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LHS
Sweeter Than Chocolate
January 5th. 1:30 am.
Snow came down in torrents outside the window.
But this wasn't the cute, "dreaming of a white Christmas" snow. This was the, "occasional snow flake accompanying beach ball sized orbs of flesh freezing, car smashing, bone crunching hail" snow. Come sun up, cars would be frozen over, doors to buildings would be frozen shut. School would be canceled (YAY!), and there would be fresh driveways to shovel (aww…).
The abnormally fierce winds stir the ice storm into a frenzy and what looked like bales of snow flew down the city streets and around the corners into alleyways, ghosts of wind and snow walking the seemingly dead city…
The entire city…frozen with unimaginable cold.
Naturally, there was no heat in Titans' Tower.
Beast Boy had tried to make his room more jungle like, as if the clothes hanging from the ceiling like vines, the comic books strewn about the floor like fly traps and the incredible smell didn't make it junglely enough already…
To make the room more humid, he put a huge pot of water over the floor vent and, naturally, forgot about it completely. A game of Stank ball started up in the hallways of Titans' Tower, Raven owning everyone like she always did when she decided to play. On one particularly vicious throw, Beast Boy flew through the hallway, through his door and straight into the pot full of water. The pot landed upside down, right on top of the vent, letting ten full galleons of water slide down the system and into the heating massive heating unit, promptly shorting out the Titans' main source of heat on what meteorologists said, was the coldest day Jump City had seen in fifty years.
It was precisely this reason Starfire was still awake, shivering in her bed under a mountain of blankets and comforters, her misery only comforted by the uncharacteristically harsh memories of thought that Beast Boy had been banned form transforming into a more naturally warm species until the heating system had been repaired, making him just as cold as she was.
"Glorious…" she muttered through chattering teeth and shivering limbs, "Absolutely glorious…"
Under most circumstances, Starfire had little use for the Earth concept sarcasm, but she could hardly remember a time where she had been more miserable and she didn't feel any shame or bad feelings about using it this one instance. Not that it was her first. Having now spent years on Earth, she was very familiar with most aspects of average Earthling behavior.
As we all know, Tamaranians obtain a significant portion of their metabolic energy from the sun. Suffice it to say, Tamaran is warm planet, with average temperatures falling in the mid 80s. Its cold seasons were short, and even then the lowest temperature in recorded Tameranain history was 45 degrees on the Earth Fahrenheit scale.
For a Tamaranain native, the Earth cold season is nearly unbearable. And Starfire simply could not sleep. When she exhaled under her covers, she could still see the mist of air as her breath escaped her lips.
Giving up on sleep for now, she got out of her bed, still adorned in her white fuzzy slippers and her pink robe. She grabbed one of her warmest blankets and wrapped it around her body and her head. Only her now rosy face peeking out of the cloth. She bumped the panel next to the door with her shoulder, not wanting to expose any part of her to the bitter cold outside of her robe and blanket. She shuffled out of her room and into the main hall, looking not too unlike a penguin as she waddled down the hallway.
I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I
He tipped the saucepan into a rather large Batman cup, letting the ingredients and the hint of cloves flow smoothly into the cup. As it accumulated into it, he could feel his soul glow a bit, and an uncharacteristically bright smile came to his face.
Tis the season, he thought to himself.
It was an art form, the making of hot chocolate was. At the risk of sounding blasphemous, the perfect cup of hot cocoa took more practice and precision than any martial art required. Too many marshmallows, it would be chunky. Not enough whipped cream, it wasn't creamy.
With Robin, when it came to hot chocolate, anything left than perfection was unacceptable. Imperfect hot cocoa was a sin that demanded the 7th circle of hell for any who had the gall to make it.
It was true, he was a closet hot cocoa addict, and on this cold, cold night, it had called him in his sleep. Truthfully, the moment the air got colder at the very beginning of fall, whenever he saw the myriad of colors on the leaves of the trees, or whenever saw a cloudy sky or the snowflakes that fell from it, he felt the craving.
As he put the put the whipped cream away and meticulously spread marshmallows on the surface of cocoa, he decided it was ready. He took off his gloves, laying them on the table, and picked up the mug. He sighed, reveling in the feeling of the cocoa warming his hands.
