-1Chapter 8: Christmas night

Everyone was in the kitchen helping out with the Christmas dinner. BeastBoy and Starfire were preparing salad, starters and the Table, Raven was cooking chicken with Cyborg and Robin was doing side bits and pieces. When the dinner was finally ready, every one was digging in. Between the pudding and the main course, Starfire handed out Christmas crackers. Raven pulled one with Starfire and then pulled another with BeastBoy. She won with Beast boy. The prize was a little plastic green frog that if you pressed it's bottom down and let got, if jumped.

"It looks like you" Raven joked to BeastBoy. Starfire had won a paper crown and a pencil sharpener, which she graciously gave to beast boy in exchange for a bouncy ball, she wouldn't give away the crown though. Every one was chatting away and being generally happy. When the three boys had started talking about arcades, Starfire turned to Raven.

"Raven, I have something more for you," She said, handing her a box. It was made of shiny card. Raven opened it, inside was a little silver bracelet with half a heart on it. I said Be Fri on it.

"What's this? And what does Be Fri mean?" Raven asked curiously.

"I have one too!" Starfire showed her wrist, a bracelet like Raven's dangling on it, beside the one that Raven bought her. It said St Ends on it. "Put them together," Starfire said. Raven put the two halves together to see that they said 'Best Friends' when put together.

"You really consider me as your best friend?" Raven asked.

"Of course! Friend Raven, you are truly a wonderful person! You can be sad at times, but Im sure there's a reason. You have fought alongside me and aided me in times of need!" She said, hugging Raven fiercely. Raven hugged Starfire back.

"Thanks Star… I really appreciate this." Raven replied, feeling tears in her eyes. They broke apart.

"why give me this now instead of earlier?" She asked.

"I felt it would be more special if I gave you it separately." Starfire explained. Raven smiled.

"It will always be special to me, just because you gave me it," She put it on her wrist and smiled again.

"Thank you friend Raven! I feel like such a good friend now!" Starfire said, beaming at her.

Every one was back in the common room after dinner, bidding a merry Christmas before going to their rooms. Hugging, and giving pecks on the cheek.

"Im glad you really enjoyed yourself tonight… I thought that you'd stay in your room, we all enjoyed your company Raven…" Robin announced, when they were finished.

"Yeah, I did. Don't expect this every night though!" She said coyly, ginning. They all laughed and went off to their rooms. Raven made to her room, but when she heard all the doors slamming, she ran in the direction of the roof of T-Tower. She walked along the roof and sat at the edge, staring up at the sky and thinking of how happy she was. She was so happy that she began to sing. She sang a GooGooDolls song called Iris, even though she didn't really like the GooGooDolls that much, she loved that song.

"And I'd give up forever to touch you… Coz I know that you feel me so now … you're the closest to heaven I'll ever be and I don't wanna go home right now…" She lifted her voice up to the stars, singing as loud as she could. She took a deep breath to start singing the chorus.

"And I don't want the world to save me! Coz I don't think that they'd understand! When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am!" She stopped suddenly and heard another voice singing that song.

"And you can't fight the tears that aint coming… Or the moment of truth in your life, When everything feels like the movies… And you bleed just to know your alive!"

Raven gasped and turned around. There was BeastBoy, sitting at the other side of T-tower, smiling at her and gazing into her eyes. It was clear he had been singing with her. He stood up and walked towards her, singing the chorus again. "And I don't want the world to save me! Coz I don't think that they'd understand! When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am!"

"BeastBoy!" Raven said, tears in her eyes. She stood up went remarkably red.

"Raven?" He said, smiling.

"What are you doing up here?" She breathed.

"Listening to you sing," He said simply.

"I know, it's awful, I'll stop," She said, casting her eyes to the floor.

"No it's not! Raven, is this why you don't sing?" He asked, agog.

"Well yeah. I don't like it when people listen, Im scared encase they think it's rubbish," She said, not looking at him. He put it finger tips under her chin and gently tipped her face towards him.

"Well it's not. I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. I heard you when you were in the shower a few weeks ago. I thought, honestly that there was angels in there." He said, looking up into her eyes for she was a good few inches taller than him.

"Thanks BeastBoy…" She said, her eyes stinging with tears.

"Your welcome, I only speak the truth. Well for once…" He joked. Raven laughed, but then she cried. BeastBoy looked alarmed.

"What's the matter?" He asked, in shock. Tears flowed freely down Raven's face.

"I'm just so happy! You guys let me join in with Christmas, Join in with your games and everything, after all the time I spent shouting and moping at you all. I love you guys," She sobbed.

"Look, can I ask you something?" BeastBoy asked, looking vaguely scared for his life.

"Go ahead." She said, wiping away her tears with her cloak.

"Why were you locking yourself away in your room for ages?"

"Well, I knew I'd have to tell you one day or another… It all started with Terra. BeastBoy, I loved you. I really did. More than I could ever possibly say."

"Oh Raven, Im so sorry…" BeastBoy whispered.

"Don't be. I deserved it for being so jealous. I just wanted so badly to tell you how I felt, but I loved you so much that I just wanted to make you happy… and I saw you were happy with Terra, so I didn't tell you. I knew you didn't like me anyway… It wasn't as if you hid your crushes." Raven smirked at this part, remembering how he had been madly in love with Terra. "And you sobbed over her death, and I began to realise that you would never sob over my body the way you did with her. I just got too upset to be around my friends. I feared for your lives. I knew if my emotions got the better of me, I'd kill some one by accident. That's why I locked myself away."

"Raven, I want you to know that before Terra existed in my world, you were the one I had the biggest crush on. I annoyed you because I was immature. I liked to see you get really steamed at me and chase me around. I couldn't think of any other way to get you attention, so that's the way I done it. I thought that you would realise because your really smart! When you didn't react, I thought you just treated me like a little annoying brat, so I gave up. When Terra paid attention to me, I just gave up on you completely. I thought she was the one for me, but it turned out I was wrong. I wondered why you hated her so much, and I did think that was why, but I pushed it out of my mind when you were mad at me too. Now I realise you were mad because I didn't return your love." BeastBoy explained. Tears kept rolling down Raven's face.

"I didn't realise…. I knew Terra was a lot prettier than me, but I didn't know…" Raven said breathlessly.

"I'm going to tell you the truth Raven, but first want to show you this…" He pulled out three pictures. He gave two of the to her. The first was one he mad drawn today, when she was keeping score for the darts game. That had been why he had been glancing at her. It was so beautifully drawn. The second was one she didn't recognise. It was her again, but this time it wasn't as good as the first, but a close second. It was a picture of her flying in the starry sky, with a solitary raven at her side.

"When did you draw this one?" She asked, tearing her eyes from the page.

"When we first started the Titans. I have loads. I was too afraid to show you my drawings back then," He said. "And look," He handed Raven the next page. It was the picture of Terra on the wall. Raven's tears got thicker as she read the title. My Terra That's all Raven had ever wanted to be. BeastBoy's Raven. He took the drawing back from her.

"Watch this," He tore the picture up into thousands of pieces and threw them into the night. Raven watched as the breeze made the flutter away.

"This is the truth Raven. I love you. I think you're the most beautiful, amazing girl in the world. I'd rather spend a minute with you than an eternity with Terra. Sure she was pretty, but she had no inner beauty. You are beautiful and mysterious both on the inside and the outside. I love you and nothing can change that…" he said, wiping away Raven's tears with his gloved hand. Raven fell into his arms and hugged him closely.

"I love you too BeastBoy," She murmured into his ear… As they stood on the top of T-tower, the first flakes of snow fell around them.