Disclaimer – If I owned the Titans, why in the WORLD would I be writing fanfiction?! I'D BE BRINGING THE SHOW BACK.

A/N – This is the last one you crazies. You cannot coax me into more. Not even with puppy eyes. Enjoy the last installment, babes.

…

Raven could not for the life of her understand how Kori had managed to convince her going out to get drinks on a Friday night was a good idea. She had been sitting in her apartment, minding her own business, when her roommate very suddenly burst out of her room and practically begged Raven to join her at a bar. Kori should have known by now that Raven hated going out, especially to crowded bars in the middle of the night.

And yet, here she was, being dragged by her roommate down the street at nine o'clock in uncomfortable shoes and a skirt much too short for her liking. Kori had insisted on it, saying that they were going to "pick up the boys", so Raven had to look at least a little nice. Kori Anders, Raven's roommate and fellow lonely single, would have no problem picking up guys by herself. With her exotic accent, perfect body, and miles of crimson hair, she had men drooling at every turn. About a year before, she had been engaged to a man who turned out to just be going out with her to get to her sister. For a good six months, she had been a sobbing mess that Raven had to deal with whenever she wasn't at work. It was just recently Kori had been acting like herself.

Raven was beginning to wonder if this change was so great.

"Here it is!" Kori exclaimed, waving her free hand wildly at a ubiquitous brick building. Raven cocked an eyebrow, taking in the sight. A little sign above the doorway read: Speakeasy. Through the small windows, the twenty-seven year-old could see dim lighting (no flashing colors, a plus) and a few people actually dancing (but not hardcore grinding, a second plus!). It didn't seem all that bad.

"How'd you find this place?" Raven asked her friend. Kori didn't answer. Without letting go of Raven's hand, she pushed open the door and pulled them both inside.

Raven was immediately bombarded with the voices of a multitude of people. A light, sweet scent of alcohol permeated the air. Kori let go of Raven's hand, heading confidently to the bar. At first, Raven was confused. Whenever her roommate had dragged her out before, she had mostly stuck to flitting aimlessly all over the place. Tonight, she had purpose. As Kori saddled up at the bar and flirtatiously leaned forward on her elbows, Raven immediately deduced what it was. A handsome young man with spiky, jet black hair was bar-tending. He turned to look at the gorgeous red-head, and threw her a smirk, adjusting his sunglasses as he did so. Raven let out a tiny chuckle. Of course. Kori was in love again, and needed a reason to come to this bar without looking creepy. Raven didn't mind in the least bit. It was probably good that she get out of the house anyway.

She shoved her hands in her coat pockets and looked around, taking in the bar's atmosphere. It was rather nice. Lots of wood paneling. Some tables and chairs were scattered along the walls, filled with laughing people. In one corner, a band played some sort of indie music. The rafters were strung with strings of bulbs like over sized Christmas lights. The actual bar was surrounded by old fashioned cushioned stools. Most of the seats were taken, except a few here and there. Deciding not to entirely third wheel herself, Raven propelled herself toward the back tables. She was able to find an empty one, and sat down. It was pointless to get drunk; she would probably have to carry Kori home.

She tapped her finger lightly to the music, wondering if she should try and talk to someone. She had only had one previous relationship; a fling with a marine biology major in college. He was a really handsome guy, and an absolute gentleman, and even wanted to marry her. But it just felt…weird. She broke up with them after they graduated, and had been with no one since. That was five years ago, and even she was starting to get a little antsy.

So, Raven began to (discreetly) check out the men in the bar. Her eyes flickered over each in turn, but all she could see were reasons she didn't like them. Married. Married. Girlfriend. Drunk. Gay. Also gay. Hey, they'd be pretty cute together. Weird-looking. Douche. Girlfriend. She shook her head in frustration, not even bothering with the rest. Trying to find the perfect guy in a crowded bar was the equivalent to the infamous needle and haystack situation. She leaned on one hand, letting her curtain of black hair shield her face.

That was when the door opened.

Raven glanced up, out of habit. Immediately, her stomach clenched painfully. Standing in the doorway, looking tired and a little displaced, was a tall, lean man with messy blonde hair and eyes the color of pine needles.

"Garfield…" Her voice was barely a whisper. It felt like her heart had stopped in her chest. It was the boy who was her best and only friend for eleven years. The same boy she had fallen in love with. The same boy who had left her to fend for herself nine years before.

He was standing barely twenty feet from her.

