Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any of the characters associated with them. I also don't own Sin City, which I briefly use in this chapter.

Author's Note: Alright, so here's ch. 5.

Before I start, I want to thank everyone who reviewed. As of right now, this story has 73 reviews! Translation: I'm happy. Thank you guys so much.However, I also want to give shoutouts to some special reviewers: (sorry if there are any spelling mistakes)

Firenze2000
Gem W
gothic goddess 14
Tammy Tamborine
and Regrem Erutaerc

Thanks you guys! The five of you have been with me since the very beginning and have reviewed every single chapter. You rock! Also, Regrem Erutaerc has supplied me with loads if helpful information. Kudos!

Anyways, you guys are the best and I hope that you continue to review in the future! Now, chapter 5.


Chapter 5

"Beast Boy," Raven sighed. "What do you want?"

Beast Boy's goofy expression became a bit more serious.

"Well, you see…there's a…uhh…" he stammered.

"A what?" Raven asked. Her patience was already worn out from the frustrating trip to her mind. She didn't really need this right now. Especially from someone she had made out with not two days ago.

"There's a…well…technically, you don't have to…if you don't want to…but, uhh…" Beast Boy spoke again, clearly fumbling through his words.

Raven was struck by a thought. Was he asking her out? (Or from the looks of it, attempting). What would she do? Where would he take her? What should she wear? Oh, if only she'd listened to Starfire whenever they went to the mall!

"There's a meeting…in the living room…Robin said so." He suddenly blurted.

Oh.

With his last statement, Raven returned from the hypothetical world and regained her rationality. Had she really just thought Beast Boy was going to ask her out? Further more, did she think about actually saying yes?

No, really, she had skipped over that part of the process completely and gone straight to what she would do to prepare for the non-existent date. But she didn't really want to go on a date with Beast Boy…did she? They had only kissed...once…and by accident. It really didn't mean anything…right?

'Brilliant' she thought. 'My problems just get simpler and simpler don't they?'

"He said you don't really have to come, but the more brains we have, the better."

"Well, then I guess that means you can just go take a nap or something, right?" Raven said rudely, hoping her brusqueness would make Beast Boy leave her alone. Apparently though, her efforts were wasted upon his innocently unaware mind.

"Heh, good one," he chuckled awkwardly. "See, you can be funny."

Raven groaned inwardly, seeing that she would have to walk with him the whole way to the living room. And no matter whether they talked or stayed in complete silence, it was going to be very uncomfortable.

'Azar, why is he so nice!' she asked herself, aggravated. 'Why isn't he like any normal person who just thinks I'm weird and stays away? I mean, he always does this. I keep trying to get him to just leave me alone, and he just acts nicer and nicer to me. He's so annoying!'

"So, uh…how've you…ya' know…been lately?" Beast Boy asked, breaking the silence.

"Absolutely brilliant." Raven answered with cold sarcasm as the two continued walking.

"Yeah, that's uh…nice." Beast Boy said. "I've been having a uh…good time too…I guess."

'Geez what's wrong with me? I haven't been able to say one good sentence since I started talking to her.' Beast Boy said to himself. 'I'm acting like some dumb little kid with a crush'. Out loud, he growled in frustration.

"Huh?" Raven asked as though her mind had been elsewhere before Beast Boy had made any noise.

"Oh, nothing." He replied. "I was just uh…thinking out loud."

"Mm." she replied. There was another period of deafening silence. One could have cut through the unease with a butter knife.

"Look Raven," Beast Boy began, "about the other night—"

"Don't. We're here." She cut him off, approaching the door in front of them. Beast Boy hadn't even realized how far they had gotten. Raven reached to open the door, when suddenly, it was enveloped in black energy. At first, the metal just rippled a bit, then began fizzling lightly. Finally, it simply melted away and bent to the floor. Beast Boy watched with horror-struck eyes. He had already deduced that Raven wasn't in the best of moods at the moment, but for her to simply destroy the door was a bit…scary.

"Dude, why did you--?"

"Just drop it. It's not important." She snapped and began walking away to the middle of the living room where the rest of the Titans were. Beast Boy accepted and shut his mouth, not wanting to have the same fate as the door.

"What's happening?" Raven asked as she approached the rest of the Titans, who were currently crowded around the large computer, save for Starfire who was sitting on the nearby couch.

