Raventhedarkgoddess: (Rob/Star)I don't own Teen Titans and was in the mood to do a death romance fic, and this just kinda popped up in my notebook. Go figure. I'm just gonna post it anyway.

Because of You

Hands on the mirror,
Can't get much clearer,
Can't make this all go away.
Now that you're bleeding
You stare at the ceiling,
And watch as it all fades away.

Robin looked miserably into the small single-hung mirror in the intensive care waiting room of the Jump City hospital. Ignoring the few other stragglers and the disapproving nurses and doctors that stared at him, he slammed both hands against the mirror, which vaguely shook without breaking. He sighed and ran one of the same hands miserably through his already-messy black hair, trying to avoid looking into the while orbs of his own eyes. The less I see the less I think, he thought quietly to himself.

For some reason, this thought just frustrated him even further and he slammed the mirror again, trying his hardest to shatter it once and for all. When the mirror still resisted the force of his half-crazed anger, he began to pace back and forth again and again, wishing he hadn't chased Cyborg and the others away. He didn't do anything wrong, but Robin had chased them away. And for what, he thought, they were only trying to get you through this without losing your mind...

He caught sight of himself in the mirror. His face was tear-streaked and wild-looking, the entire form tight. Robin sank down again, unable to continue pacing. Pull yourself together, hissed the part of him that was still Robin and not the new, worried, scared boy he knew he was becoming. You can't make it go away, so why don't you just sort it out? Robin could not answer his own demanding questions. How did it all happen? He countered with questions of his own. And why? Was it really only a few hours ago? Slowly Robin's mind turned to what he didn't want to think about: The battle a few hours ago that had left him sitting here all alone.

A few hours ago...

Jump City's resident teenagers were sitting around fulfilling their usual activities: Raven had her head buried in a book, Starfire was attempting to talk to Robin, Robin was ignoring her for Beast Boy and Cyborg's video game, and Terra was sitting on the edge of the couch, not talking. Raven looked first at Robin, then at Starfire, then proceeded to glare at Robin over the top of her book. What's her deal? Robin thought, not realizing that Raven was also giving Starfire mildly sympathetic looks.

Raven suddenly unplugged the Gamestation, much to the protests of Cyborg, Beast Boy, and a startled Robin. "I said, attack on the city by Slade. Pay a little more attention and the whole city will go up in smoke," she added with a hiss. The whole team, subject to Raven's angry words and trying to prove that they were listening to her, followed her lead immediately.

"What's your plan, Slade?" Robin yelled ten minutes later, his eyes trained on Slade. Slade laughed coldly and looked at the assembled team, not bothering to answer Robin right away.

"You'll be in the same situation you were last time very soon," he said. "Only you'll have no friends to rejoin with. Prepare to perish," Slade said with what might have been vague glee behind his words as he stared at Robin almost as if he had just claimed a fantastic prize. Hundreds of the Slade-bots they'd fought before surrounded them. "We'll see, Slade," he hissed under his breath. "Titans, go," he yelled in his usual leader-like voice.

Robin moved in close to Slade, preparing for the usual yelling, fighting torrent between himself and the man he hated so much. Slade's combat appeared almost light and half-hearted, although he did keep wacking Robin's face with a wicked grin. Robin groaned as a bit of his own blood tricked into his mouth. He attempted to stand up but found that something else, a blast of green energy, flew at Slade. Slade leaned over to knock whatever had hit him and it hit the wall with a sickening splat. Suddenly Slade stepped back, evading the now -standing Robin's next blow, and began to retreat.

Robin's eyes get wide with mild confusion.Why would he just back off? Robin thought. Suddenly, Raven let out a low moan of horror and disgust like the Titans had never heard from her before. Robin ran up at her side in time to see her use her powers to pick up what he at first thought to be a Slade-bot, until he realized that every time she stepped she recoiled from the red waves of blood oozing from the amber-head figure she held far away from herself.
Robin knew at once who it was. There was no mistaking the hair or the way Raven looked upward, spell-bound as she flew in the direction of the hospital. That figure was Starfire.

Currently...

Robin sighed. He had no clue who to blame, wether to blame himself or Starfire. It was her own fault she tried to help you, he thought bitterly, then regretted it. And you would have done the same thing for her, he reminded himself quietly. "I'm sorry to bother you," said a quiet female voice. He jerked his head upright, because five seconds ago the room had been empty. A young, white-uniformed nurse with straight red hair and a sad face was looking at him. Her hair reminded him of Starfire and he had to clear his throat once to keep from choking. "The doctor wanted me to find Robin. I believe that's your name?" Her kindly actions almost drove him into tears, so he nodded once and followed her down the hall, the slow clicking of her heels almost like a long-forgotten song to his ears.

The nurse turned the knob on one of the identical doors in the hall. Robin quietly, almost as if hoping to find out this was all a dream, followed her in quietly. A doctor rushed over to Robin. "You're friend is awake, but I'm hoping perhaps you could...talk to her a bit, and get her to respond. I know she's alright, it's just that I can't operate unless I have proof that she still remembers things, and all she's done so far is ignore me. So give it a shot," the doctor said, shoving Robin forward before he could get a word in edgewise.

