Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans™, You've Got Mail (starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan), or any of their respective characters. I also do not own the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. However, I do own this story in its non-profit entirety. Similarities to other works are merely coincidental.
Author's Note: Unsurprisingly, I created the café Beast Boy and Raven meet at, the DiCamillo Café. I got the idea from one of my favorite authors, Kate DiCamillo, who wrote Because Of Winn Dixie and The Tale Of Despereaux, two of my most-loved books. If the DiCamillo Café actually exists, I apologize to its owners and also to Ms. DiCamillo.
Response To Reviews:
iamhollywood—It's so nice to have somebody review your story twice—and
very nicely too. I'm very pleased that you like my writing, and it's alright
that you revised your opinion on lengthening chapters, I'm fine with that. This
chapter is much longer, as you should notice, and will cover a much larger area
of info.
Robin's Lil Angel—Thanks. That's all I can say. Thanks. -)
Joe Tripz—Thank you. I know, the whole school thing was probably a little confusing.
greg—I'm sorry if you were expecting a Beast Boy-and-Raven-fall-in-love-and-get-married fic, but that's not what's going to happen here. It focuses solely on how they fall in love when all odds were against them coming together.
faithinme—Thanks for your reassurance on my writing style. Even though I'm scarcely into this story, I was a little unsure of what to do. However, you've convinced me what I do is already fine, and I needed that. So, thank you.
You've Got Mail!
Written By JMPchick
3. Thursday Night
Why should I care
'Cause you weren't there
When I was scared
I was so alone
"Losing Grip" by Avril Lavigne
"Meet?" Beast Boy whispered. He leaned closer to the flat plasma screen, eyes less than two inches away, to make certain that was what she, his mysterious pen pal, had written. A few seconds later, he had effectively dizzied himself, due to the fact that it is not healthy to put one's eyes a centimeter away from screens. As his green eyes re-adjusted, he contemplated the situation. "Meet," he said quietly again. The single, simple thought unleashed an enormous vista of possibilities and what-ifs. What if they met and she didn't like him? What if they met and he didn't like her? What if…what if…what if….
The jade-skinned teenager did a sort of half-shrug, frightened and apprehensive and uncertain all at the same time. "That's it," he said aloud to himself, "I need advice. I'm going to Cy and Rob. They usually know what to do. No—wait, scratch that, they always know what to do." He felt as though merely saying this out loud lifted an extremely heavy weight off of his shoulders he'd tediously toiled under but didn't know was there.
Beast Boy slowly walked downstairs to the common room, where in his absence Robin was ferociously battling Cyborg via the latter's GameStation. Starfire had donned over mitts and an apron with the words "KISS THE COOK" splashed across her chest in bright rainbow colors. Every so often, Robin furtively glanced at her over his shoulder. A loud crash accompanied by a thunderous "BOOYAH!" always brought him back to the game, however. After this occurred several times, Raven, who was curled up on the bouncy sofa with her latest horror thriller, grumbled in irritated tones, "Robin, Star can take care of herself with the oven and batch of thopwix, alright? Every time you look over at her, I lose the sentence I was in and have to re-read the page. Concentrate on your moronic game, okay?"
Robin flushed and resumed his game while Cyborg giggled idiotically. Robin elbowed him in the ribs but continued to take swift glimpses the alien girl of his dreams, who seemed oblivious of his flirting. Raven groused something unprintable under her breath and eventually flew up to her room with the crisp snap! of a book being shut.
After observing this normal behavior, Beast Boy cleared his throat loudly, and the two other boys turned to him. Starfire was in the kitchen, and therefore had not heard the conversation between Robin and Raven, and so would not hear this one either.
"Yeah, what is it, B?" Cyborg rapidly pressed some buttons on his controller and Beast Boy winced at the rather nasty screeching noise of brakes. "We're busy, if you ain't noticed."
Beast Boy and Robin didn't bother to point out the appalling grammar. The former spoke up again, timidly. "Uh…I kinda sorta…oh hell, why am I fooling with words. I need your advice."
"On what?" said Robin distractedly, ramming his scarlet racecar into Cyborg's azure corvette.
