First went the sheets, kicked off into the floor. Then the sheets were back on. She turned completely around, trying and failing to get comfortable on her back, sides, and then stomach. She turned to the left one more time and caught sight of her clock.

12:00 AM glowed mockingly at her. She'd been lying awake for two hours now. Tired of it, she kicked her sheets away again and then sat up. Moving around would be the best thing for her restlessness. She stood up and walked out of the room, neglecting her cloak, since she was fairly sure no one would see her at this time of night. Even if they weren't sleeping, her friends would probably be in their rooms.

She walked with no particular destination in mind, so she felt no surprise when she ended up in front of the door that led to the roof. That place was as good as any to try and tire herself out. She opened the door and stopped short.

"Beast Boy!" she snapped, without thinking.

For some stupid reason, the changeling had climbed onto the three foot high ledge surrounding the roof and was standing so close to the edge that Raven was certain his toes were only supported by air. Even worse, he hadn't been paying any kind of attention to his surroundings. Instead, he'd been staring off into the distance, seemingly lost in his thoughts. It was both uncharacteristic and slightly unsettling. Thankfully, he didn't jump in surprise when she thoughtlessly called out. Instead, he turned and greeted her with his usual grin and butchering of her name.

"Hey, Rae."

"Don't call me 'Rae,'" she replied automatically.

Convinced now that he wasn't up to something more idiotic than usual, she stepped through the doorway and onto the roof. When she was next to him, she stopped, not bothering to climb onto the ledge with him. For a bit, they simply stood quietly together, and then, in typical Beast Boy fashion, he broke the silence.

"Can't sleep?"

"Obviously."

"How come?"

"Just restless for some reason." She considered asking why he wasn't already asleep, but he saved her the trouble.

"Me too. I think it freaks Robin out. He suggested pills a couple times."

That was news to Raven. Beast Boy was famous for sleeping the day away and for being almost impossible to waken. Why was Robin suggesting sleeping pills?

"How long has this been going on?" she asked.

"What? Robin getting on my case?"

"The insomnia." she corrected, rolling her eyes.

"I don't have insomnia."

"Then why is Robin suggesting sedatives?" she asked slowly, like she was speaking to a child.

"It just freaks him out that I can't just go to sleep like you guys can."

"You can't?" Raven had been unaware of this. She'd actually envied how well Beast Boy slept sometimes.

"Nope. I get restless. Like you are right now, just...every night."

Inwardly, Raven gaped. She'd been frustrated enough to hit something when she was in bed before and couldn't sleep. No way Beast Boy went through that every night.

"You do not." she said.

"Do too!" Beast Boy retorted. "It's my animal forms. I have the instincts of nocturnal things and jittery things and things with metabolisms waaaay higher than mine all jumbled up in here." He tapped the side of his head with a finger. "Sometimes it just feels like they're all running like a million miles an hour, trying to beat or claw their way out." He got quiet after that and stared off into the distance again, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Raven stared.

She'd never given any thought to Beast Boy's powers and the issues that might come with them until the "Beast incident." She'd assumed those issues had been resolved once he'd taken Cyborg's antidote. It honestly hadn't occurred to her that he dealt with other...complications.

"Has it always been like that?" she asked softly.

"Huh? Oh! The sleeping thing?" he asked before she could glower at him. "Pretty much, yeah. It's fine though."

How could it be fine? Raven wondered.

"How do you sleep, then?" she said aloud.

At that, Beast Boy grinned down at her. "I got a system. I just have to tire them out. I was about to go flying when you showed up. You wanna come?" he asked hesitantly.

For a second, Raven just looked at him. For some reason, she felt...privileged that he was asking, like he was sharing something that seemed very private with her.

Her silence seemed to discouraged Beast Boy, because he quickly spoke again. "You don't have to. You just said that you were, like, restless, and my flying always tires me out, so—"

"I'll go." she whispered, and she felt something in her flutter when he grinned.

"Come on." he said, holding out a hand.

She levitated up to his eye level instead. "Not necessary."

"Oh. Right." he said, taking the hand he'd offered and using it to scratch his head. "Well, let's go!"

With that, he transformed into a peregrine falcon and took off towards the bay, Raven right behind him.

