(I do not own Teen Titans)

Innocent Remark?

It was a late night in Titan's Tower, most of the team had already gone to bed. But Raven was deeply engrossed in one of her favorite books and she sat comfortably on the sofa in the common room, with her boots kicked off and lying on the floor.

Nearby, but not too close, Beast Boy slouched on the sofa watching tv with the volume low. The movie was just ending and he yawned and stretched.

"I had this dream that I kissed you," he said casually.

After a moment, Raven's gaze slowly rose from her book. She hadn't quite heard what he'd said, but had the feeling it had been something a bit unusual.

"What?"

"I just had this crazy dream last night. You were reading a book and for some reason I kissed you". He looked around for the tv remote.

"O…K…" she said slowly. "Then what happened?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "I don't know. That's when I woke up".

Raven gave a sigh. "I can't believe we are having this conversation." She set her paperback book face down on her lap and folded her hands to quiz him like a teacher might do to a student who hadn't done the assigned reading. "So, what do you think would have happened?"

"Raven, I don't know. It was just a dream."

"Fine," she said with some annoyance in her voice. She was about to go back to her book, but thought maybe she should get to the bottom of this matter first.

"So, you had a dream that…what?" she shrugged her shoulders. "You grabbed my book out of my hands, threw it down and started mauling me? What do you think would have happened next?"

"Well…" Beast Boy said thoughtfully. "I think you'd be pretty mad if anyone threw your book down. You don't like any creases in the cover or any torn pages." He glanced in her eyes. Her expression had softened for a moment, as she had to acknowledge to herself that he had been quite perceptive in this regard.

"And you're not really big on 'mauling'. So," he continued, "I think you would have…shoved me away, maybe punched me in the chest and stormed out of the room. No, wait. Before you left the room you'd have caused that black shadowy bird thingy to punch me again".

Raven paused and considered what he had just said. Slowly she nodded in agreement. "But it's called my 'soul-self'," she clarified. "We've discussed this before."

"My bad," he said, raising his hands in an apologetic gesture, but a small twinkle in his eyes. "'Soul-self', got it".

"Ok, then. Otherwise, I think you have accurately apprised this situation. I'm going back to my book".

"But the dream wasn't that I grabbed your book, or that I mauled you," Beast Boy added.

Raven looked back at him. "Ok...So you dreamed…" She threw up her hands as she racked her brain for ideas, "You startled me by pressing your lips against mine while I was peacefully reading. What do you think would have happened?"

Beast Boy put his hand on his chin and thought for a moment. "You would probably say 'Eeewww' and push me away and then run out of the room".

"No punching?"

"No. You are supposed to be a pacifist after all," he reminded her.

She again thought it over. "That sounds reasonable, I suppose. Well, glad we got that taken care of. I'll be able to safely read in peace". She looked back down at her book.

"But, Raven… the dream wasn't about me startling you, or forcing anything. I can remember that much. We were just sitting together, and you looked at me, and I guess I sorta …leaned in and gently gave you just a little kiss." With some difficulty speaking, he added, "What do you think would have happened next?"

At least ten replies came to her mind, some cutting, some sarcastic, some simultaneously cutting and sarcastic. But somehow she didn't say any of them.

"I don't know," she said softly. She glanced into his green eyes and then immediately down at her lap. "When I had a dream like that, I woke up at that moment too".

She held her gaze down and sat motionless. Racing thoughts filled her head. Shouldn't have said that. Really shouldn't have said that. No one spoke for what seemed like a long time. Finally she had to look up to see what his reaction was.

Beast Boy had scooted a little closer, but wasn't daring to make eye contact. His heart was beating fast. He managed to say "Do you, um, think we should…find out?" With the last words he glanced back at her, but she immediately turned away.

"No," she said at once, and hoped that ended the conversation. But it didn't.

"Um, why?" he said with hesitation.

Raven fumbled for words. Saying "no" came to her mouth immediately, but coming up with a convincing reason was giving her some trouble.

"Uh…We've…We've talked about this whole thing too much. It would just be too awkward now. Too awkward. Just forget I said anything, ok?" She was exposed, like a ship in the open ocean. She needed to get back to the safe harbor of her book. She didn't want to be rude. She just wanted to get back to her very interesting book.

"Ok?" she asked again in a gentle tone.

"Ok," he said after a pause. "It's late. I need to go to bed anyway".

"Yes, it's very late. You need to get some sleep. I'm just going to finish this chapter." She scanned the page, trying to find her place, but she couldn't remember where she left off. What was this chapter even about?

"Oh, well. It was just a silly dream. Maybe a little nice, though," he remarked.

"The dream was nice," she allowed, as she read random words on the page without comprehending them.

That was when Beast Boy scooted in and gave her a tiny, soft kiss on the cheek.

"Good ni-" he tried to say.

She froze, her eyes widening for just an instant. Then she turned her head and their lips were pressed together. A second passed. Now his eyes widened. Then their lips broke contact.

"I don't think that was in my dream," he said.

Raven swallowed the lump in her throat. She gave a slight smile. "I've had more than one dream about this," she admitted, and pulled him in to do a little better job the second time.