Chapter 26: With a Little Help From Our Friends

"Friend Beast Boy," Starfire called, floating outside the Boys' tent. "Will you be joining us for the mid-day meal?"

"Just five more minutes…" came Beast Boy's muffled voice. Then an "eep!" "Starfire?" he squeaked. "N…No! I'm not hungry!"

Robin strode over and shook one of the tent's supports. "Get up, Beast Boy. We need to talk strategy." He turned to Starfire, smiled, and brushed a kiss against her cheek before heading back towards the table. Starfire giggled happily.

"Oh…all right," Beast Boy groused, still not sounding like it was a good idea. He emerged from the tent, rubbing a discolored spot on his jaw.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire cried. "What has happened to your mandible?"

"I ran into..." he trailed off, the words "Robin's fist" dying unformed as he caught sight of his leader staring him down. "...a...tree...while I was tracking the creature last night," he finished.

"You must be more careful!" Starfire admonished. "Perhaps Friend Raven will heal the contusion for you?"

"He'll be fine," Raven droned, waving her hand but not looking up. Robin noticed her hand didn't change color, either, and remembered that Raven usually touched her patients when she was healing them.

The team gathered around the table as Cyborg distributed the foil packets. "Hey! This has meat in it!" Beast Boy complained as he opened his.

"Oh, my apologies, Beast Boy," Starfire said. "I did prepare a meal with no animal flesh in it just for you, but I must have gotten them confused." She snatched the packet in front of Raven and plunked it in front of Beast Boy.

"Sweet! Star, you're the best." A beat. "Wait…you cooked?"

"I cooked," Cyborg broke in, poking himself in the chest with his thumb. "She just helped dice stuff up."

"Oh. Sweet!" he repeated. "And Star?" He looked up at her, his eyes kitten-like even in his human form. "I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you. I didn't mean anything by it."

"You are forgiven, Beast Boy," Starfire smiled softly. "Cyborg has explained that you were attempting to make the funny again. Perhaps you simply require more practice."

Cyborg choked on a potato and pounded on the table. Robin had to put both of his green-gloved hands over his mouth to keep himself from laughing loud enough to be heard in Steel City. Raven's eyes twinkled merrily.

"It wasn't that funny, guys," Beast Boy protested.

"Yes it was!" Cyborg countered, still pounding the table.

"She zinged you good," Robin said, laughter evident in his voice.

"But… I was not attempting to be humorous," Starfire said, looking confused.

"Sometimes an astute observation is funnier than any joke," Raven explained.

"Oh! My apologies, Beast Boy," Starfire cried, suddenly sounding very worried. "It was not my intention…"

"No, it's okay, Star," Beast Boy soothed. "I guess I dish it out so much, I should be able to take it too." He smiled sheepishly at her, and she returned it. Robin threw a look at Cyborg, who was still chuckling and wiping his eye. Cyborg caught sight of it, immediately settled down and began poking at his food again, looking somewhat ashamed.

"Now that we're all friends again," Raven broke the somewhat embarrassed quiet after a moment, "Robin, what's our next move?"

"Right," Robin said, clearing his throat. "I've been looking at the data, and Raven's pointed out some things, and…I think we need a new plan."

"Does this one involve more sleep?" Beast Boy asked around a yawn.

"Maybe," Robin replied. He blew out a breath, suddenly nervous. "While I think Beast Boy's discovery is going to be a valuable tool, the evidence seems to point toward…" He trailed off, searching for words. "It looks like the creature…." He tried again, failing as his modesty got the better of him.

"What Loverboy's trying to say," Raven broke in, saving him from himself, "is that the creature only seems to appear when he and Starfire are together."

The Titans looked at each other, considering that. Starfire's brows knit and she bit her lip, betraying her fear and worry. Robin reached out and took her hand.

"That seems to be pretty much true," Cyborg noted, his mechanical eye flickering the way it did when he was accessing his electronic memory. "Except for one big exception: the time we captured the thing. Robin and I were in the Evidence Room when that alarm went off."

Raven's eyes went dark for a moment. "I was with Starfire. We were talking about Robin."

The color in Starfire's cheeks rose as the worry on her face etched itself deeper. Robin squeezed her hand.

Cyborg nodded. "So how do we use this to our advantage?" he asked.

Robin heaved a breath and squared his shoulders, doing his best to resume his Team Leader mode. "Starfire and I are going to go back to the Tower. Hopefully our being alone will be enough to bring the creature out into the open long enough for it to be re-captured."

At that, Starfire burst from her chair, dropping Robin's hand and shooting several feet off the ground, her hands balling into fists and her eyes beginning to glow. "No!" she cried. "I will not abandon my friends to this creature! It is too dangerous. It has harmed me, and was the cause of Robin's injuries. I will not allow you to face it alone! Not when it is my fault!"

Four sets of hands were instantly reaching for her, pulling at her arms and hands, drawing her back to the ground. A chorus of "No!" and "It's not your fault!" and "Don't think that!" was heard.

