Author's Note: Hehe.

Chapter 6

"Raven, I have done a bad thing."

Raven opened one eye. "No, you haven't." She closed her eye. "If you did a bad thing, you wouldn't be feeling so happy about it."

"Well, potentially it could be bad, but it was also very nice, and very nice things should not be bad, but I fear that it was still morally wrong for me to do this thing and please, I require your advice, have I done a bad thing?"

Raven blinked several times. "All that, and I'm still not sure what you think you've done and why it would be bad."

"I kissed Red X."

"Ooookay..." Raven said, dragging the word out.

Starfire was off in a rush. "Well, technically, he kissed me, but I did not make any protest whatsoever so it could conceivably be construed that I kissed him back, and indeed I did, because it was most enjoyable but now I feel as though I should not have because it is the Red X and he is not exactly the most moral person but he wishes to see me again tomorrow and I think I would like that-"

"Starfire, breathe. Hold it."

Starfire sucked in a breath and held it.

"Good. Now let it out. Slowly."

Parting her lips, Starfire let the breath go.

"Good. Now." Raven unfolded her legs from the lotus position and stood. Walking the small distance to her bed, she sat down, patting the bedspread beside her in invitation.

Starfire darted across the room and floated down until she was sitting beside Raven.

Raven wriggled to get comfortable. Then, "You kissed Red X."

Starfire nodded.

"And you liked it?"

Starfire nodded again.

"So, what's the problem?"

Starfire twisted her fingers nervously. "It is Red X."

"So?"

"So... Robin... I... it is bad, yes?"

Raven pursed her lips. "Starfire, I'm going to be brutally honest. You ready?"

Starfire nodded. She straightened her back, clasped her hands on her lap and looked Raven square in the eyes.

"Robin broke up with you."

Jerking, it took all her willpower to keep looking directly into Raven's eyes. "Yes, however-"

"Robin said he wasn't ready for a relationship." Raven, knowing this was hard for Starfire to hear, reached across and placed her hand over Starfire's. "That it was moving too fast."

"Yes, but that was-"

"And in these last two years, has he ever given you any indication he's ready now?"

Protest died in her throat. "No," Strarfire said, meek.

Raven raised her eyebrow. "So, how long are you going to wait for him?"

"Well-" Starfire considered.

Raven silenced her with a steely look.

"I am... not?" Starfire asked.

"No. You're not. You shouldn't have to. That's not fair on you."

"But-"

"You liked the kiss, right?"

Starfire nodded.

"And you like Red X?" Raven asked, sceptical.

Starfire twisted her fingers nervously."He is... most nice, once you know him. He is funny and considerate and I find myself looking forward to the moments we spend together. The attention he pays is most flattering."

Raven gave her a disgruntled look. "Red X? Really?"

Starfire giggled nervously and nodded.

Raven rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You can sure pick 'em." She regarded Starfire with interest now. "To kiss you, he would have had to take off the mask."

"Yes."

"When have you been spending time with him?"

"On my patrols. Sometimes he joins me, others he is waiting when I finish. Sometimes he is not there but lately I have been disappointed when he is not."

"And does he treat you well? You don't think he's trying to play you?"

"I do not think so," Starfire said, considering. "There is no indication he has any other intent, but I am..." She paused. "He is a criminal."

"Exactly."

"But he has also helped us on more than one occasion."

"Yes."

"I will be careful."

"Good."

"Do I tell Robin?"

Raven hesitated and chewed her lip. "Do you really think it's any of his business? You're just starting, you don't need his disapproving eye on you. He doesn't have any say in who you date. Not any more."

Starfire took a while to answer as she thought that over. "No. He does not."

Raven squeezed Starfire's hand and plastered an eager look on her face. "Now, tell me, what was it like?"

Starfire beamed.

–

One day ago.

"Now, if we were to take this knife and slice-"

"Cut me again and I will kill you."

–

Five days ago.

"You have five minutes," the guard at the door said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Robin said and closed the door.

Starfire took up a position by the window, her hands clasped in front of her. She never took part in these interrogations, just was present to provide support. All of them were.

