Author's Note:
Many apologies for both the extreme lateness of this chapter and the shortness of it. This chapter was living hell to write. It is absolute and utter crap. I'm sorry. I really am. At least it's kind of longer, right? It's like 2,500 words or something. Jeez. Besides getting bogged down with constant writers' block the whole way through, school has gotten strangely busy as of late. Is this story getting bad? Bad cheesy? Let me know. Oh yeah, I have no idea what Tamaran is supposed to be like, so I just made it up. Glaring errors should be pointed out for future revisions. In this chapter, behold as the Boy Wonder cops a feel. Ha ha ha. Does anybody even read these author notes? Are you out there? I can seeeeee you. ::waves frantically::
Standard Disclaimer Applies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It Doesn't Show Signs of Stopping…"
"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…Robin laid an egg…"
"Shut up and hand me that extension cord Beast Boy," Robin frowned as he pointed his staple gun menacingly at his companion. The two teen superheroes were precariously hanging off the roof, in order to decorate the outside of the tower. They were just about finished and Robin was definitely ready to go inside.
Over the last three days, the unusual snowfall had continued, stopping intermittently, only to begin again a few hours later. Many parts of the city had been shut down due to the inability o deal with the amount of the stuff. It was now December 24th, and holiday preparations at Titans Tower were in full swing. While Robin and Beast Boy were finishing up the outdoor decorating, Raven and Starfire were placing the last trimming on the tree, and placing the last of the cookies on trays. It was all very domestic. Cyborg had disappeared to his room shortly after breakfast, saying he had something important to work on, and no one had heard from him since. Starfire had tried to bring him a plate of cookies, but he hadn't answered his door. She left them sitting there, and when she had gone back an hour later, to her surprise, they were mysteriously gone.
"I wonder what he's doing in there…" Beast Boy pondered out loud. He was somehow pretty sure that Cyborg was the one who had to give Raven a present, and saying he was slightly envious was an understatement. He kept having horrible, horrible visions of Cyborg somehow producing a gift that would magically sweep Raven off her feet, and cause her to do something so incredibly uncharacteristic like giggle or cry with joy or hug him or even ki…
"Hey, Beast Boy, take it easy on that box!" Sure enough, as he had been thinking, he had grabbed the empty light box and begun tearing it to shreds with his teeth in frustration. Spitting out the cardboard from his mouth and blushing furiously, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Robin merely raised his eyebrow and turned back to the task at hand.
"Ok BB, take it easy man… Cyborg is your pal. This isn't a competition. Who said he even likes Raven? Who said you even liked Raven? Like-like. You know what I mean. Of course you like her, she's your friend. Yep, just friends, the three of us. Me, Raven, and good ol' Cy. Yeah right, who am I kidding?" Beast Boy waged an impossible war with himself, as he continued to uphold his state of denial. Things would be much easier for everyone, he felt, especially himself, if he just wouldn't admit that he was very much in love with his female teammate. At least not out loud.
He tried very hard, in his own childish way, to gain her attention, to make her jealous, to get her to react towards him in any positive manner. It was pretty hard considering who he was working with here, and while his attempts failed miserably and his insecurity grew, he struggled to maintain his upbeat and cheerful exterior. Actually, it wasn't all that hard. Despite the strength of his unrequited feelings, Beast Boy was, after all, still Beast Boy, and his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor remained mostly intact. That what made him perfect for Raven, he figured. It was like day and night.
*****
"Starfire, stop eating the popcorn garland…we're going to run out." Starfire sneakily hid the offending string behind her back, in an attempt to fool her omnipotent friend.
"It is amazing, Raven, how you know these things, without even looking." The young alien girl resumed her liberal scattering of tinsel on the highest boughs of the tree, in wonderment over how they really looked like little icicles dangling off the branches. Except not as cold.
The preparations were almost complete, and things couldn't be more wonderful in Starfire's opinion. The Tower had taken on a warm, comforting smell of cocoa and baking, everywhere she looked, something was either brilliantly colored or lit up and blinking, and there seemed to be a constant stream of soft tinkling music in the background. It was a sensory overload and she felt she would never get enough of it. She was thankful for everyone else's enthusiasm and grateful for Robin's support of her interest to begin with. But that was how Robin always was. Robin made earth all that more of an inviting place, and Starfire didn't realize it, but she was helping him see the world anew from her eyes. A world that while sometimes confusing and unpleasant, was also filled with incredible and amazing things. Like Christmas.
Finding her way to that one person, her dear friend Robin, from the very beginning of her time on Earth, she considered to be one of her greatest blessings. Since, from what she had gathered, Christmas was a time to "count your blessings," she thought it was important that her gift to him showed exactly how lucky she felt to have found him.
