(A/N) Hello. I was impressed by some of the things said in a few of the reviews. Good eye, OveractiveMind, it WAS going to be a tunnel of love type ride, which answers you too, SxStrngSamurai13, he gave up on the ride so quickly because of what Raven said…it was kind of a mood killer. McDowellandkid, that fusion is her next one, but that might be a chapter or two later. Ellisar, the link you left looks incomplete. I tried it, but nothing is found. Regrem Erutaerc, I can't answer your question, it gives away future happenings. ;-) BrianDarksoul, you do realize that by simply owning a Terra doll you're making the show's creators want to bring her back. Nothing like a little viewer angst to keep the ratings up. ;-)

Disclaimer – I don't own the Teen Titans, some guy with lots more money than me does. Lucky punk.

Tamed – The Confessional – Affection and Raven have a lot to talk about. Raven would rather not deal with it.

----------------------------------------------

The rest of the evening was heavily subdued. The two found themselves in an awkward silence too many times to count. Dinner had just been Raven looking at her food, pushing it around with her fork while Beast Boy slowly ate, staring at the fire. He looked defeated to Raven. She sighed, having given up on getting any kind of an appetite and walked off to clean her dishes.

The walk was quiet, which was good, since that meant she would be able to think things through without even the slightest distraction. "How do you know if you're really in love?" She paused for a moment. "Wasn't that the name of an article in one of Starfire's magazines? Ugh…what's wrong with me?" Being able to compare her thoughts to teen girl magazines aside, she still wanted to know. There were two times she had thought she truly loved someone. The first was her mother, but this was a different kind of love she was confused about. The other was with Malchior. How she felt about Beast Boy seemed to eclipse what she had felt then so much…why was it so hard for her to know if it really is love or not when she thought it was back then?

After Raven had finished with her dishes she found herself wandering, though not towards the campsite. Instead, the mouth of a cave stood before her. She peered into the inky blackness and tried to see or hear anything coming from within the rock's opening. She took a step inside and found it to be much cooler than the night air. Feeling her way along a wall she was quickly at the back of the cave where Beast Boy had placed her when he was in his more primal form. The entrance was still visible because of the moonlight and stars that gave the evening a pale glow outside.

----------------------------------------------

Raven had just sat there in the dark, trying to understand why she would enjoy being back there when the last time had shaken her up so badly. It must have been growing towards midnight when she heard noises outside. Straining to hear what kind of animal it was that had discovered the den, she inhaled sharply when she saw a large form fill the opening. It looked like it knew she was there because it lowered itself down and started to crawl towards her.

The creature looked tall, but it had been walking on two legs and now was low on all four. The faint outline showed a snout with triangular ears at the top of its head. "Beast Boy?" She was sure that it was him, but there was enough doubt that she wanted things to be certain. The thing's ears perked up at her voice and it started walking very calmly to her. As it reached her, its shape dissolved into the skinny teen she knew. "What are you doing here?"

He must not have heard her, because he continued towards her till he was inches apart from her. Raven was about to ask him what he was doing when he quickly pulled her into his arms and savagely kissed her. She felt her body melt at his touch and was soon returning the kiss just as fervently as he was. She let her hands rest on his back and the crook of his neck. A soft moan escaped her mouth as he moved from her lips to her neck. She felt that she needed this so desperately. "Don't stop."

"Why should I keep going? You don't love me."

Raven woke up to a still dark cave. She groaned in frustration at the dream and pulled herself up from the floor. She stepped out of the cave into the night air and flew quickly back to camp. After finally getting into her own room and into her own bed sleep avoided her. The dream was still bothering her, partly from how easily she had just let Beast Boy have his way and partly from how badly it had ended. It was confusing her that she was both upset by the dream and upset at waking up. Deciding it was pointless to fight for sleep that wasn't coming, Raven got out of bed and grabbed her mirror. If she wasn't going to get sleep, she was going to get answers.

