"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken." -Fyodor Dostoevsky

Just a little one-shot based on some dialogue I have in my story "How to Love". I just wanted to see if I could rework them into another story because I liked the line so much. It may or may not have been a successful endeavor, but I'll let you all be the judge that.

BBRae, Rated K

She was lost in this kind of social setting. Starfire had so kindly appointed her the "honored maid" in her wedding and Robin had conveniently moved her name card to the end of the corner in the table, claiming that it was some kind of mistake that Starfire had placed the empath directly in the middle of the room. But even then, there were too many people talking to her. Too many times that Speedy, who was sitting casually to her right, tried to use his "undeniable charm" on her. Too many times that Cyborg and Beast Boy trotted passed her with quickly emptied plates to get seconds, thirds, eighths, but who was counting? Certainly not a bored demoness in an uncomfortable new dress that might still have a tag attached somewhere on her back because of the annoying jabbing sensation every time she leaned back.

Oh no, Raven was definitely in her element.

She suppressed a sigh of relief as Speedy exhausted his playbook and after making some excuse, sauntered over towards the table with the rest of the maids of honor and took up residence in the chair where Raven was originally supposed to sit. She took a sip of the ice water in front of her; even one word answers could dry out a throat when enough annoying questions were asked. She gazed across the alabaster white dining room, searching for her friends.

Robin and Starfire were easy to find, there was a table dedicated to them. They hadn't really eaten much of the food from their plates, Starfire hadn't even taken the time to pour mustard onto hers. Instead, Starfire had her arms wrapped around Robin's arm, nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder while taking a moment to smooth the lace on her white dress every once in a while. Robin looked purely blissful, if he still obsessed over Slade, you wouldn't know it by his face. His mask remained, but the slight crinkle peeking out of the corners of his mask showed that his smile really did reach his eyes. He leaned into Starfire's embrace and every once in a while would murmur something into her ear that she would respond to with a happy giggle. It didn't take empathy to see that part of the reason for her tight grip on her husband's arm was that the Tamaranian princess was so happy that she was fighting the urge to float up to the ceiling. Heaven forbid she leave her beloved for half a second.

Cyborg had been the best man in the ceremony. Not to say that Robin was closer to the robotic man than Beast Boy, but the Boy Wonder thought it best to leave planning duties to the more organized of the two. The metal man was alternating between bites of his pile of food and bantering with the others at the table. The volume of the laughter from that table was more than the combined volume of the rest of the room because of the two original Titans at the table. The others thought Cyborg was truly hilarious and with the green man at his right throwing in little quips every once in a while adding to the breathless gasping as no one could get quite enough air into their lungs.

Raven's attention was drawn to Beast Boy. She couldn't understand how the lively green boy… man still managed to be attractive while shoveling an insane amount of salad into his mouth. His lips were covered in dressing, but that only tugged at her attraction more as his tongue swiped over his lip. It was frightening how much her opinion of him had changed over the years. But even with the wedding being a happy occasion, the reminder of how alone she really was made the event bittersweet. And the idea resonated painfully as she sat in the corner of the crowded dining room with no company but her wine glass of water and no conversation but the quiet clacking of the ice and the music that played.

In the beginning, she had been determined to hate Beast Boy. Ever since she first notified him that he was funny, he hadn't spared any expenses to try and elicit that response from her. Raven tried not to encourage him; even if she did think she was funny, which she obviously didn't, she had to deter him so that he would give it up and be saved from the danger of everything that came with her. He wouldn't. Her annoyed responses only seemed to add a spark to his eyes. She wondered if he saw through her facade of annoyance and continued because of that, but part of her didn't want to change her approach because she was half afraid he would stop trying, stop caring so much, if she did.

But as time drew on, his attitude changed. Or maybe hers did instead, Raven wasn't sure. What she did know, is that at some point, Beast Boy's jokes calmed down a little and the annoyance she did feel quieted down to a mild disturbance. At this point they were about sixteen years old and Beast Boy had finally been bombarded with all the joys of puberty. The voice cracking and the growth spurts eventually gave way to a six foot two changeling with a relatively deep voice and a toned muscle mass, none of which she could ignore. She had to look up when talking to Beast Boy as she was the towering height of five foot four, his voice in the morning made her shiver, and the work out room was a place she was afraid to be in for fear of him "forgetting" his shirt when he came in.

Over the years, the animorph had also shown himself to be mature, he merely hid it behind a goofy facade. Between being a stable friend throughout the horrors of the "end" of the world and being there for her when Malchior broke her heart, he showed that there was more depth to him than just a crooked grin.

Raven only realized that she had been staring when Beast Boy happened to turn a little and catch her gaze. It took all of her self control to hold in the blush and keep a blank face while she resisted the urge to reach back for the hood that wasn't there. He grinned, his lone fang shining defiantly, and waved the forkful of salad that he had been about to put in his mouth. She almost laughed when most of the contents fell into his lap and he looked mildly panicked for a moment, but when he sheepishly looked back at her, she merely raised an eyebrow and rose from her seat. As he attempted to clean himself up, he saw her walk out the door of the dining room from the corner of his eye. He blinked at the door she had left through for a few moments.

"Hey, Cy, I'll be back later, 'kay?" He dropped his napkin onto his plate and weaved through the crowd, ignoring Cyborg's questioning glance. When he reached the doorway Raven's vanilla and tea leaves scent floated up to his nose and he instinctively turned towards the door to the patio. When he reached the glass door, she was staring out into the night, looking gorgeous in her purple dress as she leaned forward with her water glass to rest on the cement barrier that separated the lawn from the tiled patio. She didn't react when he opened the door or when he stopped beside her, hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels a bit. He felt a slight breeze ruffle his hair and his resolve wavered as her intoxicating scent teased him again.

