Chapter 6
Raven woke up the next morning feeling quite peaceful. Yesterday's adventure with Santa at the mall seemed like a vivid dream, but she had no doubt that it had really happened.
She stretched and carefully picked up an item on her bedside table. It was her latest gift from Beast Boy. She looked at the picture frame fondly. It was painted gold, with bright red and green holly painted around the corners. It was clearly hand-made, and Raven was surprised at the green boy's artistic talent. She had always assumed Beast Boy would be a messy artist, judging by his writing, his snowmen and his overall being, but it seemed she was wrong.
She had found it on her bed when she had gone into her room that evening after reading in the living room for a couple hours after they returned from the mall.
She looked at the picture that had been placed in it; the picture they had taken the other day at the mall. Cyborg was laughing at Raven as he leaned against the back of Santa's chair. Starfire's back was mostly turned away from Raven and perpendicular to the camera, but her head had turned just in time to see Raven get pulled down, and a large smile had spread across her face. Robin was leaning on Starfire's side of the chair and had snuck his arms around the alien, presumably using the excuse of fitting into the picture. Raven was sitting on Santa's left knee, with her own legs on top of Beast Boy's. Beast Boy was sitting on the left arm of Santa's chair and smiling fondly at Raven as she glared at him.
She had been slightly embarrassed at being pulled onto Santa's lap last minute, but she was now quite attached to the picture. She had had fun at Santa's workshop, although she would never admit it to her friends.
Sighing, Raven placed the picture frame back on her nightstand. She knew she would need to tell Beast Boy to back off soon. She wasn't sure if he liked her that way, but she didn't want to lead him on if he did. It was wrong. She had put it off until now because, wait…
Raven knit her brows, thinking hard. Why had she wait this long? He had given her five gifts already; she had plenty of time to tell him she wasn't interested. As Raven sat in her bed, leaning against the back board, a thought crossed her mind. What if she didn't want to tell him to back off? What if she liked him?
As quickly as the thought came, it was dismissed.
"As if," Raven muttered, crawling out of bed. Blocking her mind from all thoughts of Beast Boy, she grabbed the things she needed for a shower and quickly scurried to the bathroom.
She finished quickly and went to the main room. As usual it was empty, although if she listened carefully she could hear the stirring of her fellow Titans.
Making a cup of tea, she sat down in her usual meditation spot. She meditated for a while, concentrating only on the flow of her three words, but found that she couldn't do it for as long as usual. There hadn't been any trouble for a while now, as if all the real criminals were busy with the festivities of the season. Since there had been any trouble, and not much stress, her emotions, and therefore her powers, were under relatively good control.
After a while, she gave up trying to meditate and just sat curled up on the couch, clutching her warm tea and watched the light snowfall. After a while, her friends joined her, sitting in silence on the couch. Even Beast Boy was quiet, although, truthfully he was half-asleep.
Raven's lips curled up slightly. She enjoyed just being with her friends. They were all comfortable enough with each other that they could all just sit together and not say a word. Beast Boy was usually the first one to break the silence, as it wasn't in his nature to be quiet for long. No one minded though; they were all comfortable in their silences, but they still enjoyed talking to each other more.
"So, who's making breakfast?" Beast Boy asked.
"I will," offered Cyborg, standing up from the couch.
"No way! You'll make meat!" Beast Boy protested.
"Well, then why don't you make it?" Cyborg retorted.
"Because every time I make breakfast you complain about it," Beast Boy replied, crossing his arms.
"Only because you make that nasty tofu of yours," Cyborg replied, making a face at the 't' word.
As the boys continued to fight playfully, Robin made his way silently to the kitchen. He was willing to make Beast Boy's tofu eggs and bacon, even if he refused to eat it.
While Robin cooked, Raven read and Starfire watched as Beast Boy and Cyborg- who had apparently forgotten their argument already- play a video game.
Twenty or so minutes later, Robin announced that breakfast was ready and they all ate, talking about what ever came to mind.
As Starfire scooped up her last fork full of scrambled eggs, she warned everyone that they were not permitted to enter her room, as she would be wrapping her presents that afternoon. They all agreed and the alien floated back to her room.
Everyone finished up their breakfast and placed their dishes in the sink.
"I think I'm going to go wrap some presents too," Beast Boy commented. Raven looked up, instantly reminded what she needed to tell him. Closing her eyes, Raven looked back down at her food. It could wait.
"Yeah, I'm going to as well," Robin said, walking out of the room. Cyborg left as well, leaving Raven alone in the kitchen. She walked over and placed her own plate in the sink. The dishes were all stacked up. Though Robin was always persistent about everyone keeping the tower clean, he was quite lenient about washing the dishes.
Raven smirked. Everyone complained when they got nominated to wash the dishes, insisting they would melt in soap and water. What they didn't seem to realize, was that they had an industrial sized dishwasher that did a better job than hand washing.
Raven lifted the dishes with her powers and placed them all carefully in the dishwasher. She used another tendril of power to pull a large bottle of dishwasher detergent from under the sink and turned the machine on. Satisfied with the swishing sound emanating from the dishwasher, Raven turned and walked down the hall to her room.
