All About BBrae

The green menance and some glass

Raven was enjoying the peaceful atmosphere while it lasted.

Being in a tower full of teenagers meant that tranquility could only last so long before it was squashed by unnecessary noise and a whirlwind of emotions the empath couldn't possibly ignore, even if she tried. When she entered the common room, it was abuzz with the presence of her teammates, but thankfully they were doing their own respective tasks and the racket was kept to a minimum.

She took a seat at the table across from the kitchen and opened her novel. Although they could be extremely rowdy at times, Raven could easily tune out the news channel Robin was watching from the couch, the soft hums coming from Cyborg as he made a batch of waffles, and the giggles emitting from Starfire while she bathed Silkie in a large basin.

It wasn't the silence she preferred to read in, but the cloaked teen didn't mind the flurry of tame events happening around her. Simply being in the company of her friends was comforting, and she easily slipped into the world of her book, each turn of a dusty page luring her further and further in.

But in the back of her mind, she knew the aura of peace was bound to end soon. After all, her ears never caught on to the sounds of a handheld game beeping or the frustrated huffs that came when a level had to be repeated. It was supposedly a normal, picturesque afternoon in the common room, but a crucial part was definitely missing. A part that made copious amounts of noise and had so many emotions packaged inside him at once that she wondered how he didn't explode.

Yet she continued reading, Cyborg kept cooking, and Silkie got cleaner. Raven soaked in every minute, every second of serenity that she could. A movie played in her head as she buried her face in the novel. Long chapters held intricate details, unexpected plot twists, and ongoing character development. Since it was her main hobby, the empath read at a very speedy pace. She could read hundreds of pages and finish an entire book within the span of a day, and then start on the next one without pausing for a breath.

She was two pages away from chapter four when-wham! Something slammed on the table in front of her. She would have jumped if she weren't already expecting to be interrupted. It was only a matter of time.

"Hey, Raven! Guess what?"

She didn't guess. She didn't even lift her head. The girl in blue knew that whatever it was, she probably didn't care or wouldn't want to be involved. She bet he was just going to tell her one of his jokes that were cheesier than monster mozzarella sticks.

Even though she brushed him off, Beast Boy wasn't troubled. He pressed on and started waving a gloved hand between her face and the book. "Raven! Raven, come on! Guess!"

She knew it was pointless to pretend he wasn't there, because he was, and he wasn't going to go away any time soon. He tugged at her arm and poked her shoulder, all the while saying things such as, "Justlook!" and "Trust me!" Why was he so excited? All he had probably had to show her was a new stankball that was twice as big and three times as stanky, and Raven didn't constitute that as a good enough reason for giving him attention.

But when he turned into a bird and started squawking obnoxiously into her ear, she snapped.

"What?" Finally, she closed her novel and turned to glare at the green menace, who was in his normal form once more.

He beamed and gestured to the object on the tabletop. When blue eyes scanned it, she was taken aback. Thelast thing she expected to see was a chess set. It was a nice set too- one half of the pieces were made of clear glass, and the other half were more opaque. She noted that it absolutely wasn't her own; her chess sets were never that fancy. She quirked a brow at the changeling, internally dumbfounded as to why he had such a thing.

"I found it in my room," began Beast Boy, which made sense, in a weird way. Sometimes he would find miscellaneous trinkets in the erratic pile he called a bedroom, and unless it was something important, soon he'd end up losing it all over again. It wasn't that his floor was a portal or anything- they had checked- he just kept it in an endless cycle of messiness. "I stepped on something hard, and at first I thought my foot was bleeding because it was a fork or something, but it turned out to be a rook, and when I searched around it I found the whole thing in a box."

As she listened, Raven inspected the chess set. It was truly impressive that it had survived perilous months buried under mounds of clutter, and that none of the glass pieces were chipped or cracked. In fact, all of it seemed to be in perfect condition, as if it had never been used before.

Dryly, she asked, "Do you even know how to play?"

He nodded, an eager gleam in his eyes. He replied, "Yeah! Negative Man taught me when I was a kid. I think he sent me this last Christmas but I just never had a reason to use it…" After he trailed off, an idea lit up his eyes like newly installed traffic lights. "Dude! Wanna play with me?"

Did she want to remind him of the rules constantly and then beat him within the first five minutes? "No thanks."

"C'mon, just one game. …I'll even go easy on you." The changeling smiled timidly. It looked like even he knew that his butt was doomed to be kicked by the empath, yet he still had the desire to play.

"Why does it have to be me?" Raven fiddled with the edge of the chessboard and sighed. "Why don't you go ask Robin or Starfire?" The green male would most likely have an easier time trying to explain the game to their alien friend than Raven did.

The corners of Beast Boy's lips fell into a frown. "Because chess is your thing, Rae. Besides reading, but that's not really something we can do together, 'ya know?"

She hesitated. It was true that she enjoyed chess a lot, since it was challenging and relaxing at the same time. Sometimes it acted as another form of meditation for the pale teen. Plus, it was apparent that Beast Boy wasn't going to leave her alone until she either agreed to play with him or threw him out the nearest window. He was adamant about wanting to do something with her, though for the life of her she couldn't imagine why.

Grudgingly, she mumbled, "Fine. One game." And then she could try to get back to her date with her beloved book.

…Their 'one game' lasted over an hour. They didn't even pause for a break when Cyborg served them the usual plate of breakfast for dinner. They simply shoved waffles into their mouths and chewed decisively while contemplating the next move. Neither of them spoke much- it was all mental warfare.

Although the glass pieces were smoothed to perfection at the beginning of the match, once Beast Boy declared "Check" on Raven's king, a burst of black energy surged through a bishop and a sharp crack in the piece could be seen halfway across the common room.

They decided to end it in a tie before the entire set exploded.