This became so much longer than I meant it to be haha. It was gonna be a one shot but it ended up being 17 PAGES so I split it in half. It reads like one long story though. Second half will be up on October 1st. Oddly fitting, since the story actually takes place on October 1st! Enjoy

[ready or not...]

Deep in the darkest depths of the basement, with only the eerie light of her eyes to guide her, Starfire at last unearthed the enormous cardboard box she'd been looking for. She slung it over one shoulder and zoomed all the way back upstairs, giddy with excitement.

"It is the day of October the first!" she declared magnanimously, upending all the contents of her prized box onto the dining room table without preamble. "Please, where is Beast Boy? It's time to decorate!"

Robin fished a rubber bat out of his cheerios and pushed the bowl away. "Sorry, Star. He's not home."

All of the excitement that had her bouncing in the air went rushing out; her slippers touched the ground as she deflated. "But it is tradition," she insisted, sounding a bit like a lost child. "Raven, then," she decided, jumping back on the enthusiasm express. "She has always enjoyed the annual dressing of the common area in freakish adornments such as crows and spiders. She is awake already, yes?"

After a brief hesitation, Robin reached for his glass of juice, only to realize that it too had been contaminated with halloween decor. He brought the glass close to his mask and frowned at the plastic spider ring hidden in the pulp at the bottom. "Raven's actually gone as well."

At this point, Star drooped into the seat next to Robin.

"But the first morning of October has always been the time that we decorate the tower for Halloween." She grew cross. "What activities could be so important that they interfere with tradition?"

Robin looked away pointedly to fight between several facial expressions. Amusement, pity, confusion, amusement again, frustration, and then nothing. He turned back to Starfire with a carefully blank face. "Beast Boy said they were playing hide and seek."

Starfire sighed, she herself fighting between amusement and disappointment at the news. "Again?"

Cyborg cleared his throat in the kitchen and both Robin and Star jumped. They looked over to see him stirring a giant bowl of pancake batter, little flecks of it splatting onto his arms and chest. "Come off it," he laughed. "They're on a date! You really think they're playing hide and seek?" He rolled his eyes and tossed the bowl on the counter to begin his perilous search through the poorly stacked cupboards for a clean pan.

Starfire pressed her hands over her mouth and suppressed a manic giggle as Cyborg unleashed an avalanche of tupperware lids on himself, then turned back to Robin with a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "Do you think Cyborg is correct? I always thought it strange that Raven so readily indulges the hiding and seeking when Beast Boy asks. She never plays any other game he begs of her."

Robin stood with his inedible breakfast and went to the sink to gift it all to the JC sewers. He washed it all down and rinsed the pulp off the plastic ring.

"I dunno guys. Beast Boy and Raven? You really think they'd...?" He pondered it seriously for a long moment, toying with the tired idea that those two were secretly dating behind everyone's backs, then broke off laughing. He'd considered it before but there was just no way. They'd kill each other. "No way. There's a better chance that they're actually playing hide and seek than secretly dating. He pressed the ring into Star's open palm and Cyborg busted out laughing again.

"Mark my words. They are not, I repeat, not playing hide and seek."

.

.

The timer ticked past the ten minute mark, and Beast Boy leapt to his feet. Anticipation and determination surged through his bones like lightning. It was an intoxicating feeling he would never dare try to describe to any of his friends; it unsettled him in an abstract way but he loved it blindly. The sound of the surf hitting the island rocks wafted up from far below and he took this crisp, sunny moment to let everything else fall away, all the distractions of day-to-day life, and then squared his shoulders. Man, he needed this. He wanted it, the way a man lost in a desert would want a root beer float.

He sucked in a breath so deep it dizzied him, then sent off a quick text and stowed his phone.

Ready or not, here I come!

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"Oh, hello!" A lone cashier almost spilled the old pot of coffee she was emptying when Raven ducked into the corner store. Her nametag said "MEL :)" and seemed to have some sort of... glitter. On it. On purpose. Raven wrinkled her nose. "Fancy seeing you here," Mel giggled nervously, and messed with her blond fishtail braid as Raven went straight to the register, summoning a can of green tea and a can of cola from the wall fridge as she went.

