My Fair Maiden
Standard procedure: I hereby declare no ownership over anything that is related to Teen Titans. Though I do own a few comic books of theirs, but those aren't as good as the cartoon. weeps
Note: This chapter is mostly perspectives from the Titans besides Starfire and Robin, and the introduction of their co-workers for now. But there'll be more Robin and Starfire dialogue and thoughts, there's always more, hehehehehehheeehe.
"Tell me again how we got into this?" Robin, the fearless leader of the Teen Titans, half growled and half scowled.
Cyborg, the metallic man, grinned. "I'm gonna spare both of us the trouble by not talking. 'Sides, what's so bad about this?"
"If you haven't noticed, I'm getting a makeover by a robot and wearing a suit of armor!!!" His face flushed with a combination of anger and embarrassment.
It was a series of hilarious coincidences and accidents that led the Teen Titans to this situation. What's the situation? Why, they're going to be performing a play! Named appropriately, "My Fair Maiden".
Slade had decided to make reappearances lately, and thus Robin's cool debonair faltered and he constantly chased after the mad man. Slade had at one point wanted to steal some rare and valuable diamonds, though not for the purpose of embellishing himself with jewelry.
The diamonds were of high caliber densities, and so were perfect for creating dangerous laser weaponry. Either way, the mines for these diamonds were very scattered, and Slade had sent a batch of robots to attack each one. The Titans had to split up to prevent the robots from achieving their goal.
As usual, Robin went berserk and dispatched the robots very quickly, and ran off to aid any of other Titans, the closest one happened to be Starfire.
When Robin arrived on his R-cycle, he found Starfire hurt because she was trying to protect a group of children. He didn't ask for the reason the children were there, because he was almost insane with anger. The appearance Starfire gave off was almost helpless, and he knew Starfire wasn't helpless, the robots just got lucky with circumstances.
He defeated all of the robots in a fury of attacks that shook the entire mine. The children cheered as they watched the hero eliminate each and every one of the evil robots, with Starfire smiling along with them.
Robin's immediate concern was Starfire, and he inquired upon her condition once he cleaved the last robot in half. She was fortunately not harmed much, as Robin thought, there's no way those robots could defeat Starfire.
The children then scrambled all around the Boy Wonder, grabbing his cape, pushing his utility belt, trying to pull his mask, etc.
Starfire giggled as she watched Robin twirling and running around, trying to get the children off him.
It would seem that Starfire liked children very much, since she actually personally took the children, who by now told them that they ran out of school in thirst for adventure, back to the local elementary school.
The rest of the Titans had taken care of the rest of the robots and joined Robin and Starfire at the school, and immediately gathered much attention.
Starfire had kept in touch with the children ever since. And as soon as Slade's activities decreased dramatically, things came up.
By one mean or another, Starfire had somehow volunteered the entire team to participate in a play as a fundraiser for the school. The others weren't really thrilled in the beginning, but no one could ever think about disappointing the Tamaranian girl, and eventually all of them agreed.
Well, actually Robin threatened the rest of the team to accept when he saw how crestfallen Starfire was.
So here they were, preparing for the dress rehearsal, and Robin was grumpy.
"Hey, it ain't my fault Raven don't know how to put makeup on. Though it doesn't make sense, you know, with the pale skin and all, think she'd at least have some kind of foundation she uses. Or a blusher, yeah, a blusher. That'd make sense."
Robin was impressed and appalled by how much his friend acted like a real hairdresser. He couldn't stop babbling. So he tuned Cyborg out.
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.....Starfire.....blah, blah, blah, blah....."
"What about Starfire?" He asked instinctively, and then scolded himself when he realized the only word in Cyborg's unnecessary ramble he heard was Starfire.
I guess subtly isn't my strongpoint. And I'm supposed to be the secretive one.
(Batman punched out another one of Joker's goons. The maniacal clown, despite being on the edge of being beaten into a pulp was still laughing and howling. Batman narrowed his eyes and upper cutted the clown into the air. Robin jumped in, in time to see Joker being beaten. "Way to go Bruce! You got him!" Everyone froze. Robin went into shock and Batman frowned. Joker just stared.)
He frowned when Cyborg grinned.
"Man, is that the only name you ever hear nowadays?" Cyborg said mischievously while fastening a button on his cape.
