Teen Titans – Dangerous Dance

Buried Alive –

A/N: This chapter explains what happened to Robin and Starfire while Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were searching for them in the last chapter. It also explains some of the things that happened at the dance. Well, that's all for the moment. See you next chapter.

Robin opened his eyes slowly to find himself staring into somewhere that was almost completely dark, itself. Every part of his body ached and protested as he tried to get off what he could only guess to be some sort of floor. Barely able to force his body into a sitting position, he looked around at his surroundings, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He could see now that the place he was in was not completely dark. There was a kind of gray light shinning through from somewhere. He could make out the shape of a woman on top of a pile of rubble a few feet from him. One look at her told him that she was Starfire. Panic surged through him and he got on his hands and knees, crawling towards her. It seemed as if they were in a very small cavern under the rubble, judging by its space. His mind struggled for coherence as he finally reached Starfire.

'What happened? Where are we?' he thought. Short clips of the ballroom dance entered his mind slowly. Then suddenly images, emotions, memories or certain details, and things said, flooded into his brain. When he finally brought himself back to reality, his mind was buzzing with questions. 'Smell? What smell? Why was I acting that way? When did I decide that I loved Starfire?'

Robin frowned. The concern he had for Starfire now was not that of someone who was concerned for their lover. It was a concern of someone towards their best friend. He lifted his hand up to Starfire's neck and checked her pulse, relived when he could feel a steady beating pressure against his fingers.

His brain started to wander again as he put his hand back to the floor to support his weight, 'Smell? Wait a second...was it...rosemary? no...' his brain teased, trying to register the smell, but could he remember? Robin closed his eyes for a moment trying to focus on regaining his strength in his body a little. 'Was it nightshade? no...blueberry? no...honey? no...lavender? no...or...was it?' Robin couldn't remember. His memory was slightly fuzzy after the part where he had smelled something. His mind suddenly registered the smell as if a light had suddenly gone on in his brain. 'Has to be lavender...the fuzzy memory...I remember now. I'm allergic to lavender. It makes it hard for me to breathe. And what about Starfire? Do I really love her? I don't think so.' Robin searched his brain for evidence of anything that he might have done or said to Starfire that would make it impossible to take the feelings back without breaking her heart, but it seemed as if luck was on his side for the most part.

Robin opened his eyes again, seeing that his strength wasn't going to come back to him anytime soon. Then lifting his hand off the ground again, he took to shaking Starfire lightly. "Starfire," he said out loud, foolishly relived to hear his own voice loud and clear.

"Starfire!" He called sternly, still shaking her lightly. He was about to call out her name again when he heard a hacking cough start up in front of him. He saw a hand move to her mouth to calm it. Then groaning slightly, she pinched her eyes together firmly before opening them. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim light, but when they did she smiled weakly at seeing Robin there with a worried look on his face. At this, Robin relaxed slightly. He wasn't quite sure why, though. After all, he had no idea how badly injured she was, but it was some relief to him to see her open her eyes.

"Starefire, are you alright?" Robin's voice echoed in the small dark space they were enclosed in.

"Yes, Robin," Starfire's voice wasn't its usual quality of brightness, but it was still pretty strong.

"That's good at least," He nodded encouragingly.

"Where are we?" Starfire asked him in the same dull and cracked voice as before.

"From what I can remember and what we're both wearing," Robin pointed to his tux and her dress, "I'd say we're still in the mansion. The last thing I remember was a blinding light...so I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that something exploded near—if not in—the mansion."

Starfire nodded thoughtfully before her attention started to wander. Robin could tell that she was having a hard time focusing on him, but he couldn't do much about it accept to try and keep her awake. He was afraid that Starfire had a pretty bad concussion to go along with the piece of marble floor that had fallen on one of her legs, entrapping it. He was too weak at the moment to do much about the marble, though. If he had been right, however, he couldn't allow Starfire to go back to sleep for fear that she may slip into a coma in doing so. Instead, he decided to focus all his attention on talking to her to keep her attention long enough so that her mind wouldn't try to slip into a silent slumber.

"What do you remember last?" Robin asked Starfire, in an effort to make her think.

"Umm...I think I recall you holding me, then you got a call from Raven. That's about it," Starfire looked at him apologetically.

