Hey, it's Fred here with another chapter. Hope you like it.

Sorry for the wait – I was grounded!

To Kie: Richard is good, but Jason doesn't like him and visa versa (I'll reveal why later). Remember that Jason is Red X, but in my story, you can decide for yourself whether or not he is good or bad.

I don't own teen titans.

Friday night at Hot Rocks café was music night, Raven's favourite. Anyone could play if they begged enough. She sat in her favourite booth, the one at the back hidden in shadow, her usual dark clothes keeping her hidden from straying eyes. The person on stage at the moment was slowly murdering a song on his electric guitar and Raven raised an eyebrow. If she was up there, she would show him how to really play it.

A sudden voice started her.

"Why don't you do what you do what you're thinking?"

Raven jumped at the breath on her neck, but didn't need to turn around to figure out who had spoken. He was the only person who could sneak up on her like that without her knowing.

"Jason, what are you talking about?" She asked without turning around.

Jason grinned at her; her head was still turned away from him.

"I've seen the way you're glaring at him. Go show him what to do!"

Raven stiffened and kept her face turned away from him.

"I wish you would mind your own business." She said, shortly.

Raven could feel his eyes boring into her back, and his air was telling her that he had that stupid smirk on his face. She was suddenly all too aware of how close he was, his breath still tickling the back of her neck. She shuddered. As if satisfied, Jason leant back against the booth sofa and Raven relaxed again.

"So why did you move here anyway?"

Jason could see how she tensed at his words, her back became rigid, and her knuckles white as she gripped the edge of the sofa, but she pretended never to have heard what he said. He leaned forward to breath on her neck again, longing to lean in just a little more and press his lips to her neck, but she growled at him.

"Like I said, mind your own business."

A young waitress came over to flirt with him, and by the time he had convinced her that he wasn't interested, Raven had disappeared.

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Later, Raven was sat on the secluded park bench, waiting for Jason to find her. She didn't want to go home yet, and she really had nowhere else to go. And this was 'his' bench after all. It wasn't long before he came and sat next to her. Raven smiled at his black clothes and green converse. They must look so strange to anyone else, being so similar in their attire. She turned away sadly, not wanting him to know that she was pleased to see him, and his effort to match with her. He was, in fact, her first real friend.

Jason sat silently for a while, staring straight ahead as he tried to think of what to say to her. He had obviously crossed an invisible line, and should have been more sensitive. But then again, he smiled to himself; sensitivity wasn't exactly a boy's area of expertise.

Eventually he took a breath and opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry." Raven didn't reply. "I should have realised that you didn't want to talk about it."

Raven finally stirred.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just I've never talked about it before. And I've moved a lot. Nobody's bothered to ask me before, I'm too creepy, too different for most people, and I'm not sure how you'll react when you hear it."

Jason turned and took her hand, surprising both of them with the move. Raven closed her eyes and seemed to think for a moment, considering something closely. Then she turned to him.

"I live with my mom." She started. "I've never seen my dad, but my mom told me that he's a gang leader. My mom gave evidence against a member of his gang, without knowing, in a murder trial. The man went down for life, and part of the gang went down with him. My dad went mad, beat up my mom, threatened to kill me and I was only a baby. My mom decided to run for it, and we've been running ever since. My dad has a lot of friends. Every time he gets wind of where we are, we have to move. It's expensive; my mom is working herself to death to pay for it. We never stay still for more than a year."

Raven pushed his hand back to him and turned to stand up.

Jason reached out.

"Raven, I didn't know."

"Yeah?" She whispered her back still faced to him. "Well now you do."

Jason watched silently as she walked away. He had gotten himself into a real mess this time.