I'm skipping ahead about a week. There isn't much more to do in the rest of the school day, since almost all the new characters have been introduced. Except Slade. He comes later. This time I really do promise to include him.

During the week, it became almost second nature for everyone to watch Raven write down what she wanted to say. There was a schoolwide challenge, where the kids had to not talk for a day, so everyone was carrying around notebooks. Gar took the not talking thing farther, and said that he wouldn't talk until Raven got her voice back.

Just a warning, Malchior goes full blown insane in an upcoming chapter. His insanity was introduced back in the Chem/Latin chapter, and now it comes out more in this one. Everything is explained in chapter 13.

This is officially the longest chapter of this story!! It's like three times as long as the others are, so enjoy!

And I don't own Teen Titans.

Gar held his notebook tightly as he stepped into room 63. It had become their regular hang-out area in the mornings, ever since the first day they had been there.

Raven was sitting alone in the room with her notebook open on the desk in front of her. Gar was about to walk over to tap her on the shoulder, since he wasn't talking either, but he heard a soft sob escape her. He quickly tiptoed backwards to the door.

He watched, his eyes widening, as Raven's tears dotted her notebook like the rain. Noticing this, she picked it up and smoothed out the page, then hugged the notebook to her chest. She began making hoarse noises, almost like she was choking, that scared Gar so much he forgot about his promise to be silent as well.

"Raven?" Her name escaped his lips, and she turned, hastily trying to hide the fact that she had been crying. "Oops." He clapped a hand over his mouth.

She turned to a new page in her notebook, and scribbled down, 'Sorry.'

'What's wrong?' Gar wrote on his own notebook as he pulled a chair up next to hers and sat down.

'Nothing. I'm fine.'

'Well, something had to be making you cry.' Gar tried to reason with her, finding this extremely difficult using pencil and paper rather than his voice.

'I just want to talk so badly. That's what I was trying to do when you came in.'

Gar pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back as her new tears drenched his shoulder. They sat this way for about a minute before Raven pulled away. She held up her notebook, and pointed to the spot where she had written, 'Sorry.'

'Please, let me help you.' Gar wrote in his notebook, which he put down on the desk between them.

'I don't see how I'm ever going to talk again. Nothing helps. I've tried everything I can think of. There's no way.'

'There's a way for everything, and we'll figure this one out. I promise.'

'Thanks.'

'I've been thinking lately,' Gar kept writing, feeling nervous. 'Would you like to go on a first date this weekend?'

'Like this? I mean, if you decide to not talk, it would be pretty weird, don't you think?'

'If weird means fun, then yes. And I'm not talking until you do. I want to help you and support you, Raven. Even when it means I don't get to talk.'

'Thanks, Gar.'

'Anything for you.' He paused, then continued writing. 'Well, what do you think about going on that date?'

'I'll obviously have to make sure my mom will let me out of her sight first. She doesn't let me do anything by myself anymore. Which I can understand, of course. I haven't left the Rodriguez's house for anything except school. They've been so nice to us.'

'Just tell her I'm bringing my three-hundred pound bodyguard, and I'm sure she'll say yes.'

- - - - -

"I can't believe I'm saying yes to this!" Angela exclaimed for the fifth time as Raven hugged her. "It hasn't even been a week since you got hurt, and here I am letting you go out with this boy I've never met!"

"Trust me, Mom, Gar's amazing," Jinx said. She had come over to visit, and to give Raven some backup when she asked her mom if she could go with Gar. "Raven couldn't have picked a better guy."

"He'd better be exactly that, or the answer changes to no," Angela said warningly. "So, warn me now of any weird quirks he has."

"I can't think of any," Jinx shrugged, but Raven was sure Angela would want a warning about Gar's green hair. To them, it was practically natural since he had been coloring it for so long, but to her mother it would be shocking.

Raven quickly grabbed a pillow from the sofa, which was green. She shoved it a Jinx, and pointed to her hair.

"Oh yeah!" Jinx realized what Raven was saying in an instant. "Gar has green hair."

"What?" Angela put a hand to her forehead. "And I though Jen getting her hair dyed pink was weird."

"Um, hello?" Jinx held a lock of Raven's purple hair up.

"Well, yes, that is rather weird too. I still can't believe you girls did that."

'Blame her, not me.' Raven wrote, holding up her notebook.

"Hey!" Jinx smiled, and poked her friend in the arm. Raven poked her back, and a poking battle was wordlessly declared.

The girls' poking battle was cut short when the doorbell rang.

