Teen Titans are (c) DC Comics. Do I look like DC Comics? Didn't think so.

Chapter 2: Communications

It was shopping day. Once every two weeks, on Thursday morning, the Titans would head into Jump City to the closest MegaMart to do their grocery shopping. There was a master list that Cyborg normally took care of, but the teammates all had their own personal wants and needs, and thus came along to shop for themselves. The store was usually pretty quiet at that time, and they were generally able to shop without being bothered.

Robin and Starfire were currently examining the produce. Starfire was gently squeezing the kiwis to see if they were mushy enough for her taste. Robin drew up beside her, juggling a lemon, a lime and a tangerine. "Citron…Kalk…mandarina…" He named them as he tossed them, changing languages with every throw.

Among his many talents, Robin had a gift for languages. He'd grown up speaking French and Russian along with English, and once Batman had learned that, he'd set about teaching the boy all of the languages that he knew. Robin had picked up Spanish and German pretty easily, and had learned quite a lot of Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin by the time he and Batman had parted ways.

Not that he was the only multi-lingual Titan. Raven spoke German, Sanskrit, Romanian, Latin and Ancient Sumerian, or was able to read them, anyway. While the only language Cyborg really "spoke" was English (and a handful of Tameranian curse words he'd picked up from Starfire), he had a translation and phonetics program that worked on most of the Earth's major languages. And Beast Boy…well…Beast Boy had problems with English some days.

But Starfire had them all beat. Tameranians were able to acquire languages through skin contact. As a result, Starfire knew at least parts of the all of the languages spoken by everyone she'd ever touched. The longer the contact lasted, the more language was transferred. More intimate contact seemed to help as well; kissing, sexual contact, etc. Tameranian scientists theorized it had something to do with the number of nerves that touched, and there are a lot of nerves in the lips. Starfire had acquired quite a bit of English that fateful day when she'd grabbed Robin and kissed him; it was the language he spoke most often, indeed, it was the language he thought in. But she'd picked up bits and pieces of all the other languages he spoke too, and until the two of them had started touching more frequently and intimately, she sometimes mixed some non-English words into her conversations without realizing what she'd done.

But since they had become a couple, Starfire had gained use of all of the languages that Robin spoke, in fact, she actually seemed to remember the rules a bit better than he did. Oddly though, her use of slang had not really improved; that she still needed to learn through actual use.

Robin was thrilled that he was able to use his linguistic skills again. He and Raven sometimes exchanged a few words in German, but it always felt weird. But with Starfire, it was a delight. It allowed him to loosen up a bit around her when others were around. He flirted across the breakfast table with her in Japanese, muttered to her about personal things in Russian while at the mall, shouted orders to her and Raven in German while on the practice field, whispered romantic things to her in French while they made love in the dark.

In an attempt to take this "secret language" scheme of theirs even further, Robin had started learning Tameranian. And he was doing well…up to a point. Because of their ability to learn other languages through touch, modern Tameranian was a mish-mash of many other languages. It had rules and grammar like any tongue, but there were many, many exceptions, and Robin was having a hard time remembering all of them. Still, he tried hard and encouraged Starfire to talk to him in her nativespeak.

Which is what she did now. "Upistrfpomh yjrdjpeomhpgg," she admonished him.

Robin let the fruit fall into his hands. "Wait…I'm doing what?"

"You are doing the showing off," she repeated in English.

Robin grinned and placed the fruit into the basket that hung from Starfire's elbow. "Heh…maybe a little." He frowned as he realized what she was doing. "You're not squeezing these too hard again, are you?" He started to inspect her discarded kiwis. He still blushed when he thought about one of the first shopping trips they'd taken her on where they'd had to buy an entire crate of limes because Starfire had squeezed them all beyond use.

"No," she replied. "I have learned how to be gentle and firm at the same time." She dropped her eyelids flirtatiously and switched over to Cantonese, "I have had a good teacher."

Robin smirked knowingly at her, and, satisfied that she had left the kiwis unmolested, turned to gather a few more tangerines.

They shopped in companionable silence for a few minutes and Robin was examining the bananas when he heard Starfire exclaim: "Oh, what beautiful flowers!"

He turned to see what she was looking at, and was rather surprised at what he found. "Those are lilies, Star," he said, coming to her side. "You don't usually see them in a grocery store like this; they're pretty fragile."

"Will you purchase some for me?" she asked, her eyes shining.

Robin's face fell. "I can't," he murmured to her in Mandarin. "They're traditional romantic gifts." Despite the fact that they'd been together for the better part of a year and that he was becoming more and more willing to show his affection for her around the other Titans, he was still adamant that no one outside the Tower know about their relationship.

Starfire frowned and responded in the same language he'd used, "I thought roses were traditional romantic floral gifts."

"They are. But most flowers have become so as well."

"Oh…" Starfire lowered her head and took a step back.

"It's alright," he told her, still in Mandarin. He slipped a pinky around hers, giving it a squeeze and shaking her hand a bit before withdrawing. It was the only sign of affection he allowed himself in public. "I'll make it up to you."

She lifted her head. Her eyes still held some disappointment, but her frown did turn back into a smile. Satisfied that she was okay, he switched back over to English. "I'm going to go see what they've got at the meat counter. I'll catch up with you later."

He turned to go and glanced back over his shoulder to see that Starfire's smile had turned into a mischievous little grin. "Get that smirk off your face," he told her teasingly in Russian as he walked away.

"You are the one that placed it there, Lover," she replied in Tameranian.

