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The horrible, four-legged, armored beast with massive claws and rows of sharp predator teeth easily rips through the chains the Titans had just managed to ensnare it with. Robin makes eye contact with Starfire and she nods at him.
They break away from the group, Starfire powering up and flying ahead of Robin, turning around midair to blast it with her eye beams and a barrage of starbolts. As the monster roars and chases them, Robin throws blades and mini grenades at it, having given up on trying to harm it and now mainly trying to keep its attention.
As they approach the railing of the platform they are standing on, Robin vaults over it and dives straight down the length of the space station. Starfire dives after him, keeping him just an arm's reach away like they had practiced. As the beast jumps over the railing, following them to a plummet towards certain doom, Starfire and Robin grasp hands, completely in sync. Star twists in midair, beginning to slow their fall before shooting back up to the landing, carrying Robin with her while the beast falls the rest of the way down into a pool of alien pink liquid.
“Nice job!” Beast Boy calls out as they land softly on the platform.
Robin turns to Star, pride shining in his eyes at the flawlessly executed maneuver. “Great work, Starfire!” He smiles as he lightly punches her in the arm.
Her blush lights up the darkened space station. “I could not have done it without your assistance!” She punches him hard, pushing him back to the banister, a sharp twang echoing around the cavern from where his spine hit the metal.
“Uh… nice arm…” He says quietly, rubbing the area to try and avoid a bruise as he shuffles back over to Starfire.
“I too admire your abundant limb strength!” She says back, grinning even wider, while Robin regards her curiously.
“Let’s go,” says Cyborg, from behind them. “Unless you want to stay here goofing around with your girlfriennnnnd”. Robin doesn’t have to turn around to hear the mechanical whirring of his robotic eyebrow wiggling suggestively. He suddenly feels his heart start pounding, and he’s pretty sure it isn’t the leftover adrenaline from the fight. Sweat gathers at his brow as he turns to face the others and away from Star.
Raven looks as bored as usual, but the boys are wearing twin smirks. He takes a breath, trying to steady the seeming heart attack that word gave him and pounding his fist into his chest. “She’s NOT my girlfriend!!!” he screams, the words echoing even louder in the empty space station. Even Raven winces as he hears his tone played back to him. He steals a glance at Starfire; She looks heartbroken.
“I am not your friend?”
“Uh…” He hears a gurgling coming from below them and looks behind her.
“I am not a girl?” But the hideous beast is back. It’s scaling the walls, jumping from pillar to pillar, climbing up to them, and tearing through the platform they are standing on from underneath. Never has Robin felt relieved to see a monster before. “Maybe this isn’t the best time…”
Standing with hands on hips, Starfire glares at him like he is the monster currently tearing the space station apart. “If I am not your ‘girlfriend’ then what am I?”
Robin blushes, feeling reprimanded, but he really doesn’t have time for this as the monster pulls itself up. It roars at them and the space station rumbles threateningly in response, but Starfire doesn’t even flinch.
“She’s gonna blow!” Cyborg yells, taking a couple of steps back from the center of the disaster as an explosion bursts right behind them. But Robin can’t tell if he’s talking about the space station or Starfire… both look red hot right about now. Robin turns to face the rest of his team, his mind made up.
“Titans, run!”
Both Raven and Starfire immediately fly, easily dodging the falling debris, swooping low, and keeping an eye on the boys to ensure everyone makes it back safely. Beast Boy shifts into a cheetah and outruns most of the debris, bounding towards the ship. A chunk of metal falls in front of Cyborg and he punches through it, not even breaking his stride.
Though Robin is hopping and twisting and sprinting… he’s still just a normal human, with no super strength or healing in his belt. When a chunk of the station falls on top of him, he falls over, crying out as it knocks the wind out of him.
“Robin!” Starfire loops back for him and quickly helps him up as he groans clutching at his side. The monster growls behind them, and the adrenaline kicks back in.
He pushes her back towards the ship as the monster approaches. “Get out of here!!”
Each Titan jumps into their compartment of the T-ship, with Robin bringing up the rear and hopping into his captain’s chamber at the front. He turns the ship around, flipping switches and turning on the engines as fast as he can, willing the bay doors to open just a little faster. He sees the monster approaching in his periphery as the ship turns and pushes down the panic, trying to stay focused on getting them the fuck out of there.
Starfire’s voice crackles over the intercom, “Robin, may I-...”
