"Love isn't some grand gesture, it's a bundle of little gestures that make up the big one" -Anonymous


"I...I think I was wrong before," he told her slowly, as though he was expecting her to reject him.

...Admittedly it was a fear that could've been well founded: after that little scene he pulled when they were relaxing on the Tokyo building -which had ended with her flying off with tears in her eyes- most girls probably would have given up. Would have said they had enough.

...But most girls hadn't fought at his side for an entire year. Most girls hadn't been in love with him for nearly a year. Where it started, she didn't really know. Perhaps she had always loved him.

It was possible...but no. Wait.

...Starfire did remember. She had started to love him the moment he came forward to release her from those hand-restraints, all those mouths ago when they first met, despite the inherent danger in approaching a hysterical Tamaranean...X'hal it felt like a lifetime ago...in some ways.

(To her shame, she recalled pointing her starbolts at him. And not the low powered ones either. If Robin had made one ill-judged move...)

She had been so scared then...so very scared. That bone-numbing terror had then undergone an ugly metamorphous, not unlike her Transformation...producing the animalistic rage of a wild beast instead of righteous fury.

And that had led to suffering. Not just for her, but for all the innocent people around her.

(She still winced to recall the damage she did to Jump City Square, and had done her fair part in it's rebuilding.)

But Robin had approached her, seeming unafraid to her glowing gaze.

(He later confessed to her that it had only been a front to calm her down...which only raised her estimate of him. True bravery wasn't the absence of fear: it was the overcoming of it.)

His steps had been easy, measured...one could almost described it as leisurely.

It had baffled her. It had mesmerized her.

And so had his smile: that tiny, confident twitch of his lips -like the first pecks of a dawning sunrise. Wordlessly offering her a promise: if she put her trust in him, he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.

(A promised he had faithfully kept, straight up to this rainy Tokyo day.)

Are you okay?

I am now.

...Boundless courage tempered with unimaginable kindness...

She had been a goner from that point onwards. And the fact that he was one of the most striking boys she'd ever known certainty hadn't hurt. Not at all, if she did say so herself.

"Maybe...a hero isn't all that I am," he was stumbling out in a rush, his cheeks reddening a little, despite the chill of the rain.

Now it was her own lips that were twitching, and behind them she thought she heard Beast Boy snort (and Raven's consequence smack).

Poor boy. It never failed to amaze her that her friend could take down monsters and madmen three times his size, and yet be tripping over his own tongue when talking of how he felt for her.

Life is a peculiar thing, she mused.

"Maybe I could be...maybe we could be..."

Well at this point it would be downright cruel for her to let him continue stammering. Some girls might have done that. She couldn't.

"Robin," she intercepted gently.

He immediately stopped, his masked eyes meeting her own.

"...Starfire?" he inquired, when she said nothing.

She smiled teasingly at him, her expression one of mock exasperation (well mainly mock; because X'hal knew this stubborn boy tired her patience sometimes) which he was intelligent enough to pick up, and meet with a wry grin of his own.

"Stop talking," she told him fondly.

...When he kissed her then, she found that she no longer cared that it was raining, or that her muscles ached from being thrown about that ink monster. Or that their friends were watching.

"Well its about time," she heard Cyborg drawl smugly.

No, Starfire thought, instinctively turned her head to deepen the kiss. It's long passed time.

...

Later that night after all the hustle and bustle of turning in Uehara Daizo to the rightful authorities; the Japanese officials were so grateful, they arranged for the exhausted heroes to spend the night recovering in one of their most prominent hotels -all expenses paid.

(Starfire had the feeling they might regret that, when Cyborg gained his rancorous appetite back.)

But for now, they all merely trudge into their rooms, asleep before their heads hit the silken pillows.

Well most of them anyways. Starfire laid awake for a number of reason -one being that her alien biology meant that her energy replenished itself faster than her human friends. The second being that she was turning that kiss around in her head, over and over again.

