Characters: Starfire, Robin
Summary: He makes her shy in such a way as she has never been before.
Pairings: RobStar
Timeline: early Season 1; pre-"Sisters", since Starfire doesn't know of her sister's name change.
Author's Note: I had the idea and decided I'd go with it. I hope you all like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
He makes her shy in such a way as she has never been before.
As Koriand'r, Princess of Tamaran, she was never what anyone could call shy, even by the standards of her people. Princess Koriand'r was outgoing and engaging, having a word for literally everyone around her, from the nobles to the lowest of servants. No one was too high or too low for Koriand'r to talk to, to chatter with. This is why she was always more popular with the palace residents with her sister: while Komand'r always held herself aloof from all of them, dignified and behaving as perhaps a princess ought to, Koriand'r sacrificed royal propriety for the sake of her own heart, and won the hearts of others as a result.
The Gordanians changed all of that.
Koriand'r, though still a child by the standards of the humans was nearly grown by Tamaranean standards when she was taken captive by them. A prisoner of war, soon turned into a test subject and forced to submit to the most vile of treatment.
But even among them, she was not shy.
No, she was not friendly, and Koriand'r of Tamaran made no attempt to be civil. She would be heard. Her voice echoed in animal screams heard even through three layers of sound-retardant metal. Even if she completely destroyed her vocal cords doing it, Koriand'r would be sure that none of the Gordanians would ever forget her.
She could not count how long her imprisonment lasted. The days and nights meshed together until she could not tell them apart at all; just one instance of pain upon agony of pain. Degraded, battered, barely sentient upon first arrival to Earth, Koriand'r can not count the days, the weeks, maybe even the years she has spent imprisoned upon that ship.
But she can count the short minutes it takes for her bruised heart to start healing.
At first she is as a small and fearful animal. This is such a strange place to her that she is overwhelmed, and turns to thievery just to fill her aching stomach (Koriand'r would never have dreamed stooping to such levels of debauchery were she in better conditions; on Tamaran, thievery is considered acceptable for the poor but utterly depraved for those who can afford to feed themselves, since they take food from those who need it more than they). The people are strange to her, and though Koriand'r understands not a word that passes from their lips she knows fear when she sees it.
They fear her.
This only amplifies her own terror, the thump of her heart against her breast.
Then, comes difference.
Upon the young warrior who has freed her hands from their bindings she performs the traditional Tamaranean method of learning the language of a stranger, and a whole universe opens up before the eyes of Koriand'r princess of Tamaran.
Happily does she shed her black clothes and the metal all around her. This is not traditional dress; they are the articles of clothing and the uncomfortable armor forced upon her by the Gordanians, to further mock her and make her feel less than what she is. Koriand'r soon finds clothing on Earth that can appropriately simulate what she would wear, as casual clothing, and she becomes something new, to fit her new life.
Starfire.
No longer the princess of Tamaran. No longer the slave and captive of the Gordanians.
No longer even Koriand'r.
Just… Starfire.
These four people, so different in all things, are now her lifeline, her only foothold on this world. Starfire the new, infant being looks upon them all.
Cyborg is… different than what she is used to. Though he is a warrior who takes great joy in battle, he is not vicious as certain Tamaraneans Starfire has known. When the battle is done he seems to easily forget the blood shed during the fighting. He goes back to being gentle as he was beforehand, his huge metal hands resting on alien cooking utensils or the controllers of some strange device known as a "video game".
Beast Boy, Starfire likes. There was no such thing as a court jester on Tamaran but when she does reading into Earth literature she can't help but think he would fulfill that sort of role if he were ever to occupy a royal court. He enjoys jokes and pranks and all sort of merriment. But he is… sad, too. Afflicted with some strange melancholy. This face of lightheartedness, Starfire knows, is just a mask for the sadness beneath, and maybe Beast Boy labors on in the hopes that maybe the happiness he longs for will engulf all sadness.
Raven is at first somewhat forbidding. She is nothing like what Starfire expects out of a Tamaranean, quiet, introverted, private and not at all desiring to socialize with those around her. If anything, Raven at first reminds Starfire somewhat of her sister, but soon she sees that Raven, for all of her coldness, is far kinder than Komand'r has ever been. Even though they are not at first close if Starfire is distressed Raven always seems to know, and always wants to heal it.
And then, then there is the one who makes her so shy, so shame-faced, driven so far to staring down at her feet when, with any and all others she would be outgoing and strong.
She's not sure what it is about Robin, at first. Starfire is genuinely mortified when she discovers that the method a Tamaranean uses to extract a language has another significance entirely to humans, that it is supposed to be a demonstration of great and intimate affection, reserved for lovers. It is perhaps the embarrassment at learning of this faux pas on her part that keeps her from meeting his gaze at first.
But she is like this long after all embarrassment should have worn off.
From Robin, Starfire has inherited a whole language, but no idea how to express herself in it. She has the technical meaning of all words locked inside her brain but the connotations escape her. So many words with double meanings, so many that do not mean what they should.
And she can not for the life of her find a way to explain herself to him.
Neither Koriand'r nor Starfire has ever been shy like this around anyone before. There is no word for "shyness" in Tamaranean; the closest to come to it is "glesh'va", which means "cowardly". But with the subtleties of another language and another world starting to open up to her and Starfire begins to understand that "shy" is not necessarily on the same level as "cowardly".
He is the first to show real kindness to her since Tamaran. Robin unlocked the restraints on Starfire's hands despite knowing that she posed a danger to him, just to be kind. There is no word for "nice" on Tamaran but there is one for "kind": "vela". The word comes from the name of the goddess of compassion for the ill and otherwise unfortunate. Robin, Starfire thinks, would understand this word. She's sure he would.
On Tamaran, Starfire knew young men, knew them well. But there was always an invisible wall between them. Propriety demanded that even the sons of the greatest nobles keeps a certain distance from her. If they violated that space and decorum they were supposed to maintain, they did so with the possibility that they would lose their lives for daring to court a royal princess without a formal betrothal and the permission of her father the Emperor.
It is different here.
Starfire has not told anyone that she is the princess of a warlike alien race; she does not wish to be a princess anymore. Being a princess had made her a slave. Instead, she will just be a normal girl, and live without all the responsibilities hanging so heavy over her head. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Starfire can appreciate those words.
It is all so different here.
Robin is far more attentive, far warmer than any she has ever known before. There is no wall between them, except the wall of words that Starfire can not use and express without falling to ignorance and embarrassment.
Starfire nibbles on her lower lip, alternates between moments of extreme activity and reticence when around Robin.
She can't recall ever being so shy around anyone before. That's the effect he has on her.
She's out of her element here. Words fail her.
So Starfire labors with the words she does know, the ones she can understand, and hopes that Robin will understand.
Hopes that he can see past her shyness, to what shines like a beacon in her green-on-green eyes, when the lights of the city gleam on her flesh and she looks at him in the night darkness, on the roof of their home.