Robin nodded, "Yeah, that's about what I remember." Immediately his mind started searching for something to talk about, something to keep Starfire awake without her realizing that something was wrong. It was only a few seconds later that he found he couldn't avoid the truth of the situation...

"Robin," Starfire said slowly, "I'm going to go to sleep again...I'm so tired."

As realization hit him full force that he had been right, he eyes flashed in her direction. He wished for his mask more than anything, now. Something to hide behind. Something to put between him and the current circumstances. There was no way around it, however, it was just him and Starfire in the current circumstances. He didn't like to admit it, but right now, he was more scared than he had ever been in his entire life.

"No!" Robin heard himself shout, more out of instinct than out of thought. Then finally regaining the control over his thoughts, he struggled to find a reasonable explanation as to why he wanted to keep Starfire awake. He wanted to make her feel as if it had nothing to do with her. Maybe even make himself look like a coward in the process, but whatever it took, he didn't want her to know how very close she was to slipping into something so near to death. He watched as Starfire struggled to look at him with a puzzled expression on her face.

"No," He repeated more quietly, "Don't go to sleep. I...uh...well...I don't want to be alone down here." Robin blushed at this explanation, knowing that it was not entirely untrue. Even so, in any normal circumstances, he wouldn't have said anything about it.

Starfire slowly pieced together a frown, which in itself was not normal for her. "Robin, you're afraid?" A look of complete disbelief ran over her face.

Robin looked away in embarrassment. That look from Starfire was more than he had bargained for. "Err...yeah," He mumbled.

Starfire's expression gave way to a teasing smile and she started to giggle. Within moments Robin heard her giggles turn into a bone wrenching cough. He waited several moments for it subside. It was obvious that the dust had gotten in her lungs, and if she wasn't careful she could get dust pneumonia before they found a way out. Any disease down here could be deadly; especially one that was already life threatening in normal circumstances. In the dread that started to engulf him, he did the only thing he could think of to do in this situation; he picked himself up, balancing on his toes and knees. He reached forward and wrapped his arms around Starfire to rub her back. He wasn't quite aware of himself as he did this. Slowly, Starfire's coughing calmed and she leaned her head on his shoulder. Robin could feel her warm body against his and how it shook every time a coughing fit threatened to come over her again.

As he held her close to him, he became suddenly more aware of the marble piece of floor burying one of Starfire's legs. He couldn't stand leaving it on her any longer. He reached down and with his remaining strength, lifted it off her, revealing a swollen leg underneath. She flinched as he threw the piece aside. He could tell that it was broken. His heart fell, 'Why her? Why does everything happen to her?' he thought desperately, 'Out of this mess, I got the longer end of the stick.' His throat tightened involuntarily and he could feel tears starting to press upon him. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes.

Starfire could feel his change in movement, "Robin?" she asked dully, with a slight hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes, Starfire?" Robin's voice had been lowered to a choked whisper. He swallowed hard again, not willing to give in to his grief, not willing for it to make him look weak in Starfire's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Her voice had regained some of its bright song, bouncing off the walls around them and coming back to Robin's ears over and over again. This, for some reason, made Robin only need to weep more, but he refused to give in. He took a deep breath and managed to choke out his answer in a next-to-natural tone.

"Y-Yes. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Robin, suddenly aware of himself, leaned away from Starfire, allowing her to see what little of his face she could.

"Yes," he forced a smile.

When he saw her face, however, struggling for coherence and consciousness, his heart plunged into yet another uncertain path of panic.

"Starfire?" He asked, waiting for her to make some answer, any answer, as long as he knew she was still with him. There was nothing. "Starfire?" He repeated. Then his voice became very panicked and very urgent. "Starfire! Starfire, wakeup! Come on...remember? I'm scared to be alone in this place. Starfire, please! Talk to me! STARFIRE!"

His friend's eyes opened slowly and with great effort as she looked at him, "What's wrong?"

Robin felt a wave of relief sweep over him as he looked at her would-be attentive face. As he looked at her with this relief, he became suddenly aware of the exhaustion pressing in on him. He tried to shake it off at first, saying that if he fell asleep, he couldn't keep Starfire awake. However, as the time wore on, it became harder and harder to ignore. While all this had been happening, he was steadily talking to Starfire about anything and everything he could possibly think of, even kinds of dresses and food—neither of which he found remotely interesting. Finally, after hours of skating on the edge and fighting against it, sleep bore in on him and refused to let go. In a desperate attempt to keep Starfire awake while he would fall into a troubled slumber...he fibbed.

