Disclaimer: No I don't own Teen Titans or Batman, both are the rightful property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network. Only rights pertaining to this story is the plot and original character: Ifrit.

xXx

A New Flame

The rest of the day went by normally. Robin exercised in the training area. Starfire talked to Terra about who knows what. Cyborg and Beast Boy played their favorite racing game on the Gamestation. Raven sat quietly at her spot, reading one of her horror novels. The time waiting for their guests went by very slowly, though. Robin had finished his workout around four, washed up, and changed back into his costume, so he would be presentable to his old mentor. After nine, Raven and the others were beginning to think Batman wasn't coming.

That is until they heard a jet land on top of Titan Tower…

xXx

They arrived at nine-thirty. It had taken longer than Batman expected, but the Justice League called him in to help stop Luthor from escaping prison again. Batman jumped out of the Batjet and stretched his tired limbs. It had been a long week for him and his new companion. They both had been fighting a new villain in Gotham; a freak named Iceberg, who got a hold of Mr. Freeze's gear. He nearly succeeded where Mr. Freeze had failed, but thankfully, Batman met this mysterious teen with frightening powers. Combined, they both were able to stop Iceberg before he froze all of Gotham City and begun a new Ice Age. It was by fighting alongside with the teen that Batman thought he'd do well with Robin and his team.

The mysterious teen silently climbed out of the Batjet. He walked over to Batman and waited for him to proceed, but before Batman moved to the door, a strange orange-skinned, redheaded girl came flying towards them with a huge smile on her face.

"Welcome! We have been waiting for your arrival. Will you follow me, please?" Starfire greeted cheerfully.

Batman suppressed a chuckle. '…So, this is the girl Robin's been talking about.'

The mysterious teen eyed Starfire curiously. 'What a strange person…'

Starfire led them to the Common Room, where the rest of the Titans were waiting. Batman easily spotted Robin standing by two teens, who appeared to be arguing about something.

"No way, dude! I totally won that last game! You're just jealous because I'm so good at kicking your tin butt!" Beast Boy stated.

"Dream on, you pointed ear monkey! I had you till you swiped me off the road like that!" Cyborg yelled back.

Beast Boy and Cyborg kept arguing, until Robin stepped in the middle. "Knock it off! Batman's here and you two knuckleheads are setting a bad impression!"

The two boys quickly forgot about their game and noticed Batman was looking right at them. Both boys let out a nervous laugh and stared at the floor.

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck. "Umm, sorry, dude! We're not always like this."

"No, they're always like this when it comes to picking out what to eat," Raven remarked.

Beast Boy dropped his head and sighed. Terra giggled at her boyfriend's embarrassment and walked over to him and patted him on the back. Batman was amused, but he didn't show it. The quiet teen, all the while, studied the Titans with a stern eye, trying to figure out if Batman was right about joining this weird group.

Robin walked up to Batman. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Sometimes Green Lantern and Flash act that way," Batman said as a very faint smirk rose up at the corner of his lips.

Raven noticed the teen hiding in the doorframe behind Batman, lurking in the shadows. Batman caught Raven's glance and looked over his shoulder. He chuckled lightly as he remembered the teen's shyness. Batman knew he wouldn't introduce himself.

"Who's he?" Raven asked, guessing what was wrong with the teen.

"This is Ifrit," Batman said simply.

Acknowledging his name, Ifrit took two steps into the common room letting the light shine on him, allowing Raven to make him out.

He was taller than Robin, but a few inches shorter compared to Cyborg. His body was built like an athlete, solid yet lean. He had a huge red cloak with its hood up. A black jewel clip near his right shoulder held the cloak on. His entire face was hid in the shadow of his hood, making it hard for her to make out anything of his facial features, but under the cloak she could see he wore a black spandex short sleeve shirt and black leather pants, which hung on him loosely. There was a red belt around his thin waist with a black jewel embedded in the buckle. He also wore a pair of red gauntlets with the same kind of jewels over his knuckles. The gloves he had on were fingerless, and the boots he wore were steel-toed, but all the metal on them was red to match his attire.

For a split second he reminded her of a boyish version of her emotion, Rage, only without the two pairs of glowing red eyes.

Ifrit walked up to Robin, and in a dry monotone voice said, "…Greetings."

Robin's first impression was meeting Raven all over again. Fortunately, he had practice talking to someone like Raven, so he knew how to respond. He looked into the void that hid Ifrit's face, and said, "Hi there, I'm Robin. It's nice to meet you."

Ifrit didn't move an inch. He was trying to figure out if Robin's intentions were good, or if he was putting on a show in front of Batman. After several seconds Ifrit's hood tilted towards Starfire.

