A/N: another thank you to everyone leaving reviews and suggestions, and to all my silent reader's as well.

Sorry this one is a little late, I was toying with this and a couple of other things to put in it's place, but the next few chapters are almost complete

Lovingly, Bree

Yesterday's storm had long-since cleared, but it was hot. So hot, that it was barely six o'clock before the titans had been driven from their beds by the sticky atmosphere. Damn south-facing windows.

Though Beast Boy could hear that the others were up, he and Raven were the first to make their way into the common room – bleary eyed and crabby from stuffy weather and disturbed sleep. Neither had spoken, and they simply fell into their usual routine, a comfortable silence between them. As established, Raven was perched on the outer edge of the sofa with a book spread open across her lap and a mug of something herbal on the table before her. Beast Boy was sitting also, not in the centre of the couch but on the ground in front of it, legs crossed and a controller in his hands. In the short while that the two had been sat together, he had completed the first few levels of mega monkeys 4 – again. He was starting to get a bit sick of it, in all honesty, and that, paired with the burning heat of the morning sun blearing through the large windows – was effectively extirpating his focus. His gaze drifted, and as it tended to, fell upon the pale empath.

Despite the time, Raven's hair was as impossibly straight and shiny as ever, the ends curling towards her face by just the tiniest fraction. One side was tucked behind her ear as she read. She sat with one leg up and the other folded under her; her face resting on the raised leg and novel on the other. Smushed against her knee, her heart-shaped face seemed rounder and a sort-of pout pushed onto her lips. The skull adorning her oversized tee wore a baseball cap, FOB escribed on its peak; the black fabric on the cusp of completely covering the shorts she wore underneath. Garfield could smell the warmth of the sun on her skin, amplifying the typical eucalyptus-lavender of her soap and incense. It was very enticing, and he briefly thought how unfair it was, for all these super-hero girls to be so objectively, unquestioningly gorgeous. How did they manage to live with them? Especially unfair, were the round, amethyst eyes that met his now. His mouth began to move before his mind had caught up, and he inwardly cringed at the words that tumbled out.

'I like it when you ditch the cloak, by the way…you're - uh - nicer without it.'

'Yeah? Well don't push my amicability too far. I'm still trying to read.' A faint smile on her lips.

The shapeshifter flashed his own trademark grin but let them fall back into their silence. He continued to observe the girl to his left; not bothering to do so any more discreetly than before, despite being caught. It really was a nice change to see more than just her two – or four – eyes staring out from a dark abyss.

He found Raven's cloak, or the absence of it, to be a fairly dependable measure of her overall temperament that day. Admittedly, it wasn't as clear/reliable as her colour-coded emoticlones – But Gar thought he'd done quite well to notice it. It had certainly saved him from being tossed into the bay a few times. Cloaked, but hood down was relatively neutral, and therefore this was how Raven would be most commonly found. She would tolerate a little banter; he might be able to coerce her into participating more actively in whatever game or outing that was happening. But if the hood came up, it was time to drop it. If Raven emerged from her room with her hood already up – she needed space. No cloak, like today, she was the most carefree. It wasn't even difficult to glimpse a smile without the heavy blue fabric to hide it in (and it boosted his ego greatly that she was clearly better amused by him than she would let on). No cloak days were always good days.

And it was good timing too, because from the excited squeal that came from the other end of the tower – Starfire had just been granted the next activity on her list. Changeling had no success in hiding his smirk as they made eye contact once again.

'What?'

Regulations were still in place, so while a few families milled about when they arrived, the beach was majorly deserted. Many of the food huts and confectionary stands were uninhabited, the arcade and pier closed off completely; an Ilya Bolotowsky of tape adorning the promenade. But the breeze was cool against their skin, waves sparkled, and none of the Titans were dismayed by the vast expanse of sun, sea, and sand that they had all to themselves.

