Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. Yet. –insert evil cackle here-
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Beast Boy threw down the controller. "Dang it, where is that girl? I swear, if she screwed up her hair, she is SO dead."
"What girl?" Raven asked vaguely, flipping a page in her book.
"Who d'you think? STARFIRE!"
Raven looked up. "Didn't you know? She said she was going back to the mall to get her nails done."
Beast Boy's face paled. "No! No, she can't! She's going to completely overdue the green and look like a freakin' Christmas tree!"
"Yo, BB, relax," Cyborg said. "That's MY game controller. And if Star screws herself up, who cares? We know Robin won't mind." He winked.
"I MIND! D'YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SPENT ON HER THIS AFTERNOON?!?!"
"Do you know who volunteered you to be the Teen Titans Date Fashion Consultant?" Raven asked.
Beast Boy murmured something incomprehensible, but apparently Raven took it as an "I did". "Exactly."
Cyborg looked around. "Hey, where is Robin?"
"Probably getting ready," Raven said dismissively, returning to her book.
Beast Boy's eyes lit up, all thoughts of Starfire gone. "I've got to help him get ready!" He rushed out of the room.
Cyborg stared after him. He looked down at the game controller that Beast Boy left behind and shrugged. "I win!"
--
Starfire was surprised Robert didn't drop their tray; he seemed to be bouncing with such joy. She was, however, eternally grateful to not have to answer Aqualad's question—at least, for the moment.
"Why me?" Aqualad murmured, quiet enough for Robert not to hear. Starfire giggled.
"Aight, we've got a Triple Cheese Pizza for the lady…" Robert handed Starfire her pizza, which could easily be seen it had just come out of the oven. "…and a steak for the fish."
Aqualad bit his lower lip very tightly. His steak was still very pink, and Starfire had serious doubts that it had actually come from a cow. It looked stone cold, and even slightly frozen. "It looks lovely," he said in a very strained voice.
"Good! I'm so happy we're all satisfied!" Robert said cheerfully. "May I get you anything else?"
"No, I think you've done enough damage here," Aqualad said quietly, dangerously.
"So glad I could be of service!" Robert said. He looked at Starfire. "Oh, and the chef would like to see the lady in the back to inquire of her unusual tastes."
Starfire thought nothing of it and stood, already heading to the back.
Aqualad grabbed her arm. "Wait, I think I should come too."
"Oh, relax!" Robert said, forcing him to let her go. "Don't you want to try your 'lovely' steak?"
Robert had zoomed her off before Aqualad could protest anymore.
Starfire was led into the enormous kitchen where steam was protruding from every pot; fires were burning all around, and tons of chefs worked around the clock.
"Which chef am I to see?" Starfire inquired curiously.
"This one." Robert stepped in front of her.
"Robert! I did not know you chefed as well as waited the tables!" Starfire said.
"I don't," Robert said. "Now listen carefully." He leaned in towards her, and Starfire leaned forward as well. "I slipped a piece of paper underneath your pizza. Don't let fish boy see it or my butt is toast. On the paper, there's a phone number. Gimme a ring sometime, aight?"
"Why need I call you?" Starfire asked. "I shall not be seeing you very often, and shall doubtfully require your assistance for anything."
Robert smiled. "We should see each other more often. Get together sometime. Gimme a ring and that's exactly what we'll do."
Starfire's eyes lit up as she understood. "New friend!" She gave him one of the huge hugs she was known for. "I shall tell everyone about you; they will be so happy to meet you!"
"Yeah," Robert said in a stifled voice, trying not to choke. "Sounds fun."
Starfire released him and beamed. "I cannot wait to share!"
"Yeah, tell whoever you want, just don't tell fish boy out there."
Starfire looked at him for a moment, puzzled. "Why do you call him boy of fish?"
Robert rolled his eyes. "C'mon, he'll be waiting for you. Don't tell him anything about our conversation just now. Tell him… the chef asked why you liked mustard for a drink." Robert paused. "Why do you like mustard for a drink?"
Starfire giggled. "Aqualad is waiting!" She skipped out, a huge smile on her face. She made a new friend!
"What happened? What did he do? Why are you smiling? Why are you skipping? What's going on? Tell me everything!"
"Friend, do not worry," Starfire said. She thought back to Robert's words. "The chef asked why I liked mustard for a drink."
"Really?"
Starfire stopped. She didn't want to lie to him. There was a slight pause. "Yes."