"It's Gar!" Jinx looked as excited as Raven felt. She grabbed Raven's arm and dragged her to the door. "Open it."

Raven did. Gar was standing there, smiling, with his notebook clutched in one hand and his mother's hand on his shoulder. The two of them waved to each other.

"Hey, Gar!" Jinx said.

"All right, let me meet him," Angela gently moved Jinx to the side to get a better look at Gar. "Interesting hair. Now I have three people to enter in the 'world's worst hair' contest."

"Thank you," Mrs. Logan held out her hand to shake Angela's. "I finally get some backup on the 'don't color your hair' thing. I'm Gar's mother."

"Hey, purple and green do look pretty good together," Jinx said, winking at Raven and Gar, who were now holding hands. She pushed them closer together so their heads touched. "Don't you think so?"

- - - - -

Raven and Gar had just come from the movie theater, and were headed for the ice rink.

'I was thinking we could go skating for the rest of the day, since it's already about five,' Gar wrote. 'Jinx told me that you really like to skate.'

'That's an understatement,' Raven wrote, smiling. 'I love to skate.'

'Awesome,' Gar gave Raven the thumbs-up. The two of them held hands as they walked across the street from the movie theater to the ice rink. It wasn't very cold, so the indoor rink was open instead of the outside one.

As the two walked into the building, Raven thought she caught a glimpse of Malchior passing them. She turned to look, and saw a boy with white-blonde hair walking in the other direction. Hoping that it was a coincidence, Raven turned back around and wrote down her shoe size so she could get skates.

The two pulled on their skates, then put their notebooks down underneath a seat. Then they went out onto the ice.

Raven laughed as she watched Gar try to stay upright. For a guy who had excellent balance when it came to doing cartwheels and flips inside a hot and sticky mascot costume, his skating skills were awful.

As soon as he walked onto the ice, he fell down. Raven helped him up, only to have him fall two seconds later. Laughing, he stood up and put one hand on the wall for support. Doing this, he was able to make it around the rink in five minutes, with Raven going backwards in front of him, holding his other hand to help.

After making it around, Gar gently pulled his hand out of Raven's. He gestured to the rink, and waved, meaning that she should go around at her own speed. Understanding this, Raven nodded.

She took off immediately, dodging people so closely that some of them shrank back against the wall. She turned around in circles in empty spots, and came to a stop when she reached Gar by turning in a semicircle.

Gar's mouth was open, and his eyes were wide. Raven smiled, feeling her cheeks flush.

Gar then took his hand off the wall and mimed doing a figure skating move, then pointed to Raven. She nodded. His face splitting into a wide smile, Gar gestured for her to go around again, obviously meaning that she should try a skating move.

She started around again, and this time did a jump that left Gar sitting on the ice from shock. He shook his head in disbelief as she skated back towards him, almost every person on the rink staring at her.

'Wow,' Gar mouthed, giving her the double thumbs up. Raven smiled and offered him her hand, which he took. Soon the two were skating around slowly again, Gar leaning on the wall to avoid falling.

After about a half hour, the two decided to go sit down so they could talk together in their notebooks. Both smiling, they headed to the chair where they had left the notebooks.

Both notebooks were gone.

Raven looked at Gar, horrorstruck. Her notebook held her life at this point. Without it, she couldn't do anything.

'You have to talk,' she mouthed. Gar didn't understand, as this was a longer sentence than what was normally mouthed. Raven pulled him over to a sign and pointed to the letter 'u' with one hand and at him with the other.

Gar nodded and pointed to himself. Raven nodded back, and mimed talking. Gar nodded again.

"You want me to talk?" he whispered. Raven nodded once again.

"Gotcha," Gar smiled. "Let's go ask those guys if they saw anyone take the notebooks." He and Raven walked over to one of the workers.

"Excuse me," Gar said, and the person turned around.

"Can I help you?" The man focused on Gar for a second, then spotted Raven. "You're the person who was doing all the cool tricks out there!" His eyes widened, and his face broke into a smile. "That was amazing."

Raven signed 'thank you.' If she was unable to talk, she would at least pretend it was because she was mute, not because something had happened.

The man looked confused, but shrugged and turned back to Gar.

"Um, did you see anyone take two notebooks from under that chair?" Gar pointed to where the notebooks had been.

"Yeah, actually I did," he said, thinking. "He was about your age, with these creepy eyes. They were a super light blue."

"Did he have white-blonde hair too?" Gar asked, frowning.

"Yeah, that's the guy," the man nodded.

Gar groaned, but continued talking to the man. "Do you have a pencil and paper we can borrow?"

