Disclaimer: No! It wasn't me! Don't shoot! Run from the plastic chasing doughnuts that eat through the flesh of my people. Many a passerby was slaughtered in the great Chicken Blaze of 1234 when manzinars roamed the deserted cobblestoned streets and Azarathian bullhounds ran rampant and untamed under the bloody moon.

Chapter fifty-three! Yay! This is a long chapter.

Note: A few people gave me suggestions for the story. Those of you who did, I really appreciate it, and please don't feel bad if I choose not to use your suggestions. They were all very good ones, but sometimes things just wouldn't fit with what I have planned. You all rock!

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It had been nearly a month since the infamous date, and things in Titans Tower were slowly gravitating back to normal. Well, as normal as they ever had been before Raven left. A sort of sense of comfort that none of them had ever believed could be again had settled over their lives. For the first time since Beast Boy attempted suicide and Raven's departure and the long, grueling battle between the two of them that finally resulted in the resurrection of their love, the five of them were just the Teen Titans. They weren't the Teen Titans trying to help a suicidal teammate recover, they weren't the Teen Titans mourning the loss of a teammate, they weren't the Teen Titans weathering long battles of emotion that took place right inside their own walls. They were at long last five teenage superheroes and best friends, battling the forces of evil and fighting each other for little more serious than the last slice of pizza or a game controller. It was a cozy feeling about it, regaining what they had once had, going through normal days once again. What had once seemed boring to them had become something they savored. Something they were thankful for. Something almost special.

"Oh yeah! I so kicked your butt! In your face, ninja dude!" Beast Boy said triumphantly to the tv screen, leaping up to do his victory dance.

"As little point as you seeing in restraining yourself, it would still be nice for the rest of us," Raven remarked without looking up from the book she was reading.

"Aww, come on, Raven!" Beast Boy said, dropping his controller and scooting over next to her.

"Where are we going?" she asked sarcastically. Beast Boy giggled.

"Wanna play two-player with me?" he asked.

"As delightfully pointless as that sounds, I think I'll pass."

"You at least wanna hang out?"

"I'm reading."

Beast Boy scooted closer to her, giving her a pout with large, shining, tearful eyes. Raven didn't budge, so Beast Boy morphed into the form of a large-headed green kitten and gave her the 'the face', pawing over to her and rubbing his furry back against her stomach as he jumped onto her lap.

"Beast Boy-" she warned. Beast Boy nuzzled her abdomen with his furry face and peered up at her with large shining kitty eyes. Raven gave a submissive sigh and set her book off to the side, dropping a hand onto his back as he curled up in her lap, rubbing his soft fur. And then he morphed and Raven was left rubbing the back of her fanged boyfriend lying across her lap. Raven smiled and moved her hand to his head, stroking his soft emerald hair. "You know I can't resist you when you get cuddly," she said with a sigh. Beast Boy responded with a chuckle.

"I knew it," he said. Raven rolled her eyes but continued to stroke his hair. There was a pleasant pause. "Um…Raven?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want your mirror back? I can go get it-" Beast Boy began. But Raven shook her head.

"I want you to keep it," Raven told him. Beast Boy looked up at her, eyes widening as he realized the importance of the situation. That mirror was Raven's portal into her own mind. It was probably one of the most valued possessions she owned, and she wanted him to have it.

"Really?"

Raven nodded. "Yes. Really," she told him with a smile. Beast Boy realized what this was. This was her way of showing her complete and utter trust in him. Finally, after all this time of turmoil and pain and hopelessness, the feeling was back. Their relationship was once again a completely honest one built on nothing but pure trust and love, just as it had been before Raven had left. She was the only one who could show him all of these things simply by giving him single mirror.

"Awww, Raven…" Beast Boy said, grabbing her in a tight hug.

"Hello, friends," came Starfire's voice very suddenly from behind the couch. Both of them jumped, Beast Boy falling from Raven's lap and onto the floor with a thud.

"Do you need something, Starfire?" Raven asked, still a bit shaken.

"I would like you two to follow me, please," Starfire said, looking even giddier than usual.

"Um…OK," Beast Boy said, picking himself up off of the floor and following Starfire and Raven out of the room. They walked out into the hallway and around a corner, and suddenly the other two Titans loomed before them. Robin was gripping a video camera in his left hand and Cyborg was holding what looked like a circus costume. The costume was a sleeveless red leotard made of glittery material and embellished with rhinestones around the collar and a strip of gold material around the waist.

