"I cannot believe I allowed you to do the talking of me into this," Starfire grumbled, sulking.
"Aw, come on, cutie. You like it."
Starfire frowned at Red X. "I do not usually pilfer for money."
"Well, when the contract requires you to steal a very famous string of pearls for big money, you do it." Red X studied the ventilation system, crouching and running a scanner over it.
"Why not simply keep the pearls yourself?"
"Pearls aren't really my style, cutie." The device beeped and Red X grumbled something under his breath. He pulled a tablet out from his belt and began typing one handed. He was a professional-grade hacker, so Starfire didn't bother to ask if he needed help.
"You could sell them," she pointed out.
"Nah, too risky," he replied without looking away from the tablet. "It'd have to be on the black market and I'd probably get ripped off, plus the chance of a police snitch offering to buy it from me is pretty high."
Starfire fell quiet. For one the Titans considered a villain and a thief, she didn't know very much about being successful in these endeavors. "Why is this string of pearls famous?" she asked after he set the tablet on the ground and got out his scanner again.
"It belonged to Martha Wayne," he answered. He seemed satisfied with whatever the scanner was displaying, because he shoved both his tablet and the scanner back into the belt and he unscrewed the top off the vent.
He was so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed Starfire's tiny gasp. She knew Martha Wayne. Not personally, of course. She died years ago, years before Starfire even studied Earth, let alone found cause to go there. But Starfire knew that she was the beloved mother of Bruce Wayne, the kind but quiet man who engaged in dating rituals with Selina. She couldn't steal from him!
"Um, Red X, perhaps it would be better if I-"
"Hey, don't wimp out on me now," Red X scolded her. "You promised you'd come with me. Besides, I can guarantee your birdbrained traffic light'll show up."
Starfire bit her lip. "Truly?"
"Yep. He gets real pissed when I steal from WayneTech, so stealing from Bruce Wayne's bank vault shouldn't be much different. Wayne funds the Titans, you see." Red X winked at her, a gesture that was almost lost thanks to the full face mask.
"But would it not upset Bruce Wayne to have his mother's necklace stolen from him?"
Red X lifted his shoulders and set the vent cover on the ground. "I dunno. Maybe. It's not about Wayne, though. It's about me and my cut. Which I'll share with you, obviously."
Okay, Starfire was formulating a plan. Help Red X break in, then snatch the necklace away from him and hand deliver it to Robin. That way, he'd know that it needed to be moved to a higher security facility.
No, it wasn't just because she wanted to see him. Honest.
Red X peered into the vent. It was dark, but his night vision allowed him to see all that he needed. "It's a straight drop about six feet. Lower me down? I don't want to land too hard on the duct."
Starfire sighed and took his hand, obliging him. This was a bad idea. If anything went wrong and Red X did manage to get the pearls, Robin would never forgive her.
Red X's feet hit the duct beneath them and she let go, hovering inches off the ground herself. She didn't trust the duct much.
"Okay, we need to go down to the fourth floor… and the thirteenth cell on the left." Red X glanced at Starfire. "Thirteen's always been my favorite number." He fell to his hands and knees, and Starfire had to crouch as well, although she continued to float rather than shuffle forward on her hands and knees.
"Interesting," she mumbled.
"Kinda tense, huh?" Red X put a hand out and tapped his mask, looking for something she couldn't see. Infrared lasers or motion sensors or-
"I suppose," she answered quickly as she recovered from being so distracted. "I have never done the big heist."
"This isn't that big," Red X told her humbly.
"Even I know who Martha Wayne is," she reminded him dully.
Red X pulled the tablet out of his belt again and typed on it. "I think it has more to do with hitting Bruce Wayne where it hurts than it does with Martha Wayne."
"Even so. It makes me uneasy."
"Nothin' to be uneasy about, cutie. You've got one hell of a great partner working with you." The tablet was tucked back into the silver belt.
"What was the problem?" Starfire asked, wanting to be wary even though she trusted him to resolve any issue they might encounter.
"Infrared lasers." She knew it! "But I took care of those. Okay, cutie, another drop here. If you don't mind." He held his hand out for her.
