It entered my head and kept on bugging me until I wrote it.

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? ~Stephen Levine

OoO

Being an empath had always had its problems. There were always those stray emotions from other people that you were going to feel. Always those tendrils of feeling that would seep in through your mind. Fortunately for Raven, she had learnt how to block out these tendrils, these emotions.

But, of course, you can't block out everything.

It had been just a normal night for the Titans. There had been no alerts, so the night was spent inside the Tower. Cyborg had retired early for once, needing to recharge after a long day. Beast Boy was in his room watching T.V. (Robin had finally allowed him to have a T.V. in his room). Raven was in her room, and Robin and Starfire…

Being an empath did have its advantages.

Not so much on that particular night.

Raven had no idea that it was possible to feel that much…for someone. Her own psychic barriers were doing nothing to block it out, and it was impossible to read or meditate.

And all this was from the other side of the Tower.

She was currently lying curled up on her bed, eyes clenched shut, hands over her ears. Not that they helped though, because seeing or hearing what was going on wasn't actually the problem in this equation. Inwardly, she cursed Robin and Starfire for being in love with each other and not ignoring their hormones.

Raven had no idea how long she had been lying there when she finally pulled herself up from her bed and walked towards to the door. A large part of her was telling her that what she was about to do was an extremely stupid idea but the leftover very small part was telling her that it might actually help.

As she walked down the hall, she silently thanked Azar that his room was the closest to hers. Even though that had had often been a very annoying fact in the past, it was a blessing now.

She stopped just outside his room and pressed her ear to the door. She could hear the soft murmur of the T.V. and knocked quietly. A muffled sound came from inside the room and the door opened to reveal Beast Boy with a very confused look on his face.

"Raven?" Seeing the empath out of her room was a rare occurrence, seeing her out of her room and at his door at 2:37 in the morning was even rarer, not to mention weird.

"I have a favour to ask." The green teenager nodded and let her in. If it was any other night, Raven would've told him off for the mess in his room, but she just stepped over the numerous piles of clothes and crap on the floor to the other side of the room.

They both sat on the bottom bunk and Beast Boy spoke up. "So, um, what's up?"

"I need you to talk to me."

Doing the opposite of what Raven had just asked, Beast Boy was speechless. He shook his head. "Uhh…what?"

"Talk to me." Raven's eyes held his.

"You never want me to talk to you," he frowned, confused, "are you feeling all right?" He reached a hand up to her forehead but she pushed it away.

"I'm an empath," she deadpanned, "I feel other people's emotions. Which, can be a real problem when you're trying to sleep and a certain couple decide to…"

Beast Boy looked at her dumbly. Raven looked away and vaguely moved her head. When her eyes flicked up to meet Beast Boy's again, he finally got it.

"Oh." He looked solemn for a second before bursting out laughing. "Seriously?" Raven nodded, scowling. "Wow," Beast Boy laughed, "wait 'till Cyborg gets a load of this!" He wrapped his arms around his stomach and spoke in breathless gaps. "You. Can't. Sleep. Cuz. You can. Feel. Robin and. Starfire. Having." He broke into another chuckle before whispering the last word. "Sex." Raven glared at him as he rolled back on the bed and bumped his head against the wall.

"Sorry Rae." He chuckled, trying to sit back up. "But that. Is so funny." He finally sat up and looked at her sheepishly. "Well, not that funny for you, obviously."

"Okay. So you need someone to talk to you to help take your mind of the fact that…" he giggled again.

"You're not going to get over that for a while, are you?" Raven raised an eyebrow as he grinned.

"Sorry. So you need someone to talk to and you picked me because you can't resist me." He smiled winningly at her.

"Actually I chose you because you're the single most irritating person I know." Raven deadpanned. Beast Boy tilted his head to the side.

"Really? That's it?"

"The facts that you're the only other free person awake and that you're room is the closet one to mine both helped too."

"Huh. I gotta say, I liked my reason better."

"You would."

"Well." He leant back against the wall on one end of the bed as she did the same on the other end. "What do I talk about?"

"Anything." Beast Boy raised an eyebrow as she continued. "This is going to be one of the very few times that you will be able to tell me anything you want to."

"Sweet!"

"On one condition." She looked at him sternly. "No jokes."

"Damn." He looked away with an intent look on his face. As the silence between them extended, Raven felt herself becoming even more uncomfortable (if that was possible).

"What are you doing?" She asked softly, just as the silence was becoming enough to be creepy. Beast Boy didn't move from his position, but replied.

"I'm thinking."

"Since when do you think before you speak?"

"Since when do you ask me to talk to you?" He grinned at her before going back to his 'thinking'.

Raven felt a strong wave of emotion from Starfire's room and tried not to wince. "Do you think you could stop thinking and just start talking? It's starting to get very…" she bit her lip, "…warm in here."