----------------------------------------------

"I can't answer that for you." Affection stood erect, her eyes almost looking at Raven as though their relationship were the other way around.

Raven's eyes narrowed at the haughty emotion. "And why not? It's your job, so just tell me!"

Affection's lofty gaze eased somewhat into pity. "It is not that I am withholding the answer from you, merely that I am unable to answer what your feelings for him are. I can say what his feelings for you are and I can say that you could be in love, but only you can decide."

"I know enough to know that love isn't something I can just decide on."

"Very true, but it is for you to figure out. I am not you. I'm just the part of you that deals with the set of emotions that includes love, I don't create the emotion." The pity she had started to allow into her eyes spread to her whole demeanor. "The kind of love you are trying to see if you posses or not is not a simple emotion. If it is real, you will feel it with your whole being. Every part of you will feel that love, I will just be the part that acknowledges what you find and help you to express it."

Raven felt like she was collapsing in on herself. "How do I know if it's that kind of love?"

Affection smiled, though her eyes still held that piteous look. "It will take very little action, but much soul searching. With true love there are always two great and terrible dangers that you must go through. The first is the danger that you are wrong. There is no sure road through love, and attempting to love another and failing is an unavoidable risk, but you cannot know if you do not try. The second danger is that it may not be returned. True love means you live your life for the happiness of the one you love. If that is returned, both are made happy and find the greatest joys life can produce. But when true love is not returned, one is a slave to the other until they are able to break free of that love. These are the two great and terrible dangers of love. If you are not willing to face them, you will forever be in doubt."

Raven stared dumbfounded at Affection. "So basically, I risk hurting him and myself just by trying to find this out?"

"Yes."

"How do I know if I should even try?" Something just HAD to be definite with all of this. Some handle she could grab hold of that would give her safety.

Affection's smile grew full and a twinkle came to her eye. "By asking yourself questions that you have been either too proud or too embarrassed to ask." A devious smirk took the place of the smile. "Do you like Beast Boy's looks? His smile? His body? What things does he do that make you feel special or impressed? What does he do that you think is cute or manly or even funny? What do you like best about him? Worst? Do you like the way he kisses you? How about the way he looks at you? Can you picture yourself getting married to him?" She grinned more deeply as Raven squirmed. "Can you picture kids? I'll end with an easy one, how well do you think you know him?" Affection paused while Raven thought through her questions. "This is as much guidance as I can offer. It would also be a good idea to talk to him about these things…in fact; I would give him the answers. You'll have a good idea of whether or not you love him with him there in front of you."

The color, such as it was, slowly returned to Raven's face. "I need to answer all that, and you want me to do it all in front of him?"

A small smile and a nod answered Raven. "Love is a risk, it would be better to risk now while stakes are low than to wait when the pain would be worse if you were wrong."

Raven rubbed her forehead. "Why does this scare me more than facing some criminal?"

"Because you care about him and you're afraid of getting hurt, but you'll be in this stalemate until you choose to press forward."

"It's easy to see why teenagers are so screwed up about relationships."

----------------------------------------------

Raven waited a couple of days before she would put Affection's idea into action, mostly so that she could steel herself for the experience and also so she could get caught up on the sleep she lost talking to the lavender cloaked feeling. Beast Boy was still treating her nicely, but he wasn't trying to always hold her hand or stand or sit close to her like he had been doing. She closed her eyes to collect her thoughts and then levitated her chair near the changeling. The firelight allowed her to see his curiosity.

"I've been thinking a lot about things. I even talked for a long time with Affection about everything, and I'm still not sure what I feel for you, but I want to tell you everything that I can say I'm sure of." She pulled out the cards she had written Affection's questions on.

"Heeeeeeere's Raven!" A smirking Beast Boy drawled out.

