Love Bites
A.N.: Just a cute bit of Valentine's Day fluff…Enjoy!
Today was definitely not Dr. Light's day. Though his day started off all right (he had finished fixing his suit and gone into the final phase of his brilliantly devised plan to steal the Cupid's Rose, a rare and precious ruby), all went amiss when the Teen Titans had arrived. He had fared quite well in the beginning, feeling quite confident because he had not seen the freaky dark girl, Raven, but after being blasted a few times by a sonic cannon, star bolts, and Robin's various objects (not to mention being shaken by earthquakes and being rammed into the wall a few times by a green rhino), he wasn't feeling quite as arrogant anymore. And on top of that he had forgotten to buy his wife a proper Valentine's Day gift. He sighed and admitted defeat; he would rather face jail and the titans again than one of his wife's wraiths. He remembered their last anniversary when he had once again absent-mindedly forgotten about her that special day. He shuddered at the memory. Let's just say that it wasn't too pleasant. Yes, he welcomed jail as the officers cuffed his hands with manacles.
(Insert the ever-annoying TT theme song if you want to get the feel of a full episode)
"So, uh, you guys ready to go back and watch a marathon of quality (cough cough) sappy romantic flicks?" Cyborg suggested as eagerly as he could, hoping that he could go back to the tower with all the titans.
Unfortunately, his suggestion was already too late for Beast Boy and Terra who were gazing intently into each other's eyes with smirks forming upon their faces.
"You thinking what I'm thinking, Terra?" The green-tinted changeling raised an eyebrow and gave his girlfriend a telltale wink.
"No…" She began slowly, tying to obviously act clueless to Beast boy's suggestion. "Whatever could you possibly mean?"
Cyborg shook his head. There was no point in trying to prevent them from catching the love bug.
"Robin? Star?" He stared at his two friends, hoping that they would at least return to the tower with him.
"I shall gladly partake in watching a full day's worth of love…" Cyborg knew he could always depend on Starfire for hanging out, but he suddenly felt his hope dwindle when Robin interrupted her "Hang on a sec, Star. Shouldn't we make sure the authorities can handle Dr. Light?" "Oh, yes, of course…Cyborg, if you would just hang on one more moment, we shall…" Yes, dependable Starfire. However, Robin had begun throwing him a few certain looks that (seemed to say "I know that you still sleep with a teddy bear" and "I know what's really inside your closet and I know that there isn't just clothes filled with lent in there.") showed him that this was neither the time nor the place.
"Real smooth, Robin." He muttered. Starfire, as naïve as ever stared at him quizzically. "On second thought, I'll let you two handle the authorities. I'll start heading over first."
"Robin, why do we still linger here? The authorities seem to have the doctor of light well handled." Starfire asked her best friend moments later after they watched Dr. Light get dragged into the police car. "Shall we go back and couch the potato watching old romantic movies?"
Robin grinned. It was sort of nice that Star was so innocent at times…
"Actually, I was just thinking that we, jut me and you, spend the day together. See today's a special earth holiday called Valentine's Day."
"Oh! Wonderful! Is it like Blorthog?!" She exclaimed eagerly.
"Um…yea…sort of. Let's go get some food." Robin was not ready yet to tell Star what Valentine's Day was truly for.
Raven opened her eyes to find the tower empty. She had been so deeply engrossed in her meditation that she hadn't noticed everyone leaving. Where was everyone? Oh no! She missed a mission. She was a bit angry at first that they had not told her about the mission, but quickly realized that it probably wasn't that big of a deal…
Anyhow, she wanted as little contact with the outside world as possible. Lover's day was definitely not for her.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the door open. Hoping that Terra and Beast Boy (actually only Terra, she certainly didn't mind Beast Boy, just when he was around Terra, it became a bit unbearable) weren't there. To her joy (Terra wasn't there), but also to her dismay, only Cyborg had returned.
"Let me guess. A difficult villain or smitten team mates?"
"The latter" Cyborg said flatly. "Whew, it's gonna be a long day. Do you wanna watch some old romance movies?"
