Solving a Fear of the Dark

Robin X Starfire

She was all alone again. Sitting within the darkness of her large dark bedroom. She looked at the clock...1:35 a.m. It was pitch black outside, not even the silver moon graced the presence of her room. She was becoming consumed in the darkness, she tried to close her eyes and forget about the fear she felt. But every noise, every crack, every drop or snap made her twitch and she would be consumed into her nightmarish thoughts. It was not a well known fact that she was afraid of the dark. She tried to hide such a fear from the rest of the team, so that they would not think she was childish or silly.

She looked around her big round bed. All of her stuffed animals surrounded her, they had never looked so scary to her... their shiny glass eyes staring up at her... Her heart rate began to beat out of control.

Finally she got fed up, she swung out from her bed and rushed towards the door, she softly opened the door, trying not to make any noise. She tiptoed down the hall way. The moon had seemed to have disappeared from the sky, she was wrapped in complete darkness. She tried to follow the path of the hallway's walls so that she could guide herself to her destination. The hallway seemed so much longer and dangerous in the night.

She tripped over her own feet once or twice, thinking she heard someone behind her. Her over active imagination was serving to be quite a problem, the poor paranoid Tamaranian had still not adapted to earth's strange ways, and she almost never felt completely safe. Only one person brought her peace of mind.

She arrived at his door. Thinking he might already be asleep after their late night mission against one of many of Jump City villains. She sucked in a deep breath and opened the door.

"R... Robin?" There was no answer, there was a dimly lit lamp on the side of the bed. It gleamed over to the bed, but there was no Robin in the covers of the bed. She scanned the rest of the room for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. She walked over towards his bed, it was nothing but silence. She sat down on his bed, and looked around the room, it was dark, a red comforter on the bed, dark mahogany furniture and golden yellow painted walls. He had very few decorations but his room fit his personality very well.

She glanced over at the small night stand where the lamp stood, at the base of the lamp sat a familiar object. 'His Mask!' she thought. Robin never went anywhere without his mask on. She took the mask in her hands and admired it. It was sleek and black, and it fit every curve of his face as if it were a part of his very skin.

Just then she heard a sound. The sound of a water pipe shutting off, like a shower head stopping. She heard a shower curtain being pushed out of the way. 'He must have been taking a shower' She thought to herself quite obviously. Moments later a figure emerged from the bathroom, wrapped with a towel around his mid section and another towel carefully tossing his dark tousles dry, he was followed by a trail of thick hot steam. He stood there for a moment not noticing her. When he glanced up to see her face, he was not shocked or surprised, he remained calm. "Starfire?" He looked at her and smiled.

"Hello Robin..."

"What are you doing here?" He was going through his drawers as he grabbed a pair of plaid pajama pants and a worn out tee shirt.

"I needed to see you, Robin..." Her voice began to shake.

Robin was surprised at how scared she seemed.

"ok, well let me change. I'll be right out, and then we can talk..." He retreated back to the bathroom and closed the door.

She remembered that it was not accustom to see another person naked on earth, there were exceptions, but for the most part, the human body was to be hidden from the rest of the world.

A short moment passed and the bathroom door swung open again. He walked over to her sitting on the bed, she was very timid looking, that was unusual for her. He took a seat next to her and put his warm hand on her cold shoulder and gently pulled her towards him.

"So whats up?" He asked bluntly

"It is embarrassing to talk about..."

"You can tell me anything Star." He assured her.

"I think I have a fear of the dark..." She said as she shut her eyes tightly.

Robin laughed lightly "Thats nothing to be ashamed of"

"But its a childish fear..." She rebutted

"Not only children are afraid of the dark, many adults are as well." He said factually. "The dark is one of the most common fears in humans."

"The nights were never this dark on Tamaran..." Starfire said, remembering her home planet and all of its beauty.

Robin looked at her, he hated to see her sad. He knew how much she missed her home planet, and he promised himself that he would always to his best to make her feel at home.

"Starfire, I promise you.. as long as I'm here, you have nothing to be afraid of..." He wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her into a warm embrace.

Starfire glanced down at her hands once more, looking back down at the mask... Then she looked up at him, and for the first time in her whole life, she looked into his eyes...

"You have beautiful eyes Robin..." They were a crystal blue and they shined so brightly, even though there was little light in the room.

