A/N: I feel like the beginning part may read quite overdramatic, and it was actually inspired by the whole bruh girl v girly girl trend on tiktok, which is, in fact, dumb - and then I thought about Raven and Starfire, and how Raven can often be portrayed way harsher than she actually is (in the cartoons etc) but I didn't like the idea of her buying into to the normalised misogyny -though I think we've all probably have had to or need to learn to identify it to overcome.

Also, as Eris pointed out under my previous chapter, Beast Boy did obviously grow up in Africa, so probably has some personal experiences with racism himself - which I agree with, there's a reason that its Cyborg and then Beast Boy that Starfire first goes to in the 'Troq' episode, but I had only originally intended to have them painting the signs in an off-handed, normalised sort-of-way, and then got wrapped up thinking about that episode and their first-hand experiences. In short, you're right - I just hadn't thought that far.

End activity suggested by teamLiEvansDragneel

Thank you for all the lovely reviews!

Also ! My writing has been heavily inspired by the works of Gabriel Picolo (you can find the actual playlists that've been listened to, illustrations of outfits, activities etc - all under his name on spotify/IG) but this is where you should look if you want an example of Raven's and Starfire's new hairstyles.

-Bree

It was no secret that Rachel Roth, known to many more simply as Raven, had endured a difficult past. In fact, it seemed to be some rite of passage – terrible loss and trauma in exchange for the responsibility of being a hero, but that was beside the point. Her upbringing had been…unsentimental. She was told from a young age how she existed only for destruction – nothing more than her demon father's 'portal'; how with her birth the emerald skies of Azarath were blackened and the sweet smell of Gossamer became the pungent odour of Brimstone.

Nethertheless, the pregnant Arella was brought to Azarath for purposes of protection, to shield herself and her daughter from Trigon's evil, and for the sixteen years that daughter lived there she was taught of morality and spirituality. Though cold, it was a peaceful, pacifist dimension where its residents were taught to be altruistic, so while Raven would have to unlearn many things (shutting people out, supressing emotions etc) after defeating both the prophecy and her father, misogyny wasn't one of them.

When she would occasionally rebuff Starfire's requests to go shopping or to get their nails done – the boy's videogames and basketball tournaments would be refused in equal part. Her wardrobe was almost entirely devoid of pastels and pinks – out of preference. Admittedly, she did hate the inconvenient weight of acrylics on her fingertips and the tickle of hair grown too long but she would never shame the girls who did like them, and there were a number of more stereotypically feminine activities that she did enjoy.

Right now, for example, she lay on the fluffy, purple carpet of her best-friend's room, an equally purple, equally fluffy pillow hugged against her chest and her feet on said best-friends lap while she bent over them, gel polish in hand.

The boys had been quick to excuse themselves from the makeovers. Though Beast Boy likely had the biggest reason for being absent, his excuse had seemed the most genuine – the acetic, artificial stench of the dye that saturated their hair was too much for him. It didn't matter, it had been too long since they'd last gotten a girls night.

'There.' Said Starfire, with one final wipe over the nails she'd just finished polishing.

Raven thanked her as she swung her feet back onto the carpet and brought her hands down towards them to admire the matching, glossy black. She then picked up a number of bottles and held them out for selection.

'Pink or purple?' she asked.

The Tamaranian chose a deep pink, and there was a brief interlude of that evenings giggling as Raven set about applying the colour and Starfire turned her attention back to the chick flick that played quietly in the background. After all the shaping, buffing, and priming, she applied the polish with slow, careful strokes. It wasn't often the two would indulge in a manicure or pedicure, as if the gel wasn't applied one-hundred-percent perfectly, it would soon be completely demolished by their lifestyle of vigorous training and crime-fighting.

On screen, Kat was just concluding her poem as Raven guided Starfire's hand under their little UV/LED lamp to dry the second coat.

'-ostly I hate the way I don't hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all…'

Something about it struck a nerve, and it didn't go unnoticed.

'Do you want to talk about earlier?' They were the only ones in the room, but Kori whispered anyway.

Over the years, Raven had learned that there was a fine line between controlling and repressing; she had also learned which one would be dangerous – often the hard way.

