Title: Red Handed
Word Count: 2,492
Some fluff and humor to make up for the fact that I had such bad writers block on this story for a while. Hope you enjoy!
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Finding time for dates over the next several months proved to be easier than the pair had initially anticipated. They benefited from the fact that they had previously appeared in public places as a duo given Starfire's excitement over all things Earth and the remainder of the team's unwillingness to indulge her bad shopping habit and general over-zealousness. Without a real change in public behavior, even the press began to lose interest. To the rest of the world they were still just Robin and Starfire – the strange, clueless alien, and the dense human male. While people may have their theories about romance, people had maintained those theories since long before they were secretly dating.
The other Titan's, however, were far less convinced of the pair's 'just friends' status. The teasing had faded, but the suspicion had not waned a bit.
Things came to a head one night after Robin and Starfire partook in an indoor camping date night in Robin's room. His driven nature had forced him to become more creative with their date ideas not simply accepting status quo of secret dinner and a movie as an acceptable normal (knowing still a public dinner and a movie night would bring far too much speculation so they stuck to museums and lunchtime activities for their public dates). Starfire was, without a doubt, the most exceptional being he'd ever met and he felt the need to show her that in ways where his words often faltered. He'd pulled out all the stops for this – a blanket tent, star projector, and even a Bunsen burner set up for roasting marshmallows which proved to be less effective than simply using Starfire's powers, but the effort had been there. The night had ended as most of their dates did now with them curled up contentedly on Robin's bed post make-out session.
Everything was fine until the crime alert sounded in the middle of the night. They'd talked about the protocol for how to handle such occasions; Robin would leave the room immediately and Starfire would wait several minutes to leave until all of the other Titans were likely already gathered.
What they failed to account for was Beast Boy.
The changeling often had issues waking up in the middle of the night and assembling, but Robin usually just left the crime alert blaring until Beast Boy begrudgingly stumbled into the communal area accepting sleep as a lost cause. Today it just so happened that his delay precisely matched Starfire's, and with Beast Boy's room only a few doors down from Robin's, it was very obvious which room Starfire was sneaking out of.
"Dude...!?" He exclaimed with a startled double blink.
"Friend Beast Boy," Starfire nervously stammered.
"I knew there was something going on between you two!" Beast Boy emphatically exclaimed.
"Um...Friend, I must ask that you please do not tell the others…" Starfire pleaded quietly.
"Awe, but Star, this is a good thing isn't it? You've been practically chasing him since you got to Earth."
"Robin is not comfortable with the others knowing." Starfire wrung her hands anxiously.
"Wasn't the whole 'no keeping secrets from the team' one of the biggest things he stressed when we started the Titans?" Beast Boy muttered in annoyance. "I guess the rules don't apply to him..."
"While it is perhaps not the method of dating I would have chosen on Earth, Robin means no ill-intent. He is merely uncomfortable with expressing his own feelings publicly."
Beast Boy's face softened at her explanation. Yeah, Robin sure could be an idiot, but the team did recognize how much he cared for Starfire and outwardly nothing had changed in the team dynamic so he couldn't hold it against their leader.
"Dude, I'm no good at keeping secrets." Beast Boy whined suddenly realizing the new predicament he had become entangled in.
"Please? I am happy friend. Even if it doesn't seem standard to the Earthen way of dating it is familiar to what I could have done on Tamaran and I do not wish for it to end." Starfire implored.
"Fine. But you have to be careful; I can't cover for you if you two are being stupid." Beast Boy pointedly spoke.
"Oh I thank you dear friend!" Starfire exclaimed picking Beast Boy up in an airborne, bone-crushing hug. "I do appreciate it so. And please do not mention it to Robin...I fear it would panic him to know that you are aware."
He sighed with a nod as she released him to head to the ops room. What mess did he get himself into?
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Careless seemed to be the word of the month...whether it was because Robin had never had the opportunity to be this comfortable around another person without fear of judgment or betrayal, or the fact that time always builds a false sense of security, Robin had become prone to taking more risks in their secret relationship.
Starfire enjoyed the fact that he was emboldened to be more playful around her which was a side of his personality she hadn't experienced fully since he was often so guarded. But today, with a poster sized canvas and plenty of cans of colored paint she found herself in the midst of another one of his date plans gone sideways. Not that she minded of course, it just was becoming more difficult to convince the others that things were purely platonic when they ended up equally messy by the end of the activity.
Starfire smiled to herself, at least it never proved to be boring.
"You said my room looked bare, so I was looking to change that." Robin spoke cutting into her thoughts.
"Oh so we are doing a chore to make your room look nicer?" Starfire teased.
"Maybe. Maybe I just want something that'll make me think of you every time I look at it." Robin bantered with a smirk.
"Will our uniforms not also suffer from this activity?" Starfire asked curiously.
Robin motioned to the two sets of street clothes on a nearby lounge chair.
"See you in a few minutes." He grinned grabbing the tee shirt and shorts he'd set out for himself.
He had heavily debated the pros and cons of getting smocks, but ultimately decided that wouldn't cover it. The pasta incident and pottery making had proved to be messy enough without adding something as permanent as paint. Though the worst of it had definitely been the hiking date poison oak incident since even over the counter medication couldn't be taken out of the med bay without logging it. He thought for sure Raven was going to gut him when every part of Starfire's exposed skin ended up irritated...nothing he could say sounded like truth about their hiking day in that moment. He was lucky his uniform covered most of his body and he only ended up with minor irritation on his arms and neck, and that Raven rolled her eyes at him but said nothing about it. He also knew Raven had asked Starfire about it later, but Starfire remained evasive.
He returned to the roof to find Starfire lounging sideways in the chair with her legs dangling over one of the arms. The over-sized white tee shirt serving as a dress while the shorts he'd picked up for her were folded behind her head as a pillow.
