HI again. I told you I'd update soon. :-)) Anyways, here is the first chapter to "Selfish Machines". Thank you so much for your continued support. Please review and stay tuned for moooore updates.

Once again, thanks!

-Izzy

Besitos

"Heeeeey Raaaaaven!" a slightly high, scratchy, and nonetheless pubescent voice squeaked from the sliding doors of the tower. Boisterous footsteps made their way towards the commons room.

The empath named Raven was seated firmly on the couch inhabiting the said commons room as she continued scanning the 900 page or so book in her grip, making no effort to look up or even give any sort of adequate response.

The voice, belonging to a peculiar green teenager who also had a name, that being Beast Boy, groaned loudly and in an over-exaggerated frustration as it once again made an attempt to captivate Raven's attention. "RAAAAAAVEN," it called out, louder this time.

Raven simply crossed her pale legs and turned the page of her book.

God, why does she do this to me? Beast Boy fumed in his innermost thoughts. Now, don't be surprised that the changeling is capable of thinking. Your parents should have told you to expect the unexpected.

With a practically theatrical sigh, Beast Boy let in a massive intake of oxygen as he decided to try one more painstakingly holler.

"RAAAAVEN ROTH!" he screeched as if his whole body was lit aflame. Shutting his eyes nervously, he anticipated the hell that was awaiting him. Dude, I am so dead. Raven's gonna be so P'Oed, he mentally facepalmed as he started melting into the spot next to the purple-haired girl. Slowly, he turned to look at her, eyes barely a slit, as he watched his predictions sink into a dreadful reality.

"WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT," Raven demanded, her voice still paced at its usual lack of inflection, only this time, it was raised at slightly higher tone than normal. He could see a monstrous vein protruding in an unearthly fashion on her neck. Her lips were inscribed into a frown that would cause children to hide behind their mothers' skirts, and her now 4 demon eyes were narrowed into slits far tinier than those of a stereotypical Asian's. If she were a 1900s classic cartoon, steam would be raging rampantly out of her small ears. Beast Boy literally had to clamp his hand over his mouth in order to retain the girly screams from spilling out of his mouth. The sight of Raven that pissed was truly terrifying.

"Heh heh, uh…hi," he peeped from underneath his gloves, trembling.

She slammed her book shut and lay it carelessly in her lap.

"What. Do. You. Want," Raven repeated her demanding question with slightly less fury as she tried not to deplete all composure she previously possessed. Her 4 eyes morphed back into 2 as she stared at the babbling boy intently.

"I was just wondering if y-you maybe wanted to..." Beast Boy stammered, glowing a firey tomato red. It wasn't only the fact that Raven had blown up on him.

It was because of her legs.

The empath's cloak was at that moment not concealing any part of her body except for her face, and Beast Boy, being the sad little hormonal teenage boy he was, couldn't help but peek at what Raven's figure had to offer. She represented the perfect hourglass figure with her curves in all the right places; not too heavy or lacking on any part of her torso. Though not as thin as Starfire, Raven's legs were incredibly slender, and in Beast Boy's perspective, looked soft enough to run a hand over…

Man, I've always liked her, and looks aren't everything, but…wow, I didn't know she was so…hot, Beast Boy thought a bit hungrily, trying not to display any more red on his face than there already was. He almost slapped himself as his brain continued to speculate on these dirty thoughts. Duuuude, if she could knew what the hell you were thinking, she'd send you to another dimension, he cursed. Stop staring at her legs, stop staring at her legs, stop staring at her legs…

After 6 or 7 seconds of utter silence and perplexity, Raven cleared her throat a bit ambiguously.

Beast Boy seemed to have understood the notion so he tried to formulate comprehendible words. "I was just thinking that you and I hang out or somethin', ya know…"

"No," she replied as she decided to revert her undivided attention back to her unfinished book.

Beast Boy's ears drooped a little bit as he tried to pull off the most coaxing voice he could possibly muster. "But pleeeease? It'll be lots of fun, I pinky promise!" He did indeed want to spend more time with his long-time crush and teammate, but the other reason for wanting to hang out with her was because his other 3 fellow Titans were occupied at the moment. Cyborg, his first choice, was out at the mall with Bumblebee, and only God knows what they were doing there. Starfire was also at the mall shopping for clothes and frou-frou things many teenage girls adored, and Robin was in the training room training (duh), and even Beast Boy knew it wouldn't be wise to interrupt him.