Robin meekly stepped forward. Never before had he been so uncertain. The girl lying in the bed resembled Starfire, but she defiantly wasn't the same girl that had blasted Slade just a few short hours before. Her eyes, while open, held no more shimmer or gleam and stared blankly at the ceiling. Blood was soaking the bandage around her stomach, where she had apparently been struck.

"Everything is fading," she whispered softly, almost too softly, so that Robin would not have heard her if he had not fallen to his knees at her bedside. She gripped his hand tightly as a new wave of pain riveted over her body. "It's so hard to breathe..."

You know I can't be there
each time that you call
I swore not to come but I'm here after all.
I know by the look that I see in your eye.I won't stand around and I won't watch you die.
From what you do, because of you.

Robin allowed her to hold onto his hand, glad she was talking to him. I wish she'd never let go, he thought softly. She's called me to devery time I can imagine, and I'm still here after all. What am I going to do when she doesn't need me anymore? Struck by this new thought, Robin looked over at the girl laying in the bed. She was looking at him with some of her old spark and hope. She's going to live, he told himself forcefully. You know it, he added, trying to firm his weak beliefs. "It's okay, Star," he said, trying to ignore the negative readings doctors were yelling to each other off various screens.

Starfire's face said it all. She didn't believe that anymore than he did, but she tried to hide it. Robin appreciated it, but even as his mind denied it, his heart knew it was over.

From what you do-
Now that you did this
You ask for forgiveness,
Doctor could you be my priest?
You say you're mistaken,
But look what you've taken,
You laugh as you lie through your teeth.
From what you do, because of you.

"Robin, the fault of all this is mine alone. If I had not attacked Slade, I would still be able to carry on in this world. Unless the doctor is a priest, one of God's men, I am doomed. I wish I were not leaving you alone, though. I did not think of this before and wish I would have. Love has made us both half-crazy. Forgive me," she added, her voice losing strength again.

"Starfire," Robin began, trying to force believe into both of them, "I need you like you need me. In fact, we both need each other. And you aren't dying, so just calm down." Both arms slid around her form. She's really thin, Robin thought for the first time, hit by how small and fragile she felt in his arms. She lay her head back on one of his hands as silence heavily blanketed the room around the pair of them, too wrapped up in each other to notice anything else.

You know I can't be there
each time that you call
I swore not to come but I'm here after all.
I know by the look that I see in your eye.
I won't stand around and I won't watch you die.
From what you do, because of you.

The doctor came over to the quiet couple, who's arms were still around each other. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave for a time. Starfire has many more tests we must do in order to ready her for possible surgery." Robin followed the same pretty nurse that had reminded him of Starfire down the long hall and back to the waiting room. Sinking down into the chair, feeling reassured that Starfire would get better, Robin dosed off, falling into dreams of the girl he loved so much as he had always known her.

"Robin! Robin!" Someone had pressed the palms of their hands against his shoulder and was shaking him, obviously a girl by the nails that dug into his shoulder. Robin opened one eye open slightly, trying to figure out who was shaking him and yelling at him so loudly. "Robin, they want us in Starfire's room right away." Robin sat up straight, opening both eyes, because the swirling blue cloak in front of him belonged to Raven. He hardly recognized her voice without it's normal hard edge, because now it was laced with a different tone: Sheer, cold panic.

Hands on the mirror,
Can't get much clearer.
Can't make this all go away.
Now that you're bleeding
You stare at the ceiling
And watch as it all fades away.
From what you do, because of you.
You know I can't be there,
Each time that you call,
I swore not to come but I'm here after all.
I know by the look that I see in your eye.
I won't stand around and I won't watch you die.
From what you do, because of you.

Cyborg moved back from the bed as Robin and Raven entered. Raven went straight over to Cyborg and collapsed against his chest, neither of them trying to hide how they were feeling in the mist of the chaos. Robin stepped up to the bed. "Things have changed," the doctor whispered to Robin. "I'm afraid your friend does not have much more time among the living. Please say anything that has remained unsaid now." His eyes were full of sincerity and loss, as if Starfire had been one of his friends too.

Robin allowed the doctor's words to bounce off himself, not really listening to him as he moved up to Starfire. One arm, covered in IV's, stretched toward him and met his hair. "Robin, please, I just wish to say that I love you and I am no longer afraid." He slipped both arms around her, trying to ignore what she was saying. "Hold me as I die," she whispered.

"You're not dying!" Robin's voice was loud and insistent now. "You're my friend! I love you! You're far from dying at all!" He wheeled around wildly to face the other three, who leaned on the wall. "Is this a sick joke? Cause I'm not laughing at all!"

Beast Boy opened his mouth to say something back, but Cyborg jabbed him with the arm not supporting Raven and Raven muttered something about denial being only natural in the grieving processes of a human being. "I won't watch this. Even if it is a fake, I won't stand here and watch her die!" Robin ran from the room, down the long hall, and into the parking lot, slinging his body onto the motorcycle and riding off into the pouring rain. Around that same moment, with Starfire clutching onto Raven, she took in her last breath.

Four days later, Robin was found with a note next to him. Bury me with Starfire. What she did and will always do has caused me to be with her forever. We'll always watch over you. He had signed it with the words, Love forever. Cyborg and Raven watched as the coffin was lowered into the earth, Beast Boy standing behind the couple with a look of loneliness. The Teen Titans were united no more, the barrier of life and death now in the way.

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or the song Because of You by Nickleback