Aqualad sighed in relief. "Good. I was… worried. Something else."
Starfire looked at him in confusion, then shrugged it off and looked down at her pizza, which was still slightly steaming. She glanced over to Aqualad's steak, but it was gone. "Where is your food?"
Aqualad suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "I… erm… well… clearly… I… ate it."
Starfire looked at him in surprise. "Was it good?"
Aqualad's face flushed slightly as he glanced under the table. "Lovely."
Starfire looked at him, slightly lost again. She was about to look under the table when Aqualad stopped her.
"No. There's nothing under the table, Starfire, no need to look." He gave a smile followed by a sweat drop.
"You are… certain everything is all right?" Starfire asked.
"Everything is fantastic," Aqualad said. "Go on, eat your pizza."
Starfire felt very awkward eating in front of him when he had nothing to eat. Therefore, when his stomach rumbled, she smiled and offered him her last piece of pizza. When he rejected it, she insisted he take it. They exchanged a smile and finished off the meal with little interjection from Robert, who seemed to have met his goal in life and was content to stay away for the moment.
"Are we all finished here?" It was only his second time checking on them, a rather surprising improvement from the way he had been earlier.
"Unfortunately, I think so," Aqualad said, finishing off his sprite.
"Yes, I believe we are done," Starfire said, scrunching up the piece of paper tighter in her hand. It had been a difficult task to get it before Aqualad noticed it was there, but she believed she had done it. The only problem now was that she was unsure she could read it through the pizza sauce that had spattered all over it.
"Well, I hope you enjoyed your meal. Would you like to pay up front or should I bring you your check? We have both here, it's really quite nice when you're mad at the customer or they're mad at… the food and—"
"We'll pay up front," Aqualad said testily.
Robert looked highly put out again. He suddenly brightened and waved as they left. "Well, please come back and visit us! I hope to see you again very soon!"
"Not if your life depended on it," Aqualad muttered.
Starfire smiled. "You should not be so difficult on him. He is probably still very new to this." Starfire then remembered that he had not behaved in such a manner when she was here with Mark. Perhaps Mark looked more like a threat than Aqualad did, and so he had watched himself more carefully.
As Aqualad paid for the meal, which took a lot longer than Starfire had anticipated (there seemed to be some dispute going on over the steak), Starfire looked outside. It was a very high part of town, where everything looked like it cost a fortune. She could see a bar across the street where people were erupting from it, looking as though they had just had ten glasses of gorglenum. There were several other nice restaurants on the block, but Starfire guessed this one to be most elegant. People walked and, Starfire was surprised to see, even crawled around the place, laughing, talking, and yelling in very angry tones. Lights sometimes blinded her, depending on where she looked, as they shone out like the sun against the pitch-black sky.
The sky, it was dark, it was late.
Starfire desperately looked around for a clock. There was a large one with a golden rim around it that read a quarter past eight. Starfire nearly jumped. She had expected the date to take a while, but had not estimated it to take this long. It seemed to have gone by so swiftly, too!
"Aqualad?" Starfire asked urgently.
"Fine," Aqualad said irritably to the woman at the cashier. He turned to Starfire. "What's wrong?"
"It is fifteen after the eight!" Starfire said.
"That still gives you forty-five minutes," Aqualad said, uncertain of her cause for alarm. "You said nine, right?"
"Yes, but the sooner I return, the less likely they will have noticed I am missing," Starfire said.
Aqualad considered this in disappointment as he realized she was right. "Of course. Let's get you home."
They walked out and into the crowded streets. Starfire wanted to fly, to hurry home and greet Robin—and the other Titans, of course!—but she knew it would be impolite to leave Aqualad so quickly, and she should not force their goodbyes.
The people around them stared as they passed by, plenty of them drunk, staring at their fancy attire. The girls cooed as Aqualad passed, and many men goggled as Starfire walked by.
"Hi," one of the braver girls said as she walked up.
"Hey, sweetie," one of the less intelligent men greeted.
The girl grabbed Aqualad's hand and tried to pull him away, but he resisted her. The man kissed Starfire's hand, then picked her up and began carrying her away.
"STARFIRE!" Aqualad yelled as he began racing towards the man.
"Hey, come back!" A crowd of girls overtook Aqualad, and he vanished from Starfire's sight.
"Put me down now, please!" Starfire begged.
"Aw, c'mon!" The man held her tighter to his chest. "Let's play!"