“GIVE ME SPACE!” He screams impulsively, cutting her off, as he flips the last engine and blasts the thrusters, the monster falling back off the ship. They shoot out into space, racing ahead of the monster, and Robin calls out “Brace yourselves!”. They make it out of the tunnel, and not a moment too soon as the space station explodes behind them.
The aftershock ripples out to them, spinning the T-ship out of control. More debris hits them and Robin’s interface fills with red warnings everywhere, reporting the heavy damage inflicted on the engines and power units. Robin takes a steadying breath, keeping his hands firmly on his rudder as it shakes violently in his grip, trying to wrestle back control. “Is everyone okay?”
Raven groans, and he hears a slight gag on her end of the intercom. “Define okay…”
But before anyone else can answer, the beast bumps back onto the ship, wasting no time before roaring and tearing into it, trying to get at the juicy center: The Titans.
“This thing just won’t take a hint!” Beast Boy says, trying to peer around to see what Robin is planning. The monster begins opening its jaws, bearing its teeth at Robin, but he keeps his cool.
“I think we can shake it. Don’t separate! I repeat: DON’T separate!” He yells into his intercom, trying to yell over the static he’s hearing on his end. But just as he’s giving the instruction, the monster growls and screeches, a sonic boom rippling through the ship. The signal must have gotten scrambled because all of a sudden, the rest of the Titans separate their ships from the T-ship. The beast roars in confusion but keeps its claws dug into Robin’s ship.
Star’s hand is pressed to her window, glancing worriedly at Robin who now holds the beast by himself. Robin slams his hand against his window, screaming to no one “NOOOOO!”
But he has no time to spare for his friends. The monster is about to chomp at the glass and unlike some of the others, he cannot survive out in space. He thrusts the rudder down and forces a crash on the first planet he sees.
*****
After abandoning his ship and finding that the T-communicators are fried, Robin sets out on foot to find the others. He soon comes across more wreckage of the trees and follows the trail to a ship… Starfire’s ship…
“Starfire!”
He rushes over, wrenches the glass hatch off of her ship, and reaches a hand inside, hoping beyond hope that he won’t find something cold inside. “Starfire…” But a green, slimy, multi-eyed creature jumps out, pouncing on Robin instead.
He wrestles the overgrown slug off him, then charges at it. “What did you do to Starfire??”
He manages to kick the slug down a cliff but gets stuck in its slime and ends up rolling down with it. They hit a large tree and break apart, Robin landing harshly on his back a few feet away from the slug monster. He stands back up but his feet are stuck to the ground, now covered in green goo. He throws a birdarang, but it's covered in slime too, and bounces straight back to him.
He can’t fight anymore, and the slug seems to know that. It crawls over to him, pushing him down into even more slime and opening its jaws. Robin continues to struggle, screaming in frustration, when an arrow comes out of nowhere and bursts the slime creature.
He turns his head back the way the arrow came and sees a figure in the distance. The archer draws closer, and as his eyes focus, he sees the most radiant creature he’s ever seen…
“Starfire!” he yells, excitement flooding his body as he shakes off the slime and runs over to her. He’s smiling so hard it hurts, so relieved to see her after he was sure the slime monster… but no, here she was, safe. “You’re alright!”
His arms automatically come up to embrace her as he runs over, but she takes a step back, causing him to stop in his tracks and lower his arms.
“Greetings to you fellow Titan, Robin,” Star says, in the most monotone her voice has ever sounded. Titan? Not friend? Her mouth is turned down, a frown on her face that he has never seen except for when she was told she had to go back to Tamaran to marry a horrific sludge creature. “To see you unharmed is satisfying.”
“Starfire?” He can’t get over how robotic she sounds, and he glances around like maybe this is a hologram or a copycat, trying to see if someone else lurks around the corner.
“We should make with the haste to find the others.”
Not even in their first meeting has she ever greeted him so… coldly. “What’s wrong with you?”
But she keeps walking, not bothering to respond except for a slight “hmph” he hears as she walks away. He gazes confusedly after her.
She keeps the distance wide between them as he follows behind her. Though she’s putting up a cold facade, truthfully, all she feels is heat radiating off her. The weight of this sadness he has given her… it is pulling her down. So, she tries to pull it all in, hold it deep inside her, like she did when she was in Raven’s body. If he is going to pretend they were nothing, then she will do her part to confirm it.
“Starfire, wait up!” Robin sprints to catch up to her, but as he tries to match her pace beside her, she speeds up slightly, getting faster and faster until he has to jog to keep up. She hopes she has made him uncomfortable. “Star… why do you keep running away from me?”
