An Author's note: Thanks for otak the Canadian and The-Holy-Desciple-of-Muse for reviewing.

Finales are over, summer is here and I can get back to making my stories first priority instead of second. Rejoice readers!

Rejoice!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A Little Bonding

A nice cheerful little ray of sunlight invaded the Titan's room and struck Beast Boy on in face. Usually he would have slept until noon, but that happy little beam was so bright that it woke him up early…for him. Beast Boy grumbled about being woken up, but the ray did not really seem to care what Beast Boy's opinion was.

Beast Boy turned over to escape the ray's gaze and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a still sleeping Raven. Beast Boy's half-awake mind decided that this was not a bad thing at all; in fact his sleepy brain said it was a very good thing. Would have been even better if he was a bit closer to Raven…say in the same bed.

Her face looked strangely relaxed when she was asleep. Maybe it was because she was not awake to maintain her grouchy attitude. In fact, to Beast Boy she looked rather cute when she was asleep. He grinned and reached over to brush a bit of hair that had fallen in her face. He could not help but wonder why in the world Malchior had been stupid enough to break her heart. She was so darn beautiful.

He sat up and looked around. Everyone else was still asleep, even Cyborg was resting, though he had that portable battery pack thing out and had hooked himself up to it. Why was it, even though he was just recharging, that he still managed to snore?

Someone knocked on the door, and Beast Boy got up to see who it was. He opened the door to find a Nazlar servant looking at him with a bunch of trays on those little rolling cart things with what appeared to be food on them. Beast Boy could tell what this was: room service!

The Nazlar appeared a little nervous about something "Ummm," he said "Which one of you was the herbivore?" he asked.

"Herb-Oh! That would be me! But the term is vegetarian, dude."

"….dude?"

"Just an expression. Don't worry about it." Beast Boy grinned.

"Okay…there was a special tray for you. It's the one right here with the extra pancakes and the little fruit bowl." The Nazlar pointed at said tray. He was right; the fruit bowl was very little. In fact it only contained two fruits, a bunch of grapes and a clumsily peeled orange.

"Dude, where did you get these?" Beast Boy could not help but ask. After all, weren't these people mainly meat eaters?

"The orange came from the tree in garden. We don't eat them, but the king likes the way oranges smell so he planted one. The grapes were going to be fermented to make wine, but the kitchen managed to get this bunch for you. We also gave you the extra pancakes because the others got things like bacon and eggs and we wanted to make sure you got enough. Is all of this alright?" The Nazlar gave Beast Boy a kind of hopeful look.

Now, while Beast Boy normally ate nothing but tofu that did not mean he would not eat normal pancakes. After all, animals do not die in the making of pancakes. He just preferred tofu. Funny as it sounded he honestly liked tofu. But Raven had said there was no tofu here. Besides that he was not going to whine at these people who had obviously done the best they could considering the circumstances to accommodate him in his diet.

"It's great, dude. Just leave the trays here."

The Nazlar nodded and left, pleased that they had managed to make a meal that the herbivore…excuse me, vegetarian could like. The Nazlar, however, could not help but wonder: if this green fellow was an herbivore why did he have fangs?

Meanwhile, Beast Boy had wheeled in the trays. He looked around the room and noted that everyone else was still snoring away.

It would be a shame to let this nice food get cold, wouldn't it?

He would have to remedy the situation!

Ten seconds later a green rooster was crowing his heart out in the middle of the room. Five seconds after that he was bombarded by several flying pillows.

"Beast Boy…why did you do that?" Robin growled, his hair disheveled and voice thick from sleepiness.

"Dude, I was the wakeup call!" Beast Boy head popped up from the small mountain of pillows. "Look, we got room service!" He pointed to the trays, which he had made sure to put out of the way just in case something like this happened. Instantly everyone forgot about killing Beast Boy in favor of the trays.

The normal trays did contain pancakes, but they also had large amounts of ham, eggs, and bacon. There was also a huge quantity of maple syrup, and warm maple syrup at that. Beside the syrup was a thick black substance that none of the Titans could identify except Raven. Turns out it was molasses and it was for the pancakes as an alternative to the syrup. None of the Titans were particularly inclined to try it except for Starfire…but she would eat her pancakes with mustard.

"So, are we going to the festival?" Arcktos asked once everyone had been stuffed.

"What festival?" Robin asked.

"The Nazlar always have a festival around this time of year. It should have started today." Arcktos shrugged. "Not sure what they are celebrating, but from what I hear there is quite a bit to do."

"But…there's going to be a battle soon!" Robin said.

