Sorry it took so long. I had to rewrite some of the parts, plus I had a weekend back home so I didn't get a lot of work done. This one should be good though. And it is long. About twice as long as most of the other chapters, but well worth it. I thought about splitting it, but that just isn't my style. Maybe a little overzealous in the details, but it all comes together nicely. I used the names of some of my favorite authors and poets for the characters at the café, thought that was a cool idea. I want to apologize in advance for my bad attempt at poetry. It's kind of important to the story, but once you look past my momentary lapse in creativity, it's a pretty good chapter. Enjoy!

I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the characters. Wow, I think a little piece of me just died. Having to protect myself from legal implications resulting from the use of cartoon characters is kind of like hitting one's self in the head with a hammer. Nuf said! This next one though is out of respect. I do not own the names or works of any of the following authors/poets: Edgar Allen Poe, J.D. Salinger, Mark Twain, and Emily Dickinson.

Chapter 5: The 'Cast' of Amontillado

She knocked on the door. A small slat slid open and a pair of grey eyes peered out.

"Yea? What dooya want?" asked a deep, cold voice.

"Hey J.D." Raven said calmly. The figure behind the eyes balked a little.

"Is-is that you Raven?" The door creaked open and there stood one of the biggest people that Beast Boy had ever seen. He must have been at least six and a half feet tall and weighed close to three hundred pounds, mostly muscle from the look of it. His massive shoulders were actually wider than the door. His skin wasn't quite as pale as Raven's. He had a short black, spiked Mohawk and wore a grey T-shirt with a white skull embossed in the center with baggy black cargo pants and large black boots. He had numerous ear piercing, a nose ring, and a spike through the middle of his lower lip. He also wore a metal-spiked, black, leather wristband on his right wrist and a long chain wallet on his left side.

"Love the new look." he said grinning as he stepped aside to let her pass. When Beast Boy tried to come inside a massive arm shot out and barred his path. "I think you might be lost buddy." J.D. said menacingly his face now completely devoid of emotion.

"Cool it J.D.! He's with me." Raven said with a slight air of threat in her voice.

"You got weird choice in friends Raven." J.D. said lowering his arm, his gaze fixed on Beast Boy.

"I could say the same thing." Beast Boy said coolly, retuning the stare.

"He's got spunk, I'll give him that." J.D. said cracking a smile. "And if you speak for him, then I guess he can't be all that bad." He extended his hand to Beast Boy. "Name's Jerome, but people call me J.D."

"Beast Boy." he said grinning and shaking his hand.

"Oh yea. You're one of the Titans right? Didn't recognize you without the spandex." J.D. said laughing a little.

"Hey they're a lot more comfortable than they look! I actually found out just recently that I can't morph in normal clothes." he said glancing at Raven quickly and blushing.

J.D. looked between Beast Boy and Raven several times.

"So you guys here on a date or something?"

"Uhhh…we're…ya see-." Beast Boy stammered.

"What are Mark and Emily up to?" Raven asked quickly and calmly.

"They're inside." J.D. said grinning at Beast Boy.

J.D. closed and locked the door and led them down a dark hallway. They came to a set of double doors that looked like they came from a prison in the 1950's. J.D. pushed open both door's at once. This revealed a large dimly lit room with tables and chairs, like those you see outside of coffee shops, strewn about the room. A small quarter circle stage stood in the corner about two feet above the cobblestone floor. The only light in the room was provided by the single candle lantern at every table and a large candle chandelier that hung from the ceiling by a thick chain. There were a dozen or so other people sitting at the tables. They all appeared to have the same general look: skinny, pale, and wearing a lot of black. All of the people in the room had been chatting and/or drinking coffee and tea, but now they were staring at Beast Boy. The room became eerily quiet, which was saying something because it was fairly eerie in there as it was. The silence seemed to last for hours.

"He's with me." Raven said simply. Most everyone shrugged and then went back to what they were doing, but few individuals kept their eyes on Beast Boy.

Wow, these people must really respect Raven...or be really afraid of her.

"So people really like you here, huh?" Beast Boy asked Raven.

"I guess you could say that, even though no one will admit to liking me…or anything for that matter." A door swung open on the wall to their left. A guy wearing black rollerblades skated out carrying a tray with a few cups of tea, various pastries, and some salads. He set the contents of the tray down at their respective tables as he glided by them and then skated over to Raven. He was pretty scrawny, had skin just as pale as Raven's, and was about as tall as Beast Boy. He wore a formed black leather jacket with the left arm missing over a tight black T-shirt with black jeans. His unsettling ice blue eyes shone from beneath his black disheveled hair. He had only a single silver ring through the lobe of his right ear and wore a fingerless leather glove with holes punched out for the knuckles on his left hand. He merely scowled, showing no sentiment whatsoever.

