The Teen Titans are owned by... someone else...

He liked missions - they were a good distraction. Not that he was hard to distract.

But being on a mission meant being fully alert and focused. And being focused on saving lives and throwing baddies in jail was a nice way to spend his time, rather than dwelling on, oh, say... his pale, half-demonic teammate. And he hated dwelling on her.

Raven was truly one of his best friends. Despite her cold exterior, he had seen glimpses of how deep her friendships went. She was loyal and brave and trustworthy. He could tell her anything - well, almost anything.

But not this. Nobody knew about this.

He couldn't really control it. All of his animal instincts told him to get the hell out of dodge and away from her. She was darkness; evil.

Creepy.

At the same time, his more primal, beastly urges told him to protect her; keep her. Own her.

And that scared the hell out of him. His humanity was stuck in between these two extremes, wanting nothing more than to just be her friend. Make her smile. He could never let her know that half of him wanted her dead, and the other half... wanted her. It was wrong - so, so wrong on so many levels. She was his friend!

Watching her struggle with their friendship hurt him more than anything; especially since she believed she was the one making things complicated. And sure, her powers did put a bit of a strain on their already fragile relationship, but she wasn't completely at fault. He did his fair share of pushing and pulling. Her darkness sent half of him running away with his tail between his legs, and sometimes he'd listen to that side. Sometimes he had to listen to that side.

He knew he couldn't listen to his other half.

Raven was an empath - he had learned that the hard way, but they never talked about that - so he knew she could sense his emotions as a human. But his animalistic and primal feelings were safely hidden from her, and he was kind of proud of himself for doing such a good job at keeping her out of the loop.

He wasn't sure what would be worse - her knowing how much she scared him, or... how much she...

He couldn't even form the right words to express what he might have thought of her. It was a raw, angry, passionate emotion that would no doubt overwhelm her if she ever encountered it.

And he didn't even want to feel it.

"Titans, go!"

Those two words spoken by his leader flipped the switch from thinking-mode to saving-mode. He focused on his humanity as he shifted from one animal to another, dodging a flurry of star-bolts and an array of birdarangs as he neared his target.

Ugh, he hated Plasmus.

Part of him wished that Raven would just blast him with her soul-self and be done with it, but he knew that took a toll on her. And he hated seeing her so weak.

Plus, Robin had made it very clear that she were to only do that as an extreme - heaven forbid they get another alert, and Raven ends up being completely useless.

Morphing into a T-rex, he charged for the globby, brownish... glob. Of goo.

Hell, he had no idea what this thing was. All he knew was it was naaaasty.

His impact made a large hole as he ran right through it, but the nasty goo-monster reformed almost immediately.

Ew.

Shifting into a pterodactyl, he flew around the monster, looking for some sort of weak spot. He somehow had to knock the thing out so it'd return to its human form, but he couldn't very well come up with a plan; charging at it until it tired out was all he could think of.

So he did just that.

Dive-bombing into the glob of utter yuck was not how he planned on spending the rest of his evening. He actually had something very important to do, and this stupid, sewer-drinking blob was ruining his plans.

With a final, combined effort between Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire, they blasted the creature into unconsciousness, thus returning him to his sleeping, human form.

Beast Boy shifted back into his own human form as he landed beside Raven.

"You smell like a public restroom," she drawled lazily, turning her nose away from him.

The changeling gave her a sheepish grin, before he struck a note of genius.

"Why couldn't you hear the pterodactyl use the bathroom?"

The empath gave him a blank look as her lips twitched irritably. "...Why?"

"Because the 'p' is silent!" he blurted out, unable to contain his laughter.

She merely arched a brow at his joke, her lips still twitching. He could have sworn she almost smiled, but he knew better than to point it out - he rather think she secretly found him funny, and calling her out on her almost-smiles would only cause her to deny it.

But he knew better - he was freaking hilarious.

"I often question your maturity," she deadpanned as she turned away and headed towards the T-car.

Beast Boy groaned in frustration, knowing his current, goop-covered appearance granted him with the option of flying home, since there was no way in hell Cyborg would ever let him in his baby.

Heaving a sigh, he quickly morphed into a falcon and flew towards the big, T-shaped building in the distance.

"Perhaps we could watch the movie of the romance?"

A collective groan from Beast Boy and Cyborg was all the answer Starfire needed. She pouted silently as her body lowered towards the ground.

Beast Boy felt bad that they had hurt her feelings, but he hated romance movies. Which he had ever right to, being a guy and all.

He spared a quick glance at the pale girl beside him, who was reading her book and giving no input at all to what movie they should watch.

He leaned closer to her, his chin practically resting on her shoulder as he tried to read her book.

Oh, who was he kidding. He was trying to bug her.

And it was working!

He held back a smug grin of satisfaction as she stiffened immediately. She turned towards him slowly, and their faces were mere inches apart.

Half of him told him that he should hide now, since she was probably going to unhinge her demon jaw and swallow him whole. The other half of him told him to -

Okay, he wasn't even going to let himself entertain that thought. His human side finally spoke with a voice of reason, telling him to continue with his quest of annoying her. What else were friends for?