"What is this?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at her four teammates suspiciously. Even Beast Boy had a knowing smirk on his face.

"You left the team, remember?" Robin asked.

"I-"

"And the rules clearly state that when a new member joins the team, they must be initiated," Cyborg said with a devilish grin. Raven went red in the face.

"You're not going to make me wear that-"

"Not only do you have to wear it, you have to wear it in a very public place," Beast Boy said, trying not to laugh.

"No. No way. I am not going to wear that. There is no way in the world you can make me wear that," Raven said, a look of terror creeping into her eyes. She backed up against the wall.

"We can, and we will," Starfire said with a slightly maniacal smile.

"But-"

"No buts, Raven. Should have thought about the consequences before you left," Robin said with a wink.

Raven gave a small moan of frustration. "But I-"

"You know the rules, Rae," Cyborg said with a wink, holding the costume out to the Azarathian. She gave a loud sigh and took the leotard from him, holding it out at arm's length as though it were poisonous.

"You four owe me. Big time," she said, heading for her room to change.

XXX

"Wow. Two of my favorite things. Parties, and looking like an idiot. I must be the luckiest girl in the world," Raven said with sarcasm dripping from every syllable. She looked distastefully around at their present surroundings. They were in a rather familiar warehouse which had hosted parties that Raven had miraculously been bullied by the other Titans into attending as well. It was starting to become a well-known place for her. It was always the same. The relative darkness save for the colored lights thrashing wildly through the air, the pounding beat of music that she didn't really care for, the stacks of discarded crates along the far walls, and the large crowd of people spread out across the entire vicinity "dancing" (which looked to Raven more like idiots throwing their bodies and limbs violently in separate directions in desperate, seemingly drug-induced paroxysms).

"Oh come on, you look downright snazzy," Cyborg said, slapping Beast Boy on the back, and the two boys laughed as though they shared some old secret that Raven always failed to comprehend.

"Yeah, and you sparkle!" Beast Boy said, throwing an arm cheerfully around the Azarathian's shoulders, flashing her a fang-filled smile. "Come on, who doesn't love a girl who sparkles?"

"I don't," Raven said. She was pretending to be very cross, but she couldn't keep the lightest trace of a smile from her lips.

"Hey, she's smiling during her initiation! Is that really you, Rae?" Beast Boy asked, tapping her on the side of the head as though trying to probe into her brain.

"Raven has been taken over by the Seahorse People of Drinthax 7!" Starfire gasped, giggling at her own joke as the others gave her strange looks. No matter how much time went by, no matter how well they got to know the alien, there were always some things Starfire said that none of them would ever even begin to try to make sense of.

"Well, we're at a party. Why are we all just standing around? Come on you guys, make with the partying! I'm dying here," Cyborg said with a wink, proceeding to drag Starfire, Beast Boy, and Robin over toward a crowd of people dancing, and Raven was ecstatic that he wasn't expecting her to join them. She was glad she and Cyborg understood each other's terms. Beast Boy pulled his arm back.

"Uh….thanks Cy, but I think I'm going to stay with Rae," he said. Raven brightened visibly.

"OK, suit yourself. You two lovebirds have fun, okay?" Cyborg said good-naturedly, heading off with the other two.

"So, you'd seriously prefer standing here and being bored with a dull person like me?" Raven asked Beast Boy after the other three had departed, raising an eyebrow slightly at him.

"Of course," Beast Boy said. Raven raised her eyebrow again, not buying it.

"Come on, you'd much rather be out there having 'fun' with the rest of our friends," she told him, crossing her arms. "I'm no fun. I don't dance, I don't do 'parties', and you're going to be bored as hell here with me."

"But I love you," Beast Boy reminded her, slipping an arm around her waist. "And you know there's nobody I'd rather be with right now."

Raven allowed a smile and a pleasant blush to creep over her face at this. The two of them stood there in silence for a while, Raven allowing herself to delight in the feeling of devotion she could feel coming from the changeling beside her. And she had a strong feeling for some reason that this was life. This was it. This was the way things would always be alright for her, as long as he was here to hold her, she would always be okay. She knew it was nothing more than a fantasy that things were always going to be as perfect as they were at that moment, but she let herself believe it for just the time being, because she felt far too good to let something like reality interfere.