"Hey Raven. Haven't seen you round here lately." he said monotonely.

"Hey Mark. How's Emily?" she asked in a similar fashion.

"She's workin' tonight too. One sec." He put his two fingers to his lips and let out a deafening, high pitched whistle. Beast Boy flinched a little, the memory of Starfire's whistling lesson still fresh in his mind. Almost immediately after the whistle a girl wearing identical rollerblades skated out of the same swinging door with a pad of paper in her hand. She had the same intense blue eyes and disheveled black hair as Mark, although her hair was a few inches longer. Her height and skin tone were also the same as Mark's. Unlike Mark though she wore a small grin and had a generally mischievous look on her face. She wore a tight black tank top and a black miniskirt over black compression shorts. She had three silver loop piercings up the length of her ear as well as a fingerless cloth glove that went up to her mid-forearm on her right hand and a dozen black rubber bracelets on her left wrist. The black eyeliner and lipstick made her look fairly grim, but still couldn't draw away from the impish look her smile gave her.

"Raven, Raven, Raven. It's been ages. We were beginning to think you'd gone to the light side." she said jokingly. She turned her attention to Beast Boy. "So who's this little bundle of color? He's kinda cute."

Beast Boy blushed and turned his eyes to the floor.

"Oh yea. This is Beast Boy, another one of the Titans." said Raven.

"I'm Emily." said the girl giving a little wave. "And this is my twin brother Mark. Most people just call us 'the twins'."

"That explains a few things." said Beast Boy. He put his hand towards Mark. "Good to meet ya." Mark just stood there staring expressionlessly over Beast Boy's shoulder. Emily rolled her eyes and shook Beast Boy's hand for her brother.

"A pleasure, I'm sure. Sorry bout my brother. He started this thing where he doesn't acknowledge people who exhibit any emotion whatsoever. It makes talking to him kinda hard."

"Huh, alright I'll give it a try." said Beast Boy doing his best to remove every hint of emotion from his face. "Sup dude?" he said in an uncannily similar fashion to Mark.

"Not much." said Mark in his usual detached manner.

"Not bad." said J.D. "Usually I can't even keep a straight face around Mark. Hey, how long's it been since we talked Mark?" Mark just kept staring blankly into empty space. J.D. sighed heavily.

"So what brings you guys to Amontillado? You guys on a date?" asked Emily playfully.

"We're just here for something to eat, maybe hang out for a bit, then we're gonna catch a movie." said Raven calmly.

"Hmmm, sounds like a date to me." Emily said winking at Beast Boy. "I'll get you guys a table." Emily began skating backwards, motioning for them to follow. Without so much as slowing down, she spun around so that she was skating forward. She stopped by a table in the corner and held out her hand gesturing for them to sit. Beast Boy cut in front of Raven, went over to the table, and pulled her chair out for her. Raven just stood there, as if she were frozen. Then she slowly walked over and hesitantly sat down I the chair. Beast Boy pushed the chair in slightly as she sat down. The he walked around the small table and took his seat. Looking across the table, he saw that Raven had a somewhat stunned look on her face, but at the same time wore a small smile. It didn't have the usual edge of sarcasm that normally accompanied her grins. This one was warm and appreciative. Beast Boy didn't show it, but he was taken aback by this.

Why's she smiling like that? She's never smiled like that before. All I did was pull her chair out. Hmmm…weird.

Emily, of course, had been watching the whole time.

"Awww, whoever said chivalry was dead?" she said teasingly.

"Guess I'm just old-fashioned." Beast Boy said grinning and scratching the back of his head (The only reason I keep having BB do this is because it's one of my nervous habits, it's just something I can see him doing too). Emily gave a little giggle.

"So what can I get you guys?" she asked. Beast Boy looked questioningly at Raven, just now remembering that they had come here to eat.

"Don't worry, I'll order for us." said Raven. "I'll just have a salad with some vinaigrette dressing and some of Ed's herbal tea. He'll have one of Ed's burgers, fries, and…" she looked at Beast Boy for a second"…I think he'd like a root beer."

"Very progressive, letting the girl order." she said smiling at Beast Boy. "That all?" Emily asked writing their order down on the notepad. Raven nodded. "All right, I think some people ditched on an order like that so Mark should be out with your food in less than a minute." Emily skated away from the table, around some tables, and through the swinging door.

"Uhhh…Ed doesn't make his burgers with meat does he?" Beast Boy asked nervously.

"No." said Raven laughing a little." I wouldn't do that to you. Ed's a vegetarian too so he makes the burgers from black beans. Although you probably wouldn't know it if I didn't tell you."

"Sweet! I love black bean burgers!"

"Yeah I know. I've seen how you scarf them down back home."

"You even knew I like root beer…wait, why were you watching me eat?" asked Beast Boy smirking and raising an eyebrow.

