Surprise.

Wow, it's packed in here. Beast Boy thought as Raven drug him into the Book and Bean. There were a dozen people in line ahead of them and probably two dozen more scattered about eating snacks or drinking at tables. Then there were more people out exploring the bookshelves too.

"Right on time."

Beast Boy glanced at Raven, who was looking up at something over the registers. There was a chalk board with the words: BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF written in pink chalk. He couldn't help but to chuckle.

"Didn't figure you for a penny puncher, Rae." He teased. Raven rolled her eyes as she pulled him into line.

"I wouldn't say I'm a penny pincher, per say, but I will take advantage of a good deal when I see one." She replied as she scanned the rest of the board. Beast Boy chuckled again as he too scanned the board. He didn't drink tea, really, and he wasn't a coffee person…but a mocha latte sounded nice.

I should totally buy Rae's drink too. He thought as he glanced at her. Her hand was entwined with his own and it felt pretty nice. It was a feeling that he could definitely get used to.

"Gnark? Gnark Gnark Gnark-"

"What? I don't see any- oh, okay! You sure?"

Beast Boy hummed idly to himself as he and Raven stood in line, swinging their arms a little. Raven didn't seem to mind, which was a good thing in and of itself. He had always been a bit of a fidgety guy so if Raven was okay with it then that was great for him.

When they (finally) got to the counter, he let Raven order first.

"One chai, medium." She said as she reached for one of the compartments on her belt.

"One mocha latte too." Beast Boy said as he laid a ten dollar bill on the counter. Raven looked surprised, pleasantly so, and gave his hand an appreciative squeeze. He glanced at her and found a small smile on her face, which filled him with pride.

Thankfully, the service was quick during this rush. They got their drinks and found a loveseat to relax on.

"So whatcha want to do after this, Rae?" Beast Boy asked as he sipped his latte. It was good, though it could use a bit more sugar.

"Hmm…" Raven sipped her tea carefully. "Not entirely sure, truth be told. The only things I had planned for today was returning a book to the library."

"You go to the library?"

"Sometimes." Raven replied with a shrug. "Occasionally they get new books in and I find something worthwhile."

"You must have found something pretty good then." Beast Boy chuckled as he watched Jericho, Kole, and Gnark settle at a table nearby. The civilians were giving them weird looks and keeping their distance.

"It's called Kama Sutra. It's a self help book of sorts." Raven said softly, more to herself than him. He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You? Reading a self help book?" He asked, wondering if he should be concerned.

A light blush formed on her embarrassed features. "Yes. I need a bit of guidance on…self love…"

Self love? Beast Boy thought to himself. Man, she really does have image issues. That sucks. I should figure out how to fix that.

"I think you're great just the way you are, Rae." He said a few moments later. "There's nothing about you to be ashamed of, ever."

Raven's whole face lit up this time and it was adorable.

"W-well, I-I just…I just wanted to make sure I was doing things right and would do them right." She stammered.

"You'll do fine, Rae. Promise." Beast Boy squeezed her hand a little and smiled at her. After a moment he had a thought and chuckled. "If anything goes wrong, it'll probably be my fault."

"I don't think you could do anything that could make me angry, even if you put it in the wrong h…" She trailed off as she looked at something behind him. She swore. "Azar, I was hoping he wouldn't come in here today!"

Beast Boy turned around (careful of his hot drink) and found a rather tall and muscular guy walking right towards them. His hair was a bit scraggly and he had some five o'clock shadow and a stain on the blue t shirt he was wearing.

"Hey Raven! Fancy meeting you here today!" He called out as he approached. Beast Boy heard Raven make an aggravated noise behind him.

"Hello Anthony." She said monotonously a moment later. The guy moved right in front of them, much to Raven's obvious annoyance.

"Hello to you too Beast Boy! Never heard of you hanging out with Raven before, musta been bored at the tower today." Anthony joked. Beast Boy opened his mouth to reply but the guy kept right on talking. "Raven, can I buy you a drink today?"