"Do they involve brutal murder scenes, insane killers, or strange flesh eating zombies?" Raven asked sarcastically.
"No, but when did you start liking flesh eating zombies?"
"And since when did you start watching romantic comedies?" She countered.
"Point taken, but to celebrate today…to feel like some girl would actually want to date me."
"Cyborg, you have plenty of female fans
who would love to spend the day with you or actually even enter some
humiliating radio contest just to spend fifteen minutes interviewing you
(remember that time right after you defeated Atlas?)." Raven was a bit surprised; no scratch that,
a very good bit surprised.
Cyborg was never the one to wallow in self-pity.
"Weird" she muttered. Valentine's Day was such a pointless holiday. Who needs love anyhow? Love only led to pointless giddy emotions that turned perfectly reasonable people into fools and it always ended…terminated abruptly or painfully slowly in misery and sorrow. No, she wouldn't let herself get all worked up over a "sell-chocolates and flowers" day, she needed her herbal tea.
Robin glanced across the small coffee table. Starfire sat there sipping daintily at her coffee. He smirked; it was just so wonderful to watch her moments. He had never noticed just how poised Starfire was. It amazed him now how she maintained this same girlish grace even through the battles. It was definitely a strange realization, but he could swear that Star maintained her refinement and posture in all those battles as if she was merely sitting drinking coffee. He could go on like this for hours.
Yes, hours. And he had spent many hours contemplating how he would spend this day with Star. He had bought a necklace to give her a while ago. It just seemed so perfect to give to Star. It had a small crystal angel trinket on it that simmered iridescent colors as it glowed in the sunlight.
There were many a times that he could think of where Star had truly acted as an angel to him. She was his 'catcher' of some sorts, always there keeping him in check, preventing him from falling through the cracks into the darkness of his obsessions.
Flashes of memories danced across his mind of his best friend…
Darkness…his room had been shrouded in darkness save for the peeps of light that had seeped through the blinds in his room. He leaned against the wall, basking in the despondency of his room. Let me be just be swallowed by it all. He shut his eyes, hoping to vanish into one of the many newspaper clippings that were within his room. "Slade" he muttered. He would make him pay dearly one of these days…sweet revenge would come…if only his friends…no teammates weren't in the way.
The yells of his friends echoed in his mind. He no longer remembered the words, but he could still see them…Cyborg and Beast Boy's raging fury, Raven's cold causticity, and Starfire's silence. Though he sought to catch a glimpse of her emerald irises, to see into his best friend's true feelings at that moment, she had averted her eyes from him whenever he had tried. And that had hurt a lot.
As he felt his friends' fury raging again within his mind, he was interrupted when he heard a soft knock on his door. "Come in." He commanded perhaps a bit too harshly than he had meant to, but it didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was to punish Slade…
"Robin?" Starfire had been the one at the door.
"Have you come to yell at me too? Because everyone else has."
"No… I have merely come to understand. Why did you not tell us?" Robin looked up from observing his metallic mask. Starfire genuinely looked hurt and sad. No, he hadn't meant for things to turn out so.
He eased up a little, but still continued to stare at the mask, wishing to avoid eye contact with her now. "I wanted to trick him. If you guys knew it was me under that mask, you would have held back and…well it didn't work anyhow. Slade figured it out in the end and I've found out nothing about him."
"No, that is not true…" She began. "You and Slade are alike…he does not trust anyone and you did not trust us."
Those words had hurt him more than any of his other friends' yelling and it pained him that everything that Starfire had said had been true, inextricably true. What the heck was he doing? What had that demon Slade turned him into?
But he would fall into darkness again and pain Star even more. The reason he had tried so hard to find Slade was to keep his friends, especially Starfire from getting hurt, but no matter how he tried, either way, she did get hurt in the end. When he donned the mask, he had prevented her from being hurt, unnecessarily by any more of Slade's robots, but had hurt her emotionally, presumably in a worse way.
