DC – Chapter seven! Cor blimey, guvner, shine yer shoes, apples and pears. Seriously though, it does an English lads heart good to see you're all enjoying my story. I'd just like to thank you all for being so supportive. This chapter, in what is probably a one-off occurrence, goes in a shout-out to IGAF-Kun, for rocking hard, and to Tammy Tambourine, for reviewing every chapter so far. Y'all got mad skills.

Disclaimer – Rrrroll up, rrroll up, see the one and only DC, The Man Who Doesn't Own Teen Titans! Marvel at his lack of ownership of copyrighted material! Step right up, Ladies and Gents! ….Anyone?

Sapphire Bullets – Lucky Number Seven

Raven and Beast Boy looked blankly at the man who confronted them.

"Uh…who are you?" Beast Boy asked. Raven simply glowered at the stranger for interrupting their moment. Her hand moved to intertwine with Garfield's. The stranger caught the movement and smiled cynically.

"You've been looking for me. The name is Cupid." He towered above the two teenagers, and he cracked his fingers together. The popping and snapping of bones sent an ominous shudder down Beast Boy's Spine, and Raven drew closer to his arm. It was pleasant, but it just reminded him why he was here in the first place. He looked up at the tower of muscle and attitude in front of him, ominous and unshaven. Somehow, it was a lot more intimidating than almost any super-villain costume. Johhny Rancid would kill to look like this guy did. Garfield mentally compared the hulking man in front of him to the little mental picture he had of a small tubby child with stupid wings and a poorly designed bow.

"You…you got big." He said flippantly. Cupid nodded, and a gold tooth glimmered in his smile.

"Yeah. I did. So, you wanted to find me? Well, you did it. What're you gonna do now?"

Garfield paused, and Raven looked at him expectantly, her arms around his waist. He flushed, embarrassed. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to get her to let go.

"I…I don't think I actually thought of anything past here…" He confessed. Cupid sighed.

"Figures. Come on, let's go get a drink."

"But…"

"No buts. You two, me, drinks, now."

Raven growled, and leant back in the chair.

"Fine, the sooner you tell me, the sooner I can get back to finding a way out of this fiasco." The circle of her emotions glanced at each other. Friendship spoke first.

"I think you're being too hard on Garfield. He's a good friend. He's always tried to be there for you, hasn't he?"

"He kissed me!" Fumed Raven. A dreamy look passed across Love's face.

"Yes, he did, didn't he?" She agreed dreamily, pressing her hand to her cheek. "And he said that he loves us…And he's trying so hard to cure us…"

"Yeah, it looks like he really planned ahead." muttered Raven sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"Don't be like that, I'm sure it's going to work out OK." Hope reprimanded her. "He seems pretty determined."

"Besides, you can't tell us you don't like him, or you hate him. Not here, not now. Not us." Affection smiled brightly.

"W-W-W-W-W-W-W-We all know what you feel." Timid's voice came from somewhere behind the other emotions.

"You are what I feel." Raven pointed out.

"Exactly!" Affection pointed out triumphantly.

Raven closed her eyes wearily. Tricked by her emotions. This was normally exactly the kind of trap she couldn't allow herself to fall into…

Raven looked a little puzzled. There had been a momentary buzz at the back of her head, and then a dull, empty feeling where a reaction ought to be. Then she put it down to Beast Boy's breath on her neck. The very thought of it sent a pleasant tingle all the way down to the base of her spine. Cupid sat across the table from them, slouched back. He seemed almost embarrassed at her display of affection. But she got a bad feeling from the man, as if she recognised him. He had an aura…Besides, this was apparently the man Garfield had been seeking out 'for her sake', to cure an illness she didn't have! She very much wanted to be close to Garfield right now. She adjusted herself on his lap, and wrapped his arms firmly around her midriff, nestling against him.

"Yeah. That's one of mine." Cupid said sourly, nodding at her. Raven thought that was quite rude, but for the moment she was too content in her love's arms to do anything about it. "Sickening, isn't it? She wouldn't normally act like that, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's right…But…how did you know that?" Gar asked slowly, suspiciously.

"Kid, I'm two thousand, six hundred and seven years old. After a while, you get an eye for these things. Also, I'm a God, also I was watching your house for two weeks or something." He admitted. He picked up his coffee, the largest size offered by the café, and took a deep drink.

"So, the question you want to ask me is 'Can you take the spell off her?' am I right?" Before Garfield could even nod his head, Cupid shook his. "Sorry, but I can't."

Raven looked slightly smug, and leaned back against Gar.

