Elisa-Krane: Finally, Chapter 5 is done! Took me forever to write it because, well, I'll tell you the truth, I was busy for the first two weeks of waiting, then the third week I had a bit of writer's block and to top it off, my computer was having issues with me. But, thanks to my mom who gave me inspiration to help me continue. This chapter (and the story, for that matter) still wouldn't be finished if it wasn't for her help. Also thanks to the loyal readers who've reviewed for more than one chapter and also thanks to the handful of you out there who have added my story to your favorite stories list! I'm so glad you all love my story! So, thank you for waiting for Chapter 5! It has finally arrived! Woohoo! So enough of my rambling and on with the story!

Disclaimer: If any of us here DID own the Teen Titans, wouldn't we just instead turn our stories into episodes?

Claimer: I DO own Sharice's Café and Poetry Bar. And Sharice. And the poems, no matter how bad they suck. Yeay for me. Oh, I'm sorry if the poems are bad, they kind of are supposed to be, because the characters aren't master poets here... well, except for Raven... or not?

A Heart Sought After

-=-=-=-

Chapter 5- The Poetry Bar

It was now 7 PM as Robin, Beast Boy, and I said a temporary goodbye to our friends as we left the tower to go to Sharice's Café and Poetry Bar. Well, they did not know that we were going to Sharice's Café and Poetry Bar or that the place even existed. This was the first time that I took them to one of my hangout spots, so I didn't expect them to know that it existed.

We took to the skies, Robin flying on a small black disk I had created for him to stand on and Beast Boy as a bird. We set foot on the ground nearby the place not a minute past 7:30. I was glad that we arrived on time. The Poetry Bar would open up at 7:30 every Wednesday and Sunday nights, people would fill the seats within the next half-hour, and then promptly at 8 the poetry readings would begin. I made sure that before we left that the boys had remembered to bring their newly-written poems as well as the one I had written earlier today.

Now I use the term Poetry Bar rather lightly here. I do not mean that the place is an actual bar with alcohol and old men with beer bellies who sit around and drink their lives away. I mean that if anything, it is more of a teenager-friendly place than an adult-friendly place. Even better, it does not permit alcohol or any kind of drugs within the building whatsoever. Most of the people that work there are young college students and are also the closest friends I have outside of the tower.

I smiled as I looked at the building before we entered. It was fairly small with dark gray aluminum siding surrounding all of its sides. Dark vines crept up and around the building in every which way they could, and no one dared to stop them from doing so. The blind-covered windows were, as usual, closed shut, as well as the black blinds themselves. They were almost always like that because most of the people who came here were people like me who particularly did not like the sun and wished for the building to remain dark all of the time. The only light that did enter the room came from dim ceiling lamps that hung around the room and from the cinnamon-scented candles at all of the tables. A faded wooden sign that read Sharice's Café and Poetry Bar hung lazily over the main doorway as if it were to fall any moment.

"Whoa, you GO here, Raven?" Beast Boy asked, gawking at the building's gothic features, not moving his eyes away for a moment.

"No, of course I don't," I said sarcastically, "Of COURSE I go here, smart one."

"But it-it-it's so creepy!" He stammered.

"It's not creepy. It's dark like me, and if you think that it's creepy, then you must think that I'm creepy too," I replied. If he couldn't handle this simple little poetry bar, then what made him think he could handle me?

"I never said that you're creepy...In fact, I think you're wicked awesome!" He exclaimed.

"Then don't dis my hangouts," I replied sternly.

"Ok, I won't."

Meanwhile, Robin looked more excited than anything else. It wasn't every day that he got to go to a poetry café with one of his best friends and more importantly, the girl he liked. But then again, he still has no idea that I know that he likes me. Neither of them do.

"Is it even open, Raven?" Robin asked, noting the boarded-up look of the windows.

"Yes it's open, Robin. Don't worry, just stay with me, and you'll be fine," I stated, gesturing the boys to follow me inside the building. They followed as I opened the door and walked inside.

Inside the building were two main rooms. When you first walk inside you see to the right a regular-looking bar, but this bar was unlike typical bars. Normally you would expect to see a haze of smoke in the air, some sports game on the TV, and loud bantering from older men. Instead, there was no haze, there was no TV, the room was quiet, and there were teenagers as an alternative of men.

