I do not own Teen Titans.

Raven still had no idea how she had ended up at the mall.

The morning had been awkward and eventful, compared to usual. After waking up to realize that she had been sleeping on Beast Boy of all people, she had fallen off of the couch and set off an explosion in the kitchen. The other Titan had jumped to his feet at the loud noise, but quickly tripped over his teammate and collapsed on the ground next to her. Their wide eyes had shared a brief, understanding moment before the others had come rushing into the main area. Robin's bo staff was raised, but it quickly lowered as he noticed the familiar spread of food and blue mold across the kitchen counters and ceiling. It wasn't the first time Raven had lost control of her powers.

Before they could be seen together, Raven had sunk into the floor and rose up in the middle of the mess, keeping her feet from touching the ground. She gave her friends an apologetic look. "Sorry. I'll clean it up."

While her friends had discussed their plans for the day on the couch, Raven had used her powers to swiftly put everything back in its place and wipe up the splatter of liquids that had escaped their containers. Although the mold had snarled angrily and fought against her, she had managed to shove it back in the cold compartment and slam the door shut.

Somewhere between the leader's speech regarding the day's break from training and Cyborg's explanation of the new defense system he was installing, Starfire had slipped in the idea to go to the mall. The others had happily agreed as they all loved escaping the Tower and visiting the city. Robin needed new clothes, Cyborg was low on oil, and Starfire and Beast Boy simply enjoyed being with their friends.

The empath had been busy cleaning and had unknowingly agreed to their plan.

Now, an hour or so after Starfire had dragged her out of her room to join the others in the car, Raven found herself being pulled into the doorway of the brightest shop in the mall. The alien girl's grip was too strong to escape, and Raven's eyes widened in fear as she found herself surrounded by aisles and aisles of pink and purple skirts and dresses. Her friend, on the other hand, was overjoyed.

"Look, Friend Raven! This is the shirt I purchased from here last time! And I am wearing it right now!" Raven looked up to see that Starfire had taken a similar pose as the mannequin she resembled. The girl's giggling was abundant. "Look, I am a plastic girl! I bet I am fooling many people!"

"I'm sure you are, Star," she replied in a monotone voice. While she loathed being in the store, she did enjoy making her friend happy. She quietly followed her around as they bounced from rack to rack, the pile of cloth in Starfire's arms growing higher and higher. After blowing through the accessories, they finally arrived at the changing rooms thirty minutes later.

A mountain of pink and purple suddenly appeared above Raven, and the half-demon was knocked down to the ground. Starfire gasped and bit her lip nervously until Raven's head poked out and she glared at the alien floating above her. "Oops! My apologies! I just need you to hold these while I try them all on. This is my favorite part!"

The changing room door slammed shut and more tittering reached Raven's ears. She accepted her fate and leaned her head in one hand, closing her eyes to half-listen to the Tamaranian's rambles while she dressed. The brief meditation she was achieving caused her to only hear snippets of the one-sided conversation occurring.

"Robin will surely like this one, he liked the other one-"

"-and I don't know, maybe it is the Earth custom? But I-"

"-certainly mustard stains would not be so difficult to remove if-"

"-this one, and oh, Raven! It is just your size! You must surely try these on when I finish!"

Raven's head snapped up and her pulse quickened. This had happened once before, and she had been forced to remain at the mall all day as Starfire made her try on what felt like the entire shopping center. She had a drawer back at the Tower reserved solely for clothes the alien forced her to buy.

Digging her other hand out of the clothes pile, she quickly opened her communicator and sent out a message to the three other Titans. Asking for help was one of her least favorite things to do, but one of them could save her. She'd rather be with anyone other than-

"Why, hello Raven! How may I help you today?"

Her eyes struggled not to roll as she lowered her gaze to face the cheeky smile of Beast Boy. His face was pressed up on the screen and she could see the slight condensation his breath was leaving behind. He seemed to realize that he wasn't the one she was looking for, but that made him more determined to help her. She attempted to ignore him.

"Is Robin or Cyborg with you?"

His expression changed to one of mock pain as he dramatically grabbed at his chest and swooned. "That hurt, Rae. Am I not good enough for you?" She didn't answer, so he stopped his charade and shrugged, a pout tugging at his lips. "Honestly, no. They both ditched. I heard something about tacos, but I don't think they're still in the mall. Why? Do you need something?"

She debated whether or not she should tell him. Sure, she hated trying on the frilly mess that Starfire was likely to throw her way. Her pale skin was enough to blind people as it was. However, Beast Boy could be equally annoying. He refused to leave her alone, and he always insisted on getting in the way of her meditating.

Although, he had been awfully kind last night when she had experienced trouble sleeping…

"No, I'm fine. Thank you for offer-"

"Raven! This one has sparkly lace! I cannot wait for you to try it on!"

Beast Boy's face darkened for a moment and she began to groan. His eyes grew a glimmer of mischief as his grin widened, the fang glistening as it poked at his lip. "No, Beast Boy. Don't you even dare think about it."

The screen began to blur as he bounced up and down, an evil laugh building up from deep within his chest. She cursed Starfire beneath her breath.

"Sparkly lace? Raven, I have to see this. What store are you two in?" He didn't bother waiting for a reply. "Doesn't matter, I can follow your scent. Oh, man. Cyborg is going to be mad he missed this."

Raven panicked. It was bad enough that Starfire was making her put on the dress. Having Beast Boy see it would humiliate her. Knowing him, he would take a picture on his phone and send it to the team's technician, and the two would taunt her for the rest of the year. She could not allow that to happen.

"Don't bother, I'm leaving."

The bouncing on the other end stopped as her teammate froze. "What? No, wait!" He stuttered as he floundered for something to say to keep her from leaving. "I'll tell Starfire where you're going."

"You don't know where I'm going, Beast Boy." Her eyes narrowed as he smiled maliciously again.

"I can sniff you out. I'll find you wherever you go, and I'll tell Starfire. Unless…"

She waited in silence for a minute before growing exasperated and half-yelling into the Communicator at the smug look on her friend's face. "Unless what?"

"There's a new arcade downtown that I've been meaning to visit, but Cyborg's been too busy to go with me. If you come, I'll tell Starfire that you took me home because I was sick." She opened her mouth to argue, but he put his finger on the screen as if to shush her. "She won't follow if she's in the middle of a shopping rampage, and we'll have a few hours before she gets back. By then, medicine would have kicked in and it would be okay for me to feel better."

Raven hated when he put her into predicaments like these. "What if I say no?"

"Then Starfire will find you, drag you back, and a picture of you in a dress will be the screensaver to the Tower's main computer for a month. Your choice."

The empath sighed deeply and glared at the screen. His face lit up as he saw her surrender. "Just for a few hours?"

"You know, you're kind of cute when you want to kill me."