Chapter Title: Spiked
Word Count: 3,062
I meant to have this up last week, but my husband was sick so I didn't have quite the writing time I usually do. This was meant to be a longer chapter, but I decided to split it in two to post earlier. What would have been part 2 of this chapter will be next week's post and then we'll see where my whim takes me. Maybe a oneshot to break things up a bit.
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Her current predicament shouldn't have surprised her really. She was aware of the extended Titan's planned get together, which was an 'end of year party to celebrate another year of butt kicking' according to Beast Boy. But still crouching in the closet while she anxiously waited for her friends to disperse so she could retrieve her castaway items and retreat to the sanctity of her room felt immensely embarrassing.
Her remaining teammates had gone out for supplies – food, party décor, drinks, the works – but she and Robin had been assigned cleaning duties. Raven had complained openly about their nauseatingly lovesick auras and had opted, despite her better judgment, to join the boys on a shopping trip from hell. Apparently listening to Beast Boy and Cyborg argue over party foods and the various levels of acceptable meats, or lack thereof, beat dealing with the simpering, affection overloaded energy from the alien and boy wonder. It was clear Raven was starting to catch on to the pair's paramour status, but speculation was all she could muster since Starfire remained evasive when the girls spoke.
What happened after the trio left for said shopping trip, was that Robin and Starfire had cleaned as they'd been appointed, but wrapped up a bit earlier than anticipated. Robin was all too happy to take the remaining team's absence as a liaison for a make out session on the couch with Starfire. As dangerous as it was, Robin had to admit he did get a bit of a thrill from sneaking around. But time without interruptions are far and few in communal living, and as things started to progress the elevator chimed alerting the lovebirds to an intrusion to which there would be no time for a reasonable alternate explain. And thus, before she knew it, a shirtless Starfire was hurriedly dragged into the utility closet having a mere moment to at least snatch her discarded bra and leaving her crop top as a wayside casualty. She could only hope whoever had entered the tower wouldn't notice.
"Hello? Anybody home?" A booming voice called out into the ops room.
Starfire continued to hold her breath as she and Robin crouched in the dark utility space. This was far from an ideal situation, but if they could just remain quiet, perhaps they'd circumvent suspicion. If they didn't and were found like this, everything would look way worse, Robin thought silently shaking his head.
"Sorry we're early...turns out the trip takes less time than expected when we're not simultaneously fighting the entire villain's network." Another voice added.
Through the sound dampening of the utility closet, Starfire and Robin could match the voices to Bumble Bee and Speedy.
"Hey Sparky?" Bee chimed and a small, high pitched noise indicated that she'd placed a call on her communicator, "Where is everyone?"
"Rae, BB, and I are out shopping. Flygirl and Boy Blunder should be home though." Cyborg replied sarcastically. "At least tell me they haven't messed the place up worse since that seems to be their new hobby."
"Looks pretty clean to me, just no sign of them...scratch that, one sign of them." Bee raised a curious eyebrow at Aqualad who pointed to the crumpled up crop top partially wedged under the couch.
"Looks like things aren't as PG as ya'll thought." Bee laughed flipping the screen to show Cyborg the visual of the discarded tank.
"My couch?" He whimpered in response, "They're defiling my couch..."
"Well now might be as good a chance as any to catch them together. Then we can figure out who won the pool." Bee directed, "Speedy – go knock on Robin's door. I'll take Starfire's. Aqualad – you take the roof. And Mas and Menos – the gym and evidence room. Nobody leaves their post until we've found them."
As the pitterpatter of footsteps faded, Robin cautiously opened the closet door to peer out into the empty ops room. He silently opened a window for Starfire so she could fly to her room's unlocked window to intercept Bumble Bee and grab a new top in the process. Definitely not an ideal situation, but far less embarrassing than being caught in the closet with Robin. As Robin closed the ops room window behind her, he stealthily made his way towards the direction of the restrooms knowing that hadn't been among the listed locations, but was an equally plausible place to be found.