Now, Cyborg sat under the shade of a large beach umbrella, tapping repeatedly at the control panel on the inside of his arm – the music that played through their speakers jumping in synchrony with his jabbing. Raven and Robin, swim-wear clad, stood waist deep in the water, talking between themselves as they waited for the rest of their friends. Starfire, as tradition, had gone slightly overboard in her preparations and had gone back to the T car to retrieve the last mountain of towels and other beach-essentials. Beast Boy had gone with her, but the alien princess had easily stacked the many bags and cool boxes, holding them with one hand and effectively rendering him useless. Instead, he simply walked, or rather flew (in the shape of a large green seagull) back with her, squawking and shrieking in a way that could only be described as in excitement. The Tamaranian giggled and chattered back animatedly, as though she could understand the gull. It was, undoubtedly, an odd sight. However, it brought the remaining three Titans a little sparkle of un-weather related warmth as they appeared over the edge of the sand-dune. They were often passed off as the more naïve or immature members of the team, and in truth they could be, but that was yet another of their strengths. That was the glue that kept them together; friends as well as a team. They reminded them that after all, they were only teens, and (mostly) only human. And they were going to have a perfectly ordinary, perfectly wonderful, day at the beach.

The music finally settled to one song, a happy, upbeat rhythm that could be identified as 'Ride or Die' by the Knocks.

'Go out like dynamite, I'm living life, ride or die.' The lyrics sang.

When they reached the group, Star began to organise the items they'd brought, and the green bird soared towards the sea, shifting back into Beast Boy as it wheeled around and came up in front of Raven. He landed in the water with a splash! But not before he had wrapped his arms around the empath's waist, and swiftly pulled her back into the water with him.

For one, gorgeous moment, she stared at him with wide, shocked eyes. Both of them were successfully soaked, their bodies pressed close together, his hands hovering above her hips as she still gripped onto his arms – and then, as expected, she began shouting at him. They laughed, she stomped from the sea with overdramatic annoyance and plopped into the space beside a sniggering Cyborg. With a wave of her hand, the remaining towels Star was sorting floated up into the air and laid themselves out on the sand. Then, a smirk played across her features, and she raised her hand once more.

Panic. That was all the shapeshifter knew as they made eye-contact – and a colossal, black-crested wave appeared behind him. The force of it washed both himself and the former boy wonder beside him all the way to the shore.

Already covered in sand after their little 'swim' the boys let themselves collapse onto the sand as they shook the water from their hair. It took a while for everyone to reign their laughter back in, Cyborg swearing they'd given him a stitch in his man-made obliques. A giggling Starfire discretely snapped some pictures of the two boys, heads back in laughter and an equally drenched Raven, a pleased smirk still present on her lips.

'Okay, okay!' Panted their Cybernetic friend, once he had finally regained his breath. 'Who's down to be beaten in Volleyball?'

'Well, you need me to play for that, don't you?' Joked Dick.

Beast Boy jogged across the sand to retrieve the net and ball from one of the (many) bags that they had brought, and the tournament began.

The group played doubles for some while, the person refereeing always with one of the disposables they had brought in their hand at Starfire's insistence. On more than one occasion, someone would hit just a tad too hard, and either Beast Boy (shifting into a number of birds) or Raven (using her own powers) would have to rescue the ball before it was stolen by the sea or made its way to the next beach down. One time, points were disqualified when Raven used her magick to snatch the ball out of Cy's grasp.

'I thought it was about to go too far!' She had claimed, a mock-sweetness in her tone that made them all chuckle, and she wiped one off the tally they had sketched out in the sand.

They all got a taste of the sand, whether face-planted or in a kicked-up cloud.

Eventually, Star's nine stomachs began to rumble, so they wrapped up for lunch about two o'clock. The final game (Kori & Raven V Garfield & Vic) was won by the girls, though the boys claimed they were only eager for food, now that it had been brought up, so obviously let them win.

They gorged themselves on a picnic of bagels, snacks and fruits. Starfire snapped a few more photographs of her friends strewn about the blankets – Rob and Cy attempting to throw grapes into BB's mouth and Raven in the background with a lazy smile. When the boys got bored and wandered off for a game of Frisbee, the girls stayed where they were.

