An Author's note: Okay, this is going to be my first real attempt at "romance". It will probably turn out sappy, corny, cheesy and not at all good in any sense of the word. I'll try my best, but…Let's just say this; you might want to bring your own barf bag…especially you Cheese.

Hey, at least I warned you.

However, even if it turns out pathetic please read the entire thing. There is some pretty important stuff in this chapter.

Oh, and thanks to Kioshi, LunadiDomani and Chargone for reviewing!

Chapter Thirty

Ball

It had only been about thirty minutes.

Raven was going nuts.

She didn't want to be here, it was the last place she wanted to be. A ball, a freaking ball! She hated dances…really hated them. The noise, the vibrations of the music (okay so it was not that bad here where they had actual instruments and not electronically aided…whatever they were, but still) the fact that she always ended up at a wall somewhere staring at everyone…okay so that was mostly her fault, but once again…

The worst part of all of this was the memories. She could tolerate most parties on Earth better than this, because Earth was not Azarath.

The last party she went to on Azarath ended with the death of one of her closest friends. It's very hard to forget that.

And the worst part was: She was in a dress.

Somehow the females in her new "family" had learned about her dislike of formal wear (Raven blamed Starfire for that, she just knew her alien friend must have mentioned it) and had practically assaulted her with long silky fabrics, lacy THINGS she could not even give name too, horrible perfume that she nearly chocked to death on and, worst of all: PINK FRILLS. Somehow Raven managed a compromise. She wore a dress, but it was a reasonably plain blue one that was not cursed with either a lace or a frill. Darn thing was one of those monstrosities with no sleeves, but at least it was not PINK.

Even though she was not happy, not to mention bored to tears, she was amused by the attitudes of her Nazlar kin. Unlike last night, which had been nice and informal, the Nazlar where now acting…well stiff and formal. After a few minutes she decided it was because the place was now filled with strangers instead of just family.

Raven sighed as she watched other people dancing around the room. A part of her wanted to join in….but she knew that would never work. For one thing she couldn't dance, for another…she just would not fit in. She never did. Not really.

Her eyes strayed to Robin and Starfire, particularly Starfire. The two of them looked like they where having the time of their lives. Naturally Starfire looked like the princess she was. Heck Starfire looked like she walked strait out a story that began with the words "once upon and time" and ended with "happily every after". How did she do it?

Raven could not help but feel a bit jealous of Starfire. Her friend was just…so darn pretty and Raven wasn't. In fact, Raven was very sure that she was the complete opposite of pretty. Raven was sure that she was, in fact, ugly. So many people had called her that when she was little that she had begun to believe it. Sure they had all been the bigoted ones who hated her for being Trigon's daughter and a Halfblood, but if you tell a little girl something like that for so long she will begin to believe it. The idea had only been reinforced after that comment Star had made during that mind switch about "looking like this forever". Raven was not an idiot. She knew that her friends must find her unattractive as well. The only difference was that they where nice about it. Heck, the only one who had ever called her beautiful was a lying lizard who only wanted to use her…and what did that tell you?

Raven gave herself a mental shake. This was useless! It did no good to be jealous of Starfire because the alien had been born with all the beauty of a supermodel while she had not! It was not Star's fault and it didn't do any good at all.

But…a part of her did wish that she could be as pretty as Starfire…or at least that she could come close.

Air. That's what she needed. Some air. She needed to get away from this hot, stuffy room and somewhere nice and peaceful. Silently, so that no one knew that she was slipping out she crept to an exit that led to the gardens. Once there away from the crowds and the noise she breathed a sigh of relief. Walking deeper into the foliage she eventually found a nice clearing with a waterfall fountain thing and some benches to sit on. She eased herself onto one and watched the water fall. It was nice and peaceful, a welcome change from the noise of the ball.

A twig snapped behind her and she whirled around. Startled she came face to face with a certain green boy. You guessed it! Beast Boy.

"Hey." He said gently.

"Hey." She replied.

"Tired of the crowd?" He asked.

"Yeah, a bit…you?"

"Got tired of Cyborg calling me Sir Pantaloon." Beast Boy grinned as he sat beside her. Looking closely she could see where Cyborg had got the nickname. Someone had gotten Beast Boy into a get up that looked like it came straight from the "handsome prince" section of the fairy tale, pantaloons and all.

"Please tell me you didn't choose that getup?" Raven said, a bit amused.

