Chapter 4

Starfire went straight to her room. That was where Raven found her, pacing back and forth with her head down.

"You want to talk about what just happened?" asked Raven eventually.

"No, I mean yes, I don't know," replied Starfire, running her fingers through her hair.

"Well here, stop pacing and sit down" Raven motioned to the bed and Starfire sat down next to her. After a moment Starfire started talking,

"Oh Raven, I just don't know what to do. I don't want to say these things but I can't help it. Just seeing him reminds me of what he did, and how much he hurt me. It makes me feel like it was just yesterday that he…" Her voice was full of pain and regret and she left her sentence unfinished.

"I can't imagine what that must be like," Raven began diplomatically "but if it helps Robin really feels terrible about that. He's a mess. You should have seen him the night you left. He kicked Blackfire out, in the middle of the night, half-naked. Then he got on his bike and searched the city for you. He didn't sleep for three days, so he crashed on the night you came back for your stuff. The morning he saw your stuff was gone, he punched a hole in the wall. I'd never seen him like that, it was a bit scary, we didn't dare talk to him. He wouldn't sleep, eat or go out except to look for you. It was a month before we even got him to tell us why you left."

Starfire didn't know if she felt better knowing that Robin had fallen apart without her, or worse. Even now she didn't want to cause him pain, not lasting pain anyway.

"Really?" she said.

"Really. But anyway, you came here to see me, right? So why are we talking about past times?" Raven smiled, "Come on, I'll teach you to play poker. Can't sit up here forever." And Raven took her friend's arm and dragged her towards the living room.

As Raven and Starfire sat at the table with a deck of cards shuffled and dealt between them, they could hear Robin in the gym, which was directly below the living room. Starfire looked around at her friends. Raven's hair was a little longer than it used to be and instead of being shorter at the back, it was now cut shorter at the front. Her pregnant stomach was visible but not uncomfortably so, and she wore a silver locket around her neck with a black raven in flight carved into the front. Beastboy had given it to her. Her uniform was basically the same except it had a long skirt with a slit that ran all the way up to go with it. Then she looked at Beastboy. He had filled out somewhat since the last time she had seen him. His shoulders were wider, he was more muscular, and he'd shot up like a weed, making him taller even than Cyborg. But you could see in his face that he was still the same fun-loving goof that he had always been. Cyborg was different somehow. He appeared to be less chunky, and more at ease with himself. Starfire was just thinking what it could be when something occurred to her,

"Excuse me, Cyborg, have your mechanical parts been renewed?" she asked.

"Yup," he said lifting his arm to show her and straightening his back with pride. "I outgrew the old ones. These are more advanced."

Starfire looked at them, and they did look sleeker and less cumbersome. She smiled appreciatively and Cyborg went back to his game. I wonder if I have really changed… she thought.

"Raven, is Robin right? Have I changed?" she asked apprehensively.

"Don't worry about what Robin said Star, he was just mad." she said, examining her hand of cards. But Starfire couldn't shake it. She looked down at herself. I suppose I must have changed… at least a little. Her hair was shorter by about two inches and layered more. She wasn't wearing her uniform anymore, she had grown out of it and left it at home. Instead she was wearing a purple halter top that was the same shade as her uniform and some plain black jeans with boots. Black, green and silver jewellery encircled her wrists, upper arms and fingers, with matching earrings.

"But do you think I am more unkind?" she asked Raven.

"That comes from living on Earth, Star. Besides, you're only really mean to him." said Raven, nodding her head in the direction of the gym. They could still hear Robin training, his grunts and the punch-bag swinging on it's chain and the repeated slam of him hitting it.

Then they heard the chain brake and a few minutes later, Robin walked in. He faltered a bit at seeing Starfire at the table but apart from that he ignored her completely. He just walked right past her to the fridge and got a bottle of water. He drunk deeply, closing his eyes, giving Starfire a good look at line of his neck. Sweat ran in tiny rivulets from his temples, and his muscular chest expanded and contracted fiercely. He finished drinking and Starfire quickly averted her eyes back to her cards.

"Hey Cy, the bag in the gym needs a new chain." said Robin to Cyborg's turned back.

"I'm on it." replied Cyborg, half-way through beating Beastboy at some new video game. And with that Robin left, taking what was left of his water with him, drying his face and hair on a towel that was slung around his neck. Once Raven was sure he was out of earshot, she leant forward and said to Starfire in a lowered voice,

"What was that? I saw the way you looked at him. Do you still love him?"

" No, I was merely watching him to see if he would insult me again." Starfire lied. But if there was one thing the Tamaranian couldn't do, it was lie successfully.

Later that night, once Robin and Starfire had both retired to their rooms, Raven gathered the other teens together.

"Look guys," she said "we have got to do something about Robin and Starfire. It's obvious they still love each other."

"Tell me about it. When we were younger it was almost funny watching them tiptoe 'round each other." said Beastboy.

"Yeah, but now they don't so much tiptoe around as aim and fire at each other." added Cyborg.

"If it was just Robin, as we thought, then I would leave them alone, but it's not. Starfire loves him back." said Raven.

"If you mean that thing today in the kitchen after his training, are you sure that wasn't just… you know… lust?" said Cyborg.

"I am an empath, Cyborg, and that wasn't just lust, she really misses him. But it's not just that, I felt her emotions earlier in her room as well."

"Well what should we do?" said Beastboy.

"I think I have an idea…….." she said. And together the three Titans conspired to get their friends to express their true feelings, and they all went to bed with a mischievous grin. Except for Raven, of course, her smile was simply serene.