Today will be the day.

Fuzz world. It was what he jokingly called those few seconds between sleep and awake, when your eyes were just starting to readjust and nothing was in focus. Where everything looked like a TV flashback. He'd had a good laugh the morning he'd come up with the notion. One day he'd made mention of it to his teammates- how the topic had come up he couldn't remember. Each of their reactions was predictable. Robin said nothing, Cyborg rolled his eyes, Starfire wished to know more about the world of fuzz, and Raven just called him an idiot and went back to her reading. He regretted saying anything, and though he was hurt no one could tell.

With a series of quick blinks the world of fuzz left him and with an audible stretch, Beast Boy pulled himself into a sitting position, deftly hitting his head on the ceiling in the process- this tended to happen anytime he fell asleep on the top bunk in human form. Cursing his clumsiness and rubbing the now sore spot on his forehead he swung his legs over the side of the bunk and leapt to the floor, making a clumsy baddump noise as he landed. After one more loud stretch he turned to the alarm clock on the bedside table.

"Dude," he cried out in surprise. "What happened?"

His surprise and disappointment came from realizing that it was already quarter to eleven. For him, getting up at this time wasn't unusual, but of course that was the problem. What he had been attempting to do lately was shake a few of his more undesirable traits: one being his reputation as the lazy one on the team. He figured a perfect start would be waking up at a reasonable hour. However, despite setting the alarm the night before, it now dawned on him he must have zombie walked out of bed and turned it off only to immediately stumble back. How he ended up back on the top bunk without waking up was a mystery.

"Maybe I could try putting it farther away," he said aloud to the room as he studied the piece of bedroom equipment in his hands. The room of course said nothing.

Making his way for the bathroom, passing over piles of dirty laundry and random junk as he walked, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Pausing for a moment he studied his face closely in it's reflective surface. Covering the tips of his ears with his hands he tried to imagine what he would look like if they were rounded again and if maybe they weren't as big. He wondered how much more attractive he would be if his skin was once again its original peach color, if his hair regained it's original blond. Running his tongue over the tips of his fangs he wondered this. Backing up a few steps, so that his entire half naked body filled the mirror, he struck a few halfhearted poses and studied his physique. He had to admit, there had been some improvement since his younger days. Now 18, his body had most definitely matured. He was no longer the shortest member on the team- as of a year or so ago that title had been bestowed upon Raven- and there was now more noticeable tone and definition to his muscles. Yes, there had been improvements, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep him from feeling inadequate. Compared to some, if not most of his superhero brethren- tall handsome men with large, chiseled physiques cut from living stone- he was still small and almost puny.

Dropping to the floor he began doing pushups. He needed to be better. As he thrust himself up, away from the floor, he began imagining himself strong and bold and noble like Superman, cool and confident like Batman. Amongst his own teammates he imagined what he could be like if he had Robin's drive and determination, Starfire's fierceness in battle, Cyborg's computer skills. He then thought of Raven, the reason for which he wanted to be a better hero, and suddenly all his faults seemed bigger.

Halting his pushups he sat on the floor. After a few breaths he stood and again gazed at his reflection. Of course nothing had changed.

"Hey man, you okay?" asked Cyborg. "You seem distracted."

The metal man had just bested him yet again in Virtua Racers. Beast Boy never won anyway so he wondered why the young man would even notice that he wasn't giving the game his full attention.

"I'm fine," he replied with a big and incredibly forced smile.

Cyborg paused for a moment before speaking again.

"You're not still upset about training yesterday, are you?"

The bionic youth was referring to the fact that the day before Robin had called a sudden training session at the obstacle course. When it came time for his turn, Beast Boy had been quite surprised and even proud to find he actually was doing well. That is of course until he tripped over his own feet at the finish line and had to run the entire thing over again. It was the first time he'd ever cursed Raven for having beautiful eyes.

"Nah, I'm over that," he lied.

He got the sense that Cyborg didn't believe him, but by that point it didn't matter anyway as the swooshing sound of the common room doors filled the room. Beast Boy knew immediately who it was. He also knew that Cyborg knew that so long as she was in the room anything the metallic Titan had to say would fall on pointy deaf ears. Looking over his shoulder, Beast Boy watched as Raven in all her grace and loveliness floated to the kitchen, and began preparing a cup of tea. A broad smile crossed his lips and he heard Cyborg mutter under his breath "Ah, here we go again."

"Look man, it feels like you've been making goo goo eyes at her forever," said Cyborg. "Why don't you just go over there and ask her out already?"

"I am," replied Beast Boy, plainly.

"You are?"

The disbelief was evident in Cyborg's voice and Beast Boy frankly couldn't blame him for doubting him. Ever since he had realized how deep his feelings ran for the violet haired girl- exactly how long ago this was, he wasn't sure- the simple act of talking to her had become quite the difficult task. Not being able to say more than two serious words to her at a time without feeling a crushing wave of nervousness and embarrassment kept his interaction with her down to simple greetings, mindless monosyllabic small talk and of course the necessary banter that comes with battle. The only plus side to this was that the empath came to think that after so many years he was finally giving her the space she wanted and actually thanked him for it. When she said this, despite the fact that it was a golden opportunity to tell her how he felt, he only smiled, nodded and squeaked out a "no problem." One word. Two words.