"Sure," The man ducked down behind a desk and returned with a pad of paper and a pen.

"Thanks," Gar said, turning away and going to sit down. Raven followed with the pad and pen in her hand. She began writing as soon as she sat down.

'Why would Malchior do something like that?' Gar took the pen and paper from her and wrote his response.

'I dunno. But he was following you around at the dance a lot. Maybe it has something to do with that.'

'You can talk, you know. I don't care if you do. I mean, we're going to have to give this back eventually, so you might as well talk.'

"Okay," Gar shrugged. "What are we going to do with this, though? I mean, if Malchior sees this, he might try to take it too. Then where would we be?"

'I have an idea. It's pretty stupid, but it'll work. Just tell that guy that I'm mute and you don't know sign language. The notebooks were how we communicate, and if he would hold this pad of paper for us so we can use it later, that would be great.'

"You know, you are a genius," Gar said, shaking his head and smiling. "It's so simple, but it'll work. What am I supposed to say about Malchior and why he took the notebooks?"

'Just make something up. Pretend he hates us or something.'

"Good plan," Gar laughed. "So, what do you want to do?"

'I'm thinking of teaching you how to skate without falling.' Raven wrote, smiling.

"Good plan," Gar repeated. "Then I won't embarrass you anymore."

'You don't embarrass me. Come on, what's worse: having a boyfriend who can't skate or a girlfriend who can't talk?'

"I guess we both have our issues," Gar laughed. "Here, I'll go give this back to him." He took the pad and pen from her and walked back over to the desk. He talked to the man for a minute before coming back to where Raven sat.

"I told him Malchior took the notebooks because he was jealous I got the nicest and prettiest girl in school to go on a date with me." Gar winked at her.

Raven smiled back, feeling herself blush.

The two of them skated for hours, their speed getting faster and Gar's backside getting wetter.

"I think I'm gonna have permanent bruising back there," Gar said as he stood up for the thousandth time and wiped the ice from his pants. Raven smiled, and turned to skate backwards, pulling him with her.

"I think I am getting better, though," Gar said as Raven let go of his hands. He skated a few feet before saying, "Yes, I definitely think I am!" Raven gave him the thumbs up. "I can skate!" Gar said loudly, picking up the pace a bit to go faster. He made it five feet before he fell again.

"Never mind," he smiled sheepishly as Raven pulled him up again.

After about another hour, Gar could skate without falling. But, as he told Raven when they came back from the bathrooms, he was sure he wouldn't be able to sit for a week.

The two of them skated until nine, the time the rink closed. A voice came over the loudspeaker telling everyone thanks for coming and that it was time to go. Raven made to skate over to the exit, but Gar pulled her gently back.

"How about another lap?" he asked, winking. Raven gestured to the exit.

"They won't care," Gar said. "Trust me." He took her hand and they slowly made their way around the rink.

"So you're the lucky ones."

Raven and Gar looked over to the exit, where a woman was standing. Raven began skating faster, hurrying over to the exit. The woman held up a hand.

"Whoa, there," she smiled. "You don't have to leave." Raven looked from the woman to Gar, who was smiling. "Your friend here called us a few days ago and asked to stay fifteen minutes after everyone else left."

Raven turned to Gar, her mouth open.

"I wanted to do something really special," Gar skated over to her, wobbling the whole way.

"I'll leave you two alone," The woman smiled at the two of them before leaving. She closed the door behind her, and Gar and Raven were alone on the ice.

"When Jinx told me how much you liked to skate, I wanted to give you the chance to skate by yourself, without anyone to bother you," Gar said, pulling Raven into a hug. "And where is a better place than alone on an ice rink to tell you how much you mean to me?"

Raven rested her head on his shoulder, hugging him tightly, her heart beating faster.

"I wanted to tell you that I'll always be here for you no matter what," Gar whispered. "Even if worse things happen in the future, you can count on me for anything you need. I really care about you, Raven." Gar took a deep breath before continuing. "I was thinking last night about something. I was asking myself what word I would use if someone asked me how I felt about you. I really thought about it, too." Gar paused again, then continued. "I know it might seem early to say this, seeing how we've only been together for a week, but I know that if anyone asked me how I felt, I would tell them that I love you."

"I love you, too," Raven whispered back.

It did not register that she had spoken to both of them for about thirty seconds. When they finally did realize this, they broke apart immediately, both of them crashing down onto the ice.

"You spoke!" Gar exclaimed, trying to get up and tripping over himself, sending him crashing back down.

