Just how hard could it be to find a semi-tamed raccoon?
Never mind secret hideout, Raven swung the front gates wide open before scanning the streets for the trash panda. No raccoon in sight.
The sorceress's expressions were currently of agitation. "My powers would come in super handy right about now!"
Her search was methodical. She scoured the nearby trees, some with hollow trunks, in hopes that Beast Boy's raccoon had found itself a den close by.
"If I were you, where would I be?" Raven asked herself as she peeked inside the last hole-in-a-tree. She was met with a bird's nest, the mother pecking her on the forehead in defence. "Ow! Well, that's not it..."
Raven grumbled out of frustration, her violet hair poked with twigs. Her gaze drifted askance to a dumpster a few blocks down the street.
Her bottom lip nearly quivered in a sickened whimper.
She heaved a sigh, mustering the grotesque courage to approach the dumpster and dive in.
"For Beast Boy's letter..." she convinced herself, peering into the trash, nose pinched.
She dared not lay a finger on the pile, instead deciding to wait for any sign of life.
There was a little shake coming from underneath a torn paper bag. She held her breath - in every sense of the phrase.
The creatures beneath finally revealed themselves. None a raccoon.
"Rats..." the disappointed Raven muttered, meaning every sense of the word.
She backed away from the dumpster. She needed to think even smarter.
With a sigh, she returned to her apartment.
"Raven! Is everything alright? You left the tower in a hurry, and looking worried."
Raven was greeted by Robin via her T-communicator. She was going to need another set of eyes and ears for this raccoon hunt.
"Robin, I need you and your detective skills here, stat."
Robin raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Raven's request. He wasn't yet sure what she needed his investigative abilities for, but he was more than willing to help out if it meant helping her get back up on her feet. Plus, there seemed to be a spark of determination lit up in her in that transmission. She was on a mission.
The leader spared no time heading to San Francisco to assist Raven in whatever task she had at hand.
"I'm here," he announced his arrival, finding his friend exasperatedly scouring down the sidewalk. "What do you need help with?"
She answered aptly, "You're not going to believe this, but I'm looking for a raccoon."
She was right. Robin momentarily stood in bewilderment. But very quickly, got to work.
"Task first, questions after," he told her. "Is there a park nearby?"
Raven shook her head. "Because we need to live in a less populated area, we chose a place not close to anywhere that would be normally filled with people."
Robin watched as Raven proceeded to grab a trashcan and start her search.
"Anything to get that mail, huh?" remarked the little Beast Boy resting on her head, pinching his nose.
Raven added, "Besides, it has to be a trained raccoon to be able to follow Gar's instructions."
Robin's eyebrows scrunched, briskly reneging on his 'questions later' mindset.
"What's Gar got to do with it?"
"He enlisted the raccoon to deliver the next letter to me," Raven replied nonchalantly. Robin looked even more confused.
Raven glanced at Robin, noticing his confusion.
"Starfire hasn't told you anything?"
Robin sighed. "I have a feeling that's not the only information she's withheld from me."
Raven stopped searching, struck by Robin's words.
"Um, what do you mean? Robin, you and Star are together... right?"
"The past few months, she and I have been keeping..." Robin sighed, hesitant. "... secrets from each other. We could tell. But, I didn't wanna keep secrets from her anymore, so I poured out in admission, but she refused to give in to hers. And I don't know why.
"I overheard her once mentioning a promise she has to keep, but I don't want to overstep if it has nothing to do with me."
The little Beast Boy on Raven's head gasped. "Dramarama!"
"Oh..." Raven suddenly found herself dumbfounded by this. After all, she'd been holed up in her own home those past few months. "If it's any consolation, I'm not aware of any promises. I'm sure if she's hiding something, it's not to deceive you and that there's a good reason."
Raven reassuringly patted him on the shoulder.
"I guess you're right. Sorry, I should start helping the search."
It didn't take long for Robin to find peculiar raccoon tracks imprinted into an unfinished watermelon.
"I'm no animal expert, but my senses tell me these are paw prints of the raccoon we're looking for," Robin assessed, lightly rubbing remains of the fruit in his gloved fingers. "Judging by the freshness, we can't be that far."
