Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. But if I believed in that whole selling my soul thing…

AN – To those readers who have reviewed, thanks. And any questions that don't get answered by the story, I'll respond to after it's over (at the end of the epilogue). To those of you who have read and not reviewed (you know who you are) thanks for getting this far, and I hope you've enjoyed it.

BTW – It's never too late to send a review on a story. I expect that months from now, I will still be trying to improve my writing and your comments on this story will still be relevant.

Chapter 6 – That Was… Interesting.


I've always thought that there's something not quite right about the Tower near Raven's room. Robin and Cyborg have told me that it's not possible and that it's all in my head, but I don't think so. As I approached the door to Raven's room, the lights in the hall seemed to grow dimmer. Not a great deal, but enough to be noticeable. And enough to make me nervous.

I stood in front of Raven's door, heart beating in my throat at 60 miles an hour. 'You can do this,' I thought to myself. 'Besides, she's probably not even back yet.' I slowly raised my arm and curled my hand into a fist to rap on the door. And I stopped, arm raised. 'Come on. Three quick knocks, and you can go back to your room. Then when Cyborg or Starfire ask, you can tell them that you tried.'

I knocked.

Every other door in the tower has a metallic ring to it when I knock on them. Raven's looks the same as every other door in the tower, but it doesn't sound the same. Instead of the "PTing" that I know I should have heard, Raven's door gave the ominous, heavy "Thwump" that I imagined the heavy wooden doors of a ghost filled castle might have.

'Okay. Count to ten, then leave,' I thought to myself. 'One… Two… Three… Four… Fivesixseven,' I began counting faster as I stood there, hoping that I would get to ten before Raven opened the door.

"What do you want, Beast Boy?"

I had been too preoccupied by my counting to hear Raven's door open slightly. Startled, I saw Raven's face half-hidden by the door, her hood down. "Oh, um, hey," I said, as my brain popped into neutral. "I wasn't really expecting you to be back yet…"

Her left eyebrow started to creep up the way it always did when she was suspicious of my motives. "So you knocked on my door, thinking I wasn't in? You weren't going to sneak in here, because if you did…."

"No, Raven," I protested, interrupting her threat. "I came down to ask you something. When I sneak into your room I usually just transform into a fly or something…" I trailed off, realizing that I was thinking out loud. And from the way the vein in her temple was beginning to pulse, it was a very dangerous thing I had said. I jumped back from the door, raised my hands over my head and cowered. And I begged, "Please don't kill me."

I heard Raven sigh heavily, and open the door a bit wider. "I'm going to assume," she began, "that your brain has been damaged from exposure to too many soy products and you didn't just say that. Now, what did you want?"

"Oh," I said, surprised that she wasn't trying to "educate" me about the dangers of going into her room uninvited. I stood up and scratched the back of my head. When I realized I was indulging that particular nervous habit, I jerked my arm down. "I, um, came to see if you wanted to go do something with me tomorrow."

She sighed again, and in her monotone voice asked me, "And what do you want me to do with you tomorrow? Go to the arcade? The comic book store? Or something equally pointless?"

'Come on, Beast Boy, you don't have to ask her to go meditate! Ask her to go to the arcade,' part of my mind yelled within itself. As much as I wanted Raven to do things with me – and the rest of the Titans - I was afraid to ask Raven to go meditate with me. 'What if she says no?' I wondered to myself. And then my mouth took its own initiative. "Well, actually," I found myself saying, "I've been going to this meditation group and wanted to see if you'd come with me tomorrow."

Raven blinked. Slowly.

Then she blinked again.

I was starting to get a little concerned that her brain had broken or something, when Raven asked, "Is this another one of your pranks?"

"No, Raven. While this would be a good one," I began, "it isn't one of my pranks. I've been going to this meditation group for a while and I thought you might like it. So I came to ask if you'd like to come with me."

"And what do you do at this meditation group?" Raven asked.

"Well, one of us introduces a different kind of meditation and we talk about it for a little while. Then we try that meditation for a little bit – usually about ten or twenty minutes – and afterwards talk a bit about our experience with it." Remembering how private Raven can be, I quickly added, "If we want to. You don't have to talk."

Raven looked at me for a moment. Well, it was more like Raven looking through me. "So, when do we leave?" she asked.

"I'd understand if you didn't want to come. I'm not really the sort that you think of meditating. But if you were coming, we should probably leave here about half past eleven," I said. Then I realized what her question meant. "Wait! You mean your coming?"

Raven nodded. Then she added, "If this is the set-up for a prank, you are going to wish that you had never existed."