So, she made it her top priority to excel at differentiating between the two, and she was proud to say that now, she did – usually. Which is why she was utterly taken aback to notice what was happening to her, yet made no attempt what-so-ever to stop it. She wasn't exactly sure when she had started to like him. But one day, her gaze began to wander in the training room, falling on the shapeshifter. Specifically, the way his muscles tensed under the weights he lifted and the overly sensual way his face screwed itself up as he concentrated, and she found that she suddenly possessed both the clarity and boldness to not shy away from the thoughts that popped into her head.

It only made sense that she would eventually begin to fall for him, when she began to think about it. Out of all the people she had tried to push away, Beast Boy would always bounce back the fastest. Though she had always, by habit, been quick to rebuff him, it genuinely touched her that he kept trying to make sure she was included in everything they did and she was endlessly grateful he never seemed to take her short temper to heart. By, azar, was he nothing short of infuriating at times. Most of the time, actually. But, after meditating, she was never able to look back on any of it without a half-smile to herself.

Sure, he was also green, he had fangs, and his ears were pointed, but Raven had never been one to shy away from the unusual – she'd be no more than a hypocrite if she did. In fact, the more frequently she caught herself thinking about those things, the more she began to think of them as a definite check-in-the-box. The pointed ears weren't anything other than endearing as they twitched in parallel to his emotions, the lone fang that jutted out from his lower lip nothing other than distracting (it reminded her of something she had read in one of Star's human girl magazines about drawing attention to the lips) and she found his peculiar skin tone oddly enticing. Especially when he wore black, she had noted. He tended to wear black quite a lot. It would be a lie to say the little bursts of warm-white affection (amongst other things) she would occasionally feel from him didn't colour her cheeks or procure a positively dizzying happiness.

However, she was not about to do anything to appease her infatuation. Not so soon. As their little show earlier had demonstrated, she clearly didn't have that level of control over her emotions.

She let out a sigh, 'Not just yet, Star.' A knowing smile shaped her features, 'But what about you and Dick?'

He had always liked her. From the second they had first met, he had been instantly drawn to her, as cliché as it sounds to say.

Admittedly, it had taken a few years for him to realise why he constantly trailed her, teasing comments and bad jokes on the tip of his tongue. But now, even he couldn't ignore how blatantly obvious it was, and knowing this, he would talk openly about it with the rest of his team – complaining dejectedly when she was being more distant than usual or practically bouncing in random bursts of optimism. Always when he was absolutely certain that they were out of earshot, though. As much as he suspected she had probably put two and two together even before the rest of the team (despite his attempts to think of other things around her) neither of them had ever said anything (aside from the occasional bold comment or flirty remark when Raven was in a good mood and therefore being especially tolerant). And so it was going to stay that way.

He wouldn't scare her off. It had taken a very, very long time for her to stop suffocating her smiles; to open up in all the small ways that she had. It wasn't nearly enough, but he knew he wouldn't be able to live without it. Besides, he had learned to be patient.

Right now, however, he was in the kitchen, once again moaning to his two best friends.

'Dudes, she's going to be so mad at me!' He whined from his perch on the island, head in hands.

To his left, leaning against the structure he sat on, was Cyborg, behind them, Robin leant up against the other counters. Both of them held a large bowl of cereal in their hands as they shared a worried glance. It had been Kori'anders night to cook, and the outcome hadn't seemed fit for human consumption.

Cyborg went first.

'I mean, she didn't seem to be all that passive.' He winced, and it was clear that he earnestly wished he didn't have to be having these conversations about his best friend and a girl whom he viewed as his little sister.

'That doesn't mean anything on her wanting to kill him, though. It is Raven we're talking about.' Interjected Robin through a mouthful of cereal.

At this, the two other boys threw their hands up – almost in parallel, though Beast Boy's gesture seemed to scream 'Exactly!' while Cyborg's said 'Not helpful!'

'It's like she always says about my emotions being really strong or whatever - she was totally feeding off of me and she's going to hate me for it!'

'She won't hate you for it, I doubt she's even blaming you. If she was you would've probably been throttled by now.'

'That's true.'

'I think her avoiding me is worse, actually.'

'She's embarrassed - I really doubt she wanted that to happen in front of us all. Just give her a minute, and she'll be over it by tomorrow. It's not like Raven to dwell.'

'Yeah, and she's an empath, remember? She's known how you feel for years.'