She doesn’t even spare him a glare, though she wants to badly. To glare would be to admit feelings, which he clearly does not want to do. And if he doesn’t, then she shan’t either. She turns her nose up at him again.
They approach a creek of lava and she jumps to the other side before turning to him finally. “I am giving you the ‘space’. Is that not what you require?” Not letting him answer, she jumps quickly up to the next rock formation, bounding away from him.
He stares blankly after her for a second. Why can’t she let this go? So he may have freaked out a little during a high-stress situation at the word… It's not like they’d ever put a name on it before. Why is she so strung up on it now?
He jumps after her, trying to catch up, but for every leap he makes, she makes another, staying one step ahead of him, just out of reach. He tries to reason with her. “You’re still thinking about that? Starfire, we’re stranded on a hostile alien planet!” He calls out incredulously.
She stops jumping and allows Robin to catch up to her, crossing her arms as she sneers down at him. “I know. Did you hope the perilous space station explosion, followed by our calamitous crash then combat with the horrible slug creature would make me forget?” She holds her breath, hoping that he will say something intelligent, rid her of this suspicion, and calm her nerves. But of course, he does none of those things.
“Uh…yes?” he shrugs, cape enveloping him slightly as his cheeks burn the same color as the alien sky around them.
How does he not understand? Of all the horrific things that happened today, him rejecting her so openly in front of everyone… She “hmph”s again, whipping her head away from him before he could catch her eyes beginning to water.
They begin to travel over pools of lava, stepping on various rock formations to keep them afloat, though Robin is starting to think the sweat forming on his head isn’t due to the molten rock around them. He clears his throat as he tries to think of something to say, but she widens the gap between them, marching determinedly in front of him.
“Perhaps we would have more success if you searched the left half of the planet and I searched the right.”
At the thought of that, of letting her out of his sight on this dangerous planet… his stomach clenches and he sprints to pass her, putting his arms out to stop her from continuing. He looks into her eyes, looking for the warm caring Starfire he knows and lov--likes… but all he sees there is cold indifference. He ignores the tightness in his chest.
“I don’t wanna split up!” She stares at him without blinking, then brushes past him. Though she didn’t say anything, he sighs in relief. At least she isn’t insisting on separating. Maybe this was an opening.
He jogs to catch up to her again. “Look would you please just talk to me?” Star stops, hope rushing through him, though it quickly dissipates when she crosses her arms again, furrowing her brow at him.
“So you are now prepared to explain why I am neither a girl nor your friend?”
A geyser releases a burst of hot steam behind Robin, and he pulls at the collar of his suit, looking away from her… “I--uh… well…”
She walks by him, arms still crossed but head held high. If nothing else, she shall leave this planet with her dignity intact, she has promised herself that much. She will do no such thing to maintain his, though. “It appears that the grishnik has got your tongue.”
She pushes on forward, though she hears him sigh and mutter something about the slug before his footsteps continue. She breathes in deeply as they march on forward, pushing back the wall of confusing emotions still swirling inside her, down into her toes where the weight of this argument has settled.
They come across an area with much looser rocks, trembling under the active geysers pushing up steam from between their cracks. Robin is still trailing behind Starfire, sulking a little, but she stops at the edge of the natural minefield ahead of them. She looks across the rocks, studying them silently, but he knows her too well. She’s a little nervous.
Robin reaches for her hand, an automatic response. He always holds her hand to calm her down, but she takes a step forward without him, not even realizing what he was planning on doing. His hand drops back to his side. Even in this boiling environment, Robin feels the loss of that warmth.
He follows the path she’s making and looks around. Remembering what they’re supposed to be doing here, he clears his throat and pulls his cloak tighter around him. “I hope we find the others… soon…,” he mutters the last word, slight contempt for this argument and the space between them leaking into it.
Starfire shushes him. “No talking,” she commands, quietly. Robin frowns. Sure, okay. First, she wants him to have the “what are we” conversation, and now she wants him to shut up. He opens his mouth to say something, some half-thought-through retort on the tip of his tongue, but she whispers, “The ground is very unstable here.” As she says that, a rock in the distance is shot clean out of the floor, pushed up from the pressure of the steam and geysers beneath it. Robin nods and continues to follow her, thinking over the last hour.
Star takes a few steps forward, quickly switching off slates that seem like they could burst, making decisive movements. Robin always liked that about her; No hesitation in anything she did, committing always to the path she had chosen and adapting to the world around her. So then why is she pushing him away now? Surely everything can’t have changed that quickly.