"Hello again, friend Ifrit! My name is Starfire. It is a pleasure meeting you. These are my other friends Beast Boy, Terra, Cyborg, and Raven!" Starfire said, waving a hand to each of the Titans.

Ifrit glanced at each one, studying their features. It unnerved him a little to see a green-skinned elf smiling at him. The blonde looked normal, but looks were deceiving. The metal one was interesting to him, but what really caught his eyes was the other hooded person. He could guess why her name was Raven; on account of her coloring and he could sense something dark.

'There's something else about her I can't place. What is it?' Ifrit pondered, gazing at her more.

As he contemplated about Raven, Starfire; not being a person to hide her excitement from anyone, reached out and grabbed both Ifrit's hands to shake. Not expecting the gesture, he quickly snatched his hands back. From the shadow of his hood, a pair of red glowing eyes appeared and glared at Starfire threateningly. Afraid she offended Ifrit, she back away slowly from him. For a split second, it looked as if Ifrit readied himself to attack Starfire, but then he bit his bottom lip and calmed down, taking a step back from her.

He gazed at Starfire, expecting her to be angry or scared of him. To his amazement, she didn't show either trait. In fact, she still had a smile on her face. He was taken aback by that smile; it so welcoming and it left him feeling at ease. He never met anyone who reacted the way she did when he acted hostel, and it showed as his posture left anyone to believe he was confused at that moment. Soon, though, he felt very ashamed by how he acted towards her. After a few more seconds of tension in the air, he spoke.

"…Forgive me. I'm not used to be touched." In what he hoped was an apologetic tone. "I'm…also sorry for the way I acted just now, it was uncalled for. I…I'm not used to being around people very much."

Starfire immediately brightened up, and responded, "It is quite all right. Please, forgive my actions. I did not intend to make you uncomfortable. I am just so happy to make a new friend!"

Ifrit was completely baffled. Never in his life has anyone said sorry to him, or show him concern. 'Maybe, Batman is right in joining them. They'll accept me…at least, I hope.'

Hesitantly, he pulled off his hood to show his new 'friends' his face. Raven hoped he'd take off his hood soon. She wanted to see if he was truly sorry. She half expected to see a monster's face, or a droopy-looking one. To her shock, the hood revealed a handsome face, and as she admitted to herself, breathtaking. His face was slightly narrower than Robin's, with a strong jaw line and chin, and had sharp cheekbones, a straight lined nose and thin pale lips. His skin was the color of ash to her further amazement, remembering her once more of a male version of her most dangerous emotion.

His hair was jet-black, but it had a red tint to it at the ends, reaching an inch above his shoulders. It was messy and spiky on the top and his bangs reached just above his eyes but otherwise it was a good style for him. What caught her attention the most, though, was his eyes. He had two stern-looking orbs of deep orange, with a bit of red around the outer iris.

Raven felt a tightness in her chest as she gazed into those eyes. Her cheeks reddened madly, almost burning her face. She thanked her lucky stars her hood was on. She hadn't felt like this since she first met Robin! She tried to suppress the blush and look at Ifrit with her monotone expression, but the task proved harder than she thought. Every time she looked at his face, her face reddened horribly again.

She took the time to notice he had the same monotone expression on his face, too, except his eyes revealed a mixture of emotions. There was anger and sorrow with a bit of curiosity mixed in them. Besides that, there was nothing else shown. Beast Boy and Cyborg broke her train of thought when they stood in front of Ifrit.

"Wass up, man, glad to meet ya!" Cyborg greeted.

"What kind of a name is, Efiat, anyway?" Beast Boy blurted out.

Ifrit was about to make a rude reply when Raven interjected. "It's pronounced, E-free-t, and it's the name of a djinn or demon of fire, or at least associated with fire and smoke proprieties."

"Oh," Beast Boy said, and walked back to where Terra was standing.

Ifrit was surprised, but he didn't let it show on his expressionless face. Not many people knew where his name came from. He glanced at Raven with barely an inch of a smile.

"You know about djinns?" Ifrit asked curiously.

"Yes, I studied them…and other things when I was younger," Raven replied. She almost added because she had demonic blood in her, but that was a closely guarded secret she didn't want anyone to know. Plus, he was new, and she didn't want to freak him out with her bloodline.

This fact intrigued Ifrit greatly. He never met anyone who was interested in demons. Then again, there were a lot of people he has never met before. Maybe after they got to know each other better, they could have a long discussion. He widened his smile a bit more, only enough for her to see she had gotten his interest. The gesture made Raven blush even more.