The changeling chuckled and faced her. "Okay, I'll talk," he laughed, and begun.

He told her about Africa, his parents and the Doom Patrol. When he mentioned the Doom Patrol, Raven slightly wrinkled her nose. She had always been uncomfortable towards the fact that Beast Boy had another whole team. Beast Boy didn't notice, and kept on recounting the time he and Robotman had a bet to see who could eat more.

"Beast Boy?"

He looked up from the bed to her. "Yeah?"

Her eyes caught his, "If they ever asked you, would you go back to the Doom Patrol?"

The changeling looked caught off guard for a second, before replying. "Probably not," he shrugged, "I'm kinda already on a team." He grinned at her. "The Doom Patrol was great and all, but I was the baby on that team."

"I'd hate to break it to you, but you're the baby on this team." She raised an eyebrow at him and he poked out his tongue.

"Yeah, but at least on this team I'm not the only teenager. You're only a year older than me, and the others aren't that much older. When I was in the Doom Patrol, I was a ten year old in a group of adults. Really boring." He rolled his eyes for emphasis. "'Sides, Rita and Steve pretty much adopted me, and working with my adoptive parents wouldn't exactly be fun."

Raven smirked. "What's wrong Garfield? Would you get annoyed with them calling you Garfield whenever you're on a mission?" The changeling winced at his name.

"Seriously, if you wanna call me that could you at least shorten it?" He asked, and Raven looked at him thoughtfully.

"What? Like Gar?"

"That's way better. Now I don't sound like a fat orange cat." Raven nodded.

"Okay then. Gar."

Beast Boy grinned and looked at the clock, reading 4:07. "Do you think Rob and Star are finished yet?"

"No. Keep talking." He shrugged and kept on talking as Raven her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Truthfully, the two lovers had gone to sleep almost an hour ago, but Raven didn't want to leave the comfort of the bottom bunk and go back to her own room. She never would have thought that Beast Boy's endless chatter could be soothing, but (possibly due to the stray emotions Robin and Starfire had left on her, or that fact that she had been awake up until now) as he was talking to her now, Raven could feel Beast Boy's voice lulling her to sleep.

"Rae?" His voice, a bare whisper, gently rose her from her thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"Do you want me to take you back to your room?"

"No. Not asleep," Raven mumbled, "Keep talking?"

"Okay." He continued on with the stories, his voice noticeably softer than before, and as Raven felt her head getting heavier, his voice was starting to drift more and more away, until it had disappeared completely.

oOo

A stray beam of light was what woke her up. As her eyes focussed she saw that the sun was shining through Beast Boy's partly open blind and straight into her face. She eased herself up from her awkward position on Beast Boy's lower bunk and across the bed at the said changeling.

He was sitting in the same position that he had when he had been talking to her, with his head leaning against the wall and his mouth open. Raven smiled at the sleeping greenager (A.N. Yes I did make up that word) and sat up, running her hand through her dishevelled hair. A groan from the other end of the bed told her that Beast Boy was waking up. She took a quick glance at clock and read that it was almost nine o'clock. Way past her usual waking up time.

"Dude," Beast Boy rubbed his neck, "remind me to never sleep sitting up again." He stole a quick glance at the clock. "Crap. Rob's gonna kill us."

"For what? Being late for combat practice or breaking the 'opposite sex sleepover rule'?"

"Crap!" He rubbed his eyes, "Both."

"He can't really," Raven said simply, "for a number of reasons. Firstly," she counted off points with her fingers, "if he kills us then he's two Titans down. Secondly, it's not like we were doing anything, which is more than I can say for him, and that leads to the third point. He can't punish us for talking overnight when he was doing something worse, which leads to the fourth point. I wouldn't even have been in here last night if they weren't doing what they were doing, so it's their fault anyway."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrows, "Got enough points?"

"Nope. Point five; we can't get in trouble if nobody finds out." Beast Boy nodded.

"Okay, so we've got a good argument. But none of those points solve the 'being late to combat training' problem."

Raven looked quickly at the clock. "We're not late yet." She stood up and made for the door. Beast Boy watched after her.

She opened the door and glanced down the hallway to her room as Beast Boy rummaged through the messy piles to find a clean outfit.

"Gar?" He looked up at the empath leaving the room. "Thanks. For what you did last night." She looked down at her bare feet. "Do you think…if Robin and Starfire ever decide to…again, would it be okay if I could come here?"

Gar grinned, "Sure," and Raven left the room smiling.

OoO

They were both still late for combat training, but it turns out they weren't the only ones. A certain Boy Wonder and alien princess both turned up even later that Beast Boy and Raven, looking very tired and ruffled. Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"Is it just me or did y'all stay up late without me last night?"

If could have become any more confused, he did when he received four simultaneous blushes.

OoO

Didn't turn out exactly how I had planned, but still, review?