"Dearest Raven, please allow me a moment to convey just how intensely honored I am that you would bestow upon me the liberty to house myself withn your sacred abode if even just for a fortnight..."

"Yes, well, that's just it, Starfire. It's not forever," I shuffle across my bedroom in blue, velvet pajamas. No, no nightgown when there is nocturnal 'company'. Not in the least. "Beast Boy has the Chicken Pox. And though that may be no big deal for someone his age--well, actually...it could be a big deal--But it's an even bigger deal if an extra-terrestrial not native to this planet were to come into contact with it."

She blinks her innocent, emerald eyes at me. Sitting atop a plush cot stretched out on the far side of the dark-lit room. "Is that why Robin has quarantined the upper half of our Tower?"

"Mmmhmmm," I light two lamps besides my bed and sit on the edge of the bird-beakish frame. "He doesn't want to take any chances, and I really don't blame him. And knowing the way Beast Boy practically oozes everywhere when he so much as has the flu--well--let's just say that a sick superhero who can change into multiple different animals is a contaminant just waiting to happen."

"I hope you do realize, Raven...," Starfire shifts in her seat. She's clad in long pajamas like mine--only of the pink variety. I never will understand that color for the life of me... "Cyborg offered me a place to sleep prior to you, and I was more than willing to--"

"Uh... ... ...no," I shake my head. "You're not sleeping in Cyborg's room."

She smiles politely. "But he assured me he could very well spend the evening recharging his internal computer cells--"

"Cyborg's room is a computer laboratory, Starfire. The most comfort you'd get overnight is sleeping on a cold, metal slab for six to eight hours."

"I'll have you know that Tamaranians have a remarkable threshold when it comes to Terran assumptions of 'nocturnal discomfort'."

"As if I didn't know that from seeing your head hang off the bed the one or two times you and I had to room together before..."

She gasps: "And exactly what is wrong about the X'Halian Dream Posture?"

I shake my head and sigh. "Starfire.. . ...I'd like to think I know a thing or two about the nature of existence. And even someone as necessarily detached from the emotions in practice as I am can attest that in the whole wide world of meditation, asceticism is absurd."

"Truly?"

"Yes, truly. You're staying here overnight. You're having a decently comfortable cot to sleep on. It's only fair that way. It's what you'd want. And it's what Robin woul--er... ...It's what the Titans would want."

She smiles and hugs a glork plushie to her chest. "Raven, your generosity to me is exceptional lately..."

I glance at her through the corners of suspicious, violet eyes. "Why should it be?"

"More often than naught, you are vehemently opposed to any of your teammates so much as venturing within the confines of your room."

"My room is as sacred as I decree it to be...," I gesture with a queenly posture. "While the Book of Azar holds high the value of solitude, it also maintains the Unbiquitous Rule. I have every reason to trust and respect you by now, Starfire. And besides..." I smoothe back a bang or two absent-mindedly while adding. "You've... .. ...k-kinda been through a lot lately. What, with the changes you went through and the outer space trek and the chrysalis eater and all--"

"Nnnnngh...," Starfire shudders and hugs her glork plushie tighterto her chest. "The thoughts of that vile carnivore shakes the fabric of my very being. I was almost certain for a moment there that I would be utterly consumed... ...devoured alive..."

I look at her. I try not to wince. I try not to do anything but recognize and respect the surmounting darkness of that evening.

"W-Well... ... ...," I fidget... ...then slide a little further into my blue bed. ".. ...I need to get up early tomorrow for meditation.. ...l-like I always do..."

"I... ...I-I...," Starfire trembles.

I pause and sigh. "What?"

"I-I am sorry, Raven. Do please turn out the lights. I shall do my best not to whimper into the night..."

Dear stars above... ...the Drama...

"Is it really bothering you that bad, Starfire?"

"I-I shall overcome it," she manages with a breathy shaking. "In truth, I have experienced far worse horrors in my life's experience and yet have emerged not only victorious but stronger."

"... .. ...think you can emerge before I turn the lights off?"

"I fear the image of her fangs still linger in m-my mind..."

"Nnngh...," I rub my forehead. Easing the tense with kneading fingers around my chakra. "Starfire... ...what good is it to give you the chance to sleep somewhere comfortably if you cannot get comfortable enough to sleep in the first place?"

"I am incapable of distracting myself, Raven. My deepest apologies. If you feel as if your graciousness has been maligned, I shall verily attempt to relocate myself to--"

"No...No...," I stand up from my bed. "If it's a distraction that you want... ..." I shuffle over towards my bookcase in an ease that even surprises me. "Then I think I have just the thing..." I pull an old, old book out and open its latch. I walk back over to Starfire's side of the room and sit at a stool in front of my vanity and not too far from her. "There's a tradition on Terra Firma--in Western Culture as welll as in Eastern, I imagine, but especially Western..." I plant the large manuscrypt on my lap and flip through the pages. "It's called a 'bedtime story'.. ...hopefully it will help you go to sleep a little better..."

Starfire gasps in adequate childish touch. "Oooh! Yes, I have heard of these!" She somehow clasps her girlish hands together and hugs her plushie at the same time. Whatever. "They are reserved for intimacy and trust among family members, are they not?"

"Erm...," I fumble at a page or two--then continue flipping towards the 'story'. "I just like to think of it as a long-standing, cultural fad."

Starfire's eyes narrow: "But I have also heard that such 'stories of the bed time' are most often inclined towards audiences of infantile nature."

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Who told you that?"

"Cyborg."

"Ah... ...but that's just it," I flip one last page and reach my 'spot'. "Cyborg's just one big infant himself."

"He he he he!"

"I think you'll like it Starfire..."