These teenagers were mostly in their mid to late teenage years, sitting on the stools drinking different sorts of herbal teas. Many of these teenagers wore dark colors like I did and would be referred by most people as goths or punks. I personally did not like to stereotype people and merely referred to them as 'socially reserved'. After all, if I stereotyped them, then I would be stereotyping myself too.

The room to the left was the actual Poetry Bar area, where the room to the right was the café area. We walked into the building's café area as I closed the door behind us and watched them look around and study the room.

"Yo! Who turned off the lights!?" Beast Boy exclaimed, bumping into random objects in the dim light. I do have to admit, walking into a dark room after being outside in the fading sunlight would freak me out too if I were him.

"Don't be stupid, Beast Boy. It's SUPPOSED to be dark," I retorted and rolled my eyes, even though it was hard to see my expression under my hood and in this lighting.

"But, I can't see!" He exclaimed, "It's too DARK!!!"

Robin put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and turned Beast Boy around to face him.

"Beast Boy..." He said in a calm and soft voice, "Don't start complaining. It will only make her like you less. Just, for once, humor her, ok?"

Beast took this statement, though, as Starfire would.

"Humor her? I've TRIED humoring her, but she doesn't laugh!" He replied, oblivious of the word's other meaning.

Robin just smiled and shook his head.

"I meant that you should stop complaining and try to make her happy. She's not going to be happy if you complain about the places she likes," He explained.

"Ok, I'll try," Beast Boy replied to Robin and then turned to face me, "I'm sorry, Raven. I won't complain anymore."

"Good," I stated, "Because Robin's right. I won't be happy if you start complaining about the places I like."

Just then, Sharice, owner of the Café and my closest friend here, came up to us. She's in her mid-20's, but due to her short height, she looks as if she were my age. She pushed a section of long, black hair away from one of her jade green eyes and behind her ear with one hand as she shook my hand with the other.

"Raven, how good it is to see you again," She smiled as we shook hands.

"Likewise, Sharice," I replied, relieved to see her after dealing with these two for the past two days, "And I brought friends today. They'll be reading poems with us tonight."

"I'm glad you could join us," She looked to Beast Boy and Robin, "You two are also Titans, right?"

"Yes we are," Robin replied, "It's nice to meet you, Sharice. I'm Robin, and this is Beast Boy," He gestured to Beast Boy, who waved to Sharice.

"Ah, I've heard many things about you two from Raven. It's good to finally meet you in person."

"I'm surprised that she hasn't mentioned anything about you to us," Robin commented and looked at me.

"I didn't think you two cared about my local hangouts and the friends I know at them; therefore, I did not feel inclined to tell you about any of it, because I assumed that you wouldn't care," I explained. I mean, it would be rather annoying of me to ramble on about things your friends don't care about without taking any consideration for their feelings about them beforehand. It would be rather annoying of anyone to do so.

"Of course we care, Raven! You can tell us anything!" Beast Boy exclaimed, a beaming smile on his face. Robin, on the other hand, seemed concerned and had a serious expression on his face... or at least it seemed so, but it's not exactly easy to tell with that mask he always wears that covers his eyes. It's not like he doesn't hide things too.

"You shouldn't hide things from us, Raven. How are we supposed to know what goes on if you don't say something? How would we know if there was something troubling you if you don't give us a clue?"

"I'll give you a hint: Listen carefully to my poem," I replied as more of an order than a hint.

"Well I guess you'll have to read your poem to us so we will understand," Robin stated.

"I was already planning on doing so, that is, after you two read your poems," I replied once again. I hoped that if I read mine last, then it would have a greater impression on them than if I had read before them. By the time they would have read their poems, they would have forgotten about mine.

"Why after our poems? You're the better poeist, or whatever it's called."

"Beast Boy, they're called poets. And I think it would work better if your poems were read first," I said, "That reminds me, we haven't gotten our seats yet. We should find a table soon or else we'll have to sit on the floor," I added, remembering why we were here.

Beast Boy dashed off into the poetry bar room, saying something about his butt falling asleep when sitting on hard surfaces. Robin quickly followed after him, warning him to be careful in the dark light. I turned to face Sharice.

