Raven sat at the long table in the dining room of the tower. It was cloudy outside so the light through the large windows of the room was grey. She lifted her communicator from her lap and placed it on the table. She had just finished back-to-back calls from Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg.

"Sorry, everyone bailed."

Raven lifted her gaze to Beast Boy, who was seated at the far end of the table with his feet propped up. He had changed from his muddy mission clothes into a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"They didn't bail," Raven replied in her usual monotone.

"You know what I mean. That they got caught up on their missions and stuff. But, hey. I'm here," he said brightly and flashed her a grin.

Raven didn't respond. She would never admit it, but she had been looking forward to today. Each month, Robin assigned one member of the team to plan a team bonding activity. And for four months, Raven had endured one annoying activity after another. Starfire had made the team go on a shopping spree at some cheesy outlet mall outside of the city. Cyborg had made them sit through a monster truck show rally. And both Robin's borderline punishing day and Beast Boy's borderline dangerous day had been so terrible that she mentally blocked them out. Today was finally supposed to be a day she could enjoy, and maybe even get the others to enjoy too.

"Good point," she said.

He gave her a thumbs up until she spoke again.

"We should just cancel. See you in four months," Raven said as she stood up from the table. She wore a sweater similar to her cloak that didn't zip or button and it reached down to her knees.

"What? No way, Rae," Beast Boy protested. He turned into a cat and pranced across the table to her side. He meowed and then morphed back into his usual form with his legs dangling from the edge of the table. "Like I said, I'm here. Let's do this! What ya got?"

Raven sighed. "Don't call me Rae."

He nodded and then morphed into a bunny and hopped over to an empty chair, but this time one closer to her. He morphed back to his human form and then patiently waited for her to give him instructions.

Raven took another step away from the table, unsure of if she wanted to continue or not. "Wouldn't you rather go, I don't know, play video games or something?"

His eyes lit up and he gasped. "You want to play video games with me!"

"No. I meant that you go play alone and I go do...anything else."

He shook his head no and folded his hands on the table. "Nope. I'm here for the team bonding. And you're in charge. So, what ya got?"

Raven stared at him, but he just looked up at her patiently with a smile on his face. She let out another sigh and then sat back down at the table. She summoned two large canvases and some paint supplies over to the table. Next, she brought over two teacups and two saucers and then a pot of tea. When everything was arranged in front of them on the table the way she liked, she nodded.

"It's called a paint and sip. We paint. And we sip," she briefly explained.

"Hmm. Sounds easy," Beast Boy nodded. He poured himself some tea and sipped it before it cooled. He stuck out his tongue and grimaced. "Ah! It's hot!"

Raven facepalmed. Of all the people to be stuck bonding with, it had to be Beast Boy. At least with Robin or Cyborg they could discuss art. And Starfire was creative, so Raven knew she would be impressed and confused by whatever Starfire painted. But Beast Boy was going to be...Beast Boy. She doubted he had any opinions on art or any creative talent that she would be surprised by. She watched him glare at his tea cup. At least he had shown up.

"It's tea. It's supposed to be hot," she said as she picked up a paintbrush.

"Not iced tea."

She exhaled through her nostrils and summoned some ice cubes that plopped into his mug.

"Sweet," he cheered. He waited a moment and then sipped. "Much better, Rae."

"No talking during paint and sip," she demanded.

Beast Boy frowned as he picked up multiple tubes of paint. "What do you mean 'no talking'? How are we supposed to bond?"

"Quietly."

"But…"

"Paint. Sip."

They worked quietly for about five minutes before Beast Boy started chatting about anything and everything. She had considered using her magic to shut him up, but decided that it wouldn't be in the spirit of team building. So, she nodded every now and then and focused on her painting. Over time though, she found a rhythm to the stories he told and even started to pay attention to what he was actually saying.

"I'm done," Beast Boy announced proudly as he held up his canvas. "Ta-da!"

Raven put down her paintbrush and slowly lifted her eyes to his work. Her eyes widened in surprise. She stammered, "Whoa. It's actually… good."

She had to admit that even though it wasn't particularly thought provoking, he had done a decent job with his painting. The colors were fun and the picture almost made her smile.

He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. "I know. I play a lot of video games, so I pay attention to details and stuff." He glanced at her painting of a flower. "Yours is good, too."

She looked down at her work and agreed, "Yeah. Thanks."

Beast Boy furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before his expression brightened. He smiled at her and suggested, "Dude, we should trade!"

Raven blinked. "Paintings?"

"Yeah," he said, putting down his canvas and scooting it over to her. He stood up from his seat and picked up her painting. "That way, wherever we go, we can take it with us! You can always have something of mine. And I'll always have something of yours."

Raven stared down at Beast Boy's painting. "You want me to always have a painting of a cat with pizza for its torso?"

"Uh huh and I'll have this purple rose."

"It's a hydrangea."

"Bless you," he said, thinking that she had sneezed.

Raven was about to correct him, but then thought better of it. It didn't really matter if he knew what flowers were which. She looked back down at his painting. She felt a warmth in her heart from the thought that he wanted her to have something to remember him by. Although, it wasn't like they ever planned on moving out of the tower. She couldn't imagine Beast Boy wanting to make it out in the world on his own, even when they were older. And she didn't have any plans of leaving the team at any point. If anything, the two of them would probably be left to run the tower whenever Robin and Starfire got married and went to start a family; and Cyborg left to start a billion-dollar tech company or marry a model or something.

"Great activity, Rae," Beast Boy said, interrupting her thoughts as he picked up his teacup and saucer. "Besides mine, this was like the best one."

"Really?" she asked, unable to keep the hopefulness out of her tone. She would be embarrassed to admit it out loud, but she had really wanted the team to like her activity.

"Totally," he smiled. "I'm gonna find the perfect spot for this in my room. See ya, Raven."

Raven gave him a small smile. Maybe she had been stuck bonding with the right person after all.

End note: This oneshot was based off the prompt paint from the September OTP Prompt Challenge posted by . Thank you for sharing prompts, person from the internet.