Sitting on balcony of her suite (the rain had since stopped) with her armor off, she knew that she should be happy. She was happy. It had been a wonderful kiss -sweet and playful and over far to soon. It possessed everything Tamaranean girls wanted from their life-partner, but learned not to expected (well, at least the noble born ones at any rate.)

But something was troubling her...throughout the entire ride to the hotel, Robin hadn't spoken one world to her about their kiss. So she didn't know what they were now...or where their relationship stood. Earthen customs were so utterly different from her homeworld, where a girl's romantic love was split into three stages.

Mli'ka -Betrothal. Totaa -Marriage. And usually all to soon...Mortno. Widowhood. That was it.

They didn't have courtship like here on earth, they didn't have dating...

Starfire could honestly say that she preferred the earthen ways...they were confusing, yes, and were certainly not without problems and flaws...but the difference was that they were the problems that came of free will.

Still, she couldn't dismiss everything Tamaranean. If she did, she wouldn't be tip-toeing her way over to Robin's suite, in accordance to a old tradition for uncertain girl, in which she would spent the night in the boy's room -undetected- to judge whether or not she liked him. What happen there would be up to the girl.

...She felt like she had to go. She had to do this...she had to gauge once and for all what he felt for her.

Before anything else happen...

Both she and Robin cared to much about each other to couple for a few weeks, and then call it off. A relationship between them had to be either a hundred percent, or nothing at all.

Opening his door with her key -the hotel people given them ones that work on all the Titans doors- with a silence that had taken weeks to perfect, she slipped inside and quickly closed the door behind her. Then she turned her attention to her friend, and heard her breath leave her in a sudden gust of air.

As she expected, Robin was soundly passed out on the bed; his form laying face down on top of the sheets, arms curled around his pillow. It seem that he hadn't even bothered to change out of his uniform.

Biting her lip Starfire came closer, and she saw that she was only half right -Robin was still wear his leggings and steel-toed boots, but he had removed his tunics and cape and tossed them carelessly to the floor, where they lay in a messy bundle.

Well that makes sense, she supposed, even as flaming heat rushed to her face. The night had turned rather humid after all.

Taking a few steps back, Starfire bend down and scooped up the discarded garments; folding them neatly before setting them on a nearby chair. Briefly she frowned over the ink that still stained them. Drat. She had been sure she had washed it all away before giving back to her friend in the tea house.

Closing her eyes, Starfire swallowed hard at the memory: of realizing that some cold-blooded fiend had framed the most honest person she'd ever known for murder. (She had learned then that the old rage wasn't entirely gone. If she had gotten her hands on Daizo...)

...Robin had run the gauntlet tonight. And had passed with flying colors. She'd never been more proud of him. And she was sure his father would be as well. She'd have to remind Robin to make contact with him in the morning. (The poor man had the right to know that his son was alright -which was something of a minor miracle, all things considered.)

...But he had also paid the price for his triumph.

Robin's upper body was littered with massive swelling bruises, ranging from mild to moderate. Concern taking over, she studied a particularly nasty one that ran between his shoulder blades. Well, that certainly explained why he wasn't sleeping on his back. Raven would have to help with this.

Sighing now, she floated over and careful sat on the bed besides him; working with quick fingers to unlace his boots. She wanted him to be comfortable.

...They could talk later, she decided. She had waited a year...what was one night?

She had just gotten the first boot off, and was working on the second one when a soft sigh reached her, and the bed sifted; the sleeping boy coming closer to her. She still for a moment and redden, knowing that she had been caught, before gathering her courage and turning to face him.

...It soon became apparent that she wasn't as caught as she first thought. From the way Robin looked at her it was clear that he was mostly asleep, his body language unfocused and sluggish. Burned out in a way that she had rarely seen, and it tugged at her heart.

For a moment he just watch her, observing how the moonlight hit her red tresses, and highlighted them with undertones of gold. She offered a shy smile.

