Year One: Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy: Age 15 Robin: Age 16 Cyborg: Age 17

The Beginning

On a Friday afternoon, I was sitting at the desk in my new room in Titans Tower reading the local newspaper. If I'm being honest, I'd have to say I'm a bit obsessed with keeping up on everything's that's going on in Jump City. After all, it's my city to protect now. Err- our city to protect.

Over the past two months, I've found that getting used to being part of a team is a bit difficult. Especially for someone like me. I spent most of my time with Batman trying to prove that I was his equal, if not better than him. With a team, and a team that I lead, it's about working with each others strengths and weaknesses to get the job done. I have to teach those who aren't used to combat, unlike Beast Boy, who I hear was also part of another team at some point. The Doom Patrol or something.

God, he's annoying sometimes. I like the kid enough, but I can't be in a room alone with him for more than fifteen minutes. I guess I get along with Cyborg better, but he wants to be a leader too. He doesn't argue with me, but I can feel it when he disagrees. It seems like he and Beast Boy have bonded over pranking Raven, who rarely comes out of her room anyway. I haven't really spoken to her much. Not that I'm afraid of her, but I don't want to get on her bad side. All I know is she's from, like, another dimension or whatever. To be honest, I don't know much about any of them.

Then there's Starfire. The girl I barely know, but who kissed me the day we met. She's the one that I know the most about; she landed here on earth when she was trying to escape from the Gordanian's. She told us that they were holding her prisoner and were transporting her to the Citadel-another thing I hardly know about-but she found a way to break free. We don't exactly know why they were taking her. She just told us there was some dispute with her home planet, Tamaran.

I feel goosebumps prick along my arms at the thought of her. God, I hardly know the girl, but she's just… She's great. I've tried to talk with her more, but I end up getting nervous. I lean back in my seat with a huff of my breath, frustrated. Sheesh, I'm a superhero, damn it. I'm not supposed to have these sissy little crushes. I don't have time for that.

I slam the newspaper down on my desk and get up. Gotta think of something else. I look down at my watch. About time for lunch, let's see if Cyborg's making anything today. I open my bedroom door, and as I turn back around to lock it up, I hear footsteps coming down the hall. I crane my head around the corner and see Starfire walking towards me, head looking down at the ground, and a sullen look on her face. I raise my eyebrow. She always seems so happy. What could possibly be wrong with her?

She sighs deeply as she continues walking, nearly straight into me. She yelps -in an adorable little "eep" kind of way- and jumps back, startled. I can't help but smile and wait as she recovers from the scare. She looks at me, and I see a hint of blush on her cheeks. But then she tilts her head to this side with a big question mark plastered to her forehead.

"Umm," I say patting my hand around on my chest, thinking to myself Holy shit there's something on me, I look like an idiot.

"Robin, I did not know that you wear the spectacles," she says in her soft little sing-song voice. I freeze. Oh God, not my glasses. I reach up to pull the metal wires from the bridge of my nose. I tap around my eyes making sure my mask is secure on my face, then I fold them up and grip them in my shaking hand. I hope she doesn't notice that I'm blushing now, too.

"Yeah, uhh, I was doing some reading."

"I see. I attempted to read the earthen book. But it contained so many words that I did not know. Cyborg referred to it as the slang."

"I was reading the newspaper." The words sound strangled from my throat. Good God, she didn't ask what I was reading. Just let her talk.

"Oh. May I ask what it is that you are doing now?" Her big green eyes zero in on my masked ones. I nearly forgot what she asked.

"Err- I was going down to the common room to get some lunch." I look at the tall, orange skinned girl, with her shoulders slumped and a frown on her face. "Wanna come with?" Her eyes brightened.

"Of course!" she exclaims, and I jump at the sudden volume in her voice. She wraps her hand around my wrist and pulls me along as we make our way to the elevator. My skin tingles where she touches it.

"You seem happier," I inquire.

"I suppose I was feeling lonely," she says as we enter the elevator. She presses the button and the doors close in front of us.