"Didn't like the shorts?" He mused playfully.
"This is already more fabric than my normal uniform." She motioned to the tee shirt as she spoke.
He impishly raised his eyebrow at her. He had changed entirely out of his uniform except for his mask which remained pointedly in place. They were outside after all, and no matter how comfortable things had gotten lately, showing her who he was without the mask still gave him reservations. It's not that he wanted to withhold information from her, but there was a fear involved in knowing that once he revealed that information to her, there was no going back. She would forever know exactly who he was, even if they didn't work out. Shaking his head slightly he brushed off those thoughts for the moment; she hadn't pressed the issue and he was grateful.
"So what were you looking to add to the canvas?" Starfire queried.
"Just some color. Nothing structured; I figure we can just have fun with it."
It still took some coaxing from Robin to get Starfire to add swirls of paint colors to the canvas. New Earth things that she could potentially mess up by naivety still gave her pause from fully diving in. To ease her anxiety he stuck his finger into the green paint and booped her on the nose with it leaving a green dot in place. A grin spread across her face and she dove both hands into the can of red paint and proceeded to playfully grab Robin's shirt and drag him towards her. Before she could inflict further paint upon him, he'd slipped out of the shirt and sprinted to the blue paint can to cover both his hands in paint as well.
Starfire dropped the shirt and approached Robin cautiously, both circling each other in anticipation of the other's move like they often did with sparring. Starfire broke first attempting to shoot into the sky above them to evade and surprise, but Robin's awareness of her tactic led to him lunging and tackling her before she gained any elevation. He grabbed her around the waist and sat her into the puddle of orange paint from an overturned can before promptly sitting her on the canvas laughing all the while.
Starfire's found a way to free her hands and she used his distraction to flip him onto the ground where she pinned him by the wrists and used the green paint on her nose to draw lines on his face which proved effective until he kissed her. The painting forgotten, the pair continued their affectionate display until the crime alert blared startling them back to reality.
Robin carefully removed his hand from Starfire's upper thigh and mentally chided himself for the loss of control he often felt around her. Perhaps the crime alert was well timed after all. He got to his feet and offered her a hand to help her to standing as well.
All eyes turned on them when they entered the ops room and he really shouldn't have been surprised...This was by far the most incriminating mess they'd made, but there wasn't time for commentary as Robin saw who'd prompted the alert – Red X.
They both quickly scrambled to their respective rooms to change, but neither would have time to shower so they'd have to do battle looking like a Gerhard Richter painting.
Unsurprisingly Robin wasn't allowed in the T Car, and in an effort to keep the R Cycle from being yet another paint casualty of the day, Starfire offered to carry Robin to the research hospital where Red X had been spotted by site security.
"Do we want to know what you two were up to?" Cyborg joked as the pair landed in front of the hospital.
"We were painting a canvas for Robin's room." Starfire answered with a small laugh.
"And the paint is all over you both...why?" Raven deadpanned with slight curiosity.
"It became a competition to see who could cover the other in more paint." Starfire earnestly replied.
"So I can tell who was red and who was blue, but who was green?" Beast Boy joked motioning to Robin and Starfire's faces.
"We have work to do." Robin snapped sprinting into the open building.
"Sorry kids, this wasn't meant to be a party." A mechanical voice cut in from high up on the wall of a laboratory.
"X." Robin snarled using a grappling hook to shoot himself upwards. "What are you after?"
X nonchalantly vanished as Robin approached and reappeared across the lab.
"I didn't mean for things to get messy," X gave a mechanical laugh shooting globs of red goop to trap the titans and effectively hitting 3 out of 5 targets leaving only Starfire and Robin free at the moment, "but I see I'm not the only one who wasn't anticipating company."
"That doesn't concern you." Robin snarled lunging towards the hooded man while Starfire flew ahead as well, ready for attack.
"Seems to me like you've got your hands full." Red X taunted while shooting an elastic X from his palm in attempt to bind the two together. At the last second Robin managed to evade, while Starfire ended up stuck to the wall.
"It's not like that." Robin exasperated as he lunged again. He could tell he was losing focus over the commentary, but he couldn't help it.
The others had broken free of the goopy red material and were now assisting in freeing Starfire. Red X caught a glimpse of a blue handprint as the Tamaranian girl shifted her legs in attempt to break free.
"I'm guessing if I pulled the gloves off your hands, they'd be blue." X laughed motioning to a now free Starfire.
"It is none of your business please." Starfire shot towards him with Starbolts in hand.
"I mean if he doesn't want you, I'd be glad to take your out on a real –" Rex X was cut off by a birdarang connecting with his face.
"Not going to happen." Robin snarled as X got back to his feet and grabbed a vial off the nearby counter.
"Well it's been fun, but I got what I came for." Red X stated more defensively than before. "And Robin, don't worry; I don't plan to hurt your little plaything. I've already taken enough of your toys." And in the blink of an eye he was gone.
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"The vial Red X took was a serum meant to treat some forms of cancer." Cyborg explained once they got back to the tower.
"At least his motivations are likely selfish...repeated exposure to Xynothium is really hard on the body and can act as a carcinogen. The suit wasn't designed for long term use." Robin grumbled still irritated at the lack of arrest. "I'm going to cross-reference hospital records to see if I can find him. You know where to find me if you need me."
As Robin exited the room he could hear Cyborg's extra loud question meant to grab his attention.
"So Star, what's really going on with you and bird boy there?"
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I'll try to be more consistent at least until this and Endurance and Royal Blood are wrapped up. I have a smattering of one-shots that may pop up from time to time if I'm still working my way through a chapter before post.
Review if you'd like!
- FWFT