A/N - At long last, I have returned! Sorry for the long wait, but I'm not going to bother giving you excuses or justifications. You don't want to read why I didn't upload as fast as I could have. You just want to read the chapter below. So... What are you waiting for? Seriously, why are you still reading this? This is pointless. The actually interesting stuff is down there. Stop reading this droning, nonsensical author's note, and get started on chapter 5! Come on! Go! There is absolutely no valuable or interesting information whatsoever in this rambling note. Is this making you curious? Do you think that perhaps I hid a secret nugget of information in this note, and this is all just a ploy to distract you from the truth? Could it be that I revealed the ending in this note, using my expert coding skills, and my training in misdirection? Are you sick and tired of reading this and not the story, and still don't understand the point of this? Congrats! If you actually read all the way to the end of this note, you are now one of my favorite readers! Have another cookie!

CHAPTER 5

The brooding, dimly-lit room slowly began to come into focus as the last pieces of her soul passed back from her mirror, into the mortal plane. She wasn't sure how long she'd spent inside Nevermore, but she doubted it had been more than half an hour at most. Time seemed to pass by slower whenever she had to have a face-to-face talk with her emotions.

Still, she slightly regretted having done so. She wasn't quite sure why she'd even bothered with the trip in the first place. She'd wanted answers, sure, but now she'd come out of everything with many more questions, and still no real answer to her problems. She still had no idea what she really felt for Beast Boy, or how to act on it. Or even if she should act on whatever it was that she felt for Beast Boy.

Her head was spinning, and she knew that the teleportation was only partially to blame. As her eyes began to once again focus on her surroundings, adapting to the scarce lighting, she tumbled forward, and gripped the bedpost nearest to her to secure her footing. She tried to shake the feeling off; it was unusual, and she'd never felt quite as queasy after a routine transportation spell.

As her mind slowly calmed down, and she began to get a feel for her own powers once more, she noticed something was off. On the very edge of her mind, something was tugging at her, trying to get its attention. Her powers still hadn't fully returned, but she recognized the feeling from memory. It was a presence. A familiar presence. And it was close. Too close. In fact…

Raven turned towards where she knew the door to her room would be, and was met with a devastating sight. Standing there, just a small half-step away from the threshold of her room, her chamber, her sanctuary, was a very frightened, very pale Beast Boy.

Immediately, a dozen choice curses and insults flooded her mind, along with quite a few simple spells to effectively throw him out the window of her room, or send him to a fiery dimension. However, her body wouldn't react. Her hands wouldn't move to cast a spell, and her lips wouldn't part to scream obscenities at the green changeling. Instead, she found her eyes reacting as if on their own accord, and they were scanning Beast Boy in a way she was sure they'd never done before.

She was frozen in place, simply staring at Beast Boy, trembling beneath the doorway. She began to notice details, and soon they replaced everything else in her mind. His hair, tousled and spiked up, giving his face a more elongated, adult look. His fang, longer and thicker than she remembered, and duller as well, as though it had seen plenty of use. She realized he had, indeed, grown quite a few inches, though it was hard to tell based on his defensive position, his head almost tucked in between his shoulders. She might have chuckled at that, but it was at that moment when her eyes darted downwards, towards his torso, and she felt a blush heat her cheeks yet again. She'd never noticed his body, as she'd constantly found an excuse to simply not look at him, but now that she was, she found that the tall, looming Beast Boy in her mind, bore a striking resemblance to the cowering Beast Boy standing before her. A few details were off, here and there. Like the sparkle in his eyes, now nonexistent, and his lack of a smile. And fortunately, his spandex suit wasn't as tight as it had been in her head. If it had been, she thought…

"R-Raven?" Beast Boy interrupted her thoughts with a small, stuttering voice.

She looked back up at his face, now adorned with a slight blush, and her own blush only deepened as she realized for the first time just what was going on. Beast Boy was in her room. And he'd caught her gawking at him. All of him. She cleared her throat, and brought her hood over her head, trying to cover as much of her face as possible, desperately trying to hide her unexplainable anxiousness.

"What are you doing here, Beast Boy?" She said, trying to sound harsh, but failing miserably, her voice seemingly catching in her throat, giving a rather weak impression. She looked around at absolutely everything but him. She didn't want to risk any more unexpected reactions.

"I, uh… Well, I was just…" Beast Boy seemed to be even more nervous than she was, and she found herself calming down just a bit more. If he was going for defense, than that left her open to freely attack, covering up any possible misinterpretation of her actions.