Robin’s ability to keep quiet apparently only lasts for a minute or two. “Look Starfire, I-- AHHH!” She had been glaring at the space in front of her, determined not to turn around, but at his scream, she looks back to see a lava-filled explosion hit Robin and send him flying.
He arches across the field, headed straight for the molten river beside them at the bottom of the ravine. His screams echo in her mind, and without thinking, she rushes over and grabs his arm right before he falls into the lava. Her heart skipped several beats just then, the fear of losing him clouding all other emotions and she pulls him back up.
But as he catches his breath, the clouds move away, revealing all the twisted feelings still inside her. “Thanks,” he smiles at her, and her stomach flutters like it always does… but she can’t bear it this time. So, she stands and crosses her arms in front of it, trying to block it out as she walks away.
Why does he feel more scared every second she walks away than the seconds he spent free-falling just now? He can’t stand it anymore, and runs up to her, grabbing her arm gently. Though she keeps them folded in front of her, she does turn to look at him, with less of a glare in her stare now. More like… resignment.
“Starfire, look…” He steps back, gesturing wildly, nerves and awkwardness filling him. “It’s not that I don’t like you! It’s that…,” his mind goes blank, or rather, it fills with so many ways he could finish the sentence, that he can’t push one out.
“It is that you do not like me as a friend who is a girl.” Her glare is back now, and she stomps away again. His veins fill with ice as he watches his teammate, his best friend, look so hurt over what he said.
Damn, why did Bruce have to teach him everything except how to talk to girls.
Steam from a geyser rises slowly, separating them along the path… he feels like the whole ravine could be between them and they would still feel as far apart as they felt now. He tries to search for her beyond the steam, but it is too thick, so he just continues talking.
“I don’t think you understand,” Robin’s voice comes out from behind the steam, and Starfire rolls her eyes, sure that he cannot see her. “On our planet, ‘girlfriend’ means-…”
She cuts him off, rattling off the definitions she looked up one day after hearing the word in a movie she and Beast Boy had been watching… “A female with whom you have a pleasant and special association, including the sharing of enjoyable recreation and occasionally the buying of bountiful floral arrangements!”
At first she had been able to see snippets of him through the steam, his silhouette against the sky, a flash of his cape. But by the end of her speech, she lost sight of him. The steam continues to billow and the path twists under her feet. Faintly, in the distance, she hears his voice, “Okay, maybe you do understand…”
“What?” she calls out, but her voice echoes loudly as the steam clears.
Robin had ended up far on the other side of the mountain, and as she looks up at him, she can’t help but feel as if this is a bad omen, a sign of their growing detachment… of going their separate ways…
Robin quickly looks back from where they came, tracing a path to get back to her. He isn’t going to lose her that easily. But before he can call out to her to stay where she is, the ground cracks under his feet, crumbling, and he is once again free-falling.
Then the mountain cracks under her feet as well. As soon as he sees her falling, screaming, his mind narrows as it always does and he puts all his focus on her.
“Robin!” She calls out to him, her arms flailing and eyes roaming wildly, trying to keep track of him amongst all the falling rocks.
“Starfire!” He reaches for her outstretched hand, but somehow she falls faster than him, like gravity is affecting her differently, and she slips away.
She manages to grab onto a ledge on the way down, but as he flips and pushes and jumps to a safe point, he looks up and immediately knows it won’t hold, the debris and her strange extra weightiness pulling it down. The ledge cracks.
“Starfire!” He yells again, his worry clear even from across the ravine. “FLY!”
But she looks back at him, losing her grip with one hand as the ledge begins to tip, the pressure of holding her up too much for it to bear. There is pure fear in her eyes as she grunts trying to hold on as rocks continue to pelt her “...I cannot!”
“What???” But she has no chance to answer, to explain herself, as the ledge finally breaks and her screams fill his head.
Without thinking, with no plan other than to get. to. her. Robin dives down, tucking his arms and legs in and streamlining his body to catch up to her. He wraps his arms around her, tucking her into him, both of them still barreling head first towards the ground. He looks around and sees a cave, shooting his bird grappler to hook on the wall above it and swinging them both into the cavern in the side of the ravine they were falling down.
He tucks her in, twisting them so that he would receive most of the landing impact, but continues to allow them to roll to help alleviate the pain he will receive. She ends up safely underneath him as a huge piece of debris falls and blocks the entrance to the tunnel.
