black energy where her door was supposed to be.

Why? Raven thought angrily, as everything in her room broke for a second time that day. Right when Beastboy and I were getting closer, that bitch has to ruin it again! How can she ruin my life even if she's DEAD? This is the second time she got in the way...

That's right, brown-cloaked Jealousy agreed.

We'll show her once she comes back! Brave punched her fist into her left hand.

What if they all hate us now? Especially Beastboy, Timid said quietly, hot tears flowing down her gray cheeks.

We should give her a wet willy when she comes back! Gross declared.

If she comes back, Intelligence said reasonably. There is still a probability that Terra will not come back and the treatment will not go according to plan.

If she comes back, I won't trust her. No matter what, Raven thought angrily. No matter what...

The four Titans stood in front of Terra's 'statue', gazing at their former friend, to stand forever in that position...Unless Robin's 'cure' (seriously, WINDEX?) worked.

"Who wants to do the honors?" Robin held up the vial of acid. It was a roiling red and rolled around in the small glass case as if wanting to escape very badly.

"I will," Beastboy volunteered. "Will this be enough, though?" He asked, taking the vial from Robin.

"Yea, it will duplicate once you release it from the vial."

Beastboy nodded, swallowed his doubts, andthen stepped onto the rock she was perched on.

Behind the Titans was a fence of wire, and behind that was a large crowd of Terra worshippers. There were several a day and they inserted flowers or teddy bears or whatever through the wire, paying their respects to Terra. Her statue had turned into a monument.

The whole audience held their breaths as Beastboy carefully poured the red acid over Terra's head.

The effect was immediate. It burned through the gray rock, slopping down the sides all the way down to her feet. You could hear the sizzling as the acid bite through the hard rock, revealing bits of Terra's body. First, her golden hair flapped free and waved in the breeze. Then the acid slowly revealed her face: her delicate eyebrows, her closed eyes, her nose, and then her open mouth. After she was fully out of the rock, it was clear that the lava had melted away most of Slade's outfit for her: The only parts that remained were her breastplate, her shoulder and elbow pads, and the little black underwear thing with a few pieces of metal around it.

Photographers snapped pictures and news broadcasters filmed the spectacular event while everyone cheered. Robin stepped forward with an antidote (made with toilet bowl cleaner, of all things), to stop the solution from duplicating more.

Terra's sky blue eyes opened to the world and she took in her first breath of the warm air.

"Friend Terra!" Starfire rushed forward and immediately gave her a bone-crushing hug.

"Starfire!" Terra gasped, looking around her. "W-where am I? What happened?"

Starfire released her. "Oh, it is a most magnificent story! After you were turned into a statue because of the lava of molten, a year has passed and Robin has finally found a cure to turn you back into a live human!"

Terra blinked. "What?"

So Robin carefully explained what happened, with side notes from Starfire and Cyborg.

Beastboy just stood there.

"Terra?" Beastboy touched her shoulder hesitantly.

"Beastboy!" Terra hugged him, tears streaming down her face.

A huge AAW came from the audience.

"Let's go back to the tower," He said quietly, looking quickly at the other Titans for approval.

Whence they arrived back home, they received a less than welcome greeting from Raven.

"Oh, it's you," Raven said, once she opened the door to find the other Titans.

The way Raven said 'you' made Terra feel like dirt, but she ignored the feeling and grinned at her. "Yep, it's me! So, are we okay now?"

Raven stared at her, her face betraying no feelings. Her violet eyes held steady with Terra's azure ones until Terra grew nervous and started fidgeting. Raven's eyes, usually emotionless, were now filled with an emotion that Terra didn't quite like: cold hatred. The empath's hate burned in her eyes like flames licking up a log. There was also a spark of something Terra couldn't identify...was is jealousy? No, that wasn't possible. What could she be jealous of? Terra highly doubted that Raven wanted to get buried in a bunch of lava.

"Um... Well, you can stop hating me now, I guess. You said it took a year for you to stop hating Beastboy...and it's been more than a year since you knew me, according to the others, right?"

"I will never stop hating you," Raven stated simply. "I find that when someone tries to murder you and your friends several times, I usually don't like that person." She flew away.

Raven's words hung heavily in the air.

"Um," Beastboy attempted to lighten the tension. "She's probably just...uh...going through PMS."

"What is PMS?" Starfire queried. "Can you eat it?"

Robin sighed and started to explain.

Beastboy excused himself to speak to Raven. He found her in her room, silently packing several cloaks and leotards into a black suitcase.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, moving in between her and the suitcase. Fear filled him. He didn't want Raven to leave.

"Packing," Raven explained. "I am not going to stay and watch you all get betrayed again by that girl. I've had enough of this."