Side-by-side, they laid on their stomachs with their heads propped up in their arms, bent at the elbow, mirroring each other's position. In front of Raven was a battered, leather bound book that she had plucked from the bottom of the picnic basket. Koriand'r watched her friends as she enjoyed the warms of the sun on her back. She hummed lightly along with the music.

Another Frisbee, as well as the volleyball, had made their way into the game; she couldn't really tell what was going on, but from the grumbling - Beast Boy was losing.

Fifteen minutes or so later, and he wandered back over them.

'Rigged, I tell you!' He announced in a dramatic British accent as he bent down for the camera discarded to Starfire's right. He pointed it towards them, they looked up – Star humouring him with a smile, Raven by scrunching her nose in a mock-glare; the shutter clicked. Gar stood there for a minute, lowering the camera back to his side, and pretended to glower at Robin and Cyborg, still playing their new game. Once he'd lost the girl's interest, Raven returning to her book and Star gazing elsewhere, he snapped the image he had originally intended to save. He proceeded to flump unceremoniously onto the ground and started pushing handfuls of sand into the shape of a castle.

He noticed that, aside from one being pink and the other black, Starfire's and Raven's simple two-piece swimsuits once again were matching, and laughed quietly to himself. Though a lot more relaxed than she once was, crowded spaces, especially those with excited/emotional people, still weren't something Raven enjoyed, and so on the few occasions that she did go shopping, Starfire was at her side. As a result, a good 50% of her non-cloak and leotard wardrobe could likely be found in Star's also – though in purple, or pink, or orange, as opposed to black, or grey, or blue. They really know how to stick to a theme, he thought, then looked down at his own swim trunks – patterned with green paw-prints. This time he laughed loud, and everyone looked to him.

'So, what next? Donkey ride?' The green Equidae kept that form long enough to be smacked by a black-encased beach ball, although he did manage to convince the girls to paddle with him again.

Cyborgs machinery was more than advanced enough to be waterproof, but he tended to enjoy the other aspects of the beach more, so Robin stayed with him on the shore. He noticed a purple case on the edge of the blanket closest to him and reached to grab it. He slid his thumb across the bottom of the screen, and the camera popped open. The pair took a number of increasingly embarrassing selfies, and then flipped the camera with a tap to take a couple more photos of his friends out in the water. They weren't exactly sure why Star had recently been so obsessed with taking pictures (the two disposables that they had brought with them had already been filed), but they thought the candids might make up for the 50-odd photos they had flooded her camera roll with.

The water was much cooler now, so the three of them stood about knee-deep – acclimatising to the chill of the sea before wading any deeper. A slither of seaweed wrapping itself around her leg caused an exceptionally loud squeal to escape Star, and they were all laughing. And then it got hot – a sticky warmth wrapping tight around Raven. Looking to her side she found Gar watching her, a dumb smile shaping his features, his gaze beginning to wander. She knew from the not-so-tasteful 'compliments' creepy guys left her on the internet that her figure wasn't all that bad, and she was confident enough for it not to have taken too long for Starfire to convince her on the bikini. But while the leotard of her uniform was form-fitting and exposed her legs, it did cover her stomach, and the green-man's admiration gave her more pride than she had expected. Subconsciously, she found herself straightening up, and the arm that had curled itself around her stomach dropped back down to her side.

'Everything okay, Garfield?'

They made eye contact for one, rather intense second, and then he floundered, turning to jerk his gaze elsewhere. As he nodded, finally at a loss for words, blood rushed to his cheeks and Raven took advantage of his flustered state to subtly admire his own form. Smooth, subtle curves of strong, lean muscle unobscured for once…until they disappeared.

A tiny, green fish weaved between their legs. The girls giggled, splashing each other as they tried to dizzy the sea creature that tickled the backs of their knees as it swirled through the water. When that too, vanished – an octopus reappeared in its place. Four of its tentacles reached forwards to wrap around their ankles. Their kicking did nothing to pry of the suckers. Raven could feel its smirk, and she screamed along with Starfire as it's remaining four tentacles dug into the sediment and it pulled them completely into the water.