"I know it might seem like a foreign concept to you, but one usually knocks before… Wait, is that…?" Raven had taken a chance and glanced back towards him, and for the first time in their encounter, she noticed something in his hands, clutched tightly against his chest. As soon as she looked at it, it had seemed strangely familiar. Now, she could easily see the bold letters etched into the leather binding of the book he held, and her heart almost stopped.

Beast Boy's ears drooped, and with a frightened jerk, he placed his arms and the book safely behind him, and out of sight. But it was too late. She'd read the title. She'd recognized the binding. And she could read his terrified smile just as well as any words in that book. Her eyes went wide, and her heart fluttered in her chest. If he had, by some strange twist of fate, read the wrong chapter…

"Beast Boy," Raven said through gritted teeth, feeling unexplainable fury coursing through her body. "Is that my book you're hiding behind your back?"

"Um, well, yeah, but…"

"How. Dare. You." Raven narrowed her eyes at him, feeling herself losing control to the darkest parts of her. But she allowed it. He'd invaded her two most private things. Her room, and her book. No one was allowed to get away with doing either one of those things, let alone both. Least of all him.

"Raven, hold on, it was an accident!" Beast Boy say, backing away towards the relative safety of the hallway. She knew he'd have a better chance of escape, so a quick flick with a finger shut the door behind him, locking him inside her room. She wasn't going to let him get away so easily. Beast Boy glanced back at the steel surface separating him from the safety of an audience, and gulped, turning back to face Raven's wrath.

"An accident? What, you tripped, and the book fell open on your face?"

Beast Boy remained silent, trembling in fear, doing his best to avoid her gaze.

"How dare you invade my privacy! You don't see me going around, snooping through your things! And what on earth gave you the incredible idea that it was okay for you to take a book from my personal library?!"

"H-Hold on, Raven. Let me explain…"

Raven stood towering over him, drawing in breaths through ragged pants, not even bothering to calm down. Part of her was grateful that she'd lost her father's influence. Otherwise, she was sure she'd have ripped him to shreds by now. Beast Boy, apparently realizing that she was giving him a chance to explain, took the initiative, slightly stretching out from his curled position.

"I was just coming up here to apologize, Rae." He said in a small voice unbecoming of a man of his stature.

"Apologize? For what?" Raven hissed. She was genuinely curious. It made no sense, since he hadn't done anything to provoke her lately, but she wasn't going to let him know that. She maintained her rabid glare and threatening snarl firmly carved into her features.

Beast Boy seemed to struggle with the words, but he made an honest effort. "For, you know, whatever that was this morning. You seemed upset, and I thought, well, the others thought, that it was my fault somehow, so I was just coming here to apologize for whatever I did." Beast Boy blundered over the words, clearly not having given his explanation much thought.

Raven relaxed just a little, her attention briefly caught on the sincerity of his statement. Beast Boy never had been a particularly good liar, but her emphatic senses helped to confirm his own honesty.

"So I knocked on your door, and I heard a noise." Beast Boy continued. "You wouldn't answer, so I came in and saw the mirror on the floor. I put two and two together, and figured you must have been in that Neverplace, dimension thingy."

Raven couldn't help but roll her eyes. Leave it to Beast Boy to make any conversation sound childish. Still, something didn't add up.

"Fine, but how did you get the book?" She asked. What she was dying to know was if he'd managed to read it, and if so, what he'd read. If he'd read from the beginning, she was sure he would have given up quickly. Steampunk literature had a tendency to be rather descriptive, and she doubted Beast Boy could stay focused on the book for too long. It was her last, glimmering bit of hope that things hadn't become excruciatingly embarrassing.

At the mention of the book, however, Beast Boy's sheepish expression only helped her feel more uneasy. He pulled the book out from behind him and held it delicately in his hands, staring at it as if expecting it to answer for him. Finally, he spoke, never taking his eyes off the cover.

"I… I found it on the floor, and I saw it was the same book you'd been reading this morning. You know, before you nodded off…"

She gulped. She did not like where this was going. She took an unnoticeable step back, gripping the insides of her cloak tight around her, silently wishing it was a real cloak of invisibility.

"I just wanted to see if maybe it had something to do with why you were so jumpy earlier, so I figured I'd, you know, take a… glimpse?" His voice steadily became quieter until he looked up at her in utter silence, cringing as if expecting a fist to collide with his face in any moment.

Raven was too distracted by a million discomforting thoughts. Utterly embarrassing, dreadful thoughts. She knew the answer to her question, but she asked it anyways.

