A/N: Oh! This is one of my favorite chapters in this fic for some reason. Enjoy!
Chapter 3 Runaway Candy and Starbucks
Raven and Robin walked past people in the crowded mall and a long silence crept onto them. The only sound was from people talking and kids screaming for candy or toys. They both wanted to talk, but the two had never been alone together. There were sometimes when Robin could not sleep and came downstairs to watch TV and Raven would be there, but they still would not say anything.
"So," Robin said while searching for words. She glanced over to him and he went on, "Where do you want to go?"
Raven opened her mouth to ask where he wanted to go, but remembered that he would just shrug his shoulders and say nothing and go back to silence. "There is a great Starbucks just up ahead," she said and pointed to the coffee shop.
Robin smiled to her and said, "That sounds great!" He was thankful she did not ask him where he wanted to go. Cyborg had asked him that the whole time and Robin had gone to every place he liked and he was running out of places to go.
They both went in and they could smell coffee waft over to them. They both sat down at a table and Raven got his order. She came back a few minutes later with her hot coffee and his cup of ice mocha.
"Thanks, Rae," he said while taking his cup and sipping out of it. "Do you come here often?"
"Every time I come to the mall I always come to this place," Raven answered while letting her coffee cool down. "Like it?"
Robin looked up at her from his cold drink and nodded. "Next time you come here take me with you!" he said with a smile. Raven turned away for a second and a smile came to her emotionless face. She was scoring with him.
"I wonder what the others are doing," Robin said with a sly smile. Raven gave him the same smile. He knew they were having a tough time.
"BB!" Cyborg yelled to him as the green teen scoped a huge load of candy into his bag with his annoying laugh. "You can't buy all that!"
"Why not?" Beast Boy asked while looking up at Cyborg.
"You already bought that chair for Robin," Cyborg answered while grabbing Starfire's arm to stop her from going any farther with her 20 bags of candy. "You don't have enough money right now."
"You're my friend, right?" Beast Boy asked. Cyborg shook his head to Starfire to only buy one bag of candy. She looked she was going to cry.
Cyborg glared down at Beast Boy and said, "Yeah, I'm your friend. And as a friend I'm saying that is too much candy for you BB. Plus, you get so hyper you bounce off walls with that load."
"No," Beast Boy said with a frown. "As a friend you buy this candy for us."
"Us?" Cyborg asked and gave a sarcastic smile down to his green friend. "Your version of 'us' is you, yourself, and not me. I'm not buying that for you. We get only one bag full of candy and you and Starfire can share it."
"Why can't we just get our own bags?" Beast Boy whined. He quivered his lower lip and gave him some big eyes with tears. Starfire caught on and gave Cyborg the same look. "Please!" they begged Cyborg with helpless voices.
"Why do you guys do this to me?" Cyborg moaned. He finally nodded and said, "Go knock yourselves out. But I'm only paying for my candy so don't get so much." Starfire giggled while Beast Boy laughed again as they went to work.
Raven and Robin had finally gotten to talking. Raven realized Robin teased a lot and he was starting to pick on her. He dished it out to her and she dished it back and they had a few laughs. She was enjoying herself.
"Having a fun birthday?" she asked him as he leaned back in his seat.
He looked up at her and thought about it. "It was better than last year," he finally said.
"The cake on fire was a mistake, Robin," Raven tried to apologize. He frowned at her and she tried to explain. "I left Starfire with it for a few seconds because I had to call Cyborg to come home." He kept frowning at her for a long time. She bit her lower lip and hoped he was not too mad.
Robin then started to crack up. "You take things too seriously," he said through laughter. "You should have seen your face panic," he said while pointing to her. Raven sighed and forced a smile. Maybe she did take things too seriously. But then again, she thought Robin was too serious as well. They were kind of the same that way.
"I got to ask, Robin," she said and he looked at her with question on his face. "Why don't you like us to throw you birthday parties?"
Robin looked away from his friend and said, "I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders and pretended to not really care.
"You know I can just read your mind," Raven said. "And I can sense a bad vibe coming from you. Just tell me what is the matter."
"You're evil, you know that?" he told her with a slight smile. "On my birthdays the people around me and I have bad luck. It is no big deal. Just something that bugs me."
Raven actually laughed at what he had said. "Just a little bad luck?" she asked. He shrugged his shoulders. "All this time you have been trying to ignore your birthday because of some little bad luck?"
