Starfire heaved a deep sigh, eyes staring aimlessly towards the sky, a perfect view offered to her by the Titan Tower. She tucked her legs close to her chest before wrapping her arms around the long appendages, she titled her head as she laid her cheek against her knee. It had been another rough fight today, another enemy wanting to destroy her and her friends and the city they lived in, another day Robin refused the feelings she harbored for him and he harbored for her. Why must earth boys be so confusing?
Another sigh danced past her lips just as a gush of air swept by her, the fresh scent of autumn air assaulted her senses. "I know you are there," she breathed out a mumbled. Tilting her face down she used her bent knee's to block the tears streaking down her face.
"You're getting better at sensing my presence, princess."
"Maybe it is because you are always around, yes?"
"You make me seem like a stalker."
"Are you not?" Starfire asked with a humorless laugh.
Red X laughed and she didn't need to look at the masked being to know he shrugged. "How can I leave such a beautiful girl like you alone for too long?" It had been months since she had become so acquainted with Red X, keeping the criminal her dirty little secret. She would never tell her team that he had been at nearly every fight they had for the last two months, working to help them on the sidelines. Red X had made it abundantly clear that he cared not for the safety of the friends she loved, that he would only come to make sure she was safe. That if helping in keeping her friends alive would keep her heart intact then he'd be there to safe them as well.
Starfire couldn't help the direction her mind took her too, showing the scene of his promise in the forefront of her mind.
It had been a horrid fight, one Starfire had been left to deal with on her own. She hadn't been sure on the details as to why her team had been absent, but they had been and she had been hurt terribly bad. Her Tamaranean skin pierced and torn apart, blood spilling from wounds she hadn't experienced since coming to earth. Of course her wounds had been giving by extraterrestrial life forms, some from her home plant even.
She forced herself to stand, earth had made her grow weak. Her legs wobbled as she stood, beaten body forced to a fighting stance as she fought for the powers she took for granted to save her life one last time. Her purple clothes were ripped, stained with the dark red of her blood, she doubted she could even float in this state. She screamed a war cry that would never be anything but Tamaranean and threw herself into the chaos of battle. She would take out as many as she could before she lost her life, because she knew this would be her last battle. When her team finally came, because she knew they would, she would leave them with far less enemies she had.
Starfire lost count of how many lives she had taken, how many hits she had acquired, how much time had passed, before she was falling to the ground. A rock being smash to pieces. Starfire remembered the fire burning through her veins in a signal for her to know her powers had reached their limit. She would remember what it felt like to be vulnerable and human as she laid on the ground awaiting a death she begged to swift.
He had come in unexpected, black came billowing behind him in all his righteous fury. Starfire watched through dim green eyes as Red X showed why he would always be the Titans enemy. He had taken out the aliens, one after another, showing no mercy. He sliced them down without acquiring a single scratch to himself.
Starfire remembered when he had walked to her, dropping to his knee's and cradling her in his arms, scared to move her. He had thanked her for all the effort she had put into the battle, said that he wouldn't have been able to do what he did without her help. Starfire knew it for the comforting lie it was. If she had been able to talk at the time she would have told him that she wasn't stupid enough to believe such a lie.
She remembered every time Red X had appeared in the Titan Tower, keeping himself hidden from her teammates. It had been her request that should they continue their friendship they would have to keep it a secret. Red X had apologized to her over and over as he carried her back to the Tower, telling her that he had no other choice and even though he was breaking their deal he wouldn't let her break their friendship. She had silently agreed with him.
In hindsight Starfire should have seen the events that had unfolded.
Her team had seen her beaten and broken and in the arms of an enemy. They had attacked the man that had so easily became her best friend, of course they hadn't won. She saw how much Red X was restraining himself, thinking her team as much of enemies as the aliens he had just killed. When she was healed in the Titan Tower Infirmary, Red X had stuck in proclaimed that it had taken everything in him not to kill the Teen Titans who had allowed this to happen.
"How dare they sit in their Tower, not even aware that you were fighting to the death for their city!"
"Why do you keep coming around?" Starfire asked suddenly, bring herself back to the present. Back to the man sitting next to her, kicking his legs back and forth as they dangled over the large building.
A hearty laughed echoed through his mask as he turned to her. "For a princess you aren't very bright." She pouted at his answer, the tears now completely dried up.
Sighing Starfire felt herself lean as she placed her head on his shoulder, uncurling herself from a position she knew wouldn't protect her from anything. She tucked herself into his side, Robin cast out of her mind. "I want to see your face," she had been saying it more and more as of the late.
"Star-" she knew he was about to turn down her request- "Tell me your real name." The shock only took moments to wear off, and then she was opening her mouth to tell him. Was that all he wanted in return? Her name? Such a small demand could easily be met. Before she could get it out, however, Red X was talking again. "In the world of super heroes and villains a name is everything. Even if it isn't anything. If you tell me and I show you my face, we belong to each other. Okay?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you'll have to love me instead of Boy Wonder."
Starfire could tell my his relaxed posture that he expected her to keep her name a secret, but she doubted he knew he was offering her a way out of heart break and to a new begging. Starfire smiled and leaned closer to him, lips brushing against the tight material she knew was covering her ear, for once she would be the one surprising him. She felt the shiver that ran over his body, "Koriand'r."
