AN: Hello everyone. Well, this is my first TT chapter fic. I usually like to write one-shots but I had this idea and it wouldn't leave me in peace so here ya go. This story in mainly about Beast Boy and Raven, though there is Star/Rob and Cy/Bee on the side, so if you don't support these couples, then you do not have to read this. I really don't feel like getting flamed just because you disagree with my opinions. That being said, everyone, I hope that you enjoy this and remember to review when your finished, I am always open to suggestions.
Disclaimer: sadly, I don't own the Teen Titans, but I'm happy as long as David Slack keeps writing the episodes.
Blue Bird
Chapter 1
The warm sunshine streamed through the windows of the small café as the smell of fresh pastries began to fill the air. Though it was still early in the morning, people had begun to come in through the door of the café, the small silver bell at the top of the door ringing merrily, and order their breakfast. The café, Blue Bird Café as it was called, was quite popular in Jump city and well known as the best place to get pastries. Since there were only a few tables in the café, only a handful people could sit at a time. The place had started out very small before its popularity had grown, and the owner had no interest in remodeling it.
You may wonder why the Blue Bird Café is so important to this storyteller. You must be saying 'What does it matter if a café has only a few tables?' or maybe 'Who cares about a dumb café in the first place?' Well, without this small café the characters in this storyteller's tale could have never met. Without this café, they could have wandered throughout life without ever meeting each other, without knowing that there actually was a person for them out there. And most importantly, without the Blue Bird Café, there would be no story to tell. No story about a girl who, although she had spent most of her life alone, found love in one of the most unlikely people. No story about a boy who, although from all outward appearances was forward and happy, found love and truth in a dark girl. No story about different friends becoming a group despite all of their oddities.
But you are saying, 'what story is this? I have never heard of that one.' Would you like to hear the tale? Well then friends, you have come to the right place. It began a while ago, but still continues today…
The Blue Bird Café opened promptly at seven a.m. like it had every other morning it had been in business. Already outside the doors a line had begun to form, people leaving for the weekend getting early breakfast on the road, some going to work and some simply there to get Jump City's best pastries. But one person was not there for any of those reasons; she had simply come there to read and spend time with an old friend. Her short purple hair blew softly in the wind and her amethyst eyes narrowed in concentration, trying to will the doors to open, shifting from foot to foot, as she only half listened as her friend chattered next to her in line. The doors opened and let the small crowd of people into the café.
"…And then we all went and did the 'party' and danced. It was very fun!" The red haired foreign exchange student finished her the explanation of her evening out the night before with a huge smile and a gulp of air. It still amazed Raven how her friend could talk without breathing for a long time.
"That's great Kori, thank you for that lovely recap, though I really didn't need to know what you, Bee, your sister, your sisters friend and her sister all ate." Raven murmured as the two friends stood in line waiting for their turn to order.
"I welcome you, friend Raven!" Kori grinned and reached forward to hug the slightly older girl when she remembered Ravens strong dislike of being touched. "What did you do on your most enjoyably night off?" The redhead questioned her dark, quiet friend.
"I went home to our apartment, read, had tea, watched a stupid movie, meditated and went to bad." Raven answered her roommate. The two girls had met in college when they had been roommates. Despite all of their differences, (as Kori was loud, bubbly and an altogether touchy-feely person, Raven was just the opposite, reserved, quiet and usually preferred to be alone,) the two had become good friends. After college the two had decided to keep on living together and had moved into a small but comfortable apartment on the suburbs of town.
"Wouldn't you enjoy to go and do the 'party' with us next time?" Kori asked hopefully although she already knew her friends answer.
"As much fun as it sounds, I really don't think I will be joining you." Raven said as they moved up in the line. Kori sighed and shook her head. In her opinion Raven really needed to have more fun. She was always locked up in her room and had almost no friends besides her and Bee, Bumble Bee as she had been nicknamed in their college years.
"Next please." Raven and Kori moved up to the counter. "Can I take your order?" the young woman asked with a big smile that was uncannily like Kori's.
"Yes, I would like to consume your Blueberry special please, and would you happen to have any mustard?" Kori asked.
"Umm, no but I can get you that blueberry special." The woman replied. "Would you like anything to drink?"
"Yes, I guess in the absence of mustard I shall of your orange juice please." The woman gave Kori an odd look before she nodded and turned to Raven.
"Anything for you?" the woman asked.
"Yes, I'll have some herbal tea." Raven stated calmly as she glanced around the café to make sure there was still some tables left.
"Anything else?"