"I'm sorry if they cause a ruckus of things. I took them here because they wanted to know me better and yesterday didn't exactly turn out so well," I commented with a sigh.

"So I've seen. I read it in the papers and saw it on TV. I felt really bad about you and I was going to say something when I first saw you tonight, but once I saw Robin and Beast Boy here I knew better than to bring it up again in their presence," Sharice replied, then smiled, "Think of it this way, you never had to set foot into a pair of skates."

I thought about it for a moment, "You're right. My powers got me out of having to learn how to skate."

She nodded, "Yep... Well, I best get going, it was great seeing you again, Raven."

"It was great seeing you too, Sharice. I'm sorry we didn't have much time to talk."

"It's okay, we can always talk about this another time."

"Perhaps the next time I come here," I smiled, "I can tell you all about everything that's happened."

"That would be nice," She replied. We shook hands once again, and then she left the room through one of the "Employees Only" signs.

I walked over to the bar and ordered three mugs of cinnamon-flavored herbal tea. The waitress prepared them for me, and a few minutes later I was walking into the Poetry Bar area, looking around for Beast Boy and Robin. I spotted them over in one of the round tables in the middle of the room, talking about something. As I approached, they noticed my presence.

"...Too bad she insists on us going first...oh, hey Raven! We didn't see you there!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pointing to an empty seat located in-between him and Robin.

I set down a drink in front of each of them as I sat down in the previously mentioned seat.

"Be careful, it's hot," I warned them.

"Thank you," Robin stated, smiling at me as he carefully stirred the tea and blew on it to cool it down.

"You're welcome," I responded, looking to Beast Boy, "I don't want you two to get your tongues burned, and I hope you don't mind that it's cinnamon flavored."

"Thanks for caring," Beast Boy said politely and smiled as he leaned in near the mug and breathed the scent evaporating from it.

[They're both so peaceful right now. I would hate to turn one of them down and make the other one hate me. I would hate to make enemies out of my friends, my teammates. I just hope they realize that before any damage is done. After all, it wouldn't be good for the team if the members were feuding and weren't focusing on working together. It wouldn't be good if we all had issues with each other that got in the way of everything.]

I blew on the tea on my mug as well and then took a sip of tea.

"Hey Raven?"

"Yes, Beast Boy?"

"I just wanted to apologize in advance...for my poem...it's really really horrible, and I just wanted to warn you that I'm not the best poem writer you're gonna come across..."

"I don't expect you to be good. I'm just curious to see what you come up with," I replied.

"Yeah, but it's not worthy enough to be read here! It's just a bunch of sentences chopped up and stuck together in some weird columny-thingie..."

"Don't worry about it, Beast Boy. She says she doesn't expect us to be good, so don't worry about if it's good or not," Robin commented.

"Ok, but I'm warning you..."

"And I'm warning YOU that your whining isn't helping anything," I added.

"...I'm shutting up now," He gestured zipping his mouth shut and sat quietly, twiddling his fingers.

I looked to Robin, "Are you going to complain too?"

"Nope. My poem isn't all that bad," Robin replied, smiling at me.

"Good. I didn't take you two here to hear you complain," I stated, leaning back in my chair as Sharice walked onto the stage in front of us. The rest of the audience snapped (because it's proper to snap for poetry readings) as did I as she made her way to the center of the stage where a microphone on a stand and a cushioned stool were located. Robin and Beast Boy picked up the cue to start snapping as well. Once everyone stopped snapping, Sharice spoke up.

"Good evening everyone. Welcome to our Wednesday night poetry readings. I'm glad that all of you could make it here tonight..."

From the corner of my eye I saw two figures walk into the room. I could easily tell who they were because one was glowing a faint neon blue in the dim lighting and the other one had glowing neon green eyes.

"...As most of you probably already know, I'm Sharice, the owner of the cafe and poetry bar. I will also be your host for tonight..."

The two figures sat down in a booth in the back, obviously trying to not make themselves present. I chose to pretend that I did not know they were here and see how long it took for Robin and Beast Boy to notice them.

"...For those of you who are new here tonight, I hope you enjoy your first evening here at one of our poetry readings..."

