Hi, guys! Did you miss me?

(Dodges rocks thrown by readers)

Yes, well...(ahem)... sorry. I would never have done the cliffhanger thing if I'd known how long it was going to take to write again. I did get some good reviews, though, including a constructive comment that I appreciated, though it made me a bit disappointed in myself. Am I really bad at Star's speech? I knew I was slacking on the formality and the confused grammar a bit... but, the thing is, I got tired of her sounding confused all the time, and decided she'd picked up a few idioms by now. And that's my excuse. I feel like I recovered a little in Ch. 5, but... oh well. Thanks for the advice, Cat o'theWind. Also in response to Natasha, about X'Hal: it's ok, I only meant it as an exclamation, anyway ("goodness, Robin!"). If X'Hal isn't the Tameranian goddess, as I've been told,, the word has served its purpose to me anyway. Thanks, though. And don't ever be afraid to correct me; I'm not an expert.

I've written you a nice, short chapter resolving that awful cliffie I left you with. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Teen Titans. Lost cell phone that rang like Titans' communicator. Very sad about it (sniff). Also, I seem to have misplaced my pants. You think I'm kidding... if only that were so...

Robin's head was spinning. It was rather confusing, the way everything in him was speeding up into a blur, but time seemed to be slowing down anyway. She wasn't moving; at least, he didn't feel her move; he couldn't actually see her, as his eyes had closed. Was she really going to just... let him do it? Was she really sitting their, waiting for him to kiss her?

He felt his nose collide gently with hers, and shivered a little at the contact. Almost there... and then, as if to convince himself yet again that he wasn't dreaming, Robin forced his eyes open to take a last glance–

–and met her eyes. Still open. Very, very wide.Her mouth had dropped open slightly, and she had nearly gone cross-eyed from watching him. She looked horribly alarmed; and, to his dismay, he noticed that she was visibly shaking.

Cursing under his breath, he yanked his hands off of her and fell backward, covering his eyes with the heels of his hands as if he had seen something he wasn't supposed to. Sliding hastily away from her, he muttered continuously under his breath, though only every other word ended up being intelligible.

"Sorry... what was I... idiot... the scarf... I didn't... oh, man... I don't... you... I..."

"Robin?"

"You must think... so sorry... never meant..."

"Robin?"

Now he wasn't even making sense. An endless, apologetic stream of muffled sounds issued from his mouth as he hunched over and held his hand over his eyes, massaging his temples wearily.

"Robin."

She hadn't yelled, but something about her tone made him straighten and look at her. He had scooted about three feet away, but she hadn't moved. She sat back on her heels, playing with the ends of her scarf in her lap, her head tilted to the left very slightly as she looked at him. What was that in her eyes? Concern? Puzzlement? Maybe... disappointment? What had happened to the shock and revulsion?

"Robin, why 'on the Earth' do you look so miserable?"

Had it been a normal day, he would have corrected her use of the extraneous article in that sentence. However, he felt that there were more pressing matters at hand than Starfire's grasp of idiomatic English. "I... aren't you angry? Or uncomfortable? Or something?"

"I am... well, I..." He thought he saw her face turn sad, but very briefly. "It is unimportant. But something is the matter with you, is it not? Please, tell me what is wrong, and perhaps I can help."

He would have laughed, if he was capable of it. "After that... you're being... nice?"

She looked thoroughly confused. "Of course. Is there a particular reason why I should not be? You are my best friend."

She had to add that last part, of course. Now Robin was baffled and heartbroken.

"After all," she continued, with only a hint of awkwardness, "it is hardly cause for hostility that you elected to... change your mind," she explained, her kind smile wavering a bit as she looked at the floor.

"Change my mind?" Now that was an odd thing to say. "Star, I don't think you quite... do you know what just–"

"You were about to kiss me," she stated simply. She didn't even blush, as Robin did. She simply continued to stare at the floor, as if resigning herself to something.

Robin was floored. "You know about...?"