"Personal," she began, the words hissing through her teeth as his nose twitched from her hot breath. "Space."

And cue his obnoxiously large, toothy smile that he knew she secretly adored - seriously, what girl could resist a face like his?

"Your book must be really interesting if you're about to allow Star to put in a romance flick," he mused casually as he leaned away from her.

Her eyelid twitched slightly as she snapped her book closed. "She wouldn't dare."

Beast Boy nodded in mock-defeat. Disagreeing with Starfire on movie night was one of the few times he and Raven ever agreed on something. Oh, how he was so incredibly thankful that she, too, hated romance movies - regardless of being a girl.

"I'm glad you're like one of the guys," he admitted with a grin.

Her usual stoic demeanor slipped at his words, and he caught a glimpse of... hurt? Did he just hurt her feelings?

It was gone in a second, replaced by an exaggerated eye-roll. "Gee, thanks - that's what every girl wants to hear," she replied sarcastically.

Beast Boy knew he messed up; calling a girl one of the guys was a big no-no - regardless of where they stood with their movie preferences.

"Well, I mean, obviously you're a girl," he blurted, gesturing to her body and earning a fierce glare. "'Cuz, y-you know, you have..." Again he trailed off, as he gave her a quick once-over. It was painfully obvious that Raven was entirely female, thanks to her leotard, which she neglected to change out of. Beast Boy couldn't even begin to understand how he made it through the throes of puberty when his teammate walked around pant-less. It really wasn't fair that even his human side was somewhat attracted to her.

"L-long hair," he finished sheepishly, giving her his trademark toothy grin, his fang poking out in what he hoped was an incredibly endearing way.

Raven continued to glare at him, though he did spot a faint pink color rising in her cheeks. He couldn't really blame her, though. Her annoying (yet devastatingly handsome) teammate had literally just (accidentally) checked her out. At least he hoped she knew it was an accident.

"My hair has been the same length since we first met, and last time I checked, it wasn't considered long," she deadpanned, thankfully ignoring his previous wandering gaze.

"It's still the second longest on the team!" he laughed, pulling on a strand gently and earning another glare. "Second to Starfire's, of course."

"I'm always second to Starfire," she muttered under her breath, obviously not meaning for him to hear it. But thanks to his ears (which were total chick magnets, by the way), he was able to hear what she said, as well as the annoyance in her voice. And hearing any emotion in Raven's voice was strange - especially if the annoyance wasn't directed at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly. He wasn't expecting an answer, but sometimes she'd surprise him and open up a bit. And he loved getting her to open up.

Her eyes widened slightly when she realized he heard her, and she quickly shook her head and reopened her book. "Nothing," she deadpanned.

Beast Boy opened his mouth to press further, since dropping a subject was something he was notorious for not doing, but her head whipping back towards him stopped his voice.

"What was it that you were going to ask me earlier?"

He felt his brows knit together; what was he going to ask?

Oh, yeah!

He felt his worry dissolve as a feeling of apprehension draped over him.

We're good enough friends, so this shouldn't be awkward, he reasoned, looking into her amethyst eyes. He always thought it was so cool that her eyes were literally purple. And purple was like one of his favorite colors. Manly purple, of course.

"Well, I'm seriously tired of going stag to all of these dumb charity functions, and I know you wouldn't dream of taking up an offer from one of your fan-boys, so I'm hoping maybe we can go... you know... together?" he suggested, praying that the heat in his face was not a blush. "A-as friends, of course!"

Raven arched a brow delicately, and again, her usual expressionless expression slipped for a moment, and he could have sworn it had... softened?

"What makes you think I haven't already taken up an offer?" she mused playfully, a small smirk present on her lips.

Beast Boy felt his chest tighten uncomfortably at the thought of one of her grubby fan-boys dancing with her.

"B-because you're too... smart for that?" he offered awkwardly.

One of Raven's rare smiles graced her lips, and she momentarily glanced at her hands, as if she were embarrassed - in a good way.

"Alright," she agreed, looking back into his eyes. Her slight indication of emotion disappeared as her stoic demeanor returned. "But I'm not going to dance with you."

Beast Boy let out a relieved laugh at her answer. "Shocker," he mused sarcastically, channeling his inner Raven.

BB's point of view (though it was still in third person lol - I kind of hate writing in first person)!

So I decided to tiptoe out of my comfort zone a bit and write something a little less lighthearted, since I've been wanting to do it for a while. I hope BB's inner struggles weren't like totally confusing! As a recap: his animal instincts are like "oh no, Rae-Rae demon - demon baaaad" since animals are rumored to have that little sixth-sense when it comes to the supernatural and ghosts and crap. But then his primal side (which was brought out during the Beast incident) sees Raven as his, which maybe explains his protectiveness? And then little old human BB just wants to be her friend. So, yeah.

Review, maybe? And if you have questions, I'll be happy to answer/clarify!