Beast Boy sat in the chair in the corner, Raven sitting on the arm of the chair and he rested his hand against her the small of her back. Cyborg helped himself to the patient notes while Robin went to the side of the bed. "John Luke," he said, rolling his eye. "Yeah. Right."

"Hello, my name is Robin, I'm the leader of the Titans. I just have a few questions about the man who attacked you."

The man on the bed was littered with scratches and bruises. One black eye, a cut above his temple held together with clips, one wrist broken. His torso was covered in bruises but as Starfire's eyes lingered over them, comparing them to what she knew of human anatomy, she didn't believe any vital organs where at risk. He smirked and Starfire saw his teeth were intact. He was well enough now to answer questions. Whatever Red X had done, the man would recover.

Not that she was excusing what Red X had done.

The armed guard was only because John had been left with overwhelming evidence of several unsolved crimes, so he was being detained until investigations were complete.

"Not telling you a thing," the man responded. "I plead the fifth."

Robin frowned, then glanced over at the guard, who shrugged. "He speaks English with the doctors, but the moment we ask him about the attack, that's all we get."

Starfire blinked. She'd understood him perfectly.

"Did you get a translator?" Robin asked.

The guard nodded. "One he refused to speak to."

"What language?"

Starfire tilted her head. "Why do you plead the fifth?"

The man's head snapped to hers, his mouth dropping open. "You understand me?"

"Of course," Starfire replied.

"You understand him?" Robin asked.

"Yes," Starfire replied. "He says he is not-"

"If you speak it, you must be one of us."

One of whom? she wanted to ask, but she knew better than that. Being able to speak the language he spoke automatically made her one of whoever it was. Sometimes mistaken identity was the best route to information. John thought she was part of his group, perhaps even higher up than him. If she played on that, she could get him to talk and Robin needed information. She would need to act, present herself as criminal underbelly too. Starfire pressed her lips together and did her best to appear nonchalant. "You will answer Robin's question."

John gave Robin a scathing look. "I don't speak to his kind."

"Then speak to me," Starfire said, stern. "What do you know of the man who attacked you?"

"Not a lot. Calls himself 'Justice', but his name's Red X, right? He's been attacking a lot of us recently."

'Us' possibly meant the gang this man was part of. One he assumed she was part of. "What information was he after?"

"He wants information on the Big Man."

That sounded like a title. Starfire's interest pricked.

"Starfire?" Robin asked.

She waved her hand at him, dismissing him in what she hopped to be a brusque manner. Insect, you are small compared to me, shut up. "The Big Man? And you provided this information?"

"Of course not," John blurted, horrified. "Do you think I'd still be alive if I blabbed?"

Starfire allowed her eyes to drift to the guard. "What information did you provide him with?"

John's eyes flicked between her and the guard. "Wait. Wait. You're one of the elite, aren't you? But you're a Titan."

Starfire raised an eyebrow and tried to look menacing. "What better cover can you think?" she asked, bluffing.

John pushed himself up higher in the bed. A bead of sweat trickled down his face. "I swear, he got nothing from me."

"Starfire?" Robin asked.

She flicked her eyes to him and made them flash green briefly, hoping he would get the message. Robin straightened and took a step back, his brow furrowed but remained silent. Beside Starfire, Raven rose to her feet, lifting her hood and took up a position just behind Starfire. Inwardly pleased, Starfire realised Raven understood what was occurring and provided menacing backup.

She needed a name. Any name. Something before John Smith became suspicious. "What is your designation?" she asked. "And that of your subsection?"

"My subsection?"

"Your... gang. Clearly you are not high enough in the organisation to warrant being trusted with any real information."

It was the right thing to say, the man immediately tried to prove his worth. "Hey! I'm high enough! High enough to have reported to Octave Bonnot himself!"

Starfire smirked, quite pleased with herself. "We may leave now," she said to Robin. "I have a name."

"Good," he said. "Tired of this place anyway."

"Oh. Shit," John blurted. He went pale.

"You were most helpful," she said, breezing toward the door.

"They'll kill me!" he said. "They'll kill me!"

"Double the guards," Robin said to the officer beside the door as he followed Starfire out. "Make arrangements for him to be moved. We might need him again."