A confused look came on to Raven's face for a moment until the memory of the scene Beast Boy had imagined the last time she had question cards popped into her mind. She smiled as the memory came to her and Beast Boy laughed a little. "I forgot about that." She turned more serious as she looked back at the cards. "These are questions that Affection said I should ask myself and that I should answer them in front of you. I haven't answered them yet, so you'll be hearing the answers at the same time as I think them up."

Beast Boy looked a little worried, but waited patiently all the same.

"The first one is, about what I think of your looks…your smile, and, uhm, your…body." Raven's blushing could only be matched by Beast Boy's. Neither could look at the other as Raven pressed on. "You look nice to me…gentle. You're kind of smaller than most people your age, but I like that we're just about the same height. You smile like I wish I could, with your whole soul. You're kind of handsome, but your fangs and ears make you…impish." She took a deep breath, still refusing to look up at him. "I like that…it makes you look like you are inside, kind of mischievous."

This was much harder than she had imagined it, and Raven had imagined it as being painful. The pain was of a different sort though, instead of an open wound, she found she was exposing her whole self. If he wanted to break her, he would only have to be mean while she was letting herself become this vulnerable. "Next is what you do that makes me feel special or impressed." She thought on it a moment. "You treat me like I'm breakable…like you're afraid I could be damaged. It's weird, but for being superhero, I like feeling cared for. I like that you put so much effort into what you do for our dates and for me. That's the same stuff that impresses me. You have this energy for learning that I never knew you had. I always thought of you as a slacker, but you just keep outdoing everything you've done. It also made me feel special to think that when you changed into that other you, that I was the only one you didn't attack, and that you even did things for me when you were like that."

She looked up briefly and saw Beast Boy staring intently at her. He caught her eye for the moment she wasn't keeping her eyes set on the ground and her cheeks pinked slightly again. "She asked what you did that I thought was cute…manly…or funny. I don't really know about cute, but sometimes your ears move around because of what you're feeling, and it makes me smile. I think the manliest thing you do is how you face your fears. You had me do that thing to you, and you came out of shock like it was nothing. Most people see horrible things that haunt them…things like gruesome torture and vicious murders. Horrific things that no one should have to see."

"I saw those things."

Raven's eyes widened. "What? Why didn't you tell me? You said that you only saw those three fears."

"Those were the only ones that scared me. I learned a long time ago that physical pain, no matter how bad it is, is temporary. The pain of losing those you love is a lot worse."

It was that exact strength of character that Raven felt men were supposed to have. "…Um…for what I find funny…I don't know. Every now and then you say something that's really funny, but a lot of the time I either don't get it or don't think it was all that funny. I hope you don't stop though, the funny times are worth it." Raven was getting tired of staring at the ground and looked at the fire instead.

Beast Boy couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Now you'll never get me to stop."

A quick smile at him and then back to her cards was all he got out of her. "I'm telling you what's best and worst about you now." She closed her eyes and visualized a typical day for the two of them. "I think your best quality is the amount of effort you put into whatever you're doing. I know that I didn't make it easy for you to include me in everything that the Titans did, but you always tried and never gave up. That's also pretty much what I like least. You never give up, even when I really just don't want to do the same thing. You push and push until I threaten you. I don't like being forced, even though sometimes it has good results."

As Raven turned to the next card her face felt very hot and her throat seized up. She coughed a little to unblock her airway and continued with what the card said. "Affection asked what I thought of you…kissing…me…" She felt like she was going to hyperventilate. "And what I thought of how you look at me." She was hoping Beast Boy would say something, anything just so she wouldn't have to really say anything about…that stuff. Instead, he remained quiet and waited. "I…like…when you kiss me. When you do, I feel like everything else is gone except you and me. It sounds corny, but that's what it's like. Uhm…when you look at me…" She took a quick peek at him. "Like you're doing now, I feel wanted…even desired. Usually, when people stare at me it feels creepy, like they're just ogling me or just trying to get a look at the dark goth girl from the Teen Titans. But when you look, I get nervous. Especially when I start to probe around me and feel what's behind your eyes while you look…it's overwhelming. You look at me like I'm beautiful and you can't help but stare."