'…What is going on?' Raven thought. 'I can't be falling for someone I just met! I just got over Robin. Now, I'm acting all girly in front of this guy. Although he is cute and—-NO! Stop thinking like that, Raven. You're only going to hurt yourself more. Well, it's not like he's unattractive, on the contrary! His eyes make me want to swim in them foreve—AHH! No, no, no, no, no, NO! Stop it now! Oh, damn these teenage hormones!'

Ifrit noticed the way Raven was acting. 'She looks like she's thinking seriously about something. Hope she's thinking about me…Whoa! Where did that come from? I just met her and I'm hoping she's thinking about me!' Ifrit thought disapprovingly of himself. 'Don't even kid yourself, Ifrit. You know you can never be close to anyone. You know what you are and if she knew she'd run away from you. Besides, with my luck, she probably has a boyfriend, anyway…' He tried to tell himself that, but a part of him still hoped…maybe his luck was about to change.

xXx

An hour later, Batman and Robin were talking about the good old days. The rest of the team was trying to get to know Ifrit. This task proved difficult. Ifrit wouldn't talk about anything before he met Batman.

Beast Boy gave up and decided to ask the important question. "So, dude, how did to you meet the Bat? I mean, why did he think you belong with us?"

"He thought I'd do well with people like me," Ifrit replied.

"Speaking of which, what are your powers, man?" Cyborg wondered.

A glimmer flashed in Ifrit's eyes. Someone actually wanted to know his powers? He kept his face neutral. He didn't want to get too excited and blow his only chance, literally! He extended his right arm out, opening his hand. He then turned his opened palm upwards and his eyes glowed a dark red as a sphere of red fire ignited in his hand.

"I can create and manipulate fire," Ifrit said calmly.

Tendrils of fire spread out of the sphere. They started dancing around in the air and slowly wrapped around his fingers and swirled out into the air. The Titans looked on with awe at Ifrit's display. Seeing their excitement, except for Raven's on account of her hood, he allowed himself to crack a half-smile.

"I can also turn fire into a substance I call, Flarestone," Ifrit added.

Concentrating more on the fire, Ifrit reformed the sphere and it began to solidify, and then the sphere hardened into a red crystal ball. The ball floated in Ifrit's hand, shining with an eerie orange light inside its core.

"Wow, it's beautiful!" Terra complimented.

"Cool, dude, that's awesome! But-Ur? Umm, what do you do with it?" Beast boy asked lamely.

"I can create weapons with this, like blade or blunt type weapons. The material is stronger than most metal on earth. If I were to make a sword or an axe, the blade would be sharp enough to cut through anything, even pure titanium," Ifrit said. "…Or so I believe. I've never come across anything that could stand up to it…yet."

Cyborg whistled. "Damn, man, that's sharp!"

Ifrit was beaming with the attention he was receiving from his new friends, even though he didn't show it on his face; he was smiling widely inside. Batman watched the little display out the corner of his eye. He was glad to see Ifrit was getting along with the Titans. He was a little worried Ifrit wouldn't give them a chance. At first, Ifrit wasn't going to, but he loved the attention they all were given him. He was so excited they showed such interest with his powers, but he wasn't finished with his display.

He glanced at Raven and said, "…Here."

The ruby ball floated over to her, hovering a foot away from her face. She admired its beauty and raised her left hand to touch it, but hesitated.

"It's alright, it won't harm you," Ifrit said reassuringly.

Raven touched the crystal with her index finger, instantly feeling a great wave of warmth emitting from the ball. She laid her entire hand on the surface now and the greatest warmth she ever felt raced down her hand and arm, spreading throughout her body. For the first time in her life she felt at peace with everything. Shockingly, she didn't worry about her emotions getting out of hand…or her accursed father's blood. She cared only for the warmth washing all over her being. She wanted to bask in this enormous sensation for eternity…

Unfortunately, the warmth began to fade away; it took a minute for her to realize Terra was now holding the ball. She didn't remember feeling Terra take the ball out of her hand or anything else for that matter, except the warmth.

"Wow, it's so warm," Terra commented.

Raven waited for Terra to act the same way she did, but she didn't show any signs. Instead, she past it to Beast Boy, who then past it to Starfire, then to Cyborg, and then back to Ifrit. Once it was back in his hands, the ball vanished. Raven stared at Ifrit in wonder.

'Did he only do that to me?' Raven thought in confusion.

Ifrit was staring back at her. He never saw anyone—besides himself—respond to the energy inside the ball like Raven just did. This day was proving to be a start for strange new things for him. He wanted to ask her how she did it when all of a sudden, a beeping sound rang out. Batman touched the side of his mask.

"Batman here," he said.

"Sorry, Batman, but Joker is robbing Gotham National Bank!" Batgirl said over the communicator.

