I am seriously rubbish at updating… For this I am very, very sorry! I don't know how many people still read this or follow it but I am very determined to finish the story so it's not just another thing that's left half done. Therefore I shall plough on until it is done and that means I shall always keep updating until it is finished… Even if it is like every now and then. Oh… I still don't own the Teen Titans…

The tower was alive with the hustle and bustle that comes with the prep for a party. Robin spent a lot of the time on the phone, ordering and booking a lot of the things we would need for the party; such as a catering service and a DJ. Even though the party was just a trap for Beastboy we weren't sure whether it would work therefore the Team came to a silent understanding that if Beastboy didn't show… Well they would take advantage of the night off to do some actual partying. Cyborg dealt a lot with the media. As the party was meant to be for him it made sense. Plus apart from Beastboy he was the most sociable out of the rest of the team and was at ease in front of the cameras.

I didn't see much of Starfire. I believe that Robin gave her a budget which she spent on everything you could possibly imagine for the party. However it was all top secret. She wouldn't show any of us or even speak about the decorations and therefore spent a lot of her time away from the team at the hall decorating or just hiding from us because everybody knows that Starfire cannot keep a secret. Myself, well I just spent a lot of my time meditating in my room; preparing myself for the evening that was approaching. There were a couple of times where I was required to leave my room. The first being a big press conference held outside the tower officially announcing our 'party'. It was torture. Robin and Cyborg stood in front of a podium while Starfire and I floated just behind them. In my mind it was blindingly apparent that Beastboy was no longer apart of the team. It must have been blindingly apparent to the media as well.

'Robin, we notice that Beastboy is not here with you today. We have also noticed that he no longer seems to accompany you out on missions. There has been much speculation as to why, could you perhaps enlighten us as to what the current situation is?' This was asked by the local newspaper. I pulled my hood down even further so that even my eyes were covered for a moment. They were tearing up and it wouldn't do well for my reputation if I was seen to be crying on TV.
'At the current moment in time Beastboy is taking a sabbatical. He is not due back for a while but none the less would be very welcomed back if he was to return sooner.' I admired Robin's answer. It covered Beastboys absence while at the same time delivering a very pointed message to Beastboy. It was perfect and the press conference continued very smoothly until...
'Raven, you and Beastboy were known to be a couple. Have you two broken up or had a fight and is this the reason as to why Beastboy felt like he needed a break? And shall you be escorting somebody else to the dance in his absence?' This was it. The moment where we had to reveal that I was supposedly dating Aqualad now. I froze. I hadn't even thought about what to say. Robin began to speak,
'Raven and Beastboy…'
'No Robin, let me answer.' I spoke determinedly; I knew what we had to do. We had to aggravate Beastboy into deciding to come to the party. Whatever Robin said wouldn't provide enough fuel to the fire. I pulled my hood down and faced the cameras head on. I had to answer.
'You are correct. Beastboy and I were dating but we are not now. We had an unreasonable, on his part, falling out and rather than talk it through like a grown up and mature person, he decided to leave and take a sabbatical. I am done. If he does not want to face our problems head on then that is his choice. So in the light of recent events I shall be accompanying Aqualad to the party for Cyborg and who knows where that shall lead.'

I finished my statement and melted through the floor, landed on my bed in a heap and began crying. I seemed to do that a lot these days. There was a soft knocking at the door.
'Go away' I mumbled. The knocking stopped but then the door slid open. It was Starfire.
'I really love him, Star' I sobbed.
'I know' she replied as she began to comfort me.
'I didn't want to say those horrible things. He's not immature at all and he's going to be so hurt. Those things I said will cut him to the core. But I had to say them, Star. I had to. I had to make him angry enough to want to come to the party and I don't want him to not love me anymore…' I trailed off and just sat there sobbing silently. Starfire understood and let me cry until I was done. When my eyes were dry she pulled me up off the bed and declared,
'You shall not sit here in a dark room doing the sorry feeling for yourself. You did what was required and now we shall do what is required for us; the going out and dolling up of ourselves so that when Beastboy bursts through those hall doors, he will just have to stop and stare at how wonderful you look.'