I saw them talking to each other in a mere whisper but could not make out what they were saying over Sharice's speech. I decided to turn myself around to face the stage and listen to her speech.

"...I hope that you make yourselves at home while you're here and don't be afraid to talk to the locals here. I'm sure that they will be happy to help you get accustomed to our policies and help introduce you to everyone else..."

"Good. We're not late," One of the voices whispered to the other in a soft, low, masculine voice.

"Yes, I am very pleased that we did not arrive late. We will still be able to hear the other's poems," The other whispered back in a higher, more feminine voice.

"I don't know why you didn't just ask if we could come with them," The first voice replied.

"It would be rude of us to invite ourselves to come along. Plus, they wished to make amends for all that occurred yesterday and get to know each other better," The second voice replied back.

"...I want to say one last thing before we begin tonight's readings. Don't forget that not everyone will have good quality poems, but it is important that we are supportive for all poems, no matter how bad they are..."

"Don't you think it's rude of us to show up without their approval? They didn't want us to be here in the first place."

"Perhaps they will be mad, but they should be able to understand that there was nothing to do back home. Once I had finished the washing of the clothing, there was nothing else for me to do. And you do have to admit that you also had nothing to do tonight."

"...We are all here to express our feelings through poems and help each other become better poets. So be sure to snap for everyone's poems, no matter their quality..."

"Yeah, and I wasn't about to try and teach you how to play video games once again," The male commented, his voice still a whisper.

"I am sure that our friends will be understanding of our situation. Plus, I am looking forward to hearing their poems," The female smiled, looking at the table where the other three Titans sat and then at Sharice.

"...With that in mind, I leave you to our local poet Amanda, who has been reading her poems here every Wednesday and Sunday for the past four months! So put your fingers together and welcome Amanda as she starts off tonight's poetry readings!"

Amanda made her way onto the stage as Sharice made her way off the stage. Everyone began snapping with the exception of the two people in the back, who were both clapping instead of snapping. I glanced back as did a few other people to the two, who caught our glances and stopped clapping.

-=-=-=-

After about 15 people read their poems, I decided that the boys were ready to read theirs. I nudged Robin in the arm and pointed to the stage, suggesting that he should read his poem.

"You sure?" Robin asked.

"Very." I replied. With that, Robin went onto the stage with his poem in hand. I heard a few murmurs run through the crowd, probably about how there was a Teen Titan other than myself reading a poem here. I saw Beast Boy give him a thumbs up and I nodded to signal it was ok for him to begin reading.

He cleared his throat and sat on the stool, trying not to mess up his cape in the process. He unfolded the paper in which the poem was written on, and began to read it.

Night

Dark, mysterious, concealing,

But mostly mysterious.

The opposite of day,

Night does not like light.

It does not like the sun

Blaring down upon it

So thus, the night is pale,

Yet dark at the same time.

As the daylight fades,

Shades of blue, black, and purple,

But mostly black,

Take its place.

With it, the night brings

Mystery, magic, and surprise.

Sometimes, night brings inspiration,

Keeps you awake, keeps you pondering.

I look upon the pale gray moon,

Surrounded by its mystical colors,

And notice its beauty as I wonder

What secrets it might hide

Underneath the facade it shows to us.

We all snapped our fingers as soon as he finished. Robin stood up, bowed to the audience, and left the stage back to our table.

I was purely shocked by his poem. The average person would hear it and consider it a pretty or a well-written poem, but I could easily tell its hidden meaning. The whole poem was a metaphor between the night and I. He wrote about me in his poem, but it was so cleverly worded that not many people could tell that it had anything to do with me. At least, not without hearing or reading it a second time or my telling them that it did have to do with me.

Robin sat down at our table and re-folded his paper. I glanced at Beast Boy, the shocked expression still on my face but luckily still concealed by the hood and the light. He obviously understood that I wanted him to read his now and quickly dashed up to the stage. Once again, murmurs were heard from the crowd. But this time, I could also hear comments about his green-ness along with his being a Titan other than myself.

I looked to the booth in the back of the room where the two people sat to see what their expressions were. One had a shocked look on their face while the other looked ecstatic. I turned to the stage, where Beast Boy had sat down on the stool and was waiting for the room to be quiet. Perhaps instead he was waiting for me to be paying attention because he started as soon as I faced him.