If one did manage to sneak in there and irritate the crud out of the easily-angered Boy Wonder, though, then God bless their soul.

Raven's gaze never left her book as she turned another page. "I don't do fun," she rasped as her eyes still continued to read.

The green changeling pouted as his rump still remained glued to the couch, never taking his emerald shaded eyes off of her. After about 2 minutes of intense observation, he saw a ghost of a smile escape her porcelain lips and her face illuminate as she flipped yet another page in her obviously fascinating book. He felt himself smile a bit, too after witnessing the most massive discovery of human emotion Raven had shown.

She's beautiful, he thought to himself as the empath continued to read, as she was completely oblivious to his eyes watching her every breath and blink. She reminded him of the moon; pale, bright, luminescent, and filled with mysteries. It didn't like showing its real self unless it thought it was alone and dark with everybody sleeping, and even though it was scarred with an infinite amount of craters and imperfections, it was still breathtakingly beautiful.

Just like Raven.

After a few more moments, Raven noticed his lingering eyes never leaving her. "Why are you still here?" she questioned a bit bluntly. Turning red once again, he took his reluctant eyes away from the pale-skinned beauty and focused his utmost attention the floor.

Typical Raven…always wanting to get to the point, he thought to himself with a small chuckle.

"I dunno. I just really wanna hang out with you," he stated primly, a goofy grin washing over his face. "You know you love the attention," he wigged his eyebrows up and down which caused her to roll her eyes herself and put down the book.

"Well, you're just wasting your time," she professed, not even bothering to pick up her book or even look at her conversational partner.

Beast Boy felt himself scoff. "Rae, as long as I'm with you, I'm never wasting my time," he blurted out. Immediately after the last word spewed accidentally out of his big mouth, he face palmed and buried his head in his gloved hands, the red sprawled onto his face there to stay.

Raven herself turned red as well, and all she could think of saying was, "Don't call me Rae."

In order to break the awkwardness that was about to envelope the two into an unwanted hug, Beast Boy inquired through muffled breaths, "Soooo, wanna go to the park?"

"No," was all he heard, and he felt as if someone had castrated him and eaten his remains with a tangy barbecue sauce. Why did she hate me so much? It's 'cause I'm ugly, isn't it?, he whimpered, his ears drooping even more.

Well, sorry Rae for not being the flippy haired "emo" dude with girl arms.

Wait, what? I'm not ugly! I'm the handsome comedy-relief guy! Of course I'm not ugly, he boasted arrogantly to himself. Man, I'm good.

Not wanting to partake into an argument with himself, he decided to carry on the conversation with his beloved half-demon goddess. "But why not?" he whined, his face erupting from its position in his hands.

Raven finally scooped up the willpower to look him in the eyes. "You are literally to incompetent for your own good," she started. "You know very well that I don't like participating in this 'fun' you speak of, so why pester me about it, anyway?"

Also not wanting to answer the last part of her semi-rant because of his heartfelt crush towards her, Beast Boy exclaimed, "Hey! I'm not stupid!"

"Says the one who thinks the American Revolution started in 1492 because of King Norm," she spat back.

He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck in an uneasy manner. "Heh heh, that was a one time thing. But seriously, dude, I'm not stupid!"

Raven fought the urge to snort. "Your vocabulary ranges from the word 'uh' to 'dude'. Point proven." She finally stood up from the couch and began exiting to retreat into her room, surely not wanting to fight in an argument she could easily and inevitably win.

As she was about to disappear into the coldness and solitude of her forbidden room, Beast Boy jumped up off the couch. "I'll prove to you that I'm not stupid! You'll see!" And as she slammed the door shut, restricting any biotic factor from entering into her private atmosphere, she felt a smile spread across her face and a tiny giggle escape her lips, and all she could think to herself was, "This is going to be interesting."


It was 7:30 p.m. in busy, busy Jump City, and at last, all the Titans were now residing in their magnificent Titans Tower eating dinner.

As the super-powered teenagers gathered at their dinner table to feast on pizza, garlic bread, and soda, they noticed that something, or some people, were missing.

Or at least Starfire did.

"Friend Raven and friend Cyborg, do either of you happen to possess the knowledge of the location of boyfriend Robin and friend Beast Boy?" the gorgeous alien princess inquired, taking an ironically dainty sip of her 64 ounce bottle of mustard.

