Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. And Bubble-Up is a registered trademark of Monarch Beverage Company, so I don't own that either. But it is tasty and good.

AN: Sorry this took so long. I've found this chapter… Challenging.

If Raven's powers break something and BB doesn't notice, is it still broken?

Chapter 7 – It Doesn't Look That Bad From Here


Raven and I were walking along the streets of Jump City, looking for a place to get a tea and soda. I could hardly believe that I was out with Raven, she wasn't under duress and I wasn't in fear of my life.

However, I could believe was that the two of us agreeing on a place to stop and share a beverage wasn't possible. We'd been walking for nearly a quarter hour now, and had yet to find a suitable café. When I suggested we stop at a Thursday's, Raven had vetoed it and all other chain restaurants for crimes against tea. And I had nixed Raven's usual place for being too creepy. So now we were looking for a compromise.

Just as I was about to give up and take a rain check on the soda, I spotted a promising sign. Specifically, I spotted the cursive script on the window of Camille's Coffee and Tea Boutique. "Raven, how about there?" I asked, waving at the building across the street from us.

"I don't know," Raven began, "it seems a little … frou-frou, doesn't it?"

I looked at Raven, then across the street at Camille's. The building was painted in a mocha with cream trim theme that didn't seem too gaudy to me. The awning was the expected mocha and cream stripe pattern. There were a few tables and chairs outside, and I could see more through the tinted windows. In short, it looked like nearly every other coffee house in Jump City. "Come on, Raven. It doesn't look that bad from here," I said. I knew that if I gave Raven a chance, she'd veto this place as well. So I grabbed her right hand with my left, and began pulling her across the street.

We were nearly across the street when Raven spoke. "Beast Boy," Raven said in a tone I had learned to listen to or risk bodily harm. "Let. Go. Of. My. Hand."

"Oh, right. Um," I said as I complied with Raven's request. I found myself strangely disappointed as our fingers parted. We finished crossing the street and I stood awkwardly, waiting for Raven to give me one of her lectures about personal space, or my poor impulse control or something.

"Fine, we'll go to Camille's," Raven said. "But if we ever do this again, I pick the café."

I thought for a second about the historical likelihood of getting Raven out of the Tower with me before responding. Realizing that it was fairly unlikely that we'd ever do this again, I decided that I wasn't risking much if I agreed to her terms. And if we did do this again, being out with Raven doing stuff would probably make up for whatever creepy place she chose. "Fine," I said.

We walked up to the door, and I pulled it open to allow Raven to enter first.


Raven and I were seated at an out of the way table in the back. I think that Raven had been a bit baffled when the girl at the counter had asked what kind of herbal tea she wanted. Not surprising, really. The few times I'd seen her order herbal tea when the Titans were out together, the server had just brought her a cup of hot water and a bunch of those cheap tea bags in a variety of flavors. After looking at the menu for a few moments, Raven had selected a lemon spearmint tea, which we were presently waiting on.

While I had thought that this was going to be just another generic coffee house, my opinion of this establishment had gone way up the moment I discovered that they had bottles of Bubble-Up®. "Raven," I was saying, "you really ought to try a soda once in a while. And this," I held the Bubble-Up® bottle in front of her, "would be a great way to start out. I think it is probably the best lemon-lime soda that has ever existed!"

"Listen, Beast Boy, you have been telling me how great that soda is for the last," she craned her neck to look at the clock on the wall, "five minutes. I wasn't going to try it when you started telling me about it, and I'm not going to try it now. And you're starting to give me a headache. Would you…"

Raven was interrupted by the arrival of her tea. A young blonde girl came to our table with a tray that she rested on the edge of the table. "Here you go," she said, as she carefully took things off the tray. Directly in front of Raven, she placed a small cup and saucer. Behind that our server placed a plain white teapot – steam coming out of its spout – and a small round tin and a spoon. "Can I get you anything else?"

"No, thank you," Raven said.