Raven agreed with his assessment. "Go on, then."
The two followed the trail, approaching the more bustling blocks.
In his periphery, the Boy Wonder caught a glimpse of their wanted animal, atop a railing two streets away.
"There!" he pointed, now in pursuit. Raven watched as Robin made haste past the first crosswalk, quickly about to start crossing the second as the raccoon jumped down, presumably into whatever food it had found. "It's got something green around his neck, which must be the letter."
"Help!"
Robin halted at the desperate cry for help and spun around, finding an elderly woman on the ground in the middle of the first crosswalk, cane dropped.
Raven ran to the woman's aid, a shoulder to help her up and a palm facing Robin.
"Get the raccoon!" she said to Robin before turning her attention to the lady. "I got you, ma'am."
Robin acknowledged Raven's request and resumed his chase.
Upon arriving at the second crossing, he was stopped by another elderly on crutches.
"Mind walking me across, son?" gently asked the old man. "Say, you're the Kid Flash, aren't ya? Oh boy, this should be quick..."
Reluctant Robin switched his gaze between the man and the long-gone raccoon. With a groan followed by a gentle smile, he assisted the elder.
"Oh come on, Boy Blunder," mumbled both Raven and little Beast Boy now resting in the hood of her cloak. Although, Raven found herself slightly entertained watching Robin assist the elder as she was still helping the lady.
"Hehe, right," Robin decided to just carry the old man across, then went back and helped carry the old lady across, and the two ran after the raccoon once more.
They turned the corner, and spotted the raccoon in between a picket fence. Now closer to it than ever, they could see the rolled up message tied to one of its hind legs.
"Gotcha!" Robin declared, running towards it. There was a sloshing from underneath him and suddenly Raven found herself in shock when Robin found himself sliding across the muddy garden path. The raccoon, scared by Robin's scream, scurried out of the way, further into the garden.
"Rob- " Raven called out, wishing the numbing spell's effects would wear out so that she could prevent him from slamming into the shed on the opposite end of the lane. "-bin..."
"That's gonna leave a little mark," Beast Boy commented.
With a pathetic moan, Robin emerged out of the garden shed with his left foot in a green bucket, his usually gelled up hair trapping twigs, soil and dirt at this point. He signalled a thumbs up.
"... I'm... good... ?" He was uncertain of how he was truly feeling. A minor loss in dignity, at the very least.
It took everything in Raven not to whip out a witty remark at him.
Stifling a chuckle, she said, "I think I saw the raccoon head that way."
"Okay... Be careful now..."
Raven crouched down, picking a handful of blueberries from within the garden's fenced area.
"I have an idea."
A trail of blueberries leading up to a simple box trap set up by the two Titans was placed from the garden to the next block.
"This looks too simplistic to work, don't you think?" Robin asked Raven, both seeking cover from afar.
"Got any better and immediate ideas, Bird Brain?" Raven muttered.
Robin paused, mildly offended and amused by Raven's remark. It was somewhat spiteful, but it was something different since the funeral, so he let it slide.
"... You have a bird name too, just so you know," he muttered as quietly in return.
The two held their breaths when they heard nibbling as the trap was set off, dropping the box. They ran to unveil their catch.
Raven groaned out of sheer frustration. The box was too little to capture a hungry fox.
"For f..." Raven was about to cuss out until she noticed Robin's inquisitive gaze, even with the mask on. "... fox sake... Where could that annoying raccoon be now?"
Robin looked around and approached the nearest trashcan.
Squee!
Robin stumbled backwards as the raccoon squealed and lunged at him before making a run for it.
"Robin! Did you find it?"
Before Raven could reach the Boy Wonder, he'd taken off towards the raccoon.
The raccoon had reached the next crossing, scampering on a red traffic light, dodging underneath vehicles.
Robin leapt above the taxi about to pass by in front of him, smoothly hopping from one vehicle to the next as he continued to chase after the trash panda. His expert eye spotted the creature hustling past people, including the letter on his hind legs.
"Excuse me! Make way! Sorry!" Robin would apologise as he bumped into the crowd.
Mindful to not run on anything slippery this time, Robin whipped out his grappling hook and with an aim and fire, swung himself like an acrobat with the traffic light ahead as leverage.