"No," the blue-cloaked empathic teen simply responded, taking a large bite of her pepperoni pizza slice.

Cyborg wolfed down his share of the pizza and hurriedly began advancing towards the untouched garlic bread; acting as if he hadn't eaten in over a decade. "Sorry, Star. I haven't seen 'em, either."

The redheaded girl twisted a frowny-face onto her delicate features, and as if on cue, the two temporarily missing Titans walked out of the hallway wearing mischievous grins. They began approaching the dinner table in almost a happy-skippty-doo form.

"Yo, where were you two at?" Cyborg questioned, being the first out of the three to notice their sudden appearance. He stuffed a 6 inch loaf of greasy, buttery garlic bread into his open mouth and began to chew noisily.

"Oh, nothing," Beast Boy answered cheerily, taking a seat next to Raven who just finished her first slice of pizza. Taking a slice of the Super Supreme pizza, he disposed of the sausage and pepperoni and took a hearty bite. In between chews, he decided to speak. "Hey, Rae. Pasar el queso."

Right after the words had been spit (literally) out of his mouth, Robin's face contorted into one of untamable laughter; struggling to even devour his first bite of bread.

Robin was laughing at something Beast Boy said? Raven curiously thought to herself, the idea of such a feat enticing her. Well, miracles happen, but I didn't think they happened this quickly…

Wanting to hear what Beast Boy had stated, she gave him a quizzical look with her eyebrows as the changeling repeated what he had previously said.

"Pasar el queso, por favor."

And that was all it took for Robin to burst out into a fit of shockingly girly giggles.

Heh heh, that's what she gets for calling me stupid, Beast Boy thought triumphantly. She can't speak Spanish, she can't speak Spanish! Once again, man, I'm good! Go Beast Boy, go Beast Boy, it's your birthday, go Beast Boy, uh-huh, pelvic thrust!

The gleeful shape-shifter continued to mentally victory dance inside his proud little brain as Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg continued to speculate on his newfound eccentricity, with Robin sprawled on the messy dinner table laughing like the overjoyed children on PBS Kids.

Cyborg furrowed his brow uncertainly. "Dude, is your girlfriend rubbin' off on you or somethin'?"

The Boy Wonder could not refrain from his strange spasm. The green teen began to giggle merrily as well which caused Raven to shoot daggers at him, metaphorically speaking, of course. Unaffected, Beast Boy continued giggling, sheepishly this time.

Starfire looked as puzzled as…well, a puzzle. "Boyfriend Robin, why do you laugh at what friend Beast Boy has said to friend Raven? Was it perhaps an insult of some sort?"

Raven sighed. "Beast Boy, I can speak English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit, but I don't speak Spanish, so drop the act right now."

Beast Boy grinned, his small fang poking playfully out of his curved mouth as he shook his head. "Lo siento, nena. Passar el queso, por favor."

Man, if she knew that I just called her 'babe', she would totally shoot me, he thought.

Eh, it'd be worth it. It is Raven after all, hehe.

Robin continued blasting out jolly laughs and perturbing giggles, pizza crumbs and saliva soaring into air like ballet dancers, while the other 3 Titans were morphed into human (or in Cyborg's case, half human) question marks.

Throwing her arms into the air, Raven then banged her fists on the table in extreme annoyance and impediment. "Oh Azar, I give up. Robin, since you're laughing over there like some stupid little school girl, it gives me the right to conclude that you can understand what in Trigon's name this moron-" She wags her finger accusingly at the toothy changeling –"is talking about. So spill before I blast you into another dimension."

Quiet on the set.

To her delight, Robin finally put a hopefully perpetual halt to his laughing episode and cleared his throat. "Beast Boy's telling you to pass the cheese." With that, the masked boy pointed at the can of parmesan slightly ajar and about a few mere centimeters away from Raven's elbow.

Nodding a bit unsurely and cautiously, she picked up said can of sophisticated cheese and handed it over to its requester. One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.

Beast Boy's grin widened as he happily accepted the parmesan. With his clumsy-ass fingers, the shape-shifter practically knocked over the can containing parmesan; bits and bits of cheesy crumbs snowing down onto the already messy and greasy dinner table. He then began to pour out two-thirds of it onto his second pizza slice. "Gracias, hermosa. Por cierto, te ves realmente bonita hoy." Though it looked like Alaska in the winter, he snatched the pizza slice and began to munch away on it, the smile never escaping his face.