He walked out of the kitchen and across the main room to the little used lounge area of the main room, holding a large red couch and a fireplace with a strong fire already crackling and giving off its heat. He sat down on the couch, adorned in a black robe and his own house shoes. He brought the sweet, sweet cup to his lips…and stopped. He frowned. The couch wasn't close enough to the fire. He shrugged it off and raised the cup to his lips once more, but the glow from the fire called to him. He looked down to the cup in his hands.
Robin, it said to him, are you really going to settle for a less than perfect setting? For me? I thought we had something special. I thought I meant something to you. Go ahead and scoot a 'lil bit closer to that fire. I'll be here when you get back.
Sighing and cursing his own needs for perfection, he looked around for something to place his mug on. He saw nothing. He got up and walked to where the huge TV and entertainment system was, setting the cup down on the table. He walked back over to the back of the couch and pushed it up a good five feet. The glow from the fire became brighter on the couch, making the side facing the fire look almost orange in color.
Satisfied, he turned around to collect his cup of cocoa…his eyes widened in horror.
Starfire, wrapped in a fluffy blanket, slowly raised the abandoned cup of hot chocolate to her lips.
After a strangled gasp, he took two steps and launched himself in the air, clearing the 20 feet between the couch's new position and Starfire in a single leap. Right before the cup met Starfire's lips he snatched it out of her grasp and kept sailing through the air, landing on the table where the cup had once rested before sliding off and crumbling on the floor, not spilling a single drop of his wonderful drink.
Starfire raised an eyebrow, Since when could Robin fly?
Robin hopped to his feet, cradling his cup and staring at Starfire distrustfully.
Starfire blushed, "Erm…My most sincerest apologies… I did not realize that it was yours. And it felt so warm..." she said, trying to suppress a shiver.
Robin relaxed, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Er…That's ok, Star. I just get a little…temperamental when it comes to hot chocolate."
Her eyes narrowed in confusion, "Hot…chocolate?"
His jaw dropped, "You've never had hot chocolate!"
She blushed in embarrassment and shook her head in the negative, looking towards the floor.
Robin mentally slapped himself, Way to go Boy Wonder. Make her feel dumb after you just made a total ass out of yourself. Nice. Reeel nice…
"Come on," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and guiding her into the kitchen, "I'll make you a cup."
He sat her down in a stool.
"You see, the thing about hot chocolate is that it is no ordinary drink," He said to her as he went through the cabinets and the fridge, pulling out the necessary ingredients for his concoction.
Starfire blinked in surprise, "Really?"
He nodded, "It's special. Hot cocoa does more than satisfy the taste buds and quench the thirst." He then made a small show of looking around the room, as if it was a huge secret that he'd been trying to keep. Starfire looked around as well, before Robin leaned in close and she leaned in to hear him better.
"It warms the soul!" he said softly.
Starfire gasped.
She watched him go about adding the ingredients to the saucepan, the vanilla, milk, brown sugar, the hint of cinnamon and, if course, two, kinds of chocolate, and couldn't help but be a bit amused. He would lean over his pan and add the ingredients with a precision that seemed to measure up to the milliliter. He used the same standards for perfection with his hot chocolate as he did with his teammates. It was a simultaneously endearing and infuriating quality, moreso the latter when it came to his grueling training sessions, moreso the former when it came to planning something, whether it be a drug bust or a surprise birthday party.
Finishing her cup off with one last marshmallow, he handed the cup to her.
"Thank you."
Robin smiled genuinely, "Welcome."
Starfire raised her cup to the lips…
"Ahhh!" Robin gestured.
Starfire yanked the cup away from her lips, staring at him in exasperation, wondering what she did.
He gently grabbed her arm and led her to the couch, "Patience. If you drink hot chocolate, you have to do it right."
Her eyes lit up in realization, "Oh! Of course! I did not realize that drinking such a beverage was such a serious occasion."
Robin released her arm letting her sit back on the couch, she subconsciously smiled and sighed as the heat from the flames washed over her, stilling her shivering limbs warming her near-frosty hands and feet.
"Well… it usually isn't, but that's because nobody else does it right." He said, sitting down next to her, a smile on his face and a twinkle that she could see in his eyes even through the mask.
Raising his own undrunken cup, he sniffed the aroma. As the steamy chocolaty smell finned his nostrils and his lungs, he sighed deeply, letting his head rest on the back of the couch, a feeling of calm and easiness washing over him. Mentally, he chuckled to himself.