Robin still didn't hear Cyborg's comments, instead, he began musing about the past few weeks and the ambrosia that stemed from all this commotion.
"Okay, tell me again why we're going to be performing. At a school! As a fund raiser! That's like, for boy scouts or cookie selling little girls!!!" Beast Boy whined while waving his arms melodramatically.
The troupe they going to be working with was a traveling with some fame. The troupe had recently come to Jump City and set up near the elementary school. Then as an appreciation for letting them stay for awhile, the troupe decided to perform in a fund raising program to garner money to donate to the school.
"Well, you heard our fearless leader. Unless you want a birdarang in your 'arse', you're going to be doing this play." Cyborg answered calmly, though he was irritated by the green elf's antics in his car.
Beast Boy just got aggravated. "Man! Just because he has a crush on her doesn't mean he can just threaten us to do something! I mean, he was about to use his bo-staff on me!"
"Yeah, I do agree that Robin's getting a little overprotective about Star. But you know how he is, and I'm sure he was only bluffing."
Beast Boy glared at Robin's back, who was driving in front of the T-car on the R-cycle, with Starfire holding around his waist and smiling from the exhilarating feeling of speed.
"Stupid womanizing, bike riding, spiky haired, grumble grumble...."
Cyborg ignored Beast Boy's babblings.
He'll get over it soon enough.
He then turned his attention to Raven, and observed her through the rearview mirror.
She appeared to be in deep thought, staring out the window at nothing particular, but he noticed how she glanced at Robin and Starfire a few times.
"So, Raven. What do you think?"
"Yeah, Raven. What do you think?" Beast Boy jumped.
Raven glanced at Beast Boy then turned to look at Cyborg's human eye through the mirror. "I think this is a good thing."
(And so the world blew up.)
The two boys looked incredulous. "Eh? Didn't expect that one." Cyborg said scratching his head.
Beast Boy was now very curious. "I thought you would get all creepy and angry about this, what's up with the optimism? It don't sound like you."
Raven regarded him for a second, before glancing at the couple on the motor cycle to then continue talking.
"We're all a little stressed lately, Robin especially. We should all do something that doesn't involve fighting for awhile. It's also a good chance to see the city we protect, and show Starfire some of our 'earth customs'."
Cyborg watched the girl through the rearview mirror. "You know something, don't you?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Raven replied with a question that was in a you-wont-make-me-talk tone.
Cyborg frowned. "You better tell us what's going on, girl, cause I ain't gonna stop pestering you until you do."
Raven's eyes narrowed. "It's confidential."
"Oh, I know! It's that talk you had with Starfire!" Beast Boy chirped, unbeknownst to the girl's glare.
"You were eavesdropping!!??" She began to show some of Trigon.
"Eeeeep!" The boy cowered with his hands. "No I didn't! I swear! I just heard you and Starfire's voices in your room, but I didn't listen to anything!"
The girl simmered down, but still kept on a glare. Cyborg was cringing and sweating the whole time, and relaxed when she semi-psycho.
"Rae? Please don't do that again, I was so freaked that you were gonna pop a part of my baby."
Beast Boy lowered his defenses, but remained alert to any chance of being thrashed.
"So........ you psyched about the play?"
"Well, we're 'bout to find out. We're there."
Cyborg parked the T-car expertly right next to the R-cycle. He saw Starfire hopping in place from giddiness and excitement, and saw that Robin was smiling affectionately at the Tamaranian girl, apparently influenced by her excitement.
Awwwww. So cute, just like me and my beautiful baby.
"Isn't that right? Sweety." He said to the T-car, patting it lovingly.
Beast Boy moved away from his friend slowly.
School was over, and almost all the children came pouring out, but not because they were eager to go home. Everyone in the school, actually the entire city, knew that the Teen Titans were going to be temporary working with a troupe, and so the children came out to bask in the glory of their idols.
Raven noticed how each of the Titans attracted different types of children.
"Look! It's Cyborg!" One child pointed out, he had freckles and red hair. He wore a cap and sported a t-shirt that had the logo of Quicksilver on it.
"Wow! Are those cool machine thingies for real, um, sir?" asked one of the redhead's friends excitedly, albeit shyly.
Cyborg smiled warmly. "Sure are, little man. Now tell me your names."
All the kids around Cyborg were boys, but at least it was a nice variety of boys, ranging from the future school jocks to science intrigued young scholars.