"…A bagel I guess." Raven said. After Kori's lecture about not eating enough, Raven made sure to eat when she was around Kori and not only when she was alone.
The woman nodded and rang up their order. "You two are number nineteen." She said as she handed them a small piece of paper with the number printed on it.
Nodding the two girls made their way to a corner of the café where a table was free. Sitting down with a sigh, Raven opened her black book and Kori pulled out one of her magazines. The two girls sat in silence and read their preferred genres of literature.
Though Ravens eyes remained on the page of the book, her mind kept jumping ahead and forcing her to think of the week ahead of her. She would have to return to her job at the library, and though she enjoyed being at such a quiet place, she disliked the constant questions about books, authors, movies, books-on-tape and all the other things that the large library held. Not only that, but Kori was going to be taking a cooking course that ran Monday through Friday from six to nine at night. Though Raven did enjoy being alone, she also liked having Kori bouncy personality around, even though it sometimes annoyed the hell of her, it was nice to know that she wasn't completely alone.
The hustle and bustle continued in the café, the small silver bell ringing as customers entered and left the shop. The two girls ignored the commotion, content to read and keep each other company. The silver bell rang again as three new people entered the shop.
"So what do you want Victor?" A young man asked his tall friend. His voice was smooth and he laughed lightly as his other friend tripped over his feet. The laugh was light and held a lot of humor. Kori glanced up from her magazine for the first time. The owner of the voice was a short young man with spiky black hair. He was grinning and leaning against one of the walls. Feeling eyes on him he looked up and met Koris gaze. His grin grew wider and he gave her a small wink.
Kori 'eeped' and looked back down at her magazine, a faint, pretty blush rising to her cheeks. Raven, hearing Kori's small noise glanced, up at her and, noticing the blush, looked across the room toward the boy with black hair who was still staring at her friend.
A small smile slid briefly across Ravens face before she returned to her book and continued to read. It looked like Kori had another admirer.
Richard tore his eyes from the redheaded beauty and turned back to his friends who were giving him odd looks. "What?" He asked, trying to avoid his friend's smirks.
"Man, don't give me that 'what' we saw the way you were looking at her." Victor laughed as he slapped Richard on the back. "Why don't you just go over and talk to her."
Richard shrugged and moved up to the counter to order. "She probably already has a boyfriend. Besides, she looked away as soon as I looked at her." He stated before he turned to give his order to the woman behind the cash register.
"Maybe she doesn't man! Besides, you can get any girl." Victor said before he added his order to Richards.
"He could get any girl if he had the guts to talk to them." Garfield laughed as he placed his order.
"Anything else?"
"Nah, that's it." Victor said as before he turned to Garfield.
"Speak for yourself Gar, I don't see you talking to any girls, and you've been checking out all the girls we've seen this morning."
"Your number twenty-nine. We'll call your orders ready." The woman said as she handed Richard the ticket.
As the three boys headed over to one of the free tables Richard caught the redhead looking him again and he gave her another smile. He watched as she blushed and then smiled slightly before ducking her head back down to her magazine.
In the meantime Garfield had continued his discussion, which was quickly turning into an argument, with Victor.
"Dude, I don't need to talk to the ladies, they would fall all over themselves if they knew I was interested." Gar grumbled about Victors comment from before.
"Garfield the only way they would know your interested was if you talked to them, and when you did, they probably wouldn't be interested themselves." Victor retorted.
"You wound my pride." Garfield half joked, half growled. "Besides, I can get any girl I want."
"You willing to bet on the Garfield?" Richard introduced himself to the discussion for the first time.
"…Of course." Garfield said after only a slight hesitation.
Victor and Richard exchanged a grin. "Alrighty then." Victoer laughed.
"Number nineteen, your orders ready now." The girl at the cash register called across the room. The scraping of a chair was heard as Kori and Raven stood to retrieve their breakfast. Victor watched as Richard once more stared the lovely redhead walk across the room with another girl in a black tank top. Victor gave the other girl a once over, taking in her serious expression, short but pretty hair and her startling purple eyes. Not to mention she had nice curves as well. All in all she was very attractive.
He turned to back to his friends and realized that it was not only Richard who was watching the two girls. Garfield was not staring at the redhead, but her friend. A plan popped into his head, and if all went well, he might just land Richard and Garfield girlfriends. Richard had never really found a girl that he had been interested in and a girlfriend could probably loosen him up a bit from his normal serious self. Not to mention Garfield, though he once had a girlfriend, he had suffered a painful break up and had never really recovered from it.
