Chapter 3

When the words 'Game Over' came up on the screen for the third time, Beast Boy knew that playing video games was a rather pathetic attempt to get his mind off of the empath occupying his bedroom.

Still holding the controller, he attempted to stretch the muscles that had been getting more and more tense since he walked out of his room. His nerves were biting at him and he was both restless and weary at the same time. It was starting to sink in that he was the keeper of a humongous, potentially reality-collapsing secret and he had no way of knowing if his teammates would somehow just know that he was trying to hold something in.

He was almost grateful when Cyborg walked through the door with two extra large pizza boxes balanced on his shoulder.

"Hey BB! I got two pizzas here! One that makes me go BOOYA and one that makes me wanna cry! Guess which one is yours?"

"Cy!" Beast Boy's voice went two octaves higher as he jumped a foot in the air and dropped the gaming controller. "You're back! And with pizza! I mean- that's just great! Pizza is great! Everything is great! I'm great! The Tower is great! Are- are you great?" Beast Boy grinned uncomfortably as he gave his best friend a manic, wide-eyed stare.

Cyborg raised one eyebrow and seemed to be assessing him.

A long beat passed and Beast Boy forced his smile to widen. Was it getting hot in here? Beads of sweat were starting to pool at his temples and his cheeks were starting to hurt from the strain of the phony grin he continued to plaster on.

Finally, taking Beast Boy out of his misery, Cyborg slowly said, "I'm…. great." He enunciated the word that Beast Boy had all of a sudden become fond of with a suppressed smile. "You okay, B?"

Panicking, knowing that he was about to explode from the secret he was keeping from his best friend, he went to the next best topic, one that would always distract the cybernetic hero: food.

"Dude, I'm just so hungry I can't think straight! Gimme some of that vegan-pizza cheesiness!" He launched himself from the couch and grabbed at the hot pizza boxes.

Cyborg laughed heartily and swiped the changeling in a one-armed hug. "No worries my man! Cyborg has all of your terrible food choices here for ya!"

With food in his belly, and his best friend cracking jokes by his side, Beast Boy was able to feel somewhat relaxed again.

That was until Raven arrived.

Cyborg was just regaling his green friend with his recent flirtation with Kimberley, the new pizza store hottie when a portal opened right in the middle of Ops and the dark enchantress stepped out.

Beast Boy felt his whole body go rigid. This was it. If the older Raven was correct in her shields and assumptions, this younger Raven wouldn't be able to detect her future self. But then again, if she did, it would mean A LOT of explaining, a LOT of apologizing, and probably a large headache for Beast Boy. Not to mention the whole possibility of unraveling the fabric of time and the destruction of the universe. Oh yes- Beast Boy remembered his sci-fi and it fully explained why future Raven was so intent on not bumping into her other self. However, if they did accidentally meet, maybe they would get lucky and the destruction might be localized and limited to merely this galaxy.

"Hi, Rave!" Beast Boy said nervously as he jumped down from his seat. He put his fake smile back on his face as he tightly intertwined his fingers and held them clumsily across his chest. "Want some pizza? I saved you a slice!" his voice rose again as he spoke.

He was being awkward and he knew it. He also knew that she could read his suspicious emotions and yet he just couldn't help himself. He tried to think of calming thoughts; mostly of tofu. Tofu covered in tempura, tofu covered in peanut sauce, Raven covered in tofu… Oh, Crap. The image of a sleeping Raven in his bed kept coming to the forefront of his mind and he couldn't shake it.

He was totally going to blow this.

Raven curled one of her shapely eyebrows his way but thankfully headed towards the offered food with seemingly no other purpose than to satisfy her hunger.

"Thank you, Beast Boy," she nodded, clearly designed to ignore Beast Boy's discomfort.

Beast Boy felt the tension drain from his body the minute her fingers plucked a slice from the box. His apprehensive smile switched to a genuine one and he could feel his whole body reacting to her indifference.

Future Raven had her shields in place. All he had to do was keep this Raven out of his room and they were both in the clear. And really, it couldn't be so hard to keep Raven out. It wasn't as if she was a frequent visitor to his room. Not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Raven in his room, in his bed, hands roaming, clothes scattered, breath quickening…

Dude, STOP thinking about her!