"Is that why you are doing this, Raven?" Starfire leans her head cutely to the side. "To make me feel more pleasantly?"

"It's to make sure that you sleep so that I can sleep so that I can meditate in peace tomorrow."

"I-I understand..."

"Right... ...ahem... ...so--uh--here's a story--"

"A bedtime story?"

"Yes."

"Heeeeee!"

"T-Try to just... ...be calm and listen, Starfire. Or else you may not... ... ..well... ...fall asleep and make everyone happy..."

"Forgive me, it is only that I once requested of Robin if he would read me a 'story of the bedtime' in person, but I feared I had imposed upon some unspoken Terran perogative. For as soon as I had uttered my request, his skin tone changed to a bright red and he could only stammer amidst a profusion of sweat glands and--"

"Well, it's not a problem for me. So...just.. ...erm... ...here's the story."

"Alright, Raven!" She smiles and lies back happily in bed. Like a cute coffin.

"Ahem..." I scan down the page. "'And so it came to pass that I, Malchior of Nol, did lay siege to the dread dragon Rorek. But it did seem the power of Rorek was greater than my magics could def--'"

"Friend Raven?"

"... ... ... ... ... ...Yes, Starfire?"

"What is a 'dragon'?"

"... ... ...," I blink at her. "... ...Erm... ...Well..."

"Is it an unkindly beast of some sort?"

"I suppose you could say that. It's...erm... ...part of Terran mythos. Multiple cultures speak of giant serpents and creatures that can swim the deepest seas and take flight to the tallest mountains, not to mention hoarde treasures of gold and pillage the dwellings of royal subjects--"

"Then they are malovelent creatures?"

"Well, for the most part. But I would think they are more 'misunderstood' than evil--"

"But did you not say they pillage societies and--?"

"L-Let me just... ...read more of the story, Starfire."

"Oh! M-Most certainly, Raven."

"Ahem..." Oy... "R-Right... ..Where was I--Here." I scan the page again. "'And as the fell beast struck, I summoned the forces of my enchanted book. And with a curse more ancient and foul than Rorek himself--'"

"Raven?"

"SNkkt--nngh... ...Yes, Starfire?"

"If the 'dragon' is not malevolent, then why is this noble 'Malchior' attempting to eradicate him?"

"Well... ...he has no other choice...The Dragon's trying to eat him."

"Eat him? How is that possible?"

"Well, the dragon could breathe fire on him and then finish the rest of him off with his teeth and--"

"EEP!" She hides half of her face under her blanket and shivers. "Mmmmf--Teeth? Brazen teeth? Liken unto the horrid Chrysalis Eater?"

"Er--N-No! I mean...," I bite my lip and gestured spasmically in the air with my left hand. "Uh...Uh...SCALES! D-Dragon scales! Dragons have scales, and--I guess--scales in the mouth of a dragon would... ... ...be... ...teeth, wouldn't they, Raven? Ugh..."

"Ohhhhh," Starfire clenches her eyes shut. "This is the most horrid tale! I feel so emphatically terrible for the afflicted Malchior!"

"B-But... ...Starfire! He--uh--defeats him in the end!" I flip through a few pages. "See?--Oh wait, well now that just ruins the whole story, doesn't it?"

"Such... ...ferocious... ...Teeth," Starfire trembles.

"... ... ... ..," I look at her. Then the book. Then her again. "... .. ...Tell you what." I flick my wrist. Flash! The book is encased in black telekinesis. It floats up and--by my guidance--soars back to the bookcase. "I've been going about this all wrong. If you need to hear something that puts you to sleep, then you'll hear only the best." I pull from long distance another book that soars towards me on obsidian airwaves. I snatch the old, tapered-edge manuscrypt and flip to the first few pages. "Ahem... ...In Introduction to Baruch Spinoza's Ethics, published posthumously following his death in 1677. 'Benedictus de Spinoza--originally a criticist of Rene Descartes and his Cartesian methodology--continues to establish a revolutionary Western definition on the essence God and the universe in terms of the Nature of substance as one solitary, all-pervasive essence which many pantheists since have served to reference as rational support for their own unique ideology. In attempting to define God through the structure of reason, Spinoza outlines with a series of self-referential propositions, postulates, and scholia--along with the assitance of clear definitions and axioms--that there can only be one imminent Substance in the universe, for substances are defined by their uniquely different absolutes and since no two substances can exist that share the same attributes, and since God is the one absolute entity who serves as the source of all absolutes, then God is the one and only Substance in the universe or else a paradox of conflicting, pluralistic substances would alternatively fail to exist. Since God is the one and only Substance of existence, His will--or intellect--is simultaneously His nature, and as such His Nature is omnipresently imminent in the perceivable causation of all actions, events, things, and objects that make up the modes and attributes derived from the Substance of God. To say that man has free will under this nature of existence is fallacious, for everything mankind does is determined by other sets of actions and attributes, which is determined yet again by other actions and attributes, which--ad infinitum--is determined by the Substance of God. In this translation of the Dutch philosophe Spinosa's rational attempt to postulate the Substance of God, I shall attempt to explore--'"

"ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

I stop.

I look at Starfire.

I silence myself...

"ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...," she sleeps, snuggling her glork plushie. Her head hanging off the edge of the bed.

So she is comfortable.

"Hmmmff...," my lips curve slightly as I slap the book close. I whisper to myself. "Never fails..." I stand up from the stool, stifle an unladylike yawn (whatever) and shuffle tyredly towards my bed. "Now if only I had Kant lying around when Beast Boy needed to be put to sleep."

Talk about the 'categorical imperative'...

The lights are soon out.

And sooner am I.