Chapter 9

Bruce Wayne lived in a big mansion. A very big mansion. Raven wondered why someone who lived alone, except for his butler, would need such a large house. How did he ever get enough furniture to fill all those rooms? The Titan's looked up at the seven-story house and Robin smiled.

"We're here," he informed them unnecessarily.

Raven watched as Cyborg walked around to the trunk of the T-car and opened it up. He pulled out a large stack of presents and handed another to Beast Boy.

"Dude, what does a millionaire need with all these presents?" Beast Boy whined, staggering under the weight of the four presents he was carrying. Robin walked past him carrying seven wrapped gifts and sighed in slight frustration.

"I told you already. There are gifts for Bruce and for Alfred and the rest are for a toy drive Bruce is sponsoring."

Grumbling, Beast Boy followed them into the large mansion. An old man, who greeted them all warmly, let them in.

"Master Richard, and the rest of the Titans! So good to see all of you," he smiled, clapping Robin on the back.

"Hello Alfred," replied Robin, wrapping one arm around the butler and holding the gifts in his other hand. "It's good to see you too. You've met my friends?"

"Yes, I believe we all met at Master Bruce's New Years party last year," Alfred replied, smiling at the others. Raven mumbled acknowledgments and greetings along with the other Titans and took her shoes and jacket off. She handed her coat to a patiently waiting maid. "Please, come into the living room. Master Bruce is waiting for you all in there."

Robin led the way to Bruce's living room, used for hosting guests. The middle aged man was sitting in an armchair by the fire when they walked in. He turned around and greeted them all. He pointed out a corner of the room for them to place the charity toys in and they all sat down on the plush couch and chairs set around the room.

"So, Richard," Bruce began. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good Bruce," Robin replied. "You remember everyone else?" It was a statement. Robin called his mentor often enough that Bruce knew the Titans better than most acquaintances.

"Ah, yes. Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy and the beautiful Starfire," Bruce smiled, greeting them all. "I have to say, Starfire, Richard's told me so much about you that I was a bit disappointed that we weren't able to get better acquainted at my New Year party last year." Starfire blushed, smiling, and Beast Boy and Cyborg giggled on the couch, earning a glare from Robin.

As everyone chatted amiably, Raven inspected the room. The walls were a deep crimson, with wood paneling. The floor was made of the same dark wood, with a few Persian carpets placed sporadically around the room. Dark red curtains covered the windows, blocking out the late afternoon light (they had left Jump City at twelve in the afternoon and the trip from Jump to Gotham took three hours each way), but the room was sufficiently lit by a large crackling fire on one wall. The walls were covered with pictures and a large bookshelf. The rest of the room was richly furnished.

They all talked for a few hours, catching up and getting to know each other until Alfred announced that dinner was ready. They made their way into the dinning room and sat together at the large wooden table, already set with food, plates and utensils.

Everyone- including Alfred, who was like family- dished up their food and began to eat.

"So, Cyborg," Bruce said conversationally, cutting his roast beef. "Maybe you could fill me in on the couples status in Titans Tower?"

Cyborg snorted with laughter though his own mashed potatoes, and Bruce smirked as blushes crossed the other Titans' features. Raven felt a faint blush on her own face, though she knew that Cyborg couldn't know that she was developing feelings for Beast Boy… could he?

"Well," replied Cyborg, fully intent on giving him a truthful and thorough answer. "Boy Blunder over there has been growing even more infatuated with a certain alien princess by the day. The girl in question is obviously just as smitten."

Bruce laughed heartily, while Robin glared at Cyborg and Starfire politely pretended not to have heard anything despite the shades of crimson covering her noise and cheeks. Beast Boy giggled into his meal of specially prepared tofu and stir-fried vegetables and Cyborg continued.

"Meanwhile, our little green friend over here has been spending much time with a certain empath, who doesn't seem to mind very much."

By now Bruce was nearly falling from his chair in laughter, if not from Cyborg's explanations, from the reactions his explanations brought forth.

