To those who have read/reviewed this story: thank you! It's good to
know ppl care about my writing. And I just noticed that FF.net doesn't show
italics! (When the words lean to the right, to show importance or
something) so I apologize if it seemed confusing, because I use the italics
to represent a character's thought. Sorry _
So! In order to prevent further confusion, here is a small key to help with
reading this story (I've also changed the other chapters so it's easier to
read/understand):
Words in ""= a character's speech
Words in ' ' = a character's thoughts
Also sorry if Cyborg seems a little OOC, I can't remember most of his dialogue with his friends, which makes no sense because he's my favorite male character in the show (I can only replicate his arguments with B.B. almost flawlessly, since those happen frequently). So if he does seem out of character, tell me, and I'll change the way he talks/what he says.
To Starbolt1218: I've been reading the Dark Tower books, which has given me inspiration to do some of my own writing, in this case, this story. I wanted my new character to have a sort of "gunslinger" feel to him (because Roland from the Dark Tower books roxxorz my soxxorz), that's why I gave him the revolvers and assault rifle (I donno why but I just really want him to have that gun... -_-), so expect some sort of action, shoot out scene between some bad guy, John and Starfire (i.e., future date=ruined by bad guys!). I also believe that I will have some jealousy between Robin and John, a stand- off kinda thing. ("All right, get out of the way. I'm going to shoot him," John said, stepping infront of Starfire, pulling out one of his large, sandalwood gripped revolvers as he did so. He pointed it at the masked boy in front of him. 'Let's see you dodge this. This isn't gonna be another one of those slow, easy to see, easy to dodge laser-blasts either my friend...') But I doubt I'll have him actually shoot Robin, maybe take a few shots (purposely missing too) but that would be the most.
Allycat588: You're right! I really should describe John some more. I really have only described his hair color, and that it's at least long enough to get into his eyes, along with what he's wearing. But I also did this to let the reader associate themselves with the character a little bit (like putting themselves in the place of the character.) But I will try to describe him somehow. I also think that to make up for lack of length in chapters, I will just post more chapters (like a new chapter for every scene maybe. I think that's what I'm doing right now). I also doubt I'll have other pairings, because I don't really understand the attraction between Raven/Robin, or Raven/Beast Boy etc. The only one I understand is Robin/Starfire, but I am vehemently against that.-_-;;. (I just don't like robin that much in TT...he says so much crap to villains, it's kinda annoying.)
Alygny: I'm very sure that I will have them go on a mission, and pizza parlor, things like that. Things that are good excuses for John to interact with Starfire more.
Delta X: thanks for the compliment, also the idea. Somehow I'll maneuver B.B. and Cyborg into a massive argument over the game, and SOMEHOW I will get FLUFFY(!) moments between Starfire and John.
**************************************************************************** ******************* Beast Boy and Cyborg were too preoccupied with their argument to notice the new comer, or Starfire. She attempted to make contact with them, to introduce John, but they simply ignored them.
"Cyborg, Beast Boy, I would like to introduce my new friend, who will also be staying here with us from now on, John!" She said to the two quarrelling teens
"Um...Hi..." John said nervously.
"It's my turn to choose what we do elf boy!" Cyborg yelled again, still ignoring the new-comer and the alien.
"Yeah well this is a good movie, tin man!" Beast Boy retorted.
"Oh you just HAD to say that didn't you?!" Cyborg screamed, lunging at the shape shifter. There was a thick, thudding sound as Cyborg hit his friend in the stomach. Beast Boy groaned, and stepped back. Angered, the green boy changed into a giant T-Rex, letting out a loud, ear- splitting roar. Cyborg quickly backed down with a whimper, as the dinosaur began stomping toward him.
"Oh man!" John yelled, frightened, as he grabbed Starfire by the arm, and jumped behind the couch, bringing the girl with him.
"What is he doing!?" John half screamed, half whispered to the alien.
"He is merely having another one of his fights with Cyborg, I'm sorry if he scared you. They usually argue over what to watch on the television set, or their games," she explained to him.
"He's...not gonna eat him or anything...is he?"
"No, Beast Boy is a vegetarian, and rarely eats anything besides tofu, but I believe I should stop this before it gets too out of hand," She stood up to address the rampaging T-Rex
"Please Beast Boy! Stop that right now! We have a guest!"
The green shape-shifter quickly reverted back to his normal form, slightly blushing and putting his hand behind his head. Cyborg let out a sigh of relief and gratitude.
"Heh, sorry Starfire. Wait...I don't see a guest..?"