*****
Starfire sits by the fire Robin has managed to get going, warming herself up and finally allowing herself to look as depressed as she feels. Robin breaks off another branch from a nearby root and comes back to her side, tossing it into the fire before sitting next to her.
“Starfire…” His voice has that horrible tone to it… what was it Raven called it? Pity? She looks away, unable to face him like this… now that he knows how weak she really is.
“What happened back there?” He’s being so gentle, all bite lost from his tone… it's like he thinks she’s fragile now like she could break with any more push from him; She hates to think that he might be right. “Why couldn’t you fly?”
She sighs quietly, resigned to have to tell him, to give him yet another part of her when he so carelessly tossed the rest of her away. “Tamaranian powers are inclined by our emotions.” She stares into the fire, still unable to look him in the eye.
“So the way you feel affects your ability to fly…” What an entirely simple way of putting it, but how could she expect any less from this emotionally unavailable boy next to her?
She nods. “And right now, I feel unfamiliar confusion!” She glances down at her hands, still shaking slightly from the fall. She’s never truly fallen before… never jumped off something without knowing she could fly back up. How did Robin do that all the time?
“But we’ve faced danger before without your powers failing?” She can sense his confusion as clearly as Raven might have been able to; She draws her knees towards her, wrapping her arms around them to stop them from shaking, and closes her eyes, steeling herself for this most opening of confessions.
“It is not danger that confuses me, Robin…” Star opens her eyes and looks up at him, the first time she has since they fell, “It is you.”
Robin frowns… she continues but that last sentence buzzes in his ears, his heart rate increasing as he starts to catch on to what she is saying.
“I do not understand… us.”
He can’t help grimacing at that word, the sweat immediately breaking out again across his forehead. Fuck, he didn’t think such an offhand comment like that could hurt her so much she couldn’t fly! … He didn’t realize he meant that much to her… He doesn’t even know how to start to react to all this.
“Ever since Cyborg said, ‘the girlfriend’ things are different between us…” She continues, and Robin’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. Different? Well yeah, but that’s because she's running away from him. If it was up to him, none of this would have happened. If she’s worried about things being different, then maybe he can reassure her.
“It’s… just a misunderstanding,” He says, trying to smile and ease her worry. But there’s a gnawing in his stomach at his words that he is trying hard to ignore. “Everything’s okay!”
He shifts slightly away from her, scratching the back of his head, trying to feign nonchalance… in reality though, his heart is pounding again; Why does she cause him to feel like this??
“Everything is not okay.” She walks away from the fire, stepping over to one of the cave walls. She can’t look at him anymore, can’t bear to see how little he cares for her when she is so confused.
“We are not okay…” Starfire folds her hands in front of her, bowing her head slightly as the tears gather in her eyes again. “I fear we will never be okay again!... and you will not tell me how you feel…” Maybe if he opens up, if he finally tells her one way or another, she can understand her feelings and come to a resolution. But she cannot continue this way between them.
She hears Robin stand up to approach her, but she does not turn to face him. She cannot allow him to see the sadness on her face and say something he does not mean.
“Uh… I’m not very good at that.” He sounds… saddened by that statement like perhaps he wishes he could be different as well.
She sniffles, wiping a stray tear away before turning to Robin, asking seriously, “Do Earth boys come with some kind of manual then?”
He chuckles slightly, a sad smile crossing his face, “That would make things easier.” He wishes he could give her that… honestly, he wishes he had one for himself. He has a feeling if he had Tamaranian powers, he also wouldn’t be able to fly right about now.
There is a tangled knot in his stomach, a concentration of all the feelings he had pushed down for so long, focusing on being a stern but kind leader and hero. Clearly, the knot was not conducive to understanding how he actually felt, but that had never been a problem before. Not until now.
“How am I to know what you think about me?” Starfire asks him. The frown on her face tugs at one of those strings in that knot, making his stomach lurch. Bruce never shared his feelings. Alfred always reprimanded him for it, but he explained how risky it was in their line of work, both to have feelings and share them. But seeing Star in front of him, so confused that she couldn’t even fly… he has to try. For her.
“Starfire…” he crosses his arms and looks away from her, as he really tries to think through his words and tell her the truth. “I think… uh it’s…” He taps his bottom lip, “...awesome?...” He gestures back toward her, “...the way you shoot starbolts?”
Though even he knows how weak and awkward that sounded, her smile immediately breaks through, and another string tugs and loosens in his stomach. “Yes?” She asks him, hope filling her. “And?”