The cold made both of them gasp as they came back up to the surface, but they wasted no time as they dived back under – chasing after the boy that had dunked them, for Raven the second time that day. They caught him. Star grabbed hold, wrapping her arms and legs around him from behind to pin his arms to his side, Raven approached his front, smiling innocently right before she planted both palms solidly against his chest and shoved him backwards into the sea. Without surfacing, he grabbed her legs and yanked her under again.

They splashed and shrieked, dunking each other over and over until their arms tired, and then they floated and bobbed about until the sky began to turn pink. When it did, they swam back to the others, and Raven used her powers to wrap towels around each of them as soon as they stepped out of the water. As they neared their friends they noticed a number of polystyrene boxes, which turned out to be portions of chips. Cy complained enthusiastically about there having been only one chip shop still open, so the queue had been long – though when it had been pointed out that the others hadn't even noticed he was gone, he admitted that a man at the front of the line had let him push through in exchange for an autograph for his son. The others chided him for this, but thanked him anyway as they distributed the food amongst themselves. Blankets were re-arranged until they were sat in a semi-circle around a small pile of driftwood that Robin had constructed.

Starfire leant forward, pressing her palm against the wood, and it was engulfed in green flame. She nestled back down beside Robin, resting her head against his shoulder, and his arm curled around her waist. Victor sat next to them, and on his other side Raven had once again allowed Beast Boy to lie against her, although this time his head was entirely in her lap once he'd eaten his fill of chips. She leant backwards, her palms flat against the blanket behind her to support her weight, but she looked content enough with the situation. It wasn't clear which sight was more beautiful: the vibrant start of sunset behind the waves, the crackling flames, or the group of friends, entirely at peace. The music had mellowed, now transitioning from Saib to Flamingosis – it felt very coming-of-age movie.

They were all reluctant to get up and pack everything away, but soon they were all bundled back into the T-car, Robin claiming shotgun, and Raven wedged into the middle seat. Quietly riding the high of everyone's peaceful, happy atmosphere, she sat with her legs crossed. Consequently, her right knee was underneath Star (sat with her legs bent and pressed against the seat in front in order to make room for the bags in the foot well), and her left knee was on top of Beast Boy's thigh. He was scrolling through social media, and as he heard Starfire's fingers tap against her own screen, a new post popped up on his timeline; he swiped through the images – the first, a group photo of all of them grinning towards the camera. It was barely forty minutes after they had arrived, but already three of the five had been soaked. Next, a tongue out selfie with the four of them playing volleyball in the background, an artfully arranged picture of their picnic, then a back shot of her and Raven laying in the sand, showing off their matching bikinis. He paused a little longer, momentarily side-tracked by pale grey skin, then continued to flick through. Him, Cy and Robin in a wide triangle as they tossed a Frisbee between them, Robin and Cyborg posing beside the sandcastle he had started, now a four-foot sculpture, a smiling Starfire and Raven, and a Starfire nestled against Robin's chest. The next depicted Cyborg sat with a portion of chips, and him and Raven sat together with towels around their shoulders, his head on their lap. The green fire lit up all three of them as they stared out into the distance, and the picture after that the gorgeous sunset that they had been staring at. The final photo was obviously cropped, a glimpse of Starfire's vibrant locks at the edge of the frame, he stood with his back to the camera, but his blush was evident even on the back of his neck. Raven held his gaze, and facing the camera you could see the gentle curve of her lips in a small smile, and the faintest trace of pink across her own cheeks.

'Raven and BB, sitting in a tree, K – I – S – S – I – N – G!' read the first comment

'Keep your eyes on the road whilst you're driving, tin can.' He called out.

'I'm programmed to have excellent multi-tasking abilities.' Came the response from the driver's seat. He made eye-contact with his best-friend in the interior rear-view mirror, making sure he could see his grin.

'I think you'll find using your phone while driving is still an offence, though.' Stated Raven blankly. She had leaned over to read his comment, and was now glaring at Cyborg intensely, despite the slightest dusting of pink on her cheeks mirroring the photo.

'And so is assault!' He squeaked out, and while Raven smiled dryly as she settled back down into her seat, the rest of them laughed.

Beast Boy gave her a warm smile before he looked back down to his screen, and he saved the picture.