(A/N)- Woot woot! New chapter! Cyborg-centric this round.

Part of my motivation for writing this one was basically because I hate it when writers/ficcers devalue the previous relationships of a character. Shippers tend to do this a lot; if before dating Character C Character A was previously involved with Character B, they'll dismiss it as puppy love, or hormones, or lust, or not real love, and just basically try to make it *not as important* as the PURE AND HOLY ONE TRUE LOVE BETWEEN A AND C. As if somehow the previous A/B relationship taints the purity of A/C or whatever. Yeah, that's not cool shippers. Don't do that.

So basically I wanted to write Cyborg being all mushy-sentimental remembering His Ladies and how each of them were and are all important to him and stuff. Because Cyborg/Jinx was cute while it lasted and Cyborg/Sarasim was epic and awesome and NNGGGGH HE LOVED HER SO, SO MUCH YOU GUYS and Cyborg/Sarah is adorable and canon and I couldn't hate on any of the three ships if I tried. I'm a romantic sap, sue me.

Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans... let's be honest I would probably write this into one of the episodes. Because Cyborg is such a big softie.


Girlfriends Past and Present

Someone was rapping lightly on the doorframe to his room. Cyborg looked up from his book, and turned around in his seat to find Raven standing in the open doorway, silhouetted in the light from the hall.

"Am I interrupting anything important?" she asked.

"Sort of?" Cyborg replied, grimacing uncertainly. "Reaching a really bad cliff-hanger in the middle of the climax counts as important, right?"

"Fair point," she conceded. She leaned against the frame, crossing her arms. "At any rate, your girlfriend's here."

Cyborg got up from his seat. "Well now that's different," he said, a dopey grin appearing on his face.

"I figured," Raven quipped back dryly, turning back to the hall. "You'll be pleased to know, Sarah, that your boyfriend has his priorities straight," she called to someone out of sight.

The familiar laughter of his girlfriend sounded and then Sarah herself appeared in the doorway. "That's good to hear," she said, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

He stepped up to her, placing his hands on her upper arms and leaning down for a kiss. "Hey beautiful," he cooed as he pulled back.

"I'll just be off then," came Raven's voice. The empath smirked as she headed off. "Have fun you two."

Cyborg watched her leave for a brief moment, and then faced Sarah with a smile. "So… to what do I owe this unexpected-but-very-welcome pleasure?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just thought it would be nice to hang out today."

"All right," Cyborg said, moving back towards his bench. "Just let me put away a few things and then we'll hit the city."

"Okay."

Cyborg gathered up his book, diagnostic pads, and several game cartridges on the table and bustled to the various corners of the room putting them away. He made sure his bookmark was securely holding his place as he slid the novel back into his bookshelf. Captain Solomon and his intrepid crew of adventurers would wait until later. He stacked the game cartridges on top of the line of books, brushed the dust off his hands, and turned around.

Sarah was hovering near the shelf in the right corner of his room, closest to the door. She stood with her hands clasped quietly behind her, gazing over the assortment of photographs and mementos. A few trophies from his high school years. An album with news clippings of his favorite Titan battles. And a short row of framed pictures, of him and all the women he'd loved. (Or dated at least.) He glanced down the row of photos. His first girlfriend, Katie, at the sophomore homecoming game. Him and Jinx at the HIVE's Sadie Hawkins dance. Cyborg watched from across the room as his current romantic partner looked quizzically at the pictures, feeling slightly awkward. Would she react badly to him keeping reminders of his previous relationships?

She didn't seem to mind. She picked up the photo with Jinx and giggled.

"What are you wearing?" she asked.

He ducked his head sheepishly as he came over to hold the picture frame with her. "Ah that…" he explained, embarrassed and nostalgic. "I had to borrow that. Didn't exactly bring formalwear with me when I went undercover." At her inquisitive look, he elaborated. "This was taken during my investigation of HIVE Academy-it's kind of like a high school for villains. That's Jinx. She and I kinda… crushed on each other a little during my brief stay," he admitted.

"I remember," Sarah told him. "She was the one who broke up our Valentine's date that one time."

"Ugh. Don't remind me," Cyborg said, burying his face in his hands.

She touched a hand to his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We got back together."

He made a disconcerted, unsure grumble. "Yeah, but that was still the worst Valentine's Day ever."

