Out of all this year's prompts, "Stardust" was the one that excited me the most. The artistic, borderline-ethereal nature of the word means that there's all kinds of ways to interpret the prompt. I poked through a couple very different ideas myself before settling on this piece of pure self-indulgent fluff right here.


Starlit Flight

She was like a shooting star, streaking across the night. She dived and climbed and wove through the sky, as if in an intricate dance that only she understood.

Robin sat on the Tower roof, one leg idly dangling over the edge and the other drawn up against him, his chin resting on the knee. He watched his teammate, best friend, beloved as she rose toward the heavens, arched back, and then released her flight and let gravity have its way for just a moment. The soft light of the moon played against her features, and at just the right angle there was sunrise on her skin and stardust in her hair.

Robin let the little smile at the corner of his mouth widen. Starfire. It was a good name for her.

As if sensing her name in his thoughts, Starfire pulled out of her dive, flipped upright and floated over to him.

"Are you having a pleasant night?" she asked by way of greeting.

Robin lifted his head. "It's nice. I'm enjoying the view."

Starfire must have caught his dual meaning, because she looked a little bashful at that. He couldn't help but chuckle.

"You seem happy," he commented.

Her eyes glittered in the starlight, adding to the illusion of her namesake. "I am," she chirped. "On Tamaran, flight is our purest way of expressing joy."

Robin's smile widened again. "You mentioned that once. Any special reason for your good mood?"

Starfire idly shrugged. "None in particular." After a moment's thought, she giggled and added, "I suppose one could say I simply have the 'high spirits.'"

Robin snorted out a laugh. "Did Beast Boy teach you that one?"

Starfire stuck out her tongue at him, but she also giggled again and did not touch down. After a moment, their laughter subsided and they both turned to look out over the clear night sky. Robin stood up and took a deep breath of the clear, salt-touched air.

"Fly with me."

Robin turned back to find that Starfire had drifted closer and offered her hands to him. She looked eager, almost expectant.

"Now? Like you were before?" Robin blinked, puzzled. She had flown him countless times in battle, of course, and since they had begun dating, she had gained a habit of lifting him and twirling him in the air in heartfelt moments, but that was the extent of it. He wasn't sure he could handle all her twists and dives. "How?"

Her eyes glittered starlight again, and she grinned. "You are strong and agile, and my flight is at its peak when you are with me. It will come naturally."

His heart did a little flip in his chest. My flight is at its peak. He marveled, not for the first time, at how he was able to make Starfire, this amazing alien woman, this beacon of hope and sunlight, so happy. What had he done to deserve her?

The choice itself, of course, was easy. He trusted her with his life. He slipped his hands over hers, and in a moment they had a firm grip on each other's wrists.

Starfire rose slowly at first, lifting them both high above the roof of Titan's Tower. In battle they would have positioned themselves facing the same direction, but now they faced each other. She smiled down at him.

"Ready?" she asked. Robin nodded.

She started picking up speed then, and at the same time began to pull them into a twist. They spun faster and faster, corkscrewing through the sky until all at once she arced herself back and let physics take over.

Robin's stomach flipped, partly from instinctive fear but mostly from adrenaline. He tightened his grip a little further on her wrists and made a tugging motion to get her attention.

"Pull me closer!" he shouted over the wind whipping past them. Starfire nodded and complied, pulling him up – back – down – whatever direction they were headed now, toward her face. They were still moving in an arcing not-quite-dive in that moment, with her underneath as if to shield him from the ground far below. But once his hands were secured behind her neck and hers around his waist, she gave him a cheeky smile and pulled back again, turning their fall into a wide loop.

Robin yelped in surprise at the sudden change in direction and held a little tighter, and Starfire's tinkling laugh reached his ears. "Too much?" she asked, her voice a little apologetic despite her mirth.

Robin laughed too, his face buried in the crook of her neck, breathing in her strange sweet scent. "No," he said truthfully. "Keep going."

And she did, twisting and looping and diving, showing him firsthand what it was like to be a shooting star in the night. At length they tried something new, when in a flash of wild abandon, he decided he wanted to feel just a moment of flight on his own.

"Throw you?" she repeated his suggestion, her voice caught somewhere between incredulous and amused. He grinned and nodded.

"I just want to try it. I know you can catch me." He thought a second. "Please?"

Starfire laughed a little at that, and then she started shifting her grip on him. Robin did the same, and after a few adjustments, a coordinated heave sent him flying.

Robin twisted and arced carefully in that weightless moment, drawing on his acrobatic experience in the hero field and in days long before.

In another moment Starfire was by his side again, curling under him protectively as they both began to fall. Her long hair whipped all around them, and the moonlight caught her face, and she must have felt what he was feeling then because they reached for one another on impulse and pulled each other in.

And then there was stardust in his hair and sunrise on his mouth.