"What page did you read?"

Beast Boy looked almost as uncomfortable as she was, and projected it much better than she did. He seemed to think hard for a few seconds before giving his ultimately convicting answer.

"Well, there was a bookmark, so I figured…"

Yep. She had been right. She was officially dead. It figured that the one time Beast Boy would read one of her books, it would be the one with the sex scene smack dab in the middle. Not only that, but he'd then confess to having read the scene himself. She felt utterly exposed, dirty, and in urgent need of a lonely, cold shower. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, but she was much too ashamed to see anyone at that moment. Especially him.

"Get out." She said in a drab mutter. Beast Boy just stared at her quizzically for a few seconds.

"Rae…?"

"Get. Out." She said, a bit stronger now.

She waited patiently as he straightened himself up, set the book down on the shelf next to the doorway, and stepped out of her room. She didn't bother looking at him. The toes of her boots had suddenly become the most important thing in the world. So much so, that she didn't notice him look back, or the grief etched on his face. Once the door sealed her safely inside, and away from all prying eyes and ears, she turned and sat down on the edge of her bed, placing her face firmly against her palms.

She felt no sadness, no anger, and no pain. She felt nothing but utter humiliation. Humiliation the likes of which she'd seldom known before. And strangely, it all went back to him. He'd read an incredibly descriptive scene of a rather intimate moment between two fictional characters in a book. Nothing strange there. But they now both knew that they'd read the very same scene. And for some reason, it felt, wrong. As if she'd done something she should have been ashamed of. Something vulgar.

She knew there was nothing wrong with an occasional erotic scene every now and then. It wasn't as though she'd been looking for it, much less expecting it to pop up in the middle of an otherwise intriguing book. When she'd read it, sure, it had been uncomfortable having people around. But now Beast Boy had read the same thing. Knowing him, he would probably jump to the wrong conclusion. Worse still, she still had to live in the tower, and sooner or later, they'd cross paths. She groaned, imagining a million different ways that that encounter could go wrong.

And what about the whole, recognizing her feelings thing? How could she possibly face him, talk to him, about something as intimate as their relationship (which she still doubted really even existed), with this whole shenanigan hanging over their heads?

How could she possibly face him again? Ever?

Was she overreacting? Probably.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a brash knock on her door, and for a second, fear gripped her chest, thinking that perhaps she would have to face him sooner than she thought.

"Who is it?" She asked, silently hating herself for the noticeable cracking in her voice.

"Raven? It is I. I was hoping to ask you a question, friend… if you are not the busy, that is." Starfire's bright voice lifted her spirits, even if it was just for a few seconds. She blamed empathy.

Raven stood and walked to her door. She hoped that Starfire might provide a worthy distraction from the many worries floating in her mind. She opened the door to reveal her friend, floating in mid-air with a Cheshire smile shining on her face.

"What is it, Star?" Raven drawled, doing her best to maintain her stoic façade. Hopefully, she would only have to explain another earthly concept that she'd seen on one of her reality shows. She remembered their last, two-hour talk regarding the concept of twerking. She shuddered, and hoped it was something easier, and more innocent, like Q-tips, or badminton.

Starfire merely widened her smile, a feat in itself, and floated past her into her room. Raven sighed and shut the door behind her as she joined her boisterous alien friend now sitting on top of her bed. Something told her this particular question would take a while. Once they were settled in their traditional positions, cross-legged and facing each other across the comforter, Starfire responded, her voice suddenly low and secretive.

"What does it mean for a book to have steam?"

Raven gulped, her eyes widening as she clutched the sheets below her with her nails.

"Where… where did you hear that?"

Starfire tilted her head. "Friend Beast Boy asked me about your book earlier today, and I remembered you saying it had too much steam for my taste. He suggested I ask you about this strange phenomenon."

"Wait, you talked to Beast Boy? When?"

Starfire smirked. And for some reason, that seemed more threatening than even the Tamaranean Princess's battle cry. Suddenly, Raven felt as though she'd fallen into some sort of trap. She had no idea how right she actually was.

"Beast Boy came to me earlier today to ask me about… something personal, and the question of the book came to the surface."

Something personal...? What could Beast Boy possibly talk to Star about that is personal?