Wow. Crackheads' got nothing on me…
Starfire looked at him, and then at the cup in awe. Robin opened his eyes and nodded to Starfire.
Starfire gulped and raised her cup to her lips.
Robin saw trouble coming, "Careful!"
Starfire hesitated.
"It's hot. You gotta sip it."
She nodded and raised the cup again, much more slowly this time.
Robin did the same. And simultaneously…
Slurp.
…
Two groans of sheer ecstasy.
"That's the stuff…"
"Mmm…Gal'tauma de X'hal…"
Starfire felt the warm, nectarous liquid trickle down her throat, warming every nearly frost-bitten organ she had inside her body. The liquid reached her stomach, and she felt the warmth flow throughout her body, arms, legs, hands, and feet, all flooded with an unexplainable warmth.
And the taste…
Even though she was sitting down, she felt her body go woozy. Her body swayed and her upper body fell until her head was resting in the crook between his neck and shoulder, leaning unabashedly into his muscular upper body.
Robin, used to the contact from Starfire by now, chuckled, "Good?" he asked in a confident, joyous, tone with a small hint of cockiness in his voice. He already knew the answer…
"Mmmm…sweet ambrosia…"
He chuckled a bit more, "I'm glad you like it."
She weakly attempted to lift her head, but she found herself too comfortable. She took another sip and giggled, feeling slightly intoxicated by the taste and the warmth it provided.
"It's better than mustard…" she said dreamily.
Robin felt a glow of pride in his chest. While probably not the best of compliments under normal circumstances, from Starfire, it was a rave review.
"Thank you." He wrapped his arm around her blanketed shoulders, pulling her closer.
Starfire snuggled into Robin's embrace, knowing moments where he let his ever present guard down were rare. She remained in his embrace for a few moments before she felt a certain…wrongness in the situation.
She shrugged her shoulders, gesturing for him to let go and sat up.
Robin watched in confusion, nearly ready apologize in case he had done something wrong.
She unwrapped the blanket from around her body and extended the part closest to Robin, silently inviting him inside.
He hesitated for a moment, a list of why-nots immediately filling his head. But he glanced at into her eyes, and he suddenly felt very stupid.
He moved closer to her wrapped the other end of the blanket around his shoulder, and let the young Tamarainian fall into his embrace.
"Where did you learn to make such a wonderful brew?" she asked his, looking into his masked face.
His mouth betrayed him an ironic smirk, "It was my mother's recipe."
Starfire sat up and stared at him in wonder. Robin never talked about his past. In the years they had known each other, it was the one subject that they had never talked spoken of. Starfire had learned from Raven that…well…all of the Titans except for her were comprised of orphans, although Starfire had her own problems with her parents and she honestly thought she had more of a family here than at home.
"It's probably my favorite memory of her. She showed me everything. How long to cook it, what to add to spice it up. Everything." A gentle, yet sad smile came over his face as he thought of his now deceased parents. "She'd told me it was her special gift. To tell me how much she loved me…" He shook his head in wonder, looking off into space, "God…I'd almost forgotten my own family…"
"Robin…" Starfire spoke softly.
She leaned forward, her lithe body nearly on top of him and spoke softly, "You will always have a family in us…" She gently placed a hand on his face, "…and you will always have love from me."
Robin's eyes refocused on the fire-haired beauty in front of her and he felt a chill run down his spine. It was that same feeling. The reason why he'd hesitated when she opened herself to him minutes ago on the couch. The reason why his showers were horrendously cold after a sparring match with her. The reason why he unconsciously nuzzled her hand as it rested on her face.
Starfire's beauty was goddess-like. He imagined that Aphrodite was insane with envy over her. Her smile was infectious, her laugh contagious. Her personality was wonderful and her spirit free.
Robin had been fighting his own urges for years, but now, maybe because of the hot chocolate, maybe because of the sweet words she'd just spoken, or maybe because of the wonderful things the glow from the fireplace did to the outline of her body, he knew that the battle was over. He'd lost a long time ago.
"Starfire…" he trailed off, running his fingers through her long, soft hair, "I hope you'll forgive me…"
She felt a shiver from his smooth tenor voice and the feeling of her hand running through her red locks, "Whatever for?"
