Chapter 3

Raven groggily opened her eyes and pulled her covers up higher. She wiggled her nose and, noticing that it was significantly colder than the rest of her boy, buried it in her pillow. Her room was colder than it had been the night before. Since she hadn't changed out of her sweater and jeans though, she was much warmer then she would have been in normal pajamas.

After warming up under the covers for a few minutes, she stood up with the covers still wrapped around her body, and walked over to her window. She rubbed some frost off the glass and looked at the ground below. There was at least a foot of snow covering the ground.

She went over to her closet, ignoring the cold, and pulled out a clean sweater and warm pants and changed quickly. Once she had finished getting ready, she walked down the hall and into the kitchen. The hydraulic doors leading into the main room opened with a hiss and she surveyed the room. To her surprise, everyone else was already up.

"The furnace went on last night, but it wasn't warm enough. We all woke up from the cold," Robin explained. She wasn't used to being the last one up, and she realized, with some embarrassment, that her surprise must have been evident. She nodded and fixed herself a cup of warm tea.

As Raven made her way over to the table with her steaming cup of tea, she caughtthe mouth-watering scent of pancakes Cyborg had generously made. Raven sat down next to Starfire and placed a couple of the warm flapjacks on her plate.

"Friends, what shall we do today?" Starfire asked, drenching her plate of pancakes in mustard.

"I propose we have a snowball fight!" Beast Boy exclaimed, holding his fork up in the air. Raven rolled her eyes. A snowball fight? How juvenile.

"That sounds pretty fun," Robin admitted.

"Hey, nothing better to do," agreed Cyborg, finishing his large pile of pancakes.

"That would be most enjoyable!" Starfire added, clasping her hands against her chest.

Raven looked down at her food, but she could feel everyone's eyes on her, waiting for her answer.

"No," she told them.

"Ah, come on Rae! It won't be any fun without you!" Beast Boy pleaded.

"On the contrary, it won't be any fun with me," Raven replied, biting a piece of pancake off her fork. She couldn't say she wasn't at least slightly tempted with the offer, but she had given up frolicking in the snow like a toddler a long time ago.

"Please? You don't have to join in! You could just watch from the sidelines," Beast Boy offered.

"As tempting as it is to sit outside in the cold and not do anything, no." Raven replied.

"Come on, Raven! Give me one good reason why you shouldn't," Beast Boy challenged, leaning across the table so his face was inches from Raven's. She scowled at his smug expression.

"Because it's immature and childish," she replied calmly, taking a bite of her pancakes.

"What are you saying? That all of us are childish for wanting to go out and have some fun?"

"No, I'm saying you are childish for suggesting it," she snapped, standing up abruptly so they were almost nose to nose. Beast Boy narrowed his eyes and growled in frustration. Raven stared back, unblinking, until BeastBoy sighed angrilyand backed away.

"Fine," he replied, picking up his plate and stomping over to the sink. The other Titans watched him walk away. Raven knew they felt awkward, but they didn't want to say anything, in case they got in the middle of one of Beast Boy and Raven's arguments.

As Raven watched him walk away, a strange gnawing feeling began in the pit of her stomach. She reccognized it;the feelinghad become a more frequent occurrence lately. Guilt. It angered her how hard it was to ignoresuch a pointless emotionwhen they fought lately. It really made no sense why she couldn't yell at him and have a clear conscience anymore.

"Fine," she grumbled, sitting down and poking at her pancakes angrily. "I'll go outside. But if I'm not having fun after the first round, I'm coming back inside and reading for the rest of the day."

Beast Boy turned around and smiled. Raven rolled her eyes lightly asa sighof relief escaped the other Titans.

After breakfast was eaten and dishes put away, everyone went down to the landing. Everyone bundled themselves up in warm jackets, boots, hats and gloves.

Raven pulled on her new mittens and scarf, reveling in the warmth of the wool winter accessories. She looked up and scanned the landing from under her eyelashes. She was glad to see that she had managed to put them on without Beast Boy noticing. Her cover was blown, however, when Starfire commented loudly on how nice her new outdoor clothing was. Beast Boy looked over from putting on his boots and smiled proudly, but only for a second, before opening the large metal doors and leading everyone outside.

Raven was the last one out. She trudged through the snow, enjoying the crunching sound the snow made as she followed her friends' footsteps. Looking down as she walked, she was able to identify each of her friends by looking at the tracks left.

Cyborg's were the easiest, as each of his feet was almost twice the size of the others. Starfire's were easy to identify as well. She floated slightly as she walked, so some of her prints had only pressed down the first inch of snow, if any. Robin's footprints were an average size, walking in a straight line, quite close to Starfire's. Beast Boy's were about the same size as Robin's, but she knew they were his by way they turned out awkwardly and how they changed into large dog paw prints right before they turned the corner of the tower.

