Starfire woke up to find Robin asleep by her bedside. He was leaned over onto her lap with his arms stretched out over her body and his face to the side, snoring away. She smiled at this and stifled a light giggle as she looked towards her alarm clock. Starfire gently nudged Robin in his side to wake him up and grinned when he looked up. His gaze at first was warm and sweet, but immediately turned to slight confusion.
"Friend Robin, what is wrong?" asked Starfire fearfully.
Without talking, Robin sat up on Starfire's bed and moved close to her and stroked her face.
"Something's different…and wrong." said Robin simply as he passed Starfire a mirror off of her bedside table. She looked into the mirror and noticed what Robin spoke of. She touched under her eyes softly and around her cheeks as she let a warm tear slide down her slightly wrinkled face.
"Friend Robin, what has happened to me?" asked Starfire as she looked Robin straight in the eyes.
"The process has already begun." Said Robin gently as he took her into his arms and rocked her back and forth, letting a tear or two slide down his cheeks as well. Between sobs, Starfire shook her head and tried to control her tears, but Robin let her cry all she wanted.
After a while of comforting, Robin straightened out his arms and held Starfire at her shoulders. "Starfire listen to me, we're gonna find a way out, I promise. Everything is going to be fine."
Starfire nodded her head and wiped her tears away with her palms as she settled down. Robin smiled and hugged her again, "That's my girl."
MAIN ROOM
"Thanks a lot Batman; we really appreciate your help. Call us if you find anything." said Cyborg to the main monitor in the living room.
Batman gave a curt nod and signed off as Robin and Starfire entered the room. "Did you get in touch with him?" asked Robin.
"Yeah man, he said he'd be honored to help. He even said he'd get in touch with the Justice League them and ask for help!" Said Cyborg as he gave a big thumb up sign to Starfire, but decided not to bring attention to the new wrinkles on her face.
Robin smiled and guided Starfire to the kitchen, "So what do you want for breakfast Star? I promise I'll make you anything you want."
Starfire grinned at this and said cheerfully, "May I please have the waffles of blueberry with a side of mustard?"
Robin sweat dropped and smiled, "Absolutely Star, whatever you want."
Raven and Beast Boy entered, Raven with her head in a book and Beast Boy making faces behind her back to see if she was paying any attention.
"Beast Boy, I don't have to see you in order to know that what you're doing is stupid and immature." Beast Boy immediately stopped and whistled innocently as he sat down next to Starfire. Robin set down a big plate of steaming blueberry waffles and Beast Boy drooled and started to reach for it when his had got snapped at. Beast Boy looked at Robin with a glare and Robin shook his finger at him, "Those are Starfire's." he said as he poured mustard all over the waffles.
Beast Boy gasped, "Duuuude, you totally ruined them! They aren't even waffles any more!"
Starfire took a big bite out of the top waffle and smiled as she licked her lips, "Friend Robin, you must try your own masterpiece of goodness."
Beast Boy smiled evilly, "Yeah Robin, go ahead! I bet your 'masterpiece' tastes divine!" He said as he fluttered his eyelashes and made hearts in his eyes.
Robin gulped nervously and took a forced bite from Starfire's fork and managed a fake, "mmmmm, yummy Star."
Starfire smiled and leaned forward and wiped off a smudge of mustard off of the corner of Robin's mouth with a napkin. Robin smiled thinking, that was so worth eating a bite of that 'masterpiece'.
Beast Boy frowned when he saw that Robin got a reward for eating the waffles but then bit his lip when he got a closer look at Starfire's face. Beast Boy sweat dropped and slid away from the table and silently sat down by Raven and whispered, "Raven, check out Starfire's fa…"
"I know Beast Boy, it's part of the effects of Synorodox." She said simply without taking her head out of her book.
Beast Boy scratched his head, "So did you find anything in your books?" he asked quietly.
"Actually, I did find some stuff on other sicknesses that were thought to be incurable, but it's a mystery on how the subjects were cured." said Raven as she looked up from her book. "It may be as simple as meditating or anything else spiritual that cured those other people. I'm going to try some stuff later to see if any of that may work." And with that, Raven went back to her book.
Robin smiled when Starfire finished her breakfast and took her hand in his across the counter. "Starfire, since your health and condition will be, well, decreasing; I thought it might be useful to teach you some basic and simple martial acts moves to protect yourself."
Starfire grinned, "Oh friend Robin that would be absolutely splendid!" Satrfire grabbed Robin by the hand and dragged him to the training room. Cyborg and Beast Boy shared a "they're so gonna get together one day" look and smiled at Robin innocently.
When they reached the training room, Robin and Starfire both put on some training robes and stood across from each other. Robin bowed to Starfire with a wink and stood in a fighting stance.
"Now Star, I'm simply going to fight you, but it slow motion. All you have to do is block me with out using your alien strength or powers, got it?" said Robin encouragingly.
Starfire nodded and imitated Robin in a defense stance and focused on where Robin's feet and hands moved. She easily blocked every move that Robin sent, even as he started to move faster.
"Great job Star! Now I'm just going to show you some simple techniques you can use on any enemy."
Robin took Starfire's hand and placed her palm onto his forehead lightly. "If you do a palm-hand strike here, you can knock a person out. But if you do it too hard, you can crack the skull and kill the person, so always do it lightly, ok?"
Starfire nodded but was really concentrating on how Robin's fingers felt against her skin. She blushed slightly and Robin caught the signal and smiled and remembered the day that she snuck up on him in the training room. Robin winked at Starfire playfully and wrapped one arm around her waist and dipped her into a tango swoop.
"So let's say I attack you in this position, how would you disarm me?" he asked playfully.
Starfire giggled, "Why that is quite easy friend Robin, I would do this." She gave him a playful peck on the lips.
"Ok ok, but what about this?" said Robin as he lifted her up and wrapped his arms around her from behind, making it impossible to break free.
Starfire was about to answer when the tower intercom went off. "Robin, I need to borrow Starfire for a while." came Raven's voice from the box in the ceiling.
Robin frowned slightly but gave Starfire a quick kiss on the cheek before leading her out into the main room.