"Just these."

When Raven pulled out her wallet, Mel went into a fit. "Nonsense, you don't pay here!" She winked conspicuously and pressed a finger to her lips in a 'shh' gesture.

Raven sighed; it was always tough to refuse preferential treatment. She had nothing against free stuff. But alas, Robin's orders… "Company policy, or your policy?" she asked dryly. The girl clammed up and went beet red, which made Raven crack the tiniest of smiles. "Just take my money." Raven slid the wallet across the counter and let the girl pull out the tangle of bills while she herself rifled through the stack of ten cent postcards and the shelf of candy. "Oh, and this." She passed over a pack of Orbit mint gum on a whim, already unraveling a single piece of it.

When she turned to go with her loot, the cashier called out, "Hey, wait, you forgot your soda!"

Cracking the green tea tab, Raven shouldered the door open. "That one's for Beast Boy." He would need the energy for the goose chase she was going to be leading him on today. (Dare she admit that this was actually kind of fun for her?)

Mel's face went blank, and she looked behind her, fully expecting to see a green lizard on the wall of cigarettes and tobacco. Nope. Just the cigarettes and tobacco.

Raven rolled her eyes and shoved the pack of gum into the back pocket of her jean shorts. "No," (dummy) "he'll be here soon. And… when he asks how long it's been since I was here, tell him that's cheating." She blew a bubble and the glass door clicked shut.

.

.

"How long ago was she here?" Beast Boy thumbed through the postcards, lingering on one that pictured a rainy purple day on an Irish shoreline. This one he pulled out. It had more of her scent on it than the rest, which amused him greatly. It was so… romantic. So not Raven. Which was hilarious! "What?" he suddenly looked up.

The cashier blinked at him, struggling to quell a blush. "I said," she repeated, "Raven said that was cheating."

He pulled a face at the dreamy coast of Ireland. Whatever! They'd never actually agreed on that rule.

"She did leave this soda for you though." Still confused, Mel pulled a perspiring can of coca-cola from behind the register and set it in front of Beast Boy. She'd often dreamed of meeting one of the city's famous heroes, but hadn't considered that it might be so confusing an encounter that she'd forget to ask them to sign her Official Titans Merch wallet. "Did you want that too?"

Beast Boy paused in his chugging of the soda, following her line of sight to the postcard in his hand. "What, this? Uhh yeah, sure." He laughed. Raven was gonna be so pissed that he knew which one she'd liked the most. "Why not. How much?"

.

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Raven finished flattening her chewed gum on a lamp post and gave an ogling mailman the stinkeye through his open door. "What are you looking at?" The mailman swiftly faced forward, and when the light turned green and he sped away.

She shook the half-empty Orbit pack, counted the remaining sticks, then pulled out another to begin chewing. This was gross, and if it wasn't such a diabolical idea she'd never have stooped so low. But he'd found her so quickly last time.

Just remembering it made the construction signs to her left quake, and she picked up her pace with a wary glance over her shoulder. Without a plan, she didn't have long. A ten minute head start was virtually nothing when she wasn't allowed to use any form of teleportation or flight. She knew the whole point of this ridiculous exercise was to essentially lose, but it didn't mean she had to lose without a fight.

Time check: 44 minutes elapsed.

Okay, so at the very least she'd already lasted longer than the previous attempt. This time she bit her lip remembering that failure of a day, and the traffic cones lining the closed street blew into the open sewer as she passed them one by one. She'd barely even made it into the city, and when he'd closed in so prematurely she'd thought his gloating would never end. But instead when he caught her he'd seemed almost disappointed. Closing her eyes to the memory, she pulled out her freshly chewed gum and dropped it onto the sidewalk next to a hundred similar stains.

Her record was 2 hours and 16 minutes. She was going to beat that this time if she had to go to the moon and back.

