Snowfight.
What do you get when five superheroes and snow meet?
The faint winter sun slowly crept up the tower and shone through Robin's window and caressed his masked face. His eyes fluttered open, and a smile brighter than the sunlight shone from his lips.
"Christmas!"
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A few days before, the Titans had taken out their Christmas ornaments and decorated the tower to give it a more festive look. Decorating had been a fiasco, including several tangled lights, overturned trees, a couple of broken baubles and many nearly lost tempers. The sound that was most often heard in the tower during this time was "BEASTBOY!!!!"
Right now, there was a humongous Christmas tree in the Ops Room, all decorated with lights and various ornaments, complete with a small light up star on the top. Tinsel hung on the walls and the hallways were littered with boughs of holly. On each titan's door was a wreath of his own; for instance, on Raven's door there was a dark green wreath with an olive colored ribbon and small, round dull orange ornaments. On Robin's door there was the traditional green with a red bow on top and the words 'Merry Christmas'. Starfire had made her own; smooth red branches twisted into a circle and a large white bow on the side with small, multicolored baubles hanging on it. Cyborg's and Beastboy's was similar to Robin's, only without the words and more ribbons.
On Starfire's windowsill was a small potted poinsettia showing off its red and green foliage, courtesy of Robin.
Over the days, the area under the tree filled out with presents, one by one.
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Robin slid open his door and started walking down the hall. His feet automatically stopped in front of a certain door. The name plaque said 'Starfire'. He hesitated for a second. Should he wake her? But his hand was soon on the cold metal of the door.
"Star? Are you in there?" he called. But the only answer he got was silence. Robin opened the door a little wider. Starfire was still asleep in the normal way – head hanging over the side. To Robin, the winter light seemed to make her face even more breathtaking. Not wanting to wake her, he quietly slid the door closed and resumed walking towards the Ops room.
He smiled at the sight of the haphazardly made tree. All the fancy trees he had ever seen while living with the multimillionaire Bruce Wayne, his foster father, could not even compare to this, for the sole reason that it was erected in friendship and love. He approached and lightly touched his ornament, a large gold bauble with a picture of the titans screened onto it, the top covered in fake snow.
He turned on the CD player and carols resounded throughout the room. He began to pull out ingredients from the cupboards and refrigerator. Though people rarely realized it, he was a fairly experienced cook, having learned it in his time he spent with Alfred. Obviously since Bruce's time was fully divided between work and crime fighting, Alfred and Robin had a lot of time to spend together.
But still, he let Cyborg handle the Christmas food. All he made was breakfast and the Christmas cake. And today, he was aiming for waffles.
Just as he was done measuring the flour, eggs and milk, Starfire opened the door to the Ops room just as the CD player was blaring 'Angels We Have Heard On High'. She was humming as she entered the room and Robin thought, 'I guess it's loud enough to be heard in the hallway.'
"Good morning, Robin!" she said with her usual enthusiasm. "Have you done the noticing? It is currently snowing outside! This is what you call the Christmas of white, is it not?"
"It's snowing?" Robin stole a glance at the window and saw that thick white snowflakes were coming down in flurries. "Weird, I swear it wasn't when I woke up."
"Oh yes, I had nearly forgotten!" Starfire flew the remaining space between them and her lips landed lightly on Robin's cheek.
"Merry Christmas, dearest friend Robin!"
"Uh, Merry Christmas to you too, Star…" he managed to say, his cheeks burning as bright as the Christmas lights hanging on the tree.
"Don't tell me you weren't waiting for that, Robin," said Cyborg, wiggling his eyebrows as he entered the open door. Robin merely mumbled something incoherently and Cyborg chuckled. These things had to be expected ever since their return from Tokyo where Robin and Starfire became an official couple. But Robin was always shy about Starfire kissing him.
"Were you making the waffles?" asked Starfire.
"Yeah, right before you came. Want to help?" Robin said with a small smile.
"Oh, I see you two don't need me here. I'll just step aside and wake lazy Beastboy!" he went out the door but not before tipping Robin a large wink and a knowing look. Robin glared.
They got the waffles cooked and the titans grouped. Whipped cream, strawberry and apple jam, maple and chocolate syrup and butter lay on the table alongside a carton of milk and five cups. Robin would never, ever, ever admit it to the other titans, but he did have fun cooking waffles with Starfire.
It wasn't long before they finished eating and were eager to hit the snow. Beastboy sorely wanted to open the presents first, but Raven's flaming eyes was enough to stop his insistent pestering. So, now they were all out in the snow-covered island.
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"Hey, let's have a snowball fight!" cried Beastboy.
Robin: "Great!"
Cyborg: "You're on!"
Starfire: "Glorious!"
All eyes turned to Raven.
"Kids." she muttered darkly. "Fine, fine, I'll play."
"Teams?" asked Robin.
"Nah!" said everyone minus Raven.
