Began: 2012/04/03

Finished: 2012/04/03

Author's note: hey, hello? anybody out there? is anyone, anyone at all, still reading this? no?... damn. if you are out there, drop me a review and i'll climb out of the bottle. thanks. and yes, i know it's been over three years. and if you want an accurate count, i last updated 2009/07/28. okay, so i like to keep a record. sue me.

don't sue me, i'm broke.

Summary: it's a learning experience.

Languages

Languages. Raven was fluent in many languages. Some of them were even dead. Some were so obscure they might as well have been dead. So it comes with little surprise that body language wasn't that great a leap for her.

Obviously, Raven is an empath. As such, she is able to feel the emotions of others as if they were her own. (Some, at this juncture would wonder about how she'd be able to control her powers in this case- simply, her powers react not directly to what she feels but how she reacts. For example, if she reacts violently to an emotion that's negative, like rage/sadness, things tend to break. If she's happy, they tend to float then crash. It's rather complicated; just go with it for now. Some. Other. Time.) Coupled with the fact that she has twenty/twenty vision, maybe even better, she is not blind to body language. Well versed in the trade of tongues and not being an imbecile she has quite handily deciphered the code.

Besides which, she's a mage. She has to be observant, molding her environment to her advantage in battle so as not to expend too much energy. Shields produced from raw magic, though strong, are exhausting. She cheats, binding molecules of air together into a solid, though not trifling, was less trying.

But back to the body language. Yes, the monks of Azarath were basically blank faces around her. She supposed it was helpful, actually, for when she met Robin, he was basically the same way on the job. Off work and his face was much more expressive. The domino mask was a pain to read around but she still got the gist of it.

In comparison, Cyborg was a plethora of emotion. But she only got half the story from him. Literally. Not to demean him, but, half his face was cybernetic components. But since they've met, he's been tinkering with that with Fixit, but before, it was off putting. Still, half was better than none, and if she just mirrored the expression in her head, it was sort of complete. Still it threw her when he did the cocked eyebrow thing. If she hadn't had her empathy, she would've had to ponder whether he was surprised or going 'really?'.

Starfire, oh where to begin with Starfire? Much as she loved her alien/sister/best girlfriend, she's thrown her completely with facial expressions. Apparently, Tameranean faces' were built for frowning (Seriously, does this shock anyone? She comes from a world that doesn't have a word for 'nice'. The closest was rutha[sp?], weak.) and had, completely, different, facial muscles.

Let's let that sink in for a bit.

Their faces moved completely different! Sure, the large emotions were the same, the frowns, the smiles- those were fine. But when you get down to the ticks, the little things that tell the subtle nuances that give context, oh it was a nightmare. The muscles clenched in just that little way that would throw her read off. If not for her empathy she'd be clawing her eyes out in embarrassment. Azar above but the girl hadn't only thrown her with the breadth and depth of her emotions, she had to have different facial and body cues to boot. And then, as if that wasn't enough to drive Raven mad, Starfire had to go and try to emulate human cues.

Honestly, Raven didn't know quite how she managed not to rip her chakra stone from her head and chuck the thing far, far away from her at that point.

But if Starfire was bad, Beast Boy, oh Beast Boy, was infinitely worse.

Star could be pardoned for being an alien, different culture, hell, different race. But Beast Boy went above and beyond the call of duty- to frustrate her.

To be fair, he was a rather mixed bag when it came to information she could use to decipher the infinitely tiny body cues that would lead to enlightenment (That was her story and she was sticking to it.). However, he had the annoying, irritating, maddening ability to completely control every. Part. Of. His. Body. Even the involuntary parts.

Seeing as how he could shape shift, it shouldn't have been that surprising. But damn it if it didn't shock her all the same.

But perhaps it wasn't just that he could control every involuntary twitch of his body, after all, he still spasmed when shocked with electricity. It was perhaps that he was infinitely better at reading body language than average. After all, he could communicate with animals in their native tongue, and that tongue is mostly the body. If he could morph and communicate with others of the same species, what does that say about his body reading abilities?

(Raven doesn't like to think that someone could be better than her at something she's actively pursuing. Without any effort at all. It- makes her grumpy.)