After her day of shopping with Raven, Starfire had gone off on her own, exploring many shops downtown looking for that something. She had returned to the Tower, defeated and ready to believe there really was no object she could buy that could encompass all of her feelings for someone as kind and caring, and thoughtful and understanding as Robin.
After she and Raven had completed trimming the tree, Starfire returned to her room to re-ponder her dire situation. Christmas Eve and still no gift had come forth. It was then that her gaze happened to fall upon a box of keepsakes she had brought with her from Tamaran. She hadn't examined the contents of this box in a long while, having been so overwhelmed with things to keep her busy on Earth.
The little box contained a few notes of well wishing, dried fragments of familiar plants that bloomed in the garden, and there, finally, there thing she had been searching for. It was a strangely curved black stone, worn smooth and polished over time. It seemed to sparkle in the dim light like onyx, as it hung from Starfire's fingers on a thin silvery chain.
"Hey Starfire!" The redheaded princess quickly replaced the stone in the box and clamped the lid shut defensively. Beast Boy was standing at her door, and seemed rather in a hurry. "We're gonna exchange presents now, c'mon! Oh yeah, you got any tape?"
*****
Starfire entered the living room, where Raven, Robin and Beast Boy had already gathered on the circular couch, each clutching their chose gift in hand. Each package was wrapped in a completely different way. Raven's package had been wrapped by the clerk in the store where she had bought it, in holiday print red and green paper, topped with a medium sized gold star-shaped bow. It was very pretty, but seemed almost silly resting in Raven's hand. It made her look almost… jolly, Starfire giggled to herself as she took a seat next to Robin, whose package was meticulously wrapped in iridescent pink paper, that sometimes shone purple, green, and gold in the light. This rather largish looking present was finished off with pink, purple, and aqua curled ribbons that bounced with each of Robin's nervous foot taps.
"Where is Cyborg?" Starfire asked, after performing a scan of the room and finding her robotic teammate absent. Both Robin and Beast Boy looked slightly annoyed at the question, as if they were wondering the same thing themselves, and Raven just glared at them before answering Star.
"He said he needed more time on his present, and that we should go ahead without him." Starfire thought about this until she realized Robin was staring at her in a… most unusual way. He seemed very nervous about something. Maybe he had that "gift-giving anxiety" Raven had been talking about earlier. She gave him what she considered her most reassuring smile, but he just seemed to look a bit worse from it. She looked down at the gift in her own hands, which she had quickly wrapped in some red tissue paper.
Raven cleared her throat, and began. "Beast Boy, this is from me. Er… Merry Christmas. I hope you like it." Raven practically threw it at him, but nobody really noticed, because Beast Boy was so eager to open it, he snatched it right up and tore off the paper.
"Awesome!! Next Illusion 32!! This is the most awesome game ever made. There's 80 worlds, and over 40 characters, not including secret characters you can unlock, and of course there's the online gaming option, with multiple servers for multiple dimensions of pla-"
"Did you memorize the commercial?" Raven tried to look thoroughly disgusted, but deep down, Starfire suspected, she was really quite happy about the reception of her gift. Beast Boy wasn't listening, and had already taken the game out of the box, along with its many companion playbooks and manuals.
"C'mon, we have to try it out right now!!" Before she could protest, Beast Boy had bounced up, game in hand, grabbing Raven by the arm and pulled her out of the room. Raven looked helpless as she was pulled away against her will.
Starfire giggled and turned to Robin. "Now I can give you my gift, Robin." She handed him the small parcel, placing it gently in the palm of his hand. "Merry Christmas!" She beamed as he began untying the string. As the tissue paper fell open, Starfire watched with bright green eyes as Robin gently picked the stone up by its cord, and looked at it, and then at her.
"It's … very pretty."
"It is a Tamarainian good luck charm. I brought it with me when I came here. I wish for you to have it."
Robin seemed doubtful, and studied the stone carefully in the light. "Are you sure? This is yours, don't you want to keep it?"
"I no longer have the need for it. Since I have been on earth, I seem to have all the luck I need. Therefore, give this to you, because you have made me the luckiest person on the planet." Starfire smiled gently as Robin blushed almost as red as Santa's red suit. He seemed at a loss for a moment, before he cleared his throat and picked up his gift.
"This is for you," He smiled gently as she took the square package from his hands. "Merry Christmas."
She found herself blushing as she slowly undid the carefully wrapped item. She breathed heavily as she laid eyes on the heavy leather book that lay in her lap. Its cover had no markings, and she looked at Robin's expectant face questioningly.