Robin smiled back. "This is a dream." It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact. One of his hands rose to play with her hair, curling the strands around his fingers.

...Starfire found that she didn't have the heart to correct him. Their fight tonight must have taken more out of him than she'd thought.

"Yes this is a dream," she agreed. She wanted to touch his face, but settled for the grasping the hand that was still playing with her hair (sending shivers up and down her spine).

"A good dream," she emphasized, knowing all to well of his trouble with nightmares. Robin might think that he did a good job of hiding it, but Starfire could always tell when he had a bad night.

Robin grinned at her, and even three-quarters asleep it made her stomachs do flip-flops. Allowing her eyes to dart away from him for a moment, she heard him move again, but didn't see his hand gently closing around her wrist. But she certainly felt it tug her over to him, until she was lying by his side.

...She hadn't planned this.

But...

But when one of Robin's arms encircled her waist, and the other her shoulders, she couldn't bring herself disapprove. Especially not when he started kissing her for the second time that night, fingers lightly holding the back of her fiery head.

It was...different from the first one. Less playful. More intimate. It seemed that the reassurance that this was a dream -his dream, where Starfire wouldn't be scared off- had given Robin the confidence to show just how much passion he held for her. Passion that she had always suspect was there.

Passion that...made her want more that just his kiss...so much more.

...Someday perhaps, she thought. But not now. Not tonight. We're too young.

Besides, by this point, she was blushing so hard that she was surprised she wasn't glowing. At sixteen Robin was a year her senior, and not quite a man yet. But to judge from the muscles her hands kept brushed against -she keep them in front, trapped between them, afraid that she would hurt him by touching his back- it wouldn't be long before he was.

Her skin tingled at the thought -though that might've been his thumb that was drawing small circles on her waist.

After a few moments she sensed Robin's responses slowing down as true sleep laid her claim to him, clearly jealous, and unwilling to share him with any other. Well, remember Kitten, Starfire couldn't blame her. She pulled away, and sifted downwards, so that her head rested near his heart, it tempo becoming her lullaby.

Utterly content, she closed her eyes.

Robin's hand still rested on her head, making a dozen little bird nests in her hair.

"...Star," he murmured drowsily. "I love you. Did ya know that?"

That caused her eyes to snap right back open, the shock shooting through her limbs and nearly paralyzing her. Then it was replaced by a euphoria unlike anything she'd ever experience. It was like mustard, and children's eyes and clear, cloudless, unending blue skies.

He loved her.

"Yes I know," she replied (and really she had...she'd always know...it was still good to have it confirmed though). Feeling that her face might brake from smiling too hard, she kissed the base of his throat before settling down again.

"I love you too." she whispered. "Now sleep and hold me close."

"-'alright Chakano, he muttered back, doing as suggested, while the girl he held to him furrowed her brow at the unfamiliar word. Chakano?

"Chakano?" she repeated out load. "What-"

But when she turned her head upward again, she saw that the boy had fallen asleep once more. It would have to wait until morning...that was alright.

Slowly, she laid her head back down, breathed in a deep, fulfilling breath.

...Chakano, she mused to herself, as she hovered between sleep and awakeness. Whatever it meant, she rather liked the sound it. Especially when it spoken with such...love.

Love.

He loved her.

The euphoria was back, more glorious than the sun, and Starfire closed her eyes to stop the moisture gathering there. Robin had her heart and her soul. He always had. To know that she had his...it was indescribable.

Hopefully he would be able to tell her that again when he was fully awake.

It had indeed been long past time.

finis


Chakano is the Romani (gyspy) word for Star.

Reviews make me happy so tell me what you thought!

So all this takes place before Robin and Star show up holding hands in front of all of Tokyo...I'm thinking of writing a second chapter or a sequel to this where Robin wakes up with Starfire in his bed and realizes (to his shock) that it wasn't a dream.

Reviews make me happy so tell me what you though.