Slowly, subtly, almost without their noticing, the music changed. The fast, pounding, grating pop beat was replaced by a slower, more delicate tune, flowing, soothing. Neither of them acknowledged it for a moment.

"You…want to dance?" Beast Boy asked cautiously, stepping back a bit from her so he could peer a few inches upward into the amethyst eyes that were now watching him guardedly.

"I don't dance," Raven explained laconically.

"Aww come on, it could be fun," Beast Boy said. "Have you ever even tried it before?" the look Raven shot him without meaning to told him quite plainly that she hadn't. "So let's give it a try. You might even like it. What could it hurt?" he asked, his emerald eyes glinting playfully at her.

Raven muttered something about 'my dignity' but nodded. "Alright, why not," she said. Beast Boy grinned and stepped forward slightly, placing his hands gently on her waist, which Raven responded to by hesitantly resting hers on his shoulders. They began to sway slightly, not exactly in time to the music. A bit off, but Raven didn't pay much attention to the music either way. Neither of them spoke. They just swayed in silence for a few minutes. Beast Boy drew her closer, pulling her against him. The angles of his body melted into hers, seeming to fit perfectly. Her arms snaked around his neck, fingertips resting on the back. She pushed her forehead against his neck in attempt to get closer to him. He continued to rock her gently, melting farther and farther into him.

"This is…nice," she managed to whisper, starting to get breathless from the pure nearness to him. Beast Boy nodded.

"And you didn't want to try," he mock scolded her. Raven gave a sigh and shook her head. Beast Boy leaned his head down and gave her earlobe a slight nibble.

"What was that for?" Raven asked, blushing, and laughing slightly in a flushed kind of way. Beast Boy giggled nervously as well. She tried to act irritated at first, but found that it was no use. She could tell that her eyes were sparkling, and she also found that rather than being irritated, she was actually slightly pleased. "It's OK, I didn't mind," Raven assured him, moving her hands to his chest and petting him a bit. Beast Boy gave her a swift kiss on the temple. "How many people here do you think would be scarred for life if I kissed you right now?" Raven asked him.

"Probably all of them," Beast Boy told her with what was probably a signature toothy grin. Raven lifted her head from his neck and tipped his head up slightly since he had always been several inches shorter than she, and pressed her lips into his audaciously. He kissed her back immediately. She wasn't one for public displays of affection….and sometimes she had trouble with displays of affection period, public or not. But it didn't seem to matter right now. Nothing did. Raven was barely aware of the other couples that must have been dancing around them. She was overwhelmed by her desire to get closer to him, and pulled him further against her, pressing her body against his. She was dimly aware of the fact that they were no longer dancing at all and were now standing still, more or less attempting to make a meal of each other's back molars. Raven clutched a handful of what she found to be sweaty material of his uniform over his chest in a fist. A dull hum in her lower abdomen urged her onward. She was finding it harder and harder to keep herself from just completely and totally losing control right then and there.

Beast Boy broke the kiss and kissed her neck, making Raven clutch him even tighter. Her breath was getting shallow.

"Beast Boy, I think we need to get back to the Tower," Raven told him.

"Uh…ok….I guess we'll have to find the others and-"

"I mean just you and me," Raven said in a seductive sort of voice that surprised even herself, pulling back and looking him in the eye. "Want to go?"

"Okay," Beast Boy said. "Shouldn't we tell the other three so they don't worry?"

Honestly, Raven thought they would worry a lot more if they did tell them that they were going. "We've got our communicators if they need us," she assured him gently.

Beast Boy nodded. "Okay," he said with a nod, and the two of them headed for the exit.

XXX

The Tower seemed strangely empty. The two of them entered and looked around the deserted living room.

"Wow…it's pretty quiet without everybody here," Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his neck. Now that they were actually here, they were both a lot more awkward than they had been when not faced with nothing but each other.

"Yes," Raven agreed. She looked over at him. He gave her a grin, and she could feel her discomfort melt immediately with the power of that incredible smile. "Do you want to go to my room?" she asked.