Stopping in her tracks, she turned another stick of gum into paste and then gently levitated it across the street toward a stop sign.

.

.

Huh. That was weird.

The green German Shepherd sat back on its haunches, contemplating the abrupt end of the trail he'd been following down the gated off sidewalk of a street under heavy construction. One moment there'd been a distinct impression of her on the sidewalk, the next, nothing. It ended right at the corner where the construction stopped. He transformed back to scratch his head in confusion. Had she cheated? Maybe she'd flown across the street or something. No, she wouldn't have, would she? She was always digging at him for for his so-called cheating. But what else could explain the end of the tracks?

With nothing else to go on, the Shepherd wandered across the street, aimlessly sniffing about, until… Bingo! He barked at the stop sign on the other side, startling a passing primly dressed couple, causing the man to drop the shopping bags he was saddled with. Beast Boy transformed back to meekly apologize and then leaned in triumphantly to inspect the little piece of gum stuck to the pole of the stop sign. So she hadn't covered all her tracks.

It wasn't until he'd sniffed out the next telltale piece of gum a few minutes later and half a block away that he began to have doubts about his amazing skills of detection. Yeah it was hers, but where were the rest of the tracks? The only thing that smelled like her on the entire street was this one stupid piece of gum.

And why was she chewing so much gum anyway? This was the eighth one he'd found! Nothing added up. There was trickery brewing here.

Time check: 59 minutes elapsed.

Raven would call it cheating, but he minimized the stopwatch on his phone and pulled up Google Maps. He was curious which direction they were heading. (Last time he'd correctly guessed where Raven was going, and had beat her there and ended the game before it even began. The look on her face! Outsmarted by Beast Boy. He might have even impressed her with that stunt. Imagine that: Beast Boy, impressing Raven! Would it ever happen again in the history of humanity? He kinda hoped so...) So he scanned and scanned the buildings ahead of him on the map, searching for something that Raven would like to do while she killed time. A library or antique shop or something… No, wait. Wait. That was it!

With a smile plastered to his face he took off running. There was an arcade two blocks ahead! That was the absolute last place he'd look for her, so maybe, just maybe, that was where she went! Holy hell, somebody give him an award. Give him a trophy orㅡ

He screeched to a halt.

Crud.

There were only two rules for Raven. (A) No flying. (B) No teleporting. (Or else he'd lose the scent, and then what was the point?). He'd never told her she couldn't use her powers on objects. It had never occurred to him that she could somehow use that against him in this game of theirs. But now, as he looked at the latest piece of gum lying on the sidewalk like it was laughing at him, he thought of one glaring way that Raven could have thwarted him while still following all the rules.

"Shit on a stick!" he exclaimed, earning an indignant look from the exact same couple he'd startled before, who were now walking into a laundromat.

But he was already pulling his phone back out to consult the map again, desperate to outsmart her. What did he have to prove? He didn't know but that sure as heck wasn't slowing him down! Desperately he retraced his own route on foot and at the same time retraced it with his eyes on the map. He'd come south down Festival Avenue, cutting straight through the construction. If his hunch was correct, then Raven had thrown him off with the gum and had in fact turned around at that corner to retrace her own steps and taken a different route. Masking her scent with her own scent. The sly cat. He shook his head in disbelief. But to where? And where did she break off from the path?

He could keep going and find the point of her divergence via Nose. But he wasn't trying to follow in her footsteps her all day, he was trying to find her. He had to cut her off! Where, where, whereㅡoh. Huh. Huhhh. Now that was an interesting idea.

Zooming in on the library on Main, due just northeast of here, Beast Boy wondered if Raven was really cocky enough to pull the same stunt twice. He snorted to himself. Who was he kidding, of course she was!

But was he really cocky enough to abandon the solid trail he had on a hunch and risk losing the game altogether? Hilarious. Of course he was!

A green falcon cawed and went sailing across the road toward Main Street.

.

.

