AN: I do not own the Teen Titans, for if I did I would never let it go off the air!
Chapter 7: Close Friends? What the Hell!
Beast Boy turned off the T-car and glanced at the still sleeping Raven. He softly rocked her shoulder and said, "Raven, we're home."
She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She saw Beast Boy and sat up. She stretched and then began to scratch all over. "I am so itchy."
"That's from the salt water," said Beast Boy opening his door and starting to scratch as well.
"Well I call first dibs on the shower," said Raven stepping out of the car and closing the door.
"Why do you get first dibs?" asked Beast Boy as they walked towards the elevator door.
"Because I wouldn't be wet with salt water if it hadn't been for you throwing me into the water," said Raven poking him. As she did the huge neck of the sweatshirt she was wearing, which was already pulled over to the right because of the way she had been sleeping, slipped down her shoulder.
"Well I wouldn't have had to throw you into the water if you hadn't kicked water in my eyes," said Beast Boy fixing Ravens sweatshirt neck. She hadn't even realized that it had slid down, since she was still a little groggy from waking up.
"Hey, I wouldn't have kicked any water if you hadn't made me stick my feet in the ocean," said Raven walking through the elevator door. Suddenly Beast Boy pulled her out of the elevator. "What?"
"I'm not so sure we should go up there," said Beast Boy.
"And why not?" asked Raven yawning.
"Ahem," he coughed and pulled at his sweatshirt. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that we're both in nothing but a Cyborg sweatshirt and we've been out for a long time."
"Oh my God," said Raven realizing the situation. "I can't go up there like this!"
"Exactly," said Beast Boy. "Maybe you should, you know, take us up there."
"Are you sure?" asked Raven. "I thought you didn't like my teleporting."
"Eh, I don't mind so much now," said Beast Boy shrugging.
"Okay," said Raven. She wrapped them both in a black aura in the shape of a raven and moved them up to their hallway, right in front of her door.
"Ha! And nobody's the wiser," said Beast Boy.
"Uh huh, well I'm taking a shower," said Raven opening her door.
"Not if I get it first," said Beast Boy.
"How immature are you?" she asked, but by the time she turned to ask he had sprinted down the hall. "Beast Boy? Oh shit!" She knew that now it was a race. She grabbed all her toiletries as fast as she could and walked very fast towards the bathroom. She felt relieved when she saw that the door was open and that she was going to reach it first. Then she heard someone running from behind her. She turned and saw him running as fast as he could down the hall. She screamed and started to run for the bathroom door, but he passed her and grabbed the handle.
"Well, it looks like someone wasn't quick enough," he said with a victorious smile. He laughed to himself and walked in, only to be confronted by Raven, who had crossed her arms and was smiling herself.
"Yeah, you," she said and then pushed him out of the bathroom.
"Damn you and your powers!" he screamed through the door in defeat. How could he have been so stupid? He grumbled to himself, scratched his itchy arms, and headed back to his room.
As Raven exited the bathroom and saw Beast Boy standing right outside the door, tapping his foot impatiently. Raven smiled at him, still proud of her victory, and said, "All yours." She brushed passed him, her towel around her head scraping his face, and headed for her room.
She slipped into her nightwear, a pair of black shorts and a dark blue tank top, and took her hair out of the towel. She grabbed her brush, which looked to be an antique like all the other things in her room, and began work on her violet tangles. As she brushed she could still feel sand all about her scalp. Now she knew why she hated the beach so much.
Beast Boy emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam and sighed with relief. He was so happy all that dried salt water had been washed off of him. As he passed Ravens room he could hear her cursing at her snarly hair. He laughed to himself and went on his way. He grabbed some fresh boxers from the clean clothes pile on his floor and then looked for some pajama pants and a tee-shirt. He did and threw them on, he wasn't sure if they were clean or not. He grabbed a comb that he kept on his cluttered desk and ran it through his grass green hair. His ear began to itch and as he scratched it a mound of sand fell out of it. The same happened with the other ear.
The next morning they both slept in late. They had gone to sleep exhausted and still felt tired when they woke up. For Beast Boy it was an average time to wake up, noon. For Raven, however, it was extremely late and the other Titans were worried. They hoped that she was still alive. Of course she was and emerged from her room just about the same time as Beast Boy.
From that day on Beast Boy and Ravens friendship was different. They began to actually enjoy each others company. Raven found the book which Death of the Last Castle of Larnakia was based on and bought two copies, so that she and Beast Boy could read it. They would actually sit and have a normal conversation on how the movie and the book differed. Beast Boy taught Raven how playing certain video games could actually challenge her mind. He introduced her to Tetris, which is, of course, a simple game that everyone and their mother has heard about. But to Raven this was a very interesting game that she soon became addicted to. In no time she and Beast Boy were battling to see who would get the most lines.