"Don't tell me the green boy's gone out and gotten himself a secret girlfriend and not told us," Cyborg teased.
"No!" Beast Boy spluttered. "I mean—well—I sort of did—but not really—"
His two best friends were listening now, and with rapt attention. The current circumstances, to them, seemed like some forbidden taboo. Beast Boy the weak comedian—with a girlfriend? Terra had been a special case, but still…
"Can we—uh—go somewhere else? Somewhere private?" suggested Beast Boy pointedly. "Like—the garage?"
Robin and Cyborg shrugged and followed him.
:TT:
Raven sank into the fluffy violet cushions on her bed, attempting to remain somewhat upright. Many seconds passed before, frustrated, she mentally consigned the task to the impossible. A strange feeling of anticipation lay over her thickly, and she wondered what for. After an eternity of useless consideration, the obvious answer came to her and she slapped herself on her pale forehead. It was so apparent; why hadn't she thought of it before? Of course! she thought lamely. I'm waiting for veggiezoo to reply about my proposition on meeting. He'll probably say no. She sighed. It's only to be expected. Still, eagerness was gnawing away with impatience, and temptation was too great. Using her powers, she could detect no auras belonging to anyone except the mice who crept out of their holes to filch rations at night within a radius of several yards, and deemed herself safe. Her paranoia of a Titan discovering her Internet correspondence was still there, she found, so she cautiously pulled out her laptop and then prodded the keys quickly. She misspelled her log-in data twice, in such a hurry was she, but she eventually managed to compose herself and checked her email as the suspense became too great to ignore.
Her heart plummeted when she saw there was nothing in her inbox. Perhaps she was just overreacting. It had only been a day since she'd sent the innocently-posed query, anyway. It was a bomb waiting to explode. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. It had been a dilemma she knew she would have to confront when she began the whole dratted email business, though she hadn't cared at the time. If I ever live through this, she found herself thinking, never again. It was getting too…personal, and hadn't they both agreed at the start that it would not be personal?
But it was, and it was too late to change it. It was too late for her to force herself not to admit she was slowly, but surely, falling in love.
:TT:
"Okay, Beast Boy. Spill."
Beast Boy sighed. As a leader of the Teen Titans, Robin had never been very subtle about things. It was always brisk and to the point. But that was the way he had been brought up. His surrogate father, Batman, Dark Knight of Gotham City and prominent member of the Justice League, had taught him to be that way, and that was the way Robin was.
"Yeah, man," Cyborg cut in. The Boy Wonder and robot had pressed him for details the entire way to the garage, but he had said kept his lips clamped tightly shut. And now here they were, huddled behind the T-Car much to Robin's annoyance and Beast Boy's insistence that the matter be strictly hush-hush. He was beginning to regret it, because every so often Cyborg would fondly rub his darling car, and he could tell it was beginning to get on Robin's nerves.
"Well," Beast Boy began, abruptly reluctant to reveal his secret now that it was to be shared, "well, you see, a while ago I—er—well, you know how we get AOL for free because we save the city and all that from psychopath crazed villains?" His two best friends nodded, and Beast Boy had to stifle his unexpected laughter at seeing them appear to be life-size bobble heads. He managed to turn his chuckles into a hacking cough and then continued. "Well. I got an account, and…went into an online chatroom and there was this girl online in that same chatroom and we began to talk." His eyes glazed over slightly, and Cyborg giggled hysterically. Robin nudged the green elf and knocked sharply on Cyborg's mechanical head.
Cyborg recovered himself hastily. "So you've been emailing this girl and she wants to meet you?" he said shrewdly. The two other companions gazed at each other in astonishment. "What?" he asked, irked. "It don't take a genius to figure out where this is going."
:TT:
"She said the DiCamillo Café, right here." Two nights later, Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg were standing near a bench on the sidewalk slightly to the left of the DiCamillo Café, the agreed place where he was to meet his pen pal. Beast Boy's breath billowed in smoky vapor as it left his mouth, and he was tingling with poorly hidden exhilaration. "I'm so…excited," he said animatedly. "I can't wait to meet her."
