Starfire held back tears as she packed her bag, looking around her empty room and slowly placing her remaining possessions into her suitcase. She sniffed - this was the worst day of her life. She had known it was coming for a long time now, and yet it was the one day she had hoped would never come:

It was Beast Boy's 20th birthday.

She took one last, longing look around her room and pulled her luggage outside. Entering the main room, she realized that she was the last to arrive – each of her friends had their own bags surrounding the sofa where they were all sitting silently. The TV was turned on to some cooking show, but no one was paying any mind to it. They were just staring out into space for the most part – with the exception of Robin, who was staring up at Starfire.

"Hey, Star." he said quietly, so quietly that she almost missed it.

"Greetings." she replied softly, setting her luggage down and squeezing onto the last space on the sofa, right beside him. Silkie climbed up her leg and settled on her lap, strangely quiet. Everything was silent for a few awful moments, until Cyborg spoke up,

"So … happy birthday, B.B." he said, hardly able to keep his voice from cracking.

"Yeah." Robin attempted a smile, but gave it up quickly, "Congrats."

Beast Boy threw his arms up in the air, "Man, this sucks!" he cried, "Why do we even have to do this?"

"We've already told you," Raven said flatly, "Multiple times."

"Well tell me again."

"We aren't kids anymore, Beast Boy," Robin began slowly, "We need to move out, go to school, get our own homes…" he glanced over at Starfire, "Start a family. We always knew this day would come – we can't stay here forever. You're the youngest of all of us, and we agreed long ago that, come your 20th birthday, we would … move on." Beast Boy sighed deeply,

"We couldn't just change our name? We don't have to be the Teen Titans, you know. Just the 'Titans' would work too!" The room was silent, and Beast Boy knew he had received his answer. "But who's going to fill in for us? Most of the other Titans have already retired – somebody's got to fight crime around here!"

He knew arguing was useless – Robin's mind was made up, and Beast Boy knew his leader was right. However, there was a part of him that just didn't want to let it go. He couldn't just give everything up like that – crime-fighting was all he had ever known, it was his life. This was his home, this was his family. How was he supposed to forget about all they'd been through together? How could he simply leave it all behind?

"Look, B.B., we all know it's time." Cyborg looked at his best pal with tears in his good eye and a sympathetic look on his face, "We're adults now – we need to live our lives." Beast Boy nodded miserably, he did know it was time to quit… he just didn't feel it.

"How long do we have?" he asked.

Robin glanced up at the clock. "Till noon." He said, just as the Jump City clock struck eleven.

DONG, DONG, DONG,

"Noon!" Beast Boy wailed.

DONG, DONG, DONG,

"That's only an hour," Cyborg sighed.

DONG, DONG, DONG,

Starfire hugged Silky tightly to her chest, trying to hide the tears filling her eyes.

DONG, DONG.

"We have one hour, Titans." Robin said solemnly, "What do you want to do?"

"Boo Yah! PIZZA!" Cyborg cried, flopping into their usual booth on the balcony, "Let's order the all-you-can-eat Meat Lover's! Mmmmmm … meat!"

"Dude! It's my birthday, so I get to choose what we order!" Beast Boy retorted,

"No way am I eating any o' your fake vegetarian stuff!"

"Hey – I happen to like that 'fake vegetarian stuff'!"

"Well, I don't!"

Robin rolled his eyes at the bickering men, and got up to order the pizza.

"Would you two puh-lease shut up?" Raven asked angrily, closing her eyes in an attempt to drown out the growing noise. "You're giving me a headache." They ignored her however, and didn't stop their argument until Robin returned with two pizzas – one meat, one veggie - and then didn't say another word until both boxes were empty.

"Ahhhhh." Cyborg leaned back in his chair, contented, "Nothing hits the spot like a hot, meaty pizza, huh, Beast Boy?"

"You mean a veggie pizza, right?"

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do!"

"How would you know what I mean?"

"How would you know what I mean?"

"What are you talking about, man?"

"I don't even know!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"I don't care!"

They went on like this for a while, ignoring Starfire's multiple peace-making attempts, until the other three Titans simply got up and walked away. Even then, it took them a few minutes to actually realize that they were alone, but they quickly made up and ran out of the pizza place, meeting up with Raven, Robin and Starfire out by the doors.

"It's about time." Raven commented. Robin shook his head.

"That took a bit longer than I would've liked, but we still have a little over half an hour left."

"But what should we do now?" Starfire asked. Cyborg and Beast Boy thought about it for a minute, and then turned to beam at each other,

"ICE CREAM!"

"Some people never grow up." Raven frowned, "Look at them – they're twenty years old!" Robin couldn't help but smile as he watched Beast Boy and Cyborg dancing around the ice cream man, grinning like little children.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing, Raven." he said softly, looking around at all of his friends. He turned to face her, "Have you found a place to live yet?"

She nodded her head, returning the question: "Have you?"