Beast Boy physically shook himself. Clearly, he was in over his head with the multiple Raven's in his life at the moment. He had Raven on the brain and it was even affecting the way he was fantasizing.

He turned back to his conversation with Cyborg who noticed the bizarre exchange with a half-amused smirk on his face and a sneaky look in his eye.

"Hey Rave, isn't pizza great?" Cyborg said, looking right at Beast Boy. "Aren't you just feeling… great?"

Beast Boy groaned and gingerly sat back down in his seat.

Raven took a pause from her pizza and quizzically looked at the two boys. "Am I missing something?"

Cyborg laughed as Beast Boy smacked his forehead with his gloved hand and wiped it down his face.

"You are not going to let me live that down, are you, Cy?"

This only made Cyborg laugh louder. "Not today, B!"

The rest of the night continued in a similar fashion. Although Beast Boy tried to stay his usual chatty self, he found his attention would ultimately wander back to Raven and he would often lose his place in the discussion. If Cyborg noticed, he was kind enough to not voice the fact that Beast Boy's lack of concentration would only happen when he would sneak a glance at the Azarathian.

Once Robin and Starfire returned home it was easier for the conversation and the usual banter to flow within the group. Starfire's bubbly chatter about her date with Robin kept Raven occupied and the masked bird gave a detailed account of how they intercepted a mugging on the way home.

Thankfully, Beast Boy's newfound silent nature was not noticed by the others and he soon felt his barriers collapsing and his usual swagger coming back with a vengeance.

That is until Raven started to bid them all goodnight.

Not thinking, he gave her his usual, "Night," and continued talking about the latest comic book he was obsessing over, "And on this one panel, you could see she was wearing a t-shirt with the-"

He stopped mid-sentence and looked over to Raven with horror across his face.

Alarm bells rang through Beast Boy's head louder than the crime alert. To get to her room, she would have to pass his bedroom door. Although it was unlikely that she would notice her older self, he couldn't take that risk.

Without a plan, without thinking of the consequences, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "RAVEN, WAIT!"

Ops went disturbingly quiet.

Four pairs of eyes turned to him in shock. None were more shocked than the empath herself.

"Ummmmm…" Beast Boy struggled out, completely aware that this was the second time he had used this interjection to break the ice that night.

"I was… going to… walk you to your door?" he haltingly said with as charming a smile he could muster at the last minute. It would probably have looked more chivalrous if the rest of his face wasn't gnarled up in an unnerving state of bewilderment.

Raven's eyes went from shocked to apprehensive in less than a second and although it was fleeting, Beast Boy could swear he saw a slight blush grace her cheeks.

"I am quite capable of finding my own way to my room, Beast Boy," she replied with her usual detachment.

"Of course, Raven. I just wanted to ask you about…"

He could almost feel his teammates lean forward in anticipation.

Quick! What does she like? Tea? Meditation? Creepy gothic stuff?

"A book," he concluded with some pride in his voice. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for that quick-thinking.

"A book?" Raven repeated sarcastically. "Really?"

Realizing that his idea was not as perfect as he thought, he hesitated. What kind of book could he ask about that the rest of the team couldn't hear?

"A…personal….book," he said, internally cringing at how lame it sounded.

He could hear Cyborg snigger beside him, "You see BB when two people really love each other-"

"Shut up, Cy! It's not that kind of book!" He could feel his face grow hot as he interrupted his so-called "friend" but he kept his gaze on Raven. He knew he would probably never hear the end of this from the interfering man but he was too deep into this future-Raven mystery to care at the moment.

"I just want a recommendation, that's all," he said, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Raven's violet eyes glared at him. He knew she was trying to gauge his sincerity so he tried to do what he did best in these situations; think about everything at once. He tapped into the confusion and the embarrassment of the last moment as well as the love and comradeship he had with his friends. To top it off, he thrust out that deep feeling of hope- hope that she would take a moment of her time to talk with him and the anticipation that came with it. He knew himself well enough to know that he could never suppress his emotions the way Raven was capable of doing, so when she was around and he wanted to hide his feelings, he would try and feel everything at once.

With so many emotions being projected at her, there was no way she could get a read on him, and with a sureness that was almost arrogant, one corner of his lips raised in a smile as he waited for her to answer.

Finally, with a twitch of her shoulder, she said with her flat voice, "Sure, whatever," and proceeded to float back towards their bedrooms.