"Not really, the Nazlar dudes seemed to think its fashionable or something like that, and I went along with it. You know what is hilarious? Robin is wearing something similar, but does he get the 'Sir Pantaloon' treatment? Heck no!" Beast Boy snorted.

"Well he is the guy who can tell us to give him twenty laps on demand." Raven said.

"True." Beast Boy said.

For a moment they stared at the waterfall fountain together, neither on knowing what to say. Beast Boy racked his brain for something, anything, intelligent to say. His mind wandered back to the day Jinx had recited those Poe poems to him, and one verse from one of the poems seemed to leap back into his head. Without knowing what he was doing he started reciting it:

"But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we —
Of many far wiser than we —
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee"

Raven blinked and stared at him for a few moments. "Where did you hear that?"

Beast Boy shrugged, now a bit embarrassed. "Jinx." He said. "She told me a few of them a while back. I kind of like them. It's really funny, because I never thought I would like poetry."

"You heard that poem once and you're reciting it? Beast Boy…that's amazing!"

"I can't remember all of it, just that part." Beast Boy shrugged. "Still, it's very pretty."

Raven snorted "I suppose…until you consider the possibility that it ends in necrophilia."

"Er…what?"

Raven sighed. "Just listen to the last few lines, okay?

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

What does that sound like to you, Beast Boy?"

"Umm…sounds like…he went into her tomb and…ew." Beast Boy wrinkled his nose "That's pretty gross!"

"Yeah…but the thing about poetry like this is that there can be several different interpretations. For one thing he might just have died with her. Like at the end of Romeo and Juliet. Or it could have been completely symbolic, like their souls where always together or something cheesy like that…but seeing as how this is Poe we are talking about…"

"I see what you mean." Beast Boy said. Another long silence, then he chuckled "You know, knowing that still doesn't change anything."

"What?"

"Well, say the poem is about neca…whatever you called it. That still doesn't mean that it is any less beautiful. Things don't have to be light and cheerful to be beautiful, things can be dark and beautiful at the same time…" he was looking at her now, and the next few words popped out of their own accord: "like you."

Raven nearly fell off her bench. "What did you say?"

"Well…you're beautiful Rae."

"No I'm not." Raven whispered, now looking at her feet.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Beast Boy said, and Raven's heart sank even lower. Until he finished his sentence. "I meant to say gorgeous, stunning, wonderful, awesome, enchanting, radishing-"

For some reason that last word, such as it was, broke through Raven's depression like a knife. She had a feeling the word Beast Boy was looking for was ravishing, and change to radishing was so darn funny (not to mention the sudden mental image she had gotten of herself as a big radish) managed to accomplish what all of Beast Boy's dumb jokes had never done. Raven started laughing. It was actually something between a giggle and a chuckle, but it was still a laugh and Beast Boy heard it.

"HAH! I did it! You're laughing! Oh yeah! Go Beast Boy! Get funky…wait! What did I say that was so funny?"

"Radishing…you just compared me to a root vegetable." Raven snorted.

"Hey! Radishes are great veggies! Do you know how many vitamins are in a radish?" Beast Boy said. For some reason that made Raven laugh all the harder. It was strange, for someone who had said over an over again that Beast Boy was not funny she sure was laughing a lot. It was as if a dam of humor had broken inside her.

Raven finally managed to stop and noticed that Beast Boy had managed to slide closer to her. He slowly put an arm around her. Raven's first instinct was to shrug it off, but for some reason she didn't. It felt…nice there.

"Raven, you know I was not lying before? I really do think you're beautiful."

"Beast Boy…I…I'm not."

"Whoever told you that you were not is a liar." Beast Boy said. His face was coming closer to hers. "You know I'm not a liar, so why don't you believe me?'

"Beast Boy, the last person who told me that was a lying lizard in a book."

"You want to know something? I've heard that the best lies are the ones with a grain of truth in them. I think they are right, because that lizard was right about one thing. He was right to call you beautiful."

He was not sure who started it, who had closed that last few inches between them. Perhaps they both did. All he knew was that they were both close enough to do IT.

And then…

About five minutes later Jinx came walking down the path (for almost the exact same reason that Raven had minus the depressing thoughts) when she heard some rather odd sounds coming from her left. Creeping through the trees she spied something she thought she would never see: Raven and Beast Boy on the ground making out like there was no tomorrow. Thankfully, at least in her opinion, they were both fully clothed and while there was a lot of lip locking going on over there neither of them seemed particularly inclined to…well…you know.