"So Garfield," Victor started once his two friends had come back to present time once the two girls had sat back down with their food. "About you getting any girl you want, what about the one?" He gestured to he purple haired girl. "She looks like enough of a challenge to prove that you can get any girl." He noticed as Garfield shifted slightly in discomfort. He was remembering his old girlfriend.
"Yeah sure, no problem." Garfield said. He sounded almost confident, but there was a small quiver in his voice. "But what if she says no, or something?" He glanced up at his friends from his croissant there was just a hint of fear in his eyes.
"Don't worry Gar no girl could be as bad as the last one you dated, and this one looks pretty nice. Come on, give it a try it'll do you good." Victor said and watched Garfield nod before he turned to Richard.
"If Garfield has the guts to do this, then I know you do." He watched his friend's expression grow serious before he gave a small nod of agreement.
"Good." Victor stated before he tucked into his triple blueberry surprise.
Taking a deep breath Garfield stood up and, followed by Richard made his way over to the table where the two girls sat. The girl that had caught Richards eye was talking and gesturing with her hands to the girl who sat across from her. Though it seemed that the dark girl would have rather been reading the book in front of her, she was focused on her friend.
Garfield and Richard stopped just in front of the table and watched as the redhead stopped and glanced up at them.
"Hi," Richard grinned at the green-eyed girl who looked up at him with a faint blush and a bright smile. "I'm Richard Grayson." He jabbed Garfield, who grinned.
"I'm Garfield Logan." He said as he glanced at the girl with purple eyes.
Richard extended his hand toward the girl who shook it, her smile growing larger.
"I'm Kori Anders and this is my friend Raven Roth." Star gestured to her friend and watched her squirm slightly under attention and then turned back to Richard who was still smiling.
"We were wondering if you wanted to come over and join us at our table with our friend Victor." He asked Kori and offered his arm as if to escort her. Giggling, Kori accepted it and walked over with him towards the table leaving Raven and Garfield alone.
"The offer is applied to you too, you know, if you want to come." Garfield said shyly and then smiled as Raven looked back up from her book that she had lowered her eyes to, almost sadly Gar noticed, as her friend left her.
"I usually don't like crowds." Raven said as she looked up at the boy in front of her. "But I'm sure you won't miss me, Kori is a lot more lively than I am." She returned to her book, almost as if she expected him to leave, which Gar almost did before he stopped himself.
"Then can I sit with you?" He asked shyly. Raven again looked up at him, surprise in her pretty purple eyes. Garfield waggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned when the faint traces of a smile appeared on her face.
"Well, I guess you could, if you really wanted to." She said softly before closing her book and looking up at the boy as he gently pulled out a chair and sat down next to her.
"So, what book is that?" Garfield asked as he inspected the cover of the black book.
"It's an ancient Azarathian book." Raven said as she almost fondly glanced down at the book.
"Azarathian? You mean it comes from Azarath?" Garfield asked. He had heard of the ancient civilization and even knew that some people present day were descendents of the great warriors who had also been rumored to have had powerful wizards in their mist.
"Yeah." Was Ravens only reply as she glanced down at her half-eaten bagel. Her eyes were unreadable and seemed to be slightly darker with emotion then they had been only a little while before. Before Garfield had time to analyze it, her eyes had returned to normal.
"Hey, you want to hear a joke?" Garfield asked.
"…Not really." Raven replied. "I'm not really a joking person." She said as she watched him sag slightly.
"Oh, okay." Garfield replied. He hadn't really expected the girl to accept to hear it, his old girlfriend had always laughed at his jokes before they had broken up, then she had told him that they were stupid and weren't even funny. He knew it too.
Raven inspected the boy across from her, he obviously wasn't ill meaning, but she still was rather uncomfortable around him, or any boy for that matter, she just wasn't really into guys. But all the same, Garfield seemed different, he wasn't pushy as other guys seemed to be, and he was the only one who had ever approached her, even for friendship.
"Yo, Garfield we're heading to the arcade, ya wanna come?" Victor called to his friend.
"Yes, Raven! You must join us at this 'arcade' it sounds very fun!" Kori called and Richard chuckled slightly next to her, she really was something, something that he really found that he liked.
Garfield turned to the girl he was sitting with. "You want to go?" He asked, half expecting her to say no, she didn't really seem to be into that kind of stuff.
"…Sure" she replied after a moment and stood tucking her book into the blue shoulder bag she carried. Another grin sprang to Garfields face.
"Great!" He said and together they headed toward the door.
To be continued…
AN; I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Blue Bird, I put a lot of work into it and I hope it's long enough. Remember to review with any questions or comments!