"Uh...right here..." John timidly raised his head above the top of the couch, looking left to right as he did so. 'Giant killer dinosaurs are bad for my health.' He thought to himself, holding in a small laugh at this thought.
"Hey dude! What's goin' on?" Beast Boy asked the scared guest. 'He acts like nothing's wrong...I guess this IS normal for them. How does she deal with this?'
"Hey...I'm John...nice to meet you," John said, his fear receding at the playful tone in Beast Boy's voice. He brought up the courage to walk to the green boy in front of him, and hold out his hand for a friendly hand shake. 'I hope we're well met...I don't want to be eaten in my sleep or something...' Beast Boy grabbed John's hand, and shook it heartily.
"John, let me also introduce you to Cyborg!" Starfire sang cheerily, floating inches above the ground toward the two newly acquainted friends. Cyborg walked back over to the three, and introduced himself.
"Name's Cyborg, as I'm sure you already know," the half machine, half human said.
"It's good to meet you man," John said, extending his hand in the same fashion he had done with Beast Boy. Cyborg shook it, being careful not to squeeze too hard. This was after all, a regular kid, like Robin. Starfire giggled with glee, happy that her new friend just became friends with two of her own friends.
"This is wonderful! We all have a new friend now, and he'll even be staying with us too!" Starfire said, having trouble containing her happiness.
"He will be? All right, we're gonna have so much fun! I'll be able to play games with more than one other person now! And wait until you've tried my tofu!" Beast Boy said, picking up Cyborg's new game, forgetting about his movie.
"Tofu...? I'm not really up for vegetarian-friendly food..." John said.
"See Beast Boy? No one wants any of your stupid tofu!" Cyborg exclaimed, glad to have another friend who didn't like tofu.
"Can't you make anything else? You should consider us once in a while to ya know,"
"But dude! Tofu!" Beast Boy replied.
"Well...Actually I can cook a little, if all you've been eating is tofu," John said, hoping to catch the interest of Starfire and Cyborg. 'I need all the reasons I can get to make them let me stay here. After all, Starfire...' He thought. He had that feeling again, that one that's not quite love (in his opinion at least), but close. 'Beast Boy and Cyborg are three out of five, so I should get them to like me as much as I can, incase Robin or Raven don't want me here.'
"You can cook!? Finally! I'll be able to eat meat again!" Cyborg yelled, filled with excitement. He hadn't had a good meat-filled meal in a long time, because Beast Boy always filled the majority of the refrigerator with cubes of tofu.
"You wouldn't believe how much tofu we've been forced to eat because of him!" Cyborg yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the green boy in front of him. This caused John to laugh, the thought of everyone (especially the giant half man, half machine in front of him) eating tofu really got to him, plus the look on Cyborg's face as he pointed to the shape shifter.
"Yeah I can cook, I can make a lot of breakfast dishes, a few lunch dishes, and some dinner dishes,"
"Could you make some lunch right now? Some REAL food?" Cyborg asked energetically.
"If you want..."
"This is such a glorious day!" Starfire said, her eyes bright with joy. "We get a new friend, AND a cook!"
'Oh my god she's really cute when she's that happy...I'll have to remember to do a lot of nice things for her...' Starfire took John's hand, and led him to the kitchen. John's face turned into a deep red, his eyes centered directly on the hand leading him.
"I..uh...but..!" He stammered, too embarrassed to say anything else.
"Please let me keep you company while you cook! I may also be of assistance to you, and you can teach me some of your recipes!" Starfire said, eyes turning into upside down 'U' shapes again, a wide smile on her beautiful face. John was still stammering when they reached the kitchen. But after trying, he finally was able to put together a coherent sentence.
"Well if you really want...I guess I can teach you some recipes," John said, face still slightly red with embarrassment. Luckily for him, Starfire seemed completely oblivious to the feelings John was having. "I guess you can help too, I'll need help finding the ingredients and dishes," John said to the Tameranean. She giggled again, happy to help her friend.
"Could you tell me where the spices are? And where the meat is?" John asked, looking into a cupboard as he did.
"Of course John, I would be happy to locate the spices and meat you ask for," Starfire said, moving down towards the refrigerator. She first pointed at a cupboard, indicating that was the location of the spices. John pulled out several of the ones he recognized. Lemon pepper, onion salt, coriander, a bottle hickory and spice liquid marinade, and a small glass bottle of "liquid smoke". Starfire then opened the door of the refrigerator, rummaged around for a few seconds, and came back with a large, packaged steak. She handed the steak to John,
"This is the meat you require, correct?"