Raven was so shocked, she forgot that she was staring at him, mouth agape. Garfield was glancing around, the corner of his lip perked up. He ran one hand through his hair. Then his eyes met hers. He looked confused for a moment, and then surprised. A huge smile began to spread over his face. "Rae-"

Before she knew what was happening, Raven was up and out of the chair, running for the bathroom. She knocked into a few people on the way, earning some curses and remarks on her rudeness. But she didn't care. She needed to get away. She needed to hide.

The women's bathroom was at the back, in a hallway off of the main room. Raven was grateful there was no line. She grabbed the handle and swung the door open, nearly tripping in her haste to get inside. She stumbled over to a stall and slammed and locked the door behind her, breaths coming in harsh gasps.

It hadn't been his fault. Not in the least. If anything, she was to blame.

Raven's worst fear was being alone. It reminded of her of the days her father seemed to be around every corner, ready to show her what rule she had broken, what happened to bad girls. "For your own good, Raven," he would growl. Then the stinging pain. Her mother was a far-off shadow, unable to intervene out of fear. She had been alone then. And then Garfield befriended her, saved her from the loneliness. They spent eleven years as inseparable as twins, and she had forgotten what the loneliness felt like. And then he left. And the loneliness was back, and she had no one to blame but herself.

She could remember with a vividness the night after graduating high school. He had taken her to a park at midnight, and they had climbed a tree. Raven felt like the entire world revolved around them. She had been so happy, and so ridiculously in love with a boy who did not feel the same.

"I'm leaving," he had told her. And her world came to a jarring halt. He had been offered an opportunity to intern for world famous zoologist, who lived in Africa. "This is my dream, Rae," he had said happily. "My parents would have wanted this."

"You're leaving?" she had whispered. The breath had stilled in her lungs.

He had shrugged, gripping a tree branch in one hand. "You can say that."

She had never cried in front of him until that moment. How could she be so stupid? How could she believe he would stay forever? They were children who now had to learn to be adults.

"Raven…" he had pulled her into his arms, almost toppling them both out of the tree in the process. "Not forever. And we'll keep in touch! We can email each other….and, uh….call! If I have service anyway….Hey! We can even write letters! Snail-mail!"

And he had kept his promise. Raven could not keep track of all of the emails crowding her inbox, all of the letters unopened, all of the calls that she had let ring into nothing. She watched it happen, knowing that she had to distance herself, had to stop loving him. The letters and emails slowed, and then eventually stopped. The phone calls didn't take much longer to peter out completely. The emails remained unopened. The letters sat in a box under her bed, each with stamps showing various animals. Sometimes a doodle on an envelope or a tiny note caught her eye, but they only caused more pain. Those were shoved to the bottom of the box. The voice mails were each deleted. All except for the last one. She had let herself listen to it, holding on to the very last shred of their friendship. She knew it word for word.

Raven? I called Victor fifteen times just to make sure you weren't dead. It's been two years. I miss you. Why won't you answer?

He hadn't tried to contact her since. It had been seven years. And now he was standing in that bar, he had seen her. And Raven was terrified. She felt like a little girl again, going in to the first day of school. She could hear Dr. Adams in her head, a question spoken in soft tones: Do you have any friends, Raven?

Taking a deep breath, Raven steadied herself. She was a full-grown woman, not a six year-old. Was she really scared of a boy who had been her best friend? She wasn't a little girl who was confused as to why the world was such a mean place. Steeling herself, she unlocked the stall door and walked back out into the bar.

She shoved her shaking hands into her pockets and walked over to an empty area at the bar. She sat on the farthest stool, curling into herself. Garfield was nowhere to be seen. Raven let out a tiny breath of relief. She immediately sucked it back in when a hand tapped her shoulder.

Whipping around, she came face to face with Garfield Logan. Oh, god, she thought. He's going to be so mad that I ignored him. He's going to yell at me, or he's going to cry and

His arms wrapped tightly around her, pulling her off of the stool and into his arms. Raven was stiff with shock, suddenly very aware of his warmth. His face was pushed into her neck; she could feel him smiling against her clavicle. Tentatively, she let her arms string around his shoulders, unsure as to what she should be feeling.

Eventually he let her go, setting her back on the stool. His eyes were wide and bright, not a single hint of anger or hurt in their green depths. He looked as handsome as he had at eighteen, but there was an older quality to him. A roughness to his skin, a sleek fullness to his muscles. There was a scar on his chin she hadn't seen before. Raven swallowed, suddenly glad that Kori had made her put on makeup.

"Raven," he murmured. "Raven."

She let a tiny smile onto her face. "It's me, Gar." Her childhood friend stepped back, putting both hands into his hair and looking her up and down.

"You look great," he smiled. She blushed.