“It’s uh… also cool… that you’re brave and… the strongest girl ever!” He feels lighter somehow, watching her gain her confidence back just by him admitting what he had always known… that he liked her… a lot…
“And you do not mind having a friend who is a girl?” She walks to him, her hands clasped at her chest. He takes them in his and immediately feels the full knot unravel, a flurry of nerves untangling and releasing into his heart. And it feels nice.
“Mind it? Actually, I kind of…,” He trails off… He swears he heard a rumble in the distance, but Starfire tugs him back to her.
“Yes?”
“I kind of like it…,” But looking at her, her smile so wide, he knows he can be more open than that. “...Or not ‘kind of’ but a lot. I really like it.”
He tugs her a little closer to him, still holding onto her hands that he now looks down at, a blush coming over his cheeks. “I like how my heart beats faster when you walk into the room. I like how if we’re in battle and I look over at you to check that you’re safe, you’re looking over at me too. I like walking down shops and seeing something and knowing you’d like it.”
Robin grows a little quiet, each confession causing his heart to beat harder, faster, but he’s not scared anymore. He wants her to know these things. “I like that when you don’t understand a word, you start your question by saying ‘please’. And I like that you see the goodness of everyone, that anyone you meet is your friend first.” He takes a deep breath. “I like knowing that you chose me and still choose me even though I don’t have any powers. You make me feel as if I actually matter.”
“Robin…” Star smiles softly, removing one hand from his clasp to put it on his cheek as he looks up at her. “Your skills are not what matters to me, though they are impressive. You taught me of being ‘nice’, a word that does not exist on my planet. You showed me that being kind was not a weakness, but a strength.”
She trails her hand down his jaw, burning him with her touch, and rests it over the R on his costume. Over his heart. “And you care so much for others you would put your own life on the line again and again even though you do not have powers. That is what I like so much about you.”
Robin gently grabs the hand on his heart, holding her there. He’s sure she can feel the pounding beneath it, and he’s surprised by how easy this feels. To be real with her. “I care about you, Star, more than anyone else.”
“Even more than Raven?” She asks, innocently, though he spies a mischievous twinkle in her eye. He laughs slightly, tugging her even closer, bringing both their hands together and intertwining their fingers.
Her hands fit so well in his, and she can’t help but think that perhaps it was a good thing the Citadel took her prisoner if it meant she met him.
“Well, not more than Raven, just… differently?”
She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “But many times in battle, if both of us were falling after getting hit by a villainous creature, you would jump to save me and allow Raven to fall.”
“Okay, not many times!”
“No, I have kept count. You have done this same maneuver seven times in the past lunar cycle.”
“Okay!” He exclaims, laughing wholeheartedly now and blushing so fiercely, that even the dimness of the campfire light cannot hide it. “Fine! I like you more than Raven! I may even…,” he brushes a loose strand of her hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear. “I like you more than all of them combined.”
The weight that had settled on Starfire since this morning finally lifts. She feels light as air. He finally told her how he felt, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He liked her, as a friend who is a girl. “I like you more than all of them combined as well, though I think you knew that already.”
But as she smiles brightly at him, she notices that he seems to be drawing inward again. She pulls him to the log to sit down. “Why does my confession seem to have made you sad once more? Are you not pleased that your feelings are reciprocated?”
Robin sighs, and pulls his hands away from Starfire, looking out into the fire. For a moment, she believes he won’t answer her, and she starts to feel cold again.
“There’s…” He starts, then coughs and takes a deep breath in. He knows he needs to explain this to her, he needs to ensure she understands. He turns to her. “There’s a reason why we cannot be together, though.”
He sees it, the moment the words hit her. Sees her face crumple, and he reaches for her slowly, scared she will pull away from him again. But she reaches for him too and that gives him the hope to continue.
“Starfire. Everyone I love… Everyone I have ever cared about…” He thinks of his father’s instructions the first time he got on the trapeze. Of his mother’s laughter the first time he fell. He thinks of how separate Bruce keeps both of his lives, how when they dawn their masks, they are partners, not family. “My mentor taught me how important it is to keep my private life separate. For protection.”
“But surely it is different, Robin. I need no protection. We fight side by side every day, I already know you like this.”
“Yes, but Starfire!” He squeezes her hands now, willing her to understand. “Don’t you see how that’s worse? I am the leader of the Titans. If our enemies found out that you’re the most precious to me…” He can’t even bear to say it. How could he live through it?
“They could take me away…” His nod is almost imperceptible, but she sees it. She sees him. “But Robin,” She touches his chin lightly, trying to calm him. Without even noticing it, he leans into her hand. “I am strong enough to defend myself.”
