Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

Word Problem

By Redios

Robin smiled to himself as he walked into his room, a rolled-up newspaper resting snugly between his torso and his left arm. He listened for the familiar hiss of his door sliding shut, then he slowly walked to his desk, where he sat down and placed the newspaper in front of himself.

He glanced at his digital clock. It read 7:42 a.m. Again, Robin smiled; it was the perfect time to do what needed to be done. It was late enough so that there was adequate sunlight to read by, but it was early enough so that none of his teammates were likely to be awake yet.

He opened up the newspaper, flipping a few pages until his eyes fell upon the words "Daily Crossword."

He had found that waking up early to retrieve the newspaper and working on the daily crossword puzzle helped him to fulfill two of his personal goals. The first was that he avoided laziness; the second was that he sharpened his mind. Because he was a superhero, but particularly because he was a team leader, he believed it was important that he constantly be industrious and acute.

He had initially attempted to complete the crosswords during breakfast with his friends in the common room, but he had quickly found that even the slightest bit of mindless chatter ruined his concentration. Consequently, had had grown accustomed to doing the puzzles in his room, early in the morning in order not to disturb his teammates, but also so that they would not disturb him.

Robin took a moment to stretch, then he grabbed a nearby pen and began to fill out the tiny squares, occasionally staring blankly at a wall as he searched his brain for the correct word. He hadn't gotten very far into the puzzle when he was interrupted by a loud KNOCK on his door.

Slightly annoyed at being abruptly shaken out of his focus, he walked over to his door and pressed the button for it to open.

"What do you want?" he grumbled, expecting to be met with Beast Boy's inane grin.

It wasn't Beast Boy.

"ROBIN! How are you in this glorious morning!" Starfire said excitedly, a wide smile on her face. The high pitch and volume of her voice came as a shock to Robin.

"Starfire? Huh? What are you doing up so early?"

Starfire blushed prettily. "I awoke early and could not fall back asleep, so now I have come to see you, friend Robin!"

Me? Why me? Robin thought idly. "That's great Star, but—"

"Come, let us break our fast with our morning meal! I have prepared a very special dish for all of us to enjoy together, Robin," exclaimed Starfire, grabbing Robin's wrists as if to drag him to the common room.

Robin tugged his wrists free from Starfire's grip and looked down. "I'm sorry Starfire, but it'll have to wait. I'm busy right now."

Starfire's smile faded slightly, but her eyes were still shining with happiness. "Very well. I shall be patient, friend Robin," she said calmly, walking into his room and sitting on his bed, kicking her legs back and forth.

Robin gaped. Who was she to waltz right into his room and sit on his bed? She acted as if she owned the place! Strangely, however, Robin found that he actually didn't care if Starfire stayed with him or not; in fact, as he sat back down at his desk to finish the puzzle, he realized that he might even go so far as to say that he enjoyed her company, and that even if he didn't, he definitely didn't have the heart to turn her away. He'd let it slip. Just this once.

He had successfully filled out about a dozen more words when he came across a clue that he knew he knew, but that he couldn't exactly remember.

A flightless bird. 7 letters.

He repeated the clue to himself in his head, but nothing came to mind. It was infuriating.

Just as he was about to move on to the next clue, Starfire spoke up suddenly. "G'norkpa! Friend Robin, it is a g'norkpa!"

Startled, Robin spun around to face Starfire. "What?" He hadn't realized it, but he had actually read the clue out loud – loud enough for Starfire to hear.

Starfire giggled and walked over to his desk, leaning over to inspect the crossword puzzle. Then, much to Robin's horror, she took his pen and filled in the appropriate column with seven letters forming the word "g'norkpa." Robin noticed with disdain that she even included the apostrophe with the g.

Starfire turned to him and smiled. "G'norkpa. It is a native bird of Tamaran. It lays green eggs with yellow spots, and it can swim, but it is very clumsy! It cannot fly at all," she said, delighted with knowing that she had just helped Robin with something he didn't know.

Robin groaned. This was not the way things were supposed to turn out. "Starfire, I think that—"

But Starfire wasn't listening; she was busy filling in another word. When she was finished, she proudly held up the paper for Robin to see, and he saw that she had filled in the word "gekon'r" for the clue An ancient counting device.

"Starfire, that's not the right— er, I don't think you're supposed to—"

Again, Robin's weak protests fell on deaf ears as Starfire eagerly continued to scratch letters into the small boxes. And so it went; Robin could only watch in dazed silence as she ruined his puzzle. When she finally completed it, she presented it to him gleefully.

Robin took it wearily and immediately saw that there was an inordinate amount of g's and k's, as well as a liberal distribution of apostrophes. Forcing a half-smile and trying to sound enthusiastic, he croaked, "Wow, Star, good job."

Starfire's eyes immediately lit up and she flung herself at him, hugging him tightly with her arms around his neck. "Thank you, Robin!" she said happily.

Meanwhile, Robin stood frozen, the fact that Starfire was hugging him taking a while to register in his brain. Eventually, his face turned red, but it was hard to tell if it was from embarrassment or from a lack of oxygen. When Starfire finally released him and once more grabbed his wrists, he decided that maybe, just maybe, it was all right after all for him to forgo his mental workout. Just this once.

But as Starfire pulled him towards the common room, he had an idea.

"Hey, Star?"

"Yes? What is it, friend Robin?"

"Does Tamaran have its own numbers, too?"

"Oh, but of course! Why do you ask?"

"Good, because I have a sudoku puzzle that I could use some help with…"

Finis

Author's Notes: First of all, to those scant few people who have me on their Author Alerts list: BBRae stuff is coming soon, don't worry.

Anyways, I wanted to try writing something about Robin and Starfire for a change. I don't avidly support the pairing, but I don't dislike it either. This idea popped into my head a few days ago, so I wrote it. I'm curious as to what you think.

Also, many thanks to Somewhere in Time for providing a valuable second opinion on (i.e. beta-ing) this. I appreciate it!

As always, reviews are always welcome, regardless of what they say. Thank you very much for reading!