Poems. Those blasted poems.

I try and be nice to her,

And she turns me away.

I try to make her laugh,

And she ignores it.

Then she goes and says

Some sarcastic comment

And acts all emotionless about it.

Ha. Like she could really ignore

A guy like me.

I try to get to know her better,

But for some reason,

She keeps shutting me out.

I don't know what I did

To make her all mad at me,

But whatever it is,

I want her to open up.

She can't hide forever,

Because I won't let her hide.

She really needs to open up a bit.

So then she tells me to write

One of those blasted poems.

So here I am, trying to write a poem.

I guess I have no choice

As long as it makes her happy.

Snaps were heard after his, although I don't think there were as many. It turned out that he DID say the truth after all, that his poem WAS merely a bunch of sentences put together. And since there was the belittling of poems in his poem, even less snaps for him.

There was one person, though, who didn't seem to care how crappy his poem was and seemed like they loved it just as much as Robin's.

"Oh how GLORIOUS! Our friends have recited such wonderful poems-"

"Keep it down, Star, you're gonna embarrass the others," The male voice, which belonged to Cyborg, stated after covering Starfire's mouth.

Robin as well as I turned to the back of the room and glanced at the two other Titans who had now made their presence known to the everyone else besides me.

"Starfire? Cyborg?" Robin asked quietly as he made his way to the booth where they were located at. As soon as Beast Boy got off of the stage and caught up to where I was standing, we followed Robin to the booth in the back.

"We are ever so sorry for disturbing your evening," Starfire apologized, "I understand if you are angry at us for being here when instead we should have stayed home just like you wished for us to."

"Starfire, we're not mad at you. In fact, we're happy you could join us tonight," Robin replied, smiling at the other two.

"We're happy we could too," Cyborg smiled, "Those are some wicked poems you guys read out there. I can't wait to see what yours is like, Raven."

"I'd read it to you, but someone else is already up there," I commented, pointing to the stage where someone was beginning to read their poem. The others looked up and decided to be respectful and be quiet while the boy read his poem.

And after he did, we snapped while I left the group and made my way onto the stage. There were no murmurs this time because almost everyone knows me here as one of the locals and they have an idea what kind of poems to expect from me. I sat on the stool in front of the microphone and began to read my poem.

To some, I am seen as a friend.

One who, although not very openly,

Cares for them,

Helps them in tough times,

And tries to keep the peace,

No matter how hard it might be to do so.

To others,

I am seen as a little bit more than just a friend

Someone who they yearn to know everything about,

Someone who they wish to spend their future with,

Someone who they would sacrifice anything

Just so they could be with them.

My emotions disagree with their decisions.

If I were to open up,

If I were to see them as more than a friend,

As someone who I would want to spend

The rest of my life with,

We could open ourselves up to harm.

When it comes down to it, though,

We are still teens,

Teens who are really too young

To make romantic commitments.

My commitment is to defend and protect my friends

And to love all members of the Titans in my own private way.

Snaps from all, as usual. I glanced back at the rest of the team, more importantly to the two boys who I was trying to direct the poem to. They had looks of surprise on their faces as if they had just found out that I knew that they both liked me. Maybe it was because they HAD just found out that I knew that they both liked me. Whatever the case was, they were whispering to each other about something as I walked over to the booth in the back where everyone was now seated at.

"You knew all along, Rae? That we both liked you?" Beast Boy quietly asked, that surprised look printed on his face like a stamp.

"It was kind of easy to find out when you two were yelling yesterday morning. Had you been more careful in your yelling, I still might not have known," I smirked, ignoring the fact that I had been called Rae again. After all, they both seem to want me to open up a bit, and I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to be a little more open to everyone.

"Uh... sorry?" Beast Boy said with a blush on his face. A sweatdrop rolled down his face as he put one arm behind his head and grinned.

"I'm sorry too," Robin apologized, "For putting you through all of this trouble. I should have realized that it would be a threat to the team if one of us got together with you."

"Apologies accepted," I smiled while sitting down in the booth next to Beast Boy, "So, how about we all have some of that pudding from yesterday when we get home and forget about this whole ordeal?"

