Apologies for the late update. Life has been pretty hectic since my last one, but rest assured I haven't forgotten! Please enjoy this new update. I know it's a bit short, but the next one is still being written and looks to be one of my longest yet! Thank you to everyone that has favorited, commented, or followed this story! Your support means the world to me and is great motivation for me to continue writing. So keep it up! You guys are the best!

Chapter Five:

"Christmas day...it's finally here," the green teen mumbled as he sat upon his bed staring out his window at the bay below. He watched the waves crash against the shores of the island, listening carefully to the sounds filling the large T shaped tower they called home.

Starfire was buzzing about her room excitedly, no doubt throwing on her most gaudy Christmas sweater to wear to their annual festivities.

The low rumbling of snores echoed through the empty halls from Cyborg's room as the cybernetic teen still slumbered peacefully as his batteries recharged.

The changeling couldn't help but chuckle at his friend, "No doubt Cy was up all night preparing for today's lunch feast. Robin is always so anal about how everything has to be just perfect for holiday celebrations."

Speaking of the spiky haired leader, Beast Boy could hear his footsteps already in the common room, double checking everything before the others awoke. 'I can never understand how Rob is always up so early, even when it isn't Christmas morning,' he thought in wonder.

Last but not least, the muttered sound of a specific familiar mantra filled his sensitive ears. The resident sorceress sat chanting in her room, preparing for the onslaught of emotion that the day would bring to the team. 'Holidays have got to be the worst,' he mused thoughtfully, 'The way that Star's emotions are always all over the place with each special day has to be exhausting for you, does your ritual meditation really work Rae?' his gaze moved to his bedroom door, his minds eye seeing the outside of her door as if he stood before it, "Today is the day," he muttered, "Today I'll finally be able to reveal my secret to you."

The silence of the room filled his ears, her voice having gone silent in her room. Though her footsteps could be heard shuffling about in her room.

"How will you react when you finally learn what I've been keeping from you?" he wondered aloud, the knots in his stomach twisted. His nerves building within him.

The sound of her door swishing open silenced his thoughtful musings, he listened intently as she made her way past his door toward the common room. Upon further focus he realized he was now the last one to still be in their room. Some point during his musings the others had bypassed his senses and made their way to living area.

Taking a deep breath, he stood to his feet, "Alright Beast Boy, get it together. Time to go meet everyone and get ready for the day. You can do this," he coached himself. He quickly pulled on a light sweater before heading out of his room, slowly making his way to the others, 'I wonder how she'll react to her gift. Will she love it? Will she hate it? Will she reject me? Will she ever speak to me again if I embarrass her in front of the others?' He rung his hands together nervously as he neared the door,

"Calm down B. You won't know how she'll react until you get in there. You've got this! She'll love it!" he softly coached himself, "If you keep acting like this she'll know something is up. You gotta calm down." Another deep breath and he finally forced his nerves down bringing his usual chipper grin to his face.

The doors to the command room opened and he walked through, "GOOD MORNING TITANS! Time to get our Christmas on!" he stated cheerfully pumping his fist in the air.

"Ah friend Beast Boy has finally joined us! We may now partake in our annual exchange of gifts!" Starfire shouted excitedly!

His gaze shifted to each of his team mates, "You guys haven't been waiting long have you? Had to make sure I got my beauty sleep for today!" he joked.

"Clearly you should go back to bed then, Garfield" the stoic sorceress supplied from behind the steaming mug nestled in her hands.

"Aw, come on Rae!" he bounded into the room to join the others, "Why you gotta be like that, it's Christmas!"

The violet haired teen shrugged and went back to her reading.

"Alright everyone settle down," Robin spoke trying to keep any arguments from happening on this special holiday, "Beast Boy go ahead and grab you a mug of cocoa and join us here in the living room. We're about to start handing out gifts."

"You got it Rob," he said quickly taking the steaming mug Cy was offering him and hoping over the couch to land next to a certain sorceress, earning a glare in the process as he'd nearly spilled her drink on her book.

"Garfield..." she seethed quietly in warning.

"heh, sorry Rae," he said sheepishly taking a sip from his mug before offering an apologetic smile.

"Alright Titans! Let's get started," Rob spoke demanding everyone's attention. Beast Boy sat back quietly watching as the team leader slowly began to pass out gifts to everyone. Acting as the self appointed Santa of the group.

As time went on with each passed out gift it took everything in him not to focus his gaze on the small box situated at the back of the tree where he'd hidden it from view. He wondered how long it would take Robin to reach his gift. The anticipation was slowly eating at him, several times he found his gaze shifting from the blue packaged gift to the violet haired girl beside him. He was worried as to how she would react to his gift, the wait and uncertainty was eating him alive. Sweat could be felt dripping down his back from fear.

His eyes shifted to her yet again as she opened one of her gifts from Star. He wondered if she could read his emotions sitting this close to her, he was certain that she could, though she never once said anything or made eye contact with him to question him. To which, he was grateful.

At some point during the whole process he moved himself to the floor beside Cyborg focusing on one of the gifts his best friend had gotten him. Not to mention it also gave him a chance to sneak and make sure his gift would be one of the last handed out when Rob finally got to it. The others never seemed to notice the move either, thankfully.

"To Raven, from Beast Boy," she read softly taking the final gift under the tree that Robin had just handed her.

Unfortunately for him, the pile had slowly dwindled to an end, before he knew it. Her voice saying his name brought him back from his excitement over his new had held game system she'd gotten him. His body went rigid at the sound of his name falling from her lips. He shifted himself to face her nervously watching as her nails sliced into the wrapping paper, it took everything in him not to bite his lip in anticipation.

All eyes were on her as she opened her gift. It made her slightly nervous, or perhaps it was just the nervous aura washing over her in waves from the resident changeling. 'Why is he nervous I wonder,' she pondered as she carefully opened the box in her hands, she lifted the lid of the small box to reveal a glistening black mug sitting within the confines of the box, her brow raised as she removed it, "A coffee mug?" she questioned turning the porcelain piece in her hands carefully trying to see if there was anything special about it. 'Why a coffee mug?' she wondered before lifting her eyes to the green man who was staring at her his cheeks burning. 'Strange, even for Beast Boy.'

He had to admit, it did look slightly bad, immediately he jumped in seeing the somewhat confused look on her face, "N..n..not just any coffee mug Rae. That one there is super special! I made a few calls and I managed to find someone to create it so that it could stand up against your powers. S...s..so that way you'd always have one in case your powers went on the fritz."

Raven blinked taking in his words, before her gaze met his, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips..just barely. "Thank you Garfield." she spoke sincerely, touched by his gesture.

" , Rae," he smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck wanting so badly to tell her about the other feature, but chickening out with the others staring at them.

Little time passed before the team lost interest and resorted to testing out their latest gizmos and gadgets.

Robin sat reading through some of the manuscripts that Cyborg had presented him with.

Starfire spent endless amounts of time trying to get Silkie into the Christmas sweater she had knitted for him.

Cyborg sat categorizing his newest tools.

Raven sat in her usual perch on the couch flipping through the newest spellbook for her collection.

Beast Boy sat back pressed against the sofa losing himself in the handheld gaming system a certain empath had gifted him with.

All in all Christmas had been relatively comfortable for the team. Criminal activity in the city was non-existent, at least on this particular day, leaving the team to enjoy the joyous holiday together.