Chapter Fifty: Asking Nicely
The next morning, Robin brought up a touchy subject during breakfast.
"Bruce told me he has a new student. A guy named Jase," he mentioned.
Em and Starfire had both just taken drinks of their orange juice. They choked into their glasses. The other Titans stared.
Em stood up quickly. "Hey, uh, I just remembered that I have to do that… um… thing," she said vaguely, trying to make something up and failing miserably. "I'll see you guys later. Thanks for breakfast!" She rushed from the room.
Everyone turned to Starfire. "I believe I must… go as well!" she said hurriedly. She flew from the room at top speed.
"That wasn't weird," Raven said sarcastically, returning to her tea.
Robin got up and followed Starfire. He found her sitting on the roof, staring distractedly out at the water.
"What was that all about?" he asked, sitting down next to her.
"I cannot tell you," Starfire mumbled, avoiding his eyes.
Robin smiled a little, raising an eyebrow. "You can't? Not even if I asked nicely?" he said quietly, smiling mischievously and leaning toward her.
Starfire laughed, trying and failing to sound exasperated. She leaned back slightly and placed her fingers on his lips. "Not even if you asked nicely," she replied, smiling in spite of herself.
Robin laughed with her. "We promised that we wouldn't keep secrets from each other," he mumbled past her fingers.
"It is not my secret to give," Starfire replied, still laughing. She finally had to resort to holding Robin back by his hair.
Robin reached forward and started tickling her. Starfire shrieked and let go of his hair, laughing harder as he tackled her to the roof and continued tickling her.
"No no stop!" she shouted between laughs.
"Okay," Robin replied with a grin. He stopped tickling her, but instead he leaned down toward her again. They were inches apart when the roof access door opened. They both looked over quickly.
"Hey guys I- whoa!" Em saw Robin practically on top of Starfire and turned sideways, holding her arm up in front of her eyes. "Sorry, I um… didn't mean to, eh, interrupt. I'll just, um, go now." She walked back down the stairs quickly.
Robin and Starfire looked at each other and laughed. Robin leaned back down, but Starfire stopped him with her hand again.
"I am still not going to tell you," she said quietly.
Robin smiled. "I know."
Robin and Starfire didn't come back downstairs until lunch. Em was careful to keep from smirking at them. It was oddly quiet at the table. Robin finally found the courage to ask.
"So, what exactly happened at breakfast?" he looked pointedly at Em.
Em scowled at him. "Well aren't we Mr. One-track-mind today," she grumbled.
"If there's something about Jase you think we should know…" Robin continued.
Em sighed, sounding frustrated. "And if I don't think you should know?" she asked dully.
"You'll tell us anyway," Robin replied.
"Fine!" she groaned. "This might take awhile though, so if you have any plans-"
"We don't. Now talk," Robin cut in.
Em sighed again. She proceeded to tell them the whole story, starting with the kiss. She admitted that she told Starfire about it and nobody else. They didn't seem to mind, thankfully. Em finished nearly an hour later with the party.
"So, when you brought it up this morning, I didn't know what to say," Em said. "Oh yeah, and then I saw you and Star making out on the roof."
Robin and Starfire both blushed. Beast Boy and Cyborg hastily turned their laughs into hacking coughs.
"Did we really need to know that?" Raven asked, though she was smirking as well.