"Oh Raven, that is a wonderful idea! Although I am feeling a little more squished than hungry..." Starfire stated, having been placed in the proverbial rock and a hard place situation. Well, it was more like she was stuck in-between Beast Boy and the wall. Then again, Beast Boy can be as immobile as a rock at times, so I guess that saying works just fine here.

"Sorry, but there wasn't much room on the other side for me to sit," I commented, noting how Cyborg took up most of the opposite booth and how Robin had about a foot of seat left to sit on and was trying to seat himself so he wasn't in danger of falling off.

"Sorry 'bout that, Rae," Cyborg replied.

"Don't worry about it," I replied back, once again ignoring the whole "Rae" thing.

So, we finished watching the other poems be read, including Starfire's overly-cheerful poem because she had finished it earlier today. As we were leaving we ran into Sharice, who was very happy to meet the other two Titans. Soon after, we left and returned back to a peaceful tower to have pudding and then retire for the night.

"By the way," Starfire announced as we entered the Tower, "Before we arrived, I did the washing of all of the dark-colored clothing..."

Dark-colored, eh? I guess that means she washed everyone's uniforms except for hers. And Cyborg's, of course, because he really didn't have a uniform.

"...If you wish to view your clothing, you may. Although it doesn't matter for tomorrow, because we are having the dress-downing of superheroes day tomorrow. I hope that you all have something to wear besides your usual uniforms for tomorrow's festive event!"

Oh geez, thanks for reminding me. I had completely forgot about that. I hope I do have something to wear tomorrow in my closet somewhere. I'll have to check that before I go to bed tonight. But first, I'll see how Starfire did with the laundry.

Lucky for me, the boys had similar expressions on their faces regarding tomorrow.

"Aww dude, I completely forgot about that!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Well at least you have plenty of clothes scattered around your room to choose from," I commented.

"Yeah, that's true. And if you need some to wear tomorrow, I can lend you some," Beast Boy smiled.

"Only if I have absolutely nothing else to wear," I replied dully as I walked off to the laundry room.

I was surprised to see that the room wasn't covered in soapy, foamy bubbles because I had figured that Starfire would have done a terrible job at doing the laundry. Instead, the room had more of a bleachy smell in the air. I decided to put it aside as I opened the washer door and pulled out the first item of clothing I could put my hand on. I pulled it out and saw that it was one of my black leotards, except for the fact that it was lacking in black. I looked over to where the laundry soap bottles were and saw two bottles of bleach. One of them was regular bleach, and the other was color-treated bleach. Unfortunately, Starfire had used the regular bleach and now all of the dark clothes that were in this load of laundry were partially, if not all, bleached.

I set my inversed dalmation leotard on top of the dryer as I went for the next article of clothing. Once again, it was another one of mine. This time, though, it was one of my blue capes, and once again, it had bleach all over it. I threw it on top of the leotard as I took another piece of clothing. This time it was Robin's outfit, and it too was covered in bleach. I had had enough of this.

"STARFIRE......" I yelled in a low, demanding tone, "Get over here. NOW."

The lights flickered off and on for a few seconds throughout the whole tower as I fumed with anger at all of the bleached clothing. The one time she does laundry, it happens to be the time where the dark-colored laundry consists of most of my clothes.

[Well, it wasn't like I was going to be wearing any of those clothes tomorrow anyway,] I thought to myself as the lights flickered once again.

The End

-=-=-=-

Hey, I hope you enjoyed Chapter 5! I hope you weren't waiting too long for it to arrive! I know that some of you might have seen it without the "The End" part there, and that's because I wasn't sure at the time if I wanted to write Thursday for kicks, but I think that this is a great place to leave it because it would be rather pointless of me to continue on this story after everything's summed up. So I re-uploaded Chapter 5 with the "The End" and this note here to officially declare the ending of this story. But don't worry; I'm thinking of starting a new story which will begin on Thursday, therefore I haven't completely decided against writing Thursday.

Well, I'm glad you've read my story. The same rules apply here as they did for Chapters 1-4: You don't have to review unless you want to, because it would be rude of me to go about demanding reviews like some poor beggar living on the streets, or something to that extent. I'm just grateful for the many great reviews I've gotten so far. But alas, the end is here. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have enjoyed my story.