"You really couldn't tell," said Robin dryly.
"Yeah, well." Cyborg shivered. Even with his metal body parts, he was cold. Jump City winters had never been this frigid since he joined the Teen Titans. "When you meet her and become deeply engaged in uplifting and inspiring conversation, do us a favor and think of us, wretched us, shuddering in the freezing night air."
"I told you, Cy, it's only gonna be a ten-minutes-or-so thing. I'll say hello, how happy I am to meet her, blah blah blah. Then I'll tell her my friends are waiting outside and we have to go, nice to meet you finally and all that crap," Beast Boy gushed.
Cyborg mumbled something unmentionable impatiently. There were a few moments of silence, and then the green Titan said timidly, "Uh…Robin, could you go look in the window and see if she's there?" Robin nodded, and he added, "She'll be sitting alone, with a novel marked by a rose. Red rose."
"Got it, Beast Boy," said Robin edgily, "only, it's been really hard not to, seeing as you say that every friggin' five minutes!" He sighed and Cyborg followed him up the steps to the café, peering in the window in what they hoped was a casual manner.
"Alright," Cyborg said while Beast Boy fidgeted by the spiky iron fence, "whoa! Now there's one hot chick!"
Beast Boy laughed triumphantly. "Ha! I knew she would be! I just knew it, she had to be!"
Robin removed one of his green gloves and slapped Cyborg across the face with it. "You idiot! There's no book and no rose! You're just surfing for some flings!"
Cyborg apologized lamely and massaged the spot on his cheek where Robin hit him. Several agonizing moments passed, and the three boys' feet began to numb up. Robin was constantly murmuring censored language half to himself, and Cyborg's eyes popped open every five minutes when he saw an attractive girl. Finally, Cyborg said excitedly, "Hey, look! Robin, look, that one chick's got a book with a rose sittin' all prim on the table!"
Robin whipped around and attempted to stare past the unusually obese thing (there was no distinguishing traits, to tell if it was male or female) who had just sat down in front of the girl with the rose and the book. His jaw and Cyborg's simultaneously dropped down when the Fat Thing shifted over. "Well?" Beast Boy demanded. But they could only stutter and stammer.
"Uh…" Cyborg said blankly.
"Um…she's pretty," said Robin with some forced certainty. "Yes, pretty."
"I knew it!" Beast Boy shrieked jubilantly. All passersby's heads immediately turned to him, but he was too flustered to notice.
"Don't know him," Robin and Cyborg chimed when the heads turned to him too.
"I knew it," Beast Boy whispered, clinging to the fence. It rattled slightly as he swung on it, elated.
"Uh-huh. Well, that's very nice, but…" Cyborg picked his words carefully.
"But what?"
"You know, I think of Raven as a sort of sister to me," Cyborg continued warily, "and I do think she's pretty. But—y'know, uh…this girl, she's pretty kind of like Raven…."
"Raven's pretty, I admit." Beast Boy dismissed this with a wave of his hand. " But difficult to tolerate for long. So what's she look like?"
"Um…if you can't tolerate Raven, you definitely won't be able to tolerate this girl," Robin answered, eyes not meeting Beast Boy's. He and Cyborg slowly walked down the stairs.
"And why not?" said Beast Boy. He was still skipping around.
Cyborg took a deep breath and braced himself. "Because she is Raven."
"What!" Beast Boy dashed past his two comrades and peered into the window. There sat Raven on the other side of the café, sipping a cappuccino (the sweetened kind) and occasionally looking out the other window. She had been reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and the rose in-between the smooth, gold-edged pages marked about the halfway point. He gazed in disbelief, noting her foot tapping the linoleum floor and her slightly worried expression, the crease between her thin eyebrows.
Cyborg and Robin stood stockstill in the middle of the sidewalk. They did not know how to react; to comfort, to laugh, to…whatever. For all their capability on the battlefield, medals, honors, bravery, intelligence, everything they had…they did not know what to do.
Brusquely, Beast Boy spun on his heel and began walking in the direction of Titan's Tower, which was just visible over the cityscape. Cyborg and Robin hurried to catch up to him, dumbfounded. "Beast Boy," Robin panted, as he hastened to match his friend's vicious stride, "you can't just leave her there. She's expecting someone. She's expecting you. You can't leave her alone."