"They will not truly kill him, will they?" Starfire questioned after the door had been closed.

"Depends on the name," Robin said.

Quickly, Starfire told him what had occurred in the room, why she'd done what she'd done, and the name she'd been given. Robin smiled, proud. "Well done," he said when she was finished. "Very clever."

"I did the right thing, yes? Should I have stayed and followed the ruse through?"

He patted her on the shoulder. "Certainly did. No, we got a name, any more and he might have started giving false information and then we'd have to sort thought that. You did good. Let's get back to the hotel and we can do some research."

"Very cool," Beast Boy commented as they walked back to the T-Car.

"What was?" Starfire asked.

"The way you acted in there." He grinned. "Scary cool."

"Oh. I thank you."

"What language was that?" he asked.

"French."

Beast Boy frowned. "That wasn't French."

Starfire blinked. "It was not?"

He shook his head. "Only 'cause Monsieur Mallah spoke French, I had to pick some of it up so I could translate when spying on him."

Starfire frowned. "Oh."

"Doesn't matter, you kicked tail!" Beast Boy crowed and held the door open for her, holding up his hand for a high five.

As Starfire filed toward the car, she wondered just which language Red X had given her.

–

Sitting at her hotel room window, Starfire watched the day turn to night. Laptop open in front of her, she ignored what was on the screen in lieu of watching the sunset. Curled up on her chair, she rested her hands on the arm and stared out at the pink and golden clouds.

The language she'd been speaking to the man in the hospital wasn't on any Earthen database that she could tell. But then, she seemed to be having difficulties writing it down, the language didn't seem to have a written form. That was an instinctual part of the language transfer, the written word as well. Glancing at the papers on the table, she sighed at her many attempts to spell the words in the hope she could match it. But nothing worked.

It wasn't uncommon in the grand scheme of things for there to be only verbal languages, but that didn't seem to be the norm on Earth. Not any more at least. If it was an ancient language, why did Red X know it and why did he insist it was something as simple as French?

Perhaps he never expected her to find another person who spoke it. Or perhaps he hadn't truly believed her ability to learn languages through lip contact.

It was a genuine language, however. Whatever it was, she'd been able to learn it.

Alien? Perhaps. She certainly wasn't current in her knowledge of alien languages, being away from Tamaran for long. But Red X wasn't alien. He was human.

More and more questions. Beside, what did this have to do with-

A soft knock at the door interrupted her musings. "Yes?"

"It's Robin, can I come in?"

"It is open," she replied.

"Hey," he said, smiling at her as he opened the door.

She sat up, looking at him in surprise. "Pizza?"

He grinned at her. "I thought we could have dinner together. There's a few things I need to discuss with you."

Dropping both feet to the ground, she closed her laptop and pushed the papers aside to make some room for the food. "Of course."

"Been doing some research of your own?" he asked, sliding the pizza box on to the table. Handing her one of the soda cans he carried, he placed his on the table and angled the pizza box so they could reach it. He didn't sit opposite her, like she expected, instead he dragged the chair around so they could sit side by side.

A little confused, she took a slice of pizza. "Yes, I am attempting to determine what the language I spoke today was."

"Don't know where you got it from?" Robin asked, frowning.

She smiled. "Well, I am certain I did not get it from you," she said, attempting to inject some humour and cover the fact she knew where it came from.

"Been going around kissing random guys?" Robin asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"Weeeeeeell," she said, drawing out the word. "It did not necessarily have to be a guy."

He laughed. "True."

"But, I have had random lip contact with a few people," she said. "Like when we went Germany and we needed the language. I had thought perhaps I may have picked up more than one dialect, but I cannot seem to find a match with the language in your Earthen databases."

"Do you think it might be an alien language? You know a lot of those, right?"

"I thought that."

"And?"

"And... I am looking. It is a slow, ardours task, the language I spoke does not appear to be a written language, which makes it difficult to find a match."

"Sounds like you could use a break."

Starfire nodded and took a bite. "Yes, that would be most agreeable. How goes your own research?"