Robin attracted the attention of the more ambitious and determined populous of the school community, all of them suspiciously coincidental with black hair and sterner appearance than the others. Also, there were a good number of small girls blushing and staring at the fearless leader.
Starfire was in the presence of most of the girls of the school, and was already chatting with them about this and that. She seemed to really enjoy talking to the children.
Probably because they're like her, more innocent than the rest of society.
Don't forget though, that there's always a few of the older boys that appreciated how pretty Starfire is, though they didn't understand fully yet.
Beast Boy naturally got the attention of the jokesters of the classes, and was showing off some of his morphing abilities with weird puns and odd jokes. But many of the other kids also liked him because he could morph into a 'cooler' animal such as a wolf without the ferocious part.
Like a safe zoo, thought Raven, inwardly grinning at the comparison.
"Ummm... hello, miss Raven." She heard a timid voice below her, and glanced down to find several kids gathered around her.
Unlike the rest of the children with the Titans, this group of kids appeared reserved and a bit......afraid.
"Hello." She said this in monotone.
The group of kids remained inactive. And Raven just stared at them, emotionless.
This is awkward.
She could feel the uneasiness the children were permeating. It was a combination between curiosity, awe, fear, and admiration. She didn't want the children to be afraid of her, even if she didn't want to emit any emotions.
She walked towards them, knelt down, and formed a small but genuine smile.
"Don't be afraid, ask me something." The smiles appeared on their cute faces and a barrage of questions came.
It's like a broken dam!!!! The water won't stop flowing!
The Titans entered the school, with many of the children trailing along.
"Greetings to you all! By golly, I'm such a fan of each and every one you!" A voice ran through the theatre. The Titans looked up to see a man on stage, holding his hands to his chest.
The man's attire had looked suspiciously like the one Mad Mod had.
Very queer. At least he doesn't LOOK like that British moron.
Indeed, the man at least appeared different. He was blonde but was just as pale as Mad Mod. He had a monocle and sported a green scarf, and he smelled like cologne, which Beast Boy disdainfully picked up with his keen sense of smell.
Robin initiated, as being the leader required such actions. "Hi, we're the Teen Titans as you know, and we're here for-"
"Oh, of course I know what you're here for. And may I say how wonderfully delightful it is to see teen superheroes these days with a sense of charitable enthusiasm to help the community!" The director interrupted with a crooked smile, and got a bit too much into the Boy Wonder's comfort zone.
"Uh, yeah." Robin began to reply, uncomfortable with the man's closeness and leaned backwards in escape.
"The guy's got some serious issues." Beast Boy whispered to Cyborg.
"At least he's not starting to call us 'duckies'." The metallic giant whispered back.
Raven's eyes were twitching.
"It is a pleasing of greetings to meet you as well, amiable director." Starfire chirped up, walking to Robin's side.
"Yeah....a....um...pleasure to meet....you. Mr.....??" Robin droned.
"Oh! How RUDE of me. My name is William Alexander Giovanni the Third. But you can just call me Will. Not Bill! Will."
Needless to say, Robin was getting more uncomfortable with Bi-I mean Will, as well as the rest of the Titans except Starfire. She was too excited by the upcoming activity to get annoyed by a weird man.
"Now, allow me to introduce you to the rest of the troupe! Everyone, come on out!" He chirped and clapped his hands.
Various people began to file out of from behind the curtains, and the Teen Titans found themselves looking at some special teens and adults, each special in their own way.
"Now everyone introduce yourselves, you too, my Titans. I want it to sound a bit formal, for manners sake."
"'My Titans'?" Beast Boy groaned. "What are we? Action figures?"
"Hi everyone, we're the Teen Titans." Robin began.
"I'm Robin."
"The names Cyborg." He pumped his arm.
"Beast Boy's the name, funny is my game."
"I am Starfire of Tamaran. It is a great pleasure to meet you all!" The radiant smile was very bright.
".......Raven."
That was followed by a brief moment of awkwardness until one of the actors came up.
"Hola, Titans. Me llamo es Javier, please to meet you all." Began a teen obviously of Hispanic descent. He wore only a red jacket and without a shirt, also clad in black sweat pants. "I'm the one who helps with all the crate moving, electric, and mumbo jumbo."
He looks decent enough, a bit lazy looking but then again, so am I. Beast examined.