"I can and I will," Beast Boy grunted.
"B, this is kind of…" He struggled to find the correct wording. "This is rather despicable on your part. Raven is like a sister to you, to us all. You can't just leave her there, waiting all night. You should go in, tell her what happened, and then apologize."
"For what?" Beast Boy snarled. His friends were taken aback by his uncharacteristic attitude. "And apologize for what? For making her feel like somebody?"
"No." Robin spoke up bravely. "For losing faith in her. The way you talked about this pen pal of yours, I think you fell in love." He disregarded the indignant growl that emanated from Beast Boy's throat. Cyborg said nothing. "So, you have to at least go in and say hello, even if you don't mention the fact that you were corresponding with her."
Beast Boy grunted noncommittally, but entered the café nonetheless. Raven glanced up as the door opened; a tinkling bell announced the appearance of every visitor. She could not conceal her disappointment, and resumed her book. Beast Boy felt his green face grow hot, and he slowly walked over to her. The walk seemed to last an eternity, and time seemed to halt. What should I say? he wondered. Finally, he reached his pale teammate, and opened his mouth. She noticed nothing, and pretended she had not heard his stammering at what to say. Weakly, he said, "Hey, Raven. You saving that chair for someone?"
Raven's head snapped up, and she quick as a wink, she seized the rail of the chair. "Yes, if you don't mind. I'm expecting a guest."
Beast Boy sat in it anyway, knowing full well the "guest" would not appear, for he was that guest. He pushed aside her exclamations and said casually, "So, what's he like?"
Raven looked startled. "This guest, I mean. It's a male, isn't it?" Beast Boy clarified blithely. "So, what's he like?"
"I've never met him," Raven confessed, sipping her beverage, which had cooled slightly. "I mean, I've spoken to him, but never met him."
"I see. What's his name?"
Raven blushed. This was getting difficult to admit. "I don't know it. We've corresponded over the Internet. Through AOL."
"And his handle is?"
Raven dismissed the question with an impatient wave of her small hand. She began to read again. Beast Boy decided to pry a little further. "Do you love him?"
Her attention was diverted back to him once more. "What?"
"Do you love him?" he repeated, trying to appear relaxed.
"N—I don't know," she acknowledged. "This…communication, it's…" She struggled with the words. "It's getting complicated. I don't know."
"When you talk to him, do you feel like you did around Malchior?" He regretted the words the moment they left his lips.
Her form grew rigid, and he could tell she was doing her best to control her conflicting emotions. Through clenched teeth, she muttered angrily, "How—dare—you? How dare you mention his name in my presence! How dare you bring back so many painful memories! How dare you—"
He warded off her accurate accusations with a palms-up. "Sorry. Just trying to help you sort out your feelings."
"What I feel is none of your business." Her voice was monotonous once more, though only a thin layer, a brittle and easily-smashed layer, lay between her full rage.
There were a few seconds of awkward silence in which Raven's eyes, so stunningly violet as he noted for perhaps the really first time, remained on the page she was reading but did not move. She was concentrating solely on not thinking of the great black dragon who had enthralled her with his words and pretended to comprehend her complex life, and not reading. Then Beast Boy said tentatively, "What's he like? Describe him."
Raven hesitated, then answered, "Well…he's sweet, and funny, and sensitive." Beast Boy marveled at what he must have sounded like over AOL to her. She had truly shed the protective shields around her mind and opened up for once. "He's intelligent," she continued, "and easy and casual. Not that you would know what it's like, you interfering, irritating geek." With that she left the café, and with a pang, Beast Boy could see her eyes clearly once more, glistening with not-yet-released tears.
Thanks to everybody who's reviewed me, and a special thanks to iamhollywood, for reviewing me twice! (If anybody else has done so also but under a different name, thanks to you too!) Hopefully you'll be happy this chapter is longer—much longer, because there's so much information to share. Kindly review and tell me how you felt about chapter 3. Thanks again!
JMPchick