With a dive and landing appropriate for the Olympics, he stopped ahead of the bandit creature and finally caught it.
He waited for Raven to catch up to him to untie the letter from the raccoon, and that was when he read the collar. He grumbled.
When Raven finally caught up, he lifted the raccoon in front of her face, showing the collar.
On the lime green collar, it read that the raccoon had been trained by a named animal expert.
"No wonder he was so slick," Robin commented. "I'll take the little guy back."
Raven took the letter.
"Sweet!" cheered the imaginary Beast Boy as he jumped on to Raven's shoulder.
"Thank you," said the relieved Raven. "Sorry for calling you Bird Brain."
"Don't mention it," replied Robin, watching her unfurl the letter. "In fact, don't mention this whole embarrassing raccoon race."
Raven sighed with a nod. "This better be worth it, Gar."
"Oh it will be!"
Robin noticed the way she carefully and even lovingly unrolled the scroll, now paying attention to her eyes glimmering with a bit of hopeful expectation, almost similar to the way Starfire would get interested over a new documentary drop.
Raven began reading the letter in her head.
"Hey Rae!
Smile!
Remember: I'm not gonna give up until I get you to smile. Here's a shopping list of all the jokes I never get to tell!"
Raven paused, her gaze held on that last sentence as she recalled the irony of the situation. Gar wanted her to smile, while she and Robin had just had a comedic search for the raccoon that Gar himself had planted - already a funny way to go about her day.
Her grip on the little letter tightened as she burst out in laughter. Robin stared with confusion at her sudden fit of joy.
"That counts!" imaginary Beast Boy declared as he did a victory jig. "Get to the real jokes, though!"
Filled with curiosity, Robin looked over the letter, trying to read it upside-down while Raven was involuntarily moving from laughing.
Upon reading, his eyebrows scrunched in even more bemusement.
"Raven, surely you're not laughing at those jokes he wrote..."
Little Beast Boy folded his arms, narrowing his eyes at Robin.
"Always gotta be such a Dick, Grayson..." The shapeshifter figment fell back into Raven's hood when she continued to laugh.
Robin let out an initial snicker. She was right; their petty pursuit was reminiscent of a classic cat-and-mouse chase out of a children's cartoon.
Gradually, Robin joined Raven in the fit of laughter.
Little Beast Boy climbed back up to Raven's shoulder, then flailed his arms.
"Get to the jokes, Rae!"
Catching her breath, Raven calmed down and began to skim through the actual jokes Gar had scribbled for her. She was unsurprisingly unimpressed.
Raven's sigh was a combination of affection and pity.
"Lame as always..."
Little Beast Boy gasped. "Hey!"
Raven and Robin read the rest of the letter.
"That should give you enough smileage to last a long time! L.O.L. - Loads of love!
Remember, Raven: Even after death, life is still worthwhile.
Bear hugs and kisses,
Beast Boy"
Raven held the note tighter and closer to her chest, as if giving it a bear hug. She shut her eyes, but her smile did not fade away. It couldn't.
Robin watched her have her moment. A part of him was sincerely happy to see her not sad. But he would be lying if he said he wasn't doubtful whether chasing letters of her deceased beloved was a good way to deal with her sadness.
"Should we go back to Jump City?" he offered.
Amidst the thoughts of Gar, Raven considered Robin's offer.
With a resounding tone, she responded, "Thanks, Robin, but no thanks. I'd like to stay here. The Titans allowing me to take temporary residence in the tower has not gone unnoticed, but I know it's less burden for me to remain here."
"You're not a burden -"
Raven politely cut him off. "And, San Francisco is my home now, with or without a roommate. I think I'll get through this. At least today, I will, and maybe tomorrow."
Robin had no doubt about it, but had doubts as to whether it would be quick. He, however, held his tongue.
Nonetheless, Raven shared similar doubts. For how could she move on, really? It was almost as if Gar's jovial spirit was still lingering, and not just in the form of her hallucinatory miniature manifestations of him. And with the numbing spell, at least she could unbridle her feelings a bit. Gar was right, she needed a genuine laugh. A sincere smile.