From up on the outcropped canopy of an Urban Outfitters, Raven watched a green German Shepherd hustle by due south on the sidewalk below, following its nose. Immediately after he'd passed she dropped down onto the sidewalk, startling a neatly trimmed couple emerging from the store behind her. She watched Beast Boy for a moment more until the couple obscured him from view, then took off running across the street.

This should buy her a solid block of time. He'd follow her track to its end, then he'd hopefully follow the gum for a few blocks more before growing suspicious. Even then, it should take him awhile to figure out how she'd duped him. Even after that he'd have to relocate her trail and follow it. All in all she estimated she'd gained (roughly) a thirty minute cushion with this little trick of hers. That meant ten minutes to pause for tea at the library cafe was certainly within reason. So that is where she was headed.

Besides, the library was where he'd found her last time. She far was too smart to make the same mistake twice, and Beast Boy knew that, so that meant it was safe to go there because he'd never, ever look there. Really, she had to hand it to herself. She may just beat her record today after all.

The ground floor of the three-story city library was filled as usual with the susurrus of turning pages and hushed whispers, and as always it filled her with a sense of tranquility that was hard to find elsewhere. She beelined for the little cafe counter in the back.

"Oh, hello Raven! My beauty, my love." The tall Caribbean man grinned at her toothily from behind the espresso machine, his accent as thick as ever. The apron was comically small on his oversized body. "Have not seen you for long time!"

Raven fought a surge of embarrassment. Amani had been working here as long as she'd been coming in, and had been there to witness the pitiful end to the last round of hide and seek. She hadn't come in since.

Amani just smiled, his flawless teeth dangerously white, not picking up on her embarrassment even a smidge. "You would like your chai? Or perhaps to try the special of the day?" He passed off the cup he was working on to a waiting student, and leaned toward Raven on the counter. "We have the cajamarca in from Peru, fresh as a baby, direct from distributor. It is coffee instead of tea but my Raven will love it."

Raven found herself nodding. "Alright, I'll take that. Thanks Amani."

She amused herself consulting the map of different countries the cafe imported their coffee from, which was painted on the countertop, wondering how long it'd take Beast Boy to find her if she headed for Peru while Amani whistled and messed with out-of-sight equipment . He'd just barely passed over her coffee when she heard, at the top of someone's lungs, bringing the entire library to a dubious silence, "AHA!"

Raven jolted, spilling her black coffee all over the list of countries. Please, no. She turned. Yep. It was him. He was sauntering toward her with a subdued but smug expression, and something in her just snapped. She wasn't going down like this again.

"Whaㅡhey!" He took off after her as she set out at a dead sprint toward the emergency exit. He'd already found her. Game over. Right? "You can't do that!" She couldn't do that. Could she?

Raven burst into the back parking lot, shielding her eyes against the still-rising sun.

Time check: 1 hour 14 minutes.

She took off toward the road, heading in the direction of the beach. If she could make it to the boardwalk she might be able to lose him in the morning crowd. It was a Monday, so it wouldn't be too busy, but she still might manage it. But would she get there before he caught up?

At the door, Beast Boy dug a finger in his ear and squinted at the cloudless sapphire sky. That emergency exit alarm was killing his eardrums and messing with his senses. But he caught sight of her at the edge of the parking lot and immediately gave chase. He could shift into a cheetah or something and catch her in a second, but it seemed she was still following the rules, so he felt he should give her a fair shot. Human he was, then, as he pursued her down Main toward the boardwalk and the pier. Several times he lost sight of her but always he caught on again, and on several occasions it seemed she was slowing down. But by the time they'd reached the boardwalk and she began to cut through it, he was still far behind. He was beginning to pant.

As she disappeared over the edge of a driftwood stairway that led down to the empty beach, he paused to lean on a parking sign. Jeez, now he understood how she was able to spend so much time on the treadmill during morning workout sessions. He, on the other hand, was dying. How did humans even cope with having only two legs? It was so inefficient. This was killing him!

As he looked over the edge and saw her disappear into the patchwork of wooden beams under the pier, he decided this was a matter of pride. Screw these dumb ham legs.