Batman quickly ran to the door, but before exiting, he looked back at everyone, and said. "Sorry, Robin, but I'm needed back at Gotham! It was good seeing you again. We'll see what we can do about this Slade character. You be careful with him, and Ifrit, good luck to you. Try not to start anymore wildfires." The tone in Batman's voice on that last part sounded very serious.

Ifrit nodded and watched Batman leave the Titans common room.

"What's that supposed to mean, Ifrit?" Robin asked, looking with a raised eyebrow at Ifrit.

A heavy sigh came out of him. "He means to try and not let my powers get out of hand…again."

"You can't control your powers properly?" questioned Raven.

"Only when I get angry. My powers react to my emotions, mainly just when I get mad. When I get angry…things start burning," Ifrit replied darkly.

He looked at the floor in shame. He really didn't want to tell them that, but he'd rather they know now, then finding out later…

"Is that all, dude? Hell, Raven's got the same problem with her powers!" Beast Boy said before a vase crashed into his head.

Raven didn't mean to do it, but sometimes Beast Boy really pissed her off! All the while, Ifrit was looking at Raven again with curious eyes. The more he learned about the dark girl, the more fascinating she was becoming to him.

'She is also very attractive. That outfit definitely shows off her curves and those shapely legs. Hey! Hey! Stop that, you're only going to hurt yourself in the long run. Still…her eyes are her most beautiful features. Those two amethyst gems staring at me like they could read my soul. Wait a minute? She is staring at me! Did I do something wrong or am I staring at her weirdly?' Ifrit thought in worry.

He quickly put on his monotone face not aware that Raven was thinking the same thoughts, minus the shapely legs part. Her emotions were soaring closely out of control. She needed to be by herself to mediate on the matter soon or her emotions would begin to destroy the Tower. But for the life of her, she couldn't shake the feeling from the crystal off.

'No! I cannot and will not let this consume me,' Raven thought.

'…why not?' Raven's conscience said. 'He's very attractive, and he seems to like you!'

'That might be true, but I-I still can't! I mean, I got over Robin. I can't have a new flame for someone I just met!' Raven mentally replied to her conscience.

'That didn't stop you when you first met Robin! How's this guy any different?'

'He's different, because uh? Ur…Umm? Well, I-I don't know! I don't want to be heartbroken!'

'No, that's not it and you know it, Raven! You're just afraid to show what you feel to anyone. That's why Robin is with Starfire and Beast Boy is with Terra. You never show your emotions, not even to yourself!'

'Okay, okay! You're right! I guess I do like him, but let me have some time to see what he thinks of me,' Raven told her conscience.

"Raven, Raven! Hello in there, Raven!" Beast Boy said, waving a hand in front of Raven's face.

Raven snapped back to reality. "Huh? Oh, sorry. My mind wondered off for a minute."

"What? First you hit me with a vase, and then you totally ignore me, DUDE!" Beast boy shouted.

Robin sighed and looked upon Ifrit's puzzled face. "Don't worry, they're always like that."

"Uh-huh?" Ifrit simply said, looking concerned.

"Do not fret, Ifrit. You will grow accustomed to their, umm, as the earthlings say 'bitching'!" said the naïve redhead.

"Uh, Star, where did you learn that word?" Robin asked with wide eyes.

"Oh, I learned it on the entertaining black box! The woman on it said it to her friends when they were arguing. What, is it an inappropriate thing to say?" Starfire replied with a perplexed look.

"Yes, Star! It's not very appropriate to say, and I think you need to stop watching 'Friends'," Robin said.

"If you think it is wise, Robin, but I love that show!" Starfire said sadly.

"So, Ifrit, you still haven't told us how you met Batman," Cyborg said, wishing to get back to Ifrit's history.

"That is a long story, if it is all right with all of you. Can it wait till tomorrow?" Ifrit asked.

"That's cool. I really need to tune up the T-Car before it gets late, anyway," Cyborg said.

"Yeah, Terra and I are going on a date tonight," Beast boy added.

"So are dear Robin and I! We're going to the place of sticky floors, and the huge white screen which plays entertaining pictures!" Starfire said joyfully.

"Hey, Star, we need to get going! The movie will start soon! Oh, Raven, why don't you show Ifrit around the tower," Robin suggested before taking Starfire's hand and leading her out of the room.

With that, they all left…leaving Raven and Ifrit alone together.

"So, umm, w-where do you wish to start the tour?" Raven asked nervously.

Ifrit was going to suggest the roof, until his stomach growled loudly.

"…Sorry, I haven't eaten all day. Do you mind if we start with the kitchen?" he asked shyly.

xXx

A/N: Done, I think it's easier and better to read now than it was before. Tell me if you like the improvements.