Robin looked at her with a shocked expression then he realized 'I'm not wearing my mask!?' he thought! Feeling awfully embarrassed her turned away from her. Starfire, feeling very ashamed all of a sudden spoke, "I'm sorry Robin, I didn't know that I was not supposed to see your eyes..." She looked away sadly.

"N- No! Its just that you are the first person to see my eyes in..... a long time" He said trying not to upset her and make her leave.

"Why do you hide them? They are so beautiful" She said honestly. He blushed

"Eyes tend to show too much emotion, and I guess... I don't like people to see my emotions."

"Emotions are nothing to be ashamed of, Robin..." She smiled up at him, looking into his eyes again, she couldn't pull her gaze away from them.

"... and neither is a fear of the dark..." He responded playfully.

"Fair enough" She stated. Robin always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.

Robin laughed and then turned ninety degrees to face Starfire directly. "My eyes aren't half as beautiful as yours, though." He said. She blushed and she stared back at him and smiled a large smile.

A moment of utter silence passed and the air became filled with an awkward aura.

"so....," Starfire spoke timidly "how do we fix my fear of the darkness?"

Robin thought about it for a moment, there were many simple solutions... He could find her a spare night light, the Titan's probably kept one in the basement of the tower. He could have her play lullabies in her room, that would easily make anyone go to sleep. But those were not good enough solutions for Robin. Robin enjoyed the fact that she came to him in her time of need, and now that she had seen his eyes, he felt a strong bond with her, and he was not prepared to see her leave just like that.

"I do not wish to go back into the darkness of my room..." Starfire stated.

That was the perfect answer for Robin to hear. Nor did he want her to leave.

"Its ok Starfire, you can sleep in here..."

"Doesn't that go against Earth customs?" Starfire had studied earth behavior, often times sharing a bed with someone meant that you were involved and that you were probably in love with them. Starfire was very attracted to Robin, and she felt very attached to him, but the risk that the feeling was not mutual was too high for her.

"..we can make an exception..." Robin blushed at his own words.

"uhhh... I mean, here's what we can do..." Robin pulled the covers down from the bed. He lifted off all of the covers, "Here, you sleep on this side..." Then Robin moved all the way to the other side of the large king sized bed, "and I'll sleep on this side." Starfire cuddled herself underneath the warm folds of Robin's covers. Robin did the same thing on his side of the bed. Then he glanced over at the clock. 3:13 a.m. "We better get some sleep, Star."

"Agreed." She said, still afraid of being in darkness again, even though Robin was with her.

Robin reached over and clicked the switch of the lamp, all was dark again. He could feel Starfire's body tense up through the mattress. "Remember..." he said softly. "as long as I am here, you don't have to be afraid.."

She took a long breath and tried to relax. Robin let out a yawn, he was surely exhausted, his eye lids were becoming very heavy.

"ok.. Robin." She said in a sleepy tone.

several moments had passed, Robin had fallen asleep on his side of the bed, and Starfire had fallen asleep on hers. Robin felt a slight restlessness coming from Starfire's side of the bed, she must have been having a nightmare, still in his deep sleep, he moved in closer to her and placed his arms around her waist and placed his head on her shoulder. It didn't take long for her body to relax. Starfire's mind was finally at peace.

Starfire was the first to wake the next morning, it was early, the clock read 5:47 a.m. She hadn't gotten much sleep, but she felt very well rested. A dim sunlight entered the room, and she was pleased. Then she noticed something else. She was not in her room, and these were an unfamiliar pair of arms wrapped around her.

She turned her head slowly to see that it was indeed Robin, a mask-less, costume free Robin... He looked so normal and so at peace. It all came back to her now, how he had said she could stay in his room. She smiled at her memory of last night. She remembered seeing his eyes, it was a memory she was sure to remember very well, since it would probably be one of the only times she would ever see his eyes. But she lay there, enjoying the perfect moment while it lasted.

She was sure in her heart that she would no longer fear the dark, because instead of a fear in her mind, she would have a perfect memory of strong, warm arms wrapped around her and soft firm lips pressed against her shoulder.

Thank you for reading : )

I hope you liked it! Remember! If you are going to leave a review, please, either COMPLIMENT or CRITIQUE, do not leave rude comments.

Thank you!!

I know this story is a little different from my other stories, its not as "fluffy" I guess you could say! any who~~~

Stay tuned for more stories to come!

If any of you have any suggestions for story ideas, I would love to hear them! I tend to lose inspiration very easily, and I hate suffering from writer's block!