I just called her beautiful, aaaand I told her that she looked nice today, the changeling hip-hip hoorayed to no one else but himself. Aww yeah, I scored some serious man points there. His heart leaped elegantly and with an almost tangible freedom and grace at the feeling he had received after those foreign words had rolled off his tongue. He hadn't just said it to mess with her, either.

He really did believe that Raven was beautiful in every single way possible; from her face to her rare, exotic smiles and laughter to the way she pushed him away.

Robin snorted and began to pile his plate with heaps of bread and pizza.

The other 3 Titans resumed their reign of confounded confusion once more.

Starfire rubbed her temples uneasily and slowly stood up. "I am either hearing things, or Beast Boy has gone downright freaky. I am going to be in my room unless any of you need assistance." With that, the alien princess fled a bit gratefully and hastily into her floral colored bedroom.

Cyborg nodded in agreement without more than just an abrupt "mhm" before dumping his dirty dishes into the sink, and then, the mechanical man was off to dwelling as well.

Then, at the table sat the 3 remaining Titans: Raven, Beast Boy, and Robin.

"Raven," the bilingual shape-shifter said. "¿Vas a comer su pizza?"

The happy-go-lucky laughing little girl phase of Robin had now worn off and was now reduced to a microscopic chuckle.

Raven, on the other hand, was far from being amused or entertained.

She was even more annoyed with Beast Boy than ever before.

"Damn it, Beast Boy," she growled. "Will you please just speak in American English?" She then whirled around to face the silenced masked wonder. "Robin, please tell me what this foreign moron is saying."

Unbeknownst to the irritated purple-haired adolescent, Beast Boy flashed Robin a no-way-you're-telling-her-what-I-said look which resulted in Robin hacking a fake cough and standing up from his seat. "I'm sorry, Raven, but you're gonna have to figure it out on your own. You're not stupid, after all." He dismissed himself from the dining area and headed back to the training room, leaving only Beast Boy and Raven by themselves still seated at the dinner table that was now cluttered with a pizza box containing 3 left over slices of Super Supreme pizza and one thin slice of hardened garlic bread.

Great, now I'm stuck with the fake Mexican kid, she sputtered to herself, putting her head into her hands, not even bothering to finish her final slice of pizza.

Said "fake Mexican kid" seized the opportunity to scooch his chair a hair closer to the unamused empath. The chair made an unappealing screeching noise as he was now within an index finger's distance from her.

She raised her head a little bit. "What do you want?" The green teen simply grinned the largest grin he could wear on his smug face; his fang glimmering un-inconspicuously in the room's bright lights.

Oh Azar, why did he have to be so adorable? Raven groaned to herself. It'd be almost unbearable to kill him properly under these circumstances. She felt her heart sigh at the sight of Beast Boy's grin still implanted oh-so-cutely on his face.

Stop it, Raven. Control your hormones. He's not even that cute.

Psh.

"Well," she continued. "What do you want?"

"Besitos," he answered, the grin slowly crescendo-ing into a much larger one, if that was even humanly possible. His eyes twinkled with the kindred spirit his mouth presented.

The lights flickered on and off a couple of times as Raven reached her breaking point on the absolute irritation scale. Her amethyst tinted eyed twitched as if she had just underwent epileptic shock, and in the distance somewhere out there, you could hear a car alarm blaze off and a fire hydrant begin gushing out.

"I don't understand what you're saying!" she grimaced, the monologue accenting her voice now turning into a pitch resembling exasperation, and the dinner table split into 2 equal parts; the contents on the table experiencing a landslide race to the finish. "Look, Beast Boy, I know I called you stupid, and I'm sorry, alright?" She slumped down into an indigo colored heap on the raunchy, muddled tiled floor. Her hood was flung up to hide her humiliated facial features as she muttered a blurry apology to the speechless shape-shifter still seated in his chair.

Beast Boy kneeled down to accompany her, wrapping a lean green arm around her shoulder and casting the hood shrouding her head aside. "Aww, come on Rae, don't feel bad," he soothed in godforsaken English.

The girl looked up at him and smiled lightly. "I never said I felt bad," she teased, giving him a playful slug on the arm, to his bewilderment. "I'm glad you're talking in English again."