In his rashness and his unbridled rage at Slade, he had charged alone to Slade's hideout, forgetting to inform his friends and falling right into Slade's plan.
He remembered his first night at Slade's. Slade, being ever so malicious, had left his regular Robin-costume out after he had donned Slade's costume. Starfire must have called his name millions of times. "Robin, please respond. Where are you?" Her voice grew with concern, worry, and hopelessness as time passed. He had yearned to call back to her. To tell her that the titans were infected with Slade's deadly probes, to inform her of Slade's diabolical plan, and to reassure her that he would still always care for her…that she would remain as his best friend and so much more…so much more.
Just as he had feared, they did meet in battle. As he attacked each of the other titans, he had no doubt in his mind that he was doing the right thing. Perhaps he would remain Slade's apprentice for an eternity, but as long as he didn't have to hurt his friends too badly, he would be all right. He needed to think, he needed to find a way to tell them that he didn't want things to be this way but their attacks were too quick. He couldn't risk them getting hurt by Slade's mysterious probes that could do more damage or even kill, but as he tried to escape by the rooftop, a certain alien girl blocked his path.
Starfire. "Stop." Her voice resonated with fury that he didn't believe she would ever possess. He hadn't fought with her at all, but now he would have to. "Use the laser cannon." He heard Slade's slick voice whisper fiercely across his earpiece. He powered up the laser cannon. He would have to shoot Star down; she was in the way and he couldn't dare but to hurt her. That was the irony of it all. There was no knowing what Slade's probes could do…he just couldn't risk it. He expected Starfire to have fired her star bolts by then, but surprisingly she had begun to speak.
Robin. He heard Slade's voice mutter his name again. It was a warning but…
Robin, you are my
Attack.
best friend and I cannot live in a world
Attack now, or I'll
where we must fight.
use the probes.
If you are truly evil, then do as you must.
"Starfire, no!" He yelled out and suddenly there was a great shock from his earpiece. Wait, what was he doing? What had he gotten himself into? Star's words had brought him back to reality…to the realization that he couldn't keep this up forever. Star could never fight him and he could never hurt her.
It was an awakening…and it had made all the difference… And he began thinking, contemplating a plan as he caught her in his arms when the probes had begun their work.
He had the chance to give her the necklace after the battle, after Cyborg and Beast Boy had dragged Raven with them to the kitchen. She was uncharacteristically despondent though.
"Robin, I am sorry."
"Sorry for what?" He was surprised. Why was Starfire apologizing? If anyone should apologize, he should be the one apologizing for almost destroying the titans single-handedly.
"I had believed that you were…truly like Slade in the darkest hour. I doubted you and for that I am sorry." She bowed her head down.
"Star, I doubted myself. And you were right, Slade and I, as much as I'd hate to admit, are alike. Focused, determined, there's a lot that we have in common." He paused a bit and felt his pocket. The necklace was right there…he could give it to her right then and tell her all that had been building up inside of him, but as he watched Star's face, it just didn't seem to be the right moment.
But today was different; it was simply just a carefree day. Maybe, just maybe, he could get enough courage to tell her how he really felt about her. But for now, she was safe and that was…
"Robin?" Starfire's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Yea?" He had just realized that she was talking to him. "Am I not drinking this coffee correctly? You have been staring at me for the past few minutes. I apologize my misconduct. I have never had this earth beverage before."
"Oh no. You're fine." Robin cursed himself for his staring at her for so long. He hadn't done it on purpose, it just came naturally. "It is just that your coffee has been spilling." Oh yes. Real smooth, Robin. He thought to himself. He quickly placed his coffee mug upright. At least he hadn't spilled any of it onto his clothes.
"So how else do we celebrate this Day of Valentine?" Starfire asked. He noticed that she had been looking at the dancers promenading in the center of the store for quite a while. The restaurant had moved all the tables to the sides of the room in celebration of the day, leaving a good amount of room in the center of the store that served as a dance floor. Slow music softly reverberated from the speakers as couples clung to each other on the dance floor.