Smiling, Jinx crept back towards the party, glad that those two were finally going to stop with the romantic teenage angst garbage and do something. She too had managed to pick up the signals, and she hoped that this would end some of the weird tension around the group.

"Yo Jinx!" Cyborg walked up to her. "Have ya seen Raven? I can't find her anywhere."

"Sorry," Jinx grinned and pointed to where she had seen them."She and Beast Boy are busy."

"Huh? What kind of busy?"

"You know, busy."

"Ya mean…"

Jinx nodded. Cyborg's face split into a wide grin "Finally!" He said, and then he started sneaking off in to where Jinx had pointed.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To film this, it'll be great blackmail material!"

"Wait! Not even you are dumb enough to blackmail Raven!"

"Who said anything about Raven? I meant Beast Boy!" With that Cyborg snuck off into the bushes to record whatever was going on out there.

"Boys." Jinx shook her head. She turned just in time to see a flash of light appear at the main entrance (standard transportation for wizards, you get used to it after a while) and solidify into a very familiar old minotaur.

"Arucules!" Zarule bellowed from across the room. The king walked up to the old minotaur and grinned. Suprisigly, Zarule seemed friendlty towards the minotaur, evne though he had made it very clear he did not like the Temple or its priests. Jinx guessed that it was because Arucules was a warrior and a hero here. "Glad to see you! I don't suppose you brought anyone else with you?"

"No, but the General was supposed to be coming after me with some Warriors but you know how tricky it is to transport a bunch of people over such a distance." Arucules shrugged. "Is Raven here?"

Zarule's eyes narrowed, his former friendly attitude replaced with sudden hostility. "Why?"

"She was supposed to heading here to warn you about the invasion. I would have thought she arrived here before me…unless she has and you just are not telling me about it."

"You can't say I've done anything wrong here, Makhar. She came to me!"

"Good, I'm glad you finally got to meet her! Honestly, you don't really think all of us believe something just because the Matron decrees it, do you?"

Zarule snorted "I apologize, old friend…I just…you know."

"I understand. So she is here then?"

"Yes…not sure where."

"Oh, well. I'll talk to her later then."

Jinx edged away from earshot. She was getting bored with the conversation, and her mind had wandered to other things. It was clear to her that Arucules and Zarule knew each other from somewhere, but where? Her mind wandered as she walked around the room, and her eyes landed on a certain pair of paintings, the same ones that Raven and Cyborg had seen. She cocked her head and surveyed the two pieces of artwork.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Jinx turned her head and looked up at a smallish adult Nazlar male. Small for a Nazlar, I mean.

"I guess." Jinx said.

"You like art?"

"Not really." Jinx said. "But…Is it just me or is that the same sea serpent?"

The Nazlar chuckled. "Indeed it is. That is Gorlock, the serpent who was once imprisoned by Trigon. The one that fought Azar centuries ago. This-" the man pointed to the one that depicted the possessed serpent "is Gorlock while battling Azar and this other one depicts his revenge on the Order of Scathe after he was freed."

"What? I thought the only way to get rid of Trigon was to kill his host?"

"No, it is not. The Temple likes to say it is, for reasons I never understood. Not many know the true story, because people here really like to contradict the Temple, except a few races like mine and the orcs."

Jinx stared at the Nazlar. If this was true! She had to know more.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

The Nazlar nodded "Many belve that Azar slew Gorlock that day, but she did not. At the very end of the battle, when Azar was dying of her wounds, she recited a spell over her claws. What the Temple calls her killing thrust to Gorlock's chest was not meant to slay, but to push out the evil inside of him. Her claws, instead of piercing him, passed through him and exorcised Trigon from his body. Azar then recited yet another spell, a spell that trapped Trigon in his prison. Then Azar died and created Azarath, but Gorlock survived. He vowed revenge on the Order of Scathe and spent a good many centuries tracking them down and exterminating them, with some help in the later years from a gullible Christian group. Afterwards he returned to the Earth lake that bore him to spend the rest of his life in solitude.

"So, he's still alive? And on Earth?"

"Indeed, you may have even heard of him, but by a different name…I believe they now call him the Loch Ness Monster."

"Beast Boy?"

"Huh? Yeah?"

"Did…you mean to do that?"

"Kiss you? Of course I did!"

"…what about Terra?"

"Terra who?" Beast Boy looked confused for a moment. For one thing he was still trying to figure out how they had gone from sitting on a bench to on the ground with him on top of her (and even though his mind was flitting to very naughty thoughts he was determined to control those animal instincts. He was NOT going to ruin this for himself!)