"That won't stop the Nazlar from celebrating. In fact it will just give them an excuse to party harder. If this is going to be their last week alive Nazlar will usually spend it having fun. Frankly I kind of see the logic in that." Arcktos shrugged again.

Robin sat there for a few moments trying to grasp the fact that these people wanted to party while an army gathered who-knows-were around them. He then turned to his friends, who all looked eager to go out and have some fun. Well, okay, Raven did not look that eager she looked neutral, which to her was eager. He sighed and said "Let's go."

Raven did not find the fact that Starfire wanted to go to the celebration with Robin that surprising, after all the two of them were a couple. However she started to suspect something was up when Arcktos, Illeria and Winterwing all managed to separate themselves from the group without her knowing. Then when both Cyborg and Jinx vanished into thin air she knew that there was a conspiracy going on, a conspiracy that left her alone…with Beast Boy. Oh sure she had Mithrah with her (she had planes for Mithrah today), but still…

Even though Raven was a bit disgruntled at being set up, Beast Boy was practically bouncing in glee. Here he was going to a fair (or at least the Nazlar equivalent) with the girl of his dreams…even though the thought of carnivals did stir up memories of a certain blonde memory challenged geomancer.

Thank goodness there were no roller coasters, it would be pretty hard to build one in a world without an internal combustion engine, but there were a lot of carnival games. Some, like the old throw the ball at the bottle game where also found on Earth, while a few of them where distinctly Nazlar. Beast Boy saw several of them engaging in a contest to see whose horns where the sharpest by repeatedly ramming themselves into a wall and measuring the holes. Beast Boy figured that Nazlar men either had really hard heads or that they simply did not care how damaged their brains became.

"So where are we headed?" Beast Boy said cheerfully.

"Ummmm, well…" Raven trailed off. She looked a bit nervous about something.

"What is it?" Beast Boy stopped walking and gave her a look, wondering what was going on.

Raven sighed and pointed to a big sign that depicted several creatures, most of them equine, racing around a track. Beast Boy grinned, catching on.

"You're going to race Mithrah? Dude, that is so COOL!" Beast Boy gave Raven his patented goofy grin. "That's why you brought him right? Man, I bet he'll leave the rest of them eating his dust!"

"What a wonderful night horse! Is he yours, cousin?" Someone shouted to Raven and Beast Boy. It was a female Nazlar leading one of those standard winged horses, an almost pure white one. Unlike Mithrah, who had horns and sharp teeth, this creature simply looked like a beautiful white horse with large feathered wings. The Nazlar leading the flying horse was one of the ones that had been at dinner last night. After a nice healthy brain rack (in which the hamster in Beast Boy's mind was finally revitalized and running on his wheel again) Beast Boy finally came up with…well not a name, but an i.d. This was…one of the older royal family children…eldest granddaughter maybe…darn what was the name?!

"Zaka, right." Raven said, saving Beast Boy from a brain overload. She had a much better memory than he did…but it did help that this particular Nazlar had chatted with Raven most of the night about horses and other similar equines. As it turned out they both shared an interest in horses, though Zaka had a fondness for standard flying horses, not night horses.

"Yes, and this is Rush." Zaka patted her mount on the neck. Rush, a much gentler creature than Mithrah, whickered softly and nudged his rider in a friendly manner. Mithrah snorted derisively and gave his "mommy" a nudge as well. Only Beast Boy had a clue what they were doing, they were bragging about their riders. What amused Beast Boy was that a similar conversation was going on between the riders. As it turned out Rush was the current champion here, and Zaka had no problems telling them this.

"So, you are racing him?" Zaka asked Raven. Her tone was not at all challenging or resentful, in fact she seemed to like the idea.

"Yes." Raven said with an odd look on her face, an almost feral grin. It was almost like that look she had given Cyborg when she was just about to clobber him with that Stank ball after the Malchior incident…

"Good luck," Zaka grinned "But I have to warn you that Rush and I have never been defeated!"

If anything that strange look on Raven's face deepened. She knew perfectly well how fast her beloved night horse could run, and she knew he could win a race with anything under the sun. She was not usually a competitive person…but this was different.

This had to do with horses.

All of a sudden Beast Boy got a great idea. He turned to Zaka and asked "Hey, do you have ride something to enter this race?"

"Well…no, but how do you expect to keep up without a steed of your own?" Zaka asked.

Beast Boy grinned.

"Robin…what are they doing?" Starfire gazed at the dirt ring in front of them with curious eyes.

