Nothing much more happened that night, apart from planning an impromptu trip to India, which means the team was still going to be trapped in the future for who knows how long. Their only worries were based on what the League might be planning to get them back, and what might happen in the long run if they stayed to long living in the future. Nevertheless, Cyborg re assured them that it would be fine, and that they would be back in their own time, pronto. So each one of their worries faded away, slowly.
Except for someone who couldn't yet fall asleep, even after the hell-ish day they all had.
Superboy sat down on the rocky shore of the island, throwing pebbles to the water that shined with the moonlight reflection. He felt distracted, almost distant from everything that was happening. The day had been such a rush that he just knew there was something wrong in not feeling even a pinch of emotion about it.
Though deep inside, he knew well what this was about. Or rather, 'who' this was about. More specifically, having trouble in specifying what emotion he was feeling towards that 'who'. The way she was always there to help, always so bright. It made him happy to be around her. But he couldn't find anything in himself to actually accept all of M'ganns' light into his life, without ruining it one way or another.
He threw a rock to the water and stalked it with his eyes, as if he could see when it would reach the bottom of the sea.
It was no secret to him the fact that Robin was a completely different person in the future, and also around Starfire. He'd never imagine him being so serious, with his own team, with having a relationship. Batman was always pressuring him not to let people close; a relationship was considered dangerous for the young hero, since any enemy could use it as a target. But somehow, the kid managed to keep his whole team safe, including her. Well, at least that is how it is now, was it always like this? After all, he had only been here for some time.
"How does he even do that?" He muttered under his breath quietly, annoyed at himself.
"You should be asleep." He hard a voice from behind, so silent it almost seemed like a whisper. Turning around he saw Starfire, concern drawn in her eyes. Her black hair raised up in a ponytail, wearing a purple shirt with the words 'I heart Beast boy' and black pyjama shorts. He couldn't help but silently chuckle at it, and she noticed.
"It was a Christmas gift." She said laughing as well. "And it is not a lie. I do love my friends." She walked closer to him.
"I'm not tired. Besides I can sleep in the airplane." He turned around, facing the beautiful landscape in front of him. "And on that note, I'll make sure to gift Artemis a shirt with Wally's face for Christmas."
From the corner of his eyes he saw her sitting down carefully. Her leg was still bandaged with a turnstile, and her arm was also lightly bandaged. She grunted when trying to extend her leg to find a comfortable position. When she finally did she sighed, and kept looking at the moon.
He studied her face. She was definitely beautiful. Her eye color was a pure emerald green, and her tanned skin was just the perfect combination for it. The black hair she had to get made her eyes pop out even more, but he was sure Robin could see past the physical.
"You are distracted." She said suddenly, still looking at the moon.
Superboy tensed up a bit.
"I am not able to read people's emotions like Raven, but I am not able to lie when I notice something." She didn't turn to look at him, but she knew he was staring, since the moment she sat down.
"Can I ask you something?" Superboy said. She turned her face at him and waited.
"You and Robin?" He struggled to try and find the right words for his question. "I mean, isn't it dangerous for all of you? Villain's must use you a lot as a target."
Starfire furrowed her brows in deep concentration. "Superboy, when you are a superhero, villains can use anyone you know as a target. Someone you took a picture with, someone who served you a pizza, even someone who you do not know, but want to keep safe. I am equal to the rest of my teammates, and Robin would go to the end of the world if it meant to keep all of us safe. I honestly don't know how he did it, but it brought the team together."
"How?"
She looked away "After all that time we spent together, Robin showed a side of him that none of us knew, and he trusts us, as his family. Keeping these feelings hidden would've just made it worse in the long run. A lot of people tried to take advantage of them when we weren't yet together."
"Things haven't changed that much at least." Superboy replied silently.
Starfire looked at him. "Do you ask me this because of M'gann?"
Superboy tensed up, and Starfire noticed immediately.
"N-no, why?" He couldn't stop stuttering no matter how much he wanted to.
"I was just merely curious." Starfire stated, closing her eyes, as if absorbing the moonlight. A sly smile appeared on her mouth, knowing she was right.
How did she even know so much? She just met him a few days ago, how much did she even knew? Maybe it was too obvious, so he took the chance and asked her, knowing that what he said wouldn't be known by any of his teammates.
"Truth is." He looked at her. "Maybe I did. But I don't want to tell her. What if she's hurt because of me? I don't want her to be hurt because of me. What if I can't.."
"Protect her?" Starfire finished off.
He sat still.
"Superboy, if you do feel like this towards M'gann you should tell her, so that she knows. If you're truly worried about her, you should know that she is able take care of herself." She opened her eyes and turned her face back to him.
"I know she can. I just don't want her to be one of my weaknesses." Superboy sighed.
"Any teammate is a weakness." Starfire replied. "You should tell her."
Superboy cupped his head on his palms. "How are you so sure she likes me back?"
Starfire smiled in the darkness. "I used to say that to myself all the time." She positioned her arms behind her, leaning on them and looking at the sky.
Superboy looked at the alien beside him, who was gazing at the dark night that lighted up with stars glittering over the ocean.
"How did you found out the truth?" He asked.
Starfire tried to remember the words Robin spoke in Tokyo, and it was easy to do. "We became more than just super heroes, more than just team mates." She looked at him. "That's how I found out. If you're always scared about what might happen it's because you keep thinking that things are going to go wrong."
"It wasn't easy though." She said. "Robin had a very dark time. Slade was his number one priority, and even when he was defeated, it still haunted him. He gave his back to us, became his apprentice."
Superboys tried and conceal his surprise, but it was something difficult to digest. The fact that he willingly became the apprentice of the sick-minded person who was doing all of this.
"Wow. I am sure all of you were disappointed in him."
"We sure were. We were close to giving up on him at one point. He just wouldn't listen to any of us, because he was so into the thought that he was protecting us, when he pushed us away. We almost lost him once." She shuddered at the memory.
Superboy looked at her expressionless. He could see the sadness in her eyes. No one should go through seeing a teammate suffer, especially when there are such strong feelings in between.
"Thankfully he got through it, and so did we."
Superboy nodded softly, trying to imagine the situation.
"I shall go to sleep, it is really late." Star stood up carefully and hovered over the ground for a second. She broke through Super boy's thoughts for a moment.
"Good night then." He kept his face expressionless, and then turned around.
"Hey! Uh Starfire?" She turned around quickly and smiled.
"Thanks." He half smiled.
"You are welcome." She said silently, loud enough for him to hear.
Who knew a girl he met just about 48 hours ago would know so much. He was grateful to have clear what had to be done, and with that beautiful thought he got up and walked into the tower, crawled on his bed and fell into a dream-less slumber.
I have this headcannon in which Star and Beast boy have the cutest friendship ever and they both have shirts of each other, don't judge.
Sooooooo basically I'm trying to build friendships in between the two teams and this is just the tip of the iceberg, also trying to figure out what to do with all that timey wimey stuff, since whenever I see or read something time traveling related, it always end up with someone tampering their storyline and doing something stupid (I am definitely talking about Rose trying to save her father in .) and then getting everyone to disappear. So yeah I got a lot of thinking to do, but for now, lets keep enjoying the fact that I am uploading so much in one day, yay!