"Honestly, it's kinda hard to ignore. You eating's like watching a shark devour a seal. It's fast, vicious, and frankly, pieces get everywhere."

"Ugh, that's a mental image I coulda done without." Beast Boy said looking a little sick. "I think I lost my appetite." Then Mark came gliding out of the swinging door and skillfully maneuvered in between the tables and chairs with a large amount of food and drinks perched precariously atop the tray he held with one hand over his head. Without even stopping, he wordlessly set their respective food and drinks down in front of them as he circled the table and skated off towards another table.

"Wow, he's good." said Beast Boy quickly grabbing the burger and taking a huge bite.

"Find your appetite again?" asked Raven.

"Find my wha?" asked Beast Boy with a half full mouth.

"Nevermind."

"This is delicious! Whoever this Ed guy is sure knows his way around a veggie burger."

"Ed owns Amontillado. He's also the cook. He makes everything from scratch from the burger you're eating now to my herbal tea."

"Sounds like a cool guy. When can I meet him?" Raven opened her mouth, about to answer his question, and then froze. She closed her mouth and look of into space, looking as though she was deep in thought.

"Come to think of it…I've never met Ed."

"Wait, how long have you been coming to this place?"

"A couple of years."

"And you've never met the owner? Isn't that a little weird?"

"Beast Boy, look around. Weird doesn't mean anything here. Things just are the way they are. You can either go on in life and accept it or foolishly dwell on stupid simple little things that have no meaning in the grand scheme of things." This conversation continued for several more minutes, Beast Boy taking large bits from his burger whenever Raven was explaining the inner workings of the goth mindset, and Raven eating her salad and sipping her tea while Beast Boy did his best to understand Raven's complicated explanations. During one of Raven's longer rationalizations Beast Boy finished his burger and proceeded to chug his entire bottle of root beer. Raven's speech slowed as she watched him drain the rather large bottle. She had completely stopped talking by the time he had finished and set down the bottle. He pounded the middle of his chest twice and let out a belch that rivaled one of Starfire's more notorious gastronomic eruptions. The entire café went silent. Beast Boy looked around and noticed that, once again, all eyes were on him. Even Mark had stopped in his tracks and Emily had poked her head out of the swinging door to see what had caused the sudden quiet.

"Hehe…'scuse me." he said meekly as he grinned and scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit that he had been finding himself doing far more often as of late.

"That was…interesting, to say the least." Raven finally managed to say, breaking the long awkward silence that had fallen over the room. Everyone returned to what they were doing, but every now and then shot an annoyed look towards the table in the corner.

"Uhhh…yeah, sorry bout that. I'm used to hanging around with people who consider burping a competitive sport."

"Don't worry about it. Just warn me next time." Raven said smiling and shaking her head.

"Alright. Hey, what's J.D. doin?" he asked pointing to the stage where J.D. stood in front of a microphone stand with a spotlight on him.

"We've got a vet in the house from back when you losers were still reading Goosebumps. Some of her pieces have even given Ed nightmares. Maybe we can get her to come up. What dooya say Raven?" A stunned Beast Boy looked at Raven and watched as she wordlessly walked up to the stage. J.D. bowed as she stepped up in front of the stage and stood in front of the mic. After J.D. had stepped down off of the stage he walked over to Beast Boy's table, spun Raven's chair so that the back was facing the stage and sat down putting his forearms on top of the chair backing. He looked over and saw the astounded look on Beast Boy's face. "You don't know too much about Raven dooya?" J.D. asked. Beast Boy just shook his head never taking his eyes off of Raven. J.D. just laughed. "Well your in for a treat then."

"I'm going to do something a little different." Raven said emotionlessly into the microphone. Her voice came from seemingly invisible speakers in the walls, not making her voice any louder, but making seem as though it was coming from all around. "I wrote this last night actually and it's not like anything I've written before." She closed her eyes and began to speak. Her voice was cold but passionate at the same time. It was a voice that seemed to speak directly to the heart. They were word that needed to be felt rather than heard.

"My life is a canvas

Painted every shade of black

Devoid of color

I draw the curtains

Here the light cannot touch me

My grayscale existence

A shell with no soul

A spectrum made of shadow

Loved yet alone

All it really takes

Is the vile taint of color

And it is ruined

Shattered masterpiece

Made alive for the first time

Color is my escape"

There was a short silence, and then everyone began snapping their fingers, which is the poetic substitute for clapping. J.D. looked over at Beast Boy who was still staring at Raven. He wore a small smile and his eyes were watering slightly.