Robin looked at the activity in front of them. People with various padded weapons running around in a hustle…it looked like they were either setting up some sort of demonstration or a contest of fighting skills…and Robin was putting his money on the fighting skills.

Robin's bet was confirmed when a Nazlar stood in the middle of the ring and started bellowing:

"Presenting the great champion fighter of the Nazlar: Kzaer! First husband of the Heir to the throne! Let all who wish to challenge his might step forwards and make themselves known!"

Robin recognized this guy. He had been one of the ones at the dinner table last night. He was a muscular Nazlar that towered over the crowd, and this was a crowd of Nazlar!

One by one, and sometimes even in groups the Nazlar challengers stepped up to fight Kzaer and all of them were defeated. It was not just the big man's size that did it. He was a truly skilled fighter, but after a few battles Robin began to become familiar with his style.

The Boy Wonder was convinced that he could beat the Nazlar champion.

"You are going to do battle with him, aren't you Robin?" Starfire stared at her boyfriend and then grinned. "We will do battle together!"

Robin locked eyes with her. He could never have convinced her to stay behind. After all despite her naive nature Starfire was, when all was said and done, a warrior. She would always be a warrior.

And Robin would not have it any other way. Together they stepped into the ring and to challenge the greatest fighter of the Nazlar.

However all was not going well for Jinx and Cyborg. Jinx was still a bit resentful at Cyborg for lying to her when he was Stone, and she had been spending all this time trying to pick a fight with him.

"Why are you following me if you hate me so much!?" Cyborg finally bellowed at her.

"'Cause I got things to say to you, you lying slug!"

"For the last time Jinx: IT WAS A MISSION! I had to do it! Robin ordered me to! Honestly! You're one of us now! Why are you rehashing this!"

"Because you lied to me!"

"What was I supposed to say? Hey Jinx, guess what, I'm really a Teen Titan spying on you!"

"You don't get it do you?" Jinx shook her head "You have no idea what I want."

"WHAT! For Pete's sake what do you want?" Cyborg bellowed.

"Three words." Jinx growled. "Two if you use the contraction. Something you never gave me even when I joined you."

"Huh?" Cyborg looked puzzled. His mind going through the possibilities. When he finally came up with an answer he almost laughed. "That's all you want? Okay…I'm sorry for lying to you Jinx."

"FINALLY" Jinx bellowed. "The idiot male gets a clue! Took you long enough! Now, do you mean it?"

"I do," Cyborg replied. "I don't like lying to people, Jinx. But do you understand that it was my job? I mean…I really did like you and Mammoth and Gizmo…but the Titans are more than my friends. They're my family…and frankly I kind of wish I had the opportunity to ask you to join us long ago…"

The two of them stared at each other. In another time in other place they might have been more than friends, but that could not and would not happen. For one thing Jinx was with Kid Flash now…and she had a feeling that it was not Cyborg she had liked, but his Stone persona.

"So…we cool Jinx?" Cyborg asked after a long pause.

Jinx shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

At that precise moment a ball flew through the air and smacked Cyborg in the head. He winched and caught the thing in his hands. It was about the size and color of a basketball, but it had the sewing markings of a baseball.

"Oh no! Sorry about that!" Two similar looking Nazlar charged up and Cyborg recognized them as the twins Holft and Kale. Holft (or at least Cyborg thought it was Holft) looked embarrassed and nervous, while his brother looked amused.

"Hey! What are ya playing?" Cyborg asked, his old jock instincts blooming to the surface. He loved sports, all sports and holding this ball was bringing back that old adrenaline rush.

"Nothing specific." Kale said as he took the ball away. "We're just kind of kicking it around."

Cyborg looked from the Nazlar to the ball. An idea started to form in his head.

"Hey boys, I know a great game we can play. It's a little game my buddy BB and I came up with called Stank ball…"

Have you ever tried to get a temperamental night horse in a starting box?

It is not easy.

For one thing night horses, like normal horses, do not like to be enclosed in small spaces. Unlike the normal horse, however, they will not stop at rearing and backing up. Any groom that gets in the way of the night horse's fangs and horns will be either bitten or impaled, which can be mildly uncomfortable.

Fortunately Raven managed to get Mithrah in without too many mishaps…at least not bloody ones. Even in the box Mithrah was showing all the signs of an unhappy night horse. He fidgeted and growled and rustled his wings and snapped. How Raven managed him Beast Boy would never know.