"Thanks Starfire, this should be enough for five people, right?"
"Well, Raven usually likes to drink herbal tea, and meditate in her room. But I'm sure Cyborg would be able to eat her share along with his. I have never had this 'steak', is it called? What is it like?" Starfire asked, her tone slightly filled with wonder.
"It's kinda hard to explain...it's just a really good, quality, expensive dinner food, I guess...I can't really describe it," John said, struggling to explain the answer to such a simple question.
"How is it prepared? Perhaps if I know this, it will help in your explanations. I would also be able to prepare it later by myself," the redhead said, looking at the meat in the packaging.
"Well...usually you grill it in some way, but before that, you marinate it, to add flavor," John said. He showed Starfire the bottles and containers of varying colors of powder and liquids. He then took a knife from the knife rack, located next to the refrigerator, and sliced open the plastic of the package holding the steak. He asked Starfire to give him a large plate, she opened another cupboard, and gave him a plate. He placed the steak on the plate, and began opening the bottles and containers.
"What are you doing now, the 'marinating?'" Starfire asked.
"Yep, I'm marinating it mostly with coriander. I love coriander," When Starfire heard this, she quickly blushed, her face turning a cute shade of red. Embarrassed, and flattered at the same time, her naivety and innocence kept her from thinking John was a pervert of some kind, or just weird, which is what most girls would think.
'My new friend certainly is quite affectionate!' Starfire thought to herself. (A/N: coriander is a spice [well duh] and Starfire's real name [at least in the old comics, I imagine it's the same in the new cartoon] is Koryand'r, which is pronounced the same way as the spice, so this is a FLUFFY MOMENT! Yeah!1). Starfire held her cheeks and turned away slightly to hide her embarrassment.
"Why...thank you John....That's very nice of you!" The flattered, embarrassed girl said. Starfire was never so bluntly told like that by someone that they LOVED her, besides her parents of course, but she knew that was different. She was a little shocked too, she had only just met John about ten, or fifteen minutes ago, and he already had feelings for her! This was certainly proving to be an awkward, but rewarding day for her. Finding a new friend, but now he had said he loved her. But she also felt a sort of warm, content happiness at this turn of events. She had felt this sort of feeling before, during the frequent times Robin had been fawning over her, but of course Robin had never said anything close to what John had just told her. Could he really mean it? Could she even return his love? He was cute in her opinion...black hair, with bangs that kept falling over his eyes (John absentmindedly removed his bangs from his eyes again, still working on the meat). Brown, chocolate colored eyes accented his kind face. He even cared enough to "save" her from Beast Boy's rampage (if that's what you could really call it).
"Um, I'm sorry, I have to go!" Starfire said, rushing off in the direction of Raven's room. 'Perhaps Raven would be able to help me,' Starfire thought to herself. 'I could use some of the Earth phenomenon known as 'girl-talk'.'
"Wha? Well...if you have to..." John said, still having trouble putting together words to form a sentence. He began to work on the steak again, adding more of the spices he had collected.
'I hope I didn't do anything stupid to scare her away...' John thought, now feeling a little more nervous at this new thought.
When Starfire reached Raven's room, she tapped on the door timidly, not wanting to interrupt Raven's reading, but also needing her help at the same time.
"Oh Raven? Raven I require your assistance," The Tameranean said, knocking again. The door slid to the left several inches, and stopped. A pale, gray skinned face, outlined by a blue cowl, appeared in the space between the door and the wall.
"What?" The sorceress said, in her calm, monotone voice.
"I wish to initiate the Earthly ritual known as 'girl talk!'" Starfire said, hoping Raven would accept.
"I'm not exactly the type of person to do that,"
"Please?" Starfire said, her eyes glowing with a kind of pleading sadness. As the only other person on the team who didn't annoy her (at least not as much as the others, Starfire was the only one who really respected Raven's privacy, besides Robin. But that was only because lately he'd been held up in his room, researching Slade), Raven thought she at least owed the girl in front of her a favor for that.
"Fine, come in and tell me what's bothering you," Raven said with a sigh, opening the door all the way. Starfire let out another one of her innocent titters, thanking the caped girl as she entered her room.
**************************************************************************** ******************* So, how was that? I tried really hard to make this chapter longer than the last. I'm really glad that I could squeeze the "I love coriander," Line into it, and I'm also happy with the way I described her embarrassed/flattered-ness, along with the inclusion of her need for 'girl talk' at the end of the chapter. (I think all of the good romance stories for TT have included Starfire asking a friend for advice, usually Raven.) So, R&R, constructive criticism welcome, blah blah blah, yak yak, flames suck, etc etc. (be gentle!)
