A/N: There's hardly any Cyborg x Terra fics out there, so I decided to write one. Because I felt like it.
I hope you like the story.
It was impossible.
Though he had honestly never expected to hear about her - let alone see her - again after Beast Boy had gone to seek for her when they had discovered her statue was gone, he had somehow encountered her many years later.
They were never close or anything, really. They never had any real interaction, either. But it was one day when he was stopping at one of his favorite cafes that he saw her.
Sure, she had grown a bit from that sickly weed she was into more of a woman. But it was still recognizably her. Same bluebell eyes, same nose, same way she held her thin little mouth.
And her hair was still the same too, the only difference being that it had turned a darker shade of blonde and was noticeably shorter.
Well, maybe he could have been mistaken, but human instinct told him that it was her.
And by her he meant Tara. Tara Markov, the former princess of Markovia.
Otherwise known as Terra, a former Titan with earth powers who betrayed the team to serve Slade.
He wasn't sure what to do. Talk to her? Greet her? Ignore her?
Though they had barely spoken to each other over her short tenure on the Titans, of course he had remembered her.
He decided to speak to her. Since he was wearing a holographic ring, she surely wouldn't recognize him. Plus, he had grown some stubble (or at least on what remained of his actual human skin), too, so there was a fat chance she'd even think he was familiar, right? Maybe she'd think of him as a nice, friendly stranger who saw her sitting alone and wanted to befriend her because she seemed lonely...
Riight. "Hi there," he said shyly, holding a cup of coffee in his large hands.
"Hi there, Vic. I haven't seen you in a long time," Tara said, smiling slightly. "Remember me? Tara?"
"Of course I remember you," Vic said fondly. "You're Terra, aren't you? You were on the Teen Titans for a while."
"Yeah, I was," Tara replied sadly. "I missed you all so much. Especially Gar. It was fun hanging out with him. He was just...wonderful." She took a sip from her warm cup of coffee and sighed. "Speaking of Gar, how is he?"
"He's engaged. To some girl he met in Hawaii. I don't remember her name."
"Good for him," Tara remarked, a hint of sadness in her voice. When she had still been part of the Teen Titans, she and Gar had a small romance that ended when she had gone to Slade. "How are the others?"
"Dick and Raven are married. Kori's currently dating Roy Harper. You know, Speedy from Titans East? And I...I'm, well, single and looking."
Tara let out a small chuckle. "Funny you mention that, 'cause I'm...single and looking, too."
Vic chuckled a little bit, too. "Really? That's quite a coincidence."
"It sure is," Tara laughed. "So...how have things been going for you?"
"I joined the Justice League recently," he said. "They thought having a part-human, part-robot on the team would help greatly when it comes to tracking down villains and stuff. I'm just takin' a vacation because you see, heroes need a bit of a break sometimes. There hasn't been too much villain activity lately so I'm just relaxin' for a couple days."
"That's cool," Tara said. "As for me...I've been studying. I know it was wrong for me to drive Gar away...but it had to be for the best. Even as a child, life was never normal and I really longed to experience things as a normal person. But now that I'm an adult I really don't mind it so much. I went to university, graduated, got a bachelor's, and am currently studying for my master's. In psychology," she added. "Even if I can't be a hero any more, I still want to do good after what I did wrong. Help people who suffered mentally just like I did when I was a child.
"Because you see," Tara sighed, "when I was younger, I was the princess of a kingdom called Markovia. Then I was taken away along with my brother and someone did...experiments on us that caused us to gain our powers. After that I ran away from Markovia and started wandering all over the world. Looking for a place, looking for myself."
"And that's how we found you," Vic said in realization. "That's how we came across you in that valley."
Tara nodded. "I was lost, I was broken. And I thought that maybe, if I joined the Teen Titans, it would give me some sense of security. Some sense of belonging."
"I understand that feeling," Vic lamented sadly. "Before I became Cyborg, I had a great life. Played football in high school. Was the man of the campus. I even had a full ride scholarship to one of the local universities nearby. But then when I was in junior year my accident happened. I nearly lost my life. My mama lost hers. Luckily my dad was able to put me back together using robot parts. But I was - and have never been - the same again after that accident."
"I get it. People think you look like a freak because of how you look like. People are scared to accept you or talk to you simply because you're an intimidating half-robot man. But the Teen Titans accepted you anyway. And the Justice League. We both were afraid of never belonging."
Vic and Tara continued to sit in silence, both finishing their cups of coffee as a jazz band played music not too far away.
"Yet despite our fears, people accepted us for who we were anyway," Vic said quietly as he threw away his paper cup.
Tara looked to Vic as he returned to the table to pick up a small briefcase and leave.
"Leaving already?" Tara asked. "You know...it was nice talking to you again today."
"You too," Vic said. "Say...do you want to, um, meet again sometime and talk? You know, since we're both single and looking?"
"Sure," Tara replied, accepting the invitation eagerly. "Five o'clock tonight here?"
"Five o'clock tonight," Vic repeated with a smile. "See ya."
"See ya later, Cy," Tara said, waving as Vic turned to leave.