Pulling several bags from her closet, Raven sat down on the floor. She pulled out a large tube of wrapping paper and a spool of gold ribbon that matched nicely with the thin green, red and gold stripes on the wrapping paper.
She carefully opened the paper on the floor, face down, and placed a plain white box on it. Robin's 'Starfire' doll. Raven quickly cut off enough wrapping paper to cover it and taped it around the present. Lastly, she cut a long piece of gold ribbon and tied it around the box and curled the edges of ribbon with scissors.
She repeated this with Starfire and Cyborg's presents and finished quickly. She looked at the three wrapped gifts and sighed. She had no idea what she was going to get Beast Boy. She knew she should figure it out soon, to avoid the rush of last minute shoppers, but she was being strangely picky about his gift.
Carefully placing the wrapped gifts under her bed for safe keeping until they got a tree, she stood up and left her room.
She walked down the halls of Titan's Tower, not completely sure where she was going, and stopped when she heard a strange noise coming from the room to her right. She looked over and saw that it was Beast Boy's room, and could hear the familiar sounds of Beast Boy struggling to do something.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked over to his door and knocked on it.
"Yes?" he called, voice straining to sound natural, despite his obvious difficulties in what ever he was doing.
"Are you all right in there?" she asked, stepping closer to the door so he could hear her better. "You sound like you need help."
There was silence for a moment and suddenly the door opened, and Beast Boy looked out at her. He didn't say anything for a moment.
"Raven, could you, maybe… help me wrap some presents?" he asked hesitantly. Raven considered it for a moment before nodding and walking into his room.
Her friend's green room was messy, as usual, but a space had been cleared out in the middle of the floor, where presents, wrapping paper and tape had been set up. In the middle of the clearing, messily taped with large gaps in it, was a partially wrapped gift box. Raven noticed as she sat down near it, that the piece of cut wrapping paper was slightly crumpled.
Beast Boy took a seat next to her and picked up the present. He looked at her sheepishly and laughed.
"I'm not all that good at wrapping," he blushed.
"I can see that," she replied. She had known before, of course, judging by the less than stratospheric wrapping job her presents had come in. She picked up the white box he had been wrapping. "Who's this one for?" she asked.
"They're Robin's boxing gloves. I tried to wrap them without the box, but it was too hard," Beast Boy explained, like a student hoping to give the right answer. Raven nodded. Beast Boy smiled, proud that he had answered right.
"This piece of wrapping paper is too small," she told him, examining the package.
"How was I supposed to know that?" he asked, genuinely confused. Raven sighed; this might be harder than she thought.
-
Half an hour later, Raven had successfully taught Beast Boy how to wrap Robin's present with only one small fight over the correct use for tape. Confident that he could figure out how to wrap the rest, Raven began to stand up, but Beast Boy caught her hand in his own. She looked at him questioningly and he smiled.
"Do you wanna say and just talk?" he asked her hopefully. "Just in case I need help with the others," he added as a precaution. Raven shrugged and sat back down.
"Just as long as you don't make anymore of your stupid 'tape beards'."
Beast Boy grinned and pulled the next present closer. It was a recipe book. Raven raised an eyebrow and Beast Boy laughed.
"It's for Starfire," he explained. "It's about time she learned how to cook some earth food instead of force feeding us Tameranian delicacies."
Raven smirked and nodded.
As Beast Boy continued slowly wrapping Starfire's present, he talked. At first it was about random things; the weather, shopping, villains; but soon they were both deep in conversation about traveling.
"Flying is the best way to go," Raven insisted. "It's fast, and cheap."
"You don't even have feathers when you fly, don't you ever get cold?" Beast Boy asked, carefully taping down some paper.
"Not really. Well, I do, but I don't mind the cold," she replied truthfully. Beast Boy nodded.
"I prefer trains," he told her.
"What, like the subway? Or the Transit?" she asked incredulously. She didn't see why anyone would like Jump City's subway; it constantly smelled of urine and dirt. The transit, or C-train, a train that traveled above ground on cables in other cities, like Steel or Gotham City was just as bad graffiti and vandalism.
"No," Beast Boy replied. "I mean, like real trains. You know, with tracks and a little red caboose."
"When did you go on one of those?" Raven asked. While there were still trains that carried things back and forth, real passenger trains were becoming an endangered species.
(AN: Okay, I'm not totally sure about all this. I'm pretty sure there aren't any passenger trains in Canada, but I don't know about the USA. There are still passenger trains in some parts of Europe, right?)
"A long time ago," Beast Boy answered. "With my parents. We were traveling through Europe to get to a boat that would take us to Africa."
Raven nodded. She knew about his story, how he had gone to Africa with his biologist parents and gotten sick. All the Titans knew about that.
"We were going to go on a train on the way back, but…" Beast Boy trailed off, but Raven didn't prod for more. She knew when things were private, and she could tell that he didn't want to say any more. Besides, she could fill in the blanks well enough. "Any way," he continued after a while. "I remember loving it. I had so much fun exploring the different parts of the train, and I fell asleep so quickly with the movement."
