Hi, everyone! This is a long overdue oneshot for WeArePioneers, based on the song "All Your Life" by The Band Perry, as requested! Sadly, we are not allowed to actually put the lyrics into the story, but the story makes sense even if you don't know the song. (It's catchy though, definitely worth a YouTube search)
Disclaimer: If you don't realize I don't own Teen Titans by now then, well, that's just sad.
The sun was setting on Jump city. It had been another beautiful late spring day for the Titans, and although they had received numerous calls it was nothing they couldn't handle. Luckily crime had let up in time for a pizza dinner for the team, like they usually shared after these busy days, before Robin assigned posts for night patrol. In theory, night patrols should be done at random, varied times of night so as to catch criminals off guard. But the truth was that most of the team just swooped through their assigned areas for an hour or so right after dinner before either returning to the tower to play one last round on the GameStation or finish a chapter in that book, or going to spend time with one another in their assigned areas.
So it wasn't that out of the ordinary to find the team's favorite young alien sitting peacefully next to her leader on the roof of the tallest office building in Jump, watching the sun lower down. This had become something of a tradition for Robin and Starfire, who both eagerly awaited the evening's end each day when they would meet up in whosever assigned section of the city had the clearest view and sit together. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they didn't, but truly neither of them seemed to care very much because either way they seemed to draw closer to each other with every night.
And tonight was especially significant, because the next day Starfire would be leaving for a stay with Titans East to help with a project that could use her super strength, leaving the pair miles and miles apart.
"I will miss seeing the setting of the sun tomorrow." Starfire broke the silence, glancing to her left at the boy next to her.
"Well, you can still watch it I suppose, just a few hours later."
"That is true." Starfire smirked to herself at how clueless Robin could be at times.
"If you want I could look up the exact time of the sunset at their tower. It's easy to find online and it's pretty accura—"
"It is not the setting of the sun I will miss, Robin."
"Oh… yeah."
Starfire giggled as Robin's cheeks tinted to match the color of the sky. They both turned back to the sun.
A few moments passed before anyone spoke again. "I'm going to miss you too, Star."
"I—"
"A lot."
Starfire smiled to herself at Robin's rare display of emotion.
"Perhaps we can chat on the video?"
"Yeah. I'll definitely call."
"I will eagerly await it!"
Robin chuckled at his friend's sudden excitement, watching as night began to fall with the last bit of the sun.
"Oh, may I show you something wonderful I have found?" Starfire asked once the sun had completely set
"Of course."
Starfire grabbed Robin's hand and quickly launched off of the building, flying into a far corner of the park.
"Watch."
The two stood behind a tree looking out towards a small swamp.
"Do these bugs possess the righteous fury I must feel to shoot starbolts?"
"I don't think so, Star. They're fireflies. They produce light because of a chemical reaction called…" Robin stopped talking, realizing he was ruining the moment again.
After a moment, he ran towards the small swamp that the fireflies were currently swarmed around. "Come on."
"But what if the flies of fire burn us?"
"They won't. They're not made of real fire," he yelled back.
"Oh. What if we scare them?"
"It won't do any harm."
"What if we hurt them?"
"We won't. Come on."
Starfire slowly flew over to stand next to Robin, watching as the fireflies flew all around them.
"This is more wonderful than I believed while watching from behind the tree!"
"Want me to catch one for you?"
"Would that not be bad?"
"It's just for a second. I used to do this all the time when I was younger."
Starfire smiled as Robin began to run grabbing at the glowing bugs. He is doing the opening up!
"Look." Robin came running back, and held his clasped hands out for Starfire to see. He shifted his hands ever so slightly, letting the firefly's glow show through his hands like a lantern.
"It is beautiful."
"Now watch." Robin opened his hands and the pair watched as it disappeared into the swarm of other lighted bugs.
The sun did indeed set later on the East coast due to a difference in time zone, as Robin explained, and Starfire was already getting sleepy as she sat on the very narrow strip of beach she had found not too far from the other coast's tower. Robin had indeed called, but several hours too early to see the sun set—he had 'something to do later.'
Starfire let her head fall to the side as she watched the sky, absentmindedly letting the sand run through her fingers and humming a love song she had heard a girl in a movie sing once. The setting of the sun is not as beautiful here.
"Mind if I join?"
Starfire spun around to see Robin standing next to her.
"Of course I do not mind!"
Robin chuckled as he set a backpack down on the ground and sat next to the alien.
"I thought you had something to do at our tower?"
"I never said it was at our tower. I said I had something to do, and I'm doing it."
Starfire threw her arms around Robin, squeezing the air out of him before loosening her grip and settling her head into his shoulder.
"The sunset is beautiful here too," Robin commented.
"Indeed, it is now."
Eventually the sun had set, and the two were left sitting in only the faint light of the city.
"It is the shame that there are no flies of fire here."
"I thought you might say that." Robin flipped open his backpack and pulled out a jar of fireflies, already adding some light to the dark sky. "Open it."
Starfire eagerly twisted the lid off of the jar, and watched wide-eyed as the small, lit creatures spread out into the night, only noticing after a few minutes that Robin had been staring at her the whole time.
"Thank you." Starfire threw her arms back around Robin, who this time hugged her back.
"Always."
This was actually my first solely RobStar fanfic ever, so thank you, WeArePioneers, for pushing me out of my comfort zone a little. I hope it is worth the wait!