"Starfire, you live with four people. How can you be lonely?"

"Well," she begins, looking down at her hands folded in front of her, "Cyborg was working on something in the garage, Beast Boy was playing the video games, and Raven told me to 'go away' when I knocked on her door." I frown. How could anyone not want to hang out with her? The door opens and I follow her out. We pass through the living room, where Beast Boy plays on the GameStation, and into the kitchen.

As I start rummaging through the fridge, I ask, "So I assume you were coming to see me next?" She doesn't answer, and when I look at her, she seems to be nervously rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

"Robin, I… You just seem so busy all the time… I would feel like I was being the annoying, as Raven calls it."

"She called you-?" There was something like a growl in the back of my throat. "Starfire, you could've come to me if you wanted to."

"Truly?" she asks. I nod and smile at her. She finally returns the smile, reaching from ear to ear and making her eyes shine. "Oh Robin, thank you!" She throws her arms around me and lifts me up from the ground in a crippling hug. I forget how strong she is by just looking at her.

"Star-fire-Too-tight…" She giggles as she sets me back down. I wheeze, but grin, happy that I could make her happy.

"Alright," I say, looking into the fridge again. "We got… eggs. And mustard. And some strawberries… I can't make a meal out of this." I sigh as I closes up the fridge and moves to the cupboard. When I hear the fridge open up again behind me, I turn to find Starfire holding the bottle of mustard way too close to her mouth.

"Starfire no! Don't eat-" The yellow liquid leaks onto her tongue and I cringe, waiting for her to spit it out. But instead, a smile forms on her lips, and she squeezes more into her mouth. Now I'm cringing for a different reason.

"Why should I not eat this, Robin?" she asks as she licks her lips. "It is quite delicious. Reminds me of a delicacy on Tamaran."

"It's just that uhh, normally humans don't just eat mustard by itself."

"Then what is it for?"

"We put it on, like, hot dogs and stuff."

"Well I think that it is perfectly fine on it's own," she declares, taking another swig before she places it back in the fridge. She wipes her mouth on her arm, and I chuckle. "What?" she asks, looking somewhat insulted.

"Nothing. You're just funny, that's all."

"You are doing the laughing at me?" Her eyebrows furrow, and I see moisture in her eyes.

"No, no!" I cry, moving in front of her and placing my hands on her shoulders. "I just think you're… interesting."

"Oh. I do believe you are…" She trails off, seeming to be in deep thought. I think back to the day we met, when I unlocked her handcuffs. I told her I was trying to be nice. She said the closest word to nice on her planet meant weak.

"Uhh, rutha?" I ask, repeating the word she said to me that day. She smiles shyly.

"No. You are anything but weak," she says tenderly. I feel my throat close up and sweat bead on my forehead. God, what this girl does to me. "You are nice." She considers the word, and nods her head like she's sure of it.

Just then my stomach growls, and Starfire laughs out loud.

"It appears that you are quite hungry indeed."

"Yeah, maybe we can get the team together for pizza."

"Perhaps you will go and ask Raven, and I shall ask Beast Boy?" I nod, and we disperse.

In the end, Raven gives me a flat out know, saying that she's busy meditating. Beast Boy didn't even respond to Starfire; he had a line of drool pooling out of his mouth and he didn't remove his eyes from the large screen television.

"Maybe Cy will wanna go," I say. I begin walking to the garage door, but Starfire yanks me back towards her, nearly causing me to topple over. But she rights me just before I fall.

"Do you think that perhaps we could simply get the pizza together?"

"J-J-Just us?" Did I seriously just stutter? Fuck my life. I clear my throat and try to focus past the lure of her big green eyes. "Uhh, sure."

"Glorious! It is like a day of bonding for us, yes?" I find her smile contagious.

"Yeah, I guess it is." I'm pretty sure my heart's going to pound right out of my chest.

The Rings

Tighten my grip. There, better. Okay arms straight out… hold it… and exhale.