'Maybe she just wants to finally do something about it.'

'I wouldn't say her constantly tossing me into the bay is screaming 'please confess!', Cy.'

'Man, don't tell me you can't see her flirting with you. Nobody can rile her up like you do.'

'Have you considered that that's just because she already hates me?'

It was, as always, a circular conversation. Approximately twenty minutes on the roundabout, and Cyborg was ready to employ a different technique – distraction. Successfully, he managed to steer the conversation towards how they would spend the rest of the night, and then made his way towards the lounge as he suggested different games to play.

Garfield pushed himself off of the ledge to follow, but hesitated when he heard his team leader clear his throat. Here it comes, he thought.

'Either way, Beast Boy, you and Raven need to sort out whatever this…tension between the two of you is ASAP. We lost at least three hours of planned practice today. I can't have it interfering with training again, and certainly not with a mission. Understood?'

He couldn't help how interesting the floor became as he mumbled his apologies, but all awkwardness quickly abated as Dick Grayson pushed his now empty bowl towards the sink, and began boasting about his latest high score (topping both Beast Boy and Cyborg). Leader faded back to friend, and together they crossed over to the large, semi-circle couch where Victor had already begun to set up the gaming console.

They flicked between a small number of the classic multiplayer games that they owned for the next few hours. Just as they were sliding the next disk into the drive, a small 'beep!' came from the biometric scanners on the other side of the large, metal door, and it slid open with a hiss.

A very excited Tamaranian swept into the room, dragging her friend behind her. She wheeled the both of them around to stand in front of the boys, and then quickly fussed over a few loose strands of Raven's hair before fluffing her own. The exuberant beam that had plastered itself onto her face clearly demonstrated that she was pleased with her handiwork. Her green eyes immediately sought Robin's blue. Raven's amethyst found the rug.

The ends of Starfire's inherited pinkish-red locks had been lightened to a more 'natural' strawberry blonde. Combined with the golden aura of the sunset through their entirely glass wall, the new dye-job made good work of furthering the illusion that the princess's hair was actually flame. Her curtain-bangs had been touched up, but the rest of her length remained intact. Raven's hair had lost maybe an inch or so, reverting back to the blunt cut that had begun to slowly grow out during quarantine. Her roots had been dyed dark, fading into an ombre with her typical deep purple.

'Wow Star,' Complemented Victor, 'you both look great.'

Robin likely responded with a comment similar, though Beast Boy didn't hear it. Everybody turned their attention to him - his turn to say something about the girl's new looks - but the unexpected sight of their resident half-demon had thrown him into somewhat of a panic.

He suspected that the proper thing to do would be to complement her; he wanted to tell her how gorgeous she looked. The glossy black contrasting against her pale skin was certainly striking; drawing attention to the red ajna stone in the centre of her forehead. He also appreciated how she hadn't completely removed the purple – it seemed something so innately Raven that he knew he'd be sad to see it go. However, numerous precedents would suggest that may lead to him being tossed out the window. He also didn't trust that he was yet forgiven of any blame. All he managed was a flustered –

'Er, It really suits you, Rae...You too, Star.'

And luckily for him Starfire took over, gushing excitedly over how right he was. She was interrupted when the game, which had been quietly whirring in the background as it loaded, suddenly erupted into a bellowing of pop music.

'Just Dance?' Laughed Raven. 'You guys were about to play Just Dance?'

'Yes.' Replied Garfield, his signature mega-watt grin returning as he slipped back into their usual routine. 'Why, are you worried I'm going to beat your high score?'

'You have my permission to try.'

He slipped into an overly-dramatic British accent. 'And try I will! A dance off! Do you accept?'

Naturally, she snorted at his idiocy, and picked up a controller from the coffee table.

Cyborg selected the first duet he came across, and then chucked his controls across to Beast Boy
who stood, and then preoccupied with catching it - promptly tripped over his own two feet.

'All the grace of the animal kingdom, everybody.' Announced Cyborg in a sports narrator mockery. 'An intimidating start, for sure.'

Despite their collective agility and martial arts skills, they were indubitably terrible. The longer they played, the giddier they got. Before long, they were nothing more than a bunch of giggling teens, stumbling over one another as competitive natures kicked in.

Of course, Raven came out on top.