"See? I told you there wasn't anything wrong with me." She said triumphantly. Cupid glanced at her.

"Of course there isn't." He said, soothingly, toying with his Styrofoam cup. "Love isn't an illness, it's not a disease, and it's a wonderful thing." In one abrupt motion, he crumpled the cup in his fist, the remnants of the coffee taking the path of least resistance and spraying into the air. "But I hate to tell you, however real it seems to you, it's fake. Whatever feelings you truly have for Greeny McWheely over here, what you're feeling now ain't your true feelings."

"How much do you really know about Garfield?" Friendship challenged.

"Well, I know his name's Garfield…He used to be with the Doom Patrol…He's, uh, green and he has that weird little fang and pointy ears…"

"Raven, anyone with eyes could have told me those last two. But what's his last name? Why did he join the Doom Patrol? How can he change into animals? How did he get his powers? Why doesn't he ever talk about his parents? Why does he put on that ridiculous act all of the time? Why does he still wear his Doom Patrol uniform? What's the difference between Garfield and Beast Boy?" Friendship delivered the questions rapidly, her eyes not leaving Raven's face. She struggled to keep up with the barrage.

"I don't know!"

"That's right. And I'm not saying that he'd tell you, but you never asked, did you?"

"No, we all respect each other's privacy."

"Raven, do you think he's someone that enjoys keeping everything inside? That's not the attitude of a recluse. He wants to talk to people, he wants to be there for people, and he wants people to be there for him, too. You were never there for him because it was easier for you not to get involved." Affection said, taking over.

"But…"

"No buts." Affection said firmly. Raven had never seen her like this before. She sounded so…protective. "He's one of the four people in the world who calls you friend. He's the only other person you know who knows what it is to keep a great darkness inside at bay, all the time. He's the only person who dares to try and cheer you up, and all you ever do is shoot him down. Why is that, Raven?"

Raven's mouth opened and shut as she tried to formulate an answer. Here, her emotions were powerful. Timid came to her rescue, familiar and sympathetic to her plight.

"We can't allow people to b-b-be close to us." She said quietly. "However much we cherish them we have to push them away, so they'll be safe…"

"And didn't that work so well when Trigon came? You tried to push your friends away and they pushed back harder than ever. They fought for you. They were willing to die for you…" Loyalty spoke up. Raven glanced around. They were drawing quite a crowd of spectators. She'd have felt embarrassed, if Embarrassment wasn't trying to hide under a bookshelf.

"How can you say that?" Demanded Raven, tears springing to her eyes. "I love Garfield with all my heart and soul! I always have and I always will!"

"I bet you hate Mondays, too." Cupid muttered under his breath. Raven carried on, unhearing.

"And so what if I only realised it recently? Does that make it any less real, less important? Even if someone forced me to admit it to myself, which they didn't, so what? All my life I've been alone, I wasn't allowed to express anything like this and now I can and I won't give it up for anything in the whole world!" She was starting to cry now, her chest heaving with barely suppressed feeling, and a black aura played around her where normally tables would break, glasses would shatter, tiles would crack, and people would be bodily hurled away. She took a deep, racking breath.

"Why can't I just-" Suddenly, she was bodily turned around, and Garfield's lips collided with her own, silencing her as he kissed her, a little clumsily. Her stomach played host to an entire colony of butterflies. It felt like someone had forcibly extracted all the bones from her legs. It felt like someone had connected her spine to one of Cyborg's power cells. After the short eternity that the kiss lasted for, she leant her head on Garfield's shoulder looking slightly dazed, her arms draped around him. She'd forgotten why she'd been shouting…

Garfield gave Cupid a slightly shamefaced look, his face flushed.

"Heh heh….I guess I'm a ladies man after all" He smiled a little, his arms still firmly around Raven. He felt bad about going against what he'd promised them both, but it looked as if she'd been on the verge of a breakdown, and it had been the first thing that came to mind. He glanced at her head, slumped against his shoulder.

"You know, it's going to hurt like hell when I find a way to get her back to normal." He murmured.

Cupid wasn't listening. He had been watching the table, and the anti-light show playing around the girl. He recalled what his employers had told him, and an intellect that had had almost three thousand years to develop started to wonder what it could mean…

DC – And there we go, Lucky Number Seven is done! I gotta say, I'm really very happy with this chapter, it just sort of flowed naturally. Don't worry, there's more to come. Once again, please let me know what you thought either way. Reviews are the grease on which the machine runs…That said, I could swear I've never seen reviews from half the people who have this story faved…;)

Peace Out,

DC