Chapter 24

Raven's senses came to her slowly. The first thing she was aware of was the incessant pounding in her head. As it pulled her from her sleep, she noticed her sore limbs and queasy stomach. She tried cracking open an eye and instantly regretted it. The light felt like knives stabbing at her retinas.

What the hell? she wondered as she groaned. She must be sick, which was strange since she had such a superior immune system and healing capabilities. She didn't feel bad yesterday, did she? Her brain was foggy and slow and try as she might, she couldn't recall exactly what had happened the day before. It seemed like a vague dream.

Seeking some relief, she went to stretch her arms but soon realized they were somehow restrained. Adrenaline shot through her and she wrenched her eyes open. Looking down, she realized that the foreign restraint was a green arm wrapped around her. Her brain may have been moving slowly, but it didn't take her too long to piece together what that meant. Beast Boy was here, in her bed, spooning her.

"Beast Boy," she hissed. He grunted but didn't reply. In her desperation she jammed an elbow into his stomach. That worked.

"What?" he said loudly, disoriented from his sudden arousal. Raven resisted the urge to cover her ears from his booming voice. He moved so he was sitting upright and yawned as he assessed the scene around him.

"What do you think?" she ground out incredulously. "You're in my bed."

Fully coming to, his eyes grew wide. He scrambled to untangle himself from her sheets and stumbled to the floor.

"Oh, uh... well in my defense you invited me."

Raven could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. She... invited him?Shewilled her slow brain to recall what the hell happened that had landed them in this situation. She worked through the last of what she could remember. I was eating breakfast with Starfire, then there was the dress, then Beast Boy and I were going to Ree's... Her train of thought stopped as the rest clicked into place. Oh God, is this... a hangover? Did I get drunk? Then she remembered that Beast Boy had woken up beside her. Oh God...

Beast Boy must have caught her look of horror because he rushed to clarify. "It wasn't like that, it was just, um, how much do you remember?"

"We were going to my cafe," she began hesitantly.

He nodded. "Yeah, Ree's. We had a great time but you had a little too much to drink and I had to carry you back here and then you asked me to stay with you," he said in a rush. He had a twinge of pink in his cheeks as well. At least he was somewhat embarrassed about the whole ordeal. Raven was mortified.

"I feel like shit."

Beast Boy laughed and relaxed a little, moving towards the window. Mercifully, he drew her curtains closed, letting only a sliver of light in to see by. She was glad to note he was still in his uniform.

"You don't have a very high alcohol tolerance," he stated factually. "I'm going to go get you my signature hangover cure. Just take it easy until I get back." He seemed rather amused by all of this. Raven scowled.

"This is not funny," she hissed, her voice extra raspy.

"Nope, not until you remember what happened last night. Then it'll be funny." He winked and slipped out the door before she could reply.

Raven fell back against her pillow. How could she have let this happen? What was she thinking last night? What did she do last night?

Determining that that had to be her first priority, she cleared her mind as best she could and thought back to the previous day. She remembered the dress debacle, and teleporting home with the thing. She remembered Beast Boy slipping on the holo-ring, teleporting them to the alley, taking a seat at Ree's... that's were things got fuzzy. She willed her brain to recall what happened after that. Eventually it obliged and slowly painted her a not-so-pretty picture.

She remembered laughing, giggling, dancing, and stumbling around like an idiot. "Great," she moaned, "way to make an excellent impression." He probably thought she was the biggest moron on the face of the planet. She ran through anything she could possibly say to him when he returned to make up for last night, but she came up blank. There was no recovering from this one.

Before she could think it through any more, her door slid open, letting a flood of light from the hallway pour in. Raven squinted against it but caught sight of Beast Boy's tall, lanky silhouette moving inside. Once the darkness was back she relaxed her eyes.

"Alright, I have one Bloody Mary and a glass of water with Alka Seltzer. Drink this one first," he said, handing her the glass of red liquid. She took it silently and followed his instructions. He sat down casually on the edge of her bed, an action that would have garnered a glare had the circumstances been different. Right now the only thing Beast Boy would be getting was an apology.

"Listen, Beast Boy, about last night... I'm really, really sorry about everything. I acted like such an idiot and I—"

"Raven," he said firmly, cutting her off. "I had more fun last night than I've had in years. And not because you were drunk, because that only happened at the end," he clarified. "Whether you're sober or drunk or asleep or PMSing, I'd rather be with you than anywhere else. Don't worry about it Raven, I'm here for you. I've got your back." He gave her a soft, simple smile like last night was par for the course. Like he didn't care at all that she had behaved so regrettably.

Images of him helping her along to the cab, carrying her back to the tower, and getting her to bed flashed through her mind, bringing an embarrassing amount of moisture to her eyes. That was when she realized the truth: she didn't have to worry about making any kind of impression, because Beast Boy already knew her. He already accepted her. All this time she was worried about dating and being in a relationship but in reality they'd been in a relationship for five years. They'd been friends. What they had now was taking that one step further.

All the anxiety she harbored over appearing likable, being a good girlfriend, having any kind of intimacy and the physicality of their relationship melted away. This was Beast Boy, her best friend and her boyfriend. All she had to do was be herself. His smile alone lifted that weight from her shoulders.

"Thank you," she said quietly. It was all she could muster for verbal communication. The rest she expressed non-verbally.

She leaned towards him and gently brought her lips to his. It was a light, tentative kiss, but it still brought fluttering to her stomach. As the kiss deepened the feeling grew in intensity. Raven felt her skin burning with a rush of pleasure, her head spinning. Then she realized that the fluttering had turned into nausea.

She ripped her mouth away from his and leapt from the bed, scrambling towards the door. "Raven?" she heard from behind her, but she just had to keep moving. When she made it to the door and it slid open, she thought she was going to run into the wall. The light made her dizzy and disoriented. Somehow she managed to stumble her way down the hall and into the bathroom.

In some undeserved stroke of luck, she made it to the toilet before emptying the contents of her stomach. Raven hated getting sick. There was absolutely nothing dignified about it. She sat there in a helpless heap for a few moments, regurgitating Beast Boy's thoughtfully made drink.

As if this moment couldn't get any worse, she turned to discover that Beast Boy had followed her into the bathroom. Fantastic, a witness. He moved in and sat down beside her, rubbing her back and holding her hair as another round of nausea hit.

When Raven was confident there was nothing left to throw up, she flushed the toilet and let Beast Boy help her over to the sink. The cool water on her face helped immensely. Before she could ask for it, Beast Boy was beside her with a clean towel. She took it gratefully and finished cleaning up.

Wordlessly, he helped her back to her blissfully dark room and into her bed once more. She looked at him with shining, unbelieving eyes.

"You really like me, don't you?"

He chuckled. "How can you tell?"

"Let's see, you carried me home when I got drunk, made me a hangover cure, then helped me as I ever-so-gracefully vomited it up." She groaned as her head began to pound harder. He handed her the other drink and placed a cool washcloth on her forehead that presumably came from the bathroom.

"Yep, that was pretty gross," he teased as he wrinkled his nose. "So you're right, I must really like you." He winked and leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. The gesture was innocent and chaste, but it still made Raven's heart beat a little faster.

"Now, I'm going to let you get some sleep. When you get up and you're feeling better, I'm going to take you to my favorite place."

"Where?" Raven couldn't imagine feeling well enough to go anywhere, but Beast Boy seemed pretty confident. He did have more experience in the hangover department, though it wasn't something to brag about.

"It's a surprise," he said softly as he moved towards the door. "Go to sleep Raven, I'll see you later."

"Thank you," she whispered as he moved out the door. A tear slid down her cheek. "For everything."