"Look, Raven, no set-up. I promise. Meet you here about eleven-thirty tomorrow?"

"Fine," she said, as she retreated into the dark depths of her room, closing the door between us.

Surprised at how well that encounter with Raven had gone, I started whistling as I walked to the kitchen in search of some soy chips.


'Breathe,' I was telling myself. I looked at the clock again, only to see that it still read 11:24. In six minutes I was going to go down the hall, get Raven, and go to the meditation group with her. If I didn't explode first. I hadn't been this anxious since I had tried to ask Terra out. I closed my eyes again, and tried to focus on my breathing.

Four agonizingly long minutes later, I decided that it was close enough to eleven thirty. I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. I ran my hands through my hair, and stepped into the hallway. As I walked down the hall, I saw Raven come out of her room. 'I can't believe that Raven is coming with me to do something, and I didn't have to spend like four hours begging and wheedling her. And all I had to do was try one of the things that she likes…' I thought to myself.

"Morning, Rae, ready to go?" I asked.

Raven glared at me. "Haven't we talked about calling me Rae? Don't call me that. But yes, I'm ready."

"'Kay, Raven. Shall we?" I asked, and motioned her to go up to the roof ahead of me. At the roof, I transformed into a ring-billed gull, and we flew into the city.


As we left the meditation group, I looked at Raven and saw that her amethyst eyes were puffy and a little red from crying. Much the way mine felt. We walked down the street in silence for a time. As we approached the corner, Raven slowed to a stop. My feet kept going for a few paces before I figured out that I should have stopped with her.

I turned and looked at her. She seemed different somehow. Fragile, perhaps. She was looking down at her feet – not something I've seen her do often. I asked, "You okay, Raven?"

She looked at me and said, "That was… Interesting. I haven't tried trataka meditation before."

I rubbed my eyes gently as I said, "And I don't think I'm in any rush to try it again."

At the meditation group today, we had tried trataka, or gazing, meditation. The exercise was to gaze into a candle that sat at arms length as long as we could. Then close our eyes and visualize the candle. When we could no longer maintain the mental image, we opened our eyes again and gazed. It wasn't very long before everyone there had their eyes tearing. No real crying, just tears from intent gazing. And now my eyes – and from the look of things, Raven's - were burning in protest.

Raven pulled her hood over her head, and began walking again. I matched her pace. "So," she asked, "why did you start meditating?"

"Well, it's kinda a long story," I said.

"We've got some time," she said. "I'm not in a rush to get back to the tower right now."

I could hardly believe that Raven had come to do something with me, let alone not be in a rush to get back to the Tower. And now she wanted me to tell her why I started meditating. I thought about dragging her into one of the restaurants we were walking past and using their chalkboard for one of my elaborate explanations. But I decided that Raven deserved a more honest answer than that. "Well, it's because of you."

"Me? How so?"

"Raven, you remember back in the spring when I wanted you to go to the park with us and I spilled your tea with the football?" I asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Well, when you found me for your revenge, I was down in the garage explaining to Cyborg that I wanted you to come do more stuff with us. And trying to figure out how to get you to do that," I said. "And Cyborg suggested that maybe you didn't come with me because I never asked you to do things that you liked. I mean, really. I was always trying to get you to go play football or go to the arcade with me. So Cy suggested I try something that you liked, then invite you to join me for that."

"So you took up meditation?" she asked.

"Well, it was either that, or sit and read with you. Which really doesn't sound like doing something together. I know that meditation is a quiet activity, but I figured we could talk before and afterwards."

"And how long have you been doing this?"

"A couple of months… I've been coming to the Tuesday and Thursday lunch groups pretty regularly. And twice a day at the Tower most days as well," I answered.

"So you started doing something that's completely against your nature so you could spend some time with me?" Raven asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess. You're my friend and I wanted to do more stuff with you. And get to know you a little better. I mean, you're the Titan I know the least about. You keep to your room, and hardly ever tell us how you're feeling, and never talk with us. I know Robin, Boy Obsession, better than I know you," I said. "Funny thing is, that once I started meditating, I discovered that I liked it."

We walked on in silence for a bit. And when Raven spoke, I nearly jumped out of my skin. "Do you want to stop for some tea?"

I looked at Raven, trying to see her face in the shadow of her cloak's hood. My stomach began to turn a little at the thought of tea. "Really, Raven, I'm glad you asked, but I really don't like tea. Too bitter," I said, frowning with anticipated indigestion.

Raven sighed, and said, "I'll have tea. You can have a soda. And we can talk."

"Oh," I said. "I think I'd like that."

And with that, we walked down the street in search of a café.