A falcon again, he nosedived straight off the cliffside toward the shadowed area of sand and went straight through the network of support beams. He curved a sharp left and then fluttered madly to a stop and transformed back directly in her path. Trapped, she stumbled in the sand and collided with his chest. With a huff she looked up at him in defeat, reaching up to throw back the hoodie of her ghost-patterned sweatshirt.

Beast Boy fist pumped the air and opened his mouth to blurt something like haha I win, but instead he felt that familiar hollowness swallowing his victory, that gnawing sensation. The excitement was gone, replaced once more by that dull dull antsy twitchy craving. He should be feeling the sweeping sensation of triumph, but instead felt nothing at all. Well. This sucked.

He deflated and ran one hand tiredly through his windswept hair and hit her with a pointed look. "This isn't working, Rae."

She switched immediately from sore loser to confused friend. "What do you mean? I thought this was what you wanted. I thought it was helping."

"I did! I mean it was. I mean, I don't know. It's just not. It's not working anymore." He groaned and leaned on a nearby wooden beam, frowning at the skeletons of barnacles mixed in with the rust.

Raven's instinct was also to frown, but she carefully pushed the feeling aside. This was even worse than last time. Disappointment was all over his face and she had to wonder, "Did I do something wrong?"

"What? No!" He waved his hands frantically, searching for the right words to convey his disappointment. "It's got nothing to do with you, it's just me. This seemed like a good idea when you first thought of it but it's just not getting rid of that… feeling." He could feel himself turning red. He didn't like talking about this with her; he preferred pretending like they were just playing a game as opposed to exercising illicit urges from his system. "The first few times it did kinda help but now it's just not enough."

Sighing deeply, Raven tucked her hands in her hoodie pocket, looking out toward the sea. "I'm sorry. I thought this was the answer to the problem."

When she'd caught him chasing pigeons in the park one day last summer, he'd reluctantly confided in her that he was sometimes plagued by the insatiable need to hunt. She hadn't been all that surprised, but she did surprise herself by thinking up a game that would allow him to boil off some of that excess carnivorous energy without resorting to pigeon-chasing in public areas. Truly she'd thought it was a brilliant solution. But apparently not.

"It was a good idea," he softened, disliking the sad look on her face. She'd really been trying to help him, he understood that, and appreciated it all the more because it was Raven and any kind gesture from her meant a thousand words. "It's just that… chasing something doesn't really quell the desire, y'know?" He chuckled self-consciously, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. He'd accepted this a few games ago but had kept it going because it was so much fun and it was an excuse to hang out with her and he was still hoping it would work. But... "It actually makes it worse. Chasing something and never eating it, it's like the opposite of hunting. It only makes me want to hunt more."

A smirk came over Raven then as she saw through his words to the heart of the problem. She couldn't help but poke fun though, just a smidge. He was always poking fun at her. Amusement simmered just under the surface of her voice as she deadpanned, "You want to eat me?"

Beast Boy's furrowed his eyebrows and pointed at her accusingly. "I never said that!" Now she was just trying to embarrass him. She knew how touchy this subject was!

"Oh stop." She wouldn't stop smirking though, which riled him up more and more as she continued to shamelessly stare. "If you wanted me to let you actually catch me, you should have just said so."

"Let me?" he screeched. Let him? Let him? Who did she think she was talking to? "I could catch you if I wanted," he spat hotly. "I don't need you to let me do anything."

Sensing an opportunity here to save the game, Raven gathered a bit of energy to her hands. "Okay, hot shot," she drawled in monotone, "then do it." She vanished from sight as a cloud of sand shot up around them on the wings of her powers and blinded him.

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So while I was writing this I came back to edit one day and I was reading over the part after the library and BB is complaining about dumb inefficient human legs. I meant to write HUMAN LEGS. But I saw that I had actually typed ham legs. Somehow. How did I do that. What kind of typo is that. I almost peed my pants you guys... It was so stupid I had to keep it. Seemed liked something Beast Boy would say honestly haha.