Chapter 4: Little Talks

Raven opened her eyes to a harsh knock at the door. She opened it to see a very green boy in black sweatpants and a white shirt. The pants featured a paw print on the hip. Garfield had his hand on the back of his neck, rubbing it. "Hey, Rae." He smiled, sheepishly. He didn't know how she was going to react to him simply showing up at her door while she was no doubt meditating.

"What do you want?" She asked, deadpan. She stared at him, not allowing him to see any emotion in her face. You could tell that Garfield was nervous and she was not helping at all. He looked down at the floor and began mumbling something.

"Could you speak up?" She snapped. He looked up and you could see his ears lowering and his eyes screamed disappointment and sadness. They were the exact eyes a puppy would give you when they're in trouble. Raven could feel her powers surging, and she could tell that there was dark energy surrounding several things behind her. She stood there waiting, not moving an inch and unflinching.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I have my uniform on almost always so I kind of forgot that I wasn't wearing it."

"Why did you change in the first place?" Raven cocked her head, and looked at him, trying to get him to look her in the eye. She had a slight blush to her face and was still wearing her shorts and crop top combo, which made her shiver once a breeze came in from the window. She was very confused by the choice of animal and why he changed in the first place. A penguin of all things? It's not like it was all that cold, and he naturally ran warm either.

"I'm not sure," he lied. He knew exactly why, but what he didn't know is how he did it without realizing. His powers had never been the ones to get out of control. That was always Raven. Her powers were very strongly correlated to her emotions according to Starfire who only knew this after the Puppet King had managed to switch their bodies. If she felt an emotion that she couldn't quite control, she was a force to be reckoned with and she was very terrifying. Raven calmed herself, barely managing to not send her books flying across the room, damaging many things on the way.

"It was just a strange choice for it not being very cold outside." Raven noted, still monotone.

At that, Beast Boy rubbed his neck again. "Yeah. Sometimes the animals inside of me just fight their way out, and apparently I felt like a Gentoo penguin." He let out a slight chuckle and Raven let a bit of a smile grace her lips.

"Dude, are we gonna play some games or what?" A man who is half metal asks from down the hall as he walks out of his room and spies Beast Boy in front of Raven's door. Beast Boy looked over at him, clearly happy for the release from his need to answer that question.

"Totally! I'm gonna kick your ass!" He says excitedly. "Talk to you later, Rae?" He smiled and cocked his head to the side, showing off his fangs that poked out from beneath his upper lip.

"Bye, Beast Boy." She says, closing the door to that comment. She climbs on her bed and resumes meditating, letting the world be completely tuned out.

"You get shut down again?" concern laced the cyborg's eyes as he walked towards his friend.

Beast Boy followed Victor down the hallway at that comment. He had stared at the door for a few seconds before really getting the nerve to just walk away instead of knocking on her door and explain exactly why the penguin was significant.

"What?! Rae and I are just friends. There's nothing going on there." He said, laughing nervously.

"Come on, BB. I know you're lying. What's up?"

"Nothing. I am fine." Garfield said, getting annoyed.

"You can tell me."

"Raven kind of … saw me… naked." He said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Dude. All of us have seen that." Victor laughed and hit his friend on the back. "That's nothing new."

"It's new when you love her and she sees you." Garfield nearly yelled, quickly clamping his hand over his mouth, wishing that he could just occasionally shut up. Cyborg stared at him, his eye popping out of its socket. He just stared at Garfield for a long time, not knowing what to say, the shock still raging through his body.

"What? I didn't say anything. You heard nothing. I am going back to my room." Garfield made an awkward exit and quickly locked the door once it closed to his room. He morphed. Soon a tiny fly was what was sitting on the floor, surrounded by the clothes that he had shed before changing. He silently snuck into Raven's room and watched her meditate for what felt like years, before a strong red light and bright harsh noise interrupted both of them.

Fleeing to his room, and pulling on a uniform, Beast Boy made his way to the common room, ready to embark on the journey to the newest threat that the city had to its safety. Beast Boy couldn't help but study Raven as they travelled to the scene of the crime that was currently being committed. He was completely fascinated by the shape of her outlined by the light from the moon.

They landed, ready to take on whatever was coming.

"Why hello titans! It is your arch nemesis Control Freak!" A round teen with mutton chops and a sad excuse for a mustache sat there with mechanical arms and legs holding up the teen. "Like my new toy? I have a friend helping me with my gadgets now." He smiled mischievously and tried to grab for Starfire before having his first leg taken out by Robin. After that it was no problem to get the awkward and clumsy teen taken out. The only way to control the legs was to try to move your own on a platform. Once one of the legs was taking out, control freak couldn't balance himself out enough to actually land any good shots and they made quick work of him.

"You guys wanna go out for pizza?" Garfield asked once they had finished putting Control Freak in the patrol car. He smiled at his teammates as they all broke off to use their own vehicles to get back to the tower.

"Not tonight, BB." Cyborg said, sounding tired. He had just been woken up from a nap when they were walking out the door to answer the alarm.

"I must get the rest of beauty." Starfire exclaimed while climbing onto the back of Robin's motorcycle. Robin was already on it and ready to go.

"I'll go with you, Beast Boy." Raven chimed in. She looked at him smile widely, but you could tell that she didn't want to go. She just didn't want to see him unhappy and he didn't know why.

"Great!" He said, faking enthusiasm, afraid that he would have to answer her question from earlier. They got to the pizza place in no time - which is easy when you can both fly. Beast Boy remained over Raven the entire time they were flying. He loved to see her in the moonlight. It was always were she seemed to be the most comfortable.

"We'll have the large cheese." Beast Boy told the waitress and smiled. She giggled and walked away with the order.

"So why did you turn into a penguin?" Raven asked, sipping on her drink and expecting a response this time.

"Uh…"