Next came started a petite blonde girl. She wore a tank top that only reached to her mid drift, and a pair of kakhi pants.
"Hey ya everyone! My name's Julia! Gotta say, I'm a big fan of Robin's since I used to live in Gotham before I joined the troupe. Hey there." The girl waved enthusiastically to the Boy Wonder, who just smiled back, but Starfire didn't look too pleased, and scooted a bit closer to Robin.
(A chibi Starfire hugged a chibi Robin close to her, and started to shoot lasers at the heinous chibi Julia who was blowing kisses at the chibi Robin. Chibi Starfire smiled as only the ashes of chibi Julia remained, and dragged chibi Robin off into the romantic chibi night.)
Julia blinked, then smiled knowingly. "Anyways, I'm the chief stylist here. I get the all the costumes, makeup, etc. You know, the fashions."
She then looked at Raven. "I'll be the one to....pretty you gals up nice and shiny."
Raven's eyes twitched some more.
"I guess I'll go next." Said a young man, who had dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He was almost as tall as Cyborg, though much thinner. He wore a navy blue polo shirt and shorts along with sandals.
"I'm Valence, and before any of you ask, my parents were insane chemists who loved to venture into the unknown realms of atoms. Thus the name Valence."
Beast Boy was the only one who didn't understand.
("Oooooooo. What does THIS button do?" "Noooooooooooo!!!" BOOM!)
Beast Boy took note that Valence was serious looking and gave off an aura of leadership.
"I'm director Giovanni's right hand man. I was the first to join the troupe, so you can think of me as the 'first mate' if you will."
Starfire blushed confusedly. "You are....... the first of the 'troop' to mate?" she asked very alert.
"Aaaaahhhh?" Everyone droned.
"No, Star, he means that he's like the co-captain of a ship, not a mate for others." Robin explained hurriedly, while also blushing.
"Oh, I understand. I am sorry! I did not mean to-"she directed this Valence then to Robin, "I apologize for being so foolish and 'stupid'." Starfire said dejected and slightly bowed her head.
"No, no." Robin was immediately alert, "You're not foolish, never stupid, not you. You just haven't learned everything about earth yet, heck, not even we have learned everything yet." He consoled, holding both of her shoulders.
Oddly enough, Robin was actually as tall as Starfire now, Beast Boy noted with surprise.
Starfire smiled gratefully, and pulled Robin into a hug. Beast Boy seriously felt like he was coated with sugar from the scene.
Raven and Cyborg both seemed to be suppressing some kind of emotion. He was pretty sure Cyborg was trying not to laugh and jump around making jokes and Raven was trying not to groan.
Valence, the so far cold assistant director, was obviously trying to cover a smile.
"Anyways," he began, breaking Robin and Starfire's little moment. "I will also be directing in this play, and any one of you can ask me anything about this troupe. I was here in the beginning and I know all there is to know about it."
A brunette girl wearing a red jump suit came up next. "People call me Jackie! I'm the cutest girl of the troupe!" Julia glared at her. "I'm the prop person, and I'll be the one who directs the set ups for our beautiful stage!"
Jackie wore her long brown hair in braids, and Beast Boy found her very attractive. He subconsciously began shifting forms into a mouse, cat, etc, when she came around to shake his hand.
Uuuuuuuhhhh...... nice hand shake, pretty girl, wicked jump suit......... awesome.
Then, a young man, with chestnut brown hair and pretty hazel eyes came to greet the Titans. He was wearing a green button shirt and nice gray slacks. He smiled brightly at everyone, and winked at the girls.
"Hello my fellow thespians, I am Leo, and I greet you all warmly."
Great, one of the charming folks. Bet he's proletarian.
("And so I have decided to hand over my position as president of Microsoft to the very capable hands of Matt Leblanc. Everyone, give him a hand." Matt Leblanc walked up to the stage, but stopped when he saw a good looking girl. "Hey, how you doing?")
"Besides assisting in the various tasks that need to be done around here, I am at majority of times the one who does the main role of each play we perform. And I am very flattered to be in the presence of such fine and luscious characters such as the Teen Titans."
He shook hands with Robin, and the rest of the Titans. But when he moved on to Starfire, though, he took her hand and kissed it, smiling charmingly at the Tamaranian girl. Starfire blushed slightly from the gesture, and Beast Boy saw Robin's hand twitching. It was obvious that he was reframing himself from taking out his birdarang and shove it up Leo's charming arse.