"Come here often?" came his awkward attempt to diffuse the tension. He looked down at her and grinned. She raised an eyebrow, but he thought he caught a spark of amusement in her eyes. He self-consciously wetted his lips and coughed under the power of her gaze and quickly turned her gaze back to the darkness. With his fine-tuned ears, Beast Boy heard the popping of the ice in her glass as she took a sip.

"I just don't like too much of that emotion static. Theres so much feeling going on that it all just melds together. Thats the answer to the question I know you were trying to ask." Raven met his gaze when he looked back down at her. She straightened up, feeling uncomfortable with the height difference.

"I also heard that the DJ was going to start up his set soon, so I decided to get out of there in case Speedy decides to make any last efforts." The corner of her lips twitched and Beast Boy chuckled lightly.

"Yeah, I don't blame you on that one. I probably would have done the same thing if Speedy was flirting with me all night…" Beast Boy trailed off as his cheeks became dusted with a blush as he realized how weird he sounded. Wow Beast Boy, why don't you just wear a sign that says "Hello! I'm awkward!"

A palpable silence built up between them and he once again heard the now familiar clink of ice against glass. It would have taken no less than an ax to split the tension that thickened the once cooling air.

The green man's crush hadn't started right away, but it had grown like a wildfire. Even when it took a back burner to Terra, when he told himself that he was merely feeling strong friendship, it was a lingering fondness of her scent, her mannerisms, her voice, her everything that brought him out of his feelings of betrayal from the geomancer. He couldn't quite figure out why he wouldn't make a move of any kind, seeing as he couldn't help but hit on any girl he met, but he assumed it was something about Raven being special. He couldn't risk messing it up.

"So… uh… the wedding was nice wasn't it?"

"Yes, but I could have done without the 'pudding of joy' or whatever that was." He chuckled and Raven tilted her glass as the lonely ice cubes scraped the bottom of the glass. Another pause.

"It's uh… nice out here?" Beast Boy could feel her eyes on him and he bit the inside of his cheek.

"Why are you doing this?" He blinked.

"Well, it was getting kinda warm in there and my jacket is kinda thick, so I figured—"

"I mean, why are you trying to make small talk? This is weird, even for you." He looked down nervously and picked at the little pebbles ingrained into the barrier.

"I really don't know actually…" The changeling finally met her eyes.

"I'm pretty bad with words and stuff." She shifted so that she leaning one elbow on the barrier and faced him. Though her face didn't change, he could see the softness appear in her eyes.

"You don't always need words to say something." He was about to respond when he heard the microphone of the DJ blare across the lawn, followed quickly by the sound of quick dance music. He smiled.

"I like this song."

"I've never heard it." Raven set her glass down when she finished the liquid contents and turned back to lean with both elbows on the wall in front of her. It was a few minutes before Beast Boy broke the silence again.

"Did you like the food? The salad had this dressing—"

"Beast Boy, I know you have something to say, so just tell me already." He was caught off guard by her blunt statement. What had he come out here for? Was he trying to tell her, that she wasn't alone? That they all cared about her? That he cared about her? A slow waltz began in the dining hall and he could see many of the Titan couples swaying slowly to the soft piano. He looked down at the immovable girl beside him as she stared at him with a quirked eyebrow and a look of concern in her eye. Something else too. Hope? Fear maybe? He smiled slightly and reached out his hand.

"Yeah, I do have something to say. Dance with me, Raven." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"That's what you wanted to say?" He laughed nervously.

"Well, no. Not really. But, you don't always need words to say something, right?" Beast Boy gestured for her to take his hand with a slight flick of his fingers. She laced her fingers together at her waist and looked down at them.

"I don't really know how do dance," she confessed, blushing.

"Just make your best effort and I'll meet you halfway. You don't need to be scared."

A pause.

"I feel like we're not talking about dancing anymore." Beast Boy reached down and disentangled her fingers from each other, taking both her hands in his own.

"Who says we ever were?" He said quietly in a voice that made her small frame shudder. A breeze ruffled their hair lightly and made up for the silence as Raven searched the green man's eyes. Though it wasn't as prominent as usual, she noticed that there was a hint of the pleading of his puppy dog eyes. Was he really saying, or rather not saying, what she thought he was?

"Okay," she finally said, taking both hands and placing them on the changeling's shoulders. Tentatively, he placed his hands on her hips and they began swaying back and forth, perhaps a little off beat, but dancing nonetheless. She looked up at him, thoroughly afraid that she would mess up, but he himself was afraid to meet her gaze. It made her uncomfortable. Slowly, she moved forward so that her arms wrapped around his neck and leaned forward so that she rested on his chest. She felt his muscles tense up and his heartbeat quickened, but after a moment he buried his face in her hair and he became relaxed again. Her eyes closed halfway and they fell into rhythm, Raven listening to the animorph's heartbeat and Beast Boy taking in the empath's scent, both thinking that this moment was perfect.

When Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg piled into the T car three hours later, as Starfire and Robin had gone "elsewhere" by themselves, Cyborg noted with some shock that Raven opted to sit in the back with Beast Boy and neither said a word on the ride home. He felt like he missed something, but he had been waiting for them to get together for years, he wasn't going to ruin whatever this was. Whatever it was, they needed no words to express it.

Eh, didn't turn out how I was hoping, but it's alright. I don't feel like I quite nailed the ending and I may rework that at some point. Anyway, drop a review on it if you'd like. Laterade.