He slowly put his mug down on the ground and pulled the other from her hand and set it down next to his. Before she could even begin to react from the confusion, Robin had grabbed her by her robe and pulled her to him in a scorching kiss.
Starfire's eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head before she closed them and let the hand that had been caressing his cheek to reach around to the back of his neck and pull her body even closer to his.
Starfire's hair formed a curtain around them, further isolating them from the rest of the world.
The kiss never had a chance to be sweet, tender, and chaste. From the second their lips connected, it lit a fire that dwarfed the one next to the couch. Their kisses were hungry and passionate. All the years of unspoken feelings and blushing faces. The inability to grab one another after a particularly brutal fight, hold tight and never let go. The months worrying if the next call they got from the city would be the last time they ever saw each other. Their feelings poured out of each other in a display of affection that knew no limits.
Starfire shrugged her shoulders and her robe fell from her, leaving her clad only in pajama bottoms and a sheer tank top. Her hands slid down from the back of Robin's neck, gliding across his chest and electrifying the skin there with her touch.
Robin stifled a groan as his hands shot to her slim waist. Her tank top was short and her felt the warm soft skin there. His hands naturally trailed up to her lower back, loving and caressing the skin he felt there.
Starfire gasped at the feelings she felt and suddenly hugged herself to Robin as tightly as she possibly could, as if wanting to mold their two bodies together. Robin found his head buried in the crook of her neck and immediately attached his lips there, savoring her taste and subconsciously thinking to himself, with a hot steaming mug of hot cocoa at his side and the love of his life in his arms, how much better the night could possibly get…
"Ooohaaaaahhhhh."
The lovers froze. Slowly, they separated, looking in each other in confusion and surprise. Once they had realized that neither of them had made the noise, their eyes simultaneously turned to the main living area.
And there stood Beast Boy, bleary-eyed, but horribly awake.
Robin was currently without a shirt. Starfire's hair was the epitome of dishevel and she currently had a strap of her tank top halfway down her arm. Already, she had a slight discoloration on the crook of her neck where Robin's lips had been just seconds before. The back of the couch was low enough so that they were both plainly visible and there was no hiding what actions they had been doing.
They watched as Beast Boy dragged his barely conscious body into the kitchen and turned on the light, putting even more light on the paralyzed couple on the couch. The elf then, groaning almost the entire while, reached up into a cabinet and poured himself a glass of water. He lifted the glass to his face, but before a could take a sip…
"Geyahh-choo!" He sneezed something horrible, causing both Robin and Starfire to flinch and grimace.
Beast Boy wrapped his purple robe around him a bit tighter before hitting the light and slinking his way out of the kitchen back into the main hallway, completely oblivious to the embrace being shared on the couch, completely unaware that a blackmail opportunity of epic proportions had slipped right through his fingers.
Robin and Starfire slowly turned to face each other, both realizing who they were almost caught by, and broke down into laugher. They had only barely begun before Starfire brought a finger to her lips and attempted to hush the Boy Wonder, barely able to quiet down herself.
Starfire, still rather flushed, primly attempted to straighten her hair and pulled up the errant shoulder strap on her tank top, a Cheshire grin on her face betraying her show of modesty. Robin raised an eyebrow and smirked. He reached up and purposefully ruffled her hair and pulled the strap back down her shoulder, "I think I like this look better…"
Starfire playfully rolled her eyes, but allowed herself to be pulled back into another, while not as lustful, deeply sensuous kiss.
She soon felt the familiar tingling after only a few moments and then allowed herself one last deep, sensual kiss before she pried herself from Robin's oh-so comfortable embrace, "We should probably return to bed."
Robin sighed, nodded and stood up to meet her. He grabbed her robe from off the couch and draped it around her shoulders, not able to resist the opportunity to trail kisses from her shoulder to her neck as he slid it on her. She shivered in his arms and leaned her body back into him as he showed his affection.
Robin released her momentarily and grabbed his own robe and slid it on. Taking her hand in his, he walked her slowly back to her room, their two mugs of cocoa completely forgotten.
As Starfire snuggled into bed, her lips still tingled and her skin still felt like it was on fire in the places he had touched her with his hands and kissed her with his lips. After a few seconds, she flung many of her covers off of her, feeling far, far too warm in the cold cold room, falling into a deep wonderful slumber with an essence that was sweeter than chocolate still on her lips.
fin