"Rae, I know she's made some bad decisions, before, but—"

"She tried to murder us. And after she believed she had succeeded, she hardly even regretted it." Raven met his eyes. "Why would you trust someone like that? Someone who would betray and then kill her friends?"

"Everyone deserves a second chance, Rae," Beastboy looked away. She was right, and she knew it.

"We already gave her a second chance, and she left for Slade. Remember when she came back while we you were playing volleyball? We gave her another chance then. She deserves nothing. No mercy. You said so yourself."

"Yea, but she saved us in the end!" Beastboy persisted.

"Saved us from what she created. She would've died either way with the volcanic eruption she made, she maybe she just chose to save us so that we could bring her back. Bring her back so she could betray us again. You try to find the good in everyone--there IS no good in Terra. And besides," Raven felt herself getting worked up, hot emotion flooding through her, "you're just biased because you l--"

"Stop it, Raven! Why are you always so...so...negative! So...Yin."

"Because I am never disappointed that way," Raven slammed her suitcase shut after she roughly shoved BB to the side. She looked him in the eye. "I hate Terra, and nothing will change that. Ever." The window shattered and Raven grabbed her suitcase and flew out. "I'm not coming back, just to let you know."

"RAVEN! No!" Beastboy turned into an eagle and flew after her.

"RAVEN! No!"

The Titans in the common room froze and stared up at the ceiling. What had they just heard?

"Was that BB?" Cyborg asked. He ran upstairs, followed by the others. "Something's wrong..."

They ran in to find the window open and the room empty.

Suddenly, an eagle wrapped in a black aura was tossed in through the empty window. A large black energy shield sealed all the exits in the tower. It would last until a few hours later.

The eagle turned into Beastboy. "Raven!" He threw himself at the energy shield covering the window, only to be thrown right back.

"Beastboy—calm down!" Robin struggled to hold the changeling back. "There's no way to get out through the black energy shield. What happened to Raven?"

"She's left us," Beastboy said angrily. "She left us because I was an idiot." He avoided Terra's curious look.

"But friend Raven will come back, will she not?" Starfire asked anxiously. The redhead experimentally fired a few starbolts at the energy shield. Nothing happened.

"No!" Beastboy turned around to face the other Titans. "Don't you understand? She left us for good and she's never coming back!"

Terra touched his shoulder and BB stiffened. "Why did she leave? Was it because of...me?" Her blue eyes searched for his, but he looked away.

"No..." He mumbled. "No, Raven left because of me."

SQUEE! -glomps all reviewers- 15 reviews! -has never gotten that many for just one chapter and is in awe-I had another name before this, and I never used to get more than 5 reviews for a chapter. On to the replingness!

Brittany (you finally reviewed! -giggles happily-), Dust-in, Antora, spAybaraSimonslit, Sammeh (-poke-), Dotta, Ashlyn, The Mad shoe, Zaynab (ZEE), purplemusicgoddess, and Zeldagurli--Thanks so much! Yesh, BB and Raven are awesome!

lyokogrl-- TY! ) I mentioned Robin's present in there somewhere--a pack of tea from all over the world that's supposed to be good for the soul. ;) I got the idea from when I went to China this summer and they had this place where they gave you samples of tea, and they were from all over China and had different flavors and stuff. T'was incredible.

DarkRavenna--Why, yes I am. I've already written a few chapters...I plan to break Raven's heart a couple of times -cough- Uum, yea, I mean, thanks!

MlzMissa--Mmm, cookie. -munches- -gives MlzMissa a choco-chip cookie- xD

Anakah--Yea, well, I always thought his ears were there for a reason. After all, he is a changeling. I expect that his senses are much sharper than a normal humans

Thanks for reviewing, guys! If you have any suggestions/comments, put them in your next review. I think I'll update again either before or after Halloween...Depends on the amount of reviews I get. -hinthint-

Ciao,

Lily

REVISIONCOMMENTS:

Yeahh, I heard you're not allowed to answer reviews in fanfics on this site anymore. That's soo unfair! But I don't think it will hurt if I leave my already answered reviews from before that rule was made here, right? Cuz I answered them BEFORE fanfiction made us stop? Yeah. xD By the way, if a staff member is reading this, IT IS TRULY UNFAIR TO NOT LET US ANSWER REVIEWS IN CHAPTERS, UNLESS YOU GIVE US A SEPERATE WAY TO ANSWER REVIEWS! It's pretty much the only way to answer reviews, since sending an email to everyone who reviewed would take FOREVER! What if the reader has questions the author wants to answer? Please reconsider this new rule, as many, many people are unhappy about it. :(

xoxo LILY