They stand before me, laughing, chattering to one another, and in the case of G'nark and Cyborg, seeing how much food they can get in their mouths at once. I hope they know they're the ones cleaning up the mess when one of them pukes.
I voice this to Kid flash, and he laughs, slapping me hard on the back and telling me that I should loosen up, it's a party. I roll my eyes, though he wouldn't have known even if he had stood still enough to look.
Raven is talking with the newest and most unlikely titan there ever was, Jinx. They seem to be getting along quite well, for saying they once wanted to cat-fight each other into another nationality. I suppose Kid flash must have apologised on her behalf to Jinx's worst enemies. I mentally note that he's hovering around her an awful lot, but every time someone questions him about it, he pretends he's not even slightly interested. I suppose that's teenage love for you.
I look around the crowd again, wanting to catch sight of Her. No sign near the food, where a small crowd has gathered to see the eating contest. Kole is taking bets on whose going to crack first, and several Titans are starting to look nervous about the sickly-looking pair.
No sign in the hall either, where Speedy and Aqualad are standing in a dark alcove where they think they can't be seen. I don't know why they're so worried, if any titan turns out to be homophobic, they'd have to answer to me. Teenage love again, not being ashamed of love, but not wanting anyone else to know about it either, like keeping it a secret makes it somehow more special.
She's not at the gamestation either, but no surprise there, she doesn't really like the violent games. Mas and Menos are tag-teaming HotSpot, and he's probably going to melt the controller in a few minutes. I choose to ignore it, Beast boy or Cyborg will deal with them.
By the stereo system, Beast boy is trying to clear an area and seems to have acquired a microphone from somewhere. Oh good, he's going to set up Karaoke, as if we needed the embarrassment and torture of squeaky-voiced teen boys trying to sing songs about farts.
"Dudes and dudettes! Shaddup for a second and listen to meee!" He demands. "We're gonna have a kareoke! Woo! But before we start that, we have a certain matter to attend to…" His eyes fix on me, and the rest of the eyes in the room turn to stare at me too.
Suddenly I'm uncomfortable, and try to disappear inside my cape, but then I hear a little giggle from behind me and spin around.
Starfire.
Her pretty green eyes are shimmering and she wears a look of demure proudness on her pretty face. My eyes travel downwards and see what she has in her hands.
A huge cake, big enough for every titan here to have at least a small piece. Decorated in my signature colours, red, green, yellow and black frosting, with the words 'Happy Birthday Robin' neatly iced in the centre.
As the other Titans start singing happy birthday like real gimps, Starfire brushes past me and places it on the food table, lighting each little candle with a pinpoint of green light.
"Make a wish." She coos softly to me, helping to drown out the embarrassing singing.
I give her a weak smile back and take a deep breath, then blow the candles out with one blow. At the same time wishing for only one thing. To be able to feel that shy, sweetness of teenage love, rather than the gut-wrenching shyness of my crush.
As the other titans clap, make cat-calls and start yelling for me to tell them what I wished for, Starfire leans over and takes my hand. I freeze, not sure what she's up to now.
She's blushing lightly, a pretty peach colour coming to her cheeks. Her eyes are narrowed slightly and she doesn't look directly at me.
"Uhm… I have a present for you." She squeaks.
"Oh…You didn't have to." I protest, pleased all the same.
She manages to look up properly, squeaks out; "Happy Birthday Robin." then lunges forwards, her lips meeting mine.
For a moment there is an eerie silence in the room, and I know with a cold certainty that I will NEVER hear the end of the jokes about what happened on my 16th birthday now, and that everyone is going to start cheering and saying things like 'bout time' the second we break apart, and that Beast Boy will undoubtedly try to make me sing a romantic song, and when I refuse, he will proceed to do a stupid impression of me, and I probably won't see star for the rest of the day now, the girl titans will probably kidnap and interrogate her.
And somehow, as my arms slip around Starfire's slender waist, I am unable to care. Because I know suddenly why Kid Flash denies his feelings for Jinx, and looks after her secretly, and why Aqualad and Speedy crave secrecy, and why Cyborg and Bumblebee have fights over silly, trivial things.
It's teenage love. And I have it.