As the server walked off, Raven reached forward and picked up the spoon and tin. As she pulled the tin open, I saw the corners of her mouth start to edge up, just hinting at a smile. With delicate precision, Raven used the spoon to scoop out a batch of dried leaves, which she dropped into the teapot.

"This," Raven said, "might not be that bad after all."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I was assuming that this place would have tea bags – like nearly every other restaurant and café in Jump City," Raven said.

Now I was confused. True, I have never seen a tea bag in Raven's possession. She always seemed to have little tins of loose tea leaves, but I didn't understand why tea bags would be a bad thing. So I asked, "What's wrong with tea bags?"

Raven looked at me for a moment before speaking. "Why am I not surprised that you don't know?"

"How about because I don't drink tea? But really, Raven, why don't you like tea bags?"

"I don't like tea bags because they are usually filled with dust and fannings," she said. I know I looked confused, but Raven didn't make me ask her before she explained. "When tea leaves – and the leaves for my herbal teas – are picked, they are allowed to dry, and then sorted by size. The smallest size is called 'dust' because it looks like dust. The next smallest size leaves are called fannings. Tea bags usually contain dust and fannings because it brews a relatively strong tea in a short period of time. The downside is that teas from dust and fannings tend to be bitter."

"Raven," I said, "I think that's the most I've ever heard you say at once." I hadn't meant to offend her, but it looked like I managed to.

"Fine," she said. And then she reached out and poured a cup of tea for herself.

"Look, Raven, I didn't mean to upset you or anything. It's just that you don't talk a lot. And I was kinda surprised by your answer," I said, hoping to smooth things over. I took a sip of my soda while I waited for Raven to say something.

"You're right, Beast Boy. I don't talk much. And I can see why you might not expect a long explanation from me." Raven was looking down into her tea as she said this.

"And that's why I don't know you as well as I'd like to, Raven," I said. "You spend a lot of time around us, reading and stuff, but you don't talk with us much. Makes it hard getting to know you."

"I suppose," she said. "But there's not much to say when you and Cyborg are playing on the GameStation and Starfire is fawning over Robin."

"I can understand not having much to say to Star and Robin when they're getting all googly-eyed at each other. But Cy and I play GameStation a lot of the time because we can't think if anything else to do. You could just interrupt us," I said.

Just then, something in my head managed to put what Raven had said about tea bags to use. I slowly put my Bubble-Up® down so I wouldn't spill it. "Tea bags tend to have dust and fannings in them which make bitter tea. And I've only ever had tea from tea bags. So good tea might not be as bitter as I thought."

Raven chose to take advantage of this insight. "Beast boy," she said, parroting my words from earlier, "you really ought to try some tea once in a while. And this," she held the tea cup in front of her, "would be a great way to start out."

"Okay, Raven, I get the point," I said. "Just because I like something doesn't mean that other people have to try it. But sometimes I'm surprised by what I do like. I thought Cyborg was crazy for suggesting that I try meditation with you, but once I tried it, I liked it. Hey, I have an idea! Let's take turns and tell each other about the things we like to do and why. Then maybe we'll try them later."

I watched as Raven slowly sipped at her tea. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we should try new things," she said.


Raven and I had stayed at Camille's a lot longer than I had anticipated. We had talked about several things. I had told her about why I liked video games and campy sci-fi films. She had told me about why she liked creepy horror novels. We both talked about how pathetic it was that Robin and Starfire couldn't see how they felt for each other. We hadn't talked about growing up with our powers and knowing that we were different, but I was hoping that one day we might. Instead, it had been enough to talk about the little things that we liked, and the minor annoyances of living in the tower.

We were walking back to the bay, enjoying the sunset. The streetlights had just come on around us to help illuminate the dusk. Neither of us had spoken for a while, and I was beginning to feel like I needed to say something just to end the silence. But Raven beat me to it.

"I think I enjoyed today. May I come with you to the next meditation group?" she asked.

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

The streetlight above us picked that moment to go out. I saw the black glow around the bulb just before it died, but decided not to say anything about it.