A/N: um...yea.

Disclaimer: I do not own She Wants Revenge (this chapter's song's artist) or the Teen Titans. If I did, I was sure to be a less-depressed teenager.

TT

Tear You Apart

Raven awoke the next morning curled up in Keith's arms, in his bed. She thought back to the night before and remembered that a few minutes after the snow began to fall they went back to his apartment and talked and made hot cocoa. After that (and after an incident involving bare feet and dancing in the snow on his second floor balcony), it was nearly one so Raven didn't have the strength to 'walk' home, so she innocently stayed the night with Keith. Nothing had happened.

Raven groaned and stretched out, which caused Keith, in turn, to wake up. "Rae?" he asked. "Rachel?" he groaned. "Oh I'm so tired. What did we do last night?"

Raven smiled into the darkness that was the backs of her eyelids. "We danced in the snow," she reminded him. "Which was pretty fun, by the way." Keith chuckled.

A ringing came by his bedside and he groped wildly for his cell-phone. He easily picked it up, flipped it open, and pressed it to his ear. He rolled over and wrapped his arm tight around Raven. "Mmm...'ello?" he groaned. He traced circles on her bare stomach, which was revealed because of her (technically his) shirt bunched around her waist. "What?" he asked, now fully alert. "Shit, you've gotta be kidding me!" He paused. "Crap! Yea, yea, later!"

Keith threw back the covers and jumped out, tripping on his way and scrambling up off the floor. Raven hazily sat up. "What is it?" she groaned.

"I just got a very important call," he told her, remorse in his eyes (though she could barely see because she was so tired her eyes were still squinting). "I'm sorry. I'll be right back if you want to wait..."

Raven smiled. "Ok...you promise?"

"I promise," he told her, coming forward to kiss her forehead tenderly. "I'll be right back." He opened his closet, reached in, and pulled out a brown paper bag. He cradled it in his arms as he rushed out the door with one last wink back. Raven sighed as she heard the front door click, signaling his departure, and leaned back onto the headboard. She momentarily succumbed to the softness of his millions of bed sheets, before grabbing a controller from his bedside and turning on the rather large TV in front of the bed.

The TV clicked on to Nickelodeon. Figures, she thought. He really was a kid inside. Raven changed it to the news channel to see if anything had happened, and was shocked to see what greeted her. A news report came to her over the TV broadcast, documenting how the Titans minus two were fighting Overload at Larry's Electronics. And the footage was live.

"Oh shit."

Raven jumped out of the bed, found the nearest piece of paper, scribbled 'something came up -Rach' on it, and turned off the TV. Raven opened up a portal, not bothering to grab her things, and jumped through. When in her room she hastily ripped off Keith's clothes and pulled on her jumpsuit. She pulled off her ring and threw it into a small bag, along with his clothes. In case he didn't come back first, she would have to go back, just so he didn't get suspicious. She didn't want him finding out, did she?

Oh no she didn't.

Raven opened up another portal (which is very tiring, I will let you know) in the alleyway next to Larry's Electronic's and stuffed the bag behind a trash can before running out to see a scene of mass chaos. Overload had ripped the roof off of the building and Starfire was flying up in the sky, shooting starbolts at various water sources to try and aim it at him.

Raven ran through the double doors into the store, and the other three Titans turned and all simultaneously yelled, "Raven!".

"Azarath...Metrion..." But before she could finish she was attacked by the side by Red X, who saved her from one of Overload's lightning-like spurts of electricity. She looked up into his mask. "You...saved me?"

"I'm trying to help," he replied in a grunt, standing up and offering her a hand. She gratefully accepted and smiled his way, and they shared a moment.

Which was quickly ruined by Overload aiming his electricity right between them, tearing them apart. They both jumped back and got their heads back into what they were doing. "What are you doing here?" she hissed, as she breathed her mantra once more and tried to beat Overload.

"Let's just say I have a thing going with Overload," and he jumped intot he air and disappeared, reappearing right behind him. He dealt a single blow and reappeared right next to Raven again. "And I have to protect you."

Raven stood there, shocked. "What?" she demanded. "Protect me? What the hell are you talking about?" She was angry now. She was in on something she didn't even know she was in on. "I can take care of myself!"

"Not against Slade you can't!" And he promptly disappeared, ending the conversation.

TT

The Titans ended up winning against overload when Cyborg pulled out a brand-spanking-new invention of his. Raven exchanged congratulations and explained where she had been this morning (with Beast Boy, which only Robin didn't believe), before telling them she was going out to do 'stuff'. Robin got suspicious, but didn't ask. Starfire sent her a warning look, and Cyborg was blissfully unaware.

Once she said goodbyes she floated quickly back to the alleyway and re-dressed in Keith's clothes. She opened up a portal and looked inside to see Keith's clear and empty room. Raven jumped in without haste just as the front door snapped to a close. Without waiting she closed the portal, jumped into the bed, and pretended to sleep.

Her eyes shot open, though, when she remembered the note she had left just in case. Raven used her powers to shred it to pieces, and her eyes snapped closed once more. "Rachel?" his soothing voice whispered when he entered the room. He walked towards the bed and there was a minuscule hiss as the bed next to Raven sunk. His hand started softly stroking her hair.

