Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. Yet. –insert evil cackle here-
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Starfire now had the message reinforced as to why the boys constantly played video games. Starfire pushed the two buttons as fast as she could, but it still didn't seem to be fast enough. The Tritans were still innumerably around her, and it felt like she wasn't hitting any of them as she fired the lasers.
She had heard her communicator go off again, but wasn't in any position to answer it. Whoever needed help in the city, the remaining four would be able to handle it.
The communicator wasn't answered. They were calling for her.
Please, someone help me….
As if in answer to her prayer, the Tritans' attention was suddenly moved off her as one, and turned toward an oncoming blue and black figure. Starfire recognized it immediately, having seen it less than a week before.
"Aqualad!"
"Star…fire!" Aqualad fought off the Tritans that had instantly attacked him. "You… have to… get out of here! Hurry!"
Starfire nodded and quickly grabbed her communicator, opening it up to see the Titans' faces on the screen.
"Friends, please! You must help—!"
The sub was tossed several feet to the right, and the communicator jerked out of Starfire's hand as she let out a scream at the surprise attack. The communicator landed on its upper half, and the lower part fell upon it, closing the communicator. Starfire's only way of corresponding with her friends was now lost and several inches out of her grasp.
"STARFIRE, GET OUT OF HERE!" Aqualad took a punch to the jaw.
Starfire quickly regained herself and grabbed the wheel. She pulled up on the throttle that made the sub go faster, and the sub put on a sharp burst of speed, crashing magnificently into Aqualad. The blue and black form remained upon the window of the sub as Starfire blindly drove in the ocean, her only thoughts being to get away.
After several minutes, Starfire pulled the throttle down and the sub slowed to a stop. Aqualad dazedly got up from the window and swam about confusedly for several moments before regaining himself from his uncomfortable position on the window. He stared around for a moment and then said, "We're close. C'mon."
Starfire desperately wished to know where they were going, or indeed where they were, but focused her attention on deciphering how to work the sub. Robin needed to label his strange and uncountable buttons and throttles. Using the wheel and throttle she had grown so accustomed to, Starfire followed Aqualad as he lead her into the depths of the ocean. She trailed him in the twists and turns, and then raised the throttle to go straight up. The next thing she knew she was above the water once again in the safety of Aqualad's cave.
Starfire smiled. She was somewhere safe, at least. She quickly retrieved her communicator from the floor and stood up, locating the exit, and pulling herself up through it.
Starfire jumped away from the sub, and in precise time, her communicator went off again. She picked it up to see the Titans on the screen.
"Starfire! You're okay?" Robin asked.
"Do not worry, I am fine. Aqualad helped me escape," Starfire assured.
"WHAT THE HECK WERE THINKING?!?!" Cyborg's face filled up the screen. "YOU COULD HAVE TOTALLY WRECKED MY BABY!"
"Star, d'you really want to get killed? I could've done that here for half price!" Beast Boy said.
"Starfire, that has to be the most idiotic thing you've ever done," Raven reprimanded.
"Star, you sure you're okay? What happened? One moment we were talking to you, and then there was a scream, and the communicator went out," Robin explained.
"We fought the Tritans, but we are undamaged. Do not worry, friends."
"MY BABY! LET ME SEE HER!"
Starfire turned the communicator to the intact sub. "It is fine, Cyborg. I have taken good care of your 'baby'."
"Why did you even go out there in the first place?" Raven asked.
"I, er, wished to learn to dive the scuba?" Starfire said.
"YOU DON'T SCUBA DIVE WITH A SUBMARINE!" Cyborg yelled.
"I am sorry, I did not know," Starfire said, her head falling. "I shall return at once."
"YES, YOU SHALL!" Cyborg said.
"Hurry, Star, I gotta kill you. You ruined my beauty sleep!" Beast Boy said.
"Yes, and he needs lots of it. Bad girl, Star," Raven said, almost sarcastically.
"HEY!" Beast Boy and Raven vanished from the screen as Beast Boy chased Raven with leftover tofu he quickly grabbed from the kitchen.
"Be careful, Star," Robin said seriously. "Don't get hurt. Maybe Aqualad can send some sea creatures as an escort. Tritan will still be out there looking for you."
"I'll go myself, it's no problem," Aqualad said, appearing next to Starfire.
Robin said something appreciative in a sardonic voice. "Hurry back, Star."
"I shall," Starfire said. She shut the communicator.
There was silence between the two.
"You didn't come down here to learn to scuba dive, did you?" Aqualad said.
"No… I did not," Starfire admitted. "I came to see you, to find out about tomorrow."
"There a reason you came in the middle of the night? I was just going to call you guys tomorrow," Aqualad said.
"No!" Starfire said immediately. She turned away. "You must not call."
"Why?" Aqualad asked.