That is not to say that his expressions were a complete lost. When he's honest about what he's feeling, his expressions were a gold mine. His range of expressions completely and consistently blew Robin and Cyborg's out of the water. The depth of feeling that he reached rivaled Starfire's, though not quite as often and most definitely not on command (There Starfire was something else in battle. In a way, even Batman had something to learn from her. Walling yourself off from your emotions completely? Easy-peasy. Raven did that. Feeling boundless confidence only to the point where you won't knock someone's head off accidentally? Yeah, not happening.).

But, Azar above, when he's not in a sharing mood? His emotions and body cues were completely at odds. When they first met, he was just beginning. His, talent, was just beginning to peak through. As the years dragged on, though, he consistently expanded his repertoire. Raven wasn't the jealous type, really, but he just grew heads and shoulders over her when it came to body reading. Even Robin took him at his word. If not for her empathic capability, he would have left her in the dust.

(Obviously, this was a rather one-sided competition, meaning it was all in her head. Which made it worse because that means that he really wasn't trying. What Raven didn't know was that he did put effort into it, just not for the same reason she was. 'sides, she was an empath, why the heck would she be worrying about body language?)

But what does this have to do with anything? It's just body language. So what, he could lie better than most people about his emotions, who cares?

Obviously, Raven does.

She did not like how he could and would lie about how depressed he was to his friends. To her, even. If not for her empathy, he would've gotten away with it too (Those darn meddling emoticlones). She did not like how he refused to be the stick in the mud in front of his friends so they could help pull him out of his funk.

She especially didn't like the fact that he was the first one to lay a hand on her metaphorical stick pulled it out, cleaned it up, and then send it spiraling into the sunlight, willy-nilly.

… That came out so wrong. How did that happen?

Argh, whatever. The point was he didn't leave his friends down for long; it was their right, their privilege, to return the favor. That he downright refuses to allow them to share in his pain, to help him through it, offended her.

And it wasn't even often that he felt down and out of it either. They were infrequent hiccups. But infrequent as they were, they still concerned her. She even talked about it with Cyborg. He was relieved to know that she was looking out for his little buddy. After all, he did have the ability to install a facial cue reader, but BB had the trick to fooling even his software. That the furball even opened up to his tin friend at all was a weight off Raven's shoulders and it was a weight off Cyborg's to know someone had a bead on Beast Boy's emotional welfare.

But it was still very, very irksome. Hmm, that paragraph really ran away there.

The point was, if he could take exception with her foul moods, it was the general consensus that everyone else should have had an equal and opportune chance to do the same with him. Really, it's almost a team bonding thing. That he refuses such things with pithy platitudes of 'I don't want to be a burden' was less than substantial and downright wrong.

And really, it left her with all the work! Honestly, very inconsiderate. Sure, he shared some things with Cyborg that a young man can only share with a brother (Bros before hoes, yo. That wasn't offensive, was it? Really? Darn… sorry.). It was almost overwhelming, really. The attention she has to pay, the long hours at night to review what she's learned. Still…

… she hasn't told Robin.

End chappy

Author's end notes: dunno how i slipped in that subtle(ish) bbrae at the end, but there i go amazing myself. okay, so if you squint and read at a certain angle, it comes off as completely, bash-your-head-in-it, bbrae. but i thought for the most part i pulled it off as impartial right 'til the end there. i mean, best friend's prerogative, right? and i thought the whole not telling robin thing could still be read as a friend thing, though, if you're reading this, that means you now know it is bbrae. and honestly, i've never really lied about that. it's kinda on my profile page... before i removed everything and just left the buddha quote. huh, maybe i should put that back. it's kind of creepy without. whatev's tell me what you think. oh, and i'll try to respond to reviews, i was young, socially awkward, and just plain dunno what to say to 'nice story! i really liked it!'. i guess a simple thanks would be appreciated. and i'm still waiting to be roasted, either for grammar, spelling, religion (buddhist), or shipping. oh, and well thought out critiques would be addressed and highly appreciated (CRITIQUE ME!). i'm rather fond of that- i think. i suppose i'd be rather bummed, but it'll help me improve and i'm all for that!

so click it! review! praise me, roast me, whatever floats your boat! just know, if you read and leave, you leave my ancestors peeved. and the angrier they become, the more powerful they get. and trust me, there are a lot more asian ghosts out there than anybody else. and when they sweep down in a towering inferno to wreck havoc and destruction, know that it was you who brought this doom upon us all!

damn, that was a long author's note.