Beast Boy did not like Anthony.

"No thank you, I already have one." Raven said pointedly.

"Aw, come on Raven! You never let me buy you a drink!"

"There's obviously a reason for that."

Now Beast Boy really didn't like this guy.

Anthony frowned and started forward. "Come on Raven, just give me a chance, I'm sure you'll-"

In all fairness, that was a really stupid decision. This guy just reached for Raven like Beast Boy wasn't there and he just reacted without thinking, releasing Raven's hand and jumping up.

"Don't. Touch. My. Girl." He growled in a way so vicious that the whole shop stopped dead in its tracks and stared at him in shock. Beast Boy didn't care though, this inferior male was trying to take Raven from him and there was no way in Hell that was going to happen. He'll tear the punk to shreds first.

Anthony might have been a head taller than the changeling, but he jerked away instantly. Beast Boy's nose filled with the scent of fear and his lips pulled back in a snarl as he took a step forward.

"Jesus Christ man, I didn't know, sorry!" Anthony threw his hands up and backed away more. Unfortunately, he bumped right into the now standing Gnark. He turned and faced the caveman, who towered over him.

"Gnark, Gnark Gnark Gnark Gnark." Gnark said, jerking his head at the door.

Kole gasped. "Gnark! Language!"

Anthony didn't understand what the giant nearly naked man said but he most certainly understood the head jerk and the savage growling behind him. He bolted without so much as a backward glance.

It wasn't until he was out of sight that Beast Boy sat stopped growling and sat back down. That stupid punk, trying to make Raven go on a date with him? Oh no, oh Hell no he was not. Stupid inferior male, trespassing on Beast Boy's territory. Should rip his balls off and-

"Gar?"

Beast Boy was jerked from his dark thoughts by the sound of Raven's voice. It took him a moment to respond to her, seeing as he had to come back to reality. Around them, the shop went back to its regular business, albeit a little quieter and with more than a few wary glances directed at him.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell was that?"

He finally looked at her and found her staring at him in awe. He raised an eyebrow. "What was what?"

"You just…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "That was…Azar, I've been trying to get him to leave me alone for months and you bowed up once and he backed off immediately!"

"Yeah, sorry." He shrugged sheepishly. "Its…an animal thing."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "An animal thing?"

"Yeah…males tend to be a little…" He coughed nervously, "Territorial."

Raven stared at him for a moment before she smiled and leaned into his side, wrapping her arm around his. It wasn't the reaction he had been expecting from her but it wasn't unwelcome either. He figured she would get fussy and tell him that she didn't need protecting or anything.

Not that he was complaining, mind you.

"So, who was that guy anyways?" He asked a few minutes later.

"A guy I beat in a poetry contest a few months ago." Raven replied as she cradled her drink and took a sip. "He got real mad that someone beat him until he realized who I was, then started brown-nosing every time he saw me. I was starting to think he was obsessed with me."

Another growl rose unbidden from Beast Boy's throat and he was forced to swallow it. He could feel Raven staring at him, but he refused to look at her. He was honestly bothered by how quickly his animal instincts were kicking in concerning her. This pondering, however, was interrupted by a chuckle from his companion.

The interruption turned into a derailing when a certain sweet smell filled his nostrils.

Now, there were a lot of smells floating around in this shop. Coffees, teas, dozens of people, books, body odor, whatever wafted in through the door, rubber and leather from shoes, the insulation in the ceiling, everything around him had its own scent. He knew what each and every scent was and could track it any given day of the week. Perks of being part bloodhound, part bear, ya know?

But this scent, the one coming from Raven, set his blood on fire. It started an itch in his lower regions that most certainly would need a scratching, but that wasn't something he wanted to do in a public bathroom. Raven had always smelled good to him but this was ridiculous. Why was she suddenly smelling so damn good?

"Something the matter, Gar?"