"Well Star, so do you want to dance?"
But that darkness had been the past and there were more cheerful things to occupy him in this moment, far more cheerful things.
"Well this is kind of silly." Cyborg finally spoke again and headed over toward the counter and sat down on a stool. Raven nodded. She was listening. Now should she go with the usual lavender vanilla or be a bit adventurous and try the spiced rose?
Cyborg took a deep breath. "Promise you won't tell any of the others?" "Cross my heard and hope to die." She muttered. Yes, she shall try something new and be different. After all, it was Valentine's Day. She placed a pouch of the spiced rose into her glass.
"You know, Valentine's Day always reminds me of what a cyborg- non-human I am. I mean, if I weren't a super hero, no girls would ever willingly spend time with me. I remember, back in the day, when girls were interested in me. I had my own girl too-Sarah-before the accident. We weren't really all that close, we only went out for about two weeks, but man, man do I miss how nice it feels to touch a girl's face and to really feel it. I mean, it's not just the same with these robotic arms."
Raven nodded understandingly. She was a bit astonished though, that Cyborg could be so sentimental and she was genuinely intrigued. So this is why he wanted to watch romantic movies all day. "Tell me if it's not any of my business, but what happened to Sarah?"
Seeing the despondency in his face, she offered him a cup of tea. "No, it's all right." He refused at first, but Raven persisted a bit. "It'll calm you down…I know you probably like milk shakes better, but this is the closest thing we have to beverages other than mustard right now." Cyborg nodded and took a sip. "Hey! This stuff is pretty good. Hm…who's turn to buy groceries this time? Oh right, never mind, Beast Boy."
Neither of them talked for a while. Both just sat there, sipping their tea. Finally, Cyborg persisted. "Some people, like Sarah, just don't understand. Don't get me wrong, she's still my friend and as sweet as ever, but we just couldn't go on after that. Man that felt just as bad as that time I had to blast the T-car."
"But that was rebuilt and relationships can be rebuilt. And come one, you aren't the only one feeling isolated. I've never had a significant other. I've always just been the freaky, staid Goth." Raven took another sip of the tea. Wait, why the heck did she just reveal all that and why is Cyborg doing this as well. Sure, they were friends, but they had never truly talked-in this sense- nonetheless have a deep conversation. "It must be the tea." She finally concluded.
Starfire took another piece of chocolate from the heart shaped box of candy she had just brought from the store. These earth delicacies were starting to get to her. They were quite good and she couldn't stop munching on the delicious treats, though she knew that eating too many of them wasn't good. It caused obesity, as Raven had told her.
She wandered around the store, looking for Robin. Where was he? He had started wandering around the store when she went in line to buy the chocolate. "Robin?" She called out to him as she walked past the aisles, scanning for a sign of him.
The dancing had been quite nice, no very nice. Starfire felt her cheeks become uncomfortably warm as she thought about dancing with Robin. Dancing was certainly an interesting human activity. Though she supposed it was called lust or what not, she had enjoyed how closely Robin had held her as they proceeded to so some dancing. He was a good teacher and she greatly enjoyed, no scratch that, loved leaning towards him as they swayed across the floor. It was a nice warm feeling that she was not soon going to forget.
Her search finally prevailed when she found him flipping through some cards. "Robin! Oh wonderful! I have been searching for you!" He quickly muttered a sheepish apology. "Sorry, the line just looked really long and" he glanced at his watch, there was still about half an hour until sunset and he had wanted to see one alone with her for a long while now; it would be a nice, romantic setting for him to tell her. "Hey Star, I think we'd better go now if we want to catch that sunset." He took her hand into his seemingly automatically as he began to lead her out of the store.
"Hey Robin! Hey Starfire!" One of the titan's many fans called out to the two young heroes. It was a girl about their age and she held a suspicious looking note pad and a pencil in her hand. "Sorry, but if you don't mind me asking, are you two going out?"