Words in ""= a character's speech
Words in ' ' = a character's thoughts
Also sorry if Cyborg seems a little OOC, I can't remember most of his dialogue with his friends, which makes no sense because he's my favorite male character in the show (I can only replicate his arguments with B.B. almost flawlessly, since those happen frequently). So if he does seem out of character, tell me, and I'll change the way he talks/what he says.
To Starbolt1218: I've been reading the Dark Tower books, which has given me inspiration to do some of my own writing, in this case, this story. I wanted my new character to have a sort of "gunslinger" feel to him (because Roland from the Dark Tower books roxxorz my soxxorz), that's why I gave him the revolvers and assault rifle (I donno why but I just really want him to have that gun... -_-), so expect some sort of action, shoot out scene between some bad guy, John and Starfire (i.e., future date=ruined by bad guys!). I also believe that I will have some jealousy between Robin and John, a stand- off kinda thing. ("All right, get out of the way. I'm going to shoot him," John said, stepping infront of Starfire, pulling out one of his large, sandalwood gripped revolvers as he did so. He pointed it at the masked boy in front of him. 'Let's see you dodge this. This isn't gonna be another one of those slow, easy to see, easy to dodge laser-blasts either my friend...') But I doubt I'll have him actually shoot Robin, maybe take a few shots (purposely missing too) but that would be the most.
Allycat588: You're right! I really should describe John some more. I really have only described his hair color, and that it's at least long enough to get into his eyes, along with what he's wearing. But I also did this to let the reader associate themselves with the character a little bit (like putting themselves in the place of the character.) But I will try to describe him somehow. I also think that to make up for lack of length in chapters, I will just post more chapters (like a new chapter for every scene maybe. I think that's what I'm doing right now). I also doubt I'll have other pairings, because I don't really understand the attraction between Raven/Robin, or Raven/Beast Boy etc. The only one I understand is Robin/Starfire, but I am vehemently against that.-_-;;. (I just don't like robin that much in TT...he says so much crap to villains, it's kinda annoying.)
Alygny: I'm very sure that I will have them go on a mission, and pizza parlor, things like that. Things that are good excuses for John to interact with Starfire more.
Delta X: thanks for the compliment, also the idea. Somehow I'll maneuver B.B. and Cyborg into a massive argument over the game, and SOMEHOW I will get FLUFFY(!) moments between Starfire and John.
**************************************************************************** ******************* Beast Boy and Cyborg were too preoccupied with their argument to notice the new comer, or Starfire. She attempted to make contact with them, to introduce John, but they simply ignored them.
"Cyborg, Beast Boy, I would like to introduce my new friend, who will also be staying here with us from now on, John!" She said to the two quarrelling teens
"Um...Hi..." John said nervously.
"It's my turn to choose what we do elf boy!" Cyborg yelled again, still ignoring the new-comer and the alien.
"Yeah well this is a good movie, tin man!" Beast Boy retorted.
"Oh you just HAD to say that didn't you?!" Cyborg screamed, lunging at the shape shifter. There was a thick, thudding sound as Cyborg hit his friend in the stomach. Beast Boy groaned, and stepped back. Angered, the green boy changed into a giant T-Rex, letting out a loud, ear- splitting roar. Cyborg quickly backed down with a whimper, as the dinosaur began stomping toward him.
"Oh man!" John yelled, frightened, as he grabbed Starfire by the arm, and jumped behind the couch, bringing the girl with him.
"What is he doing!?" John half screamed, half whispered to the alien.
"He is merely having another one of his fights with Cyborg, I'm sorry if he scared you. They usually argue over what to watch on the television set, or their games," she explained to him.
"He's...not gonna eat him or anything...is he?"
"No, Beast Boy is a vegetarian, and rarely eats anything besides tofu, but I believe I should stop this before it gets too out of hand," She stood up to address the rampaging T-Rex
"Please Beast Boy! Stop that right now! We have a guest!"
The green shape-shifter quickly reverted back to his normal form, slightly blushing and putting his hand behind his head. Cyborg let out a sigh of relief and gratitude.
"Heh, sorry Starfire. Wait...I don't see a guest..?"
"Uh...right here..." John timidly raised his head above the top of the couch, looking left to right as he did so. 'Giant killer dinosaurs are bad for my health.' He thought to himself, holding in a small laugh at this thought.
