Chapter 11

Raven shoved her way through the crowded streets, keeping her eyes fixed on the street signs on each corner. No one seemed to mind her rush, as they were all busy themselves. It was Christmas Eve, and a lot of people needed to find last minute gifts.

Peeling her eyes from the sign for just one minute, Raven looked down at her watch. Eleven-thirty.

She had left early, hoping to avoid the rush of last-minute shoppers, but apparently not early enough.

Raven knew she could just fly up and over the crowd, but it didn't seem right. She had left it until last minute to get Beast Boy's present, and she had to deal with it. In her mind, it was like justified punishment for her procrastination.

Raven sped up her pace, which had faltered when she checked her watch. As she walked, her shoulder bumped into a large man, who ended up stepping on her foot by accident.

"Watch where you're going," the man snarled over his shoulder, not even stopping to see if Raven was all right.

"Merry Christmas to you too, buddy," Raven muttered, rubbing her foot through her shoe as the man disappeared into the crowd. Gingerly placing her foot back on the ground, Raven turned and continued her trek.

Reaching the corner, she quickly made a left, crossed a street, turned right, crossed another street and took another left. Raven stopped. She should be standing outside of the store right now. She wasn't.

Looking down the street, Raven cursed lightly when she saw the street sign. It was the one she had memorized, or at least one she remembered seeing before, but apparently she had been mistaken. The small store was no where in sight. Walking around the block once, Raven searched the store windows for any sign of the little toy store.

Cursing her bad luck, Raven stormed through the streets. She didn't know where she was going, but she certainly wasn't about to stop and give up. Eventually, she reached her unknown destination. It was the little café she had gone to with Beast Boy a few days a go. Had it really only been a little over a week?

She pushed open the door and walked in. A bell chimed above her and she walked over to a small table in the corner.

She looked around the restaurant. It was nearly empty. The only other occupant was an old woman doing a crossword in the newspaper. Raven looked down at her table before looking up again and doing a double-take. Looking closer at the woman, Raven recognized her as the old woman who had been sitting with her husband the last time she came.

Hesitantly, Raven stood up. She wasn't completely sure why, but she suddenly felt a strong urge to go talk to the old woman.

She walked across the café and sat down across from the woman. Looking up from her crossword in surprise, she smiled.

"Hello dear," the woman greeted. "Can I help you?"

Raven gave her a small smile.

"I'm not sure," Raven replied truthfully. She wondered once more why she had come over. They sat in a slightly awkward silence. As Raven searched her mind for something to say, the woman looked at her.

"Do I know you?" the woman asked, gazing at Raven's features. "You look familiar."

"Um, no, not really," Raven was unsure of how to answer. "I came here the other day, when you were with your husband. You said something about my friend and I-"

"I remember you now!" the woman exclaimed. "You're the girl I saw. You were with that green boy!"

"Yes," Raven replied, feeling slightly more comfortable for some reason. "It's just, I was wondering…"

The woman looked at Raven, waiting for her to continue. Once Raven had her thoughts straight, she restarted.

"How long have you known your husband?"

The woman looked confused at the question, but just smiled and replied.

"I've known Oscar for many years now," the woman told her. "We met when we were twelve. I had just moved to a new place, with my foster family, and I was scared to meet new people. Oscar came over to me one day and asked to be my friend. We've been inseparable ever since."

The woman had a dreamy look on her face, and though she could see the woman, Raven felt as though the woman were far away, in some dream land of memories. Raven was slightly startled when the woman continued.

"As we grew up, we grew closer. He took me to our senior prom. When he asked me, he insisted that it was just as friends, but then on the night of the dance, he leaned over and we both shared our first kiss."

The woman had a whimsical smile on her face as she recalled that night so long ago.

"After that we kept going out, although, if anyone else asked, we always said that we were just friends. We told each other the same thing. Eventually we admitted that it wasn't friendship we felt for each other. Far from it. We were in love, and we didn't care who knew it. We got married fairly young, although at the time it wasn't uncommon to get married at eighteen."

Finishing her story, the woman sighed happily and looked over at Raven.

"Oh, dear, I've been rambling on about my life," the woman said, flushing good-naturedly. "I don't suppose you care about an old woman's love life."

"No, I liked your story,"insisted Raven.

It was true. Raven had found the story very interesting. It was so like, yet unlike, her and Beast Boy. She could see plenty of differences and similarities in both stories.

"Is that all you wanted to know, dear?" asked the woman, shaking Raven from her thoughts.

"What? Oh, yes. Thank you."

They both sat in silence, the woman returning to her crossword, and Raven lost in thoughts. Glancing out the window, Raven jumped when she saw what was sitting across the street.

Raven quickly stood up and ran out the door. She looked back once, to see the woman watching her with a confused expression of her face, but Raven didn't have any time to waste.

Impatiently waiting for a break in traffic, Raven quickly crossed the street and berated herself for not noticing earlier.

Smiling at the display in the window, Raven pulled the door open and walked into the small toy store. It was surprisingly empty, as Raven walked to the counter with purpose.

