Like it says in the summary, this oneshot was written for RobStar Week 2018, Day 4. (Although I was a day late. Whoops!) The prompt, of course, was "Tokyo Nights"! Go check out the Tumblr blog robxstar if you want to see the other prompts and maybe get inspired!
Enjoy!
She looks beautiful, he thinks. Then again, she always does.
She sits on the edge of the hotel rooftop, letting her long legs dangle over the side. Most humans would feel at least a bit of nervousness, hundreds of stories up in the air with no barrier, but she has nothing to fear from falling, not when she can fly as easily as he can run. Heights don't scare him, either, not after he grew up swinging from a trapeze and then bounding across the skyscrapers of Gotham. In some ways, he's as much an alien from the rest of society as she is.
Her glossy hair catches the colors of Tokyo's lights, the pinks and greens of neon ads rippling across it as the wind stirs. He can't see her face from where he stands, but he knows she'll look thoughtful, far-away, like she always does when she escapes to a rooftop. Whether that thoughtfulness is happy or sad is what he doesn't know.
He runs a hand through his hair and bites his lip. He couldn't sleep tonight - too many thoughts running through his head: about the disturbing story of Brushogun, the arrest and the manhunt (now he knows how the criminals feel). About how he "killed" Saico-Tek, a thing that thankfully was never alive...but could've been. And, of course, about Starfire. About what the kiss means for them and how they will move forward once they return to Jump. About whether or not he truly deserves her. And just like at home, he had to move up into the heights and fresh air in order to clear his head. And just like at home, she does the same thing.
He takes a step forward, and she turns to look at him. Her face lights up, those green eyes like a summertime forest, her smile brilliant and still somehow shy; she is as elated by and unused to their newfound dynamic as he is - and his heart goes electric like it always does around her. Always.
"How are you?" he says, sitting down beside her.
She turns her gaze back to the skyline. "I am...tired. Our time in Tokyo has not been...a very relaxing vacation, yes?"
He chuckles and shakes his head. "Not exactly."
It strikes him, again, how impossibly gorgeous she is. All that hair, thick and bright and red (once, early on before the team had quite found their stride, he broke a couple ribs in a particularly nasty fight with Cinderblock. Starfire leaned over him as he rested that night and, half-delirious with the painkillers, he imagined her hair was the field of Technicolor poppies from The Wizard of Oz, perfumed and beguiling and dreamy). Her amber skin, clear and almost luminous in a way that isn't quite human. She isn't, of course. But he thinks more humans ought to be like her.
"This rooftop does not have the peace like our tower does," she says. Beneath them, traffic rumbles and beeps, even at this hour of night.
"I guess there's some perks to living on an island," he answers, smiling.
"Yes! The ocean makes a most pleasant sound, and when the sun arises in the morning…" she sighs wistfully. "I am glad we are returning home tomorrow."
"I remember when it was hard for you to feel at home there," he says, his voice softened.
She blushes. "At times I feel that Titans Tower is more my home than Tamaran was." She reaches for his hand and weaves her fingers between his. "You, more than anyone, helped me feel that way."
His heartbeat flitters. Her hand is soft and warm in his, and he wouldn't have been able to imagine this just a short while ago - that he would be brave enough to acknowledge everything he feels for her, that he would let himself be happy. He thinks about the beautiful, frightened, half-savage thing she was when he first saw her and when she first kissed him, and how that kiss had snared him instantly. He thinks about the timidness that can live in her, too; how hard it was, at first, for her to trust that they liked her, that she had a place in their world. "You, more than anyone, helped me feel that way." A surge of joy spreads through him. He has done a lot of things in his life, but somehow, nothing makes him prouder than knowing he's made Starfire happy.
"I'm ready to go home, too," he says. He just looks at her, for a moment. The lights of the city falling on her take his breath away - a halo of blue around her head, a blur of pink on her face and red on her collarbone. He leans in closer, and whispers "But Tokyo nights do look pretty good on you."
He places a hand on her cheek and pulls her into a kiss. She smiles and kisses him back, all heat and firecracker and enthusiasm. God, he can't believe he fought this for so long. Shouldn't he have known, from the moment they met, that it was all over? Few seem to realize just what a force of nature she is, but she is like a wildfire, a sandstorm, sweeping through in all her bright glory and tearing down the old for something new to grow in its place.
"Robin," she whispers. Her eyes meet his, and his heart thunders even wilder. She grins at him, so gentle and sincere, and says "You are my best friend."
"And you're mine." He presses his lips against hers again, overcome with how much he loves her. And he does. It took him a long time to admit it, but he does. She may not know yet the significance of the words "I love you" on Earth; for them, "you are my best friend" is just about the equivalent.
But one day, he'll tell her. He'll tell this fierce, brilliant angel of a girl that he loves her. In the glowing Tokyo night, he feels more at peace than he has in a long time, and as he wraps his arms around her, he knows one thing like he's never known anything before - as long as they're with each other, they're both where they belong.
Thanks for reading! This was my first RobStar piece, but hopefully the first of many since they're one of my fav childhood ships.
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