Raven sent her most personal death glare towards Cyborg, accompanied by Robin's own less threatening, but still fairly intimidating glare. Starfire was still blushing and pushing food around on her plate and Beast Boy had suddenly found a very interesting spot on the wall that demanded all his attention.

Alfred smirked and spoke up, "Perhaps the subjects of this conversation might appreciate a change in topic?"

"Oh, you teenagers," Bruce smiled fondly, eyes twinkling with laughter. "We're only joking. Cyborg's not being serious and I know none of you are having secret love affairs."

Raven narrowed her eyes at his joke, but was satisfied with the change of subject when Cyborg began talking about cars. It turned out that Bruce had a car that was important to him as well.

As Raven sipped at her soup, she wondered vaguely if Beast Boy's presents counted as a love affair? No, of course not, she told herself. She pushed the idea from her head and continued eating her dinner in relative silence, only speaking when spoken to, as per usual.

Once everyone had finished eating they returned to the sitting room. Bruce focused his attention on Starfire, who had begun examining an abstract picture in the corner of the room. Cyborg and Robin talked on the couch about whatever came to mind and Beast Boy wandered the room mindlessly. Raven was almost magnetically drawn to the large bookshelf covering most of the far wall and she quickly chose a book and sat down by the fireplace to read it.

As soon as she had opened the book to read, however, Beast Boy walked over and sat down next to her. Unfortunately for Raven, she was sitting in a one-person chair.

Beast Boy squished into the seat, causing both of them to shift so that Raven ended up partially sitting on Beast Boy's lap.

Raven glared at the boy, who smiled at her like nothing unnatural had happened.

"You do realize that it's things like this that make Cyborg think you have feelings for me," Raven informed him. She knew she hadn't mentioned her own feelings, and hoped Beast Boy hadn't noticed.

"What if I don't care?" asked Beast Boy, smirking. Raven blushed a bit, and was glad for the fireplace spreading its red-ish glow across her face and disguising her blush. Without saying anything else, Beast Boy stood up and walked away. As he walked away, Raven felt a slight weight pressing against her legs. She looked down and noticed there was something sitting in her lap. It was a present.

She glanced around the room, glad to see that no one had noticed and looked back down at the present in her lap. She picked up the note and unfolded it carefully.

Raven,

I can't believe I got the nerve to actually give you your present instead of leaving it on your bed. I probably ran away right after giving it to you, didn't I? Well, this is hard enough for me to write, I have no idea what I would say to you if I were there when you read this note.

This is hard, so I guess I'll just come out and say it… I like you. Like, like-like you. I know this might make you feel uncomfortable around me… but please don't. If it makes you feel any better, I've liked you for a long time.

Anyway, I just thought I should let you know. I guess that's why I've been giving you all these presents, and why I'm going to keep giving them to you. Even if you don't feel the same about me, my feelings for you aren't going to change, so I may as well keep giving you your presents, right?

Uh… if you feel the same, please don't tell me yet. If you don't feel the same, still don't tell me yet. Wait until… I don't know… just, not now… please.

-Your 'secret' admirer

Raven read the note, reread it, then read it and reread it again. She couldn't believe it. He liked her. She wondered why he didn't want her to tell him how she felt. She could understand that he was scared that she wouldn't feel the same, but why shouldn't she tell him that the feeling was mutual? Deciding to mull it over some other time, Raven looked back at the paper in her hands.

She looked down at the bottom of the note. It said "-Your 'secret' admirer" as usual, but if she looked closely she could see that that spot had been erased a few times. She edged closer to the fire and looked at the marks left from the erased pencil. She could see the erased words 'From your friend' but underneath that it said something else. Did that say… 'love'? 'Love Beast Boy'?

Raven's heart was pounding as she lowered the note. She was about to throw the note into the flames, like she had done to the others over candles in her room, but she stopped. Looking at the note again, she folded it up and placed it in her pocket.

She picked up the present. It was flat, like the journal and the picture frame he had given her, but thinner. She unwrapped it carefully, revealing a folded piece of cardboard, which she opened. Inside was a charcoal sketch of a beautiful girl, looking down at something. A book, perhaps? Looking at the picture carefully, Raven realized it was her, reading. At the corner of the page Beast Boy had messily scrawled his signature.