"Do you have any more of those trains in the window?" Raven asked, forcing her voice to sound calm. Truthfully, she found it hard to believe that anyone could be calm after walking through the hectic city streets just outside.

"We certainly do," smiled the old man standing behind the counter. His face crinkled when he smiled, and wire-rim glasses sat perched on the end of his nose, above a powder white mustache. Raven found herself smiling, despite the stress she still felt. The man had a certain 'grandpa quality' to him, that Raven couldn't help but find calm and warming.

She followed him through the store until he reached a table that had been set up, and had a single box left on it. He picked up the box and handed it to Raven. She looked at the picture in the box and quickly read the contents printed on the back. She smiled. It was perfect, and she had gotten the last one.

She followed the old man back to the cash register where he began punching numbers manually into his computer.

"You're lucky, that was our last one!" The man commented as he tapped on his keyboard. "Gift wrap it?" he offered. Raven nodded, and he continued.

"If this one hadn't been here, you would have had to go all the way to the other side of the city. My brother owns another toy store down there, and we order all our toys from the same places."

Raven leaned against the counter as he carefully measured out a shiny piece of wrapping paper.

"It's good to see children enjoying these trains," he continued. "What with all these new toys that make too much noise and cost too much for something they'll play with twice and forget about. Back in my day, my brothers and I would watch trains like this go around the tree for hours. Even after Christmas, we'd play with it all the time."

Raven nodded, and smiled lightly. She had never really had a toy like that, but she agreed all the same. The man cut out a long piece of red ribbon and wrapped it around the box.

"Of course, Christmas is about making people happy, and if shiny, loud toys make kids happy, so be it. That'll be thirty-nine ninety-five."

Raven jumped a bit, startled that he was finished already done, and pulled out her wallet. Counting out the money, she handed it to him and accepted her change. He gave her the box, and Raven felt pride swell up in her. She had finished all her shopping, and her present for Beast Boy was perfect. He would love it.

Raven walked out of the store, pressing into the waves of shoppers. Walking quickly, Raven didn't notice how loosely she was holding onto the plastic bag she was carrying the present in. She did, however, notice when one handle of the bag snagged on the handles of a bicycle that someone was somehow managing to ride through the mob of shoppers.

Feeling the bag escape her hand, Raven whirled around and watched as the rider continued to weave through the people, not noticing the bag that had gotten caught on his handle bars. Losing sight of the cyclist quickly, Raven lifted herself above the crowd and searched the heads of people for anyone wearing a helmet. Eventually she spotted him, quite far away. She flew over the crowd of people, catching up with the bicycle easily.

She reached down to grab the gift from his handlebars, but before she could reach it, another person bumped into the handlebars, unknowingly sending the gift flying in the other direction.

Raven gasped and flew in the direction she had seen the gift land and quickly landed to search the ground on hands and knees. After a few minutes of dodging feet, slush,and chewed gum, Raven saw the box. It was sitting a few feet away, in a large paper-recycling bin.

Standing up, Raven ran towards it, but stopped when suddenly the bin was lifted into the air. She watched as the bin was lifted up and dumped into the back of a green truck, to be taken to the recycling plant.

The truck began to drive away, but Raven rapidly flew after it. She caught up with the truck easily and looked into the back from above. She growled lightly when she realized that the gift had been buried under scraps of paper.

Diving into the back of the moving truck, Raven quickly began rummaging through the paper. She was glad that it had been a paper-recycling bin, and not a garbage can, or sticky bottles, but she hissed all the same when she received several small paper cuts.

Not long after she had begun, Raven found the box and flew out of the truck. Clutching the gift tightly to her chest, Raven flew back to the tower quickly before anything else could happen.

Landing at the door of Titans Tower, Raven nearly ran inside, carelessly tossing her boots and coat in the closet. She was dashing up the stairs and through the halls, when she found herself suddenly lying on the ground.

"Sorry about that," a familiar voice said from above her. "But you should really watch where you're going."

"Shut up," Raven snarled, ignoring the gloved hand in front of her and standing up. The green boy in front of her looked startled.

"No need to be rude, it was just an accident," Beast Boy told her, letting his hand fall to his side.

"I'm in a hurry. Now, if you don't have anything important to say, which I highly doubt you do, get out of my way."

Beast Boy looked at her angrily for a second, but moved out of her way. Raven quickly moved passed him, ran into her room, and threw the door closed behind her. Leaning against the door, Raven slid to the floor, regaining her breath. Once her lungs were full once more, Raven let out a small giggle.

She had been in such a rush- for no reason, she might add- to get back to her room and put a name-tag on Beast Boy's present before anything else could happen to it, that she had snapped at Beast Boy for trying to help her.

Shaking her head, she stood up and pulled the present out of its plastic bag. It was already wrapped, so after putting a label on it, Raven stood up and walked out of her room, with the gift in her hands.