Starfire had just managed to force another uniform top over her head by the time Bumble Bee knocked on the door. The redhead took a deep breath to calm her nerves and mentally prepared to amp up the clueless alien act as she greeted the leader of the Titan's East.
"Hello friend!" Starfire exclaimed hugging Bee while forcing an empty headed grin.
"Hey girl, is Robin in here?" Bee curiously peered past Starfire's body that served to block the doorway.
"I have not seen him since we finished the cleaning of the room to be used for celebration." Starfire shrugged blankly stepping aside to allow a suspicious Bumble Bee into the room.
"So what's with the dirty laundry in the ops room?" Bee pressed curiously.
"An arthropod based misunderstanding." Starfire cluelessly replied.
"A what now?" Bee queried incredulously.
"A creature resembling the cironielian chrysalis eater dropped onto my shirt and while I did not meant to, I panicked and discarded the shirt in the process." Starfire lied.
"Spider on your shirt? And Robin didn't do anything to stop you from stripping in front of him?" Bee raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"It was not the first, likely nor will it be the last time I accidentally disrobe in front of Robin." Starfire blushed sheepishly.
"Accidentally, sure." Bee laughed, "Did you give the poor guy a heart attack?"
"Cardiac arrest is a potential outcome from seeing a woman in her natural form?" Starfire gasped laying the clueless alien act on thick. "No wonder Robin always seemed so anxious when I made such mistakes...I did not think I could fatally affect him in such a manner."
"Ah...uh...joking…mostly. You probably could kill with your looks, but I doubt Robin's the type to keel over from your hotness." Bee laughed.
Starfire merely nodded with a contained smile as Bumble Bee let her team know to return to the ops room.
Starfire's own communicator which had been linked in a secret call to the boy wonder, was discretely closed to end the call. In a mere moment before Bumble Bee had arrived, Starfire had judiciously placed the call to allow Robin's story to corroborate her own. She did not enjoy lying to her friends, but if she was going to lie, they had to have a unified front so at least it did not beget more lying.
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As the tower began to fill with Titans from across the globe, Robin stealthily sidled up to Starfire and nudged her arm to garner her attention.
"Laying it on thick there with the 'strange earthly ways' thing, huh?" Robin teased.
"I do not know of what you speak." She retorted with a wink, "Now we should do the mingling with our allies and friends, should we not? I believe you and I spend enough time together."
"I'd rather just hang out with you." Robin smirked.
Starfire rolled her eyes at him playfully and sauntered off to seek Argent's company.
Robin surveyed the room with mild amusement, his mood had improved from their near miss incident earlier. He'd never been a fan of parties, but a Titan's event was more interesting than most. Cyborg was arm wrestling people in the kitchen while intermittent cheers went up among a gaggle of onlookers when someone was declared a victor. Raven was studying everyone from an out-of-the-way spot on the wall, and Robin knew if these gathering's weren't mandatory she would be anywhere but here. And Beast Boy was trying (and failing) to convince people to try his vegetarian cooking, with current victim, Gnarrk, staring suspiciously at the jiggly soy product Beast Boy had insistently placed in front of the neanderthal.
"So you going to finally ask her?" Kid Flash interrupted, butting into Robin's distracted observation.
"Not planning on it." Robin turned his attention to the brightly dressed teen.
"You're chicken shit man; you're not worried about her finding someone else?"
"Just because you have the attention span of a goldfish, doesn't mean she does. Timing's not right still."
"She must have the freakin' patience of a saint to deal with you." Kid Flash snorted, "Timing's never gonna be right, Dick. Sometimes you gotta just go all in. 'Side's I helped you out some."
"Wally." Robin spoke in a warning tone. "What did you do?"
"I did you a favor." Kid Flash grinned with a playful wink, "Disposed of some contraband and gave you the option for liquid courage."
"Please tell me you did not spike the punch." Robin sighed tiredly. "You do this every year."