Starfire looked at her a bit bewildered at first. She had not been that obvious about her feelings toward Robin had she? She turned to Robin, but had noticed that he too was blushing as well. She then looked down. Oh, of course, why hadn't she noticed earlier? They were holding hands, a display of affection among humans. Going out? Hm…she was semi-new to this planet after all and she did have an excuse not to understand clearly.
"Yes, we are." The girl had began scribbling in her notebook quickly. "So how long have…" The girl was cut off as Starfire continued. "Robin, were we not just going to go out of this store?" She noticed that Robin had greatly relaxed as she said this. "Yes, we were." He grinned at her and the two left the store. "Wait!" the girl called out to them again, but the two pretended to have not heard her.
"So what about B.B.?" Cyborg asked suddenly.
"So what about him?" She wasn't exactly feeling comfortable with the direction that this conversation was headed towards.
"Didn't you two have something going on?"
True, in a way, they did have a bit of a relationship, but it was strictly one-sided, Beast Boy-sided, as she regretted now. Last Valentine's Day (before Starfire had arrived, thus this is her first Valentine's Day), she had found a bouquet of bright red roses and as she recalled, they were still glistening of dew. She immediately knew that they were from Beast Boy because as she carried the flowers to a vase in the living room, he had followed her rather closely (more accurately stuck to her) as she walked about.
"So, uh…nice roses eh?"
"Yea, they are." She had been, unsure, at that point how she really felt about Beast Boy. Sure, she was fond of him, though he did get on her nerves at times, but as she had learned over the years, her emotions were dangerous. She couldn't risk letting anyone into her vulnerable side. But most of all, she didn't want to hurt him. She just wasn't sure, wasn't ready for a relationship. And when she was good and ready, she could never face him. She just lacked the courage to and feared rejection. After all, she had rejected his affections for her…
And then Terra came along and Beast Boy just lost interest. Terra dared to laugh at his jokes and was bold enough to admit that he was funny. She deserves him then. Raven thought. It was only fair though. She was willing to face rejection, failure, and a bit of lost pride.
If only Beast Boy could know how she really felt about him now, how she was willing to try now, but that wasn't possible, not with Terra here. Love just really bites.
There had been one time, though, when she almost told him. It was late in the night and the thoughts of him had just haunted her. She couldn't sleep without feeling guilty for harshly rejecting all his affections; she couldn't mediate without hearing his disappointed sigh as she failed to thank him for the roses that day. And as she wandered about the tower to calm herself down, she found herself standing in front of his room. Should she knock? She placed her hand on the door and was almost tempted to rapt the door, but suddenly held back when she heard him speaking within the room. She nearly jumped…who would be awake at this insane hour of the night? Oh no. She had been mistaken; he was talking in his sleep, quite loudly.
"Terra! Don't go to him! No! Stay here with me." He called out. So he had been dreaming about Terra. Raven felt her heart sink…deeply into the seas of despondency. "I'm such an idiot." She cursed herself and removed her hand from the door.
"Beast Boy" She whispered in front of the door. What the heck was she doing? He wouldn't hear, he wouldn't know…no but that was all right. At least her conscience would stop bugging her and leave her in peace for rest. "I know that you can't hear me right now…but I'm ready…I'm ready to try but I guess I'm too late. Anyhow, Terra's a better girl for you anyhow. She laughs at your jokes, she respects you, and doesn't just dismiss all your affections with some crude, sarcastic remark like I've done. I guess I want to say that I'm sorry, as well and I really am."
She left then, right after she finished speaking. There was no point for her to stay any longer…he was still probably dreaming of Terra…
Robin took Starfire's hand and helped her onto the rocky ledge. "Here. This is it, the perfect spot to watch the sunset." Robin whispered softly as to not ruin the moment. The sky had already began swirling in a mix of colors. The formerly clear blue skies had begun fading into lovely violets, soft pinks, and lustrous golds.
This would be the moment. Robin procured the necklace from one of his numerous pockets and held it up to Star's eyes. "Here."
