"And…well….he purrs… … …he purrs like a kitten…."

I pause in the midst of typing to sigh and run a hand over my tyred, pale face. "Do I really need to be hearing about THIS of all details?"

"Hmmmm….," Terra smiles and leans against the back of my chair, staring over my shoulder at the Titans' Computer screen as we 'mutually perform research' on the latest crime spree. "I've just gotta tell someone, Rae…."

"DON'T call me 'Rae'…," I mutter.

"Awww.. …but aren't I your friend?"

"Well—"

"For goodness sake, Raven! At least admit that I'm your teammate!" Terra giggles. "All the others call me 'little rocker'! So I call them 'Cy', 'Robbie', 'Star', and 'B.B.'. Can't I call you 'Rae' too?"

"My name… .. …is Raven." I type loudly as an artery pulses in my forehead. "And Raven is most assuredly different than bleakly 'Rae'."

"Then how come you let all the others call you that?"

"I never once 'let them' call me that. I merely wore myself trying to telekinetically strangle each of them one after another."

"Heh.. ….somehow I'm almost willing to believe that."

"Good," I type and type. "Take an example."

Silence…

I go through files, files, files….

"Anyways, so yeah—Beast Boy purrs when he's asleep and I'm cuddddddling himmmm-hehehehe!"

I all but collapse out of my computer chair. "Terra, could we focus a little less on yours and Beast Boy's highly questionable physical relationship and a little bit more on Mumbo Jumbo's latest criminal exploits?"

Terra tosses a blonde fountain of hair and rolls her blue eyes. "Yeesh! What's so hard about catching that guy? The evidence he leaves behind breeds like rabbits—No pun intended."

"Naturally."

"So you're telling me you've never heard Beast Boy purr before?"

"I'm telling you that you have five seconds to get back to the important topic at hand before I send your twig body flying back to your cave—this time without a flashlight."

"Hehehe—Hey, that was a pretty good threat!"

"Four…."

"Oh come on, Rae!"

"Three—…Don't call me 'Rae'!"

"Hehehe—And his elf ears twitch too!"

"Nnnngh…," I rub my forehead, swivel about in the chair, and stare boredly up at Terra with my hands in my lap. "Okay… …fine… …get it out of your system."

She shrugs. "That's it."

"… … .. … ….," I blink. "That's it?"

"Mmm-Yeah. Guess so."

"Purring and twitching pointed ears?"

"Hehehe…Uh huh…"

"…. .. … …. …okay then… … …'wowie'… … ..," I swivel back to the computer. I sigh. I flex my fingers. I start typing again. "So, back to business, if we follow the latest string of magic shop burglaries—"

"Oh! And his leg kicks too! Hehehe—Like a wil bunny rabbbbbbit!"

Th-Thump! I all but collapse over the keyboard and speak with muffled words into the pale palms of my hands. "Mmmmf—Mmmmf-Mmmfmmmffffff….."

"Er…--Huh?"

I lean my chin tyredly in my hands. "How can someone like you who could find more productive time visiting an Azar-forsaken buffet twenty-four-seven find herself so enamored with such an encapsulation of banality that is Beast Boy?"

"Well, Rae….," she folds her arms and upturns her nose in such a 'cute' way as to elicit a smile. It makes me want to clitoridectomize her. "…if you took the time to get to know him as closely as I have, you'd learn to appreciate the lovingly absurd things in life."

"I am quite grateful for my abstinence, thank you very much."

"I know I'm being a bit overexcited with all this lately—"

"You think?"

"—it's just that.. … ..b-being a Titan… ..Wow! I still can't believe that I'm actually here! In the Tower!" She spins about princessily. "Kicking butt too!"

"I sure can…," I drone, staring boredly past the computer screen.

"It… …. …It's such a good feeling that… …," she suddenly hugs herself with a distant look towards some mental horizon that is paradoxically both warming and isolating. "….. …it m-makes me appreciate the little things….the littlest of things about my day-to-day life now that makes me happy to exist… .. …." She tilts her head. She glances at me from behind. "Rae, d-don't you too understand what it means to have… .. ..to have such lovely little thoughts to run to and hold dear? Little moments? Little… …meditations that almost seem to transcend space and time?"

"Rae…?"

"Raven?.?"

My fingers resume typing. My voice shortly follows: "I think I have a connection with the data here. Quickly, help me string the information together so that we may have something sizeably pertinent to share with Robin about Mumbo Jumbo's whereabouts—"

"Raven… … …," Terra leans in with a concerned breath all of the sudden, but it soon turns into a wry grin as she drips: "You know what it feels like to constantly see and hear something in your head that makes you happy? Hehe—don'tcha?"

I pause to speak to her but not look at her: "I know what it feels like to think that I can dream… … ….and then have that dream shattered by just how overwhelming the true reality is… .. .." Two violet daggers haplessly stabbing sideways…. "…that each of us are all inescapably alone and we have noone to blame and we have noone to save and yet we only have ourselves from birth to unbirth to bounce it back to."

"… .. … …," and as quick as rain, Terra's smile leaves her. She bites her lip.

"… .. … …" Done, I turn back to the computer screen and type away.

She leans back with a shudder… .. ..and hugs herself all the more. "It… …It really is so cute when Beast Boy purrs… .. …I sometimes wonder if he really kn-knows that he does it in his sleep…."

I take a breath. I brush a few strands of blue hair out from my forehead in blatant futility.

Beast Boy doesn't know anything.

That's why he's always so happy… …whether he's living life asleep or half-dead.

Terra is then silent for the rest of the afternoon following that….

And quite incidentally I almost find myself respecting her for the first time since we met.