“But I’m not!” The panicked yell that bursts out of him startles her, and he stands and walks away. He runs a frustrated hand through his hair as he starts to pace. Star is confused; Is he worried that he cannot defend himself if he is taken? He has already proved that he can hold his own even against Slade.
Before she can ask, he turns to her sharply. “Under normal circumstances, with no idea of the moves I may make, our enemies would need to take all of you at once to try and lure me to them. But if they knew how much I care for you, that I care for you above anyone else, they could just take you. They could take you and force me to choose you or the others or lure me into a trap… and I’m not strong enough.”
She stands and walks towards him. His chest is heaving and he looks slightly crazed. She still doesn’t understand. “You are very strong, Robin. And very smart. You would find a way around any trap.”
He’s already shaking his head. “No, I wouldn’t be able to. I wouldn’t be able to think straight if… if they…”
“If they what, Robin?”
He grabs her shoulders, squeezing her tightly, “I can’t lose you!!” His breath finally evens out. This confession, this was what had been holding him back. All the fight leaves his body. “I’m not… I’m not strong enough.”
She immediately wraps him in a hug, tucking her head into his shoulder as his arms automatically come up to squeeze her just as tightly. He exhales, feeling the tension drain from him. This is all he has ever wanted, Star in his arms. It's too risky but… but he can’t let go.
She pulls back from him to look him in the eyes again. “Okay, so our enemies may not know of the intimacy of our relationship. But our friends will understand. And if we talk to them, perhaps they will stop making fun of you during combat and thus lower the risk of enemies discovering it even more.”
“Wait so…,” He looks at her, confused, “You still want a relationship with me?”
“Of course I do, Robin. Do you not want one with me?”
“No, I do! I definitely do, it’s just…” He trails off, tilting his head to one side. “What about everything I just said? Aren’t you worried? If anyone finds out, you’ll be a target.”
“No one will find out,” She says confidently. There she is, the girl who commits to the path ahead, with no hesitation. “And if they do,” She pulls him in again, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. “...Then I have full trust that you will save me. If I do not save myself first, that is.”
He chuckles and then sighs, pulling her in even tighter against him. He couldn’t have picked a braver, stronger, more amazing girl.
“Okay fine,” He relents, though she can feel the smile behind his resignation. “But for now, let's not tell the Titans any labels. Let’s just let them know that we care about each other and are…”
“Betrothed?” Star supplies, causing Robin to break out in a coughing fit as he awkwardly pulls back and rubs at his neck.
“Uh…Let’s just stick to exclusive for now.”
“Exclusive…” She tries the word out on her tongue and wrinkles her nose. “I think I like ‘friend who is a girl’ much better.”
He chuckles. Star’s starting to think these quiet little chuckles are her favorite sound. “Okay, then my exclusive friend who is a girl.” He leans his head against hers.
Without meaning to, or perhaps meaning to entirely, Starfire shifts, and her nose trails down his. She’s looking at his lips, and he knows exactly what he’s supposed to do right now, but this is Starfire! And she’s… definitely leaning in. Robin leans in, too, that strange gravity around her pulling him in but right before their lips touch…
CRASH!
They break apart as the same clawed, armored, beast from the space station breaks down the rock that sealed off their tunnel.
It screeches and Robin grabs Star’s hand, pulling her away from the sonic waves threatening to topple them over. He lets go and turns as the monster begins trying to punch him into the ground. Robin flips and bounds away for as long as he can before it lands a hit and sends him sprawling across the floor.
Starfire angrily runs up, her eyes glowing green as they narrow on the monster. Robin pushes up from the floor and jumps behind a rock that the monster easily smashes. But before it can land another hit on Robin, Star blasts it with her eye beams, charging at it as she shoots ray after ray.
She jumps over the monster, twisting in midair to shoot it with starbolts, and as she lands, Robin attacks it with his staff. The both of them land hit after hit, never stopping their attack, each picking off where the other left off, perfectly in sync once more.
Robin swings up onto it, straddling where its neck should be, and whacks it to distract it while Starfire picks up the largest rock in the cavern and throws it right when Robin hops off. She swings again at it, the force of the hit shoving it back into the wall of the cave.
Now angered, the beast screeches again. The couple runs out of the way, and its sonic waves tear easily through the cave wall, opening back up to the ravine they had been falling through earlier. But more importantly: the surface.