"It is beautiful! Thank you." Robin let the necklace drape softly into her palm. She smiled for a moment but that suddenly diminished. "Oh Robin, I am sorry, I did not know that there was a gift exchange on this day…I would have purchased something for you as well. Let me see, I may have some of that chocolate left..." Star fell silent as Robin placed a gloved finger to her lips. "It's all right. No problem. You don't need to give me a gift at all because having you as my best friend is already a great enough blessing for me." He took her hand into his and the two sat down watching the glorious colors of the sky swirl about as the sun set beneath the horizon.
"Star?" Robin said softly. He could tell her now if he wanted to…
"Yes?" She looked over at him. He shivered feeling the intense concentration of her emerald eyes. They were both staring at him and only at him.
He stopped for a moment. There were so many words that he could say to express what he truly felt at that moment but his words suddenly seemed to fail him.
He finally mustered a "Happy Valentine's Day." With that said, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. There was no need for other words.
"No. Not really." Raven finally answered. And in truth, the most it had ever gone were the roses.
"No way! B.B. was totally head-over-heels for you back then; I mean the guy was obsessed with you. I thought that he'd-you'd have done something."
"But we didn't-I didn't. And now it's far too late." Raven said quietly.
"Hey Rave, you know, I was rooting for you two all along, not Terra. It's so totally unfair. She shows up for a few days and B.B.'s totally smitten."
"No it is. Because she was willing to try. And as arbitrary as it seems, she got him. Crushes, beaus, love-it's all unfair and that's the way it has been and always will be."
"Wow." Cyborg whistled softly. Raven gave him a quizzical look, what she just said hadn't been that deep or new to him was it?
"Look at the time. It's practically six! Man! No wonder I'm hungry." He headed over to the fridge and quickly slammed it. "Never mind. That blue fuzzy stuff in there turned green. Hey! You wanna go out for pizza?"
"Sure." Raven replied. That green food had scared her as well. "But it has to be at the most unromantic place in town. I want to see absolutely no sign of dear Saint Valentine save for some heart-shaped chocolate."
"Of course. As you wish." He motioned Raven to head out the door first. "Raven, I really enjoyed our chat today. Thanks for listening to my rants…really…I appreciate it and it saved us both from watching romantic comedies all day."
Raven smiled a bit. Valentine's hadn't turned out as horrible as she expected. It actually turned out ok this year. Sure, she spent the day with Cyborg, but he was ok…no more than ok…he was a great friend.
Fin
A.N.: Happy Valentine's Day and I hope you enjoyed this. It's a one shot, so there won't be anymore (I'm sorry). Hm…notes.
1. First off, sorry for cliché-ness of the Robin/Starfire parts.
2. I really don't see enough friendship fluffs out there and I think they're quite cool, not all relationships have to have romance. I hope you enjoyed reading the Cyborg/Raven conversation, I really enjoyed writing that.
3. Lastly, this is probably one of the longest fics I've written…a whole whopping 12 pages! (With quite a lot of spacing in between though)
Other works (that I hope you may stop by and read):
A Christmas Star: A short, one-shot Christmas fluff between Starfire and Robin., a bit like Love Bites except it's shorter
Control: a dark reflection fic on the part of Terra; after running away from the titans Terra still believing BB has betrayed her secret begins to fall into darkness as she considers Slade's proposition. And speaking of Slade, man do I miss him on the show. They're just fighting haphazard villains now and these random villains just make me appreciate how great/sinister a villain Slade truly is.
Reflections: a take on the whole Robin/Raven relationship
The Misfits: My long multi-chapter fic. It's an AU and the titans basically live normal lives without super powers and have jobs. Here's a peak at the plot in the future after the introductory chapters (which are all done except for 1): Robin starts to fall for Starfire, just when Bruce decides to set him up with Blackfire, a prominent director of a fashion company. Starfire thinks that Robin has really fallen for Blackfire and as she spends more time with Cyborg, Robin thinks that there is something going on between the two of them. BB's totally smitten over Terra, but she has other motives and Raven seeks to show him the truth.