"Just because my metabolism prevents me from enjoying inebriation, doesn't mean I'm willing to sit by and let you throw lame parties." Kid flash teased, "If it was up to you these events would start with a meeting and end with training."
Robin shook his head with a tight lined face. "At least let everyone know the punch is spiked so no one accidentally makes that mistake."
"Fine, fine…" Kid Flash sighed. "You'd be a lot more fun if you actually loosened up a bit."
"Eh, you're still friends with me." Robin snarked in response.
"Only 'cause I gotta be. Don't need you turning into the brooding bat." Kid Flash winked and darted away to put a warning label on the punch bowl.
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"Rae," Beast Boy called out with a grin, "You agree with me, right?"
"I can't agree with you if I don't know what you're taking about." Raven muttered in response floating over to the kitchen area where several Titans were gathered.
"My cooking. Tofu's pretty decent if you give it a chance." Beast Boy insisted flashing a set of puppy dog eyes to try and tip the scales.
The lilac haired girl took a momentary pause before speaking, "Well it's definitely better than Starfire's cooking."
Beast Boy beamed at her with a toothy grin and then addressed the honorary Titans. "Told all of you that my tofu's good."
"I didn't say that." Raven smirked earning chuckles from the extended Titans standing near the counter.
"I see how it is. Time for a game!" Beast Boy declared loudly to the group.
He was met by a chorus of cheers from the group who began to form a seated circle near the couch.
"Anyone up for two truths and a lie?" Beast Boy laughed turning his attention back to Raven for a moment, "Then you'll have to own up to the fact that my cooking is good."
"I think I'll just referee." Raven retreated to the outside of the circle.
"Awe, but Raven, how can you even referee a word game?" Beast Boy whined.
"I can tell you if someone tries to lie." She shrugged settling into a seated position on the couch.
"I don't think this a good idea." Robin cut in trying to disseminate the crowd. Party games were usually where the night started to take nosedive.
"You don't think anything fun is a good idea." A slightly slurred Speedy taunted.
"Fine; play, but count me out." Robin defeatedly sighed.
"You'll still play, won't you flygirl?" Aqualad grinned placing an arm around Starfire's waist and pulling her into the group to goad the boy wonder who met this action with a tight faced scowl.
"I am not certain I understand the game, but I would be a willing participant if Cyborg and Beast Boy say it's the fun." Starfire smiled silently stepping out of Aqualad's grip. She didn't mind affection from her friends, but she could see this was meant to be a jab at Robin.
"It's not really a game you want to play, Star. I'm not sure you'd enjoy it." Robin cryptically cautioned from the edge of the couch near Raven.
"It's a very fun game, Star. I'm sure you'll love it." Cyborg pestered insistently.
"I suppose I will determine the level of fun for myself, if someone would please explain the rules." Starfire diplomatically stated.
"You say three phrases about yourself, two of them are supposed to be true and one is supposed to be a lie and then people try to guess what the lie is." Beast Boy succinctly explained.
"But they have to be tricky," Jinx adamantly added. "Like I once filled Gizmo's water bottle with Mammoth's spit. I fermented toilet wine while in prison. And I've been in Raven's room more than once."
"But how will we determine which item is the lie?" Starfire puzzled.
"That's what the challenge is. The group has to decide and guess and then I'll tell you if you're right or not." Jinx grinned.
"No way she made toilet wine." Kid Flash interjected, "She only drinks moscato and there's no way she could make that in a cell."
"Maybe I just used it for currency." Jinx shrugged casting doubt on speculation.
"Well Raven isn't blowing anything up so I doubt Jinx went back into Raven's room after the tower takeover." Beast Boy noted.
"Maybe it was a secret mission you were unaware of." Jinx added.
"As far as I can tell you gave us the full information when Kid Flash brought you on to be an honorary Titan. And Raven would sense it if you went in her room." Robin stated.
"So you're willing to play when you don't have to give out dirt on yourself? I see how it is." Cyborg teased Robin.