"It's a scrap book. You put different things in it that remind you of things you've done," as Robin spoke, Starfire opened to the middle of the book to find there were photographs of different outings they had gone on. There was a group photo of them from the amusement park they had gone to that summer, a ticket stub from the first movie they had all gone to together -the first one Starfire had ever seen on earth- more pictures of them inside the tower, various newspaper clippings from the villains they had faced…
Starfire turned each page over, marveling at the many things Robin had managed to save and compile into his volume. She was touched, and didn't know what to say. "Robin… this is…"
"Read the front page," Robin gestured as he shifted nervously in his chair. Starfire turned to the front page, which had nothing glued to it, but rather had a long note written in pen.
"Star-
Merry Christmas! I hope you like this scrapbook I put together. It didn't take me long to think of it for you, as I've been saving all these things since you first came to earth anyway. I want you to always have a record of your time here on earth, and your friends here who care about you. But I'm making it sound like you're going to leave – actually I hope you stay here with me on this planet forever. I never dreamed I could meet someone as wonderful as you. In this short time, you've become my best friend, and the light on the dark side of me. I guess, I just want to say thank you.
Love,
Robin
Suddenly, Starfire was very acutely aware that they were very much alone in the room. The atmosphere had changed, and she looked up at Robin. The book's dedication hadn't said much, but reading between the lines, it spoke volumes about Robin's true feelings. Starfire didn't know it, but it had taken him a good six hours to write the letter, finding every part of it an inadequate expression of what he wanted to really say. Their eyes met, as they sat there on the couch, strains of "Silver Bells" making their way into Starfire's ears. She wasn't really sure why, if it was the gift, or the music, or the temperature of the room, but she knew she wanted to be as close to her best friend as humanly possible.
He must have been thinking the same thing, because they clumsily bumped into a tentative embrace, before sorting themselves out and tightly holding one another. Starfire closely studied Robin's slightly open mouth, as she could feel his strained breath. The same strange feeling as before caused her to slowly press her lips to his. Robin's response was to grasp her more tightly, positioning his hands on her lower back, and the girl pulled back with a sharp breath, before her lips were recaptured in an equally gentle, but much less hesitant return kiss. Things began very slowly, but soon began to pick up pace as both became more secure in their explorations. This went on until Robin broke the contact to speak:
"Merry Christmas Star."
A/N:(I'm sooo sorry!!)
Many apologies for both the extreme lateness of this chapter and the shortness of it. This chapter was living hell to write. It is absolute and utter crap. I'm sorry. I really am. At least it's kind of longer, right? It's like 2,500 words or something. Jeez. Besides getting bogged down with constant writers' block the whole way through, school has gotten strangely busy as of late. Is this story getting bad? Bad cheesy? Let me know. Oh yeah, I have no idea what Tamaran is supposed to be like, so I just made it up. Glaring errors should be pointed out for future revisions. In this chapter, behold as the Boy Wonder cops a feel. Ha ha ha. Does anybody even read these author notes? Are you out there? I can seeeeee you. ::waves frantically::
Standard Disclaimer Applies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It Doesn't Show Signs of Stopping…"
"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…Robin laid an egg…"
"Shut up and hand me that extension cord Beast Boy," Robin frowned as he pointed his staple gun menacingly at his companion. The two teen superheroes were precariously hanging off the roof, in order to decorate the outside of the tower. They were just about finished and Robin was definitely ready to go inside.
Over the last three days, the unusual snowfall had continued, stopping intermittently, only to begin again a few hours later. Many parts of the city had been shut down due to the inability o deal with the amount of the stuff. It was now December 24th, and holiday preparations at Titans Tower were in full swing. While Robin and Beast Boy were finishing up the outdoor decorating, Raven and Starfire were placing the last trimming on the tree, and placing the last of the cookies on trays. It was all very domestic. Cyborg had disappeared to his room shortly after breakfast, saying he had something important to work on, and no one had heard from him since. Starfire had tried to bring him a plate of cookies, but he hadn't answered his door. She left them sitting there, and when she had gone back an hour later, to her surprise, they were mysteriously gone.
"I wonder what he's doing in there…" Beast Boy pondered out loud. He was somehow pretty sure that Cyborg was the one who had to give Raven a present, and saying he was slightly envious was an understatement. He kept having horrible, horrible visions of Cyborg somehow producing a gift that would magically sweep Raven off her feet, and cause her to do something so incredibly uncharacteristic like giggle or cry with joy or hug him or even ki…
"Hey, Beast Boy, take it easy on that box!" Sure enough, as he had been thinking, he had grabbed the empty light box and begun tearing it to shreds with his teeth in frustration. Spitting out the cardboard from his mouth and blushing furiously, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Robin merely raised his eyebrow and turned back to the task at hand.