"Hey dude! What's goin' on?" Beast Boy asked the scared guest. 'He acts like nothing's wrong...I guess this IS normal for them. How does she deal with this?'
"Hey...I'm John...nice to meet you," John said, his fear receding at the playful tone in Beast Boy's voice. He brought up the courage to walk to the green boy in front of him, and hold out his hand for a friendly hand shake. 'I hope we're well met...I don't want to be eaten in my sleep or something...' Beast Boy grabbed John's hand, and shook it heartily.
"John, let me also introduce you to Cyborg!" Starfire sang cheerily, floating inches above the ground toward the two newly acquainted friends. Cyborg walked back over to the three, and introduced himself.
"Name's Cyborg, as I'm sure you already know," the half machine, half human said.
"It's good to meet you man," John said, extending his hand in the same fashion he had done with Beast Boy. Cyborg shook it, being careful not to squeeze too hard. This was after all, a regular kid, like Robin. Starfire giggled with glee, happy that her new friend just became friends with two of her own friends.
"This is wonderful! We all have a new friend now, and he'll even be staying with us too!" Starfire said, having trouble containing her happiness.
"He will be? All right, we're gonna have so much fun! I'll be able to play games with more than one other person now! And wait until you've tried my tofu!" Beast Boy said, picking up Cyborg's new game, forgetting about his movie.
"Tofu...? I'm not really up for vegetarian-friendly food..." John said.
"See Beast Boy? No one wants any of your stupid tofu!" Cyborg exclaimed, glad to have another friend who didn't like tofu.
"Can't you make anything else? You should consider us once in a while to ya know,"
"But dude! Tofu!" Beast Boy replied.
"Well...Actually I can cook a little, if all you've been eating is tofu," John said, hoping to catch the interest of Starfire and Cyborg. 'I need all the reasons I can get to make them let me stay here. After all, Starfire...' He thought. He had that feeling again, that one that's not quite love (in his opinion at least), but close. 'Beast Boy and Cyborg are three out of five, so I should get them to like me as much as I can, incase Robin or Raven don't want me here.'
"You can cook!? Finally! I'll be able to eat meat again!" Cyborg yelled, filled with excitement. He hadn't had a good meat-filled meal in a long time, because Beast Boy always filled the majority of the refrigerator with cubes of tofu.
"You wouldn't believe how much tofu we've been forced to eat because of him!" Cyborg yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the green boy in front of him. This caused John to laugh, the thought of everyone (especially the giant half man, half machine in front of him) eating tofu really got to him, plus the look on Cyborg's face as he pointed to the shape shifter.
"Yeah I can cook, I can make a lot of breakfast dishes, a few lunch dishes, and some dinner dishes,"
"Could you make some lunch right now? Some REAL food?" Cyborg asked energetically.
"If you want..."
"This is such a glorious day!" Starfire said, her eyes bright with joy. "We get a new friend, AND a cook!"
'Oh my god she's really cute when she's that happy...I'll have to remember to do a lot of nice things for her...' Starfire took John's hand, and led him to the kitchen. John's face turned into a deep red, his eyes centered directly on the hand leading him.
"I..uh...but..!" He stammered, too embarrassed to say anything else.
"Please let me keep you company while you cook! I may also be of assistance to you, and you can teach me some of your recipes!" Starfire said, eyes turning into upside down 'U' shapes again, a wide smile on her beautiful face. John was still stammering when they reached the kitchen. But after trying, he finally was able to put together a coherent sentence.
"Well if you really want...I guess I can teach you some recipes," John said, face still slightly red with embarrassment. Luckily for him, Starfire seemed completely oblivious to the feelings John was having. "I guess you can help too, I'll need help finding the ingredients and dishes," John said to the Tameranean. She giggled again, happy to help her friend.
"Could you tell me where the spices are? And where the meat is?" John asked, looking into a cupboard as he did.
"Of course John, I would be happy to locate the spices and meat you ask for," Starfire said, moving down towards the refrigerator. She first pointed at a cupboard, indicating that was the location of the spices. John pulled out several of the ones he recognized. Lemon pepper, onion salt, coriander, a bottle hickory and spice liquid marinade, and a small glass bottle of "liquid smoke". Starfire then opened the door of the refrigerator, rummaged around for a few seconds, and came back with a large, packaged steak. She handed the steak to John,
"This is the meat you require, correct?"
"Thanks Starfire, this should be enough for five people, right?"