"What did Beast Boy have to ask you about?" Raven asked, a bit too quickly, and by the time she realized she'd voiced her concerns, it was too late. She instinctively brought up a hand to cover her mouth, as if to stop any further accidental phrases. She knew how it must have sounded. Defensive, resentful,and maybe even a touch... jealous? But if Starfire picked up on any of these tones, she didn't make it obvious. She simply maintained the smirk on her face, her eyes sparkling dangerously as they watched her, almost measuring her.

Oh Azar, what have I gotten myself into?

He knocked on the heavy, titanium-reinforced door, and waited. In a matter of seconds, a muffled clanking noise came from within, and heavy, thudding footsteps came ever closer towards him. The door opened with a mechanical whirring and revealed quite possibly one of the most intimidating sights to ever be seen at Titan's Tower.

Cyborg stood almost seven feet tall, towering over his feeble frame, and glaring in a way even Raven would have shuddered at. Interrupting Cyborg while he was working on his projects was never recommended. Beast Boy, however, was used to the glaring colossus standing before him, and offered a simple, defeated sigh. Instantly, the glare was replaced by a concerned stare as Cyborg stepped aside to allow Beast Boy to walk into the extensive garage.

"What's wrong, green bean?" Cyborg asked watching as Beast Boy silently trudged past his friend, eyes resigned to stare at the cement floor below him. All that was missing was a miniature black cloud hovering above his head, and he'd be a walking cliché.

"I messed up, Cy. Again. As usual." Beast Boy sighed, deflated, as he sat against one of the workbenches covered in tools he'd never even know how to name.

Cyborg shut the door behind him and walked over to his friend, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder, and promptly grabbing a few wrenches from the workbench.

"Raven?"

"Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Too bad. Spill."

Cyborg placed himself back on his custom-built mechanic's creeper, and shoved his cybernetic body back underneath the carcass of yet another soon-to-be Titan vehicle. Beast Boy shook his head, but couldn't help but smile. He knew he shouldn't have avoided Cyborg's big-brother talk. In the end, no matter how awkward the issue was, or how badly he'd messed up, Cy would always help him figure out a way to feel better. And he usually provided some very sound advice on how to fix the problem. Usually.

It also helped that it wasn't the conventional, face-to-face conversation. Oh no, this was a man conversation. With extra manliness. That meant that, even though they talked about all that, "sentimental crap" as they called it, it all took place in a testosterone-filled environment filled with sharp metal object and power tools, while Cyborg worked on his car or some other pet project, and Beast Boy pretended to help him by handing him usually-random tools. At random. Practically no visual contact, and plenty of cool gadgets around to remind them that they were still as manly as could be.

Beast Boy figured he might as well fess up to his friend, figuring there'd been enough comfortable silence between the two to work up his courage. Not that he needed to, he told himself. Cause he was a man.

"I went to apologize to Raven today, like Robin told me to." He said, as if her were mentioning the results of last night's basketball game. Casual. Like a man. Cyborg offered a grunt as he struggled in the underbelly of the chassis.

"And? How'd she take it?"

"She, um wasn't there." Beast Boy picked up a screwdriver and started fiddling with it, trying to preoccupy his hands. Sitting still had never been his forte.

"Where was she then?"

"Nevermore."

"Oh."

They took a few more moments of silence as Cyborg tightened a bolt, reminiscing about their travels into Raven's chaotic landscape. Beast Boy was reminded of the several dreams he'd had about going back there. And only nine out of ten ended with an R-rated situation. He shook his head free of those ideas, and the oh-so-many Ravens, and got back to the topic at hand, extending a claw and scratching at the surface of the workbench.

"Anyways, I figured I'd go back later to talk to her, but then I saw this book just lying there on the floor in her room. It was the same one she was reading this morning. I thought maybe if I read it, I could figure out what had made her all jumpy and stuff."

Beast Boy heard the squeaking of the worn-down creeper emerge from beneath the ton of scrap metal, and looked down at Cyborg, who was now donning a surprisingly well-executed, albeit upside-down, questioning look on his face.

"Hold on, let me get this straight. You went into Raven's room, while she was in her mirror world, stole her book, read her book, and tried to deduce her behavior from the book you stole?"

"Eeyup."

Cyborg shook his head, smirking, and rolled back under the car.

"I think I'm starting to see your problem…" Came his muffled reply. Beast Boy just drooped his ears. An admittedly involuntary motion, but he'd gotten used to it.

Beast Boy switched the screwdriver for a monkey wrench, and continued to think about his dilemma. At least he'd have plenty of tools to fidget with by the time his little tale was done.

"Yeah. In any case, I went back to her room to return the book…"

"Did you see anything in the book that would explain her edginess this morning?"