As fast as his human legs could carry him, Beast Boy shot after Raven. In the process, he managed to knock over three chairs and bump his shoulder into the corner of the wall. He bit on his lip to keep in the profanity he wanted to shout but then caught up with the woman sporting a grin wider than the Grand Canyon.

Raven proceeded to ignore him as they passed several doors and made their way further from the main hub of the tower. Not caring that they walked together in silence, Beast Boy felt himself beam with even more pride. Keeping a secret from an empath was just too delicious to not be smug about.

Finally, Raven stopped in the middle of the hall and looked straight at the green Changeling. "What. Do. You. Want," she said through clenched teeth, the malice dripping from her voice.

Completely forgetting the whole reason he excused himself from his friends, Beast Boy went from smug to alarmed in only a few seconds. If little men were working inside his brain at that moment, they would have been straining their muscles and crying for help as he tried to stack one piece of information on top of another.

"Well….." he said. He took a nanosecond to congratulate himself as he used an actual word and not an interjection to delay his speech. "I've recently read…." again, he searched for something he could cling to. He recalled his recent talk with the older Raven only a couple of hours ago. He had mentioned the concept of time turners and she had responded to the fandom-specific concept appropriately. This meant at some point Raven had read or would read Harry Potter, or at least was familiar with the films. Considering the books had been out for quite some time, and Raven was not a film buff, he thought he'd take his chances on this one.

Sliding into the lie he continued, "Harry Potter. I want something similar. Lots of action, relatable characters, a big series I can really sink my teeth into." He had to recall a lot of literary-like prose to get this sounding right but he had heard enough of book-talk to know the kinds of things he was supposed to say about a popular series.

He could see Raven start to grind her teeth and look at him with loathing in her eyes. "Are you seriously asking me to give you a recommendation based on the Harry Potter series?"

Beast Boy realized his mistake and was about to recoil in dread but paused as he took a quick stock of his surroundings. He was only two doors down from his bedroom. If he could distract the angry bibliophile for only a few more minutes, he could send her back to her room in such a huff, she would never even have the chance to feel a foreign presence in the tower.

With this confidence-boosting information under his belt, Beast Boy leered at Raven. "Yeeeeeep," he elongated the condescending word. "Harry Potter."

Her purple eyes turned red for a split second. "And what, pray tell, would lead you to assume that I would waste my time perusing a children's book about a boy wizard?"

Beast Boy smiled wickedly. He licked his lips, raised his eyebrows and smirked, "Spell tips?"

He knew he had her. He rocked back onto his heels, eyes shining with confidence.

Although he liked to pretend that moments like these with Raven were the bane of his existence, the truth was far from it. His newly found awkwardness with the woman would somehow slip away and the mischievous part of himself would come out in full swing. Their push-and-pull banter was second nature to him and he secretly loved the way his blood would flow faster, his wit became sharper and all of his other senses seemed to hone into Raven and her reactions.

The only issue was that there was always a slight chance of being thrown out the window into the ocean below. But really, that only happened when she was VERY mad and it wasn't as if he couldn't fly or swim out of that predicament.

As there were no windows in the hallway they were standing in, Beast Boy was feeling pretty confident that this time, he wouldn't be doing a nose-dive into the Pacific.

He watched Raven go through her usual reactions when Beast Boy pushed her buttons. The vein on her forehead seemed to grow red and pulse with anger, her chin moved closer to her body as her eyes turned to a violent red. Her black magic started to swirl around her hair and then….

She turned her nose up at him and opened a portal beneath his feet.

He immediately fell through and heard her faint, "Goodnight, Beast Boy," before his bottom landed harshly onto his bedroom floor.

"Ouch!" he shouted as he rose and rubbed his sore derriere. He froze for a moment, forgetting that the other Raven was sound asleep in his bottom bunk. After a full minute of hearing nothing but her slow breaths he took a moment to chastise himself.

DUH! You are so STUPID! The girl could just open a portal or faze through the door at any time! You didn't need to go through all of that "personal book" bull crap to distract her! Idiot, idiot, IDOIT!

With that realization, Beast Boy sighed softly and decided that he might as well save face and turn in for the night. He wasn't about to go back to Ops with his tail between his legs and face the teasing wrath of a certain meddling, cybernetic colleague.