Beast Boy himself was standing in a box himself. The Nazlar had given him funny looks when he said he would be participating in the race by himself and not with a mount, but they had let him in anyway. He was going over the track map they had shown him in his head. Instead of a normal circular track this race would be done over local terrain: first over the fields, then up a mountain path, then through a forest, over a river, and finally doubling back over the fields to the starting position.

This was going to be fun.

A horn blew and they were off! Beast Boy shifted to a horse and blew through the gate amidst the rumbling roar of hooves. For a moment all he could see was horse bodies running in a huge jumble. He was being pushed back to the end of the line.

That would not do at all! He shifted to a kangaroo and leapt over horses like he was leaping over hurdles. He could hear the Nazlar audience gasping in surprise. Clearly very few of them knew that he was a shape shifter. Leaping in this way he managed to get past the main group and take third place. He was right behind Mithrah and Rush.

The two equines seemed equally matched. Neither one of them was overtaking the other. They were…well they were neck and neck, and neither of them was going to give up their position. They were mirror images of each other, one dark and one white, one vicious and one calm, one savage and one tame. And between them coming up fast…was a goofy green kangaroo.

Over the fields they charged (or hopped). Two mighty horses and their riders…and a green kangaroo. Zaka, who had never even heard of a kangaroo before, stared at the strange green creature with an open mouth. She tore her eyes away from the odd looking creature that Beast Boy had become and concentrated on the trail. Raven and Mithrah where proving to be much harder than she expected, and she knew that she had to concentrate on this race and the race alone if she wanted to win.

Up the mountain they charged, Beast Boy changing into a mountain goat as he went. Seeing as how he was a bit slower in this form than as a kangaroo he lost ground, but a kangaroo was not suited for this rocky terrain. Heck, the night horses were having a bad time of it as well.

Up the rocky path…and Beast Boy got an idea! As soon as he had topped the hill he sifted to armadillo. Curling up in a ball he rolled downhill letting gravity do the work for him. In this form he blew past Raven and Zaka, who both let out cries of shock as he tumbled downhill.

The forest was at the bottom of the hill and the instant he hit the bottom he shifted to a baboon. His legs where getting tired so he decided to rest them…Tarzan style! He swung from branch to branch, shrieking his baboon shriek. Looking down he saw Raven and Zaka still racing side by side.

From the trees he dove into the rivers waters and went to dolphin. He jumped and leaped like a torpedo, but he could still see Raven and Zaka on the bride over the river. It was a small bridge only fit for one horse, and Beast Boy's dolphin grin widened as he saw Raven overtake her cousin.

Finally, the home stretch. Beast Boy knew the perfect form for this last bit. The fastest animal in the world, the mighty cheetah! He speed over the grass at an incredibly speed, now sure that he would win…but were those hoof beats he heard? Yes! They were! He glanced behind him and saw Raven and Mithrah right behind him and coming up fast. The two of them moved to pass him, but he blocked them. Sure, he loved Raven, but that did not mean he was not going to throw the race!

He could see the finish line coming up and he poured on more speed, but so did Mithrah. How fast was that horse capable of going!? But he would not let them pass!

Turned out, however, that he had no choice. A shadow passed over him, and he looked up to see Raven JUMP Mithrah over him like he was a hurdle! He was so stunned he tripped a little. He recovered quickly, but it was too late to take back the lead. He watched as Raven and Mithrah crossed the finish line, then Beast Boy crossed, and coming up fast, but still third, was Zaka and Rush.

Zaka dismounted, blown away by what she had just witnessed. "The two of you are amazing!" she said enthusiastically. "I've never seen a night horse with that kind of speed! And you Beast Boy! How did you do that?!"

Beast Boy was not sure how to respond. He did, however, knew how to respond to Raven's win. Before she could object he threw his arms around her. For a brief moment Raven stiffened like she always did when confronted with human touch…but then slowly, ever so slowly she let her usually tense spine relax. Her body went from ramrod straight and trembling to letting herself lean against Beast Boy a little…then tentatively her hand came up and circled his waist.

And she hugged him back.

After the race the three of them, Beast Boy, Raven and Zaka bought some ice cream together, Beast Boy carrying Raven's new horse shaped golden trophy. Beast Boy was pleasantly surprised to find that this place had ice cream, and he truly enjoyed his double chocolate cone. Raven had opted for a vanilla and Zaka had a terrible concoction that could only come from a meat oriented society…beef flavor.

Just think about that for a moment.

Anyway, they were walking around, Beast Boy staying as far away from the beef smell as he could while being somewhat polite. Zaka was talking about some battle ring, but Beast Boy had not been paying attention until he heard the phrase "one of my dads."

