A Slippery Slope, A Green Horizon.

Build Up

The sound of a communicator going off, awoke the two later that day. It's insistent trilling cutting through one of the rare pleasant dreams that Raven had ever found herself enjoying, wresting her from the warm embrace of slumber, and more cruelly, the warm embrace of Garfield.

Raven reached for the irritating device as Beast Boy rubbed his eyes blearily, finding the act of awakening far more difficult than his companion.

"Yes?" She yawned, watching as Robin frowned at her through the tiny monitor.

"Raven? Why do you have Beast Boy's communicator?" He asked worriedly. "Is he okay?"

Raven froze, her eyes racing to Garfield in a panic, but he could only shrug helplessly.

"He left it in the bathroom." She lied, keeping the communicator close to her face so that Robin couldn't see the wall behind her and it's obvious paint scheme. "I was on my way to give it back to him."

"...Right." Robin said, his eyes narrowed. "Well, when you do return it, tell him that dinner is ready. Cy said he missed lunch and I don't want him distracted if we get called out because he's hungry."

"Okay, I'll tell him." Raven assured the Boy Wonder, watching from the corner of her eye as Garfield covered his mouth and heaved with silent laughter. "See you in a minute."

Beast Boy let his barely contained giggling free, holding his stomach and almost crying with laughter as the sorceress shook her head indignantly. "It's not funny Garfield."

"Then why are you smiling?" Beast Boy questioned, wiping a tear from his eye.

Raven quickly schooled her features, erasing any trace of amusement from her face. "I'm not."

This only served to bring on another bout of laughter from the shapeshifter, made worse when Raven tossed a pillow at him and rose in a huff. "While you're struggling to compose yourself, I'm going to join the others at dinner."

The changeling waved an arm, struggling to talk through his mirth. "Hold on! I can behave, honest." He said, his fanged grin and snickering doing little to convince Raven of that fact. "Besides, you're meant to be telling me about dinner right? It'd look suspicious if I didn't show up with you."

"I suppose..." The sorceress mused, gliding to his door. "I need to brush my hair, so don't feel in any kind of a rush."

She moved through the door without opening it, her shadowy energy swirled in the wake of her form as she left. Beast Boy found himself staring long after she was gone.

In the common room, they found the others already seated, a veritable feast set out before them. Starfire cut off her story about how she had mistook a cardboard cut out of Superman as the real thing one time, catching sight of the mismatched pair. "Friends, where have you been all day?"

Sliding into her seat, Raven replied with a simple "Meditation." Which the others took at her word, since such a thing was not uncommon.

Beast Boy laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I fell asleep, didn't get much rest out in the woods."

Robin stared at him from across the table. "And why did Raven have your communicator? You're not the most organised guy, but even you don't leave your equipment just lying around."

"I had a shower after breakfast to get the smell of forest out of my hair, the communicator must have fallen out of my belt." Beast Boy lied, his eyes pining Raven to her seat as his guilt washed over her. "Raven found it on our bathroom floor."

Raven nodded at no one in particular trying to mask her own feelings of discomfort at lying to their leader.

Cyborg snorted. "B-Boy would lose his head if it wasn't attached to his neck, it was only a matter of time before his communicator ended up as a casualty. Let's forget that noise and eat already! I didn't slave over a hot oven for my masterpieces to get cold."

Beast Boy flashed a grateful smile at his semi-mechanical friend, gladly piling tofu eggs, fruit and potatoes onto his plate. Raven was pleasantly surprised to find that someone (Probably Cyborg considering how sweet it was) had thought to boil some tea for her.

Several moments passed in which all that could be heard was the sound of plates and silverware clashing as the food between was lost to hungry appetites.

Starfire broke the companionable silence with a beaming announcement. "I have decided who I will ask to accompany me to the Gala tomorrow!"

Cyborg smirked at her. "Let me guess, it's Ro- Ow!" He turned a glare upon the Boy Wonder, who had swiftly kicked him in the shin. "Fine, fine. Who is it Star?"

"It's Robin!" Kori burst out, looking to the masked young man with wide eyes. "You will go with me, right?"

Robin smiled indulgently. "Of course I'll go with-"

Starfire squealed and embraced her newly acquired date, lifting him into the air above the table enthusiastically. Below them, Cyborg passed Raven a sauce bottle as the two continued eating through the affectionate display. Beast Boy, however, watched them avidly and chewed slowly on his tofu eggs, deep in thought.

"Can you believe Star had to ask if Robin would go to the dance with her?" Garfield enquired as he and Raven rode the elevator to their floor. "The guy is crazy about her!"

Raven shrugged non-committally. "Sometimes people are hard to gauge, and Starfire isn't great at predicting how Robin will react to things. Remember the birthday fiasco?"

Beast Boy chuckled. "Rob almost blew a fuse, I didn't see what the big deal about people knowing his birthday is though."

"He likes privacy." Raven reminded him as the elevator came to a halt. "It's not that weird."

They stepped through the sliding doors and walked slowly towards their rooms, Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "So who were you thinking of going with?"

"I hadn't thought about it." She answered truthfully. "I don't usually go with anyone to these things, you know that."

"Would you go with me?"

Raven stopped in her tracks, staring at the green Titan incredulously. Overhead, a light flickered and threatened to burst. "What?"

"I said," Beast Boy repeated patiently. "Would you go with me?"

The hallway itself seemed to hold it's breath as Raven stared down her incredibly, unfailingly unpredictable paramour. "What part of "Secret" fails to reach you in that perfect world you happen to be calling me from?"

Beast Boy's curious smirk widened into a ridiculously happy grin. "You think the perfect world is going to a dance with me?"

Raven shook her head. "That isn't what I meant Garfield." As Beast Boy's face began to fall, his eyebrows pulling together and hurt streaking through his emotions, the sorceress quickly added, "Not that you aren't right. It's just that... How can I go with you and not have the others know about us?"

Slightly mollified, Beast Boy smiled at her wickedly. "We don't need to tell the others." He drew her under his arm and waved the other in front of them. "Imagine it, you and me ("You and I." Raven corrects), star crossed lovers hiding their romance from the world, meeting at the punch bowl to offer each other whispered compliments, happening to meet on the dance floor by chance only to be whisked away from each other by our well meaning, yet utterly unaware friends, stolen kisses and rushed embraces in darkened corners, out of sight from prying eyes."

"Why have you put so much thought into this?" Asked Raven suspiciously. "Is this some kind of weird fantasy you envisioned as a preteen?"

"Yep." Garfield said happily. "Want to help me live out my dream Rae?"

Raven, poor lovestruck Raven, looked up at the young man that she adored and couldn't bring herself to crush that childish delight in his eyes. Swallowing nervously, she let out a half whispered "Fine."

Beast Boy's eyes went wide, and in his excitement, lent down to passionately kiss the amethyst haired girl of his dreams, who for her part, made a small noise of surprise before melting into the embrace.

The light above them, having had quite enough of this whole fiasco, finally gave up it's struggle and exploded...

...Along with every other light on the floor.