"Well, Raven usually likes to drink herbal tea, and meditate in her room. But I'm sure Cyborg would be able to eat her share along with his. I have never had this 'steak', is it called? What is it like?" Starfire asked, her tone slightly filled with wonder.
"It's kinda hard to explain...it's just a really good, quality, expensive dinner food, I guess...I can't really describe it," John said, struggling to explain the answer to such a simple question.
"How is it prepared? Perhaps if I know this, it will help in your explanations. I would also be able to prepare it later by myself," the redhead said, looking at the meat in the packaging.
"Well...usually you grill it in some way, but before that, you marinate it, to add flavor," John said. He showed Starfire the bottles and containers of varying colors of powder and liquids. He then took a knife from the knife rack, located next to the refrigerator, and sliced open the plastic of the package holding the steak. He asked Starfire to give him a large plate, she opened another cupboard, and gave him a plate. He placed the steak on the plate, and began opening the bottles and containers.
"What are you doing now, the 'marinating?'" Starfire asked.
"Yep, I'm marinating it mostly with coriander. I love coriander," When Starfire heard this, she quickly blushed, her face turning a cute shade of red. Embarrassed, and flattered at the same time, her naivety and innocence kept her from thinking John was a pervert of some kind, or just weird, which is what most girls would think.
'My new friend certainly is quite affectionate!' Starfire thought to herself. (A/N: coriander is a spice [well duh] and Starfire's real name [at least in the old comics, I imagine it's the same in the new cartoon] is Koryand'r, which is pronounced the same way as the spice, so this is a FLUFFY MOMENT! Yeah!1). Starfire held her cheeks and turned away slightly to hide her embarrassment.
"Why...thank you John....That's very nice of you!" The flattered, embarrassed girl said. Starfire was never so bluntly told like that by someone that they LOVED her, besides her parents of course, but she knew that was different. She was a little shocked too, she had only just met John about ten, or fifteen minutes ago, and he already had feelings for her! This was certainly proving to be an awkward, but rewarding day for her. Finding a new friend, but now he had said he loved her. But she also felt a sort of warm, content happiness at this turn of events. She had felt this sort of feeling before, during the frequent times Robin had been fawning over her, but of course Robin had never said anything close to what John had just told her. Could he really mean it? Could she even return his love? He was cute in her opinion...black hair, with bangs that kept falling over his eyes (John absentmindedly removed his bangs from his eyes again, still working on the meat). Brown, chocolate colored eyes accented his kind face. He even cared enough to "save" her from Beast Boy's rampage (if that's what you could really call it).
"Um, I'm sorry, I have to go!" Starfire said, rushing off in the direction of Raven's room. 'Perhaps Raven would be able to help me,' Starfire thought to herself. 'I could use some of the Earth phenomenon known as 'girl-talk'.'
"Wha? Well...if you have to..." John said, still having trouble putting together words to form a sentence. He began to work on the steak again, adding more of the spices he had collected.
'I hope I didn't do anything stupid to scare her away...' John thought, now feeling a little more nervous at this new thought.
When Starfire reached Raven's room, she tapped on the door timidly, not wanting to interrupt Raven's reading, but also needing her help at the same time.
"Oh Raven? Raven I require your assistance," The Tameranean said, knocking again. The door slid to the left several inches, and stopped. A pale, gray skinned face, outlined by a blue cowl, appeared in the space between the door and the wall.
"What?" The sorceress said, in her calm, monotone voice.
"I wish to initiate the Earthly ritual known as 'girl talk!'" Starfire said, hoping Raven would accept.
"I'm not exactly the type of person to do that,"
"Please?" Starfire said, her eyes glowing with a kind of pleading sadness. As the only other person on the team who didn't annoy her (at least not as much as the others, Starfire was the only one who really respected Raven's privacy, besides Robin. But that was only because lately he'd been held up in his room, researching Slade), Raven thought she at least owed the girl in front of her a favor for that.
"Fine, come in and tell me what's bothering you," Raven said with a sigh, opening the door all the way. Starfire let out another one of her innocent titters, thanking the caped girl as she entered her room.
**************************************************************************** ******************* So, how was that? I tried really hard to make this chapter longer than the last. I'm really glad that I could squeeze the "I love coriander," Line into it, and I'm also happy with the way I described her embarrassed/flattered-ness, along with the inclusion of her need for 'girl talk' at the end of the chapter. (I think all of the good romance stories for TT have included Starfire asking a friend for advice, usually Raven.) So, R&R, constructive criticism welcome, blah blah blah, yak yak, flames suck, etc etc. (be gentle!)