"Whoa! Time out dudes! What do you mean by 'one of my dads'" he asked Zaka.

"Well, Mother has two husbands, so I have two dads." Zaka said as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

"Dude…how does that WORK?" Beast Boy gave her an incredulous look.

"Ever seen a bunch of male Nazlar during mating season? Let's just say you don't want to get between them." Zaka said "Long ago the females of our race decided that the best way to handle feuding males was to mate with both of them at the same time. Saves trouble in the long run. Why are you so shocked?"

"It's a special kind of shock, Zaka." Raven said with a grin. "Culture shock. Is that him?" she asked as she approached the circle "and…is that Robin?"

"Yeah…and Star too. Look at 'em go!" Beast Boy said.

Robin and Starfire had been fighting for about ten minuets. Kzaer was a tough guy, and it did not help that his favorite attack was a head butt…and he had a huge head!

Robin dodged fists and claws and hooves and horns. Man, this guy was fast! It seemed to Robin that he had landed a dozen blows and while he had not been struck once he still had not done a bit of damage. True Robin was faster than Kzaer, but hitting him was like hitting a brick wall!

As for Starfire, well her blows where always painful, but nine times out of ten Kzaer managed to dodge them. She was not using starbolts; she feared that would be unsporting, so she stuck with her fists.

Robin knew what to do, as fast as a snake he grabbed the Nazlar by the horns. Just as he suspected the big man started to toss his head and sling Robin around.

"STAR! NOW!" Robin bellowed.

Gathering her strength, Starfire leaped up and smacked Kzaer with an uppercut that not only knocked it out, it threw him right out of the ring. He landed on the ground and did not get back up.

The Nazlar announcer was slack jawed for a second, but he soon recovered and declared Robin and Starfire the winners and presented them with a trophy in the shape of a golden ram's horn. He then went to find some cotton to stuff in his ears to get rid of Starfire's squealing.

Starfire spotted her friends in the crowd and flew over to them "Is it not glorious friends!" she gushed. "Robin and I have been awarded this wonderful horn shaped metal sculpture! And it seems you have one as well!"

"They are called trophies Star." Raven said in an uncharacteristically gentle manner.

"Raven got hers in a horse race!" Beast Boy said proudly.

While Starfire showed off the prize, Robin went over to talk to Kzaer, who was picking himself off the floor. The big Nazlar looked at Robin with a great deal of respect.

"I have never seen a human with such skill in battle." He said. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Robin grinned "I've trained with the best." He said, his mind wandering to both Batman and the True Master.

"Well, it defiantly paid off! And your mate! I never thought that a human would have that kind of strength!"

"Er…actually she's not human, she's an alien…and she really isn't my mate."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's my girlfriend." Robin had no trouble admitting that Starfire was his girlfriend.

"So you are courting her, then? Well, I hope you don't have to battle to many other males for her!" It spoken in the tones of a good luck wish, and Robin thought that the statement was meant to be encouraging.

"Hey Dad! Shall we had back to the palace for lunch?" Zaka said, walking up with Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"This is news, little one?" Kzaer said with affection in his voice.

"Yeah, let's go. Maybe later we can come back and try some of these carnival games!" Beast Boy said. He looked at Raven and wiggled his eyebrows "I can get you another giant chicken."

"Wow, then I really will be the luckiest girl in the world." Raven said, but now instead of sarcasm there was quiet joy in her voice. As far as she knew the other Titans did not know that the giant chicken was safe in her closet at home.

The group headed towards the castle just in time to see a huge crowd gathered round. Wondering what was going on they arrived just in time to find a full-fledged Stank ball match underway right there.

"Cyborg has corrupted my people." Raven said with a groan.

"YO!" Cyborg bellowed as he ran towards them. "Ya won't believe how quickly these guys caught on to Stank ball! They love it!"

"Oh wondrous joy." Raven said, her words soaked with sarcasm.

"We're going to get a bite, Cy, you want to come with?" Beast Boy asked.

"Sure! Let's go!" Cyborg said his spirits still high from the match. Soon Jinx, Holft and Kale had joined them.

As they walked general chatter filled the air that Raven was willing to ignore. Until Zaka turned to her and innocently asked "Are you going with anyone to the ball tonight?"

Raven stopped dead in her tracks. Somewhere an old record stopped in mid track with a screech. Her eyes widened and for a moment fear filled them. Fear that no one or nothing could inspire like this.

"Ball?"

A/N: No own Tarzan (or Jane). No own Teen Titans.

Okay, I'll stop writing like a jungle man.