"So do you." Gar flipped his hand at her, the international gesture for 'It's nothing'. He pulled himself into the seat next to her, one arm brushing hers. Raven felt like her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth.

"I'm going to buy you a drink," he stated. Raven's eyes bugged. She was about to protest, but he held a hand up. "I haven't seen you in nine years, Rae. Let me have this pleasure." He ordered both of them IPAs, and Raven stared at him, trying to take him all in while he wasn't paying attention. His golden hair was cut shorter than how he had had it during high school; his bangs barely brushed his eyebrows. His face was scruffy and broad, but still relatively young-looking for a man of almost thirty. She could just barely see the outlines of his clear-cut muscles under his t-shirt. The edges of a tattoo peaked out from under his sleeve. Briefly, she wondered what it was.

Gar turned back to her, a smile on his face. "So," he said, leaning back conversationally. "You kept the same haircut?"

Raven rolled her eyes, reaching up the run a hand over the sleek, chin-length strands. "It works."

Garfield cocked an eyebrow. "You know, I think that you've had that hairstyle since first grade." Raven smiled slightly, letting the black curtain fall across her face again. She heard Garfield make a huffing noise, and nearly jumped out of her skin when his hand reached over and brushed her hair behind her ear. She held her breath until he took his hand away.

"You gotta stop doing that," Gar mumbled. Was she imagining the tinge to his cheeks? "I wanna see your face, Rae." Now she was most certainly blushing. They were rescued by a bartender, who put their beers down on the counter in front of them.

Garfield sniffed his, and then sipped. He scrunched up his nose slightly as he swallowed, but he apparently liked it, as he faced her with yet another smile. She tentatively sipped her own, the bitter liquid spreading bubbles of warmth through her body.

"Tell me, Raven," Gar asked, taking another swig. "What have you been up to the last ten years?"

…

They spent the next three hours talking and drinking. At first it had been the usual: school, jobs, life. And then they joked and reminisced about their childhood together. Intermixed were questions about new dreams, new thoughts, new opinions. Raven told him about Kori, and about her old boyfriend who perpetually smelled like fish. This got a laugh out of him; but then again, the alcohol in their blood made them both find many things much too funny.

Gar told her about the scar on his chin, laughing as he retold the story of the ostrich who hated him, and had kicked him in the face the first day he met it. "Good ole' Ollie," he smirked. "That was one grumpy-ass ostrich."

As the night wore on, they began to get deeper and deeper with their recent pasts. Raven told Garfield about her mother dying from cancer, earning her a long, warm hug. He queued her in on the story of his own heartbreak. "Her name is Terra," he had murmured, staring at a fixed point in the distance. "She was another intern." He had really loved her, had imagined a life time adventuring with this girl. But Terra had been terrified of commitment, and had broken up with him right after he had asked her to come home with him. "Kinda sucked," he ended, trying to crack a smile.

At this time, Raven was quite thoroughly buzzed. No, she wasn't slurring words or falling out of her stool. But her mouth certainly got a lot freer.

"I thought you never wanted to fall in love," she pointed out, one eyebrow raised. Garfield rubbed the back of his neck, an almost sheepish look on his face.

"What can I say?" he said. "I was seventeen. I was dumb. Well, dumber."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Don't forget completely blind."

He shot her a confused look. "What are you talking about?" Raven shook her head, pushing a loose strand of hair back behind her ear.

"It's just…" she paused, a slight bit of soberness lightening her brain. What in the hell was she about to say? She struggled, trying to fix her words. "You…um….I….never mind."

Garfield raised an eyebrow. "No. Tell me. I'm curious now, Rae-Rae. Don't leave me hanging!" His tone was playful, not prying. He was leaning in close to her, as if sharing a secret. She could smell the sweet alcohol on his breath, the musky scent of his skin. And suddenly, a little spark she hadn't felt in a very long time ignited.

The band started up a quick-paced song. Raven barely recognized it, but she needed an escape from this moment. "C'mon!" she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him off the chair. "I want to dance!"

Garfield laughed as she pulled him onto the still-crowded dance floor. "Who are you, and what have you done with Raven?" he called. Raven let herself laugh back, the alcohol freeing her emotions from their cages. It was incredible. She felt like she could fly to the moon on this carefree ecstasy. She held onto Gar's hands and danced, letting him spin her and laughing when either of them tripped.

"I never took you for someone who could have fun!" he yelled over the music. She smiled back, throwing her coat off to the side.

"I didn't either!" she laughed. And they danced, and the world whirled around them in brilliant lights and colors. Raven was barely aware that she was starting to get dizzy. In fact, she didn't notice it at all until she fell forwards.