As he'd been telling himself all morning, however, today was going to be different. Today would be the day. Today he was going to engage Raven in serious conversation and do the hardest thing any teen boy could do apart from jumping off a bridge on a twenty dollar bet: ask the girl he likes on a date.

Slowly he stood, eyes never leaving the violet haired beauty as she carefully filled her cup with steaming tea and sat down at the table.

'It'll be simple,' he kept repeating to himself over and over in his mind. It won't even be a "date" date, just two friends who haven't spent enough time together lately going out and grabbing a bite to eat at that pizza place that they both love so much. Simple.

Her image grew more defined as he approached the kitchen area. Her eyes were glued to a thick and, what Beast Boy assumed to be, very difficult to understand book. Her hood was down, allowing every subtle feature that made up her flawless face to be seen with perfect clarity. Her beautiful violet hair that now fell to her shoulders, her porcelain skin, her soft inviting lips.

For a moment he imagined what it would be like to really be close to her. To run his fingers through her hair, to feel the warmth of her skin pressed against his, to savor the honey-sweet taste of her lips. He immediately felt his pulse quicken and heat rise to his face, and realized he'd have to quickly put those thoughts in check else they make themselves visible.

When upon reaching the table, he saw she still hadn't looked up from her book, he decided to make his presence known.

"Morning Raven."

One word. Two words.

"Good morning," she said.

"What's up?"

Four words. His chest grew hot.

"Not much," she answered, her eyes still in the pages of her book.

An uncomfortable silence passed between them and Beast Boy could instantly feel his hopes of asking her out fading away. Pulling a chair out he took a seat directly across from her, but not before first banging his knee on one of the table legs.

Upon feeling the table shake Raven looked up from her book.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Despite the throbbing pain in his knee, Beast Boy smiled.

"Fine," he said. "And you?"

Seven words. His palms began to sweat.

She regarded him suspiciously for a moment before saying "fine" and then returning to her book.

Again he could sense he was losing his chance. Thinking quickly he examined the cover of her book.

"That's an interesting title for a book," he said. Fourteen words. He was stuttering slightly. "Is it in another language or something? Fyoder Dostoveskidy? How do you pronounce that? Cause I don't know." Thirty-one words. Now he was babbling and he could feel his hands starting to shake.

"It's Fyodor Dostoyevsky," she replied flatly. "And it's not the title; it's the author."

Looking at the cover of the book again, he could now see in plain English text the words Crime and Punishment.

"Right," he said. Thirty-two words. He could feel the heat in his cheeks. He could tell he was blushing like mad and on him it wasn't a good look.

Cursing his stupidity he decided he'd had enough. Forget trying to work his way in with casual conversation. Forget the date even. After months of waiting for the perfect moment, he was finally going to throw caution to the wind and just tell the wonderful girl in front of him how much she meant to him and what he really felt for her.

"Raven," he said. "I need to tell you something."

Thirty-nine words. His heart was pounding against his ribcage.

Her eyes met his. She then carefully set her still open book face down on the table. Folding her hands in front of her she gave him her full attention.

"Yes," she said.

Beast Boy gulped. She had never been this receptive to him before. Not wanting to let another chance at a meaningful relationship with her slip through his fingers he took a deep breath and attempted to focus his thoughts.

"Raven," he began. "You and me…we've known each other for a long time now."

Fifty-two words. His stomach was doing cartwheels.

He looked at her. She gave no response, only stared at him as she patiently waited for him to continue.

"And I mean…you and and me. Well I was just you know wondering… I mean."

Sixty-eight words. The ability to speak was waving goodbye to him from a ferry, leaving him to drown in a sea of awkward vocal fumbling.

Internally smacking himself, he once again attempted to calm his nerves. He saw her eyes now held a small amount of confusion laced with irritation and knew he had to get to the point.

'Just speak from the heart,' he told himself. Looking down at the table he saw her hands still clasped one over the other. Staring intently into her eyes he attempted to reach across the table and touch her slender fingers with his own. He needed her to know his confession was genuine, and he figured this action would help. Unfortunately he had forgotten about her cup of tea that she had set down in front of her.

Screaming, Raven jumped up from the table as scalding hot tea poured into her lap.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Beast Boy babbled.

Seventy-two words. He was in a fighter jet that had just taken a critical hit.

"You idiot!" she yelled angrily, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry," he pleaded again. "I didn't mean to,"

Seventy-eight words. Smoke filled his lungs and fire licked at the wings as he saw the ground rushing up to meet him.

Snatching her book up from the table, she was infuriated to see it was now soaking wet. The pages were already starting to curl and paragraphs were quickly becoming illegible.

"Great," she scoffed.

He struggled to find the right words to rectify the disastrous situation, but alas he was completely speechless. He could only watch as the girl he'd secretly loved for so long threw him one more angry look and stormed out of the common room.

"Sorry," he managed to choke out weakly once she was out of sight.

Seventy-nine words. Impact and a fiery explosion.

Looking back to the couch, he saw Cyborg who, after watching the entire scene, simply shook his head sadly before returning to his game. Hanging his own head in defeat, Beast Boy began cleaning up the spilled tea.

"Maybe tomorrow," he sighed.

A/N: Well there's the first chapter. Please let me know what you think. Even if you hate it I want to know why. If I'm ever going to be a good writer I need to know where my faults are.