Before leaving her room, Raven took one last look around. She smiled as her eyes passed over her newest gift, a set of vanilla candles. She had found them on her bed the other night, with a short note. Beast Boy had told her in the note that he knew she like vanilla and they were selling them cheap at some store he had gone to. Raven rolled her eyes; it was just like Beast Boy to point that out.

Walking into the main room, Raven smiled lightly at all her friend as they sat on the couch and watched a Christmas special on TV.

She walked across the room and placed the gift with the others under the tree, and walked over to the couch. She sat down next to a slightly disgruntled Beast Boy.

"I'm sorry," she told him quietly, so as not to interrupt the movie. "I didn't mean to snap, I was just a bit stressed out from my trip downtown."

Beast Boy looked at her carefully, determining whether she was telling the truth or not and smiled.

"It's okay. Robin told us you had to get one last gift," Beast Boy told her, shifting so she had more room.

"Yeah, and if that wasn't stressful enough, I had to go on a wild chase just to get the gift back when it got caught on someone's bike," Raven told him, leaning into the cushions of the couch. Beast Boy laughed lightly.

"Only in Jump City," he joked. Raven nodded and looked at the TV screen.

Once the show was done ('Rudolf', if you must know), they turned the TV off, and Robin and Cyborg made dinner. They ate slowly, enjoying each other's company.

Once dinner had been made, they all ate a dessert of shortbread cookies.

"Anyone want to open a present?" asked Robin, noticing Starfire's constant glances at the many colorful gifts under the tree. The girl looked at him in surprise.

"Is it not an earth custom to open the presents on the day of Christmas?"

"Well, yeah," replied Robin. "But some people open one gift each on Christmas Eve. I know I used to get to when I lived with Bruce."

"Dude, totally!" Beast Boy exclaimed, running towards the tree. As his friends laughed and walked over, he rummaged through the gifts excitedly.

Once everyone was seated around the tree, with a gift in hand, they were allowed to open their present.

Raven looked down at the gift she was holding. It was from Cyborg, and judging by the size and shape of the present, she could tell it was probably a book.

Opening the present, she smirked. It was a book. Reading the back, she learned that it was a book of poetry. To her slight annoyance, it was full of love poems, a small and rather unfunny joke on Cyborg's part. Still, it was a nice book, and she decided to read it later.

She looked around at her friends. Beast Boy was oohing and awing over some new video game Robin had chosen for him, while Starfire cuddled with the stuffed bear Cyborg had gotten her. Cyborg was excitedly reading the contents of the car waxing kit Beast Boy had gotten him. Finally Raven's eyes fell on Robin and she had to struggle to contain her laughter.

He was holding a gift in his hands, still wrapped with familiar red, gold and green wrapping paper.

She watched with bated breath as Robin ripped off the paper and opened the white box underneath. By now, everyone else was watching too, since Robin was the only one left.

Pulling out the doll, Robin paused. He took in the doll's appearance, noticing the doll's resemblance to Starfire easily. Robin looked at the doll, with a mixture of embarrassment and shock on his face. His eyes were wide and a red tinge on his face had now turned into a deep scarlet. His lips were a straight line stretched across the bottom of his face.

Eventually, Cyborg couldn't hold it in anymore. Side-heaving laughter escaped the half-metal man, soon joined by Beast Boy's own squeaky laughter and Raven's quiet chuckling. Robin shot them all glares, most aimed at Raven for getting him the doll, and Starfire swooped over to admire the doll.

"She is most pretty, do you not think so?" she asked Robin innocently, causing Cyborg and Beast Boy to laugh even harder. Robin stuttered a reply, as Starfire continued to ramble on about having tea parties together, and asking if he had any other dolls, and if they looked as familiar as that one.

Eventually the laughter died down, and the doll was forgotten.

"I believe it is time we all went to bed, or Santa will not visit us," said Starfire, ushering everyone out of the room. Raven stood back, as she pushed the boys out of the room.

Once she was sure everyone had left, she quickly ran over to the counter. Easily spotting the plate of left over shortbread cookies, Raven picked it up and removed the plastic wrap covering them.

Placing the plate of cookies on the coffee table by the tree, Raven left the room. Hey, as long as no one else knew, she could still believe in Santa Claus, right?

A gift sat waiting on her bed. It was in a bag this time, with no note, and Raven quickly pulled out the tissue paper covering it. Looking into the bag, Raven smiled, and pulled out the present inside. It was a book. Not just any book, but a classic book known as, 'A Christmas Carol'. Pulling out the book and rubbing her thumb over the cover, Raven decided that Cyborg's book would have to wait. She wanted to read this one first.

She looked around briefly, searching for the note that should have accompanied the gift, but she couldn't find it.

She didn't read any ofthe bookthat night, though she wanted to. Instead, she quickly changed into her pajamas and slipped under the covers. As she drifted to sleep, she could have sworn she heard bells and hoof beats on the roof.

Tomorrow's the last chapter! Aw, I'm going to miss working on this story. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad so many of you did as well. It made me feel so special to get so many reviews. I really wasn't expecting as many asI got.

Anyway, before I get too sentimental, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. I truly appreciate it!

Tammy Tamborine