"Because… I do not wish for the others to know," Starfire said. Her brain worked furiously. "Robin… if he knew I were taking his debt for him, he would be furious. He is not one who likes to be in the debt of others, but even more so when it is of his teammates."
Aqualad didn't say anything for a moment, then turned her around to face him and smiled. Starfire gave an inward sigh of relief. He believed her story. "I understand. So let's work this out now, shall we?"
Starfire nodded.
"What say we meet somewhere, so no one has to see me picking you up?"
"That would be wonderful."
"I'll meet you at the Prince's Palace, does that sound okay?"
Starfire blinked to hide the emotion that would come from her eyes. "That sounds lovely."
"Okay, so I'll meet you there at six?" Aqualad asked.
"Yes," Starfire said. "But I must be back by nine. It is movie night, and they would know I had been up to something if I missed that."
"Fine," Aqualad said with a charming smile. "Now let's get you home before Cyborg has an even bigger temper tantrum."
Starfire smiled back and returned to the sub. Aqualad dived into the sea and Starfire pulled the height throttle down, lowering herself into the sea.
The ride back was much less eventful than the ride there. Starfire watched Aqualad swim, many thoughts going through her head. He really was nice, and she hated to hurt his feelings, but she did not like him in the same way he liked her. If he asked her on a second date, she did not know what she would do. She knew she did not want to go on another, not more than was required, but she had great difficulty saying no to people. There were exceptions to this rule, things that might hurt her or her friends, but this was only a date. The only way anyone would get hurt was if Aqualad asked her on a second date. Starfire decided that when she awoke the next morning, she was going to practice saying no. She could predict even from there that that would not go too well.
Aqualad swam towards the surface, and Starfire pulled the throttle up, quickly reached sea level. Four dark figures stood there waiting for her until the sub's headlights illuminated them.
"Starfire!" Robin yelled.
"MY BABY!" Cyborg said overdramatically.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Beast Boy yelled, clearly still on the set of mind that he lost quite a bit of his beauty sleep.
"You okay?" Raven asked.
Starfire jumped out of the sub and landed silently. "Friends, please. Forgive me for taking the sub without permission. I am undamaged, and so is the sub. May we go to sleep now?"
"NO WE MAY NOT! I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO OVER EVERY INCH OF THIS THING TO MAKE SURE SHE'S FINE! AND IF THERE'S A SCRATCH ON HER, YOU'RE IN TROUBLE, STAR!"
"I shall take full responsibility," Starfire said quietly, letting her head fall to the ground. It would be worth enduring Cyborg's rage for Robin not to discover her date. "Please forgive me. I can help with the repairs, if you wish."
"Forgive you? After all that lost beauty sleep? This isn't something you can make up, Star, it's something only time can do! And now I'm down an hour of it!" Beast Boy said angrily.
Starfire tried not to cry. She hated people being mad at her, but none more so than her friends. "I am sorry, I cannot repair the damage I have done to you. In payment I shall try your tofu waffles in the morning. Please forgive me."
"You interrupted my meditation," Raven said seriously. "My emotions got out of control after that first talk with you on the communicator, and the Tower is a mess. I'll be up for another two hours trying to get my emotions in check."
"I am sorry," Starfire said, and silent tears rolled down her cheeks this time. She tried to make her hair fall in front of her face to hide them. "I cannot repair the damage I have done to you, either. I shall take your kitchen duty on Monday. Please forgive me."
A hand lifted Starfire's chin up to look at him. Robin wiped her tears away with the same hand. "Of course we forgive you. But don't do that again, okay? You scared us out of our minds. Even Raven was frantic."
"I am sorry," Starfire whispered. "I did not mean to hurt anyone."
"Of course you didn't," Aqualad said loudly. "You guys, your sub, your beauty sleep, your meditation, is it worth getting onto her about? Aren't you just glad she's alive and well?"
"Of course we are," Robin said. "We're just letting her know that she scared us."
"You're making her cry!" Aqualad said.
"Hey, guys, look it's okay," Beast Boy. "Star still knows we care about her, right?"
Starfire silently nodded.
"You see?" Beast Boy said. "Just let it go."
Aqualad turned Starfire to face him. "Goodnight Starfire. See you—later." In a moment he had turned around and dived back into the ocean.
"He wasn't going to say later," Raven said mildly, to no one in particular. She didn't need to read his mind to know that much.
"Well, c'mon. We all need as much sleep as we can get. Tomorrow's going to come earlier we're accustomed to," Robin ordered.
Raven turned around headed back to the Tower, her cloak billowing behind her. Beast Boy was next, giving Star a last look, and then turning around and following Raven into the giant T. Cyborg jumped into the sub and said he was going to return it to his lab space, that Robin and Starfire should just go on in. Starfire was about to walk in, but Robin grabbed her hand and told her to sit down as he did so himself. Starfire obliged.