"Yeah." Robin too nodded, "It's not too far from the Tower actually. You're not … leavingJumpCity, are you?"

He let out a sigh of relief when she shook her head – he had already asked the other Titans, and so far it looked like they were all staying in the city. It would be nice to maybe visit one another once in a while. They were giving up crime-fighting, but that didn't mean they had to give up each other.

"Do you have any plans yet for the future?" he asked casually, wondering what she was planning on doing once she was on her own.

"Not yet. I'm just working on moving out of the Tower for now."

Robin nodded again. "Me too. I might go back to school, but maybe not… who really knows?"

"Who knows…" she echoed, growing silent.

Starfire walked over to stand in between them, "Will you come with me to the mall of shopping, Raven?" she asked suddenly, looking over at her friend eagerly.

Sighing, Raven shrugged. "I guess it couldn't hurt. You'll be fine with these two?" she asked Robin, nodding towards the remaining Titans and their melting ice cream cones.

"No problem."

"Great. See you." Starfire quickly grabbed Raven's hand before she could change her mind, and ran off in the direction of the Jump City Mall.

Robin smiled as he watched them go – some 'girl time' would probably be good for the both of them, but felt a sudden pang of sadness knowing they didn't have much longer. He walked over to Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"Hey, Robin!" Cyborg cried as soon as he was within hearing range, "Can we go to the arcade?"

Robin stared at him, unsure if he had heard right. "The arcade?" he repeated incredulously. Beast Boy and Cyborg nodded and skipped off towards the large building, without even waiting for an answer.

Great, he thought, following slowly behind them, they're in one of their childish moods again… Lucky me.

About twenty minutes later, Raven and Starfire walked out of the mall. Starfire was chattering away merrily, and Raven looked about ready to strangle the alien, but that was nothing unusual.

"I can't believe I found this!" Starfire cried, holding up a purple skirt identical to the one she was wearing, "I've never seen anything so lovely!" Raven rolled her eyes and continued forward, thoroughly worn out from all the walking and chattering Starfire had done. Where does she get the energy?

"Oh, look!" Starfire called out, pointing to three men heading for them, "it's the boys!"

Looking up, Raven saw that it was indeed Beast Boy and Cyborg coming towards them, with their exhausted leader trailing behind. As soon as Robin and Raven got a good look at each other, they nearly laughed aloud. It was clear both Titans had been through a lot in the past twenty minutes – Robin trying to keep the other two out of control and Raven being dragged through an extensive shopping mall.

"So how much time do we have left now?" she asked. Robin shrugged, and Cyborg checked his arm.

"About fifteen minutes, I think," he said, suddenly serious, "We should probably be getting back to the Tower now, huh?" When Robin nodded, Raven summoned her dark energy and whisked them all away.

Once inside Titan's Tower again, the Titans went to the sofa and sat back down where they had been before. When no one said anything, Beast Boy blurted out,

"What are the other Titans doing today?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "The honorary Titans?"

"The ones who are still at work… and Titans East."

"Well, most of them are retiring too," he explained, "I think Titans East is splitting up throughSteelCity, and the honorary Titans are returning to their ordinary lives."

"But then who's going to protect the world?" Beast Boy cried,

"There are other superheroes out there, you know," Raven told him, "They can take care of it."

"But … but … they're not us! Besides, there aren't as many of them as there are Titans!" he turned to Robin, distraught, "How can you just give up the team like this?"

"I'm not giving up anything, Beast Boy," he replied slowly, "I'm just … moving on."

"We've already been through this, B.B.," Cyborg said, "It's time."

Beast Boy sighed. "I know. But why does it seem like I'm the only one who's going to miss you guys?" He could feel tears stinging in his eyes, and, not wanting to seem like a kid, looked away from his teammates.

"You are not the only one, friend," Starfire said softly, laying a hand on the man's shoulder, "I too will miss you all." There was a long silence, during which each Titan considered his own feelings about their decision. In their hearts, they all knew it was for the best, but it was a hard reality to face. Sure they would still see each other on occasion, but it would never be the same.

Soon, the clock strucknoon, interrupting their thoughts,

DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONG, DONGGGGGGGG.

Slowly rising to their feet, and without a word, each Titan gathered their things and headed for the door, taking one last good look around the room they would likely never see again.

Once they were outside, Cyborg locked the door and scrambled the code, so no one could break in, and they all turned to face one another.

"I'm really going to miss you guys," Beast Boy said sadly,

"As am I," said Starfire, "Oh, friends, it has been glorious."

"It has." Robin said softly. With those final words, the ex-Titans hugged each other farewell, and turned to go their own ways.

"Oh, yeah, guys?" Cyborg said suddenly, stopping them in their tracks, "I forgot to tell you…"

"Tell us what?" Raven asked.

"I-I'm," the cyborg stuttered, "I'm engaged, y'all."

"What?" Beast Boy cried, "Since when?"

But he was already gone.