"No, Raven," he said with plead in his voice. "I'm not kidding. You remember what happened last year?"
"Yeah," Raven said sarcastically, "The guy who has been teasing me for the past hour is now serious. Plus, I've been having a fine day so far," she lied. It had been one of her worst, but she could not let Robin know that.
"Maybe for you," Robin said while rolling his eyes under his mask. "I beat you anything the others are going through trouble."
"Maybe we should get Robin a jawbreaker," Beast Boy said as he threw one of the ball candies in the air and caught it before it hit the floor. "He likes candy, you know?"
"That could be good," Starfire said in thought as she looked at the giant bucket of jawbreakers. "I still do not have a gift for him."
"Oh, come on, Star," Cyborg said. "Robin would like it and all, but this is his birthday. You need to get him something special." He started to walk towards them but slipped on the water from someone mopping. He tripped and knocked into Beast Boy who knocked into Starfire who knocked into the large bucket full of jawbreakers.
"NO!" the lady at the desk yelled as she saw the whole thing tip over and spill out all the jawbreakers. They tumbled out the store and down the escalator. The three got up while rubbing their heads. They were met by a mean look from the lady at the desk. "If you don't pick them all up I'll make you pay for all of them," she said while pointing to all the jawbreakers flying out of the store.
"Come on," Cyborg said while running to catch up with the lost jawbreakers. He did not want to pay for all of them. He had little money left for Robin already. Starfire was ahead of them and she tried to stop them from running into her because she did not know what escalator she wanted to go on. She had only been to the mall a few times and was still like a little kid to the moving steps.
With yells, they all collided with each other and fell into the 'up' escalator. They kept falling down but the steps kept pulling them back up to just let them fall again. So they kept falling till the woman from the desk ran out and pressed a few buttons on the escalator to make it stop.
Wham! The three whacked into each other again and were sent tumbling down the stairs. They rolled into the mess of dirty jawbreakers and past a Starbucks while still screaming.
Raven and Robin jumped to their feet when they saw their friends roll past the coffee shop. They ran out of Starbucks and saw their friends in a heap of arms and legs next to a tone of jawbreakers. They could hear some moans from the pile of friends as they tried to get off each other.
Robin glared over to Raven and said, "Now do you believe me when I said bad luck?"
"No," Raven said sternly as they ran up to their poor friends, "That was just a fall."
"Yeah," Robin said sarcastically over to her. "Down the up escalator after pushing over a huge load of jawbreakers. That was just some normal fall in the mall." Raven said nothing and helped Starfire and Beast Boy up. Robin helped Cyborg to his feet with an outstretched hand.
Beast Boy gave a goofy smile to the two while picking up a jawbreaker from the titled floor. "Five minute rule," he said while popping it into his mouth. Everyone cringed as they saw him do this and gave a "YEW!" Beast Boy could be Beast Boy.
"Dude," Cyborg said disgustingly. "Get that out of your mouth!" He slammed his hand on Beast Boy's back and the jawbreaker flew out of his mouth by mistake. It flew through the air and everyone winced as it landed on Raven's head. So far she was having the worst day.
"Okay," Raven said slowly and everyone backed away knowing she was going to explode. "GET THE THING OUT OF MY HAIR!" she screamed and did not dare touch it because it was covered in Beast Boy's gooey spit.
"Worry not friend Raven," Starfire said to try and calm her down. "I got the red stuff out of Beast Boy's hair that one time. I can get this jawbreaker out of your hair." The boys did not dare say one word.
"You got it out of Beast Boy's hair with scissors!" Raven panicked while swiping Starfire away with a hand. "Beast Boy, I'm going to kill you! If you do not leave with Robin right now, I'll wrap my hands around your throat and strangle you."
"Do not find out if she is kidding," Cyborg muttered while pushing him and Robin away from Raven.
Robin leaned back to Raven and said, "I hate to say I told you so, but... I told you so!" He then smiled at her as she gave him a death glare. The jawbreaker on her head suddenly exploded, and Robin and Beast Boy ran for their lives down the hall.
"Let's just clean this up before that lady makes us pay for all it," Cyborg said while picking up a few jawbreakers. "We all need to find a gift for Robin. So let's hurry."
Raven sighed deeply and started to join Starfire and Cyborg in the clean up. She wanted to get something real good for Robin. The only way to do that was to get the jawbreakers picked up. She was having a sick feeling that this day would never end.