"I, I, I," Raven sat frozen for a few seconds, then stood up. "I can talk! Gar, thank you!" She launched herself at him, sending them both tumbling onto the ice. They hugged each other, smiles tugging at their cheeks.

They struggled to their feet a minute later, holding hands and smiling broadly.

"Will you pull me around the ice?" Gar asked.

"I couldn't end the night without doing that," Raven answered, tightening her grip on his hand. She began skating very fast, pulling Gar behind her. She heard him breathing very fast, no doubt scared out of his wits, but she kept going. After a few seconds, Gar started skating with her, drawing level with her.

"Want to race?" he asked, letting go of her hand.

"You're on!" Raven exclaimed, and the two of them began skating as fast as their legs would carry them. After they went halfway around the ice, Gar fell, and Raven came to an abrupt halt, laughing so hard she fell to her knees.

"I haven't laughed like this in the longest time," Raven gasped. "This is the best feeling in my life!" She fell backwards, so she was lying down on the ice.

"This was amazing," Gar said, skating slowly to where Raven was. He plopped down on the ice next to her. Raven sat up.

"Thank you so much," she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tight. "It's thanks to you that I can talk."

"I guess I can help you with your problem," Gar said, hugging her back and laughing. "Remember at school when I said it felt weird having you help me but I couldn't help you?"

"Yeah, that was when you got sent to the office."

"And got a detention," Gar reminded her. "It was actually kind of fun. I had Mr. Anticol as my detention monitor, and he helped me with my chem homework."

"Well, that's good to know," Raven giggled as the two broke apart. "And now I can talk thanks to you. I feel like shouting!" She got up, smiling, and skated to the opposite side of the rink. "I think I will do a little shouting." She raised her hands above her head and shouted, "I love you, Garfield Logan!"

Gar stood up and yelled back, "I love you too!"

"Incoming!" Raven yelled, skating back at him. Gar caught her arm, and they spun around in a circle.

"This was the best first date ever," Gar said as their speed decreased.

"Most definitely," Raven agreed as they came to a halt. "This was definitely the perfect way to end it."

"Well, I can think of one more thing to make it even more perfect," Gar said, pulling her closer and kissing her.

- - - - -

Malchior watched, his blue eyes blazing with anger, as Raven and Gar left the skating rink, joking and laughing. His eyes followed them all the way to the car they stepped into. He followed the headlights as the car drove away.

"So, Raven has her voice back," Malchior said softly to the night. "Just as it says it will be." He placed a hand on the pocket of his pants, feeling the object inside.

"This is all happening for a reason," he continued, drawing the thing out of his pocket and looking at it. "It's all in here: Everything that has happened and everything that will happen." He put the thing back into his pocket, and knelt down on the concrete.

"On this night, I make this vow," Malchior spoke louder and clearer this time. "I swear to you, my true father, the king of Gogakia, that I will uphold the family honor. I will follow my destiny." His eyes traveled to the spot where he had last seen the car Raven and Gar had entered. "And I swear to you, my queen, that I will save you from the clutches of the enchantment you are now held in."

So who likes the name Gogakia? I couldn't think of a name, so I asked my 9 year old brother to tell me a gibberish word. That's what he came up with. :)

- - - - -

Raven stepped out of Gar's mother's car and waved to her, saying "Thank you, Mrs. Logan," as she did so. It felt so good to talk again!

Mrs. Logan returned her wave with a smile. Raven's already broad smile widened as Gar stepped out of the car behind her and began walking her to the Rodriguez's door.

"Thanks for the best first date ever," Raven felt her cheeks grow warm as Gar took her hand in his, their fingers entwining together.

"Same here," Gar smiled at her. "We need to do that again sometime."

"Most definitely," Raven agreed, nodding. Then she noticed, with something close to a shock of surprise, that they had reached the door.

"Well, I guess I'd better go in," she bit her lip, then released it, as she turned to look at Gar.

"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed, looking slightly less happy. To explain this change in expression, he added, "I just don't want this night to end. I've had so much fun with you that I just want it to go on forever." He squeezed her hand.

"Me too," Raven suppressed a gasp as pulled her closer and kissed her. He did it so quickly and unexpectedly that his action came close to cutting off Raven's sentence. It was a quick kiss, and Gar pulled back sooner than she had expected.

"Sorry," Gar said hastily. "I just wanted to do that before lost my nerve." He leaned in closer before adding, in barely more than a whisper, "Besides, my mom's waiting in the car, and, knowing her, she's watching."

"Right," Raven smiled. "Well, my mom will want to hear my voice, so I'd better go in."

"Can I come too?" Gar asked the last thing Raven had expected him to say. "I just want to stay with you a bit longer."