Robin had to admit he liked puzzles and logically sorting through information, which tempted him to join, however this game would be far to dangerous to participate in since he'd have other people dissecting his own ambiguous information. And that offered far too much risk. Shaking his head, he silently sank back into the couch to observe.
"The group decides that you haven't been in Raven's room multiple times." Aqualad spoke.
"You would be right." Jinx grinned raising her glass. "Think you've got it, princess?"
"I would prefer you not call me that." Starfire blushed quietly casting her eyes down.
"Oh shit, sorry. Old habit. I forgot you actually are one. It was a nickname we had for you in the villain's circles; bet you can figure out who dubbed you that." Jinx apologized quickly.
"I have my suspicions." Starfire cringed, "I think I understand the game? I will attempt to take a turn."
Beast Boy and Cyborg exchanged worried glances. That was Starfire's 'I'm really not sure I get it, but I'll try' tone which usually meant one of two outcomes – a very lame attempt of which she's the only one entertained, or an accidentally hilarious bit that embarrasses her.
"I...uh…" Starfire hesitated and scrunched her forehead in concentration, "I have consumed an entire veggie patty of Beast Boy's preparation. My people can learn any language through lip contact. I have done the making out."
"Too obvious, Starfire; obviously you haven't made out with anyone." Argent shook her head dismissively.
"I think that's enough of this." Robin interjected pulling Starfire to her feet and leading her away from the group towards the door.
"Maybe it's not such a lie." Bumble Bee laughed as a gaggle of honorary Titan's let out whoops and hollers at the duo.
Ignoring the terse scene in front of him where a hushed Robin and Starfire seemed animated in their muted discussion, Kid Flash decidedly started a chat consisting of 'get a room' which led to a dark glare from Robin.
Starfire sulked back to rejoin the group as Robin addressed the room.
"Goodnight Titans. Enjoy the party and don't destroy the tower." Robin declared through gritted teeth before storming off towards his room.
Raven shot an eerily silent Starfire a curious glance. From what she could sense from the game, nothing Starfire said was actually a lie which only added to the heap of evidence pointing to something being different. Starfire either didn't notice Raven's stare or purposely chose to ignore it.
"Did somebody shrink his tights in the wash?" Speedy hiccuped with a laugh.
"Dude really needs to get laid. He's way too uptight." Kid Flash teased.
"Robin is...not really one for games." Starfire defended quietly.
"Unless he's playin' with you." Cyborg poked fun at Starfire.
"I can't believe you just let him win after our date." Speedy whined.
"I let him...win?" Starfire puzzled blankly forcing her tone to remain neutral.
"You're not willing to date anyone else even though he hasn't changed your dynamic." Jinx gently cut in. "And relationships aren't about winning."
Jinx cast a dangerous glare towards the boys. 'Idiots,' she thought rolling her eyes.
"You did say you were curious about kissing. You could kiss anybody here and boy blunder would never have to know. It doesn't have to mean anything." Speedy volunteered.
"Perhaps I should also retire for the night." Starfire evasively composed herself and moved to stand.
"Oh come on; kissing isn't a big deal on Tamaran right? It's also not a big deal on Earth." Speedy insisted.
"Just let her go, guys." Beast Boy defended passively. "Nobody's winning the pool that way. You're just going to piss Robin off and I am not the only one who doesn't want to deal with his dramatic outbursts again."
As Starfire exited the room, Raven moved into the circle to take a spot next to Beast Boy.
"You know something. What?" Raven asked curiously.
"Later." He whispered in response putting a hand over hers and earning a small blush from the empath. Today may have been a weird day for the pair, but Raven had to admit that weird was sometimes a good thing.
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If I wrote the full chapter it would easily be 6,000+ words and I frankly don't have time for all that this week. I will attempt to have part 2 of this chapter done sometime late next week.
I kind of like the idea of writing the party shopping trip from hell as a BBRae oneshot. Would anyone be interested in reading that?
Review if you'd like.
- FWFT