"I do not wish to play, I wish to return home!"
"Oh, you'll go home all right."
Several men snickered.
"Me first!"
"No, me!"
"Well I'm going second!"
Starfire stared, slightly frightened. What were they all volunteering to be first for? Starfire looked back up at the man who held her tightly in his grasp. In his drunkenness, she realized he would not let her go.
Her decided destination, however, she knew would not be Titans Tower, and she would do anything to get there—even get rid of these men.
"I will go now," Starfire said, her eyes glowing green. "You will let me or I will have to force you."
"Ohoho!" the man said with raised eyebrows. "Is that a threat, little lady?"
Starfire didn't like to make threats, but—"Yes, it is."
"What are you going to do about it?" the man asked.
Starfire's entire body glowed a light green. "This." An energy blast erupted from her entire body, engulfing the men surrounding her. Starfire let her attack hang for a moment, and then stopped it as she fell on the hard cement.
Starfire looked around to find the entire army of men on the ground, unconscious. She turned to fly towards Titans Tower, but then stopped. She sighed and flew backwards, to where the girls had swallowed Aqualad whole.
Starfire turned the corner and stopped. The street, where it had been overcrowded and impossible to get through, was now nearly deserted, Aqualad's captors not in sight.
Starfire caught the conversation of a few sober men below her.
"… Yeah, eight thirty. So then the girl comes up to me and gives me some crap about 'it's not me, it's her'…."
It was eight thirty. It was only a crowd full of drunken women. Aqualad could save himself, or so Starfire tried to convince herself.
It was eight thirty, and she had a date in half an hour. Aqualad would have to wait.
Starfire flew back to the tower as fast as she could. Beast Boy's handiwork had already been destroyed; a little wind wouldn't do that much more damage. Robin would probably be waiting for her, and she still had so much work to do! Beast Boy would have a fit, and what excuse could she use to justify her current condition?
Starfire landed on the roof, slightly mystified at the silence that seemed to have come upon the tower. By some miracle, had they not noticed her absence, and was everything going along as normal?
"Starfire."
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A/N:
Yay! Another chappie done. I was going to wait to update, but I decided that I wanted to give you guys a Happy New Years! HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! I shall see you all at midnight, right? WATCH THE BALL! IT HAS MAGICAL POWERS!!!
Well, that's my philosophy. xD
DarkNight92- Glad you liked it. BB kinda got really caught up in the idea of helping Robin, so he forgot about Star and looking like a Christmas Tree. I had to, otherwise he'd go out looking for her and find out she was up to something. Couldn't have that. Robin doesn't discover Starfire went out on a date with Aqualad until chapter 14, actually. You'll have to wait for his reaction until then!
Babi3 A- You couldn't picture Star's outfit? Aww… well, use your imagination! It doesn't have to be what I said it was, make her outfit whatever you want.
Jen813- Hm… that would be a good theory, but Robin doesn't know Starfire went out on a date, remember? I should've used that, though… DANG IT! That was a good idea, though. I'm glad you liked her outfit better this time; I did too. Robert is a very interesting character, to say the least. He was very frightened of Red X, so he kept his distance, but he didn't see Aqualad as a threat, so he really hit on Star this time around. He's hard to figure out, to say the least.
Ebony Sorceress- -is hit with the TCPOJ- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! -runs and hides for fear of another beating with TCPOJ- But I love cliffy's! . I guess I'll just have to get beat when there's a good one.
StarfireRobin4ever- Robin will find out she went on a date with Aqualad, and it will cause quite the conflict. I'm not saying any more than that! I'm glad the fic has enough fluffyfulness for you, though.
D-I-WaRrIa- I'm glad you liked it, but as you see, it wasn't Star's boyfriend. She's already got enough guy's on her heels, she doesn't need more! x.x One day I might write a "Star's boyfriend returns" fic, but there's so many of those going around… so I dunno. What d'you think?
Next chapter! It's the one you've all been waiting for—let the Robin/Starfire date begin! Well, it begins very close to the end of the chapter, but close enough, right? BB is very upset about Starfire messing up her hair, and then he taunts Raven about make-up. With those two missing, it's up to Starfire to figure out how to use make-up! … Well that turned out well. Then Robin's surprising decision and their date! Which I end on. . But you'll see!
Thanks for reading everyone! HAPPY NEW YEARS! Don't forget to review!
Riles