With that pep talk I was dragged out of my room, up to the roof and off to the Mall. I detested the mall but Starfire had made a point. A part of me wanted Beastboy to stop and stare and realize what he had walked out on. I missed him and I wanted him back but I realized I was a little bit bitter about the fact that he had just left me. He had promised that he would always be there for me and he just left without looking back. Not even thinking about how that would leave me. That's it! I was determined now to look the best I ever had. I wanted jaws to drop and people to gasp and ask 'Is that really Raven?' and as for Beastboy… When I finally did have him back he was going to be making a lot of cups of tea for me. I giggled under my breath causing Starfire to look at me. I just shook my head slightly and she let it go.

We landed in an alleyway; about a street away from the Mall. Everybody knew who we were but still found it a bit disturbing if we landed in front of them out of nowhere. After the first 8 shops we went into I was starting to lose hope that I would be able to pull off the look I wanted. After the next 16 shops I had definitely lost all hope. That's when I saw it. It was a tiny looking shop squeezed in between two large overbearingly preppy, pink girl shops as I called them. I dragged Starfire over and stepped in the shop. There were no clothes on display just a lady behind a desk. I did a double take. I was sure the sign outside had mentioned clothing. I turned to leave when the lady behind the counter spoke.
'We are a clothes shop. Go through that door there, turn left and then into the first door on your right' Intrigued I decided to check it out. After all even with no clothes on display it still seemed more promising than the 24 shops we had already been into.

The instructions the lady gave me lead to a small yet well lit room with a full length mirror and a tiny section where a curtain could be pulled around to hide it from view. There was only one chair so I let Starfire sit down and floated in the corner with my arms crossed. Five minutes passed and just when I was about to say to Starfire 'lets go' the door opened and in slipped this tiny girl. She was around the same age as I was and was as small as I was. She was extremely skinny and had light brown hair chopped into a short by stylish cut. She looked fashionable enough, wearing blue skinny jeans, a white t-shirt and a brown blazer with a brown scarf. She smiled timidly at me; reminding me a lot of my emotion timid. Walked around me a couple of times studying me and then slipped out of the room again. This time though holding just one finger up, signalling us to wait.

It wasn't long before she was back in the room; this time though carrying her weights worth in various outfits. She hung them all on a rail that ran the whole length on the room and responding to my raised eyebrow began to explain.
'My name is Kirsty. I work here as a fashion advisor. We don't have clothes on show as we prefer to do an initial assessment and then bring out clothes best suited to your skin tone, hair colour and body shape.' She went on to explain that everybody's style was different and what she had brought out for me would be extremely different to what she would bring out for Starfire and that by not having clothes on sale in the window meant that they could perform their job to the best of their ability as they wouldn't have to be polite to the customer and tell them things suited them when they really didn't. She also went on to explain that if I liked the service and signed up then I would always have access to Kirsty's advice and help. It was a bit presumptuous but I liked it as it narrowed down my search.

I began to flick through the clothes that had been hung up for me. There were several different dresses but there was one that continually caught my eye. It was a dark purple strapless dress that hung all the way to the floor. The bust area was clinched together and separated from the rest of the dress by a black diamante bird. The rest of it just hung straight down and hugged my body. It fit perfectly and with a nice pair of strappy black heels looked fantastic. It was like the dress was made for me,
'I'll take it' I declared. So I paid for the dress and signed up to this little shop knowing I would be back at some point. I decided to teleport us home and rushed straight to my room to hang my dress up so it didn't get wrinkled. I stared at it and thought to myself if this isn't the dress that makes Beastboy stop and stare then I don't know which one is.

The next couple of days dragged by but before I knew it, it was the morning of the party and Starfire was outside my room was a cup of herbal tea and a request.
'Please come out with me today. We shall go to the spa and do the covering of one's face in mud and cucumber and then we shall be getting the made over by professionals.'
'No Star' was my answer,
'But Raven, do you not want to look the best for Beastboy later. Soft skin and a makeover with hair and makeup done by professionals…' She trailed off. She knew she had got me at that.
'Meet you on the roof in an hour' she squealed before shooting off down the hallway. I sighed and set my tea on the table next to my bed. I was getting more and more nervous about the evening ahead. Perhaps a spa day would help.