With near lightning-quick reflexes, Garfield shot forward to catch her. They collided, Raven's face pressing against his chest while his arms tightened around her waist as he stumbled backward. She felt like the world was spinning a little too fast for her liking. Gar's heartbeat was strong and loud against her face. She focused on it, hoping that she wasn't about to vomit all over him. As the nausea passed, she glanced up and found herself mere inches from Gar's mildly worried face. She swallowed, unable to take her eyes off of his. His worry melted to surprise, and then confusion, and then back to worry.

"C'mon, Rae," he said softly, adjusting her so her arms was slung around his shoulders. "Maybe we should take fun in little doses."

"Probably a good idea," she mumbled back. He was leading her outside, grabbing onto her coat as he did so. She found herself enjoying the feeling of his arm around her waist. He was so warm, like a blanket. A memory suddenly unveiled itself in her head, and Raven burst into giggles.

Garfield looked at her, looking even more worried than before. "You hurt yourself, Rae? I mean, I know I have rock hard abs, but –"

"Do you remember when you taught me that song?" Raven interrupted. She was no longer giggling, as that was too foreign even for drunk Raven.

Garfield thought for a moment, letting go of her and leaning against the brick building. A slight breeze ruffled his hair, making it stick up on one side. Then his eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, yeah!" He laughed at the memory. "I made you sit on my lap! Jeez, that must have been awkward. Teenage Garfield was such a freak!"

Raven smiled slightly, stepping closer to him. "Makes sense," she murmured. "I mean, we are the Freak Club." Gar nodded, his mouth quirking up into that familiar grin.

"Do you wanna hear something weird?"

Raven felt a flutter in her stomach – something she hadn't felt in years. "Do you know how many times I have regretted saying yes to that question, Garfield?"

He chuckled, pushing himself off of the wall and stepping towards her. They were close enough to touch now. "I double dog swear that it has nothing to do with snakes, insects, or gross body functions." She smiled at the phrase. He had said it a thousand times as a child.

"Then go right ahead," she said softly. His eyes caught hers.

"Remember when we met?" he asked.

"How could I forget? You rescued my Harry Potter book."

"No. In the doctor's office." Raven briefly remembered the glimpse in her mind: a tiny blonde boy, raising a hand to wave at her as the door closed. She nodded, still lost in the emerald depths of his eyes.

Garfield swallowed, leaning a little closer to her. His voice was barely a whisper. "I thought you were the prettiest girl I had ever seen. And it stayed that way for a really long time."

Raven was moving even closer now, her face only inches from his. Their hands brushed. "Until Terra?" she whispered.

"No," he breathed. "Until I walked in and saw you again." And he closed the distance between them. Raven gasped slightly as their lips met. They were warm and soft and sweet; everything she thought they would be. She reached her hands around his neck, tangling her fingers into his hair and pulling him closer. His hands tentatively pressed her lower back. She broke the kiss, keeping their noses touching. She was breathing a little heavily, but she felt it necessary.

"You're an idiot," she stated. Gar drew back slightly, looking confused and a little miffed.

"Um, what?" he said. "As far as I recall, I'm pretty dang smooth. I mean, you kissed me back and didn't punch me! That's a win."

She rolled her eyes, letting one hand caress the back of his head. "No, you are an idiot," she deadpanned. "I've liked you for as long as I can remember, and you never figured it out."

Garfield's brow crinkled. "Are you messing with me, Rae?" he said slowly. "Because I distinctly remember you barely putting up with me." She smirked at him.

"I did barely put up with you," she murmured. He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't think you understand how confusing you are being."

Raven slid her hands down his chest, leaning against him. They really weren't kidding when they said that alcohol was liquid courage.

"You know, I've always found your jokes sort of funny," she smiled. His eyes lit up.

"I lied, I really did enjoy that book you lent me in third grade," he laughed back.

"I found that stupid zombie flick you made me watch in seventh grade a little entertaining."

"I used to keep listening on the phone when you fell asleep."

"That's creepy."

"You are too."

She paused, stifling a small smile. "I guess this works then."

My name's Garfield. You know…like the cat!

He pulled her closer. "I like this."

I know.

"Me too," she murmured. She ran a hand down his face. Twenty years. Had it really been twenty years? She felt like a little girl again, this little boy next to her pulling away her fear and opening the world for her.

Will you be my friend, Raven?

He kissed her again, slowly, and she melted into him. "Welcome back to the Freak Club, Rae," he breathed.

Okay.

…

A/N – I am hereby apologizing for the amount of cheesy-ness. It's on the level of macaroni and cheese minus the macaroni. Hopefully this appeases you 3