He almost dropped the wrench in his hands as the scene from the book once more entered her mind. He decided to play it safe.

"No." He fibbed.

"Thought as much." He could picture the smirk drawn on Cyborg's face that instant. "So much for your detective skills, Sherlock."

He offered the respective huff of annoyance that he knew Cyborg would expect, and continued. He figured a slightly-bruised ego was better than going through what he'd read. Besides, for now, he was hoping not to accidentally reveal Raven's skewed literary tastes. He figured he couldn't really blame her; everyone had their own personal tastes when it came to that kind of stuff. Yet he knew that a few years back, that particular knowledge would have provided the perfect blackmail material. He smiled to himself as he thought of ways he would've used this whole situation against Raven back when they were younger.

The clinking and rolling of a lug nut, accompanied by a few choice curse words from Cyborg, brought him back into the present. He hopped off the work bench and caught the errant nut, handing it back to Cy's disembodied hand sticking out from under what he could only guess was the future engine block of the car.

"Thanks. Slippery little bastard. Anyways, you were saying?"

"Right. I went back to her room to return the book, and when I walked in, she was just getting back from the mirror."

"And she caught you red-handed."

"Pretty much."

"She gave you the whole 'invading-my-privacy' speech, and probably freaked when she found out you'd stolen her book. How warm am I getting?"

"I'd say solar."

"Yeah, I figured something like this would happen." Cyborg said with a grunt, pulling himself out from beneath the car once more, this time adorned with several oil stains on his chest and face. He sat up, and looked at Beast Boy as he wiped a brownish, rough-looking rag over the offending splotches. Beast Boy felt like a five-year-old under Cyborg's patented Big Brother glare. He knew it was an inevitable part of the conversation, but that didn't mean he liked it any better. "You messed up what should've been a simple apology. Now you're in it pretty deep. You want my advice?"

"I wouldn't have knocked otherwise." Beast Boy offered with a sheepish grin.

"Lay low." Cy stood up, wiping his hands, and quickly discarding the rag. "Give her some time away from you. She should calm down in a day or two if she doesn't have to deal with any more of… well, you."

Beast Boy was about to protest, before Cyborg cut him off with a halting palm.

"I know it's not easy, and you don't really want to. I'm not giving you a choice here, B. Hit the gym, stay away from her room, go for a walk in the park, I don't care. Just don't cross her path for a couple of days. I'll talk to her once she cools down for a bit, and find out just how much trouble you're in."

"Fine." Beast Boy sighed. He knew it was pointless to argue with Cyborg about pretty much anything, but it was impossible to do so when he was right. Still, he couldn't stop a tremor that ran up his spine, spreading a chill across his ribcage.

"It's just weird, you know?" Beast Boy said, sitting back down against the workbench, shoulders sagging in flagrant defeat. "It's like she's a whole different person now. There's so much I thought I knew about her, and now I'm starting to doubt if I ever really knew her at all."

"Well, you aren't always the most perceptive, B." Cyborg said, his voice softening considerably. A nearby chair squealed in protest as he placed his weight down carelessly. How those tiny, metal chairs could hold Cyborg's 700-pound body, he'd never know.

Beast Boy sighed. "It was so much easier when we were younger…"

"Back when you were an annoying, prepubescent grass stain, with a crush on Raven, our resident Goth Ice-Queen?" Beast Boy simply glared while Cyborg chuckled. "Yeah, those were the days!"

Beast Boy grumbled an almost inaudible curse, but he didn't really care if Cyborg heard him or not. The memories freely wheeling about in his head were enough to thoroughly distract him from the large metal men laughing at his own joke as he wiped down the rest of his tools.

But even though he'd never admit it, Cyborg was right. Those days, he'd been childish, immature, and undoubtedly one of Raven's greatest annoyances. Raven, on the other hand, had been cold, calculating, and incredibly solitary. To this day, not much had changed. Aside from having adapted a bit to modern-day standards of hygiene and organization, he had to admit he still enjoyed the occasional prank every now and then. And Raven… Well, Raven was still cold and calculating, but at least she hung out with them much more than before. And not just in the corner reading some book.

Of course, out of all the moments they'd shared together, most of the time, they'd been together as a group. The few times Beast Boy had found himself face to face with Raven, the situation almost always wasn't as pleasant. It usually started with a joke or an offer to take a walk outside and get some fresh air. It almost always ended with a sharp remark, a prompt turn-down, and every now and then, some minor bodily harm. But every bruise had been worth it. Or so he had thought.