She had to awkwardly shuffle around him to get to the drop before he did, and she wished that she had gone before him. Although, of course, if she did that, she would have to endure the possibility of Red X watching her more closely than she would have liked.
Red X crouched over an opening and cut through the duct with a laser, removing the covering enough for them to fit through, one at a time. Red X landed on the balls of his feet and dropped to a crouch, so quiet that Starfire could hardly believe he was next to her. She hovered in the air beside him.
They were in a small room- empty of any guards, as they were all patrolling the halls outside, devoid of any defining characteristics except for a glass display case atop a sleek pedestal and an automated, metal door, seeming to have layers of doors and an automated lock on the outside. It was almost silly to put a vent in this room, but then, it was probably a protocol for the building.
Another of the many X-shaped gadgets that Red X had was pressed against the glass display case, and to Starfire's surprise, the glass melted away in the shape of an X, leaving just enough room for the thief to slip his hand through.
"Glass-eating acid," he told her offhandedly. How he acquired these things, Starfire couldn't guess. He turned the necklace over in his hands, inspecting the pearls with narrowed eyes. The white spheres reflected the blue light beautifully. "I don't get it," he said with a shake of his head. "Clams- or is it oysters?- spit out these things. They're globs of oyster spit. And girls go nuts over them because they're shiny." His gaze turned to Starfire, accusing.
"I like gems because they are natural," she offered after giving him an indignant glare. "They come from creatures of the sea, as these do, or from deep within the planet. Each diamond has experienced thousands of lifetimes of heat and pressure, unimaginable to the breadth of our minds, and even before that they were glorious plants, rising up as tall as the primitive Earth lizards that roamed among them-" As she spoke, she got excited, her voice tumbling out before she could stop it.
"That's dinosaurs," Red X interrupted, sounding amused.
"What?" Starfire asked, confused at his interruption.
"'Primitive Earth lizards'. Dinosaurs, in layman's terms."
She glared at him, weary of constant corrections when her point got across just fine, and held out her hand for the pearls. He'd think she wanted to observe them, he'd give them to her and expect them back, and she wouldn't give them back. Even with all of the devices in his arsenal, Starfire doubted he'd be able to take them from her.
Instead, though, he stood behind her and draped the pearls around her neck, clasping them in place. "I guess a guy can understand when a piece like this is on a pretty girl, though."
That made her a little flustered. "X…"
The lock on the door spun open. Red X didn't even move. Was he expecting that?
Some form of big cat- mountain lion, cheetah, leopard, tiger, Starfire really couldn't tell the difference- Raven, silhouetted in an intimidating fashion by her cloak, Cyborg with his canon ready, and of course Robin, standing with his bo-staff flourished in front of him. All waiting to jump the criminals inside.
Red X reacted quickly, throwing smoke bombs- red smoke, not like Robin's white haze- at the ground between the two of them and the Titans.
Starfire hated smoke bombs. Her starbolts only made it harder to see, and the mist all around her made her anxious. She waved her hand in front of her face, coughing, although that didn't seem to do much. The clear path she'd cut with her hand to allow herself to breathe was plugged up by the viscous red smoke in no time at all.
The blast of Cyborg's sonic cannon, a crash on her right and shattering glass, then the soft-but-hard thud of skin on skin and a harder thud of someone's head hitting the pedestal. "Where are the pearls?" Robin growled, and Starfire could easily conjure an image of Robin growling over Red X as he forced him to hunch over the pedestal the display case was on. A deep growl from whatever animal Beast Boy had mimicked prompted an answer.
"Don't have 'em."
"Where?" Robin growled again.
"Ask your girlfriend, kid."
"Raven?" Robin called, giving a command that the empath somehow understood even without Robin saying it.
"I sense her. She's still here."
Starfire began to panic. This would look so bad. She was wearing Martha Wayne's pearls. How disrespectful was that? She hadn't meant to steal them, anyway. Her choices were fight or flight, or rather play dumb or flight, as she really didn't want to fight Robin just now. And she couldn't possibly play dumb while wearing the pearls. She attempted yanking them up over her head, but they proved too small for that. She raised her arms to undo the clasp, but Robin was too quick for her.