(A chibi Robin threw several well aimed birdarangs on chibi Leo's arse when he was kissing chibi Starfire's hand, and kicked him away when chibi Leo was yelping in pain. Chibi Robin then proceeded to kiss chibi Starfire's hand, and chibi Starfire giggled with delight.)
Suddenly, a loud voice boomed from much more inside the curtains.
"Hey, ya'll come on back here! Ol' Mara's got some dinner cooking fine and I want you lot to get your actin' butts in here and eat!"
Leo smiled. "That would be madam Mara. She's Jackie's nanny and also the reining cook of the troupe. Her dishes are of pure delight, and she herself is a very spirited and kind woman. Please, come and join us for dinner, it would mean so much to madam Mara. I would also like to get more acquainted with you all."
"Well, I AM hungry. Why not?" Cyborg said, rubbing his tummy.
Beast Boy was still staring at Jackie. "Yeah, dinner, get to know each other more, whatever. But we gotta get to know each other more right?" He said, slightly hypnotized.
Jackie giggled.
"Whatever, let's just do something." Complained Raven, slightly irritated. The Titans knew not to get Raven agitated, because if it gets too far there won't be a stage to perform on.
"Well then, follow me!" Giovanni waved for everyone to follow him.
The cook Mara was just as Leo described: passionate, spirited, but also very kind. She was delighted to have the Titans taste her delicious dishes, which they all agreed was great. She even made Beast Boy vegetarian food that was good enough for Cyborg to eat.
She had acted like a real mother to the Titans, telling them to eat and mind their manners. She was especially fussy about Robin, claiming that a growing boy like him was too skinny for his own good, and made him eat much of the food on the table. Starfire giggled as she watched Robin being coerced into shoving the entire turkey into his mouth.
All in all, the Titans found that the day hadn't turn out as bad as some thought it would, then again it was just Beast Boy who complained in the first place.
They had planned to discuss more about the play and such tomorrow, today was just an acquaintanceship between the two parties. And so they all chatted with each other, discovering various information in the process.
It was late into the night when the Titans got back home to their tower, and everyone returned to their quarters for the day of tomorrow.
Robin had decided to stay up a little longer though, and so sat on the couch in the living room, looking at the dark night through their windows.
He was just dozing off a bit when Starfire walked in with a blanket wrapped around her. She and Robin made eye contact.
"Hello Robin."
"Hey there Star." He droned lazily but smiled nonetheless.
She walked towards him and sat down next to him.
"Why are you not in bed to sleep?" She questioned.
Robin patted his stomach. "Uuuuuhhh. I still haven't digested all the food I was forced to chug down. I think I've just ate an entire Cobornian Worm." He cheered when he saw her chuckle.
"Hehehehe, oh I can imagine how you must be feeling. But I believe madam Mara only meant well."
"I know, I'm grateful for it. Just not my stomach." He made more odd groaning sounds and Starfire giggled some more.
They shared a few more moments of smiles and chuckles before Starfire ceased giggling and looked at Robin with glimmering eyes.
"Robin?"
"Yeah, Star?"
"I wish to thank you."
"For what?"
"Today when you comforted me, when I mistook Valence's position as an......authority of male privilege." She said gazing into his masked eyes.
Robin smiled back. "You're welcome, Starfire. But you should know by now that you don't need to thank me for anything. I'd do anything for you."
Starfire reached out to hold his hand, emotions playing beautifully in her eyes. She noted with delight that Robin had taken off his gloves, and she could feel the pleasant heat from his hand.
"Then, I would have to thank you even more, Richard."
Robin smiled at his past name. Starfire was also the only one to know that name, just as he was the only one to know her Tamaranian name. He felt this connection to be.....special. And apparently so did Starfire, because she only called him Richard when they were alone together.
They continued to gaze at each other, holding hands, fingers entwined, for a few minutes until Starfire finally got up to leave.
"Good night, Richard." And she walked calmly back to her room, glancing at the Boy Wonder once more before she disappeared down into the dark hall.
Robin stared at the hall where Starfire went into, a serene look on his face. He gently touched the hand he held with Stafire's.
So warm.
Indeed, that hand was warm throughout the entire night and well into the morning until he saw Starfire again, and gained a new sense of warmth.
To be continued..... That is.... if people think this sucks and want me to stop, then say so.........