"Nothing. We're just having a meeting to discuss the battle from this morning." Robin answered.

"Dude, what's wrong? They attacked. We beat 'em. Now they're back in jail. It's all good." Beast Boy said, hopping onto the middle of the couch next to Starfire.

"Yeah, but we don't know how they got out." Cyborg replied.

"Or why they were attacking." Robin added. "When we got there, they weren't stealing or robbing anything. We need to figure out what their motives are before they get the chance to try again. If we know they're up to beforehand, it might be easier to stop them."

"So, what do we have to go on?" Beast Boy asked, half interested.

"Well, that's the problem." Robin began.

"So far, we have come up with nothing." Starfire finished.

"But, I found a way to tap into any security cameras around where the fight happened, so we can go through those and see if we find anything." Cyborg added.

"Well then, let's do this already." Beast Boy said.


Three hours later...

"Can we just stop this already?" Beast Boy asked impatiently. They had been watching the stupid videos for hours! It was all the same. The Hive showed up with Cinderblock. Everyone in the streets ran away. The villains sat there and waited. The Titans showed up, kicked their butts, and left. Every tape showed the exact same thing from a different angle.

"I hate to agree with grass stain here," Cyborg said. Beast Boy glared at him. "But he's right. We've been doin' this for hours and haven't gotten anywhere. Let's just call it quits and watch a movie or something."

"Yeah!" Beast Boy said with newfound enthusiasm at the prospect of the dreary meeting finally coming to an end. "I heard that Sin City just came out."

"What d'you guys say?" Cyborg asked.

Raven simply pretended not to hear him. She really didn't want to sit through another two-hour movie. Robin however, really didn't hear Cyborg. He was completely focused on the surveillance footage before him.

"It just doesn't make sense." He said. "They just sat there and waited for us to show up. They didn't really do anything." Cyborg scowled.

"Yep, that's right. I didn't say anything. BB just had a growth spurt, pigs are flying around, and there are asteroids of molten cheese falling from the sky, but that's alright, cuz you aren't listenin' to me anyway." Cyborg said irately. His message got across and Robin finally heard him, though his sarcasm went completely over Starfire's head.

"Oh goodness! We must do something!" she shouted, springing off the couch. "What if the flaming balls of dairy injure the pigs with their newfound flying abilities?"

"Actually Star, I was being sarcastic. I was just mad cuz boy blunder didn't hear me talkin' about watchin' a movie." Cyborg said, chuckling inwardly.

"Oh, of course." Starfire said shyly as she sat down again.

"We can watch a movie in a minute Cyborg. We're almost done." Robin said, still not taking his face from the screen before him.

"Besides," Beast Boy began. "I'll have you know, I actually did have—"

"Half a centimeter doesn't count as a growth spurt BB." Cyborg cut him off, this time laughing out loud.

"Hmph." Beast Boy said as he crossed his arms and turned his head away.

"Well, I think this is the last one." Robin said, typing a few things in on the keyboard.

They all watched. As usual, there was nothing they didn't already know. The same thing from all the other footages simply replayed.

"See, nothing. Can we please watch a movie now?" Beast Boy asked. The boredom was absolutely killing him.

"Wait! Go back!" Raven said all of a sudden.

"Did you see something?" Robin asked.

"Maybe." Robin began rewinding the video.

"There!" Raven said, pointing at the entrance to a dark ally. They all looked closer to see a man standing there. However, they could only see a part of him. His left half was concealed in shadow.

"So, it's just a guy." Beast Boy said, desperately trying to rush things along.

"But why was he still there?" Raven said. "Everyone else had fled by then."

"Maybe we can identify him. Cyborg, can you zoom in on his face?" Robin asked.

"I don't know." Cyborg replied. "These things are pretty low quality. I might be able to enlarge it a little and still maintain the resolution, but if I do it too much it could destroy the file."

"Do it." Robin said sternly.

"Okay." Cyborg said passively, pressing a few buttons.

The image zoomed in a bit to the man's face. The enlarged size caused the picture to become blurry and pixilated for a moment. However, the computer soon returned the picture to its previous quality.

"Again" Robin said. Though he could now see that the man had white hair, he still couldn't distinguish any of his features. The computer went through the same process as before. This time, the zoomed-in picture had lost some of its original quality. Robin sighed. It still wasn't enough.

