A Dryer's Comfort

It was December in Jump City. Everything was Frosty and Fresh, a simple feeling of glee rushing through everyone's veins…well, almost everyone. Raven, one of the Superhero Teens of the city was in her room freezing. The Titans heater had been destroyed in a recent battle against water monsters and everyone in the tower were freezing their buns off while Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire went shopping for a new one. Beastboy had disappeared from his bedroom and the main room, but that didn't even bite Raven's line of curiosity.

She shivered in her cloak, walking slowly down the halls of the tower. Her feet made light padding noises on the ground and her teeth chattered. My minds probably warmer than this, she thought while turning down the hall. A soft sound of rumbling arose, and Raven raised an eyebrow at the first 'exciting' thing she had experienced for one hour.

Raven continued with her walking to only hear the sound growing louder and louder. When she turned another corner, she noticed that the door to the Laundry room was open with light pouring out of it. Suddenly, the rumbling stopped and a clank followed after it.

"Aww…" Raven stopped at the relaxed sigh of her fellow Titan, Beastboy.

"That feels nice…"

Is he…with someone…?

She took another step forward and looked inside. She had been expecting to see Beastboy snuggled up with a girl, but instead he was sitting on the steal floor with a green blanket wrapped around him tightly. He noticed Raven almost instantly, his eyes lighting up like a green light bulb.

"Hey Raven!" He chuckled and stood, the blanket falling at his feet. "Good idea isn't it?"

"What are you doing?" Raven questioned Beastboy in a mono-tone voice, hiding her confusing.

Beastboy squirmed in his spot while explaining. "Well…you know how the water-dragon-monster-thingy destroyed our heater which made the whole Tower as cold as it was outside?"

Raven paused before answering. "…Yes."

"Well, you see, I was on laundry duty last week and I was washing Starfire's bed sheets and she asked if would dry them so I did and when I took them out they were so warm and toasty!"

"Uh-huh."

"So I then switched laundry duty with Robin, so now I have his week, which is his week to do laundry, right?"

"Right,"

"So I've been drying every single blanket. And when their done, I wrap myself in them till the warmth is gone and put them in a pile." Beastboy grinned as he ended his explanation, but Raven frowned immensely.

"Beastboy, that's disgusting. No one wants you cuddling in their blankets." Beastboy frowned at that, his eyebrows creasing.

"But it feels good." His childish voice had no effect on Raven, but the way his eyes were water like glasses of water made her think twice.

You can't be too hard on him; you would've done the same, the apparent voice of reason spoke in the back of Raven's head, making her indecision to yell at him or let it go tougher. He's just a –

The voice fell silent as almost a cold breeze hit Raven. "Hey!" She spoke angrily as Beastboy through her cloak into the dryer, turning it on with only a few turns of the dial. "Beastboy, give me my cloak back." Raven spoke though clenched teeth, trying to keep her emotions in check.

Beastboy merely ignored her command picked up the green blanket that he had been cuddling in five minutes before. He walked over to the fuming Raven and put it around her shoulders, smiling sincerely.

"See, it feels good." His hands were placed on her shoulders, only a few inches of bitter air in between the two. Beastboy's smile was the greatest thing she had seen today, but she would not admit that to herself.

So she spoke in barely above a whisper, "I'm going to get another cloak." Beastboy's hands dropped at her words as she turned to leave, but his hand grasped her wrist when an idea sprang into his mind.

"Wait! ...we could, um, hang out." Good job, Beastboy, say something stupid. As Beastboy lectured himself in his mind, Raven tried to leave the room once more.

"No." Beastboy groaned outwardly, halting Raven once more.

"Come on, Rae, we never get to spend time together! Just this once, please?" Beastboy's bottom lip popped out as he looked into Raven's lavender colored eyes, which seemed as cold as the air around them.

"Beastboy, there's absolutely nothing to do in the laundry room. There never has been and never will be." Raven said icily to him, not wanting to play nice any more.

"Yes there is –we could play chess, or play a board game, or –"

"It's cold and –"

"The dryers warm!"

Caught up in the moment, Beastboy grabbed Raven's hand and put it on the top of the dryer. His hand covered hers as heat went front her hand to her feet, relaxing her. Raven blushed from Beastboy's hand that was on top of hers, making her draw her hand back swiftly. If there was one thing Raven didn't want, it was a relationship with the green changeling.

"Come on, sit!" Beastboy nearly shoved Raven into a sitting position by the dryer. "I'll go get the chess board!" He raced out of the room as Raven sat there dumbfounded. If I have half a mind, then I'll leave right now, she thought to herself. Her body didn't move, though, for she seemed to not have half a mind. In no more than thirty seconds Beastboy was back in the room breathing heavily. In his hand he had the chess board and his smile was lop-sided and cheesy. "Back~!" He announced, leaning against the dryer and sitting next to Raven. "I see you're still here, though."

"Whatever…can we just get this game finished?" Raven spoke impatiently, hoping the dryer would stop and she'd have an excuse to leave.

"Actually, I was hoping we could just…um, talk." Again with the stupid suggestions, Beastboy?

Raven narrowed her eyes at the changeling. "…About what?"

"Well, I know this probably isn't the best place to tell you this, but…um…" Scratching the side of his face, Beastboy tried to ignore the sickening feeling growing in his stomach. He dared a glance at Raven's face, which was perplexed –not mad. "Raven, we've known each other for what…two years? Maybe three?"

"Beastboy, get to the point." Raven's words were harsh, but the sound was almost as quiet as Beastboys had become from embarrassment.

"I want you to want me, Raven." His words were barely audible over the rubble of the dryer, but Raven managed to hear.

Everything was quiet between the two for a while, until finally Beastboy felt a rejection. He stood, his shoulders slumped and his ears lowered. "I understand, Rae. When the dryer stops you can get your cloak –"

"Aren't you cold?" Raven's interruption made Beastboy blink twice, processing the thought as fast as a twenty year old computer.

"Oh yeah, I guess I am…"

"Then why don't you…?"

"Yes, Raven?"

Raven sighed outwardly as she realized how unlike her this was. Finally gaining her needed composure, she spoke. "The dryer's warmer than anything else in this house –and if we…shared our body heat together then –" Raven never finished what she had been going to say, though, for Beastboy had jumped down next to her. His hand grasped hers as his lips gave her a soft peck on the cheek. Raven blushed and wrapped half of the blanket around Beastboy as well, both happily listening to the hum of the dryer.