His attention was once again jerked back to Raven, particularly to the fact that one of her boobs was now pressed against his arm. Good lord, it was so soft and squishy! He wished it was his face instead of his arm. Wait, she's smiling at him…

"Uh…no?" He said nervously, hoping Raven hadn't heard what he had been thinking.

"Whatever it is, I can help you with it." She practically purred as her cloak changed into that purpley red again.

That almost sounds like she knows I'm horny and wants to do something about it. He thought as he shook his head. "I'm okay Rae, promise."

But that's crazy, ya know? Rae's super serious and totes…um…hell, what's the word I'm looking for? Con-something. Constipated? No. Conscripted? Not that one either. Consumed? Nah. Consecrated? No, but close…conservative? Yeah, that's it! She's super conservative.

And that means….?

…

…

Okay, I got nothing. But still, dude, that doesn't sound Raven-y at all.

Well, she did say that she's been into me for a while…

Yeah but its only date number two! She can't possibly be that into me yet!

…fair enough…

On the other hand…boobs. Sweet baby Jesus, BOOBS. I want to bury my face in them!

Down boy, down!

"Gar? Are you listening?"

Yet again, Beast Boy was jerked from his thoughts by Raven.

Only this time she had a communicator in her hand.

He almost scowled. "What is it?"

"Four bank robberies at once, along with a truck jacking and a high speed chase." Raven replied with a sigh.

"All at once?" He asked, surprised. This stuff didn't usually happen like this.

"Robin never reported us as having returned to the police, so I'm guessing that any informants in their ranks didn't find out we were back and passed that info to their bosses." She stood up and gestured towards the other Titans present. "You three are with us, we're hitting a robbery two blocks over."

"Gnark Gnark Gnark Gnark!"

"Um, okay, but me and Gnark have never fought in a city before…"

I am ready. Jericho signed. Raven nodded at them and looked at Beast Boy expectantly.

He sighed and stood up, a little peeved that their date was being interrupted yet again. "Alright, I'm coming."

"Not yet you aren't." Raven muttered. He looked at her, unsure if he had heard her correctly, but she just smirked at him. "Lead on, you have control of this temporary team."

"Alright…" He said uncertainly before he assessed what he had to work with. "Jer, do your ghost thing on the guy closest to any hostages. I want him down before he can turn his gun on any of them. Kole, I suggest shield 'cause these guys use guns and I'm pretty sure Gnark isn't bullet proof. Rae, get the hostages out as quick as you can. We don't have anyone that's crazy strong like Cy or Star, but try not to do anything that'll knock the building down. Our goal is to hit'em hard and fast, dudes, and we gotta do that."

"Hard and fast, my favorite." Raven said with a coy smile. Beast Boy gave her a funny look (cause that was a weird thing to hear) before giving the move out command.

"Titans, go!"

"Well, that was fun." Raven said sarcastically a while later, her cloak orange. "Maybe next time we can show up late and chase them around, it might be more of a challenge."

Beast Boy glanced up from the police report he was filling out. He wasn't particularly thrilled about sitting on the back of a cop car doing this, but it was better than getting shot at like they had been not twenty minutes before.

Raven caught his glance and gave him a sheepish shrug as her cloak returned to blue. "Sorry, that was just so…"

"Lame?" He offered.

She nodded. "Yeah. Five of them, but only three hostages and an unconscious guard. Jericho took one and dropped another, Kole and Gnark got the other's attention, and you dropped down and took them out. I literally didn't have to do a thing."

He raised an eyebrow. "And that's bad because…?"

"I felt kind of…useless." Raven admitted, looking away towards the crowd of onlookers.

"Dude, you are totally welcome to finish filling this thing out." He chuckled. "I hate these things."

Raven snorted and took the board and pen from him. She looked at it for about two seconds before her face screwed up in confusion. "What in Azar's name is this thing you call handwriting? This looks like an epileptic had an episode while there was an earthquake going on!"

"It's not that bad!" Beast Boy protested.

"Gar, I can't read a single word of this!"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Now yer just exaggerating."