Sarah screwed up the side of her mouth. "No argument there." Changing the subject, she pointed up at one of the clippings pinned to the wall above the shelf. "So does it ever get awkward between you two now that she's a Titan?"

Cyborg set the picture of him and Jinx down. "Not really," he admitted. "At least not since she started dating Kid Flash. She does like to bring it up on occasion though, to tease him and poke fun of me. And to troll the other Titans," he added, making a chagrined face. "Mostly with fabricated and salacious stories about making out in the broom closets at HIVE Academy."

Sarah let out a bright peal of laughter, and then quickly covered her mouth at Cyborg's ruffled expression. "Sorry," she said through her fingers. "I was just imagining Jinx at a table sipping her drink and casually telling a roomful of Titans all sorts of fake lurid X-rated things about your relationship."

"Led to some pretty embarrassing interrogations from Robin I'll tell you that." He glanced from side to side as if checking for unwanted listeners and then leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "In reality we never made it out of the crush stage and couldn't have been more awkward dorks about the whole thing. Jinx doesn't want anyone to know."

She giggled, then turned her attention to another picture in the row.

"And… who's this one?"

His eyes flitted to the framed photocopy of the illustration from Raven's book, and Cyborg's heart gave a pang.

"Sarasim."

His voice strained with emotion as he said her name. He had only known her a few days-such a short time really-but his heart still ached when he thought of her, remembered her warm smile and dark hair, and the fierce light that came into her eyes during battle. He remembered his desire to protect her… and how he'd never gotten to say goodbye.

He had loved her, if only for a brief time.

Sarah seemed to guess that the topic was a sensitive one, and so only commented lightly, "She's pretty."

"Yeah…" Cyborg murmured absently. He shook his head, coming back to the present, and said, "Yeah, uh… I knew her for a short while a year back or so. She and I hit it off pretty well."

"Is there an explanation for the Conan-wear?" asked Sarah, raising a curious eyebrow. "Was she an actress or something?"

"Uh, no, she was actually the leader of a primitive warrior clan in 3000 B.C." At Sarah's baffled look he added quickly, "It involves a cackling subversive witch using magical time travel to call me out of the future because the village's main egotistical jerk wanted to be the best champion around. It's a long story."

"You'll have to tell it to me sometime," Sarah quipped, turning back to the shelf.

The next couple pictures on the row were all dedicated to her. There was a picture of her and Cyborg at the carnival on the pier. One of her and Cyborg dressed up for Halloween. One of her standing at a railing overlooking the bay with a hand over her face as if she was embarrassed to be having her picture taken, and right next to it a similar shot, only with her properly smiling into the camera this time. Something behind the photos caught her attention and she squealed excitedly.

"Aww! You kept it!" she gushed, picking up a crude construction-paper drawing one of her daycare children had done. Squiggly crayon depictions of her and Cyborg-with matching big smiles-held fingerless hands under a lopsided rainbow.

Cyborg grinned. "'course. It's one of the best pictures of us I have." The smile faded from his face and he asked her anxiously, "You don't think all this is weird do you?" He waved a hand to indicate the picture-row of previous and current girlfriends.

"I think it's sweet," she told him honestly, setting the crayon-drawing back down.

Relieved, Cyborg took her hands. "That's good," he said. He looked into her eyes with a sincere expression. "I don't want you to think these pictures are about conquests or trophies or anything like that. All these girls… meant something to me," he told her. "And you mean something to me." He ducked his head, bashful. "You mean a lot to me," he amended. "Even if we break up, I'll remember you very fondly." After a moment, he added, "Not that I'm planning on breaking up with you anytime soon."

"That's good to know." Sarah giggled, taking his wrist and tugging him towards the door. "So are we going to stand around all day?"

He intertwined their fingers with a smile and led her out into the hall. "Let's go make some more memories," he said.

He flicked the light switch off as he passed, dimming the room until the only illumination was the light from the hallway, glinting white off the glass and picture frames.


(A/N)- There you go readers, short and sweet.

The Valentine's Day bit Sarah mentions is a reference to an issue of TTG, wherein Starfire acts as cupid for Cyborg and Sarah and sets them up on a date and Jinx gets huffy and jealous about it. Fun issue.

And URGH this site is phenomenally frustrating. Almost worried I couldn't update at all.