Request: Beast Boy, however human, is part animal, so he must have a mating season. Mating season means a mate! So Raven and him have been going out for a year now, and B wants to ask his girlfriend to be his mate. The only thing- she will never be able to date anyone accept him. Btw, how they 'claim' each other is up to you!

Jump City's favorite pizza place was exceptionally crowded for a Tuesday night making the two regulars question wonder if they should have picked a quieter place to eat. The Changeling's fingers drummed anxiously on the white marble table. His gut seemed to twist in protest at the thought of how many ears would be listening in on his conversation. His heart was pounding so hard, he was positive that every person that walked by could hear it. The only thing that seemed to hide it was the almost too loud sugary pop music that played over the restaurant speakers. His eyes shifted up and down from the floor to the companion sitting just across from him. His girlfriend, stared at the group of people her gaze soft as she obviously was pondering something. He wondered how long it would take before she would ask about the elephant in the room. Sometimes he wished she wasn't an Empath, it made him even more nervous.

47

That's how many dates they had been on 47, and Beast Boy wondered if he'd ever get over that, so nervous feel like I'm going to ralph stage. He was guessing no, but tonight was different, in his defense he was about to pop a very serious question to Raven. He wasn't sure how she would act either. If he were to be completely honest when it boiled down to it, he was flabbergasted that Raven had even agreed to his first lame ass attempt to get her on a date. Nearly a year later and here he was feeling like he was about to go sky diving without a parachute. A funny thought crossed his mind as the condensation from his glass rolled onto his fingers. 'Asking her to marry me would be less terrifying than this.' It was true at least with asking someone to marry there was always the chance they could back out at some point, whether it was an hour before the ceremony, or five years after the ceremony. This request was so final.

"I think they called our number." Raven repeated again. She snapped her fingers in front of her boyfriends face. Just like magic she watched his eyes slowly come back with that luster, bringing his attention back from where ever it had gone to.

"What?" He asked his mouth feeling like he had drunk sand, instead of an ice cold lemonade.

"They called our number." She echoed again, her brows furrowed. Realization hit him across the face as her words finally crossed his mental barrier.

"Our number? Oh right our food." The bar stool made a horrible squeaking scratching noise as he moved hastily and clumsily out of it. Raven's brow lifted as she watched his movement. The way he scrambled to get the food nearly knocking into people as he went. His hand nervously tapped against his leg as the young pimple face boy handed him the medium pizza. Beast Boy was never a graceful one, but he was in a rare form tonight. As he made it back to the table he tripped sending the pizza into the air. Raven paying close attention was able to used her cat like reflexes, and her magic to catch the pizza, before it spattered all over the ground. Levitating the pie over she sat it gingerly on the table, then she stood, moving over to him. Crouching down her eyes searched for any injuries mostly to his brain.

"Are you okay? You seem.." She paused grabbing his shoulder and pulling him up. "Distracted." She finished her eyes swimming with concern. His scarlet face looked up at her, and she could see his nerves getting the best of him.

"I'm sorry Rae, I seriously just have something plaguing my brain right now." He answered honestly. His gaze fought against hers entirely he didn't want her to she the shame behind his green orbs.

"Oh? Something you want to share?" She questioned moving back to the table.

"Uh.." He paused his voice broken as he willed it to say anything. "I... yeah... I... We..." He stopped catching her look.

"Come on spit it out." She insisted. He winced as he nodded scrambling back to his seat.

"Let's eat first. I need to work up my courage." He mumbled rubbing the back of his head. Her face fell as new scary thoughts came into her mind. Something began to pull on her soul as she had a bad feeling hit her in the stomach. Referring to Starfire's dating advice there was only a few things that you should watch for when a boy is about to crush your soul. His perplexing comment left a sour taste in her mouth and left this pondering question in her mind, had their relationship finally fizzled out for him?

"Are you working up the courage to dump me?" She asked her voice soft but strangely calm. His pizza almost fell out of his hand, his eyes flew up to hers. He looked like he had just been asked to solve a calculus equation.

"Wha- No." He remarked firmly. "No, Raven, I'm not dumping you."

"Then it must be something pretty nerve wracking since your eating my half of the pizza." She commented nodded at the slice in his hand. He looked down and true to her word he had just shoved a pepperoni mushroom slice into his mouth. Inhaling he instantly began coughing and sputtering. After a full minute of him carrying on a coughing fit, he managed to get the bite that had lodged itself into his wind pipe out. Finally raised his tear filled gaze to the girl across from him. She had one eye brow raised showing off that signature look of unimpressed with his antics. Taking another huge gulp of his lemonade he hoped that someone had spiked his drink with some liquid courage.

Before he could open his mouth she took the liberty to speak for him. "Remember when Robin came to me with a secret mission and made me promise not to tell you because he didn't want you to risk the mission?" His eyes moved to left as he recalled the memory. Nodding he pressed her to continue. "And then I got hurt and ended up in the hospital? You were so mad at me for not telling you that I was helping Robin with an assignment?"

"Yes." He replied knowing exactly where this was going.

"Well we promised each other that we wouldn't be afraid to tell each other things. Even if they are scary or insignificant."

"I know, Rae, this is just so much harder to say especially to you." He voice was low and once again he found looking at the table was a much better, then at her face.