"Oh really?" Raven said, raising an eyebrow. "How about I ask an officer?"

"Go for it dude!"

Raven huffed and looked around for a non-occupied officer. She found one and called out to him. He came over a moment later.

"Tell me, does this look eligible to you?" Raven showed him the clip board. Beast Boy wondered why anyone would eat paper.

The man squinted at the sheet. "This looks like the barnyard after two roosters got in a fight, then the hens come through looking for feed."

"What?! It doesn't look that bad!" Beast Boy protested loudly.

"Thank you officer. Can I get replacements?" Raven said as the other sheets burst into pieces and disappeared into a small portal.

"Yes ma'am."

Raven gave Beast Boy a triumphant smile whilst he scowled and grumbled to himself. It was several minutes before he returned.

"Alright Miss Raven, I don't know if anyone told you but these are the new regulation sheets we have. You have to sign your name up here in order for this to be authorized."

Raven wrote her name down, then started filling it out just to be stopped by the cop.

"Your full name, Miss Raven." He pointedly said.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Raven is my full name."

"What? It's just Raven?"

"Mhm."

"Uh…I'm not sure if you should fill this out. The procedure specifically states that a full name, first and last, is required."

"You want him to fill this out then?"

"Uhh…."

"Just use mine, Rae." Beast Boy offered. To him, this was taking too long; he really wanted to get back to their date.

Raven and the cop both looked up at him in surprise, but Raven's level of surprise was far beyond the officers.

"What did you say?" She asked in a slow, hushed tone.

"You can use my last name, Rae." Beast Boy repeated. "I mean, you need one for this and I have one you can have if ya want it. We are going on dates and stuff, after all, so I figure we'll be together a while."

He thought it was awfully nice of him to offer this, but Raven's only response was to drop the pen and stare at him with a full blush on her face. Why she was blushing, he didn't know.

"Beast Boy!"

Said changeling turned around to find Kole waving at him.

"Are we needed for anything else? We want to explore the city more!" She called out.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Nah, go ahead. Rae's filling out the last of the paperwork, then we gotta take our copy to the tower."

"Okaaaaaay!"

The changeling turned back to find Raven filling out the form rather quickly, both her eyes and hand flying across the paper at speeds that Beast Boy wasn't aware anyone could write or read. But then again, this was Raven, the most badass girl he knew.

And his date.

That was such a happy thought, being on a date with someone. It made him happier that it was Raven, cause half the work of getting to know a girl was already done. Now he just had to figure out if Raven was looking for a serious relationship or just someone to be with for a while.

If he was lucky, he might get some smooching in in a few dates. That would be awesome. He's never been kissed before.

"Done!" Raven said a moment later, handing the board to the officer and waiting for their copy. Beast Boy grinned and slid off the car.

"Wanna run back to the tower real quick before finishing our date?" He asked.

Raven nodded rather enthusiastically under her purple hood. "Definitely."

A heartbeat later they dropped through a portal and landed in the tower common room. They immediately spotted Robin, of all people, standing at the main computer watching multiple camera feeds.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Beast Boy called out.

"I could ask you the same thing." Robin responded as he switched the feed on one cam to another. "I'm coordinating the groups in the field. And you are…?"

"Dropping off this paperwork you love so much."

"Alright." Robin said, never taking his eyes off the screen. "I hate to do this again, but I need you to help out."

"Awwwwww, but dude, our date!" Beast Boy whined.

"I know, I'm sorry, but some of them need help." Robin shook his head. "When its done you can go back to your date and I won't call for you the rest of the afternoon. Promise."

"Ugggggh, fiiiiinnneeeee!"

Raven sighed. "It never ends."

Robin also sighed. "No, it doesn't. Raven, help them with the car chase before someone gets hurt. Beast Boy, I need you down on forty third and Sevenger, to help with that truck jacking. It looks like mob work like the robberies do, so be careful."