Thanks to future Raven's tidying, the journey to his bunk bed went without him stepping on a single food wrapper or comic book (probably a first, he noted) and just as he was about to swing up onto the top bunk, he looked down upon his older teammate who was bathed in white moonlight.

Even asleep she managed to look graceful as her arms framed her delicate face and her long hair spilled prettily across his pillow. Her lips were parted in the slightly sultry way that supermodels were often fond of and her eyes, usually so full of loathing for him, were closed as her black lashes fluttered against her soft cheeks. She looked so vulnerable and he wondered what, or who it was she was dreaming about.

Beast Boy found himself giving off a small sigh. That feeling stirred in his chest again, the feeling he sensed when he first caught her distinctive scent earlier in the evening. He knew, beyond any logic or understanding, that he would help this woman in any way he could. Blood, sweat, tears, whatever it took: even if his own life were the cost. Keeping Raven safe was all that mattered.

He shook his head as if to rattle the unnerving thoughts away. Although he needed some time to unravel all of these strange new impulses, that was for another day. Right now, it was time to get some rest. Tomorrow was probably going to be just as strange, just as bizarre as today and he needed his strength to help this future Raven get back to her own time and back to her husband, whoever the guy may be.

Shifting into a hummingbird, he flew up to the top bunk and shifted back to his human form to let his head hit the pillow. While taking off his shoe with his foot he felt the bunk bed swing slightly as the sleeping beauty in the bottom bunk changed her position.

He paused a moment in silence before sliding off his other shoe and getting comfortable on the mattress. His eyes closed, his body relaxed, he felt himself just drifting off to sleep...

When he heard the roar of an intruder.

Its rumble reverberated throughout his room and all Beast Boy could picture was horns, teeth, and deadly claws scraping over the walls.

Startled, Beast Boy leapt back to the floor and crouched to one of his fighting stances, ready to shift into something even bigger than the monster making the noise.

He waited for a beat, adrenaline spiking his system as his limbs strained, begging him to shift.

Not giving in to his powers yet, Beast Boy cocked his head from one side to the other, waiting for the creature to give away its position.

It made its noise again- a guttural growl that vibrated through his spine and made his teeth chatter.

He quenched down his fear and turned himself towards the noise. Panic started to flood his mind as he realized the noise was near the sleeping figure of Raven.

A growl started in his gut as he stepped towards his adversary. Was it a minion of Trigon? A force of evil with nefarious plans? Did something dark and demonic follow Raven from the future? If anyone was after her, Beast Boy was going to make sure they would have to get through him first.

Light-footed, Beast Boy prowled towards the noise by the sleeping figure, determined to protect her at all costs.

Readying himself for the worst, Beast Boy slipped his head under the bunk bed and gazed over the slumbering empath, searching for the deadly creature that had dared to attack his friend.

Only, he couldn't see anything. No teeth, no horns, not even a mysterious lump in the sheets.

Thoughts of invisibility, cloaking devices, and mystical teleportation floated to his mind as his gaze started to go left to right then back again in a frantic manner. He had heard it. Something was in this vicinity and it had malicious intent towards Raven. There was something that was going to attack-

The sound happened again.

Beast Boy blinked in confusion and rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand.

What he just saw couldn't be true.

He waited one more minute, to confirm his suspicions…

And there it was.

Raven, the unattainable, the beautiful, the emotionless…

Was snoring like a hog.

Scratch that.

Raven was snoring like the half-demon she was. It was wild, it was terrifying, it was… so Raven.

Picking his jaw up from the floor, Beast Boy stepped away from his sleeping companion, grabbed his pillow and blanket, and headed towards the door.

Silently thanking Cyborg for making their rooms sound-proof, he slipped out and used the pad to lock the door behind him.

Walking towards Ops with the intent of spending the night on the couch, Beast Boy's mind wandered back to the woman's future husband as he could only feel sympathy towards the poor guy.

"Good luck with that one, buddy," he said out loud. For although he still didn't know who it was that had stolen her heart, one thing was for sure; whoever Raven's husband was, he definitely had a stash of earplugs.

Authors Note:

Did you know that pregnant women tend to snore, especially in the later months?

Neither did my husband.

Thanks for reading! Next week we will hear a little more from future Raven!