"How is it not my fault?" Starfire demanded. "It spoke to me in my native tongue. It seems to react to my emotions. If I had not…" She stopped, choking back a sob. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to comfort herself and disappear in the same gesture.

"If you hadn't what? Fallen in love with Robin?" Raven questioned. She pushed her cowl off her head and placed her hand on her alien friend's arm. "Starfire…love is a very difficult emotion to control. And you being you…and Robin being Robin…" She looked between them. "I don't think either of you had a chance."

Starfire sniffed. "Perhaps. But if I had merely…"

"What?" Cyborg came to her side. "Denied it? Pretended it didn't matter? Or that it would have been a mistake? Nuh-uh." He shook his head emphatically. "Then we would have had two of you moping around the Tower. Robin was more than enough. Believe me, we've all been happier since the two of you got together."

Starfire favored her mechanical friend with a watery smile, but then pressed her lips together and was about to protest again when Robin stepped in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her square in the eyes. "You don't really regret falling in love with me, do you." It wasn't a question; it was a reminder.

"No, of course not. You make me feel…glorious." Starfire was starting to sound a bit defeated, but she raised her chin and set her jaw. "But I will not leave our friends to face this creature alone. Especially if I am the cause of these troubles." Her resolve faltered, and she squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head, holding back her tears.

"Hey," Robin crooked a finger under her chin, lifting her face again. "Look at me." She reluctantly opened her eyes. "First of all," he continued, "this is not your fault. What happened, happened. And I wouldn't change a minute of it. Except maybe the part where you got hurt, but other than that…" he shook his head to finish his sentence. "And secondly, I don't want to leave our friends alone either. So, we're not going to. We're going to call in Titans East."

"Oh, Robin!" Starfire collapsed into his arms, sobbing her mixture of doubt and relief into the crook of his neck. Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy watched as Robin wrapped his arms around her and caressed her back as he whispered, "It's okay, it's okay," into her ear. The three looked at each other. After a few minutes of awkwardness, Raven pulled up her cowl and was about to turn away when Starfire raised her head and sniffled loudly. "This is truly not my fault?" she asked meekly.

Robin shook his head, gently wiping tears from her cheeks. "It's not like you wanted this to happen."

"And you would truly not change anything that has happened between us?"

"Well…I maybe would have admitted how I felt sooner." Robin smiled sheepishly.

Starfire's face broke into an incandescent smile, and she reached in and kissed him firmly. The rest of the team looked on as Robin tightened his arms around her, pulling her closer. They glanced at each other uncomfortably.

"A-HEM!" Cyborg piped up.

"Dudes!" Beast Boy squeaked. "You're gonna wake up the monster!"

Starfire sprang away from Robin, gasping as both her hands flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with fear and shame.

Robin reached after her, but his hand fell back to his side after a moment. "Starfire…" He sounded almost mournful.

"I hate to admit it, but Beast Boy's right," Raven said, voicing what they were all thinking. "You two are just going to have to stay away from each other, at least until Titans East gets here."

The clearing grew quiet as the young couple stood staring at each other, suddenly unable to close the gap between them, something only one step would have done. "I'm sorry," Robin told her, really sounding mournful this time.

"No," Starfire shook her head, her hands falling to her sides. "It is for the best." She didn't look very happy about it, though.

"C'mon, Rob," Cyborg said softly, comfort in his voice, "tell us about the rest of your plan."

It took Robin a moment to tear his eyes from Starfire's, and when he finally managed to, his face was a mask of frustration. "Well," he began, settling back into his chair, "like I said, we'll call Titans East and Starfire and I will go back to the Tower. At that point, I'm going to turn the mission over to you, Cyborg. My suggestion is to have at least, four, if not six of you, on a shift, and to mix the shifts up. No reason not to get some teamwork practice in while they're here. But, if you can come up with something better, go for it. My ideas obviously haven't been working." He crossed his arms in aggravation.

"Robin…" Starfire automatically reached out to comfort him, but her hand stopped halfway across the table, clenched into a fist, and withdrew. Her shoulders fell, defeated. He looked up at her and pasted a thin smile on his face, half out of thanks, half out of trying to placate her.

"I think this will work out for the best," Robin went on after a moment of sulking. "There will be three more sets of eyes and hands here than there are now, which will allow for everyone to rest more, and there will be somebody to keep an eye on the city. We've been away too long."

"And you two get to make out!" Beast Boy pointed out cheekily.

"There's that too," Robin replied matter-of-factly, defusing Beast Boy's tease. "And there's one more thing." He swept his gaze around to all of his teammates. "I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: no one other than the five of us finds out that Starfire and I are anything other than friends and teammates. It's not that I don't trust Titans East, but the more people that know, the greater the chance the wrong person will find out. So, as far as they're concerned, we're going back to the Tower to monitor the city. Period."

