After defeating the Brotherhood of Evil and giving Dr. Light the scare of his life, Raven looked for a much needed downtime after being surrounded with so many rambunctious, loud teenage superheroes. All the interactions, all the emotions, all the excitement left her completely drained. All that she truly needed was some much deserved meditation on the roof. It was a sunset afternoon and, after finally getting to her destination, she noticed that her usual peaceful spot was already taken. By that quiet blonde boy. Jericho, was it? He was there with his legs crossed just like she would be, softly playing his guitar. His eyes were closed as he could feel every strum at the very center of his being.

At first she got a little annoyed. She really needed her alone time and the tower was full, loud and she needed her escape. Raven sighed and decided to still go to her usual spot, hoping that the fact that this guy was a mute would actually aid on what she needed. And perhaps maybe even that soft guitar can help her relax. The young mage walked over to him and just looked at his face. "You're in my spot", she interrupted in a light tone. Jericho just looked at her back with an empty stare, a bit of a worried look and he started to uncross his legs to stand up. To which she immediately answered "No, you don't have to leave. Keep playing." With a confused look, he took a second to grasp what was going on but listened to her and continued playing the soft tune. She got in the same crossed leg position beside him, started meditating, chanting her mantra as barely a whisper: "azarath metrion zinthos…" All while in the background, a relaxing melody played on acoustic guitar. It actually helped her a lot, more than she thought it would.

After a few minutes of meditation, she felt at peace. Even though she was accompanied by someone she barely just met, his aura was calm, peaceful and warm. Surprised by the strange realization that she felt completely at peace with a practical stranger, she halted her meditation, said her thanks and stood up from her spot. Raven felt him stare back at her. Which gave her more thoughts. It made her think...he was the only one on the roof, looking for solitude, peace and quiet just like her. Maybe they have even more things in common. Was this interest? Maybe? Whatever.

She walked back inside, making a beeline to the common room to meet with the rest of the Titans, who were in the middle of planning a huge New Year's Eve bash. Of course, every single honorary Titan was invited and this was a great reason to mentally prepare for yet another very busy, very loud evening with all the Titans. She heard all about how they were planning the food menu, who would be DJing, who would workout the fireworks display...all the details. They were all making plans. She sighed at the thought of another crazy invasion to her home, turned around and walked to her room to get a nice book to sink herself into. On her way, coming back from the roof was Jericho and Raven decided she didn't want to waste the opportunity for another exchange with the blonde young man.

"Fair warning" the mage said in her usual monotone, making him freeze in his tracks. "They're in there planning a big New Year's Eve Party", she continued. He gave her a small smile and a thumbs up. Just as she was about to continue her walk to her room, he moved his straight palm forward, signaling her to stop. She understood and halted, looking back at him and a bit anxious as to what he might want to communicate to her. He pointed at her and then proceeded to extend both his fists with pinkies and thumbs extended, twisting his wrist and swinging his arms slightly from side to side. She panicked internally as she honestly wasn't sure what he was telling her. Not knowing was not a position she was used to. Raven went with her gut and said "If you're asking me if I'll be at this party, I have no choice. My home will be the venue. Do you think you will be here as well?" he responded with a nod and another thumbs up for Raven. She gave him a small nod and an even smaller smile before floating back to her room. The teenage dark beauty made it to her room, grabbed the book she was reading lately and found that she couldn't quite concentrate on that one paragraph where she left off. Instead she found herself wondering what else she could find out about Jericho.

Still, she disappeared into her room until the next day. Once she woke up at her usual time 6:00 a.m, she felt the tower was once again nearly empty . Raven walked up to the common room to the kitchen to prepare her usual morning tea and in comes Robin, who usually is an early bird like her "Did everybody leave?" she asked out loud. "The Titans East are still packing their stuff and getting ready but everybody else left last night. Looking for someone?" the boy wonder answered in a regular tone. "Not really" she lied, "Just finally glad I can enjoy some peace and quiet inside my own home." She guessed she was just going to have to wait until the New Year's Eve Party. But still what was she going to expect going to gathering and just say nothing at all? Sit down next to him while he plays his guitar and say nothing at all? Raven needed to know more information and sadly she only knew one person in the tower right now that could possibly tell her what she needed to know. The teenage goth dragged her feet to the corridor, ending up on Beast Boy's door. She knocked once, knocked twice...giving up, probably thinking that he was surely asleep. Before she could turn around to leave, the door swished open and there he was.