"Hey, Cy?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Cyborg asked, calming his laughter to listen to his friend once more. A frown immediately appeared on his face when he noticed Beast Boy's almost anguished expression.

"Do you think that maybe, over the years, Raven has started to kind of… hate me?"

"What?" Cyborg asked in honest disbelief. He stood up and stared hard at the green, self-depreciating changeling before him, and used his best scolding tone. "That's just stupid BB. You know Rae loves ya, she's just difficult sometimes. Sure, she's always got a comeback for just about anything you say to her, but it's all in good fun."

Beast Boy wasn't convinced. This was all that he'd ever told himself over the years. Nothing new. And every word drifted through his mind before eventually petering out, just as before. It just didn't add up. Cyborg seemed to notice, and changed tactics, going for a softer, sympathetic voice.

"Listen B, I know you're worried. But I know Raven just as well as I know you. Well, almost as well as I know you. She'd never hate you. She's just one of those people that doesn't know how to show her emotions all that well. And when you keep in mind that whenever she expresses too much emotion, her powers go all crazy, it's not that difficult to understand why she sometimes acts the way she does." Cyborg sighed. "I know you like her, dude, and I'm sure…"

"Not anymore."

"Huh?" Beast Boy looked up at him with quite possibly the most pathetic, heart-wrenching face Cyborg had ever contemplated.

"That's just it Cy. I still have feelings for her, but it's more than just a crush I think. I don't know what it is, but whenever she got mad at me before, it didn't feel as bad as it does now."

Cyborg simply stood there, silently, watching his friend. Beast Boy figured as much. He himself hadn't been prepared to admit that he'd ever felt something more than a simple, adolescent crush. He hadn't even been sure he still felt anything towards Raven anymore. But his mouth seemed to have put together what he felt before his brain could figure it out. No real surprise there. But still, it came as a shock to him how right it sounded. It added up, and now he felt worse than before.

"Jesus, B. Those are some pretty strong statements you're making there."

"I know. But if I wasn't sure before, I am now. And the fact that Raven probably can't stand me is driving me nuts. How am I supposed to feel, falling for someone who gets annoyed by my mere presence?"

A small, sad silence drifted over them as the last of Beast Boy's words sunk in and took meaning. He took a deep breath and sunk further down against the workbench, ignoring the sharp, tough tools digging into his back. Finally, Cyborg placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and spoke.

"Listen. I don't know much of what goes on between you two. And I ain't gonna start judging your choice in women. But what I am gonna do is tell you not to jump ahead of yourself. Just take things slow. Give her some space. We'll do what I said, I'll do some friendly espionage, and figure out just how dead you are. Then, you can start to patch things up. Who knows, in the end, things might work out."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Beast Boy huffed.

"I'm serious. We're Titans. We've saved the world, like, a gazillion times. Stopped super-villains that even the justice league would have trouble with. On top of all that, we're five, hormone-filled young adults living together in a cramped, T-shaped tower. If you're gonna let a little thing like a crush gone wrong get you down, I don't think you're fit to be a Titan, BB."

He couldn't help it. He had to smile at that. Cyborg always had a way of making him feel better, no matter what shitty situation he'd gotten himself in. With a grunt, Beast Boy hopped off the workbench and dusted off his spandex, now glittering with specks of metallic powder. He looked up at his best friend, and offered a large, fanged grin.

"Thanks Cy." He knew he didn't have to say more than that. The rest was all implied. It was a guy thing. Two words spoke more than ten-thousand sometimes.

Cyborg just nodded and punched him playfully on his arm. He still had to flinch at that; Cyborg's lightest punch could easily dent the hood of a car.

"No prob, man. Now get outta here. Take a swim or something. And stay low."

"Yes, sir." Beast Boy turned and headed out the door, thinking of ways to distract himself, and keep his distance from the team. At least for the day.

A/N - Yep, sorry, a pretty short upload this time. I know it's not much, but I had to cut this here, since it was one of those long chapters you just don't know where to split in two. I hope you enjoyed, as per usual, and I eagerly await any and all reviews! It's like my cocaine, if cocaine came in text format and expressed opinions and criticisms of amateur works of plagiarism. Am I being too harsh? Or weird? Probably. It's five in the morning. Give me a break.

On a lighter note, how do you think Star is going to approach the matter with Raven? What will they talk about? How will things go? I love it when readers speculate. It lets me gauge your reactions to future chapters, and usually makes things more enjoyable for all of us! Cheers!