"Star, you didn't really go down to learn to scuba dive. You know you didn't need a sub to learn how," Robin said. "Don't you remember? You wanted to be outside the sub. That's why I mentioned it."
Starfire didn't say anything for a moment. "Robin, please do not ask me about this."
Robin was taken aback by her response. "Star, you could've gotten killed. I'm supposed to ignore that, as the leader of the Titans?"
"No," Starfire said, looking at him. "You are supposed to ignore it as a friend, respecting my request."
This silenced Robin. Something was very incongruous, ever since her almost-episode with Mark.
"I… am sorry, Robin," Starfire said, turning away. "I did not mean to be rude, and I have been acting strange around you lately. I apologize, I should not have. I have been… preoccupied. I am sure that after tomorrow I will be fine."
Robin looked at her. "No, I've been… prying. I just wanted to know what was wrong."
"You have not been prying, Robin," Starfire said truthfully. "I have been avoiding the topic, that is all. Any questions you have had are my doing. Please, only trust me that everything will be all right after tomorrow."
Robin stared into her eyes, trying not to drown in them. "Okay."
Starfire smiled, and Robin nearly died trying not to inundate in that too. "Shall we go inside?"
"Let's," Robin said, standing. "You'll need all the sleep you can get."
Starfire stood beside him. "Oh, Robin?"
"Hmm?"
"Why do you get a seat that reclines and not the rest of us?"
Robin's eyes went very wide for a moment, and then he spoke in a quick succession. "Uh, Star, you know, I'm really tired all of a sudden; I'll see you in the morning. Night!"
He ran inside before Starfire could stop him. She smiled. He was avoiding the topic and she knew it. Starfire stared at the door that concealed Robin from her eyes and smiled, a joy filling her that was so great she began skipping. Robin made her so happy, she felt like she needed to shout it to the world. No one, however, could know. Not a soul in the world could find out that she liked Robin.
But that naïve little Starfire. She didn't realize that the whole world already knew.
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A/N:
Yay! Another chapter finished. Hope you all enjoyed it, and I hope you guys had a good Christmas! Mine could've been better… -cries- But that's okay! Because it wasn't horrible.
Jen813- I'm glad you liked the last chapter. It was probably one of my favorites. This wasn't quite as good, I don't think, but I leave the decision-making up to you!
SocialKween- I HATE living in Florida! Even if I could live just a little higher, in southern Georgia, I'd take it. Anything but here. London is where I really want to live though. I LOVE BRITISH PEOPLE! I could listen to them talk ALL day! And I agree, long live long reviews and long live Robin's HYA's. xD And perhaps the Rae/Rob fans are from Azerath, but I'm not going to say anything bad about them… because one of them might be a reviewer and not telling me…. xD Sorry for not updating all that soon… but now I have to. -GLARE OF DEATH AT SOCIALBUTTERFLI- She's sent from Satan to ruin my fun, I swear it. xD
Lizzie- There will, of course, be R/Sness. Their date is coming up. It begins at the end of Chapter 13, so we're getting there. Happy New Year! OH! I was just reading back through a few reviews looking for something, and did I ever tell you that you'd have to fight me for Dan? xD Dan's too hot for his own good. xD
Anony Miss- I'm glad you like it! I have all intentions on continuing, and I hope you continue to review!
SocialButterfli- I'm flattered that you think you're addicted, but I remain set upon the fact that you're sent from Satan to ruin my fun. . Well here's your stupid update, NOW GO UPDATE YOUR FIC!!! -GLARE OF DEATH-
And one other reviewer, even though they only got up to chapter 2….
Crybaby walker (Jess)- Isn't Inuyasha the greatest? -dies at the sexiness of Inuyasha- We could have one heck of an argument over who gets him. xD Course, Kagome would win…. -GLARE OF DEATH AT KAGOME- Baka wench.
By the way, does anyone know for sure what baka means? I was told it meant stupid, but then I heard a rumor floating around that it meant something else…. It's Japanese for those of you who don't know. So if you know FOR A FACT what it's meaning is, PLEASE tell me!!!
Next chapter! Beast Boy and Starfire go shopping! For Xyteron, NOW picture Starfire on Extreme Makeover with Beast Boy. xD Except he doesn't do all that much to her…. But anywayz! Then Starfire sneaks out, and the date with Aqualad begins! Only this time, the waiter is much more flirtatious than he was before…. I'll give you a cookie if you can remember his name without looking! xD He returns and plays a bigger role this time around for a greater conflict. But all that's next chapter! You have to wait until then!
Should I update before the end of the year or no…? The choice is yours! Well, no it's not, but maybe it will effect my decision.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review!
Riles