"Again" he said. Cyborg entered the command once more. This time however, the screen went blank. A red, flashing "ERROR" message displayed across the screen. Robin jumped up.

"What happened!" he asked.

"We lost it." Cyborg replied. "Just as well though. We've been doing this way too long. I say we take up me and BB's movie idea."

Robin sighed. "Yeah, ok." He conceded.

"Glorious! I shall prepare the food." Starfire shouted, soaring off toward the kitchen. Everyone grimaced.

"Someone wanna go help her with that?" Cyborg asked, his face still scrunching at the thought of whatever food Starfire might bring back.

"Yeah, I'll do it." Robin said, partly to save everyone's stomachs, partly because he enjoyed Starfire's company more than he let on. He got up from the computer and ran after her.

"Whew, am I glad that thing's over." Cyborg sighed. "We really needed to watch a movie, or take a break or somethin'."

"Yeah, I confer." Beast Boy chimed.

"Concur." Raven corrected.

"Huh?"

"I concur." She repeated.

"Oh, whatever Raven!" Beast Boy scoffed. "Who cares? You know like way too many words and junk anyway." Raven scowled.

"Yeah, you do kinda know a lot of stuff." Cyborg said. "Do you read the dictionary or somethin'?"

"No," Raven said, her annoyance rising. "Unlike you two idiots, I actually have a vocabulary to speak of."

Cyborg, who was standing right next to Raven at the moment, sensed her rising irritation and decided it would probably be safer to leave.

"Heh heh, yeah…" he stuttered. "I'll just be going to the uh…kitchen, yeah kitchen, to uh…help Robin and Star." With that, Cyborg made a mad dash away from Raven and was out of the room within seconds. Beast Boy, who was a safe distance away from the increasingly aggravated Raven, stupidly remained in the room with her.

Once Cyborg left though, Raven found herself calming down a bit, her anger subsiding. For some reason, ever since he had left her and Beast Boy alone, she began to slowly grow calmer. It was the strangest feeling, but she had no idea what caused it…

"So you do wanna watch the movie?" Beast Boy asked all of a sudden, grinning.

"When did I say that?" Raven asked.

"Well, when Cy talked about watching a movie, you did say 'I concur'."

"When I said that, I was only correcting your bad grammar." She said crankily. "If you can even deign to call it grammar at all." Raven smirked at her last comment. Not just because it was witty and insulting, but because it was the way she typically talked to Beast Boy, before the whole 'kiss' situation began. Finally, it seemed the unusual tension between the two was dissipating, and they could make fun of each other the way they normally did. Raven was glad for this, because she had really been getting sick of the thought of her and Beast Boy being together (not that the thought had really ever crossed her mind anyway). Besides, if she ignored the 'Beast Boy' issue long enough and it just went away, she could finally return her full focus to the problem with her powers.

"Oh come on Raven. I'll even let you sit next to me. You know your just dying to get near me." Beast Boy taunted suggestively. He knew he really shouldn't be egging Raven on. He knew she had been in a bad mood since he retrieved her from her room, but he continued to poke fun at her anyway for the same reason she did. Because it finally seemed that things between them were returning to normal. He was relieved that he could finally stop sounding like some love-struck twelve-year-old around her.

"Oh yeah, Beast Boy." Raven retorted sarcastically. She defiantly sat down at the end of the couch, as far from him as she could. "Like I really want to sit next to you." She teased.

All of a sudden, there was a giant burst of dark energy behind Beast Boy. It didn't injure him; however it did send him crashing toward the end of the couch, toward Raven.

Before he knew it, he was lying on top of her, looking extremely shocked. Raven, who was just as surprised as he was, had an equally stunned expression on her face. Neither of them said anything; neither moved. They were both too shaken up.

So much for things returning to normal again.

Without reason, they both looked at each other. Beast Boy gazed down into Raven's deep violet eyes. Raven gazed back up at his emerald ones. All of a sudden, she found an ethereal calm enveloping her. She felt Beast Boy's arms at her side, and his stomach pressed against her own. At this, that strange, flighty feeling entered her body and encompassing her very being once again. Still gazing into his eyes, she smiled unconsciously. Not meaning to, he grinned back at her.

Slowly, not fully aware of what she was doing, Raven began moving toward him. Beast Boy reciprocated her actions and began moving his mouth toward hers. After what seemed like minutes, their lips met.