She feigned sleepiness in opening her eyes and smiled as she looked up at him. "Hey there," she murmured. She sat up a little quickly for having been 'asleep' a moment prior, but he shrugged it off. He was worrying about worse things at the moment.

Then Raven's eyes traveled to his stomach, which was being held by his so-far unused left hand. And there was blood stained on the abdomen of his shirt. "Keith!" she gasped.

He was preoccupied with fiddling with his shirt. "Keith!" she insisted and his head shot up, with his eyebrows. "What happened?"

"I was called into work," he lied. "I work for a mass-production company. The machine was jammed and I was the only one they could get to fix it. I fixed it, but I also found out what was wrong...the painful way."

Raven raised an eyebrow in questioning. "I swear."

"How did you know I didn't believe you?"

"My best friend used to do that little eyebrow thing when she didn't believe a word I said," he told her with a cute little smirk. "Listen, I have some things that need doing. I'm sorry, you know I'd love to have you stay, but..." he trailed off.

"At least let me clean you up first," she insisted. "I couldn't leave you like this."

He smiled softly. "Ok."

Raven led him into the bathroom where she proceeded to pull off his shirt and gently clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide.

Yeah, it hurt.

But Keith had to maintain his cool and composed attitude so 'Rachel' didn't think he was a weakling. On the inside he was, but there were many secrets about him she still didn't know. "Does it hurt?" she asked.

"No," he groaned, fighting back a high-pitched and girly scream. Raven smirked, which he instantly caught. "Why are you smirking?" he half-snapped.

"You don't have to lie. I know, firsthand, how much hydrogen peroxide hurts. But it helps. Don't worry, it won't burn for long." Raven wiped off the excess blood and then gently wrapped a layer of gauze around it. Then, she wrapped a bandage around it and patted it lightly. "No more five-hundred crunches a day for you," she joked, remembering their talk of their exercise habits (hey, I told you they talked about everything).

He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "I wasn't planning on it today anyways." Raven smiled and tutted to herself.

Boys.

TT

Raven was back home almost ten minutes later after a long goodbye. She dropped onto her bed and closed her eyes, willing herself to actually sleep for once. She rolled onto her side when she heard her door slide open. She groaned and waved her hand to try and prevent this intruder from coming in, but whoever it was just sat down next to her and patted her hand gently. Starfire's naturally sweet-smelling odor permeated the air.

"Hey Star," Raven mumbled. "What brings you into my room uninvited?"

Raven could practically feel the heat radiating off of her face. "I merely wish to talk. I am worried for you. You have become more reclusive than ever."

Raven sat up and opened her eyes to see the alien biting her bottom lip. Raven sighed and hunched over, resting her elbows on her knees. Starfire patted her back sympathetically. "Star, can you keep a secret?" Raven asked, looking up at her with her glistening violet eyes.

"Anything for you, Raven," she responded, her innocence shining ever-bright.

"Two weeks ago I talked to Gar. And I kind-of had a revelation. Without him, nothing will ever be the same and I can never be as happy as I was with him. So, without the same influence of happiness in my life, what is there to do besides mope?" Her question was rhetorical, but Starfire seemed to be thinking.

"I-"

"Don't answer that. Anyways, I figured that if he's not here, I should just try and have as much fun as I can. It's...different without him, sure, but I think I can get by. So, I've started going to a club to try and let loose, and my first night there I met a man named Keith. I swear, I would suspect this man of being Beast Boy if he weren't-well-normal."

"Raven..."

"I know what you're going to say. I shouldn't be doing this, it's immoral, above all things, but...I don't know. He's different. Well, not really because he's exactly like Gar but you get my point. If I cant have Gar, I might as well have the next best thing. You do trust my judgement?" Raven asked her, lip trembling.

"It isonly a crush, it will go away. It isjust like all the others it willgo away," Starfire told her softly, looking towards her feet. "Or maybe this is danger and you just don't know."

"Star..." Raven trailed off.

"I just do not know," Starfire sighed. "I do not know about this 'Keith'."

Ravenfrowned. "Do you want to see a picture?" Raven crawled to the edge of her bed and reached for the jeans she had been wearing the previous night. She slipped the phone out of the back pocket and flipped it open. It took her a few moments to guide herself to the photo album, but once she found his picture she held it up and let Starfire look.

"He is very handsome. I have to be admitting, though, he looks much like our departed friend. Except, as you said, he isnormal." Starfire took the phone, examining it. "Interesting devices, these cellular phones."

Raven chuckled. "One of these days, maybe for your birthday, I'll get you one. You'll love it."

"I cannot think of an occasion where I would partake in its usage," she responded.

"You could use it to call me when you don't want to come to my room, or call me when I'm out, or I could probably find a way to integrate its signal with the communicators' signal so you can call Robin and Cyborg."

Starfire smiled. "That would be nice." She scuffed her foot before walking towards the door. Starfire turned and looked towards Raven. "I will think about it. I will reserve my judgement until I hear more about this Keith."

"I trust him," Raven told her. "I want you to, too."

"We will see, Raven."

TT