"Ok BB, take it easy man… Cyborg is your pal. This isn't a competition. Who said he even likes Raven? Who said you even liked Raven? Like-like. You know what I mean. Of course you like her, she's your friend. Yep, just friends, the three of us. Me, Raven, and good ol' Cy. Yeah right, who am I kidding?" Beast Boy waged an impossible war with himself, as he continued to uphold his state of denial. Things would be much easier for everyone, he felt, especially himself, if he just wouldn't admit that he was very much in love with his female teammate. At least not out loud.
He tried very hard, in his own childish way, to gain her attention, to make her jealous, to get her to react towards him in any positive manner. It was pretty hard considering who he was working with here, and while his attempts failed miserably and his insecurity grew, he struggled to maintain his upbeat and cheerful exterior. Actually, it wasn't all that hard. Despite the strength of his unrequited feelings, Beast Boy was, after all, still Beast Boy, and his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor remained mostly intact. That what made him perfect for Raven, he figured. It was like day and night.
"Starfire, stop eating the popcorn garland…we're going to run out." Starfire sneakily hid the offending string behind her back, in an attempt to fool her omnipotent friend.
"It is amazing, Raven, how you know these things, without even looking." The young alien girl resumed her liberal scattering of tinsel on the highest boughs of the tree, in wonderment over how they really looked like little icicles dangling off the branches. Except not as cold.
The preparations were almost complete, and things couldn't be more wonderful in Starfire's opinion. The Tower had taken on a warm, comforting smell of cocoa and baking, everywhere she looked, something was either brilliantly colored or lit up and blinking, and there seemed to be a constant stream of soft tinkling music in the background. It was a sensory overload and she felt she would never get enough of it. She was thankful for everyone else's enthusiasm and grateful for Robin's support of her interest to begin with. But that was how Robin always was. Robin made earth all that more of an inviting place, and Starfire didn't realize it, but she was helping him see the world anew from her eyes. A world that while sometimes confusing and unpleasant, was also filled with incredible and amazing things. Like Christmas.
Finding her way to that one person, her dear friend Robin, from the very beginning of her time on Earth, she considered to be one of her greatest blessings. Since, from what she had gathered, Christmas was a time to "count your blessings," she thought it was important that her gift to him showed exactly how lucky she felt to have found him.
After her day of shopping with Raven, Starfire had gone off on her own, exploring many shops downtown looking for that something. She had returned to the Tower, defeated and ready to believe there really was no object she could buy that could encompass all of her feelings for someone as kind and caring, and thoughtful and understanding as Robin.
After she and Raven had completed trimming the tree, Starfire returned to her room to re-ponder her dire situation. Christmas Eve and still no gift had come forth. It was then that her gaze happened to fall upon a box of keepsakes she had brought with her from Tamaran. She hadn't examined the contents of this box in a long while, having been so overwhelmed with things to keep her busy on Earth.
The little box contained a few notes of well wishing, dried fragments of familiar plants that bloomed in the garden, and there, finally, there thing she had been searching for. It was a strangely curved black stone, worn smooth and polished over time. It seemed to sparkle in the dim light like onyx, as it hung from Starfire's fingers on a thin silvery chain.
"Hey Starfire!" The redheaded princess quickly replaced the stone in the box and clamped the lid shut defensively. Beast Boy was standing at her door, and seemed rather in a hurry. "We're gonna exchange presents now, c'mon! Oh yeah, you got any tape?"
Starfire entered the living room, where Raven, Robin and Beast Boy had already gathered on the circular couch, each clutching their chose gift in hand. Each package was wrapped in a completely different way. Raven's package had been wrapped by the clerk in the store where she had bought it, in holiday print red and green paper, topped with a medium sized gold star-shaped bow. It was very pretty, but seemed almost silly resting in Raven's hand. It made her look almost… jolly, Starfire giggled to herself as she took a seat next to Robin, whose package was meticulously wrapped in iridescent pink paper, that sometimes shone purple, green, and gold in the light. This rather largish looking present was finished off with pink, purple, and aqua curled ribbons that bounced with each of Robin's nervous foot taps.
"Where is Cyborg?" Starfire asked, after performing a scan of the room and finding her robotic teammate absent. Both Robin and Beast Boy looked slightly annoyed at the question, as if they were wondering the same thing themselves, and Raven just glared at them before answering Star.