"Uhhh, are you ok du-" J.D. was asking before he was cut off by Beast Boy quickly standing up and applauding. Everyone stopped snapping and turned their gazes once again to Beast Boy. Despite the silence Beast Boy kept up the standing ovation. Raven began to blush a little. J.D. just stared at Beast Boy stupefied. Then a grin spread across his face as he stood up and began applauding along with Beast Boy. The rest of the café continued to stare. Emily and even Mark began clapping. It wasn't long before the rest of Amontillado tentatively rose to their feet and began applauding. Even above the near deafening roar, Beast Boy's enthusiastic clapping and whistling could be heard loud and clear. After the applause had subsided, Raven took a bow and returned to her seat which J.D. had vacated in order to usher some of the poets that were going to perform that night up on to the stage. She sat down took a long drink from her cup of herbal tea. After taking a long deep breath she looked at Beast Boy and gave him that same warm appreciative smile that she had when he had pulled out her chair for her. They had both finished eating so they went to find Emily and Mark.

"You guys leavin'? asked Emily as the two approached her and her brother.

"Yea, just put the food on my tab." said Raven.

"But I-" Beast Boy said before Raven quickly silenced him by putting up her hand.

"Don't worry, it's my treat. You're paying for the movie anyway." Raven said smiling which he returned with a playful grin.

"All right. Well, I hope you guys come back soon." Emily said as she hugged Raven while Beast Boy put on the same expressionless face as before and walked up to Mark.

"Seeya round." he said to Mark.

"Sounds good." said Mark as the two exchanged a 'grip, slip, and snap' handshake. The edge of Mark's lip turned up slightly, but only for a second. Emily came over to hug Beast Boy as Raven and Mark shared a simple nod goodbye. Then Raven went to find J.D.

"Good luck with Raven tonight, not that you need it." Emily whispered.

"Thanks Emily." he whispered back as they parted.

"I think you're gonna be good for Raven. As much as we like her, this isn't where she belongs, as much as she wants it to be true. She needs light in her life and all this place has to offer is darkness. You could very well be that light." Emily said smiling softly.

"That is, honestly, the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." he said smiling at her. "I got a friend you might like. He's a lot like me, only he's a lot smarter, bout six and a half feet tall, and made mostly of metal. I'll introduce you two some time."

"We'll see." she said laughing as Raven came back with J.D.

"Hey Rae! What would you think of Emily and Cyborg?" Beast Boy asked grinning at Raven.

"I think it's a little early for you to be playing matchmaker when you haven't even gotten through our first date."

"So this is a date?" asked J.D. smiling.

"Did you just figure that out?" Emily asked J.D.

"I'm just messin' with'em." he said grinning widely. He extended his fist to Beast Boy. "It was good meetin' you dude."

"Likewise." Beast Boy said connecting his own fist with J.D.'s.

"We should get going." said Raven. "It was good to see you all again."

"You too Raven." said Emily. J.D. smiled and Mark just gave a quick nod. Beast Boy and Raven went through the double doors and started down the entrance hall. Beast Boy pulled open the door and held it for Raven. She smiled at him as she walked through the heavy iron door. It was dark out now, and slightly cooler than before. The moon was directly overhead, a curved blade of soft white light on a background of stars that shone so brightly and clearly that the constellations appeared to pop out of the sky. The two stood facing each other in the dark alley. The light above the door was now off, allowing the glow of moonlight cascade down the walls of the two dilapidated looking buildings which formed the alleyway. Raven stared at Beast Boy, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"Rae…what's-" he was cut off when Raven wrapped her arms around his chest and held him tightly. She turned her head and rested it against his chest, pulling him as close to herself as was humanly possible. He was shocked for a moment, but then put his arms around her shoulders and returned her embrace, nuzzling the side of his face against the top of her head.

"You're the color." she said softly.

"Wha?" he asked gently.

"In my…never mind." she said sighing softly. "You got them to clap for me. All of them. You have no idea how sick I was of that soulless snapping."

"Don't mention it. I wish I coulda done more. Your poem really-" he was cut off yet again, this time by Raven placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. As she drew her lips from his cheek he felt a warm tingle where her lips had been. She withdrew from there embrace and smiled at him. She saw the look of shear surprise on his face and couldn't help but laugh.

"Come on tiger, we got a movie to catch." she said happily, yes happily, as she took his hand and started out of the alley. After a few moments of being pulled along by his hand, it all finally sank in. A smile spread across his face.

To think, the night is only half over.

Hope you guys liked it. Once again I apologize for my pathetic attempt at poetry. I tried to set it up like a series of haikus, but the metaphors were so obvious/crappy that I think it kind of took away from the effect it was supposed to have. If anyone out there has a better original poem for the story (has to be about color and darkness remember), please send it to me. I'll put it in the story and obviously give you credit. It just makes me mad when a bad little stint of writing depreciates the story. Maybe I'm overreacting, I don't know. Oh and what do you think of getting Emily and Cyborg together? Eh, we'll just see what happens. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! 'Til next time. Peace and Love!