Raven rolled her eyes "Blonde hair, blue eyes, controls dirt? Think Beast Boy."

"Oh, that Terra." Beast Boy sighed and rolled off Raven with a sigh. Now they were lying in the grass side by side. VERY side by side. "We're over, Rae. Have been for a while, but I was just too dumb to see it. The last time I saw her she dumped me like a sack of old potatoes. She even pretended that she was a different person in order to get me to go away! Like I wouldn't know her scent!"

"I'm sorry Beast Boy." Raven said, even though a part of her was jumping in glee (and her name was Love) she still felt bad for Beast Boy. Inside her mind Love started pumping her fist and hissing "YESSSSSSSSS. Terra's loss is our gain!!!"

"Don't be, I've accepted the fact that she doesn't like me anymore." He looked at Raven and grinned "Besides, I found someone a whole lot better!"

Raven blushed "Really?"

"Heck yeah! Ya want me to list the ways." He held up his hand and started counting of "You're, smart, cool, and I still say you are beautiful! Not to mention the fact that you've never lied to the team and betrayed them! With Terra…I always wondered how much of our thing was based on her efforts to betray the team and how much was real. I think…I really believe she was using me, Rae. Why else would she want me to get away from her so badly! I know you would never betray me, Raven."

"Maybe…" Raven hesitated "Maybe she really did lose her memory?"

"Dude! You know what the last thing she said to me was? 'Things change, Beast Boy.'" His voice had taken on a mocking tone "'The girl you want me to be is just a memory.' Don't you realize what she meant? She did remember! She just wanted me to leave her alone so she could go on playing the good little schoolgirl! After all I tried to do for her! After all we went through she just shoves me away! I'm not that dumb, Raven! I can take a hint! She hates me, and…I don't care anymore!"

A long silence ensued as they both stared at the stars for a few moments. A question lingered in Raven's mind and eventually she just could not take it anymore.

"Did I…kiss as well as she did?"

Beast Boy snorted "Dude, she never kissed me!"

"So…was I?"

"Yep…."

Anohter pause, then:

"Did you ever…you know, with Malchior?"

"He was made out of paper, Beast Boy. I couldn't."

"Huh…I see…subject change?"

"Yes, please." Raven said. Her eyes fell on Beast Boy's hands, which were gloved. Only insdead of his usual grey gloves these were dressy white satin gloves.

"I hope I'm not treading into anymore painful ground, but…why are you still wearing gloves?"

"They look kinda dorky, don't they…" Beast Boy said. He looked at his hands and sighed. Well…he supposed it was okay to show her. She wouldn't laugh or think he was a dangerous freak…He slowly removed the gloves. Raven stared at his hands. At first she thought they were normal (but green) until he flexed them, revealing sharp looking black claws on the end of each fingertip.

"I suppose I should have expected that, seeing as you have pointed ears and fangs." She said. To Beast Boy's relief she did not sound scared or disgusted, in fact she sounded nonchalant.

"You don't think…they're freaky?"

"No." Raven shook her head.

Beast Boy grinned. "You know…it's getting late." He jumped up on his feet and helped Raven up as well. Then he extended his elbow in an uncharacteristically gentleman like way and said "Shall I escort you, Madame?"

Raven chuckled again, and Beast Boy's heart did a flip flop. She snaked her own arm through his and the started towards their room, taking a few short cuts to avoid the rest of the party.

When the other's got back to the room they found an odd sight. Beast Boy was lying down on a bed completely sacked out, while he himself was being used as a bed by a soundly sleeping Raven. It was a good thing that Robin managed to keep Starfire's squeals of joy from becoming to loud, or she might have woken the pair up. Quietly as they could the rest of the team got ready for bed themselves and soon the room was filled with contented snoring.

Somewhere very close by a pool of water displayed the scene like a miniature aqua-tv. It was smashed moments later by a huge dark-furred hand.

"HOW COULD SHE! THAT WICKED LITTLE WHORE! HOW DARE SHE KISS A SCRAWNY GREEN FULLBLOOD WITH ALL THE BRAINS OF A LIGHTNING BUG! I'LL SHOW HER! I'LL SHOW BOTH OF THEM! THAT GREEN PILE OF SLIME IS DEAD! DEAD! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS!" Sanath's voice suddenly went from screaming to a gentle whisper, but the evil and menace in that whisper seemed far worse than the rage "And if she tries to stop me…I'll kill her too!"