-

As they drove Beast Boy looked around restlessly. Everyone else was looking out their windows or driving, but he couldn't while he was sitting in the middle. Robin had claimed the front passenger seat, and Raven and Starfire were sitting on either side of him looking out their windows. He pulled out a hand held gamestation and began defeating 'evil alien scum'.

Raven looked up from her window at the sound of Beast Boy's game. She found the beeping a buzzing noises annoying. She turned to ask Beast Boy to turn the sound off, but stopped.

As she watched him play, she noticed that his fingers were working hard to keep up with the game, and his eyes were glued to the lit up screen, but his gaze didn't seem to be focused on the game. It was more like he was thinking. Raven wasn't sure how she knew this, but she didn't care. As she watched him, she wondered what he was thinking about.

Maybe he was thinking of her. Raven knew it was possible, now that she had read his letter.

She had been watching him for a few minutes when she realized his green eyes were fixed on her.

"What are you staring at?" Beast Boy asked, amusement in his voice.

"Nothing," Raven replied calmly. She turned to face her window. She heard a click to her left and looked over to see Beast Boy turning his game off.

"This was bugging you, wasn't it?" asked Beast Boy, holding the game up.

"Sort of," Raven replied. It had been bugging her, but that hadn't been the reason she had been staring at him. "What were you thinking about?" asked Raven. As soon as the words left her mouth she wondered why she had asked.

"Nothing," Beast Boy replied, smiling mysteriously. Raven felt her curiosity stir, but turned away from him and opened her book. She realized that it was too dark in the car to read at this time of night, so she closed it and returned to looking out the window.

She was looking at a heard of sleeping cows when she felt Beast Boy shift a bit so his hand was casually resting on her knee. To the casual observer, it only looked like Beast Boy had moved to get more comfortable and his hand had just happened to land on her knee, but when Raven glanced up at him, she saw the mischievous glint in his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, Raven looked back out the window.

It wasn't long, however, before she felt his hand being lifted and dropped onto the seat next to her thigh. Raven did her best to ignore this. She was starting to realize he was testing her. He still didn't know how she felt, so he was trying to see by inching closer to her. After a while, she felt his hand slowly rising again.

This time, he made it look like he was yawning, stretching his arms in the air, but as he lowered his arm, it mysteriously draped itself around Raven's shoulders. Both her eyebrows raised so high, she risked losing them in her hairline.

She looked over at Beast Boy, who refused to meet her eyes. Instead he leaned his weight on her and rested his head on her shoulder. She looked down at his green head as he pretended to sleep. She knew he was faking; his breathing hadn't slowed, he was tense (probably getting ready for her imminent anger at his actions), and she could practically feel his goofy smile being forced down for sake of his pretense.

Surprising herself, and probably Beast Boy as well, Raven just turned her head and continued to look out the window with the green boy leaning on her.

She ignored Starfire's quiet giggles and Cyborg's laughing gaze in the rearview window and Robin looking back and smiling knowingly every ten minutes.

They stayed like that for the entire ride. Eventually Beast Boy really did fall asleep, but Raven remained wide-awake. She remained focused on the blurring scenery, except for the few times she stopped to wonder why it felt so right to be sitting so close to Beast Boy, or why she didn't care that her friends continued to look at them like the may as well have been making out in the back seat.

Resting her head against the cool window, Raven wondered what life would be like when she could tell Beast Boy that she felt the same. He wouldn't change his mind about his feelings, Raven was sure. Or, at least, mostly sure. She didn't care. All she knew was that someone cared about her, and she cared about him. For once, pessimistic thoughts seemed the farthest from her mind they had ever been.

As the T-car drove silently though the countryside to Jump City, Raven watched the bright stars and thought happy thoughts. And Raven's heart grew three sizes that day.

Lol, sorry about that last line. I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The old one,the new one is stupid.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I have to say, it's probably one of my favorites.But it doesn't matter what I think, I want to kow what you think! Review and tell me! Thanksto everyone who has so far!You all rock!

Tammy Tamborine