"Every man for himself!" Cyborg said, scooping up snow in his hands and launching the first blow at Raven. That ball never found its target. Just before the snow touched her face the snowball was enveloped in dark energy. But it didn't just shoot itself back at Cyborg; instead it gathered more snow, and then threw itself at him.
"Oof!" he said, his cry muffled by the snow. Then chaos reigned.
"Take that!" T-rex Beastboy swept snow towards Starfire with a sweep of his tail. Starfire held up two starbolts, one in each hand and blocked the snow from touching her.
"You shall take this!" she shouted playfully, and with something that sounded a lot like a war cry, she picked up more snow than was humanly possible and threw it with equal strength.
"AHH!!!" cried Beastboy, quickly morphing into a cheetah and running as fast as he could from the gigantic snowball rapidly descending on him. He managed to escape from the snowball but the mound hit unsuspecting Robin instead.
Starfire gasped and put a hand to her mouth. She immediately flew towards him. "Oh Robin, I am very sor-!" she cried, eyes wide. But she was silenced mid speech by a snowball that flew straight into her mouth. Robin stood with another snowball in one hand, the other dusting snow off his uniform.
"Never let your guard down in a fight," he said with a grin, though he had to dodge a few more retaliatory snowballs from Starfire.
On the other hand, Cyborg was being floored by Raven. Her powers should never mix with snow, he noted mentally. She was practically making an avalanche here!
"Okay, okay I give!" he cried out after the twenty fifth mass of snow he unsuccessfully tried to blast away. But Raven wasn't giving up. She was having too much fun for that.
"Raven!" he shouted. "Stop!"
"Never." she said, with an evil grin that made him cower the last time she wore it, which was when he found out that stank ball and Raven should not mix. Wait, why were there so much things that shouldn't mix with Raven??? Snow, stank ball, Dr. Light, the shopping mall, Beastboy…
Cyborg was startled out of his reverie by yet another wave of snow crashing down onto him. Raven was standing in front of him, arms crossed and yet untouched by snow. But she didn't notice Beastboy's snowball flying towards her.
"Ahhh!!!" she cried as the ball hit her squarely on the shoulder. Beastboy laughed as she seethed, dark energy surrounding her, but that was a big mistake, for now, he was Raven's target. His cries could barely be heard over the laughter of the other titans and the thud of the snowballs falling dead on target.
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They all trooped back into the house as the sky became too dark to see, though visibility wasn't a big problem for Raven and her snowballs. They were all tired, wet through and frozen to the bone.
"I think we're all in need of a cup of hot chocolate," Robin said as they dragged themselves over the threshold of the Ops room.
"I shall go make some!" said Starfire cheerily, but Robin and the others weren't looking very happy. "Uh, Star? I think I'll make it, if it's all the same to you." Robin said, putting his hand lightly on her shoulder. Starfire smiled at him, and he decided that meant yes and walked towards the kitchen.
"Presents!" Beastboy shouted, but Raven appeared before him with a stern look before you could say Jiminy Cricket. "Wait till we all change into drier clothes." she said. At Beastboy's retaliation, she dragged him towards their rooms. "We'll all get dressed while the water boils."
So they did just that. Robin was the first to reappear in a orange turtleneck and jeans because he heard the kettle whistling; he had said he'd make cocoa. Just as he finished making all five cups of chocolate with a large marshmallow in each, the others filed inside. Raven pulled at her dark purple sweater. "Is it just me, or does this look small?" she said with a raised eyebrow.
"You look just fine, friend Raven!" said Starfire in the white knitted v-neck.
"Yeah, I think you actually look better!" said Beastboy who was also wearing purple. When something like that happens, there's no stopping Cyborg…even if he's wearing clothes…
"You two look like a couple!!!" he spurted out, barely coherent due to his laughter. Raven glared, but somehow Beastboy looked oddly pleased. "That's it. I'm wearing something else. No way am I going to wear something like the one that Mr. No-brains is wearing." Raven said, actually turning back towards the door.
"Raven, just bear it with us and drink the cocoa," said Robin, a bit exasperated. He shot a glare at Cyborg that clearly said, 'don't mention it again'. Cyborg winked to show he got the message but he still had that mischievous look on his face, which always spelled trouble.
"Mmm, this is truly wondrous, Robin! I thank you for the warm beverage! But I seem to taste something different in this, may I ask what?"
"Oh, I put some marshmallows and milk in it. It always seems to taste better to me that way." Robin answered Starfire's question with a small smile. "And thanks for the compliment."
"Yoohoo, NOW can we open the presents??" said Beastboy waving a red parcel in Robin's face.
"Fine, fine." He checked the clock. "Wait, it's already six. Don't you want to eat dinner first?"
"AWWWWWW!!!!" complained Beastboy loudly. Raven hid a smile behind her stern demeanor while the other titans' open laughter rang through the tower.