"What are you doing with those?" he growled, his bo-staff held in one hand while the other indicated the pearls.
"Uh…" she squeaked, frozen with her arms raised to her neck. How'd he find her so quickly in this fog?
A grunt of surprise was all Robin could manage before he and Starfire were thrown against the steel wall of the vault, Robin facing her and unnecessarily close. The wind was knocked out of her, and it took a moment for her to realize what had happened.
Red X had pinned them both to the wall with a large X.
She was going to kill him. She'd do it right in front of the Titans, if she had to. She suspected that the thief had done this on purpose.
"…Robin?" she squeaked.
"Hold- hold on," he mumbled, his voice startlingly close to her. She couldn't really see him through the smoke, although that was probably best.
A pneumatic hiss and a clang against the ductwork. Was Red X abandoning her? She really, truly hated him. "Robin, where are you?" Beast Boy called. "X is getting away!"
"Go after him!" Robin ordered, and Starfire could feel his body twist as he tried to turn in the direction from which Beast Boy's voice was coming.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine. Just… stuck. I'll meet you up there."
Oh, no. Starfire was not staying stuck like this. "Actually, Beast Boy, I think help would be- mmph!"
Robin clapped his hand over her mouth to silence her.
"What?" Beast Boy called, his voice closer.
Starfire shook her head, but Robin kept his hand over her mouth. "Beast Boy, go after Red X. Now!"
"Got it!"
And then they were alone.
Robin released Starfire's mouth and growled unintelligibly.
"Why did you do that?" she hissed, displeased with him.
"Because," answered, calmly and infuriatingly. "He would have come to help us if you asked."
She glared at him. She hoped he could see with whatever capabilities were built into his mask. "That is the point."
"We don't need help," he told her disapprovingly.
"You had best have a reliable plan for freeing us immediately," Starfire snapped.
"I built this tech," he snapped back. "The weak point is in the center-"
"The center?"
"Yes," he answered impatiently. "Because-"
"Would that not be the most secure part of the structure?"
"I put in a safety-unlatch. In case these ever backfired."
"Oh." She paused. "The center of the device is behind you."
"Yeah," he muttered.
"Well how will you reach it?" she demanded, forlorn.
"If I can… contort…"
They were pressed very tightly together. Robin had been bracing himself with his palms flat on the wall, keeping himself as far away from her as he could with the band around them giving them no slack at all.
He moved away one hand, which he tried to twist behind his back. The device was too tight against them, though, and he couldn't bend his elbow back enough. "Dammit," he grumbled.
Starfire winced. The removal of his hand from the wall took away the support from his upper body. He was pressed even more tightly against her now, and it was hard not to notice the definition in his chest that wasn't apparent through his uniform. It was a good thing that her arms were still trapped mid-reach for the clasp at her neck, because she very badly wanted to run her fingers over- she scolded herself quickly for that thought.
He was making grunting noises as he tried to reach behind his back for the safety release. It wasn't helping. "Okay… maybe I can still…" His hand passed briefly over her stomach before it was squashed against her opposite side. He appeared to be trying to turn, but it was no use.
"Robin," she protested. "Robin, cease. You are not making the situation any better."
He sighed and swore under his breath. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
His hand returned back to the wall on her other side, and he mumbled, "Sorry," as his fingers dragged over her stomach again. A long sigh escaped from his lips and tickled Starfire's breath. She couldn't stay like this much longer.
"What now?" she asked, trying to sound polite and not… agitated, as she was.
"Um… You could try to reach it."
"I… pardon me?"
The smoke was beginning to clear now, so she tried to look as innocent as possible. The reason she was reluctant about that was because that would involve trying not to touch Robin in the process, which would surely yield the result of accidentally touching Robin in the process, which would yield the result of… Well, she wasn't sure what came after that, really.
"I do not think I can…"
"Aw, c'mon. Yeah you can."
"No. I mean, my arms are stuck." She wiggled her elbows to show him.
"Of course they are," he growled, displeased. "Okay, maybe I can push against the wall and put some more space between us."
"More space would be helpful," she agreed quickly. He raised an eyebrow at her, but she felt his body weight shift further away, leaning on the X heavily.