This whole new friendship between Raven and Beast Boy scared the other three Titans. Robin and Starfire would walk into the common room and find the two sitting next to each other watching TV and eating popcorn out of the same bowl. Cyborg swore that he saw Raven giggle at one of Beast Boy's jokes. And all three had seen them reading the same book and then talking about it. They finally couldn't take it any longer and confronted them.
It was dinner and they were eating spaghetti that evening. It was one of the few meals that could be made without Beast Boy's moaning and groaning. The only thing that had to do was make sure they used meat-free tomato sauce. This, of course, made Cyborg whine, but they always told him to just make himself meatballs and to shut up.
"Does anyone want the cheese on their noodles?" asked Starfire.
"No thanks," said Beast Boy.
"I'm good," said Raven.
"Pile it on!" said Cyborg. Poor Starfire wasn't exactly sure what he meant, so she just dropped all of the cheese onto his plate. It was a little more than he wanted, but he didn't complain.
"I am sorry, Robin," said Starfire. "It looks like there shall be no cheese for you."
"That's okay, Starfire," said Robin with a smile and began to eat.
"Hey Raven, I was thinking about highlighting my hair," said Beast Boy. "What do you think?"
"I wouldn't if I were you," she said in a friendly voice. "I mean, I'm not sure what kind of highlight color would be right for green hair. And if you don't get the right colors and it comes out bad the only thing you can do is cut all your hair off."
"Good point," said Beast Boy slurping up his spaghetti.
"Personally, I think you should grow your hair out a little more," said Raven.
"Well I think you should do the same thing," said Beast Boy with a laugh.
"Okay, we'll both grow our hair out," said Raven extending her hand.
"Deal," said Beast Boy and they shook hands.
This, of course, left the other three Titans quite confused. Beast Boy asked for Ravens advice, he took it, gave her some of his own, and she accepted? And they didn't even raise their voices? It was done with laughs and giggles?
"Okay, what the hell's goin on here?" asked Cyborg.
"No kidding," said Robin. "When the hell did this happen?"
"Did what happen?" asked Beast Boy.
"When did you and Raven become such close friends?" asked Starfire.
"Close friends! More like best friends," said Cyborg.
"Is there a problem with us being friends?" asked Raven.
"No, but it's just… weird," said Robin. "You two never got along and now, all of a sudden, you're inseparable."
"We've just finally found our common grounds," said Raven.
"Yeah, it's no big deal," said Beast Boy.
"You might not think so, but we believe it is a big deal," said Starfire. "It is just that we can not understand how you became such good friends."
"Well that's not important," said Beast Boy. "The fact is that we are friends now, and there's nothing wrong with that, right?"
The other three Titans agreed, but were still a bit in the dark. They sensed that something must have had to happen to change Beast Boy and Ravens feelings towards each other. They just didn't know what.
After dinner they all separated, well for the most part. Beast Boy went to Ravens room with his book. She quickly let him in so they're book discussion could begin.
"Geez, what was their problem?" asked Beast Boy as he took a seat on her bed.
"Hey, you've got to see it from their point of view," said Raven crawling onto her bed. "For years we've been arguing and annoying each other, and then overnight we become friends. It is a little strange."
"Oh well, they can get used to it just like we did," said Beast Boy turning his body so that he was facing Raven. "We were supposed to finish chapter twenty-two last night, right?"
"Right. Did you get lost at all?"
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"Oh thank God! I was gonna feel so stupid if you understood it."
Raven laughed. "No, I definitely got confused. At first I thought she was just hearing voices. It took me a while to figure out that it was actually the castle talking."
"Yeah, they totally left that part out of the movie."
"Oh! That reminds me." Raven leaned off her bed and reached under it. She pulled out another book and showed it to Beast Boy. "Look what I got!"
"Wow! The making of the Death of the Last Castle of Larnakia movie," said Beast Boy grabbing it. "Where did you find it? I've been looking for it in every book store in the city."
"I read a lot of books," said Raven with a smile. "So I've got a lot of book connections."
Beast Boy smiled back and thumbed through it. "This is too cool." He looked at each of the pages and then found a whole section of pictures. "Dude! Look at this." Raven crawled over to him and sat right next to him. They looked through the few pages of photos and pictures from the film on and off set.
"I thought he was taller," laughed Raven pointing to one of the actors. Beast Boy laughed as well and then pointed to another picture.
The two barely noticed how close they were, at first. Soon they both realized that their legs were touching, as well as their arms, and they were both holding the book. They had gotten comfortable enough with each other to sit close, but now they were really close.
It was a while before they could move apart without seeming awkward. They weren't sure if the other had noticed how close they had been, and they didn't want to give anything away that something had felt weird. Not only that, but they were afraid of the reason why they might have felt weird being so close.