The flight started out in a fairly typical speed, but Raven soon noticed that they were speeding up. Rapidly. In midair, Beast Boy changed into another bird, and then he sped up even more. She was able to keep up, but it was taking much more effort than she was used to. They had to be flying at least a hundred miles an hour, probably more.

She allowed the surprise to show on her face when he sped up yet again and then began executing a series of sharp loops, twists, and dives, always keeping pace with her, even though she was flying straight and as fast as she could. After a couple of minutes of aerial acrobatics, he was back at her side. She had no idea how a bird could look mischievous, but he pulled it off. He was going to try something.

"Don't even think about it!" she called over the wind whipping around them.

He simply squawked and flew up before morphing back into his human form and beginning to fall.

"I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD!" she heard him bellow as he fell past her. He transformed back into a bird and flew up until he was above her again. He morphed back into a man and dropped again. "SHINING, SHIMMERING, SPLENDID!" He turned back into a bird, flew up once more, and morphed back into a man.

A tendril of her soul-self snatched him out of the air, and she stopped, holding him a few inches in front of her. "You will not do that again."

"The singing or the falling?" he retorted cheekily.

"Both," she growled.

Without another word, she flung him away from her and watched as he transformed back into a falcon. His showing off out of the way, the flight seemed to take a more serious turn. It got faster and faster, and Beast Boy continued to pull off acrobatic feats in quicker succession. Raven was developing a headache using so much mental energy to keep up.

After what felt like an hour, Beast Boy flew over her again and morphed back into a man. As he fell, her magic snatched him up again and yanked him over to her.

"What did I say?!" she demanded, her headache making her snappish.

"I wasn't doing it to goof off this time, I swear. I just needed a way to tell you that I'm getting ready to head back now."

"Fine." she replied, letting him go. He transformed into a bird and flew back in the direction they'd come. She followed.

She wasn't sure what time it was when they made it back to the tower. All she knew was that she was practically dead on her feet when she landed on the roof. Had they flown any longer, and she might have simply dropped out of the sky. She'd realize later that she could have used a portal to come back to the tower, but she'd been too tired to think of it.

She yawned. "Now, I understand why you sleep so late." she said thoughtlessly.

Beast Boy grinned. It seemed all the grueling flight had done to him was relax him. The cretin.

"Let's go in," he replied. They started walking toward the door, Raven significantly slower than him. He adjusted his stride so that he walked next to her, but when she stumbled as they were going through the door, that seemed to be the last straw for him. Without consulting her, he put one arm behind her shoulders and hooked the other under her knees, lifting her up bridal style. "Come on, Rae."

"This is unnecessary. Put me down." she demanded. Or demanded as well as she could when she was so exhausted.

"You were about to fall over." Beast Boy replied. He shifted her in his grip and continued to carry her through the halls.

"I stumbled. Once." she grumbled.

"You were gonna pass out right there on the roof."

Though it was probably true, Raven still didn't like being carried around like a child. "Was not."

Beast Boy chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothin,'" he replied. At this point, he made it to her room. He adjusted his grip again and quickly typed in the override password to get into her room.

"People don't laugh at nothing." Raven insisted.

"It is nothing." Beast Boy said, "You're just...cute like this is all."

Normally, being called cute would have either embarrassed or infuriated Raven. At the moment, she was too sleepy to do more than say, "I am not cute."

"Sure, you're not."

"I'm...menacing." she said with a yawn.

"Totally."

"I am darkness."

"You are the night." Beast Boy agreed, wondering if she knew he was about to make a joke.

"I'm Batman." Raven deadpanned, and Beast Boy snorted, almost dropping her. She totally stole his joke, and that made it even funnier.

Gently, he laid Raven onto her bed, and then scooped up the blankets that had been kicked to the floor.

When Raven felt her blankets on her again, she yawned and wrapped them even tighter around her.

"'Night, Batman." she heard Beast Boy tease.

Having no idea what he was talking about, she simply told him to shut up.

"'Night, Raven." he whispered seriously, and she felt something brush her forehead. Granted, it was so fast, she might have imagined it. Ridiculously, she thought he might have just kissed her.

"'Night, Beast Boy." she whispered, and then he was gone.