Helping her up, Beast Boy gradually stood up so the two were nose to nose. Wow, he really has gotten taller over the years, Raven remarked as she reminisced to the good old days when she was still a head taller than him. She hadn't grown one inch, while her corresponding teammate had grown several. It was truly puberty at its finest.

Beast Boy's wacky grin reappeared on his face. "So, Rae…you never answered my question…well, sort of question."

The two began their stroll to the couch when Raven questioned, "What question?"

Here comes the moment of truth, Beast Boy sang to himself as he sat down on the couch, feeling a spring bounce out of place.

"You asked me what I wanted, and I said besitos, so…can I have some besitos?"

Raven rolled her eyes and crinkled her pasty colored forehead. "I apologize, Beast Boy, but I do not know what a besitos is." Crossing her arms, she blew a puff of air which caused a loose strand of hair to whiplash her across the face.

God, why does she have to be so darn cute? He asked himself in an awestruck wonder as he found the courage to scoot closer to her. As Raven continued to use the forces of nature to uplift her hair, he scoochity-scooched even more so that they were practically touching.

Still not noticing the change in space between them, Beast Boy continued to speak. "I'm not gonna tell you what it is, so you might as well make a lucky guess." Hopefully lucky for me, anyway.

Raven stopped the facetious hobby she was participating in and shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

And what happened next was unfathomable and unbelievable to her.

Beast Boy was grinning wider than he ever had before; so wide that a hippopotamus could probably walk in there, and he wouldn't notice. "Okay!" he affirmed cheerfully.

Raven sat there in solemn silence as if waiting for an order or something whimsical to happen. "Well?"

Come on, dude. Make your move and fast before she blasts you out the window, his brain urged fervently.

Beast Boy pushed aside the strand of loose purple hair she was playing with earlier and tucked it behind her ear. At the unusual move he had just played, Raven's face turned scarlet. "B-Beast Boy," she inquired, fumbling with her words, her monotone shaking. "Wh-what are you doing?"

And the empath received the answer she had so desired when he held her face gingerly in his hands, leaned in, and locked lips with hers.

I'm kissing her, Beast Boy's brain squee'd as his heart began thudding loudly and abnormally in his chest; butterflies calling for a celebration in the pit of his flip-flopping stomach.

He's kissing me, Raven's brain alerted as she felt herself kissing him back to both of their surprise and delight. Another car alarm sounded off outside as the two Titans continued kissing on the couch. He wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him which caused the lights inhabiting the tower to flicker ever so slightly. Somehow, kissing the most unlikely person she'd ever kiss, or fall for, for that matter, made her feel…happy. For once in her 16 years of life, she felt happy. She felt safe.

She felt loved.

And boy, it was a nice feeling.

It was odd, though, because before she knew it, her tongue was in an all-out feud with his, and she could not seem to control herself. The microwave in the kitchen went "kaboom", breaking a nearby window, but neither the changeling nor the Azarathian seemed to give two flying shits about it.

Oookay, this is officially the best day of my life, Beast Boy rejoiced to himself as he felt her give in to his sturdy arms, nearly falling on top of the happy green teen. Who knew that one day that I'd finally get to meet lips with Raven; the girl I've been madly in love with for what seems to have been, like, three hundred years ago?

Heh, I knew she loved the ears…

Isn't this what you wanted? Raven thought to herself, but as they two finally withdrew, she could feel the pang of disappointment screaming inside of her as she answered her innermost thoughts with a yes.

No further words were exchanged between the two. After a few seconds in silent serenity, Beast Boy gave her a peck on the cheek and made a mad dash for hid room, and Raven swore she could hear his childish giggles echoing off the walls as the door to his room finally closed.

The blender on the kitchen tower exploded as well, and as Raven sighed delicately and lay down peacefully on the couch, she couldn't stop the smile from fluttering onto her soft, pale lips, and all she could think was Beast Boy, you're my favorite explosion.

The toaster then became the third victim to combust into hundreds of pieces.

You're my favorite explosion.

1 down, 12 more to go. The next one is called "Southern Constellations". If you read this without yawning or falling asleep or dying, then I officially hate you less than all/most of mankind. Please review and stay tuned. Oh, and stay fierce, my little armadillos.

Go Beast Boy, go Beast Boy ~~~~~

-Izzy :3