"He said he needed more time on his present, and that we should go ahead without him." Starfire thought about this until she realized Robin was staring at her in a… most unusual way. He seemed very nervous about something. Maybe he had that "gift-giving anxiety" Raven had been talking about earlier. She gave him what she considered her most reassuring smile, but he just seemed to look a bit worse from it. She looked down at the gift in her own hands, which she had quickly wrapped in some red tissue paper.
Raven cleared her throat, and began. "Beast Boy, this is from me. Er… Merry Christmas. I hope you like it." Raven practically threw it at him, but nobody really noticed, because Beast Boy was so eager to open it, he snatched it right up and tore off the paper.
"Awesome!! Next Illusion 32!! This is the most awesome game ever made. There's 80 worlds, and over 40 characters, not including secret characters you can unlock, and of course there's the online gaming option, with multiple servers for multiple dimensions of pla-"
"Did you memorize the commercial?" Raven tried to look thoroughly disgusted, but deep down, Starfire suspected, she was really quite happy about the reception of her gift. Beast Boy wasn't listening, and had already taken the game out of the box, along with its many companion playbooks and manuals.
"C'mon, we have to try it out right now!!" Before she could protest, Beast Boy had bounced up, game in hand, grabbing Raven by the arm and pulled her out of the room. Raven looked helpless as she was pulled away against her will.
Starfire giggled and turned to Robin. "Now I can give you my gift, Robin." She handed him the small parcel, placing it gently in the palm of his hand. "Merry Christmas!" She beamed as he began untying the string. As the tissue paper fell open, Starfire watched with bright green eyes as Robin gently picked the stone up by its cord, and looked at it, and then at her.
"It's … very pretty."
"It is a Tamarainian good luck charm. I brought it with me when I came here. I wish for you to have it."
Robin seemed doubtful, and studied the stone carefully in the light. "Are you sure? This is yours, don't you want to keep it?"
"I no longer have the need for it. Since I have been on earth, I seem to have all the luck I need. Therefore, give this to you, because you have made me the luckiest person on the planet." Starfire smiled gently as Robin blushed almost as red as Santa's red suit. He seemed at a loss for a moment, before he cleared his throat and picked up his gift.
"This is for you," He smiled gently as she took the square package from his hands. "Merry Christmas."
She found herself blushing as she slowly undid the carefully wrapped item. She breathed heavily as she laid eyes on the heavy leather book that lay in her lap. Its cover had no markings, and she looked at Robin's expectant face questioningly.
"It's a scrap book. You put different things in it that remind you of things you've done," as Robin spoke, Starfire opened to the middle of the book to find there were photographs of different outings they had gone on. There was a group photo of them from the amusement park they had gone to that summer, a ticket stub from the first movie they had all gone to together -the first one Starfire had ever seen on earth- more pictures of them inside the tower, various newspaper clippings from the villains they had faced…
Starfire turned each page over, marveling at the many things Robin had managed to save and compile into his volume. She was touched, and didn't know what to say. "Robin… this is…"
"Read the front page," Robin gestured as he shifted nervously in his chair. Starfire turned to the front page, which had nothing glued to it, but rather had a long note written in pen.
"Star-
Merry Christmas! I hope you like this scrapbook I put together. It didn't take me long to think of it for you, as I've been saving all these things since you first came to earth anyway. I want you to always have a record of your time here on earth, and your friends here who care about you. But I'm making it sound like you're going to leave – actually I hope you stay here with me on this planet forever. I never dreamed I could meet someone as wonderful as you. In this short time, you've become my best friend, and the light on the dark side of me. I guess, I just want to say thank you.
Love,
Robin
Suddenly, Starfire was very acutely aware that they were very much alone in the room. The atmosphere had changed, and she looked up at Robin. The book's dedication hadn't said much, but reading between the lines, it spoke volumes about Robin's true feelings. Starfire didn't know it, but it had taken him a good six hours to write the letter, finding every part of it an inadequate expression of what he wanted to really say. Their eyes met, as they sat there on the couch, strains of "Silver Bells" making their way into Starfire's ears. She wasn't really sure why, if it was the gift, or the music, or the temperature of the room, but she knew she wanted to be as close to her best friend as humanly possible.
He must have been thinking the same thing, because they clumsily bumped into a tentative embrace, before sorting themselves out and tightly holding one another. Starfire closely studied Robin's slightly open mouth, as she could feel his strained breath. The same strange feeling as before caused her to slowly press her lips to his. Robin's response was to grasp her more tightly, positioning his hands on her lower back, and the girl pulled back with a sharp breath, before her lips were recaptured in an equally gentle, but much less hesitant return kiss. Things began very slowly, but soon began to pick up pace as both became more secure in their explorations. This went on until Robin broke the contact to speak:
"Merry Christmas Star."
A/N:(I'm sooo sorry!!)