A Slippery Slope, A Green Horizon.

Rules

It was later than she had planned, when Raven finished meditating. The sun was squarely in the middle of the sky, half the day had passed while she fixed all the loose wires that Beast Boy had set free within her just hours previous. Unfurling from her meditation form, Raven descended to the floor she shared with the shapeshifter and passed by her own door on the way to his.

Raven knocked, and then she knocked again.

Twice.

Beast Boy's door however, remained steadfastly closed with no sign of opening. Widening her senses as the monks of Azerath had taught her so many, yet so few years ago, Raven found Beast Boy to be soundly asleep, his emotions muted by the fog of heavy slumber.

Raising an eyebrow, Raven stepped through the door in a swirl of dark energy, finding that the room she remembered from their childhood had vanished.

Where the cluttered and overflowing set of drawers once were now sat an impressive flat-screen TV that was still playing a subtitled martial arts film, the desk that had once been piled high in comic books and CDs was now replaced by a bookshelf filled with those same items, perhaps the most shocking change was that no longer did Beast Boy rest in a bunk bed, but instead in a king sized bed raised 5 feet off the ground by a wooden base that had a series of cupboards and drawers within it.

Perhaps, thought Raven, his predatory instincts liked the higher position.

What was familiar about the room however, was the clutter. Garfield had obviously made an effort to clean up, with clothes and comic books strewn around the edges of the room, but none in it's centre, there were action figures lining the shelves and tops of furniture, postures of famous video games and films lined the walls.

And everywhere, everywhere was that green and blue colour scheme.

Drifting up to the bed, Raven found the changeling lent against the wall, his head drooping and the remote he clutched slipping ever so slightly from his grip. Kneeling down beside him, Raven shook the green teen's shoulder gently. "Beast Boy, wake up. Beast Boy... Garfield."

Green lids flew open and the shapeshifter stared groggily at the sorceress for a moment before he blinked and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "Aww man. I tried to stay awake Rae, I swear. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night."

"It's alright, I didn't either." Raven said graciously, sitting down beside him on the mattress. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Not much." Beast Boy admitted, moving as though he was going to give her more space, thinking better of it he settled in closer to her, their shoulders barely touching. "At first I was back on the boat- Well, at first it wasn't a great dream. Then, I think I was in my old house in Midway City."

"With the Doom Patrol?"

"Kind of." Garfield smiled. "I didn't think of them as The Doom Patrol back then, they were just family. Rita- Elasti-Girl, she really helped me cope with all that happened after my folks passed away."

"Like you and the other Titans helped me?" Raven slipped a rare smile, bumping Beast Boy's shoulder gently.

Beast Boy flashed a wide grin in return, nodding. "Exactly like that."

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, Raven's eyes were drawn to the movie that was still going. It had several characters that could seemingly fly with no other power than their skill in kung-fu.

"Raven, you wanted to talk about us, right?" Garfield said lightly, flicking his gaze to her and then back to the TV. "What exactly do you want to talk about?"

Raven sighed. "I don't want to shatter a lamp or break a toaster every time we kiss, or you do something nice that I wasn't expecting. We need to have some rules, probably a lot of rules."

"No kissing around breakable stuff, no surprises." Beast Boy shrugged. "I can handle that."

"It's not just that, I don't have a lot of practice with... Romance, I suppose you could call it." Raven admitted, her breath coming a little faster. "So I don't know how to handle everything yet. An accidental touch, a hug that lasts too long, an embarrassing story, any of it might make me lose control. I need to be calm, or things go wrong, they always go wrong."

"Take it easy Rae." Beast Boy laughed, slipping his hand into hers. "We'll take it slow. You can get used to it, learn to be in control. Nothing's going to happen if you don't want it to."

"You're putting me in charge?" Raven cocked an eyebrow. "I'm the one that almost jumped you in that alley, not the other way around."

"Okay, fair point." The emerald young man acknowledged, amusement dancing on his voice. "We'll learn together then. Figure out where the boundaries are and try to get a handle on where you and I are going."

Raven hummed in agreement, hesitantly resting her head on Beast Boy's shoulder as the people on his TV half danced and half fought over a skin of wine. Beast Boy stiffened slightly at the movement, but relaxed a second later, absorbed in the film.

"Why don't you want the others to know?" He murmured.

"I don't feel energetic enough to deal with Starfire interrogating me, or putting up with Robin and Cyborg making jokes at our expense." Raven replied, feeling a tinge of happiness colour Garfield's emotions. "Unless you want that?"

"No, no." He said, a smile turning up the corners of his lips. "We can do the whole lit by moonlight secret affair thing. I just, don't like keeping stuff from the others, you know?"

"I'm not saying we won't tell them, I'm just saying not now." Came her half yawned reply. Something about Garfield's room and the riot of colours that they were watching making her eyelids heavy. "If you have a television in here, why do you go to the common room?"

"Because that's where everyone else is." He said simply. "Plus this one isn't hooked up to anything, so I can only watch stuff I have on disk."

"Mhmmm" Raven answered, her eyes closing as she succumbed to the sleepy atmosphere, her hand still holding Beast Boy's firmly.

Garfield tried not to jostle her too much as he draped his blanket over her and let himself drift off.

For the third time either remembered, there were no nightmares awaiting them.