"Starfire, I need to sleep for a little while, now, I'm getting sick. So, what I need you to do...is to count backwards to one million and wake me up when you're finished. Can you do that?" Robin asked. He felt guilty about lying to her, but he didn't want her to panic about her own condition, and he needed her to stay awake while he slept. He wasn't quite sure how much longer he could hold onto consciousness, himself, so he had to insure that Starfire would try her hardest to stay awake even when he was not there to help.

Starfire surveyed him with a half-worried, half-incoherent look on her face. Then nodded.

"If you are sick, I will take care of you, Robin. Don't worry. You can go to sleep, and I'll wake you up when I'm finished counting," she said triumphantly.

Robin was thankful that Starfire was in no fit state to put two and two together, otherwise he knew she would have demanded that he just sleep as long as he needed to. He nodded reluctantly laying himself back down to the floor, and hesitantly allowed himself to drift into a deep slumber.

All too soon, a pair of gentle hands were shaking Robin awake. A soft voice sung his name until he found himself looking up at Starfire's face. Robin sighed and raised himself to his hands and knees before pulling himself into a sitting position. It took him a brief moment to piece together all the things that had happened since the mansion had collapsed on them, but once he did, he was very thankful that he had been correct about how to keep Starfire awake while he was not. The only problem now, was to make sure that she stayed awake when he was there to keep her company. He felt slightly guilty for falling asleep when the task of keeping Starfire awake was laying on his shoulders. The irony on the situation pressed in on him as he pressured his mind to find something to talk about.

"How long do you think its been since we first found ourselves down here, Starfire?" He watched her attentively, seeing her shrug.

"I don't know," she said through a cracked voice. "It seems like it must have been at least a day. It got really dark in here earlier, while you were sleeping. But now it's a bit lighter in here, just like it was before you fell asleep." Telling from her voice, Starfire sounded as if her mind was a bit sharper now than it had been when he fell asleep a few hours ago.

"I have to confess, though," Starfire said in a guilt ridden voice, "I didn't count to a million. I fell asleep somewhere around two hundred."

Shock suddenly came over Robin in a great wave as the sudden realization of what had just happened sunk into his mind. Then relief spread over him. He had been wrong. Starfire didn't have a major concussion as he had falsely thought before. She had probably just been as tired as he had been...or more. Even so, Robin was quite sure that Starfire's cracked and dull voice had something to do with the dust in her lungs, and there was no mistaking her broken leg.

The small space around him suddenly seemed extraordinarily hot and stuffy. Before he knew what was happening, he found himself doubled over, with his fists against the floor, coughing so fiercely that his lungs burned in his chest. Starfire put a hand on his chest to keep him from losing his grip and falling to the ground. When his coughing fit had subsided, Starfire pulled him upright and put a hand on his forehead. She frowned.

"You are sick," she said as she affectionately brushed away some of the hair from his eyes.

Robin looked up at her questioningly, and as if reading his mind, Starefire gave her explanation.

"You're burning up," she said, waving a hand to indicate his forehead.

Robin nodded, thinking that, that explained why he felt so horrible. Whenever he had told Starfire that he had been getting sick, he didn't actually think he was, but as always...lying comes with consequences. Thankfully, however, these consequences, no matter how annoying and painful they were, they were something he could live with. A thought suddenly occurred to him. He remembered feeling weak when he woke up the first time. He doubted that any building falling on him could hurt him that much. After all, he was a Teen Titian. On the other hand, he was not so resistant to disease. While it was true that he didn't get sick very often in his life; when he did, he got hit hard. He opened his eyes again to see Starfire gently dragging him onto her lap. When she lay his head against her chest he felt his whole body completely give in. His body felt like it was too full of lead to resist anything even if he wanted to. She lifted him up a little more, so that his head was laying on her shoulder and his body was laying on her chest.

Once again, a wave of utter exhaustion came over Robin and not strong enough to resist, he closed his eyes again to welcome the deep slumber that closed in on him. With Starfire's hands tied loosely around his chest, and the steady rise and fall of her own chest against his back, his mind fell into a complete peaceful darkness, and he knew no more...