"Of course. As I believe the phrase goes, I was not born today... or yesterday...or..." She wrinkled her nose in frustration. "I was born a significant amount of time ago. I am rather new to this planet, Robin, but I notice much; my eyes are open."

He winced at her choice of words, but she didn't seem to notice.

"In any case," she continued, assuming a rather businesslike manner, "I understand that you changed your mind before you had completed the action. I do not doubt that you were simply... 'caught within the moment,'" she reasoned, with a strange edge to her voice. She sounded almost... bitter.

But what was she talking about? She spoke as ifhe had been the one who didn't want the kiss to happen, rather than the other way around.

"I will not hold this against you in any way, Robin. I am not... I am not offended..." But she did look offended, no matter how hard she tried not to. And it was filling him with a sudden hope.

"Star, you think I...? But you... you looked so scared."

"I was," she answered truthfully. "Perhaps not in the way I am scared of monster movies and spiders, however... it was strange... I did not really know what to do. But the fear was not... unpleasant."

Robin's heart started up again when he heard her admission. He was completely thrown. How could she be so honest? How could she be so open? And most of all, how could she believe for a second that he didn't want to take her into his arms and kiss her senseless? "Star, I thought..."

"You do not need to try to justify yourself to me, Robin. I understand."

He moved closer, reaching for her hand. "No, Star, you–"

She shrank away from him. "Please, Robin, this is hard enough!" Finally, her composure faltered, and her easy, analytical honesty was replaced by unmistakable desperation. "I am rather humiliated, and I am feeling that further discussion shall only make it worse. Please, do not," she said, raising a hand and stopping him just as he opened his mouth to interrupt. She sighed, realizing how harshly her voice had come out. She continued, rambling hastily, her face crumpled in clear despair. "You have given me a lovely Christmas, and I had no right to expect... Neither of us is thinking very lucidly... It is very late, and you are tired; you have not been sleeping as much as you should be, and I do not think you have been eating enough either; you should rest. I shall assemble the ingredients for the Tameranian insomnia-curing broth. Have we any ginger root? I believe it will be sufficient, as it is fundamentally the same as the urslaf root,
which--"

Robin never got to hear the beneficial properties of the urslaf root, because he had seized the back of her neck and pressed his mouth over hers. She squeaked rather adorably in surprise, and he laughed against her lips. It was a quick, fierce kiss; he pulled away before she'd had a chance to close her eyes, looking happily bewildered, as if he could hardly believe himself.

She stared, her eyes round as saucers, and brought two of her fingers slowly up to her lips. She smiled, green flames flickering through her eyes - and now he knew for sure that the fire in her glance was meant only for him.

"Oh," she said dazedly, which made Robin laugh. He reached out, cupping her face gently with his palm, and she covered his hand with hers leaned into it with a contented sigh. Sliding his other hand back, brushing over her ear (she giggled when he did that), and landing at the base of her neck, he drew her in to kiss her again - just because he could. It was slower, now. He had time to feel the softness of her lips, and the jolts of electricity as her hand moved slowly up his chest to his shoulder. He had time to savor her... and he noted with a little amusement that she tasted like cinnamon, from the coffee cake. He moved his fingers gently through the loosened tufts of hair at her nape, and found that his other hand was unconsciously grasping one of her braids. She made a sound almost like a purr, and fell into him, clinging around his neck with both arms. He caught her against him, with an arm looped around her waist, and leaned back against the footboard of the bed.

It was half an hour before they could bring themselves to stop for a rest.

"Robin?" She was leaning against him, her head on his chest, as he reclined against her footboard.

"Yeah?" he answered lazily, gazing fondly down at her messy hair, which was incidentally a great deal more disheveled than it had been.

"Do you wish to sleep?"

He thought about it. They had about three hours before the guys would wake up. They could either spend them sleeping, or...

Instead of answering her, he ducked his head down to hers and captured her lips again.

To be continued... believe it or not! There's still more I wanna do with this. We have to get to the next morning, don't we?

There now, you see? I told you I wouldn't leave you with nothing. Satisfied? Oh, and no, you perverts, they didn't sleep together. But we'll cover that in the next chapter.