Raven nodded.
"You win," she told him, giving up on their min-debate.
Beast Boy smiled triumphantly and they continued talking with fairly light hearts.
After about an hour and a half, Beast Boy had finished wrapping Starfire, Robin and Cyborg's gifts. He looked over his work proudly.
"How are they?" he asked Raven, motioning at them like a prize model on a game show.
"Not bad," she admitted. "Not bad at all." Beast Boy grinned and piled the boxes up and placed them on his paper-strewn desk.
"Shall we go to the kitchen and fetch some celebratory chocolate milk?" he asked in a stereotypical sophisticated voice, playfully holding out his arm.
"Sure," Raven replied, ignoring his proffered elbow. Beast Boy shrugged and let his arm fall to his side and they walked in silence.
In the kitchen, Raven sat down at the table, and Beast Boy quickly made some instant hot chocolate. Carefully carrying the steaming mugs to the table, Beast Boy sat down next to Raven and placed a plastic bag, which he had held in his teeth, on the table.
"Marshmallows?" he offered, grabbing a hold of the sides. Raven nodded. She watched as Beast Boy pulled on the sides of the plastic, willing it to open. After some struggling, it did in a small explosion of white mini-marshmallows. The fluffy confections flew in every direction, a few landing in their cups, while the rest landed on the table, floor, or the tops of Raven and Beast Boy's heads.
Raven shot a glare at Beast Boy who laughed nervously.
"You're welcome?" he offered as a response to her glare. Raven rolled her eyes, but ceased her glaring and picked up her mug. She took a sip and they sat in relative silence, drinking their hot chocolate and enjoying each other's company.
They were both done when Cyborg walked in.
"Hey," he greeted, walking in. They nodded in response. Raven stood and carried the empty cups to the sink.
"Get your coats on," he ordered. "We're all going out to pick a tree."
"Yeah!" Beast Boy cheered, punching the air happily. "We're getting our Christmas tree, the best tree in the town, we're getting our Christmas tree, let's jump up and down!"
Raven groaned at Beast Boy's lame cheer, thanking whatever entity had been gracious enough to make Beast Boy a super hero instead of a cheerleader, and walked with the two boys down to the front landing. Robin and Starfire were ready and waiting, and they all left once Raven and Beast Boy had their coats on.
They went directly to a lot that sold nice, big pine trees. They walked through the lot and chose a large pine that wouldn't have fit in any houses with a roof lower than twelve feet tall. Luckily, the main room in the tower was bigger than most houses.
They brought the tree back to the tower, where Robin and Cyborg set it up in the corner of the living room. After dinner, Raven took on last look at the tree and went back to her room.
Sitting on her bed was a neatly wrapped package, and she knew without looking, that it was from Beast Boy. Who else would it be from?
She picked up the note and read,
Raven,
Thanks for helping me wrap earlier, I hope you like how I wrapped your present. It only took me ten minutes to do after dinner. Anyway, enjoy your present.
-Your 'secret' admirer
Raven folded the note and placed it to the side. She picked up the flat present and looked at the wrapping job. It was pretty nice. It was strange how someone who had made her such nice gifts had so much trouble wrapping. She tore under the tape and looked at the book inside.
It was a silver and purple journal. She furrowed her brows. It was strange; she had never considered writing in a journal before, but it seemed like such a perfect gift. Now that she really thought about it, a journal would be nice to have, like a sort of meditation.
She placed the book under her pillow and threw the wrapping paper in the small trash bin in the corner of her room.
-
Raven tossed under the blankets of her bed. She had been trying to sleep for an hour now, but the same thought was keeping her awake. Why hadn't she told Beast Boy? She had plenty of time to tell him that day, spending as much time as she did with him while he wrapped presents. It was almost ironic, how she hadn't brought up the subject of his giving her presents, while he wrapped presents.
Staring at the ceiling with a set jaw, she decided that she would have to look at the situation like an outsider. Obviously there was some psychological explanation for her procrastination in telling Beast Boy she wasn't interested.
Closing her eyes, Raven concentrated on an image of Starfire in her mind.
"Please, friend Raven, why do I not wish to give Robin the 'shoulder of cold'?" the image implored.
"Because you love him," Raven replied out loud, immediately wincing. Raven sighed. She replayed the scene several times, phrasing it differently each time. Each time she got the same answer.
Growling in frustration, Raven rolled onto her side.
"Okay," she said to her empty room. "I might like him as a little more than a friend. Just a little. But it doesn't mean anything. It's just a small crush, developed from flattery at the gifts."
Satisfied, although not completely happy with her conclusion, Raven was able to drift off into an easy sleep.
I'm so sorry! I tried to update yesterday, I really did, but I was so busy! I had a costume fitting, then I had to clean the house because we have family coming over today, then I had to help out at Mom's children's Christmas perty at work, then I had to babysit for six screaming children until twelve in the morning! As you can probably tell, I'm still quite tired. I just felt like I should post early today, to make up for it. There'll be a another chapter later today!
As always, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. I really appreciate it!
Tammy Tamborine