This didn't help as much as she hoped. She wriggled one arm down away from her neck. She was able to slip her arm through the gap in the X and she twisted her wrist, glad to get circulation flowing again.
"You good?" Robin asked, sounding strained.
"One arm is free."
"That's going to have to be good enough." He returned to his previous position, panting again. "Damn. I never thought I'd get stuck in one of these in this position," he mumbled to himself.
"If you could do that again, perhaps I would be able to slide down the wall until I can slip out the bottom?"
"No," Robin answered quickly.
She furrowed her brows at him. "Why not?"
"I…" He looked away from her. "It doesn't matter. Just no. Veto. The latch is in the shape of an X-"
"Of course it is," Starfire mumbled.
"-and you just need to apply pressure. I designed it to let go with pressure best applied from the thumb, but with your strength you should be able to do it with any finger."
"Can we not simply wait for your friends to come back?"
"No. Now hurry."
Starfire sighed and slid her fingers beneath the red device. It was a tight fit. She could probably push the device away better than Robin could with her strength, but she was concerned about pushing against his back too hard. It would be too easy to hurt him in this position.
"Robin… I think it is too tight," she murmured sadly. It didn't help that her other arm was still trapped up by her neck.
"What if I leaned forward more?"
"That would make it worse," she answered quickly.
"Huh?"
"Uh… does the device not cling to the shape of the object it surrounds? Leaning forward would only press us together more and make it harder to concentrate."
"Concentrate?" he echoed.
Oh, no, she hadn't meant to say that! "I mean… harder to maneuver… Um…"
"I guess you're right." There was a long pause, then, "You know, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't stolen those pearls."
"Excuse me!" she snapped as she tried to slide her fingers away from him. "I was not stealing them. I was going with Red X to ensure that they were not stolen."
"Right, like I believe that."
Starfire snarled at him angrily. "I did not wish to hurt you, but I cannot stay this way any longer." She pushed against the X with her hand that was still trapped between Robin and the material, then she threw her whole body into the push, probably bruising Robin's shoulder where hers pushed against him.
"No! Wait! Don't-!"
As the device pulled away from the wall, it smacked closed behind Starfire, encircling them in the embrace of a completed X.
"God dammit!" Robin growled, spinning them as they fell so that he was under Starfire. "This is worse. I told you not to do that!"
"You might have mentioned that before!" she huffed back.
"I tried to warn you!"
They were silent for a few moments, Starfire completely trying to ignore how close Robin was to her.
"Look, Starfire, I'm s-"
"Need some help?" Raven demanded.
"That would be nice, yeah," Robin mumbled as Starfire glared at him.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"No," Robin answered quickly. "Just, the center… There's a safety release and if you-"
Raven formed a spike with dark energy in one hand and drove it through the middle of the X. The result was slightly startling, as the sides rolled up quickly, rather like pull and release blinds on a window.
Starfire sighed, relieved. "Thank X'hal that is over! Now if you will take these…" She reached up for the clasp again but she fumbled with it as her hand was still numb from being trapped in an upward position.
Robin stepped behind her silently and pushed her hair to the side, undoing the clap and removing the necklace wordlessly.
Without another word to Starfire he pulled out his grappling hook gun and nodded to Raven. The empath glanced back at Starfire but didn't question her leader, and she levitated into the air duct as Robin clicked the trigger on his grappling hook gun, pulling himself into the duct.
"Red X?" he asked, businesslike.
"Got away." Raven's voice floated through the air vent back to Starfire.
She felt oddly unhappy after that. She didn't know why forced proximity made her feel as though Robin should be nicer to her. Or why she felt sort of sad that he hadn't said anything to her after he got the necklace back. He didn't even thank her.
That was for later thoughts, however. For now, she had to find and punish Red X.
Safety release is my headcanon. Robin's so paranoid, I doubt he would have built the suit without a sort of backup. I kind of stole the idea of Star and Robin getting squished together because of a Red X gadget from another fic of mine that I've been working on. So don't be too surprised if you see that pop up later in a different fic by me. Now that I used it in this, I might scrap it for that fic, I don't know. I just had to use it for this scene.
Up next: Betrothed the kiss edition.