"Sure, if you want to." Raven raised her hand and pulled back the heavy brass door knocker and rapped the door twice. She had not even lifted her hand from the knocker when the door was pulled open, sending her a bit off balance. Gar steadied her by holding her arm under the elbow.

Angela was standing in the doorway, and Raven had barely had a second's glance of her when she was pulled into a giant bear hug.

"Oh my goodness, I've been worrying about you ever since you left!" Angela exclaimed, crushing Raven's windpipe. "I'm so glad you're back! I've missed you." She released Raven and beckoned over her shoulder. "Jen came over a few minutes ago so she could hear all about your date."

As Raven and Gar looked over Angela's shoulder, Jinx came into view, beaming. Raven and Gar both smiled back as Angela looked her daughter over.

"Wait, where's your notebook?" Angela asked, having just noticed its absence.

"I didn't need it anymore."

The affect this single sentence had on both Angela and Jinx was incredible. Angela sank to the floor, sobbing hysterically. Jinx, however, who wore a look of shock, simply stood there, staring. After a few seconds, she seemed to come out of her trance like state, and screamed, "What did the two of you do?" and pounced on both of them, squeezing them even tighter than Angela had hugged Raven a minute ago.

Raven and Gar both hugged her back, laughing. When Angela's tears lessened so she could stand, she immediately joined in on the hug, still sobbing.

- - - - -

"So, did you get your first kiss?" It was about an hour after Raven and Gar had returned from their date, and Raven and Jinx were now sitting opposite each other on Raven's bed at the Rodriguez's. After having a long conversation with Raven about everything possible, Angela had decided to give the two girls some space and was down in the family room with the Rodriguez family, watching the Lord of the Rings.

"What do you mean?" Raven frowned slightly, forgetting that she had not told Jinx about what had happened between her and Gar after the homecoming dance.

"I mean, did he kiss you yet?" Jinx asked impatiently, rolling her eyes at Raven's still blank expression. "Come on, tell me!"

"I had my first kiss down in your basement at the afterparty," Raven laughed as Jinx's mouth opened wide.

"You had your first kiss and you didn't tell me?"

"Sorry," Raven's laugh died away as Jinx's expression changed to a look of shock.

"Um, you might not have noticed, but you and Gar were in that basement for, like, ten minutes."

"We weren't laughing hysterically because something was funny, Jinx." Raven's laugh was back, and Jinx joined in, when she realized what Raven was saying. Jinx pounced on her, positively screaming.

"You know," Raven began speaking as the laughter and screaming stopped and Jinx released her, "I always expected you to be the first to get kissed. I mean, you're the funny and outgoing one."

"And you're not?" Jinx punched Raven's arm lightly, then shrugged before continuing. "Garth never really showed any interest in starting anything. I thought he would, especially after he asked me to marry him." Both girls let out a snort of laughter at the memory.

"That was hilarious," Raven said through her laugh.

"It was pretty funny," Jinx agreed. "Anyway, after that, we kind of had a non-verbal agreement to just be friends. I think it worked out for the best, though. I mean, it's so obvious he's crazier about Kole than he ever was about me that it's not even funny."

"You mean kind of like the way you are with Wally?" Raven grinned as Jinx's face turned pink.

"Come on, even you admitted he's hot," Jinx said defensively.

"Good looking," Raven corrected. "There's a difference. Besides, I know you like him for more than that." She ignored the look of terror on Jinx's face and went on. "I mean, the fact that he's nice to everyone in school, the top cross country runner in the state, and has gotten straight A's ever since kindergarten must help. The good looks are just an added bonus."

"Dude, if you didn't have Gar, I'd be worried that you were after him too," Jinx's face turned from red to purple.

"The entire female student population except me, Kori, Bea, Toni, and Kole, duh, is after him," Raven laughed. "Especially Terra."

"Do you think I even have a shot with him?" For the first time, Jinx looked nervous. "I mean, if the entire school is after him, then next to some of them I'm a nobody."

"A nobody who makes his heart rate go up," Now it was Raven's turn to punch an arm. "Remember that time in chem when he ran by our classroom during his gym class and you waved? His heart rate monitor started beeping like crazy."

"That was so funny!" Jinx's face was no longer purple, and she was laughing. "The best part was telling the story to Kori and having Terra flip out at me."

"Yeah, it's so obvious she's after Wally. Poor guy."

"Yeah, I do feel bad for him."

"I mean, it's so obvious that he doesn't like Terra at all! She just doesn't know when to give up."

"Classic Terra."