Beast Boy paused, looking a bit unsure of himself. "Sure," he said finally, and the two began the journey down the halls and into the shadowy, dimly lit room which had scared the life out of Beast Boy up until only a few months ago. After the sliding door had skated shut behind them, Raven sat down on the bed and Beast Boy flopped down beside her. There was a pregnant pause. Both of them were uncomfortable once more. "Um…Raven?"

"Yes?"

"You do realize that I still don't think we're ready to have sex, right? And that it isn't going to happen tonight?" he asked, firm but kind.

"Of course," Raven said obediently with a swift nod. "It's just like last time. I'm not trying to get you in my pants. I just want to get closer to you again."

Beast Boy smiled mischievously. "Think we can get a little bit closer this time?" he asked.

Raven gave him a sly smile. "What did you have in mind?" she asked, though she had a pretty good idea already.

"Oh, you'll see," Beast Boy said, sending delightful shivers up her spine. Raven looked into those fathomless emerald eyes and saw the love coming through clearly and surely, and in his eyes, in the two tiny reflections of her own smiling face, she saw the same emotion mirrored through her own eyes. As she smiled at him, she thought of how things had turned out. When she had met Beast Boy, he had been the last person she would have ever dreamed of falling in love with, but here she was, madly in love with him, ready to leave her heart at his mercy and trust him completely with all of her soul until the day that she died, no matter what might happen between them.

Beast Boy surprised her pleasantly by suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, pulling her into his lap and attacking her with a passionate, breath-stopping kiss. She giggled (even she hadn't known she was capable of giggling) into his mouth and returned the kiss, fingers running through his soft emerald hair. The kiss was intense, lusciously passionate, almost severe. Raven brushed her tongue teasingly against his and then pulled it back, causing him to kiss her even more passionately. He had never kissed her like this before. He had never really had the chance. It had never been quite like this, all alone in the Tower, with nothing in the world to think about but each other, without the fear of interruption, without the barrier of inhibitions.

The kiss had to break eventually, and when it did, after they caught their breath, Raven attacked him right back, knocking him backward onto the sheets and straddling him, swooping down with another kiss that nearly drove her out of her mind and lasted even longer than the first, Beast Boy's hands resting tenderly on her hips as hers held his head gently. It appeared that neither of them could breathe very well afterward, but such an obstacle could not get in the way. As they both sat up, Raven found herself struggling out of the horrid red glittering garment she had been cursed with for the evening and tossing it aside with a burst of black psychic energy. Now in her bra and underwear, she unclasped Beast Boy's belt, slowly, hands creeping nimbly over the clasp, and moved the belt aside as well. Then she gently pulled the gray gloves from his hands and discarded them as well. Beast Boy removed his own shirt, tossing it to the floor, and his bottoms and tights came next, thrown off to the side and discarded with the other shed clothing like old shed skin from a growing reptile's back until he was left in his boxers. Another kiss, blind, desperate hands reaching for as much of each other as they could get hold of, the warmth of newly exposed skin brushing here and there and raising a hot, desperate bubble in Raven's throat. Pushing herself against him harder, stroking his shoulder blades in what was a mixture between loving tenderness and mad, desperate desire for every inch of his body and soul.

(a lemon-ish thing belongs here. If you would like to read it, see my profile for the link)

XXX

"You are looking quite cheerful this morning," Starfire commented as Raven dipped past her with five glasses of orange juice floating suspended in psychic energy before her outstretched hands.

"What do you mean, Starfire?" Raven asked in an uncharacteristically happy voice, setting the orange juice down on the table in front of Beast Boy, Robin, and the other three empty seats. She had volunteered to help Starfire and Cyborg make breakfast, a gesture that, despite the fact that it had happened before, still surprised her friends.

"She means you're prancing around like merry sunshine this morning," Cyborg said, resting his spatula on his left shoulder as he turned to face the pale girl. "What's up, girl?"

"Oh nothing. I'm just in a good mood, that's all," Raven said cheerfully, transferring a plate of scrambled tofu eggs from the counter to the tabletop with a graceful wave of her hand. She was indeed in a good mood. It was in a way because of what had happened the night before, but it wasn't so much because it had happened. It was more because of Beast Boy's unbridled display of love while it was happening. He hadn't been acting like one overcome by lust or someone just not thinking because he was caught up in the moment. He had been, very obviously, someone who truly loved her with a depth that even she couldn't nearly begin to fathom, even with her being an empath. And that to her was worth more than all the treasure in the world.

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More soon.