It was the meaning of the phrase that Robin caught before he realized it wasn't in English, and for a split second, he panicked. She couldn't be calling him "Lover" in public! It was too dangerous! If the wrong person found out…

But the second passed as Robin remembered that the only other person on the face of the planet that might have understood her was on the other side of the store picking out toilet paper. Robin allowed his own lips to quirk up as he walked away.

TtTtTtT

Starfire dropped Robin on the bed and fell next to him a second later, making the mattress bounce. "Holy…wow…" he panted. "I think…I'm gonna be sore…tomorrow."

Alarmed, Starfire rolled up onto her side to look at him. "Did I harm you, Revoleth Robin?"

Robin swallowed and pulled a deep breath. "No…no. I just didn't think I could bend like that…at least not for that length of time, anyway."

Starfire frowned. "Did you not enjoy it?"

Robin's eyes crossed briefly. "Enjoy it?!" he squeaked. "Star, that was…amazing! Just…don't expect me to do that every time." He gave her a pained look.

Starfire giggled, and slid her chest up over his, nestling her head in the crook of his neck. "Thank you for trying that with me. You would be willing to attempt other techniques with me, yes?"

"Sure. Just not tonight. Or this week." He rubbed her back fondly as she giggled in his ear again. "Did you like it?"

"Mmmmm…very much. It was most….invigorating." She dragged her lips up his neck and over his chin before kissing him soundly, swinging her leg over his hips as she did so. As she settled against him into the kiss, she felt a wave of love, affection, and desire surge through her. Their dpi'syr gems had touched.

When they had decided to become a couple, Robin had agreed to follow the Tameranian mating traditions. In doing so, they discovered not only did they share a great love for each other, but were, in fact, soulmates. They knew this because a magical creature from Tameran, one that Starfire had thought only existed in folktales, had watched their relationship, and, on the evening after they'd first made love, had revealed itself and transformed into a stone which held the small, round gems. The gems were worn in the dpi'syrad's navels, not only to signify their bond, but to magnify their feelings for each other by holding each other close and allowing the gems to touch.

"This never stops being incredible," Robin breathed as their lips parted but the gems did not.

Starfire gazed into her dpi'syra's eyes, resting her forehead against his. "We are truly blessed," she agreed.

They lapsed into silence for several minutes, floating in the surf of their emotions, trying to express them to each other through their eyes and their touch. "Does this make it up to you?" Robin finally asked, running his fingers through her hair.

Her brow wrinkled. "Make what up?"

"This morning. The flowers?"

"Oh! Yes…yes…" She stretched like a cat against him, nuzzling her nose against his ear as her movements caused their gems to disconnect. Starfire's emotions muted a bit, but, lying there in Robin's arms, skin to skin, she could never be anything less than content.

Robin rolled them over onto their sides, pushing her away just enough to kiss her again before letting her go. He took his own chance to stretch along with disposing their used prophylactic and readjusting the bedding a bit. "I am exhausted," he murmured to her as he finally gathered her into his embrace again. He kissed the tip of her nose. "Good night, Beloved," he whispered in Tameranian.

"Nirmpd mpyjrd, Aiyknrwa," she repeated.

TtTtTtT

Robin started from his sleep, suddenly wide-awake. But oddly, he wasn't afraid, like he'd had a nightmare, or cautious, like he'd heard something suspicious. No, what he felt was…love. For Starfire.

More precisely, what he felt was the rush of emotions that came over him whenever their dpi'syr gems touched. He always had trouble thinking clearly whenever that happened, but, luckily, he generally didn't have to and was able to simply enjoy what was happening. Before he had the chance to figure out what was going on right now, however, Starfire's voice broke the silence. "Robin?"

"Starfire?"

She pulled away from him slightly, and Robin's head began to clear. "I believe our dpi'syr gems came in contact," she said.

"Yeah…" Robin replied absently, his brain switching over into detective mode. "I wonder why they woke us up. Do you know how they work?"

"No. I did not even believe they existed until I saw ours."

"Hmmm. They must set off some neurotransmitters, and that's what makes us feel what we do, and that's probably what woke us up."

"That sounds like a reasonable theory," Starfire murmured softly, snuggling in closer and reactivating the gems. "But does it really matter?"

Robin let the rush of emotions flow through him again, enhanced by the feel of Starfire's warm, soft skin. "Not really," he brushed his lips against hers. "But…I'm always curious…" He ran his fingers up her back and felt her shiver against him.

"So you seem to be," she breathed against his mouth before taking his bottom lip between her own. "But I am curious as well…" She nibbled his chin.

"Oh?" he asked before letting out a shaky sigh as she nipped his earlobe. "About what?"

"I am curious as to how much more sleep we will be getting this night."

Robin felt the smirk crawl over his features. "Really? Me too." He tilted her chin to kiss her again…

So, after a sidetrack to re-write parts of chapter one, here's chapter two! This is really where the story starts; pay attention! There's gonna be a quiz! Okay, not really, but the stuff in this chapter is gonna come up again.

Just to clarify about the languages: the stuff in English is just in standard script. The stuff that's bold and italicized are the actual foreign words. The stuff that's just in italics is being spoken in something other than English, but we need to know what it means, so I'm writing the translation. I hope that makes sense. (I know, that's not the way I did it in Falling, where all the Tameranian was just italicized. My original intention was to put the translated stuff inside of brackets, but the Fanfiction . net interface doesn't like brackets; it deletes them and won't let me put them back. So, I hope plan B works out okay.)

Stuff is going really fast right now, but that could end at any moment. Make with the love! The muse and I get along better when we know you like what we're doing!