"Yeah yeah." Beast Boy grumbled before turning to Raven. "Drop me off, please?"

She simply nodded. "Be safe, Gar."

What was supposed to be a quick assist with a truck jacking would turn out to be a four hour standoff with various armed criminals in a warehouse down by the docks. The truck had gotten away while Beast Boy was saving a pair of trapped civilians in a half crushed minivan and he, along with the other Titans present, had been forced to track the truck down. Once there they found out that there were dozens of armed men in this previously abandoned warehouse. Beast Boy figured they had moved in while the Titans were out dealing with the Brotherhood of Evil. The men inside the building had shot at anything that so much as twitched, resulting in several injured Titans and two downed officers.

An hour ago Robin finally had enough and called in a full out assault. The Titans, as a whole, had swarmed the building from every direction, including the inside. The resulting explosions and gunfire leveled the building in the end, but they succeeded in bringing down all of the criminals. It was discovered that this building had been intended for this particular mob to get a foothold in the city and the Titans had indeed come back unexpectedly enough for their plans to be thrown in disarray. Had the mob men known the Titans returned, everything would have been done a lot quieter.

"Thanks Rae." Beast Boy said as he rotated his shoulder. He had been slammed against a rusty railing a bit ago and had gotten a pretty nasty cut from it right below his shoulder blade. It had burned something fierce too. He probably could have healed it, but the idea of getting tetanus left him a bit paranoid, so he asked Raven to heal it. Said girl was actually looking more than a bit drained, most likely from healing everyone that had been hurt.

"You're welcome Gar." She said tiredly. Beast Boy grabbed her hand and pulled her in close so that she could lean on him to rest for a moment. She did so quite willingly, pressing her body to his and burying her face in his neck.

It was a really nice sensation, especially with her boobs pressed against him.

"Alright Titans, time to head home." Robin called out a few minutes later.

"I'm too tired to teleport everyone." Raven mumbled.

"That's fine Rae, we got the Herald, remember?" Beast Boy replied before waving at said hero. He waited for him to respond before he made the hand motions for him to port everyone, that Raven was tired. Herald nodded and blasted of a trio of notes that opened a trio of dimensional doors right to the tower common room.

"You know you wanna carry me through."

Beast Boy looked at Raven in surprise and found a teasing smile on her face. It looked great on her and he couldn't help but to smile as a funny idea came to him.

"Your wish is my command, princess." He said right before scooping her up.

Raven actually squeaked in surprise and it was so goshdarn adorable.

"What are you doing?!" She whispered as he walked towards the portal.

"Carrying you through." Beast Boy chuckled. He noticed that her face was bright red right before she pulled her grey hood down over her face to hide her embarrassment.

"Not in front of all these people!"

Beast Boy laughed this time. "You didn't mind a couple of days ago!"

"That's because things were different then…" She mumbled back. Beast Boy simply shook his head and carried her through princess style.

The common room on the other side of the dimensional doorway was pretty packed, with all sorts of Titans in the way. Why they weren't moving was beyond him.

"A little room, please?" Beast Boy said rather loudly in an annoyed way. Titans big and small spread out, giving them plenty of room to walk.

"Awww, look, BB is carrying Rae-Rae!" Jinx teased. "How sweet!"

"Don't hate, percolate!" Beast Boy shouted back as he walked out the common room door.

Raven peeked out from under her hood. "That's not how you use that word…"

He shrugged. "Never said I knew what it meant."

Raven sighed in exasperation. "Garfield, that word means to strain or filter. It literally made no sense in your sentence."

"Yeah but it rhymed, didn't it?"

"There are over a thousand words that rhyme with hate, including ones with suffixes and phrases, and you had to pick one that had no correlation to what you were saying and no following sentence structure that could possibly justify having that word used out of context all because it rhymed?!"

Beast Boy looked down at her, not having understood a word she said but the last three. "Uh huh…yeah?"

Raven groaned and lay her head against his chest and mumbled to herself.

"You are so lucky you're cute."