In seemingly no time at all, they both became aware of what was happening. Both of their eyes widened, and Beast Boy pushed himself off of Raven as though she were scorching.

"Oh, dude, Rae…I, uh…um…" Beast Boy stuttered, trying to avoid any sort of eye contact with Raven.

"Uh…yeah…" Raven responded.

"Geez, I am like…really sorry…"

"Uh…yeah, uh-huh…whatever…" Raven stammered, for once desperately wishing something, anything would disturb her. She got her wish when Starfire, Robin and Cyborg returned from the kitchen with popcorn and candy.

"Alright y'all, let's get this thing goin'." Cyborg shouted, sitting down in the new space between Beast Boy and Raven.

"Uh…yeah," Beast Boy said. "Start her up."


Two hours later...

"Man! That was so awesome!" Cyborg said once the credits began rolling. His excitement though, was met with complete silence from the rest of the group. Starfire found that, though the action was entertaining, she didn't quite understand much of the dialogue with its earthly colloquialisms. Robin really just wanted to get back to researching the cause of the attack from earlier. Beast Boy and Raven, needless to say, still hadn't gotten over what had just happened and had been uncomfortably glancing at each other the entire time.

"Well then…never mind." Cyborg mumbled.

"I'm going to my room. Don't. come in." Raven spoke suddenly as she rose from the couch and left.

"What's wrong with her?" Cyborg asked once Raven had left the room.

"Heh…who knows." Beast Boy replied meekly.

"Oh well." Starfire said. "I too wish to retire to my sleeping quarters for the night. Pleasant dreams friends. Goodnight Robin."

"'Night Star." Robin said. With that, Starfire got up and exited down the hallway. Robin got up and went back to the computer.

"Man that kid obsesses waaay too much." Cyborg said.

"Uh-huh…" Beast Boy responded distantly. Again, Cyborg found himself met with a lack of conversation.

"So…" he said, trying to come up with something to talk about. "What's up with you and Raven?"

"Huh?" Beast Boy said, startled at the mention of Raven's name.

"I said, what's up with you and Raven? Y'all were actin' kinda weird."

"We were not." Beast Boy scoffed. "And nothing's happening."

"Whatever." Cyborg said. "I'm just sayin' you two kept lookin' at each other and turnin' away like the whole movie."

"I don't like her!" Beast Boy yelled suddenly, standing up off the couch. Cyborg raised his hands in defense.

"Never said you did." He said. Beast Boy calmed down a bit.

"Sorry Cy." Beast Boy mumbled, sounding suddenly drained. "I'm going to bed. Later."

"Later man." Cyborg said, thinking that Beast Boy probably needed a bit of sleep, given his sudden uptightness.

Cyborg sat there on the couch for a moment, and decided it was about time for him to shut down as well. He got up and went by the computer where Robin was still diligently searching through evidence.

"You still workin'?" he asked the teen.

"Yeah." Robin replied. "I just thought of something else."

"Shoot." Cyborg said.

"Well, I just figured, since when does The Hive work with Cinderblock?"

"I don't know. I guess it is kind of a new thing for them." Cyborg said, wondering.

"That's what I thought. Then, I wondered, what if it's not just them? What if they're working for someone else? Some other, higher, criminal power that's put them both together? What if they're working for--?"

"Man, if you say Slade I'll slap you of the side of the head." Cyborg said warningly.

"Think about it Cyborg. We haven't seen him since Trigon. He could be planning something. Anything." Robin said. Cyborg sighed.

"Whatever man. I'm goin' to bed. You should do that to. Later."

"Later, Cy." Robin said, his eyes still glued to the computer screen. Cyborg walked off and began the journey to his room.

"Hey! What happened to the door!"


Author's Note: Okay, before I go, I've got a few things to clear up for you. As for how the Titan's got the movie without renting it, I'm just gonna pretend that they have Pay-per-view. Even if they don't have it...they do now. Lol

About Starfire, I realize that I really haven't used her for much except a fighting, Robin-obsessed, important-dialogue-lacking drone. Starfire fans, don't worry. In the next chapter or two, I'm going to give her something to say besides "I don't understand" and "Yes Robin". So don't worry.

Okay, that's all I guess. Thanks again to all reviewers!

'Til next time. GoldenBlade416