"Once again, it sounds like you're leading up to something grim." She pressed. Reaching across the table she grabbed his gloved hand and forced his attention up, by moving her head to his eye level. "Don't be afraid to hurt me, I'm a big tough girl, I can handle it."

Oh irony at it's finest. If only she knew the contexts of how that sounded to him. Keeping his thoughts pure and clean wasn't always any easy feat, but it was all but impossible with her. They had agreed to take it slow but after six months with her he grew more and more impatient every single day. He needed her and he was positive the animal inside of him wasn't going to wait very much longer.

He took a deep breath determined to win against his fear. He took an account of whom may be listening before he started his speech that he had practiced in the mirror at least a hundred times. "Okay, um... What has been on my messed up brain of mine is a mainly a question."

"Ok..ay?" She drawled. If she could see emotion his nervousness would be leaking out of his skin right now.

"It's really a question for you..." He stopped staring at the untouched pizza. "And I have to tell you before I'm going ask, that I don't expect you to be okay with it." Her eye narrowed instantly.

"Is this about what I think it is?" She question having a sneaking feeling that he was about to pop the "sex" question to her. Never actually discussed between the two, sex had been one of the things Raven of all people had been pushing for, where he had begged to wait. Never fully understanding his hesitation she came to a solid conclusion, that because he had never been with anyone else, his fear of being with her got the best of him. Not that it mattered to her, she liked the idea of taking things slow. What Raven didn't know is that if it hadn't been the small tiny hiccup about him, he would have taken her way before this.

"I don't know what you think this is..." Looking back up at her he his cheeks flushed and felt like it was million degrees in the pizza place. "Look just listen okay." He stress his hand raked through his green locks. "What I'm about to ask you is serious." His eyes fell onto his lemonade. "If you say yes, and agree, there isn't really going back. That is, you.." Licking his lips. "We, could never..."

'Oh my God why is this so hard to say? Just say it.' his self conscious berated him.

"Please, you're killing me in suspense just say it." Raven voice. She grabbed her lemonade and began sucking her drink through the straw.

"Raven, will you be my mate?" Beast Boy rushed his tongue catching on the word mate. The next two things Beast Boy heard made him cringe, and he pondered if he should slink underneath the table. First one was Raven nearly choking on her drink. After this the sound of a familiar song began to play threw the speakers.

I've been really tryin', baby
Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long
And if you feel like I feel, baby

His head spun around as he looked at the front counter. Someone had to be playing a joke, why would the pizza place be playing such a suggestive song, as Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On?

'Oh dear Lord, why?' he questioned. He gave a fleatting glance towards Raven to see her recovering from her inhaled drink. Her hand was on her chest as she exhaled shallow breaths. Days probably had passed in that moment, or at least it seemed that way to him. She wasn't saying anything her eyes fixed on him as the gears in her brain spun.

"Mate?" she questioned her voice taut like she was using all her force to say the word.

Raising his left shoulder to his drooping ear he seem to pout slightly. "Yeah." he managed to squeak out. Oh how bad this was.

Raven took another minute to compose herself before her rigidit body became relaxed once more. "Tell me more about this. I want to understand." Her logic had once again returned.

"Uh..." He started his eyes glued to the table. "Well. Mating is actually different for animals than it is for humans."

"Yes I'm aware." she remarked.

"So being that I'm animal in every sense of the word I must choose said mate."

"Mhmm, and you've chosen me?"

"Well, yeah I mean, not only have I as person chosen you, uh... well." He paused gulping once more. "The animal part of me has chosen as well."

"I see." She replied softly. Her eyes were steady and unwavering as she kept them on his doubtful face. "So what would happen if I said no?"

His mouth twisted in protest as he knew she would ask that. He wished that she would have avoided the question all together but there was real no way of trying to get out of it. "Honestly," He choked. "I don't know. I've never had this happen before I just know that I wanted to ask your permission first. I had to, Rae, I care about you way to much."

A small smile crept on her mouth for a moment before she was back to her blank emotionless face. "Going back you mentioned, well more sloppy hinted that there was no going back?"

His stomach turned and he suddenly was so happy he hadn't eaten. "No going back as in if we, uh did it." Any other word seemed wrong and tainted in some horrible way now. "We could never be with anyone else. Ever again."

"and why is that?"

Licking his lip he offered his best answer, "Again I'm not absolute positive I just know what I feel inside and I'm telling you I mate for life. So in other words, life would be very scary if we were part ways." His finger traced across the table as his eyes moved from her blank face to his finger. He was quiet as he waited for years for her answer, or at least it felt like years when you were in a overcrowded hundred degree public place.

"Can I think about it?" She asked finally in her normal monotone voice. His eye bounced up to meet hers as he didn't hold back the smile that graced his lips.

"Yeah," He cleared his throat, "of course you can."

"Thank you." she replied then reach out and plucked a slice of her favorite pizza. She was back to her taciturn self, as she slowly ate. Beast Boy eventually got over the humiliation had decide that this was best possible outcome that he could have hope for. She didn't yell or flat out say no she did exactly what he should have know what she would do. He kept the smile on his lips for the rest of the evening, happy that she was at least considering his offer.