The green young man with droopy eyes as a signal that he just woke up, once he noticed who was the person knocking outside his door his eyes immediately bopped open and his ears perked up. "Raven, I did not expect you here! To what do I owe the pleasure?" he finished with a wide yawn. "I have a question and if you tell any of the Titans about what I'm about to ask you, I will make sure you end up in a trash can dimension. This is to be our little secret." She needed to give him a good warning or else all the Titans would know of this new...interest...before noon. "Ooh, I love sharing a secret with you. Finally you get to trust me with something. Now, what can I do for you?" Beast Boy answered. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Jericho." She said quickly with a tone of shame. "Jericho? The guy who doesn't speak at all and can take over anybody's body?" Beast Boy resisted every ounce of impulse to tease, he didn't want to lose Raven's trust or the chance to be the only person to know Raven's crush. "Yes, that's the one. You recruited him and he helped you sneak into the Brotherhood's layer and save everybody so I'm guessing you're the only person I know that has spent time with him. So, what did you learn about him?" Beast Boy couldn't help it, satisfied his impulses just one bit and asked, "Are you interested in him?" "If you're going to start asking questions, I'm just going to leave" Raven spat out, clearly annoyed by the question. "No, no, no, no. Don't leave. I'll tell you what you need to know. I just...think it's cute that you have a crush." She rolled her eyes to make her annoyance clear, as he continued. " Well...he plays guitar. He's blonde. He takes over people's bodies and can actually speak with other people's bodies so that's the only way he could let us know what he was thinking. He kept doing weird signs with his hands but none of us got him. I don't know. Since I couldn't speak to him very much, I couldn't really get to know him." Raven sighed, thinking this visit might have been a waste of her time, but he kept rambling on. "I just know he's smart and he has very useful powers...What is it? It's the guitar, isn't it? Or is it the fact that he just doesn't speak and you'd be able to be in your beloved silence?" Raven just stared at him with a blank expression for a few second until she responded "Okay, I'm leaving now." The empath was about to turn away, but Beast Boy halted her. "Wait! I went to the community center the other day because I've actually been into taking some new hobby like photography, or drawing or something. I saw a poster for free American Sign Language classes so maybe that way you can actually chat with him" he finished his advice with a shrug of the shoulders. "Noted." Raven deadpanned, and finished turning to disappear to her room. Seems like she had a chance after all.

Raven took Beast Boy's advice and went to the community center every week for the next 4 months to learn American Sign Language. She already spoke a few languages, what's adding one more to the list? Sooner than she would have wanted, the day was here. Everybody was getting the place ready. The decorations were up. The music was playing at full volume. The first round of snacks was rolling around. Raven sat down in the common room dining table nervously eating tiny sandwiches while constantly looking at the clock. Many honorary Titans arrived at 7:00. By 8:00 almost everybody was there. Almost. 9:00 came around and still Raven's eyes looked around for the mute blonde boy with no luck. After feeling silly for the past hour looking around and anxiously tapping on her foot she gave up. The goth girl stood up from the dining table, taking advantage of the distracted party-goers and strut to the common room doors towards to the corridor. Disilusionment sucks.

Once she stepped out and the common room doors closed to leave the party behind, as she was stepping towards the corridor, she heard the common room doors open once again. It was Beast Boy. "Raven, hold up! I know what's going on. Jericho's not gonna make it." He stated knowingly. "Why would I care?" The empath tried to hide her true mood with a deadpan tone. "Don't play that card with me. I know you've been for the couple past months learning sign language just so that you could be ready to talk to this guy. Listen, I know where he is. He was left behind to watch on the Titans South tower while we were all here partying." Raven rolled her eyes and answered, "Again there's no problem." The mage was getting upset at the conversation and felt the urge to leave to her room and just hide. "You should go! You still have a couple more hours until the clock strikes 12:00." He continued as she started slightly scowling at him. "Come on! You deserve to have a nice night. Just do it. I'll cover for you! I'll just say you went off to your room because you got overwhelmed with all the emotions and excitement, nobody will blink an eye at that. You know exactly where Titans South tower is and you can teleport there." Raven sighed and crossed her arms. The green guy was really convincing her. He wiggled his eyebrows and added in a singsong voice, "He's by himself. You will be completely uninterrupted." He didn't even give her a chance to respond before he said: "Wait here, I'll be right back."

He went back to the common room and in 5 seconds he returned to where Raven was standing to give her an untouched 12 inch strawberry cheesecake. "Here so that you don't go with empty hands." He said as he attempted to hand her the dessert. "Garfield, what are you doing?" She asked honestly at his acts of accompliceship. "Just do it! Here." He forces the cheesecake to her chest, forcing her to grab it. "You can either take this to your room and eat it all feeling sorry for yourself or you can go share it with someone special. Trust me You'll thank me later." Beast Boy turned around and left her standing there in the corridor returning to the party. Raven stood there staring into the dark nothingness of the corridor that led to her room. As if taking a second to process everything the green young man said. She closed her eyes in resignation, took a deep breath and chanted her mantra.

A portal opened and it took her to the very entrance of Titans South tower. It conveniently had a doorbell and she decided to press it. About 3 minutes passed and the empath started to regret her decision, as she was standing outside, alone in the cold. With a cheesecake. Before she could even think of returning home, the main entrance door opened to reveal a very lonely Jericho. Upon seeing the cloaked girl, his eyes flashed open and a wide grin appeared on his face. He waved his hand towards him, inviting her in and she followed him. Once they made it to the common room of this tower she was already feeling the awkwardness of the silence setting in. Not to mention the fact that they were alone in a tower. She put the cheesecake down on the kitchen counter, turned to the young man in her company and averted her gaze upwards as if trying to remember something. Her hands slowly started to move. Her right hand with an open palm, she placed against her chest twice..."Happy"... she made another movement as if scooping something with her right hand from her left hand... "New"... she turned her hands into fists and spun her right fist around her left fist once ending with her right fist on top of the left ..."Year"...

Raven was relieved seeing his eyes shine brighter than any fireworks she had ever seen.