"It's all compiling now. Computer's been going all day, thanks to you we have a solid lead. The name you gave us, as far as we can tell, is a man who's believed to be the mob boss of an underground organisation."

"A mob boss?" Starfire asked.

Robin nodded and swallowed his mouthful of pizza. "The Bonnots. It's a local group, they've got ties in most things in Skip and a few other cities around. But they're also pretty secretive, the police here have never gotten one to talk and they've lost many agents trying to infiltrate the organisation. Until you. Octave Bonnot is now on the top of the most wanted list."

"But why would Red X be hunting this man?"

"Well, he obviously knows something we don't. I can think of any number of reasons, but what concerns me is he's going after him alone. Perhaps he wants to overthrow the organisation, become the new Bonnot."

"Perhaps," Starfire replied, not agreeing with that theory at all. She smiled, trying to keep Robin from thinking too much about it at present since she didn't really want to discuss Red X. "I am glad I was of assistance."

"You do more than help," Robin said, dropping his pizza piece back into the box. Wiping his hands on a napkin, he said, "You're an integral part of our team. We wouldn't be anything without you." He sounded so matter of fact, Starfire wondered if he'd rehearsed it. Or if she'd somehow given him the perfect opening into whatever he wished to discuss with her.

The smile died. "Robin-"

"Starfire," he said, interrupting her. "I know there's been a lingering... tension, I guess you could call it. Between us."

She swallowed.

"And I know that's my fault."

Starfire didn't say anything, just sat there with a limp slice of pizza in her hand as she stared at him.

"I'd have to be blind not to see what it did to you. There's been so many times I wanted to take those words back." He placed his hand her thigh, just above her knee.

Starfire made a squeaking sound.

His lips twitched up and he gently took the piece of pizza out of her hand, placing it back in the box. Taking her recently de-pizza-ed hand in his own, turned them both until they were face on.

"I wanted to say I was sorry."

Heart thudding rapidly, she swallowed again so she could speak and even then, it just came out a croak. "Robin?"

"And, if you wanted, I thought we could... you know... try again."

She was stunned into silence. All her years wishing he'd take back those words that had hurt her so much, here it was. Out in the open. He was sorry. He wanted to try again. He was ready.

She didn't know if she was.

Robin took her silence as acceptance, it seemed, because he leant toward her and kissed her. His hand cupped her neck, tugging her closer. He was gentle, unhurried. There was no demand there, just tentative exploration, an asking. Did she? Could she? Was there still hope?

Her lips moved with his, after all, she'd wanted this for so long.

But now... now it felt wrong. Felt like a betrayal.

Why now? Why now of all times? Was it because he'd overheard what she'd said to Raven and hoped to convince her to stay by offering her this now? Was he so concerned about losing her that he was finally willing to make himself vulnerable?

And did she want that? If his kiss was only because he thought she'd leave, or worse, to keep her from dating other people, did it really mean anything at all?

She pulled back, her eyes filling with tears. "Robin, no."

"No?" he asked, looking hurt. He removed his hands from her as an afterthought to her words.

She scrambled to buy heself some time. "I... I need... I need to think."

"Oh... right. Okay." He nodded, not looking at her now. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Feeling terrible, she touched his arm. "My apologies, I-"

"Hey, no," he said, smiling again. "No apologies. I sprung this on you. After all this time, I should've known you needed to think. Time to see if you could trust me with your heart again."

Starfire nodded.

"I'd really like it if you did," he said, his smile the one which used to make her heart melt when she was younger. "Anyway... um... enjoy the pizza. I'll see you in the morning." He rose, heading to the door. "Night Star."

She watched him leave. "Goodnight Robin."

There was a knot of anxiety in her stomachs. Balls and balls of it, surging through her. It didn't allow her to think, only showered her with fear her life was about to crumble. She wasn't at all excited about this, just dread. After hearing Robin's door click closed, she counted to a hundred, concentrating on her breathing with each number.

Then she bolted from the room and banged on the door of the room beside hers.

Raven opened with a surprised look and Starfire fell tearfully into her arms. "Oh, Raven, I have done a bad thing."

–

"It's all my fault."

"YOU!"

Author's note: Ops.