"Robin, what are you doing?"

My elbows suddenly wobble and bend at the sound of her voice, causing me to fall out of my iron cross. As I dangle for the rings, I look over to the doorway at Starfire. She's dressed in these spandex-looking shorts and a tight tank top. I once heard her telling Raven that she likes to wear tight and comfortable clothing while training, because on her home planet they often go naked. My throat tightens at the thought. But I shake the thoughts away. She's my best friend. Nothing more.

"Uh, these are gymnastics rings," I answer.

"What are they for? Do they prepare you for battle in some way?"

"Not really. But they help with strength. You gotta be really strong to hold yourself up in some of these positions." I demonstrate by swinging forward and up, ending up in somewhat of a handstand with my arms out straight. I look down at her, hoping to see awe in her face, but she looks smug.

"Well I can do that," she says. I laugh and drop myself back down.

"Okay. You have a turn." She nods and takes my place at the rings. And she effortlessly lifts up from the ground and into a mirroring stance. "Flying is cheating, Star."

"I disagree. One must be very strong to fly, yes? You cannot do it," she teases.

"No, one must be an alien or something to fly," I say matter-of-factly. She touches her feet back to the ground and begins walking towards me. "Nuh uh, you're gonna do it the right way." She huffs, be obediently walks back to the rings. I stand beside her as she grabs onto them. "Okay, so first swing forward, and when you get some height, use your abdominals to lift up your legs." She does so, and almost gets straight up, but falls back down. She lets out a huff of breath, and I notice sweat on her forehead.

"Here I go," she says, seemingly to herself. She tries again and gets up.

"Now straighten out your arms!" I say quickly. But she falls down again. "Just put your arms out sooner and you're golden." She nods and swings upward once again. This time her body forms the pose, but she can't keep her legs together. "You just need some more practice. Now that you can get up, you just gotta work on the little things."

She releases herself and stands before me, raking the back of her hand over her forehead. "I believe I dislike the human way of this exercise."

"Well, it's my favorite," I say, going back to the rings.

"Where did you learn to do these things? From the Batman?" I snort.

"Nah, he couldn't get his fat ass up here if he tried." But the humor fades from me. I don't know if I really want to talk about where I learned how to do this. I look into her curious eyes. I guess if I were ever to talk about it, I'd want it to be with her.

"Robin?" Her eyebrows furrow. I guess I've been staring at her for too long.

"Um, my parents and I; we were acrobats in a circus-"

"'Acrobats'? And what is a 'circus'?" I chuckle. They couldn't torture this information out of me, but I find her adorable.

"We did stunts, where we would hold onto these swinging bars and let go, but we would grab onto another bar. It looked like we were flying. And actually, they called us-" I choked. Holy shit, I almost just gave her my identity. God, this girl does crazy things to my brain. "Uh, yeah but a circus is a place with cool animals and games and people who do awesome tricks. I loved it when I was a kid." Starfire was smiling with a glassy look in her eyes.

"Oh it sounds wondrous! Perhaps one day we can all visit one of these circuses you speak of."

"Yea, maybe some day, Star." But I don't think I could handle that. Brings back too many terrible memories.

"So is that why you like it when I take you flying with me?" I consider that for a second. That would only make sense.

"I guess so, yeah. I just like the feeling of being up in the air with nothing helping you. Well, except for you of course. But without you I'd fall to my death."

"And I would never let that happen, Robin." She smiles at me, one which I return.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" I ask, changing the subject before she could ask more about my parents and our former careers. The team and I had been planning for going out for pizza and a movie tonight.

"I believe so. I must do the changing, but then I am ready."

"Okay. I gotta shower. Meet you in the common room in twenty minutes?" She nods, and I grin, subconsciously eager for the moment that I get to see her again.

So as it says in the description, I plan on making this into a full fledged story once I get through all of these little one shots. This is just the journey through the awkward teenage crush phase in Robin and Starfire's relationship leading up to when they finally make it official.

Review please!