She turned the corner to the back of the tower, where her friends would be waiting for her so they could start the snowball fight. She looked up from the ground and was greeted by a shock of snow hitting her straight in the face. Raven lifted her hands to her face, wiped away the snow and glowered at the laughing changeling. She bent down and rolled a handful of snow into a ball and threw it back at him. It landed squarely on his forehead, knocking his goofy toque off his head. (AN: No offense to toques, of course. I'm a proud Canadian, after all)

Soon everyone joined in, throwing snowballs at anyone. It was every man, alien, half-demon, robot and uh… beast boy, for themselves.

Raven would never admit it to anyone, but as she threw the clumps of snow at her friends, she actually enjoyed herself. She even caught herself smiling a few times, before quickly replacing it with her usual expressionless expression. After a while, everyone ceased fire, panting heavily, but smiling widely, even Raven.

Raven collapsed to the ground, next to her friends who had all done the same, ignoring the cold as it bit at her cheeks and froze her posterior. She looked around at her friends as they caught their breaths. Cyborg and Beast Boy were arguing happily about whom had won the snowball fight. Starfire had fallen onto her back and made an angel in the snow. Robin smiled and lay back to do the same.

"Let's make snowmen!" exclaimed Beast Boy, standing up energetically. Raven shrugged. She couldn't find any good reason not to. The other Titans agreed enthusiastically and stood up as well.

Everyone set about making his or her own snowman. After an hour or so, everyone had almost finished their snowman. Raven stepped back from her snow person and looked at everyone else's handiwork.

They were now recognizable as snowy versions of the Titans themselves. At least, for the most part. Looking over at Beast Boy's, Raven had to bite back a flood of sarcastic comments.

His snowy counterpart was barely recognizable from a pile of snow. Raven smiled lightly and walked over.

"Need some help?" she asked, failing to hide the amusement in her voice.

"No, I think I'm good," replied Beast Boy, stooping down to work on a 'shoe'. Raven watched with a raised eyebrow as he stood up and looked at his creation. "Okay, I might need a little help," he admitted, laughing after scrutinizing the snowman for a minute.

Raven reached for one of the arms. She carefully molded the snow until it was a close replica to Beast Boy's arm. She did the same to the other arm as Beast Boy carefully shaped the legs. They continued to work in silence until they couldn't find anything else to fix. They stood back and looked it over. It was as good, if not better than, its fellow snowmen.

All the Titans stood back and looked at the snowy super heroes. Laughing, everyone walked back into the tower. Inside, Raven rubbed at her fingers and sock-covered toes. Her digits were nearly frozen, and she knew the other Titans must be having the same problem, but everyone was happy and barely noticed any discomfort they might have.

They all walked into the kitchen and sat down. Robin quickly made five cups of hot apple cider and brought them over to the table.

Raven accepted the cup gratefully. Her hands prickled as the hot cup unthawed her fingers quickly, but she didn't mind.

Raven drank her cider quietly, listening as her friends joked happily. One joke that came up fairly often was how they should have made snow villains for the 'Snow Titans' to fight. On some level they all must have realized that the joke wasn't that funny, but no one could be knocked down from their emotional high.

By the time they had finished laughing and eating a fairly large dinner of nuked pizza (they had completely forgotten to have lunch), it was late, and everyone was tired. They walked to their rooms in sleepy, good spirits.

When Raven walked into her room, she wasn't surprised to find a clumsily wrapped gift sitting on her bed. She walked over and picked up the note.

Raven,

I'm sorry about our fight today, I shouldn't have pushed you to do something you didn't want to do.

I just wanted to say that I'm having fun spending time with you this winter. I suppose you probably know by now who I am. Please, don't say anything or act differently around me. I don't want you to be uncomfortable around me.

-Your secret admirer (Beast Boy)

Raven's eyebrows shot up in amusement. Perhaps he wasn't as dumb as he looked. He knew that she knew who he was. Raven reread the note and frowned slightly. What did he mean by not wanting her to be uncomfortable around him? Did that mean he actually was doing this because he liked her? Or did he just say it as a formality, to tell her without telling her that what he was doing was just a friendly gesture and he didn't want her to get scared and think he was in love with her or something.

Dropping the note on her bed, Raven sighed. Every time she thought about his notes, her thoughts ran wild and she could never get a straight answer, and she wasn't used to it. She had never found it hard to think, or analyze or anything else of that nature, so how come suddenly she was having so much trouble? She was especially having trouble analyzing the strange feeling she got around Beast Boy lately. It had come with the first gift, or perhaps a little before that, and she didn't recognize it. She got butterflies in her stomach, like she got when she was nervous, except more enjoyable.

Shaking off her thoughts, Raven changed into her pajamas and lay down in her bed. It was a nice feeling, and she decided that it didn't need to be analyzed too much. Not yet…

The third chapter is up! I know she didn't open her gift yet, but she will in the next chapter. Just a quick question, who here has seen the Nutcracker?

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed, I always love hearing your thoughts.

Tammy Tamborine