The day flew by as we both had Back, Shoulder and Neck massages followed by Indian Head massages and then facials, manicures and pedicures. This was in between spending time in the various different steam and sauna rooms they had. The spa was a big circular space with two levels. Outside and in the centre of the area was a massive pool with various different jets and on the inside dotted around the upstairs and downstairs were various different rooms. You had your traditional steam and sauna's but then you had rooms with different herbs and oils being burnt. It was very relaxing and did take my mind off things a lot. With a couple of hours left until the party we left the initial spa and headed upstairs into a room with two chairs set in front of a wide mirror. In sped four different people; two for me and two for Starfire who set to work on our hair and makeup.

I closed my eyes and let them work; only opening them when I was instructed to for various things such as eye liner. After a while I was asked to open my eyes fully and take a look. I gasped. I didn't look like myself. They had curled my usually thin and extremely straight hair and pinned it back leaving only a side fringe which had been curled slightly at the bottom and two bits of curled hair to frame my face. They had improved my skin tone so that it no longer was just a boring grey but shone and looked more pale than grey. They had also focused in on my chakra gem on my forehead. Deciding to use the same reddish glow to cover my eyelids really making eyes and I imagined my dress stand out. I loved it. I turned to look at Starfire whose hair had been straightened and then twisted into an elegant knot at the base of her neck. Her orange skin was dusted with something to make it sparkle and her eyes had been coated in a silver colour. She looked radiant and sparkled just like a Princess should.

I didn't want us to ruin our look by flying back so I teleported us back to the Tower. I dropped Starfire off in her room and then carried onto mine. I had just ten minutes to slip into my dress and heels. I didn't want to be alone with Aqualad at all so Starfire, Robin, Bee and Cyborg were travelling with us in a limo to the event. The rest of the Titans and Super hero's that had been invited would already be there by the time we got there. We wanted to make an entrance. The rest of the team, Bee and Aqualad were waiting in the living room when I made my way down there. Cyborg and Robin looked very handsome in their tuxes. Starfire looked stunning in her silver floor length strappy gown that shimmered and looked like it would fall apart and disappear if you touched it. I could tell Robin thought she looked beautiful as he couldn't take his eyes off her. Cyborg was having the same problem with Bee. She had opted for a short yellow halter neck dress. It had black lace covering it though and showed off her back. As I walked in however everyone turned and stared.
'Rae, I think I speak for everyone in the room when I say that you look amazing' stated Cyborg. I blushed and smiled slightly then took off towards the door. I wasn't used to compliments and attention and more than anything I just wanted to get this night over and done with.

The ride to the hall wasn't long. When we pulled up there were loads of people waiting for us from the TV and the Press. Robin stepped out first and then helped Starfire out. Everybody stared as she got out and a few of the guys whistled. They headed inside and next to get out was Cyborg who repeated the same gesture for Bee. Everybody went 'Awhh' when they got out. I had to agree with the people. They did look super cute together. Next Aqualad got out and everybody held their breath in anticipation. I stepped out of the car. The people gasped and stared. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Raven, the creepy witch, in a dress and wearing makeup. I took Aqualad's offered arm. After all I needed to go along with the plan which was to make everybody think we were hooking up. But as I walked to the doors I scanned around; hoping for a sight of Beastboy. I didn't know whether he was going to turn up or not. I just hoped he would. As I stepped through the doors of the hall I sighed a little. It was going to be a long night and little did I know there was the small green shape of a Raven perched on the roof of the opposite building.

Okay, so this one was longer than average and I know I probably waffled a lot during it but I hate skipping straight to major events. Everybody knows there is prep and detail before and I like to keep it realistic. However I did try to keep the waffle minimized. Again I apologize for Starfire's speech. I would like to state the character Kirsty is mine but the idea for a personal fashion assistant did come from another story (obviously adapted) so I apologise. The name of the Author and the story I shall track down and pop at the start of the next story.