"You are beautiful…I told you so on our first date…well, sort of, but that's what I was saying meant." Beast Boy felt like he was on fire. She was telling him everything she liked about him and he had to just sit there and listen. He wanted to grab her tightly and never let her go.

Raven was smiling, and even looking at him, but a glance at the next thing she was supposed to admit quickly pulled her eyes off of his. "This next one is…a LOT more embarrassing. She wanted me to say if I could picture us married…with kids." Raven was sure she could feel the warmth from his face from where she was sitting. It had to be warmer than the campfire. "I, uhm, don't think it's very difficult to imagine…marriage, because of how we've been living out here. We'd just have the same…room." The only thing that kept her going through everything was the faith she put in Affection's promise that doing this would probably answer her desire to know if she loved the green man. "About kids…I…never thought I would live to be able to…because of my father. I don't know about…it would be weird to think of myself as becoming a mother."

Beast Boy reached out his hand and clasped hers. "I think you'd be a good mother. You're just the kind of person who knows how to be that protective and caring. You may not show those things very much on your face, but you still do those things for the whole team. It's just part of who you are."

"Thank you." It was all she could think to say…the flood of emotions hitting her was almost more than she could take. "The last thing she said I should go through is how well I know you…and, the more I know you, the less I feel I really know. I know how much you hate to see someone sad, I know how obsessed you are about tofu, I know you try as hard as you can with anything you promise, and I know how much your friends matter to you. But, the time we've spent here has showed me how surprising you can be. You worked harder and accomplished more with your other side than I have so far with all the emotions I've worked to rejoin with. You keep outdoing yourself. I hope I get to see where you end up with this much drive." She smiled at him, her hand still in his. It had given her strength to finish and helped her feel calmer about the whole thing.

As Raven sat there looking at Beast Boy she felt like she was back with him in front of all of her emotions. Though this time, instead of him saying what he liked about each of them, each of them were saying what they thought of him. Wisdom admired his choices and determination to stick with what he considered the right choices no matter what. Happy thought he was funny and a lot of fun to be around. Crass thought he was funny looking, but in a good way, besides, he made her laugh with his belches. Intelligence was almost awestruck by his cleverness at times and couldn't help but smile at his ever-increasing knowledge of animals. Bravery respected him deeply for his heroism in so many situations. Anger couldn't stay mad at him, and was only mad at what he had done, not really him. Timid found comfort in his arms, he made her feel safe. Serenity found him to be an anchor in a storm with how predictably he sought to help others. Affection simply loved him. As Raven stopped to look at this thought in greater detail it came to her how much it would hurt if he went away in any sense or meaning. It would be like one of her own emotions had been ripped out of place. The thought of him gone scared her more than anything in her whole life had. Her father's advent included.

"Beast Boy…"

She had been quiet for so long that her words startled him a little. "Huh? Wha-what?" He quickly calmed himself back down and tried again. "What is it?"

"I…" A steadying breath with her eye closed helped her to calm down, and she pressed on. "I love you." As soon as she said it, Raven felt like her entire heart burst. It was the most powerful feeling she had ever had. She waited for him to answer, half of her afraid he wouldn't and the other half of her expecting it to happen any second now.

Beast Boy looked at her with his eyes misted over. It was the words he had hoped to hear for so long. It was air to a drowning man, food to the starving. "I love you too, Raven." He smiled brightly at her and passed out.

----------------------------------------------

(A/N) Of course it took forever to get to here! Did you really expect it to happen any sooner considering how closed off Raven has been against her own emotions? It would have been the vast majority of her life that she had suppressed and repressed her feelings. Takes a long time to undo that kind of work. Plus, some nut ball has control of the story's pacing. Let me know what you think. You know, if everyone were honest, I'd expect at least one "finally!" as somebody's reaction…maybe more than one.