"Don't worry, Robin," Raven said. "I'll make sure nothing gets said." She glared at Cyborg and Beast Boy menacingly.

Robin quirked a smile. "Thanks, Raven." He turned to Cyborg. "Why don't you give Bumblebee a call, see when they can get here?"

Cyborg nodded and tapped his arm. "Cyborg calling Titans East. Yo, Bee, where you at?"

Bumblebee appeared on Cyborg's communicator screen. "Hey, Sparky! Long time no see! You never call, you never write…"

"Yeah, I could say the same for you."

Bumblebee's image shrugged. "What can I do for ya?"

"How would Titans East like to join us for a camping trip?"

Bumblebee raised an eyebrow. "A camping trip? We won't have to eat tofu dogs, will we? Aqualad's starting to take a shine to that stuff, and the rest of us are already sick of it."

Cyborg chuckled. "No, no tofu. Our hot dogs are all beef."

Robin and Raven exchanged a smirk at the innuendo. Beast Boy, however, missed it, as he was too busy protesting: "Hey! You said some of those dogs were tofu!"

Bumblebee laughed. "Hey, BB!" she called.

"Hey, Bee!" Beast Boy pushed himself in front of Cyborg. "Aqualad really likes tofu now?" Cyborg scowled and shoved Beast Boy out of the way.

"So, what do ya say?" Cyborg asked.

"Sounds great!" Bumblebee chirped before turning skeptical. "What's the catch?"

"Catch?" Cyborg feigned insult. "Who said there had to be a catch? Maybe we just want to spend some quality time with our fellow Titans."

"Uh-huh. It's more likely that Robin has some new technique he wants us all to learn."

"Actually…." Robin raised a finger. Raven glared at him. "Later," he conceded, putting his hand back on the table.

"Well, no," Cyborg told her, his boisterous energy fading a bit. "The truth is, we need your help."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. There's this creature that's been stalking the woods near town here for quite some time. We've been tracking the thing off and on for months, had a couple of nasty run-ins with it," he glanced up at Robin and Starfire, "but we keep coming out on the short end with it. It's big, it's hairy, it's got some nasty claws, it can fly, and it doesn't exist entirely in this dimension."

Bumblebee made a face.

"Exactly," Cyborg agreed with her grimace. "We think we've figured out a better way to track it, but we're bettin' that a little help from our friends might be just the thing to finally capture it for good."

"Well…when you put it that way…" Bumblebee teased.

"Tell Aqualad there's a river near here," Cyborg added, hoping to sweeten the pot.

Bumblebee grinned cheekily. "As long as Aqualad's happy, we're in."

"Well, alright!" Cyborg crowed. "When can you get here?"

"It's been pretty quiet lately, but if we're going to be away, I'd like to do a visible patrol of the city, just to let the bad guys think we're watching, even if we aren't. How's tomorrow afternoon sound?"

Cyborg glanced up at Robin, who gave a short nod. "Sounds good. We should be able to hold things till then."

"You need us to bring anything?"

"FOOD!" All five Titans bellowed at the same time.

Bumblebee laughed her surprise. "Oooookay…"

Cyborg chuckled. "We've been out here over a week. We're getting a little low on supplies. So yeah, some food would be great. And probably gear for your team: tents, sleeping bags, that kind of stuff. I think we'd be kind of cramped with just our stuff."

Bumblebee's image nodded. "You got it, Sparky. Anything else we need to know?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Nah, we'll go over the little details once you get here. See ya'll tomorrow!"

Bumblebee winked and broke the transmission.

"All right," Robin said as Cyborg lowered his arm. "In the meantime, we've got sensors to reset. Cyborg, Sta…" He broke off, realizing what he was about to say. He looked up at Starfire, who frowned and looked away. "Raven," he corrected himself. "You're with me." He cleared his throat, fighting his embarrassment again. "And uh…since we're pretty sure that if Star and I aren't together that nothing will happen, Beast Boy, you and Star head back to the Tower and get some supplies for the next day or two – no tofu!"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "If you insist."

Starfire rose from her chair. "We shall return in a few hours," she said to no one in particular.

"Keep your communicators on," Robin said.

Starfire nodded and flew off, Beast Boy, changed into an eagle, following closely behind.

Robin watched them disappear behind the tree line. "She's mad at me," he noted absently.

"No she's not," Raven told him. "She's frustrated with the situation. Wait till tomorrow; I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Yeah, man," Cyborg put in. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Imagine how happy she'll be once she can touch you again!" He waggled his eyebrow.

Robin sneered at him, but Cyborg just laughed. "C'mon," Robin said, pushing himself to his feet. "We've got sensors to reset."

Didn't think I'd ever get to the end of this one. This was truly an exercise in editing; I've rewritten parts of it three times. I'm still not sure I'm entirely happy with all of it, but it is soooo time to move on. Write lots of constructive reviews; maybe my muse can whip herself back into shape so the next one gets up faster!