Robin and Starfire look at each other, then back at the growling creature. As it takes a deep breath to screech again, Robin throws an exploding disc that covers its mouth with a glue-like substance, effectively stopping its sonic roar.
Robin grapples the creature, trying to pull it along, but it pulls back, swinging Robin around and crashing him into Starfire. The momentum pushes them out of the hole it created, landing on a cliff on the other side, but the monster follows them out, desperate for a kill.
Robin tries to grapple to get to the top of the ravine, only to realize that his hook has been broken. The monster takes slow, predatory steps towards them, sure it has them cornered. Robin tosses his useless grappler off the side of the cliff and turns to Starfire instead.
“Let’s fly,” He says, simply. Star looks around, noticing how deep the ravine is, how far they could fall… does he really trust her right now, when the last time they were falling she wasn’t able to muster up the courage?
“But…” Robin’s fingers intertwine with her own, and her heart flutters, as if it has already begun to take flight.
“As long as we’re together, we’ll be okay.” He’s smiling at her, so confident, even as the beast gets closer and closer, its claws reaching up to grab them. But she smiles back at him.
The beast charges and they both jump, hands holding each other tightly. The beast falls too, the cliff breaking under its weight, but Robin and Starfire don’t notice that. They encircle each other in the air, and Robin gives her hand a small squeeze. Her eyes glow green.
As the monster continues its plummet to death for sure this time, Starfire easily pulls Robin back up to the surface, flying once more.
He looks up at her, nothing but pride in his smile, and she blushes under his gaze. “Robin…”
They embrace again, and he pulls her tightly into him, arms encircling her waist fully as she wraps hers around his neck. They could have stayed like that for hours.
They could’ve except for that was exactly when the T-ship, extremely battered and barely held together, floated up to them. Cyborg loudly clears his throat over the speakers, a knowing smirk on his face, and they break the hug. But this time, Robin doesn’t pull away. His arms naturally keep a loose hold around her waist, and Star keeps an arm across his back.
She gasps, excitedly. “Friends! It is glorious to see you!” She waves at Cyborg and Beast Boy, who are both wiggling their eyebrows at Robin. But he just pulls her in a little closer.
“Are we gonna be able to fly home in that?” He asks, watching as a panel falls off the back.
“Just missing a few pieces,” Cyborg replies, holding up his wrists… where no hands are attached. “Like me!”
Beast Boy points out to the distance, to an enclave of trees. “Somebody’s waving at us…” He leans in closer, and then shouts, “And it’s you!!” Lo and behold, both of Cy’s hands are trapped in a tree, waving, one of them holding one of the steering rudders.
“Well alright!”
Robin quickly catches on to who’s missing, and reluctantly lets go of Starfire. “You guys seen Raven?”
Starfire looks down concernedly, “I hope she is not suffering the atrocities so abundant on this planet.”
“Meh, I’m sure she’s fine,” Beast Boy says, still waving at Cyborg’s hands, “Besides, the planet wasn’t even that hard, other than having to figure out how to build this ship with Cyborg’s brain and my hands.” He looks back to them, shrugging, “I’ve seen worse.”
“Yeah,” Cyborg says, raising his eyebrows suggestively at the two of them. “I think the better question is, what happened between you and your girlfriennnd, Robin.”
“Dude!” Beastie says, worry crossing his face, “Don’t freak him out again!! He finally looks calm!”
Robin rolls his eyes as Starfire chuckles, “Yes, friend Cyborg. We have decided not to utilize labels on our budding relationship at this time.”
“Wait… relationship??” BB looks back up, interested now, looking between the two of them, “For reals?”
Robin takes her hand again, confident their enemies will not see it on this random planet. “Yeah. Relationship.”
“We are ‘exclusive’ however and Robin says I am most assuredly his friend who is a girl!”
Robin chuckles again, a blush forming on his cheeks. He tries not to glance at the other boys who are already snickering behind their hands, instead refocusing on Starfire. “And that makes me your exclusive friend who is a boy.”
She floats dreamily, pulling him up with her and hugging him again. “Oh, how I do so like that!”
Robin laughs and points at the T-ship, and she brings him over to her ship before dropping herself in her own. He turns on his intercoms, the sound still static-filled from all the damage the ship took, but at least perceptible.
“Come on, Titans, let's go find Raven. Hopefully, her time here was a lot more peaceful than Star and I’s.”
“Well,” Cyborg says, and Beast Boy immediately starts giggling, “If it was any more PEACEFUL than you and Star, we may have to add a seat to the T-ship!”